How might someone feel when an important emotional need goes unmet?
Perhaps they’ve been left out of a conversation, had a decision made for them or found that something they used to enjoy doing has been taken away. These might seem like small moments, but they can have a significant impact on how someone feels about themselves and their place in the world.
This was something we explored recently at the Evolve Care Academy, where team members from across Evolve Care Group’s homes came together to learn about the emotional needs we all share, using a model known as Kitwood’s flower.
But where did Kitwood’s flower come from?
Professor Thomas Kitwood was a psychologist whose work helped shape person-centred dementia care. He challenged the idea that care should focus primarily on a person’s diagnosis or the changes they were experiencing, instead encouraging us to recognise the individual behind the diagnosis.
His work highlighted that, regardless of someone’s changing cognitive experience, their emotional needs remain important. They still want to feel included, maintain relationships, have a sense of purpose and be recognised for who they are.
These are needs that don’t disappear because someone is living with a Dementia, although the way they express them may change as their journey progresses.
Kitwood’s flower represents five psychological needs as petals: comfort, attachment, inclusion, occupation and identity, with love at the centre.
When we think about what each of these needs means in practice, they’re things we can all recognise in our own lives.
We want to feel safe and reassured (comfort), have people we know and trust around us (attachment), and feel included in conversations, activities and decisions (inclusion). We want things to do that give us a sense of purpose (occupation) and to be recognised for who we are, with our own personalities, preferences and life experiences (identity). Love connects these needs and reflects the importance of feeling valued, cared for and accepted.
Understanding what these needs are is one thing, but recognising why we may not be meeting them, is another. This is where our training exercise came in.
A large wooden version of Kitwood’s flower was placed at the front of the training room, each petal hidden behind a removable cover, allowing team members to come up one at a time and uncover one of the six emotional needs.
With each petal uncovered, we considered how it would feel to have that need overlooked, and how this may happen in day-to-day interactions unintentionally.
For example, imagine being in a room where everyone around you is having a conversation, but nobody includes you. You might begin to feel isolated or that your presence doesn’t matter. This is what a loss of inclusion might feel like.
Or imagine having something you have always enjoyed doing, perhaps preparing a meal or completing a familiar household task, suddenly taken away from you. Although the intention might be to help, it could leave you feeling that you’ve lost some of your independence, your sense of purpose and part of your identity.
Just as a flower needs care and attention to bloom to its full potential, a person’s emotional wellbeing depends on recognising and responding to all their different needs.
For our team members, the exercise was an opportunity to think about these needs from their own perspective before considering how they might affect the family members (residents) they support every day.
It also encouraged discussion, with team members sharing their thoughts and experiences and considering how even small interactions can make a difference to someone’s sense of belonging, identity and purpose.
A big thank you to one of our in-house trainers, Jay, for making the flower used during the session and helping us explore these ideas in such a practical way!
To learn more about the training, learning and development opportunities provided through the Evolve Care Academy, click here.