Title: An innovative leadership model for dementia care teams

Biography:

Abstract

The healthcare team possesses the clinical and medical capabilities to meet the demands and challenges of Dementia care. Teams in healthcare have been used for centuries however the functionality of teams is based on the leadership conducting the team. The problem is that teams function only as well as the leadership facilitating the process. The purpose of this keynote presentation is to describe the primary factors impacting healthcare teams today, to present a new and innovative model that ensures effective leadership within interdisciplinary Dementia healthcare teams, and the unique role each profession may play as team leader in meeting the resulting challenges. The Simen-Schreiber leadership model was built on clinical expertise, emotional intelligence and managerial skills as vital for each healthcare team member to possess for effective and efficient team operations. The proposed leadership model was designed with the foundational pillars of communication, interpersonal engagement and shared decision-making in order to achieve successful patient-centered outcomes. Communication may be at the apex of healthcare team but interpersonal engagement is just as important. If team members cannot engaged without disputes and emotionally charged discussions the team will falter. From a theoretical perspective, a healthcare team should incorporate a combination of at least four leadership theories; servant leadership, team leadership, transformational leadership, and situational leadership are integrated.  These four leadership theories encapsulate the theoretical functionality for the Simen-Schreiber Leadership Model for Healthcare Teams and will be explored in this presentation.