Transforming Elder Care: The Importance of Relationships in Adherence (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: I'm Dr. Bill Thomas. I'm a geriatrician. That's a physician who specializes in aging. And in addition to my clinical practice, over the years I've come to understand the importance of addressing the meaning of aging, the meaning of care and caregiving, and attempting to actually change the system of care so that we can improve the well-being of older people. In the old days, people thought it was enough just for the doctor to tell you what to do and that you were just supposed to do it. And in the old days, we used to use terms like compliance and sort of demand that patients comply with doctor's orders. Well, the old days are gone. Now we talk about adherence and helping people become partners with their health care providers so that adherence to prescribed treatments or diets becomes easier. Now what's the key to improving adherence? Research shows it's relationship. People are more likely to adhere to a proper treatment or diet when they're involved in a relationship and they see value to that treatment in the context of a relationship. So this is where some home and community-based services fall short. They are still stuck in the compliance mentality. They still sort of believe that if the doctor said it, you've got to do it. That's all there is to it. HomeWatch Caregivers takes a different approach. Instead of focusing on the task, they focus on the person. Not just even the person, they focus on the relationship with the person. That's the key to adherence. People will much more likely adopt to and embrace a diet or medication if it's in the context of a trusting relationship with another human being.