are crossing your arms across your body you could be seen by the complainant as not being open to their issue. Managing stress. Stress can hamper effective communication by disrupting the ability to think clearly. It often leads to misunderstandings. Signs of stress include sweating, clenched hands, tense muscles and shallow breathing. It can help for staff to respond to signs of stress in complainants and offer support or consider continuing the discussion later. Effective communicators also recognise stress in themselves and develop ways to deal with it. Emotional awareness. Emotions affect how people understand each other. A lack of awareness of the feelings involved in a conversation, including a lack of increases the chance for misunderstandings, which can make complainants and staff frustrated and angry. Service providers can reduce anxiety experienced by complainants by validating their concerns and committing to a timely resolution. It’s important to give complainants enough time to express their concerns. Patience. Remaining focused and not interrupting shows an openness to listen to complaints and attempt resolution. Communication lines can be broken when complainants feel rushed, misunderstood or staff appear to want to get out of a conversation. Silence by a service provider can undermine confidence in the complaint handling process. Take complainants with you by making sure they know who to contact for updates even when there may be no progress report. It’s important to make good communication skills an important consideration when deciding who should handle complaints in an aged care service. Many service providers also include communication competencies in job descriptions and selection criteria. Good communication skills can prevent minor issues from becoming more serious. Complaint handling staff need skills in a number of areas to help them handle complaints confidently and professionally including: interpersonal communication, active listening and reflective listening conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation consulting with complainants and care recipients quality improvement and policy development. Service providers can support staff by improving their understanding and capacity to deal with complaints. Practical strategies include: a good orientation program when new staff join the service providing with professional training perhaps in conjunction with other services – nearby to share costs inviting guest speakers with expertise at no cost to your service, e.g. advocacy services using team meetings as a basis for running a discussion on complaint case studies and communication exercises
are crossing your arms across your body you could be seen by the complainant as not being open to their issue. Managing stress. Stress can hamper effective communication by disrupting the ability to think clearly. It often leads to misunderstandings. Signs of stress include sweating, clenched hands, tense muscles and shallow breathing. It can help for staff to respond to signs of stress in complainants and offer support or consider continuing the discussion later. Effective communicators also recognise stress in themselves and develop ways to deal with it. Emotional awareness. Emotions affect how people understand each other. A lack of awareness of the feelings involved in a conversation, including a lack of increases the chance for misunderstandings, which can make complainants and staff frustrated and angry. Service providers can reduce anxiety experienced by complainants by validating their concerns and committing to a timely resolution. Patience. It’s important to give complainants enough time to express their concerns. Remaining focused and not interrupting shows an openness to listen to complaints and attempt resolution. Communication lines can be broken when complainants feel rushed, misunderstood or staff appear to want to get out of a conversation. Silence by a service provider can undermine confidence in the complaint handling process. Take complainants with you by making sure they know who to contact for updates even when there may be no progress report. It’s important to make good communication skills an important consideration when deciding who should handle complaints in an aged care service. Many service providers also include communication competencies in job descriptions and selection criteria. Good communication skills can prevent minor issues from becoming more serious. Complaint handling staff need skills in a number of areas to help them handle complaints confidently and professionally including: interpersonal communication, active listening and reflective listening conflict resolution, mediation and negotiation consulting with complainants and care recipients quality improvement and policy development. Service providers can support staff by improving their understanding and capacity to deal with complaints. Practical strategies include: a good orientation program when new staff join the service providing with professional training – perhaps in conjunction with other services nearby to share costs inviting guest speakers with expertise at no cost to your service, e.g. advocacy services using team meetings as a basis for running a discussion on complaint case studies and communication exercises
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