Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

10 Intellectual Quality Of Life Activities for Elders

Loneliness & Isolation a Plague Among Elders 

Geriatric care managers who work with isolated or depressed clients who can use quality of life to bring back joy.

Care Manager Nina Herndon, the national expert of elder quality of life, cites in her chapter on Quality of Life, in Handbook of Geriatric Care Management a quote from the aging visionary Bill Thomas MD  in his book,  “What Are Old People For”  .Thomas says this is the plague of so many elders, who suffer loneliness, isolation, helplessness, and boredom because their environment is empty of companionship, intimacy, self-direction, and meaningful activity. Care Managers can fill this void with quality of life. One way to do this is:

Intellectual Quality of Life activities that engage older person  mentally

  • Hobbies
  • Learning
  • Brain aerobics
  • any form of creativity

Here are 10 other  ideas for seniors who live at home, or in Assisted Living

For seniors who are independent.

  1. For seniors who wish to travel again but need support to arrange a trip-Work with a senior travel agency to have the elder plan a trip that the elder would love to take but never did. Arrange for senior to take a class on planning travel and to  plan the trip Help them go online
  2. Games checkers dominos, puzzles, simple card games with a deck of cards with whales on them if they like the sea or more complicated games like bridge.
  3. Help the client join a local  book club with the kind of literature he likes to read (non-fiction- fiction – romance? )
  4. Help the client join a book club at the local library.
  5. Help the client join a Lifelong Learning  Osher group near you with intellectual activities if they enjoy book groups, Current Events, Cosmology, Shakespeare – whatever they love to learn or learn again.
  6. Introduce elders to your local community college or local college or theater company musicals and get tickets plus arrange transportation.
  7. . Identify what music they like and arrange to take them to local concerts, arrange to watch and listen on television or TV, if they have an I Phone Make a playlist of their favorite music, get them Alexa to just tell Alexa what music they want to hear, or join a choir if they used to do that and arrange transportation
  8. Attend a senior computer class or arrange for a 1-1 services with someone who can easily work with seniors and computers.
  9. Suggest joining in a games group at their local senior center or joining local games meet up- an example where I live https://www.meetup.com/Santa-Cruz-Board-and-Parlor-Games/
  10. Order Joyful Moments,  Geriatric Care Manager, Nina Herndon’s Quality of Life activity kit book, to get more ideas                         
Get More information about how to set up a Quality of Life Program check out My Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual that includes step by step  procedures on how to set up a Quality of Life Program 

   

 

 

Small Business Failure Rate 50% – Create a Time Line Before Launch a Aging Life or Geriatric Care Management Agency

 

 

WHAT STARTS FIRST IN A STARTUP?

Wondering what you have to do to get a new aging life or geriatric care management business started? What should you do first? What next? A startup timeline tells you the steps you need to take when starting a new care management business.

YOU NEED A TIMELINE
A care management business start-up timeline is meant to remind you of the tasks you may have to perform when starting your business. – before you open your doors

Not every care management business will have to complete each step. For instance, you may decide to get a NACCM credential instead of an NASW credential or no credential at all

MORE THAN HALF OF STARTUPS FAIL IN FIRST TWO YEARS

According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), only 66 percent of small businesses will survive their first two years.

Opening a care management business takes, in aging, what we call executive skills. You have to have a

timeline with a logical order to open any business. What do you do first, second????

Do you have a timeline to open your geriatric care man agent business? You know you have to purchase client software, market, rent an office, get forms, get a website, create a brand, get a marketing database- but in what order.

Learn How to Create Your Timeline to Open plus all the Business Skills you Need to Open Your New GCM Business

Sign up for my New On-Line GCM Business Class at a very low introductory Price of $450

Skills you will learn

  • GCM marketing survey skills to pinpoint your area’s upper 10% clients and 3rd-party referrals to market to, to make your business profitable
  • GCM competitive analysis skills to set the fee per hour your market will bear for your services and to gather information from each, to position your services vs your competition’s so clients will choose you
  • GCM timeline skills to identify and list (in a manageable, doable order), major tasks to complete before you open your business
  • GCM organizational design skills to create your business flow chart and job descriptions, and outline how power flows down your staff to deliver gold standard care to clients
  • GCM business planning skills to write a 13-part business plan to create a blueprint of measurable goals for your business’s financial success
  • GCM marketing skills to create a marketing plan to develop lead sources, conduct lead generation, launch social media, and conduct content marketing to gain new customers
  • GCM sales skills to position your agency to sell your menu of services
    through benefits to 3rd parties and clients though cold calling, 1-1 sales meetings, and inquiries, by knowing how to close the sale and sign the contract
  • GCM ALCA billing skills to develop a billing system that allows you to bill 85% of your time, control your cash flow, invoice promptly to make a profit
  • GCM financial forecasting skills to develop a 3-year financial forecast Excel spreadsheet to track your basic profit and expenses, and to track the number of clients and billable hours needed to break even make a profit, pay back loans, hire new staff, and take a salary yourself

Taught through Blackboard CourseSites

  • Self-paced course
  • Tech support
  • 10 video PowerPoints
  • 10 video intros to modules
  • 1-1 coaching with Cathy Cress
  • Chat room
  • Templates to follow with each module
  • Pre-test
  • Post-test
  • Bibliography
  • Assignments with each module graded by Cathy Cress
  • Facebook group to interact with other students, Cathy Cress and 25 other ALCA GCMs who have already purchased the manual
  • Signed contract must be completed before purchase

 

 

 

If you Are A Start-Up Geriatric Care Management Agency – Do You Have Business Skills?

You chose to Start A Business

You need clinical skills to start and run an aging life or geriatric care management agency but you must have business skills as well- It IS A Business.

 

Geriatric care managers need to understand revenue- how they make money to be financially to make a profit. Revenue does come from billing – but poor billing is very unprofitable billing. Money-losing billing is anything less than 85% of your client’s time. When you bill less than 85% you actually start losing money. Revenue is the high tide of money and is calculated by the number of clients you serve, new clients per month, number of clients canceling service. % of the time billed (the goal is 85%) and what you charge for travel time.

Competition Survey Mandatory To Start A Business

You need to know how to do a competition survey to measure whether you have too much competition and what your competitors offer so you can offer more and be chosen. You should also identify and survey other direct GCM competitors like the non-profit area agency on aging which may have a GCM arm or for-profits like accountants or elder law attorneys who include geriatric care management in their service mix.

Do You Understand Branding?

You need to know branding. Aging life or geriatric care manager must use different branding and a  marketing approach that messages hyper-attention to seamless care to attract these top 10% concierge clients who can afford your services long term.

Do You Have a Marketing Strategy?

Marketing Strategy Business concept. The meeting at the white office table

Marketing your existing or new Aging Life or GCM business is vital to growth, but where you spend your marketing dollars? What marketing tactics make the most sense for you? Where will you reach your concierge client base best?

This is where your marketing strategy comes into play. Before the business can start generating large revenue, a concierge marketing strategy and sales techniques must be in place.

Your marketing message must be communicated to the concierge customer. You need to how to write a business plan, use social media to attract customers, how to do 1-1 marketing to third parties-

FREE Webinar

LEARN HOW TO MARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT 

January 23 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST

The busiest season for care managers is January & February after as adult children have just visited for the holiday and seeing their elderly parents skating on very thin aging ice

Learn care management marketing so you can:

Capture those desperate clients in January after the festive fright-

Develop strategic marketing that brings more customers,

Understand branding         

Develop a positioning strategy so the caller chooses you

Understand lead generation in care management

Get the best marketing software  

Create a 5 Star Marketing Plan for the top 10% of seniors who can afford you.

Click Here To Register 

FIND OUT MORE 

THIS FREE  WEBINAR  FROM 2 PM – 3 PM PST January 23, 2020

SIGN UP NOW  

 

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