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This article was downloaded by: [York University Libraries]On: 11 November 2014, At: 20:53Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Activities, Adaptation & AgingPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/waaa20
Activity Personnel as ProfessionalHelpersM. Jean Keller EdD, MTRS aa Recreation Consultant, Recreation Technical Assistance Office,Institute of Community and Area Development; University ofGeorgia, Athens, GA, 30602Published online: 25 Oct 2008.
To cite this article: M. Jean Keller EdD, MTRS (1984) Activity Personnel as Professional Helpers,Activities, Adaptation & Aging, 4:4, 51-60, DOI: 10.1300/J016v04n04_07
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J016v04n04_07
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Activity : Personnel as Professional Helpers
M. Jean Keller
ABSTRACT. The basic skills frequently associated with the helping professions are described as they are related to activity personnel. A model for systematic helping is presented which focuses on four stages: Listening; Responding; Exploring and Understanding; and Acting. The purpose of the discussion is to demonstrate to activity personnel the importance and the role of helping skills in their pro- fession. Helping skills are needed if activity personnel are to facili- tate independence. self reliance, and self-fulfillment on the pan of the older adults through their participation in activities.
There are many different definitions for activity personnel who work with older adults and the list of duties or responsibilities for these individuals is varied. Yet the role of activity personnel is often accepted to be one of professional helping (Austin, 1982; Chapman & Chapman, 1975; Frye & Peters, 1972). Helping others is a very human enterprise aimed toward the development of independence and self-reliance on the pan of elderly people (Austin, 1982). As- sisting others enrichitheir lives through recreation or leisure time ac- tivities is somewhat analogous to the client-centered approach of helping advocated by Carl Rogers (1951). In both client-centered helping and activities for the aged, emphasis is on the personal growth and independence of the individual. Yet, how do activity personnel become professional helpers?
It is not enough for activity personnel to have thorough knowl- edge of games, exercises, songs, and other activities. The need to understand how to facilitate growth and independence using leisure
M . Jean Keller. Ed.D.. MTRS, is Recreation Consultant. Recreation Technical Assis- tance Office. Institute of Communitv and Arca Develo~ment. University ofGeorgia. Athens.
Activities. Adaptation & Aging, Vol. 4(4), March 1984 Q 1984 by The Hawonh Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 51
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52 ACTIVITIES, ADAPTATION & AGING
time or recreation experiences is equally important. For the activity experience to be of maximum benefit, it is critical to establish an ef- fective helping relationship with the older adult. Perhaps because of the shared humanistic orientation, some of the practices used by helping professionals have special relevance to activity personnel in nursing homes, congregate living centers, retirement communities, senior centers, etc. This discussion briefly describes a model used by individuals in helping fields that can be adopted by activity pro- fessionals to create meaningful relationships with older adults. This helping approach will move the older adult from being a dependent personality to a self-directed human being. Emphasis is on the growth and enrichment of the individual.
BASIC HELPING SKILLS
Essential to the training of helping professionals, and activity per- sonnel, is the development of basic interpersonal relating skills. We will focus on a model developed by ~ g a n (1975) which has been adapted to be used by activity personnel (see Figure 1). The helping skills described by Egan focus on counseling; however, the skills described are extremely applicable to activity personnel working with older adults in a variety of environments. The model presented is developmental because it is composed of four progressive interde- pendent stages. The stages of the model are:
Stage I: Listening-Activity personnel must develop good listening skills so that older adults feel someone is "with" them.
Stage 11: Responding-Activity personnel learn not only to hear what older people are saying, but to respond to their feelings so that they can explore themselves. In this way older persons feel someone is "for" them.
Stage 111: Exploring and Understanding-Activity personnel us- ing a variety of skills help older adults see a more ob- jective picture of themselves and more fully under- stand why they are behaving as they are.
Stage IV: Acting-Activity personnel help older people choose and implement the kinds of changes that can lead to self-fulfillment and enjoyment.
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M. Jean Keller
Stage I LISTENING
Be ing "With" che Older Person
Sta:c I 1 ACrlNG RESPONDING
Ilclpinp t h e Oldcr Person Empathizing w i t h What t h e Dcs ip and Implement Change Older Person is Fee l ing
Being "For" t h e Oldcr Person
t 1 l l J EXPLOR IX AND UNDERSTANDING
Developing I n s i g h t i n t o t h c Older Person and h i r / h e r Fee l ings
A Model of Sys temat ic Helping for A c t i v i t y Personnel Who Work w i t h Older Adults'
F igure 1
.Adapted from Egan's THE SKILLED HELPER, 1975.
Listening
A skill that serves as the foundation upon which the entire helping relationship is established is listening. Listening involves the devel- opment of both physical and psychological presence or, in other words, a sense of "being with" the older person. We do not listen only with our ears, but rather our entire selves. Many times our nonverbal speaks louder than the verbal. Egan suggests that physical presence can best be achieved through a five position posture. An easy way to remember this is by thinking the word "OLDER."
0-adopt an OPEN posture where arms and legs are not crossed. L-LEAN forward in the direction of the older person. D-face the older person DIRECIZY.
' E-maintain good EYE contact while not staring at the person.
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54 ACTIVITIES. ADAPTATION & AGING
R-RELAX, try to be "at home" with the person, neither too tense nor overly relaxed.
This physical posture described above helps activity personnel be- come active listeners.
Psychological presence refers to an awareness of both the older adult's verbal and nonverbal behavior. Activity professionals should listen in order to determine the content of what a person is saying and also to better understand the feelings associated with the con- tent. To do this, listen to the tone of voice, pauses, and emphasis on certain words. Another dimension of psychological presence and listening is the nonverbal behavior or "body language" (Fast, 1970). Clues to what an older person mav be expressing can be ob- - served in their posture, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact and mannerisms. Nonverbal responses can suo~lement the content of a . . person's words or it can negate those words. An obvious instance where the nonverbal outweighed the verbal was an older man who insisted, "I am not upset about losing the game," while sitting in the corner with glaring eyes, clenched teeth, and tightly folded arms across his chest. In order to help older adults, activity personnel must be sensitive to their verbal and nonverbal behaviors.
Responding
While listening well is an essential component of a helping rela- tionship between activity personnel and older people, it alone is not sufficient. Activity professionals must be able to respond in a way that communicates to the older person that they understand hislher world from the older person's perspective (Egan, 1975). Four skills that help to facilitate responding are empathy, respect, genuineness, and concreteness.
Mayeroff (1971) explains empathy in this way, "I must be able to understand him and his world as if I were inside it" (p. 41). Rogers (1961) said that empathetic understanding means to have a feel for the other person's world as if it were your own, but without ever losing the as if quality. Early in the relationship activity personnel can use empathy to create a sense of trust and openness. By para- phrasing or reflecting on an older individual's statement, activity personnel should be able to convey a feeling of "bemg with and for" the person. For example, this situation was presented to activi- ty coordinators in a workshop. An older person comes to you, sits
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down, looks at the tloor, hunches over and haltingly says, "I just fecl awful! My leg hurts, I have no money, and my best friend died yesterday." One activity coordinator responded, "Everything will hc all right now; we'll go to the activity room and do our exer- cises." Another said, "You're really feeling miserable-your whole world seems to be falling apart. ' ' Which activity coordinator would you prefer to continue to talk with? The latter responded with empathy, she conveyed a feeling of understanding the person's feel- ings. She was "with and for" the person.
Respect is a nonjudgmental attitude where activity personnel ac- cept an oldcr person as a unique individual with dignity and worth. That does not mcan we must agree with the attitudes or behaviors of an older adult at all times, but only to accept the person regardless of thcse differences. Rogers (1961) refers to this as "unconditional positive regard." A sense of respect is generally communicated through an expression of feelings of commitment to older persons. Respecting older people helps them believe they possess the per- sonal resources which will allow them to live as independently and effectively as possible.
Genuineness is the quality of being at ease with oneself. Another term for genuineness is sincerity, a characteristic often suggested for people working in the activity field. Genuineness is being what one "is" according to Rogers and Truax (1967). A genuine helper does not need to hide behind a facade. Some characteristics of genu- ineness include spontaneity, nondefensiveness, and consistency. A genuine person is "at home with being himself" and therefore, does not have to adopt or play roles in order to work with older people (Egan, 1975).
The final skill that fosters exploration in older people is concrete- ness. This is a term used to express specific and explicit feelings, behaviors, and experiences. Being vague or ambiguous are the op- posite of being concrete. Concreteness can be painful and many older people take refuge in generalities. However, concreteness may help thc person deal with specific problematic issues. For in- stance, an older woman sitting in the middle of a day room, filled with laughter and talking, grabs a senior center director's hand as he walked by and said, "Things sure are lousy in this place. Nothing seems to go right around here!" The center director responded con- cretely, "Mrs. Jones, you're feeling pretty angry and upset. Could it be you still feel you should have been elected president?" Being as specific as possible helps to minimize the distance between the feel-
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56 ACTIVITIES. ADAPTATION & AGING
ings of older people and the responses they givc. It also permits the older person to correct the helper when the latter has misinterpreted or misunderstood the feelings they have expressed. For example, Mrs. Jones may have responded, "Yes, I 'm angry, but it's not about the election. I just feel so lonely." Responding concretely or specifically helps older adults begin to explore their feelings and behaviors.
Exploring and Understanding
The primary functions of listening and responding, as described above, are to help activity professionals establish rapport with older people so they can work towards exploring and understanding their own feelings and behaviors which will lead to effective change. The purpose of Stage 111 of the helping process is to aid older people in seeing themselves and the world around them From a more objective point of view. By using the skills of confrontation, immediacy, and self-disclosure, activity personnel can help older adults put together the "missing pieces" so that they can see a bigger picturc (Egan, 1975).
Confrontation occurs when various distortions or discrepancies in older peoples' behaviors or feelings are pointed out. This must always be done with respect and care. For instance, Mr. Williams has been involved in an activity program for two years. He attends daily, participates actively, and appears to enjoy himself; yet, he frequently complains about the program.
Activity Director: "Mr. Williams, since you and I have been talking, about your participation in the program, I've written down all the things you see that are wrong with the activity program. I wonder, since you have been participating regular- ly for two years, if you could come up with a few things that you like about the activity program?"
Notice, the purpose of confrontation was no! to antagonize Mr. Williams; rather, confrontation was designed as a constructive means to help Mr. Williams become aware of the possible incongru- ence in his feelings and actions. Every effort should be made to help the individual respond without feeling the need to react defensively. Confrontation is not a way for activity personnel to get older people to see things as they do. However, it should help older people ex-
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plore and understand those areas of life in which they are living less than effectively.
Immediacy is the ability to discuss directly and openly with another person what is happening in the here-and-now (Egan, 1975). Direct. mutual communication has great potential for stimu- lating growth, independence, and respect; nevertheless, it is quite rare in everyday life. This example will cxplain immediacy.
Activity Therapist: "I've asked you what you want to do to- day; yet no one has suggested anything. Is something wrong?" Resident: It really doesn't do much good to make suggestions to you. You always do what you want even when we bring up activity ideas."
This kind of dialogue not only clears the air, but it is a valuable learning experience in itself. Both activity therapist and resident can become more aware of how they are acting. As they come to under- stand what is happening between them, possibly both parties can gain a new freedom. Immediacy promotes self-understanding which leads to action. Much like confrontation, when activity profession- als use immediacy they must be sensitive to needs and abilities of the older adults with whom they work.
Self-disclosure takes place when we spontaneously share some aspect(s) of our personal experiences with older people. This type of sharing should be used only if it serves to promote greater self-un- derstanding on the part of the older person or builds trust. When self-disclosure becomes too frequent, it may distract, overwhelm or burden a person. Both the quality and the timing of activity person- nel's disclosure are critical. Let's look at an example of self-dis- closure.
New resident in a retirement center: "I'm not happy here. It's too scary ." Activity Coordinator: "It is frightening to leave your home and come to a new place. I think I went through some of that when I left home to go to college. I wasn't sure if anyone would accept me into their group, but they did." New Resident: "It is hard to make new friends and leave fa- miliar surroundings. Maybe I could ask the lady next door if I could join her bridge'group."
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58 ACTIVITIES. ADAPTATION & AGING
The activity coordinator blended self-disclosure with cmpath!; to help the resident better understand herself and her situa~ion.
During Stage I11 of thc helping process, activity PI-ofi.ssi~ln;~ls help older individuals move to a greater self-undcrs~mding hy rc- sponding in a way that goes deeper than the surface or l i b x t l inlcr- pretation of the older person's words. The intention ol'thc p r o o x is always to help. Thus, these skills must bc developed and uzcJ cau- tiously. based on the unique needs of each individual.
Action
The final stage in the helping process is action: conxuuctivc change when it is desired and needed. Once a person sccs thc nccd to act, he or she often needs to be helped to act. The purpose of the action stage is to help an older person establish concrcte, viable goals and means to attain thcse goals, and to providc support and direction for himlher as helshe pursues these goals. The success 01' Stage IV depends on the successfulness of Stagcs I , 11, and I l l . I f a person was unable to understand his or her feelings andlor behavior and was not able to identify the problem clearly, then thc goal. morc than likely, will not be clear. John Dewey explained this situation well when he noted a question well stated is half answered. Once the problems, goals, and means to achieve the goals have been iden- tified and clarified, it is important for activity personnel to establish with the older person some criteria for measuring the effectiveness of the action program. Nothing is more frustrating than to work at something and see no results. The action plan must also be put to work-the older person must own the plan of action and implerncnt it. No matter how great a plan for change is, if the person who needs to change will not use it, it is worthless. After the plan is in use. periodically activity professionals and older adults should assess the effectiveness of the plan and make modifications as needed. Rcin- forcement and rewards are useful tools for activity personnel to help the person continue hislher plan of action.
ACTIVITY PERSONNEL AS HELPERS
With additional emphasis on individual approaches to activity planning with older adults, the role of activity personnel will con- tinue to be more and more of a professional helper. The extent to
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which activity personnel are able to develop an effective helping relationship with the older adults they serve will affect the impact they will have on the quality of activity experiences. Basichelping skills are needed to facilitate independence and self reliance on the part of older adults through their participation in activities.
The helping skills identified above should be used as a way of fostering communication with older adults. By listening to the words and actions of older people, activity professionals can begin to build a foundation upon which a productive relationship may be estab- lished. In using the skills of responding,' individuals can explore their activity interest, values, and needs. For example, through the skill of concreteness, an activity director can encourage an older woman to translate a general need into more specific' questions or objectives that can serve as basic guides to activity selections. With the skills of exploring and understanding, activity personnel should be able to assist older adults discover talents, interests, and skills. Immediacy, for instance, could be used to help a man realize he is not too old to learn to play the guitar. Finally, activity personnel can help mature adults design and carry out their plan of action related to their activity interests and needs. Basic helping skills can be useful tools in helping all older people become the best they can be through activity experiences.
Ethel Percy Andrus said, "We earnestly seek not eternal youth but a constantly increasing maturity, the wisdom that will strive to realize each day a little more of our goals-goals of helpful, happy and enjoyable living and growth." Activity professionals and older adults alike may be able to grow and strive for their goals with assistance of this helping approach.
REFERENCES
Austin. D .R . 77wrapeurir Recrwriot~ Processes and Techniqrres. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 1982.
Brockctt. R. "Facilivator Roles and Skills." Li/elong Learning: 77rcAdulr Ycars. 1983, (5). 7-9.
Chapman. J.E.. & Chapman. H . H . Bcha~,ior and Health Care: A Humtiisric Helping Pro- cess. St. Louis: Thc C . V . Mosby Company. 1975.
Egan. G. 7he Skilled Helper A Model for S,~remaric Helping. u ~ ~ d lnrerperso~ral Rebring. Monlerey. CA: BrooksIColc Publishing Company. 1975.
Fast. J. Bo4, hnguoge. New York: M . Evans and Company, 1970. Frye, V . . & Peters, M . 7herapeuric Recrearion: 11s 7heory. Philosophy, and Pracrice. Har-
risburg. PA: Stackpole Books. 1972. Meycroff. M . On Curing. Ncw York: Perennial Library (Harper & Row), 1971.
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Rogcrs. C.R. Clicwr-Ccnrurrd Theropx Boston: Houghlnn-Mifllin. 1951. Rogers. C.R. On Brcoming A Person. Boston: Houghlon-Mifilin. 1961. Rogers. C .R . . & Truax. C.B. The Therapeutic Conditions Antcccdent MI Changc: A
Thcoreticul Vicw. In C.R. Rogcrs (Ed.). The Thrr(~pruric Rel(lri~rnship ond It.! Impocl. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Prcss. 1967. 97.108.
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