Encouraging play in aged care workforce
Aged care mangers should incorporate fun and playfulness into their leadership to enable creative problem solving, an arts educator will tell an upcoming sector conference.
Aged care mangers should incorporate fun and playfulness into their leadership to enable creative problem solving, says arts educator and aged care humour therapist Maurie Barlin.
However, to do it effectively you need to know your team members or you risk doing harm, said Mr Barlin, who is head of artist development at the Arts Health Institute (AHI) where he helps to innovate programs including Play Up, the evidence-based humour therapy program for aged care residents.
Mr Barlin, who supports Play Up artist team leaders as well as performs as a Play Up valet, will co-present a session on playful leadership at AHI’s Play Up Convention 2014 later this month to give aged care leaders tips on managing for fun.
There are often barriers to play in the workplace because fun is seen as unproductive, a waste of time and suggests a lack of seriousness, he said.
“We think we require seriousness to conduct business but the sense is that laughter and fun can remove the seriousness of a problem and then everyone enjoys playing around trying to find a solution,” Mr Barlin told Australian Ageing Agenda.
He said the session would draw on the work of Dr Stuart Brown, who presented at last year’s Play Up Convention, which highlighted the need for adult play to allow creativity and stimulate the ability to problem solve.
For managers looking to incorporate fun and playfulness into their team, Mr Barlin said the most important aspect was having an insight into or knowledge of the individual you were working with.
“If you have insight and knowledge and you know about their life then you have contact points to have fun,” he said.
Just as in his work in arts health with elders with dementia and in aged care, he said you can’t have a playful relationship with someone if you didn’t know about the person or their history.
Rather than a silly game, Mr Barlin said the fun could be purely conversational or a jibe, such as about the football teams on the weekend that someone supported, or Bruce Springsteen being in town if they were a fan.
“It is knowledge of your workers and your team. When you know that team and when you have a relationship you can then have fun within that. That can be teasing; that can setting yourself up; that can making jokes about events,” he said.
However, he warned that sometimes, humour could also be a loaded gun.
“If it is without insight it can be damaging. Again that comes back to knowing the person well because ridicule, for example, in front of others can be dangerous. Similarly with anything that is too personal,” he said.
It is a good idea to test boundaries in private, he added.
Play Up Convention 2014 takes place at Sydney’s Luna Park on 24 – 25 November. It includes 70 presenters in 55 sessions and workshops and is aimed at aged care leaders, workers, educators, clinicians, artists and others advocating for the quality of life of elders.
Australian Ageing Agenda is a media partner of the conference.
