How Rehabilitation Professionals Can Master Soft Skills
Learning institutions arm us with the know-how and technical skills to join the workforce. We study, write exams, and get on-the-job experience. Finally, after a few years, we’ve got the papers to prove our qualifications.
What about soft skills; the emotional intelligence needed to do your job efficiently and positively influence your career? In a rehab setting, you are entrusted with caring for patients, showing them empathy and understanding. It’s no different than healthcare.
Any rehab professional will tell you that the job requires you to be present and mindful. And like any other profession, you must possess several soft skills to succeed in your position.
Below, we’ll discuss the importance of soft skills and how they can aid you as a rehab professional.
What Are Soft Skills?
Workable defines soft skills as personality traits relevant to your job. For example, if your position entails collaborative work, your employer will hire team players who thrive working in a synergistic environment.
These skills are very different from hard skills. Also called technical or job-specific, hard skills apply to the role you’ve been hired for. This is the knowledge you’ve acquired via an online course or a bachelor’s degree.
Without it, you don’t have the qualifications to enter your desired job field. And soft skills alone aren’t going to make your resume stand out.
The bottom line is that every job requires a specific skill set, often a combination of hard and soft skills, says Investopedia.
The Role of Soft Skills in Treatment Centers
Drug and alcohol addiction affects every aspect of a patient’s life. As rehab staff, it’s your job to treat their addiction holistically. That means everyone has a role, from support workers to counselors.
Soft skills are important because they are not only interpersonal skills; they are required to build trusting relationships with clients and patients.
Good communication, empathy, conflict resolution, adaptability, critical thinking, organization, and problem-solving are fundamental soft skills in treating addiction.
Efficient Communication
Many times patients enter rehab scared and confused. They’re in an unfamiliar environment and have no control over their surroundings.
Acquiring effective communication skills takes years of experience. There are strategies you can incorporate to develop your communication skills further.
Active listening is the foundation for sound communication skills. It involves paying attention to patients when speaking, both verbally and non-verbally. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?
Being an active listener requires that you’re present. Once they are done talking, summarize what they’ve said and repeat it so nothing gets lost in miscommunication.
Discretion
This is arguably the most crucial part of your job. Maintaining total discretion is a skill many rehab facilities don’t compromise on in staff. Let’s consider the example of Georgia, a state with a massive addiction problem. According to KFF, the state recorded 1,799 opioid overdose deaths in 2021.
Discretion can be a savior when treating patients with serious issues. Whether it's a state-run establishment or an upscale detox and residential rehab in GA, complete discretion and patient privacy are highly valued.
Seeking treatment for addiction and mental health issues is a personal matter. Patients who check themselves in are high-profile professionals and others with unique cultural sensitivities.
Empathy
Empathy is a requisite for anyone working in the healthcare field. There’s a fine line between offering compassion and support while protecting boundaries.
How do you balance the two? You can start by showing kindness. Verywell Mind explains that addiction is still very much stigmatized in society. A treatment center should be a place of safety; a non-judgmental environment that comforts them.
By withholding judgment and prejudice, you build a bridge in aiding their recovery. Believe it or not, empathy helps patients get better.
Certified recovery specialist Eric Ezzi tells Penn Medicine News that his job is to listen. He doesn’t rush clients into admitting they have an addiction.
Instead, he focuses on how they are doing at the moment. And Ezzi knows what it feels like being on the other side. He struggled with opioid addiction for fifteen years. Now in remission, Ezzi digs into his own experience to help others.
Key Soft Skills Treatment Professionals Need
Teamwork makes the dream work. Never has this statement been more accurate than in the addiction treatment space.
Importance of Collaboration
Providing a home-like atmosphere and a sense of community can foster positive engagement among patients. It takes a whole team working together cohesively to produce the desired results.
A ranch-style treatment setting, for instance, ensures people are taken care of in a nurturing setting. Many of these establishments offer equine-assisted therapy.
StudyFinds reports that research shows interacting with horses can significantly help individuals struggling with alcohol or drug addiction. According to scientists, equine-assisted therapy (EAT) has been proven to enhance a patient’s mood and quality of life.
Equine therapy, involving interactions with horses, can reduce blood pressure, anxiety, and stress. The findings suggest that this therapy effectively combats substance abuse.
Ingrained Recovery says that EAT provides patients with a remarkable approach. The technique bonds you with these majestic creatures and serves as a mirror to your inner self, fostering emotional growth.
Emotional Intelligence
These soft skills are an asset not only for rehab managers but all staff. Interpersonal communication is vital for instructing care. It engenders trust and rapport between caregivers and patients. When patients feel they can trust you, it breaks down the barriers they’ve been keeping up for so long.
What is emotional intelligence? Dr Melissa M. Sweetman describes it as four primary skills: self-awareness, self-management, relationship management, and social awareness.
At its core, emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your and others’ emotions and understand how those emotions can affect behavior.
Critical Thinking
Dealing with a patient’s problems requires you to think clearly and without preconceived notions.
Here’s where critical thinking comes into play. Effective and independent reasoning can be challenging, especially when caring for a difficult patient.
To determine the way forward, analyze the patient’s information and look at evidence-based treatments and research. Use the data to support or disapprove suggestions put forward by your colleagues.
Critical thinkers do not blindly follow. Instead, they evaluate whether those claims are true or based on theory and hearsay. Possessing this trait means you will be asking the right questions and analyzing solutions.
Problem-Solving
To fix a problem, you must know what is wrong. People in rehab settings are often hazy, confused and anxious. As a treatment specialist, you become the fixer.
There are four main steps of problem-solving. These are:
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Identify the problem by recognizing the source and understanding how it affects the patient or your co-workers
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Brainstorm potential solutions and look at them from different angles
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Explore your options
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Implement your plan of action
Adaptability
Adaptability is how you react to change. It’s a soft skill everyone dealing in clinical care should have.
Being flexible and adaptable allows you to incorporate new techniques or alter existing ones for positive outcomes. There are always ways to improve your adaptability skills.
A patient-centered growth mindset helps explore new methods, interventions, and technologies that contribute to your professional development.
Engaging in mentorship with experienced staff members and those in specialist positions can increase your awareness of the rehab as a collective and not departments working in silos.
When faced with unexpected challenges, you must be able to adapt treatment plans and reevaluate your goals.
How to Develop and Improve Soft Skills
Fobes says the most in-demand soft skill is strategic thinking, accounting for 65% of job specifications.
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), several soft skills are leading the way. Those who possess them can command a higher salary. Lifelong learning, resilience, flexibility and agility, and motivation and self-awareness are the traits that businesses emphasize.
Transferable Skills
The good news is that soft skills can be transferable across industries, making it easier for employees to pivot into another career.
While AI is transforming the workplace, it can’t replace soft skills. Fast Company advises employers to hire people who value relationships with colleagues and patients. Also, take a keen interest in how the organization is run. It shows that you are eager to transfer to another department within the company if needed.
Make an effort to practice your soft skills regularly. Identify your strengths and weaknesses and assess your current level of confidence and competence.
Don’t be afraid to put yourself forward for leadership roles. These positions can further develop your communication and conflict-resolution skills.
Continue learning from others who are successful in their roles. Finding mentors and role models is a step in the right direction. They can inspire and guide you, encouraging you to grow in a professional capacity.
Interact with colleagues who have different styles and perspectives. Ask them questions, listen to their stories and allow them to share their insights. Learning from others expands your knowledge base, skills and network.
Challenges Facing Rehab Professionals
Despite having the skills needed to do their job efficiently, people working in the rehab sector face ongoing challenges. No two days are alike. They must be prepared for anything and everything.
Limited Resources
Some facilities have constrained resources with inadequate structures in place.
Cultural Differences
A culturally diverse setting is important to ensuring patients and staff are comfortable in practicing and educating others on their beliefs.
Inadequate Training
Addressing certain challenges requires the right training. If they are not properly trained and armed with the skills to perform their jobs, it impacts the quality of service.
Lack of Clarity
Rehab professionals have an important role in enabling access to their services and seeking the best outcomes for patients.
Sometimes, a caregiver’s role is ambiguous, blurring the lines on what their main part is. It confuses patients and other staff.
Work-Related Stress
The National Library of Medicine adds that rehabilitation workers experience stress and burnout. Compassion fatigue is another factor hindering their ability to do their job.
Interdisciplinary teams are a solution to an already overworked workforce. An organization can foster support and cooperation, shared understanding and goals.
The Link Between Soft Skills and Patient Care
The National Institute of Health claims soft skills are especially relevant in a patient-centered setting.
If there’s anything the pandemic taught us, it’s that incorporating soft skills into the learning process is a fundamental ingredient in human relationships.
The study found that emotional competencies are crucial for communication and self-awareness. It concluded that future health professionals should focus on improving emotional intelligence and other soft skills.
Whether you're providing family therapy, group therapy or residential treatment, your job is to help every patient through their healing process. Addiction treatment programs are no walk in the park. Show them empathy, and compassion while on their addiction recovery.
The best part of life-long learning is that there’s always room to improve your skill set.
Start your journey in soft skills development by enrolling in online courses, joining a mentoring program and researching the crucial skills needed to perform your job to the best of your ability.
