7 Tools to Spark Reminiscence As a Holiday Gift

December 1, 2019

Reminiscence isn’t new.

If you work with older clients, reminiscence can be a cherished gift for their holiday celebration

Before the printing press, storytellers and bards were how history was recorded-

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

But storytelling 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. At the same time, you give the older person one to one attention, that they may not get often, someone interested in their past and warm memories of their childhood holidays

7 Ways to Capture That Family Ancestry On Holidays

Here are some tips to use if they want to capture these family tales during the coming festivities with aging parents—a perfect time to do this.

1. Use empathetic listening. This means to make all the messages you are are giving the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting- all saying, “I want to listen to them.”

2. 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.

3. 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.” What did you do on Christmas day? Did you open gifts at a special time?.” What was your favorite food on the holidays” ” ( you might ask before and make that special cookie and offer it to them?

4. Music is just next to memory in the brain shown by Alive Inside So use Alexa, Spotify, to play 40’s 50’s this Christmas music

5. Simple ways to spark reminiscence on Holidays :

Look at old photos together; perhaps from Christmas past or can be anytime. Choose ones from a period of time the person currently remembers, which could be the person as a young adult, teenager, or even a young child.
Sing holiday songs together or play them on Alexa. Choose carols and songs the older person remembers well.
Enjoy food like a holiday cookie that is a family tradition or specialty, particularly ones that have an element of memory attached from family celebrations perhaps?
Attend a Christmas or Hannaka service where the elder enjoys the sensory experiences of the smells and the bells -the sight of the pageantry, the whiff of incense or, the sound of a choir, quiet prayer said together or the touch of bright paper tearing from a gift.

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

6. Life Bio-

7. Use Quick Voice Recorder to catch the memory on your phone

8. Use some prompts for questions to ask that will help older people reminisce

Reminiscence is part of a whole new domain in aging called quality of life or attending to the older person’s need for joy through activities that stimulate the mind. Reminiscence does that but find out more about how you can increase the quality of life of older people after the holidays and all year long

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Thank Your Employees Taking On Call While you Celebrate Thanksgiving Holiday

November 28, 2019

Did You Give a Happy Thanksgiving to Your Staff?

Today is Thanksgiving when we offer thanks to our friends, loved ones, family. But what about your employees this holiday month. How will you thank the very people that power your business and profit and may be on call for you right now?

“Truly, from bosses I liked, anything was great because I appreciated that they thought of me. From “bad” bosses, anything would annoy me. You can’t make up for being a jerk with a token of any kind once a year.”

Ideas for inexpensive but really appreciated gifts for Care Managers and staff– cards to grocery stores or department stores, a gift certificate from Amazon all given with a nice personal handwritten note.

Staff

How To Thank Staff All Year

I just did a blog about your need to bill 85% of your client hours. When a care manager does bill’s 85% write them a handwritten thank-you note being grateful for having the amount of productivity to keep the business thriving. Handwriting is not a lost art. It sends a message that you take the time personally to really care what the employees do for your business.

2. Send a handwritten thank-you note to each staff member during the year to applaud something they did. Saying thanks for something specific may be the ultimate reward. If you do it selectively yet authentically, a thank you note may be pinned above your employee’s desk for years. Create a formal letter recognizing your employee’s achievement. Sign it and use the company’s seal to give the letter something extra. If you really want to do it right, frame it.

3. Name an employee of the month in your newsletter with their picture. Give them a gift to tell them you are grateful for their hard work. Create a formal letter recognizing your employee’s achievement. Sign it and use the company’s seal to give the letter something extra. If you really want to do it right, frame it too.

4. Have an employee holiday party and give gifts to all employees for being such excellent care managers and for billing the 85% you need them to bill so you will all have employment.

5.Plan employee picnics, birthday parties, anniversary parties to thank them publicly throughout the year.

6. B.J Curry- Spitler, one of the first and I might say the greatest care managers, founded Age Concerns in San Diego in 1982. She gave gifts of massages to her care managers. A brilliant gift, a massage recognizes the tough emotional work that care managers do and their need to take care of themselves- which you as their employer are doing.

Give Thanks Throughout the year.

Thanksgiving Blog- Steal It for Your Social Media

November 24, 2019

Spread The Word About Your Services Before Thanksgiving

ADULT CHILDREN DESPERATE AFTER THANKSGIVING PAINTS PARENTAL DECLINE

If you use social media to spread the word about your services before the holidays, you should have a blog. One giant target is adult children who need help for their older family members.

So you can steal this blog below and share it on social media in the next few days.

Whether you use Constant Contact , Survey Monkey , Word Press or have a blog attached to your website, this is a good time to give potential adult child customers a short marketing touch about your services

Since the family – both nearly normal and the dysfunctional version gather on Thanksgiving and during the holiday season, this blog is a gateway step towards thinking about how their family might organize care for a loved one or if they need a care manager to guide them through the whole wrenching process.

Steal the blog below

“The Thanksgiving is around the corner what better time to talk about the family. Will you be celebrating the holiday with a nearly normal or dysfunctional family?

The normal aging family can have their own own problems. Leading up to Thanksgiving adult children can struggle when their aging Mom is not able to cook that turkey and be the high priestess of the family ritual and rituals to come. An aging Mom or Dad’s decline can be confusing, even for families that are close-knit, well-integrated, and highly functioning.

But for the dysfunctional aging family, a disabled Mom’s need for care can be overwhelming and even destructive. This kind of family the family is marked by strained relationships and unresolved conflict. They not only do not want to take over rituals or cook the Thanksgiving turkey, but they will also attend the annual family ritual and make a scene or, more likely, never show up at all.

Over Thanksgiving, you should watch the way your family interacts and try to assess what kind of family you have. This is a stepping stone to a way to work together as a team ( or not) as a parent decline. You can also call ( PUT YOUR COMPANY NAME WEBSITE) to help you both assess your family and make plans with the family about Mom’s aging and decline.”

Add A Newsletter

Make changes if you want but get started with social media and newsletter like Tasha Beauchamp’s great care management newsletter ASAP but take advantage of the highest volume of calls you will get all year if you direct family to your business.

Are You Ready for Post Thanksgiving Inquiry Calls From Long Distance Care Providers

November 18, 2019

Long Distance family members are caregivers zapped out by stress

They have been flying or driving to both visit aging family members for a long time. These caregivers at a distance usually understand that their parents are deteriorating with age and are savvy enough that they have researched options and already found you on the web ( a reason to have a great website).

The Holidays Push Them Over The Edge

When the family gathers on Thanksgiving and everyone can see problems with an older person like memory loss or ambulation problems- the family may agree to call a care manager. Or the very stress of the holiday season on top of caring for an aging parent long-distance may push the designated long-distance care providers over the edge to seek help.

Unpaid bills litter Dad’s desk. He refuses to go to church when he was a devoted churchgoer all his life. When the daughter puts the post-turkey leftovers in the refrigerator she finds moldy food on every shelf. When asked about the bills and the moldy food, Dad gets really angry at them when he was an easygoing guy all his life. They consider picking up the phone and screaming at 911 for help.

More than 7 million American Families care for older family members from afar. This holiday season many of those long-distance families will come home to an elder Mom or Dad’s house and find a scene they saw coming but still fill them with new white fear. They may have patched together care neighbor’s check-ins or other inconsistent coverage for parents. To their horror, they find, on returning home on holidays, the flood of parent problems blew out the patch, with coal dust spurting straight in their face

Call made to 911- You

At that point, the daughter may pull out her phone and call an aging life or geriatric care manager because she cannot fly home without getting help. Are you ready for these desperate calls?

Give frantic adult children hope when they frantically call this holiday.

So be prepared for their inquiry and know the needs of long-distance families well plus the resources in your area that you can suggest in your inquiry call. Do not give away the store in your call but let them know that you are an expert in the needs of long-distance care providers and an ace navigator in your area that can find services and choices that are perfect for their needs.

5 Ways to Tame the Turbulence of Holiday Meltdown in Aging Families

Learn how!

How to work with both dysfunctional and long-distance families who call during the holidays

How to give hope to frantic children who call, after seeing their aging parent struggling with the rituals
How to sell services to desperate adult child callers
How to use GCM tools to contain Holiday chaos
How to use financial forecasting to prepare for growth during the holidays
Sidestep the Many Care Managers Who Do not know how to work with Dysfunctional Aging Families so the client chooses you

THIS FREE WEBINAR IS NOVEMBER 21, 2019 FROM 2 PM – 3 PM PST

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Why Does the Nearly Normal Aging Family Melt Down Over the Holidays ?

November 17, 2019

Really, Mom Can’t Cook the Turkey- Now I Have To????

Many concierge aging families are healthy or a nearly normal family. But discovering they must care for a parent can force them into a tailspin. When the parent figure in the family begins to suffer the losses of aging, a filial crisis occurs.

What’s that-? That is accepting your parents in the here and now. When a Mom or Dad is no longer the north stars they were to the family, midlife adult children need to learn to balance parental love and duty with independence. These midlife kids must create a two-way relationship instead of the parent sending, love, money and nurture only one way. This can throw adult children in a nearly normal family into a parental panic.

Nurturing and care have always been a one-way street – ending with them. Were they selfish – no? That’s what good parents do- nurture their children through all the stages of life. However, this new stage takes a two-way street.

The Shock of Mom Not Caring For Them

The healthy nearly normal family is also thrown off balance by a shock to the system- someone has to replace the Queen or King bee. The person who took the lead role on the family stage has not shown up or forgets their lines. On the holidays, always at their parents, Mom doesn’t decorate the Christmas tree, the envelopes for big gifts for them are missing, forgets the words to the blessing on Chanukah, the recipe for Latkes or her famous Christmas sugar cookies.

Yikes-I Have to Take Over This Ritual ???

Now the adult kids must make the Christmas cookies, Latkes, lead the Chanukah prayers or host Christmas. Many are reluctant to step up to the plate, take over the work of a ritual- be the head of the family

At this giant pause in family play, the family system, even in the normal family must face the loss of control in the system because the parents or parent figures usually have that control. When they can no longer manage on their own, or function as the main gear or guide that moves the family system forward, even the normal spins out of control.

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