Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

Honor the War Dead on Memorial Day-While Geriatric Care Managers Can Help the Living Get Va Benefits

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Memorial Day is not simply a time to have a Monday off and fire up the barbie. It also a day to remember veterans who died in all American wars . If you are a geriatric care manager or aging professional, you actually memorialize those 600,000 men and women vets who died in battle by helping the older  living veterans who survived in the last 5 wars ( WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Iraq, Afghanistan.)

They all need the VA benefits they deserve but and all too many never get them.Geriatric care managers can be a huge help to older veterans to get VA benefits. With nearly 10 million veterans in the U.S. who over the age of 65, older vets are usually good candidates for geriatric care management services both now and in the future.

Unfortunately, navigating the services, supports, and benefits available to older veterans can be a  titanic challenge for geriatric care managers and clients alike. Services and supports for this population are available at the federal, state and local level addition to the service navigation complexity. The configuration of services received by veterans and their families is likely to consist of federal services provided by the Veterans Administration in addition to more localized services for older adults in general like those provided by senior centers, area agencies on aging, etc.

 Benefits available to veterans and their families range from federal VA home improvement grants, burial benefits, medical care, respite, housing programs, pension, and even local benefits like business loans and discount programs.

 Like most clients served by geriatric care managers, this population will need personalized assistance in meeting their care needs. For this reason, it is important to note that services and supports designed for older adults, in general, are also key resources for veterans.

While the VA is a great resource, don’t overlook the value and expertise offered by local organizations like local healthcare centers, senior centers, and Area Agencies on Aging, among others.

Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition, includes a new chapter that will help you help vets  Maximizing the Health and Wells-Being of Older Veterans by Dr. Lenard Kaye, director of the Center for Aging at the University of Maine and Glenn Osbourne, director of the National Veterans Legal Aid Group. As an aging life or geriatric care manager, or senior advocate, learn how to to get elder veteran’s the benefits they so deserve.

 

 

 

 

Serve Reminicence Along With Hamburgers on Memorial Day


Reminiscence isn’t new. Before the printing press, storytellers and bards were how history was recorded-

Oral storytellers gave us the Odyssey and another valiant tales. History exists in their family, and Ulysses or Penelope might be sitting at your barbecue this coming Memorial Day- in the form of your aging parents.

But story telling only works if the teller remembers the lines. Family history has to be captured when the older person still remembers. So holiday events are a perfect time to tap into that font before it flickers.

Here are some tips to use if their want to capture these family tales during Memorial Day weekend with aging parents—a perfect time to do this. Use empathetic listening if their can. Make all the messages you are are giving the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting- say, “I want to listen to them.”

Ask questions that prompt the story but don’t make judgments. If there are going to record the family tale, do it in a way that doesn’t distract or stop the older person from talking.

Start somewhere. If the elder isn’t going to tell stories on his or her own, start the story and see if they will follow along.” Did you go to Memorial Day parades when you were a kid or march in one after the war ( pick his war).” Did your parents have barbecues to start the summer”

Music is just next to memory in the brain shown by Alive Inside So 50’s Rock and Roll, Little Richard , Bill Haley and if the are older the Four Freshman

Here are two technology tools to help you with this legacy building for your older client

Life Bio-

Quick Voice Recorder to catch the memory on your phone

Check out my Book Handbook of Geriatric Care Management with more tools for legacy building written by David Lindeman Director Of the Center for Technology at UC Berkeley and Julie Menack of 21 st Care Solutions

Last Chance to Sign -Up for Webinar – Can You Start A Geriatric Care Management Business


Find out how to do an Aging Life or Geriatric Care Management Market study

A market study is about two C’s- customers and competition.
Do you have enough customers to start your business?
How much competition do you have?-is it so much that you can’t succeed in your market?

The aging life geriatric care management market is growing. Rising geriatric population base, the growing number of chronic diseases and increasing number of long-term care services drives the monumental growth of the geriatric care services market size over the next 50 years. By UN estimates, the elderly population is estimated over 800 million in 2012, projected to surpass 2,000 billion by 2050. That is the good news.
But do not be deceived. To start an aging life or geriatric care management business you have to look at your individual market to find out if you have that glowing opportunity is in your location. This means doing your own market sizing.

To start a Geriatric Care Management business PLUS to write a major section of your GCM business plan, you must describe the customers you intend to serve this is your market assessment or opportunity. It tells you and investors, if you can even find them and key whether you will have enough customers to make money. Start with a definition of your ideal client. Example: Woman, 85 years old with chronic care needs who has an income or liquid assets of $500,000 or more.

You want to list the customers who will reward you the most financially.

How many of these ideal clients are in the area you wish to serve? You need do an analysis of the age and income levels. Generally, geriatric care management customers are over age 85 or are disabled younger people with incomes in the range of the top 10% in your community. Your customers are also the local overstressed adult children of clients, long-distance caregivers with family members who need help and live in your community, and third parties who may hire you as a GCM such as trust officers, attorneys, conservators, or guardians.

You need to do market research to define the size of the market in the area where your business will be located (e.g., how many people over age 85 live in Modesto, California, how many third-party target markets such as trust departments are in the town?). This type of demographic information may be available from U.S. Census Bureau reports local Area Agencies on Aging, local chambers of commerce, local hospitals, and even members of the local media who have done their own surveys. You can use the Internet to retrieve U.S. Census data in your area, and in addition, you can Google your State Department of Aging, find your local Department of Aging, and then find all senior services that may have data on older people in your area.

Last Chance
Find out if you really can make money, turn a profit to help you so good.

Sign up for my new webinar  

GPS to a Profitable GCM Business Start Up    

scheduled for May 9th 11:00 AM PST- 90 minutes

  • Learn how to do your market sizing and competition survey and learn whether you have enough customers in your area to succeed and make money in your startup care management business. Don’t Guess and fail.

How Do You Finance a Geriatric Care Management Business ?

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Financial projection may be mind numbing to care managers who started an Aging Life or geriatric care management business with an awesome idea and a tool box of care management skills.But beware– without the tools and skills to make money- your great idea of a private geriatric care management business may end up bankrupt.

Geriatric care managers need to understand revenue- how they make money to be financial 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 client’s you serve, new client’s per month, number of clients canceling service. % of time billed (the goal is 85%) and what you charge for travel time.

Geriatric care managers can become more financially literate about making money by doing a financial projection over a three-year period. You can calculate the number of clients you need to make a profit when you will break even when you can hire new staff.

You can find out awesome facts before you open a care management business by doing this mind-numbing financial projection. Facts you can forecast are how much investment you will need for your business, what the cash flow consumed in the business will be, the number of client’s you need to make a profit and most of all when you will break even and rise above low tide– moving to the all-important high tide, through your excellent financial management and care management skills.

So use this financial decision tool of financial projection. Find it chapter 13 of the Handbook of Geriatric Care management 4th edition and watch you tube 5 Financial Projection below. Become a geriatric care manager with financial skills to make a Profit.
Find about my new webinar 

GPS to a Profitable GCM Business Start Up    

scheduled for May 9th 11:00 AM PST- 90 minutes

  • Learn how to do your market sizing and competition survey and learn whether you have enough customers in your area to start your care management business .When will you make money? Don’t Guess and fail.

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