Caregiver Benefits

The old adage, “You can’t take care of someone else if you don’t know how to take care of yourself” holds true in healthcare now more than ever!

As nations around the world deal with the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the fostering of staff well-being is paramount to best practice in patient care. KOMITOMS recognizes the devastating toll of the pandemic on healthcare professionals, offering benefits that extend to staff wellness and the caregiver environment.

The current climate in healthcare calls for innovative ways to protect workers well-being, provide resources to cope with stress, and foster person-centered and holistic models of care. Operating from the understanding that happier staff results in better care, KOMITOMS has developed programming to integrate staff and caregiver benefits to support quality of care and enhance the overall healthcare environment.

Staff and Caregiver Stress

Healthcare professionals go above and beyond to meet the needs of their patients. In skilled nursing facilities and assisted living care centers, caregivers are faced with the full scope of patient symptoms. This includes the physical, cognitive, emotional, and psychosocial impact of illness. In the case of Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, caregivers are not only supporting Activities of Daily Living in patients, but they are also dealing with a breadth of related symptoms including agitation, anger, resistance, depression, anxiety, wandering, and verbal and physical aggression.

Additionally, one of the most stressful aspects of working in the healthcare industry is the trauma and stress employees endure on shifts from witnessing patients struggling near the end of their lives, to working long shifts with no rest, healthcare staff often struggle to maintain their mental health.

KOMITOMS is designed with sustainable caregiver models in mind to support mental health among caregivers and combat burn-out, recognizing the value of providing programming that not only directly supports and stimulates the viewer participants, but also seeks to integrate and support the care team.

While the spectrum of symptomatology and behaviors among patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia is broad, caregivers are often faced with situations that are difficult to manage. Cases in which patients may be considered “difficult to manage” or “uncooperative” contribute to high levels of stress among staff. KOMITOMS recognizes it is essential to consider burn-out among staff and incidences of patient difficulty.

KOMITOMS programming promotes bonding and connection in music between residents and staff, mitigating the impact of difficult to manage encounters on caregivers. While staff and caregivers are trained to cope with these stressors that come with the expectations of the job, it is important to recognize the position many caregivers are in and consider contributing factors of burn-out in developing proactive models for staff retention, morale, and a sustainable culture.

Download Benefits for Staff and Caregivers Information Sheet