Aging Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

Is Senior Alcohol Abuse At A Crisis Level?

February 15, 2019

AARP says alcohol abuse among seniors in a national crisis

According to Paula’s Span ‘s New York Times blog New Old Age, about assisted living 70% of all older people in assisted living drink alcohol.

Does that surprise you? Increasingly geriatric care managers, need to and do worry about alcohol.

Substance abuse or dependence, including alcohol use, drug misuse, and nicotine use, can have severe negative physical, cognitive, and psychological consequences for the older adult. Geriatric Care manager screening for this is essential, not only to detect the problem, but to identify potentially harmful interactions with other physical and mental conditions that could lead to high blood pressure, falls, or memory loss. Improper substance use can increase comorbidities and interfere in the treatment process, and therefore increase medical complexity.

Having a clear definition of what constitutes problem drinking in the elderly is difficult.

With younger adults, clear criteria are defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, including disruption of role function, financial instability, and decreasing social networks. But these criteria can be present in the older adult population at large without a substance abuse problem. Additionally, substance abuse problems are masked by other problems associated with aging, including falls, injury, confusion, self-neglect, depression, emotional liability, memory loss, sleep disturbance, and adverse drug interactions. Furthermore, an elder’s tendency to use alcohol frequently or heavily is dismissed as “the only vice she has left” or “something to help him sleep.

Are there solutions? AARP recommended this book

The National Council on Aging has a good list of solutions at the end of this article.Recommendations are made in this article but there is not one answer and this topic is obviously one that needs much more exploring by Geriatric Care Managers, who encounter this problem frequently with their aging clients.

Have You Sent A Valentine to Your Mom If She’s Your Financial Safety Net??

February 9, 2019

On Valentine’s Day it is not only grandchildren who should send valentines to Grandma but working mothers who should send heartfelt greetings to greeting. A recent study showed the majority of American households spend more than 10% of their household income on childcare — and a fifth of households more than a quarter of their income So if grandmothers offer free childcare, they are the financial safety net for young grandchildren.

They are often free caregivers for aging spouses, relieving the midlife daughters of that burden but inflicting mental and physical stress on themselves.

In fact AARP shows that approximately 43.5 million caregivers have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in 2013.In the same study, projected at $470 billion in 2013, the value of unpaid caregiving exceeded the value of paid home care and total Medicaid spending in the same year and nearly matched the value of the sales of the world’s largest company, Wal-Mart ($477 billion). [AARP Public Policy Institute. (2015). Valuing the Invaluable: 2015 Update.] Think of what is must be in 2019.

Grandmothers are not only that financial safety net but also an emotional safety net for spouses grandchildren. Younger siblings are happier and healthier when grandmother’s pitch in. Not only sibling get that boost from Grandma being there but Mom’s and Dads are less psychologically stressed if grandmother’s support their family taking over some of the multiple parental chores to raise young siblings.
And as Grandmother’s, AARP tells us what we know- it is sometimes the greatest joy of our lives and increases the quality of life of older people like nothing else can do
Even picking up after school, babysitting or helping in a garage sale make grandmothers a blessing. Making a missing baby book for the second third and fourth kid did who not get one, as parents were overwhelmed, is a huge support for parents and kids.

Grandmother’s help can be a key to making kids president. Both President Obama and President Clinton were raised in part by their grandmothers. Or take former Grandma in Chief, Michele Obama’s Mom, who watched over the Obama daughters as their parents raised healthy siblings while Mom and Dad and traveled the world.

So, working women with grandparent help send your Mom or Dad a card on Valentine’s Day and know we grandparents just adore those cards, handmade if possible, from those special Valentines who have our hearts- our grandchildren.

When they need your help as they age- remember what grandmother’s do for us. For now, send a valentine. Perhaps later look for a great aging life or geriatric care manager

If You are a Concierge GCM -Do You Defer to ALL Your Wealthy Clients Demands?

February 6, 2019

If you are a geriatric care manager serving concierge clients ,do you have to defer to all their needs and be subservient? Let’s look at the Concierge Physician.
If you are a concierge physician, do you change their practice of medicine? Quite simply no.

They do not tell the concierge client- what they want to hear. They do not prescribe drugs that the concierge patient wants instead of needs. They do not submit to the VIP syndrome shown by physicians in Joan Rivers, Prince or Michael Jackson’s deaths.They continue to practice as doctors with the same skills, ethics, and tools they have with any patient.

What do they change? The change the way they deliver their medical practice. They offer personalized care and enhanced service. They take calls swiftly and they make house calls. They resuscitate the patient doctor relationship.

They change their billing model. They do not bill Medicare or insurance and they do bill the client personally.

They change their client target market. They do not target everyone that needs their skills. They target a demographic they can pay them privately, the upper 10%, Bob O’Toole Points out in his excellent chapter- Private Revenue Sources for the Fee-Based Care Manager- Need Vs Demand in the Elder Care Market- in The Handbook of Geriatric Care Management- 4th edition

They still practice with the same boundaries, tools, and ethics. They do not let patients set the rules, defer to their defer to their demands.

They practice medicine as they were trained.

As a GCM with a concierge practice, you practice with the same skills, knowledge base and ethics you were trained to deliver.

What you must do though is target clients in the upper 10% who can pay your hourly fees and home care (As concierge physicians do ), increase the personalized delivery of your GCM business, insuring care is delivered seamlessly by care providers who can meet the high standards of a concierge client under the direction of your care plan.

But you must market differently. You present a marketing pitch to third parties who can refer their clients to you. Part of that pitch is you serve the same demographic and will deliver gold standard service with boundaries to their clients. The other part of your marketing presentation to those third parties is telling them what benefits you will bring to the third party themselves. For example for concierge physicians or elderlaw attorneys who want to refer clients to you- you will send them regular updates, work as a team with them, deal with dysfunctional difficult families issues , to help them deliver better services.

Learn More

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Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: MARCH 6, 2019
2PM-3PM PST
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The problems you solve for 3rd parties so they will refer to to you.

What is a benefit vs a features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to?

What specific problems you solve for wealth managers, elderlaw attorneys and concierge physicians

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the sale

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Ways to Deliver Gold Standard Loving Care for Family Caregivers on Valentines Day

February 5, 2019

Think about valentines gifts for family caregivers. What can a geriatric care manager do for family caregivers for valentine’s -the day is about love. Can we count the ways family caregivers who care for an aging family member represent the heart and soul love of Valentines Day?

Here are some ideas

Loving gifts from your agency, including a small gift of chocolate, is a typical valentine treat but also comes in handy to relieve stress. Sending valentines to all of your family caregivers is a great idea acknowledging their caring while letting them know your agency cares about them. Suggesting some respite to the local family if that is possible or your agency offering a special package of reduced fee hours to get some respite maybe on valentine’s day itself would be a sweet gift.

Another gift is the simple act of thanking them for all they do at such a cost to themselves, which is rarely voiced. Another list of gifts including pampering caregivers and a way to find the right spa is something you could share with an adult sibling or adult children. AARP has its own terrific list with aromatherapy and bath essentials

To an aging parent caring for a spouse, they can experience most fraught-filled valentine’s day. The person who they gave all your heart to – at times for many decades- is there but not there in a way in many ways. So, suggesting to adult children that they might take taking the couple out for dinner or provide respite to the spouse and taking her to a special valentine’s brunch or event- can make a perfect gift. . This can be a soulful warm gift for someone spending time with the love of their life who is not able to share the romantic day anymore.

Give adult children ideas for caregiver gifts.. Pinterest has a whole board of gifts for caregivers for valentine’s day. Grandchildren can also make inexpensive valentines gifts if she is caring for grandpa

Be a gold standard care management agency on valentines day and show love for your family caregivers in any way you can.

What Are Your Choices in Aging Life or GCM Client Software?

February 2, 2019

Some care managers still function on paper instead of using a care management data base That is a bad business decision. You need to give clients gold standard service to retain them and arming your care managers with the most user-friendly fully loaded client database makes their concierge care so much easier to deliver. This gives your business a more profitable a bottom line in running a business. So spending money on a client database makes your more money

There are only four significant aging life geriatric care geriatric care management client databases? So the choices for client software are slim. Jewel Code and Care Manager Pro more have been around for many years A more recent addition is Care Tree The newest is I Health Home Geriatric care managers and ALCA managers are fans of Clear Care, which offers staffing if you also have private duty home care but is not really as user-friendly for care management needs.If you are a geriatric or aging life care manager or a private duty home care agency doing geriatric care management- which one should you use and why. Find what you need in your client database and check out each product to see if it has what you want.

Here is a list of what a care management database should do for you

Track all client information
Create and update a care plan
Create a client activity log
Tracks billable hours
Document client activities
Interface with a calendar for client and care manager appointments
Track client referrals
Track guardianship information
Track medications
Reconcile medications
Create a client face sheet with all demographics
Create a care community
Upload document and pictures
Do real-time updates
Be HIPPA compliant
Store historical client records
Create reports and export data
Create medication and text message reminders
Add custom patient field
digitalize patient paper records
go paperless
interface with care providers in the home via phone
Increase billing by making it easy to bill in the field
Patient portal
Have a calendar

Learn more about Aging Life and Care Management

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom LineWhen: March 6, 2019
2PM-3PM PST
LearnThe problems you solve for 3rd parties so they will refer to you. What is a benefit vs features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to? What specific problems you solve for wealth managers, elder law attorneys, and concierge physicians

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the sale

•Sign -Up –

If You are a Concierge GCM -Do You Defer to ALL Your Wealthy Clients Demands?

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