Adventures in Caring Foundation

Service-learning internship in relationship-centered care (aka: volunteer program): student volunteer interns reduce social isolation, counteract ostracism, and ease the trauma experienced by hundreds of elderly patients in local hospitals and long-term care facilities who are facing their illnesses and mortality mostly alone. More than 50% of those in long-term care would have no visitors at all were it not for the Adventures in Caring volunteer interns. Their regular visits provide psychosocial support with sufficient frequency and quality to assist in recovery and restore well-being.

Educational programs for health care professionals, family caregivers (general public), and nursing students-to build competencies in compassion. These competencies are the core knowledge and skills of relationship-centered care, which is fundamental to patient safety and well-being. It develops the emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication skill, and wholeheartedness to embrace human suffering with compassion. For example, the cultivating compassion staff training course is taught at santa barbara city college to nursing assistants who are learning to care for patients with dementia, and at santa barbara visiting nurse and hospice care to nurses who care for the dying.