Capturing Essence for Care: Life Stories Transforming Healthcare Experiences

Capturing Essence for Care: Stories to Transform Healthcare

Join Lisa Joworski, Therapeutic Recreation and Life Story Resource specialist, as she explores how sharing our personal narratives can reduce judgments and transform patient-centred care. This podcast bridges the gap between healthcare professionals, care partners, individuals with lived experiences, and storytellers through meaningful conversations about the power of personal stories.

Each episode features discussions with people who have found value through sharing their life stories with healthcare practitioners and others who incorporate personal history techniques into their practice. Drawing from over two decades of experience working with seniors and people living with dementia, Lisa demonstrates how being seen as a whole person—rather than just a patient—dramatically improves care outcomes and quality of life.

Discover diverse storytelling methods through video, writing, music, and other creative forms that help capture what truly matters in our lives. If you believe in the healing power of storytelling and compassionate care, "Capturing Essence for Care" is your community.

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?  

Email:  awestruckaspirations@gmail.com

Or use the "Send us Fan Mail" link at the top of the Episode Description to text the show!

Interested in learning more?  

• Check out my Etsy Shop
• Visit my YouTube channel or website

Intro and outro music with thanks:  Upbeat and Sweet No Strings by Musictown 

Lisa brings over 25 years of experience working in healthcare settings with older adults. The perspectives shared on this podcast are her own and do not represent the views of any past or current employer. Patient/resident stories are shared only with explicit permission or as anonymized composites for educational purposes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Capturing Essence for Care, where we discuss the importance of incorporating personal life stories into healthcare and share ideas to help you on your journey. I'm your host, Lisa Jaworski. Hi everyone, welcome to the first episode of the Capturing Essence for Care podcast. I'm Lisa Jaworski, therapeutic recreation and life story resource, and I'm excited to finally bring this podcast to life. This podcast is all about something I am deeply passionate about: reducing the judgments we have of ourselves and each other by listening, learning, and sharing our stories. Whether you're a healthcare professional, care partner, person with lived experience, or storyteller, this podcast is for you. So, what can you expect from Capturing Essence for Care? I plan to have fulsome conversations with people who have found value out of sharing a piece of their own life story in some way so we can learn from their experiences. I'm also looking forward to chatting with healthcare professionals, researchers, and people who have incorporated life stories into their own practices. Since the beginning of time and when done effectively, storytelling has helped us to learn, grow, and relate to one another with compassion regardless of our roles or status. My mission is to improve the way we see each other, especially when it comes to healthcare. But of course, this isn't the only time it's important for us to be seen. In this podcast, we'll dive into various ways we can have meaningful conversations and learn all about types of storytelling, including through video, written works, songs, or other creative forms. I've witnessed more times than I can count how taking the time to listen and learn about a person can improve the level of care they receive and greatly impact their overall quality of life. A bit about me, since the late 90s, I've been working with the senior population, particularly with people living with dementia, as well as individuals 65 and over for mental health reasons. Through this work, I've learned that feeling seen as a whole being versus seen as a patient who requires fixing is key to improving our health care experiences. So I'm on a mission to create change in the way we get to know the people we're caring for. Through striving to capture what really matters to us in life in effective and easy to understand ways, I've become a guided autobiography instructor, an Etsy shop owner, a digital storytelling facilitator, and I also co-produced a local TV show in the past. If any of this resonates with you or you have a story you think is worth sharing on Capturing Essence for Care, I'd love to hear from you. And please follow, subscribe, and share this podcast with others who you think would enjoy it or find value from it. Also, if you're enjoying this podcast, please leave me a review. And thank you so much for listening, and I'm looking so forward to the next time. Take care.