As caregivers advocating for a culture of gentleness we need to simplify the culture in which we work. The ”modern” business approach might be to look at the high cost of 1:1 staffing for the most challenging children and adults. Or, sometimes an agency might place paper work and bureaucratic chores as more vital than the act of care giving. Our cultural intention and simplification of caregiving should be to talk about the need for human connectedness and to show how a sense of companionship reduce costs through decreased turnover rates, the need for repeated staff recruitment and education, the lowering of insurance costs as harm decreases, and significantly increased good outcomes. As caregivers we need to look at our personal and collective encounters and how we might maximize these as brief structured opportunities to teach companionship and community. We should also find ways to structure more intentional time for face-to-face encounters of longer duration.

Most interactions in a culture of gentleness cost nothing. They are momentary such as a smile, a name enunciated, a touch on the shoulder, a kiss thrown, an occasional embrace, stopping for a moment to console the sorrowful or withdrawn, and any number of other acts of love. These create a sense of peace, self-esteem, community, and are at the heart of who we are and who we must be. A culture of gentleness is dozens upon dozens of simply accidental encounters during the day. A few need enriched staffing; however, everyone can be nurtured by these chance encounters interspersed with frequent and intentional longer encounters that are more focused on safe and loved.