Support Teams

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Support Teams

• OT 675
• Emily K Schulz, PhD, OTR/L, CFLE
• August 30, 2004

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Persons Needing Care
Persons Who Care
A Team Approach
From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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What is a Support Team?

• A group of people organized to provide practical,
  emotional, and spiritual support to persons with
  health care concerns or other special needs.
• From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
  .

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Support Team Characteristics

• A team approach can work in a variety of caring
  and outreach projects.
• Who? Volunteers who are committed to working
  together on a team.
• What? The team responds to an ongoing need(s) of
  one or more persons.
• When and How? The team is clear on when and how
  it is able to respond to the need (s) based on
  the abilities and interests of the members of the
  team.

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Why Are Support Teams Needed?

• Americans are living longer.
• More persons are living with chronic conditions.
• Arthritis, paralysis, asthma, heart disease,
  cancer, HIV disease, diabetes, blindness.
• Fewer caregivers are available.
• Individual volunteers get overwhelmed.
• Congregations and organizations typically focus
  on crisis response.
• From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
  .

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What Does a Support Team Do?

• Team activities may include
• Transportation to the doctor or grocery store.
• Household or yard chores.
• Errands, cook or deliver meals, or social
  outings.
• Visit, call, or offer caregivers a break.
• Prayer or communion based on the needs of the
  person being visited.
• From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
  .

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What Does a Support Team Not Do?

• Medical Support, including assistance with
  medications, or taking the place of any health
  care professional.
• Direct Financial Support, including giving or
  loaning money, paying bills, etc.
• Share confidential matters outside the Team.

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Understanding the Support Team Model

• Exercise
• Put something on the table
• As a group, brainstorm about different ways it
  can be used
• Value of team vs. individual approach
• From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
  .

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Support Team Advantages

• Maximum time flexibility
• Variety of skills are offered
• Built-in support system
• Sharing the care

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Committee vs Support Team Characteristics

• Committee
• Annual recruitment
• Set length of service
• Task focused
• Members do what they are asked to do
• Similar time committed
• 1-2 hour monthly meetings

• Team Approach
• Open invitation
• Rotate off at anytime
• Relationship focused
• Members do what they enjoy doing
• Time is flexible
• 59-minute monthly meeting

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Different Ways to Organize

• Basic Model
• Focuses on one person/family and meets a variety
  of needs for that person.
• Mission Model
• Focuses on a common need of several persons.
• Facility Model
• Focuses on persons in one place (i.e. nursing
  home, clinic, hospital) and meets some of the
  needs at that site.

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Offering Emotional Support

• There is only one principle in getting through
  grief and coming out on the other side of it
• Feel what you are feeling it when you feel it.
• Be present, faithful in doing what you say you
  are going to do.
• Listen to what the other person is feeling, and
  help him/her to know you are a safe person to
  talk to. Your job is not to fix what someone is
  feeling. It is not to say the right thing, or
  always do the right thing.
• Be willing to walk at the grieving persons pace
  emotionally.
• Picture yourself walking beside the person
  holding his/her hand. This is the kind of
  support that makes a real difference. Try not to
  grab the persons hand and insist he/she walk at
  your pace or see your point of view.

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Offering Emotional Support

• Allow the grieving person to be your teacher.
• What does he or she have to teach you? What is
  it that you need to learn? He or she may remind
  you of a family member or relative who just won't
  do what you think they should do.
• You may have even had a similar experience and
  believe you know what he or she is feeling.
  Maybe you have been a caregiver for a family
  member who had Alzheimer's disease, or AIDS, or
  cancer. While some of your experience may be
  helpful at some point, remember that the grieving
  person has a lot to teach you.
• Reverse the order most people think of when they
  consider "helping another." Instead of trying to
  help and teach him/her, see what the person has
  to teach you. Maybe you need to learn patience.
  Maybe you need to learn that you are not in
  control of everything. Maybe you need to learn
  how to grieve yourself.
• Remember that it s okay to say no and to have
  healthy boundaries.

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Just Walk with Me
What I'd really like is if you would just walk
with me. Listen as I begin in some blundering,
clumsy way to break through my fearfulness of
being exposed as weak. Hold my hand and pull
me gently as I falter and begin to draw back.
Say a word, make a motion or a sound that says,
"I'm with you." From The Support Team
Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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How to Set Boundaries and Limits

• Support Team Scenarios
• Friend Support Team Friend
• Scenario A
• You are a part of a team that does small home
  repairs for persons, mostly disabled and elderly,
  in the community. On several occasions, the team
  has done work for a man paralyzed in an
  automobile accident. He has talked with team
  members about his financial struggles. You are
  at his home repairing a leaking faucet, and he
  tells you he is 40 short on his rent, due to
  increased cost of medications. He asks you to
  loan him the money, and promises to repay you
  when his next check arrives. What do you do?
  What are your options?

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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How to Set Boundaries and Limits

• Support Team Scenarios
• Friend Support Team Friend
• Scenario B
• Your team was organized as an AIDS Support Team,
  and is presently serving a person living with the
  disease. She has not wanted others to know she
  is HIV, believing they would shun her. A few
  days after you take her to the grocery store, a
  member of the church says he saw the two of you
  there, and he asks about her? What do you say?
  He presses harder and says, Is she your AIDS
  person? How do you respond?

From The Support Team Network, www.SupportTeam.org
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Questions and Answers

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