Caregiver Frustration and Anger: A Workshop to Develop Communication and Negotiation Skills

Sponsored by the Home Based Primary Care SIG, Dementia Care and Caregiver Support SIG, SGIM SIG

Moderator: Patricia Harris, MD, MS & Lee Lindquist, MD  

Facilitators: Karina M. Berg, MD, MS; Mia Yang, MD, MS; Rachel Chalmer, MD; Melissa Dattalo, MD, MPH; Ann Datunashvili, MD, CMD; Shahla Baharlou; Anupama Gangavati, MD, AGSF; Therese Morrissey, MSW, LCSW, CCM

Healthcare providers are often confronted with one or more caregivers who express frustration in an aggressive manner. As part of the workshop, attendees will break into small groups to observe the facilitators role-play a "take-retake" scenario that involves a source of conflict. A patient with advancing Parkinson's disease presents to the clinic with her wife.  Over the past few months, the patient has become more dependent in all activities of daily living and is often agitated.  Her wife is tearful and accuses the medical profession of not doing their job.  She is the only caregiver and has shown reluctance to engage outside resources. We will present the scenario and explore approaches to assist the spouse with accepting the functional decline and methods to approach the patient's behavior, using a "first take" and possible "retake" scenarios. Learning Objectives: (1) identify situations that lead to frustration and miscommunication that occur in the healthcare settings among older adults, their caregivers, and the health care provider; (2) recognize the bidirectional relationship of stress/burden on frustrating situations between caregivers and health care providers; (3) identify (and predict) areas that can lead to conflict, and communication and negotiation tools that can help the health care provider form alliances with caregivers and patients; (4) utilize negotiation skills in the clinical setting.