Capturing Essence for Care
Capturing Essence for Care
Podcast Description
Capturing Essence for Care focuses on the importance of incorporating personal life stories into health care and through each episode, Lisa invites guests and listeners to share their ideas and insights from their own experiences. We dive into various ways we can capture our own essence and have meaningful conversations about all types of storytelling methods, including through writing, video, voice, visuals and so much more! Join Lisa for solo episodes and interviews with diverse storytellers including personal historians, digital storytellers, guided autobiography instructors, healthcare practitioners among many others.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast delves into personal narratives, care transformations, and storytelling methodologies with specific episodes exploring topics like the impact of sharing life stories on dementia care and techniques for guided autobiography, emphasizing the exploratory nature of personal histories.
Feeling overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities? Struggling to stay present and patient when you’re stretched thin? Transform your caregiving relationships in just minutes with evidence-based storytelling strategies that honour the whole person—not just their needs.
Listen for practical tools to:
- Open deeper conversations with aging loved ones, even when time is scarce
- Access life story approaches that reduce caregiver stress and burnout
- Hear real conversations with people with lived experience, including persons living with dementia
- Build meaningful connections that sustain you through the demands of caring
Host Lisa brings together personal historians, digital storytellers, healthcare practitioners, family caregivers, and seniors themselves. Each episode delivers actionable insights for anyone balancing multiple caregiving roles—whether you’re supporting aging parents while raising children, managing care from a distance, or working in healthcare while caring for family.
Perfect for: The sandwich generation, family caregivers, adult children of aging parents, healthcare providers, long-term care staff, home health aides, personal support workers, memory care teams, social workers, activity staff, and anyone seeking to preserve dignity and connection in their caregiving relationships.
Join caregivers already transforming their relationships. Discover how small storytelling moments create profound connections—and give you the resilience to keep showing up with compassion.
Please join this community by following the show.
Dr. Marie Savundranayagam's innovative virtual reality training program is transforming dementia care by teaching healthcare providers person-centred communication skills in an immersive, judgment-free environment. Her research and personal caregiving experience have shaped a program that helps frontline workers see beyond the condition to connect with the whole person, improving care outcomes while rekindling caregivers' passion for their profession.
• Be Epic VR uses conversational artificial intelligence to create realistic practice scenarios with diverse avatars
• Personal caregiving experience with her father who had Parkinson's disease inspired Marie's research focus
• Research identified ”missed opportunities” where caregivers failed to respond to personal conversation openings
• Cultural humility approach acknowledges we can never fully understand others' experiences but remain open to learning
• The program gives gentle feedback when learners miss opportunities, avoiding shame while encouraging growth
• Virtual reality training reduces fear of making mistakes, allowing participants to practice difficult scenarios
• Managers report staff show increased confidence and better person-centred care after training
• Research shows significant measurable improvements in communication approaches after completing the program
• Future research will examine potential implicit bias in how we communicate with people of different backgrounds
• Even in rushed healthcare environments, small communication changes can make meaningful differences
Learn more about Be EPIC: https://www.uwo.ca/fhs/care/be_epic/index.html
Contact Marie: [email protected]
@SamkatzCHARU on X
@samkatzcharu on Instagram
Sam Katz CHARU on LinkedIn
Thank you for listening!
Do you have a question or a topic related to ”capturing essence for care” that you would like discussed on the podcast? Text the show using the link above or send Lisa an email: [email protected]
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Intro and outro music with thanks: Upbeat and Sweet No Strings by Musictown
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