geriatric care manager Archives ⋆ Page 3 of 136 ⋆ Cathy Cress

Can You Close a Sale and Get a New Care Management Client ?

March 30, 2019

Doing a successful client intake takes two Aging life /geriatric care management skills- knowledge and experience in geriatric care management and something that few aging life care managers have – a sales background and knowing how to close the sale .

Let’s touch on the first. All geriatric care managers must have a degree in the health care field such as nursing or social work. An advanced degree is optimum. Care managers also need a background in family therapy- specifically the aging family system. You rarely work with just the elderly or disabled client. Most of your work is with the family system-adult children, the older person, and the extended family. That takes knowing family therapy.

But you need to know business practices. You own a business. Doing a successful client intake takes two Aging life /geriatric care management skills- knowledge and experience in geriatric care management and something that few aging life care managers have – a sales background.

You started a private aging life business to help older people but in order to successfully help them, yourself and your own family, ( kids need braces- you need to pay your mortgage) you have to know how to sell your product to make money.

But here is a deal breaker, most care managers did not know they must have. You the care managers salesperson- most know the important part of marketing and sales- Close The Sale. You need to do an intake and close the sale by asking them are they ready to sign a contract and give you a deposit for your services. That is what makes you money.

Sales classes for social workers and nurses and few and far between. Do you need help to market master sales and run a profitable care management business.?

Do You need a class in closing the sale?

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When: May 15, 2019
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How to make the sale in the inquiry call -with a complimentary consultation
How to ” Identify needs using client” challenge questions” to find the problem you need to solve to make the sale
How to present your offer by selling solutions to the problem with a mini care plan
How to manage objections if the caller has concerns about price or product
Understand how to close the sale with non-aggressive closing questions to have your contract signed, get a deposit, and grow your business with a new client

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How Can Geriatric Care Managers Help Stem the Rising Tide of Crisis in US Assisted Living Facilities?

March 29, 2019

Assisted Living has faced a metastasizing crisis for the past 20 years. Geriatric Care Managers can help. This calamity in care has been dramatically documented in Pro Publica’s Elderly at Risk and Haphazardly Protected

In 2013 CANR ( California Advocates for Nursing Homes Residents ) released a report “ Residential Care in California,” Unsafe, Unregulated and Unaccountable Among other staggering findings, they documented infrequent and inadequate state inspections to ensure safe or good care CANR also found that weak penalties for poor or dangerous care- left zero incentive to the facilities to improve care. They kept delivering the same sometimes life-threatening care to elders.

A 2019 American Society on Aging report, cited the perfect storm that brought this accelerating crisis toAssisted Living residents. Americans desire to age in place and not die in a nursing home coupled with a huge increase in private sector expansion in Assisted Living all over the US were both a big factor. These two causes were amplified, according to ASA, by facilities not being covered by Medicare, thus not having the federal oversight and requirements of the feds.

Among the major complaints that families themselves face is poor or no medications management, patients not being encouraged to participate in activities or not enough activities or both, residents not being bathed as often as is needed, and animosity between families and staff members for family members showing up unannounced or being micromanagers

How can geriatric care management help this crisis?

GCM can monitor the care of an older person frequently (every week, every other week-) compensating for the long intervals between state inspectors visits already cited as a problem. This is especially helpful for long distance care providers.
GCM can monitor personal care like bathing grooming getting to necessary Dr.s appointments and work with facility and family to make sure this happens.
Geriatric care managers will do a one to one assessment of the care of the older person in the Assisted Living then find a solution to any problems they find and implement it making sure that problems are solved before a crisis
If they find poor care of patients in the Assisted living they are mandated reporters and will immediately report the abusive problems to Adult Protective Services.
Geriatric Care Management can set up or monitor medications.
Geriatric Care managers will do a Quality of Life assessment for elders who are not engaging in activities and find what activity within the Assisted Living or in the community if the facility has a poor activity program. They can engage the older person by hiring a Concierge Companion to engage the older person in the activity.

If you want to implement a Concierge Companion service/ product in your care management practice check out my GCM Operations Manual with step by step Concierge Companion procedures and marketing, in addition to 13 other innovative geriatric care management products/services.

How Reinventing Senior Centers Boosts Boomers Quality of Life

March 27, 2019

Senior Centers have a whole new face in 2019.

Senior Centers, now provide revamped, hip classes and exciting structured events for elders. On top of that,

Seniors Having Fun In The Community Center

they still offer old fashion opportunities to increase the quality of life for older adults , like dances and trips. But these new innovative programs can include new-age activities for older people. Adaptive yoga, for example, can increase physical health and at the same time offer social interactions that may lead to emotional and physical connections for elders

In Santa Cruz California, a city famous for it’s surfing, Lifespan 35-year-old care management agency, has added a game-changing program, called “Well Being” . To enhance clients quality of life. Well Being begins with the quality of life assessments to discover how the client wishes increase the emotional, physical, spiritual or intellectual quality of life. What they look for is what will bring the older person joy again. Older people are often lost in retirement, having left the world of work and trying to fill the void with new friends and new ways to spend their time and finding joy in each day. If they have problems doing this on their own, it can result in depression, self-isolation, loneliness, and physical problems.

Lifespan’s Well Being Program care manager designs a care plan for each Well Being Client that takes their interests, physical and mental abilities and wishes for new things to do or old favorites to resurrect and designs a activities plan that uses among other resources in the community use seniors centers. Seniors centers in Santa Cruz, California, offer innovative programs that seniors are excited to join like Tai Chi, Qui Gong, boomer yoga, meditation and mindfulness, senior downsizing and much more.

If you are a geriatric care manager or an aging professional, think of adding senior centers and quality of life to your plan of care. Find this need through a quality of life assessment You will create a win-win care plan- for both the elder and the adult children’s emotional quality of life— Really – for the whole aging family.

How an Art Museum is Combating Senior Loneliness in California?

March 22, 2019

Santa Cruz County, California is combating senior loneliness and isolation, through community organization and art. Following a similar exhibition on foster children MAH (Museum of Art and History), launched the Loneliness exhibition this year. MAH’s former director Nina Simon, who is internationally known, conceived the idea of community organization through museums ( Museum of Art and History) at MAH and is moving that brilliant concept globally.

Over the course of seven months, a group of Santa Cruz seniors, advocates, and artists , cascaded their ideas, art, hopes, and stories on senior loneliness and isolation in the Santa Cruz community together to create this inspiring exhibition. They created personal artwork about loneliness, brainstormed solutions to build connection and offered their words of wisdom for future generations.

Alongside incredible artworks, on loneliness by local seniors, this exhibit created 45 action cards to offer solutions to this growing problem. Examples are Drive a senior to the grocery store. Card ideas also included “Translate written materials into Spanish for a monolingual elder” or “Donate an iPod for entertainment “. If the visitor to the exhibit has a special skill, they are asked to volunteer to help a senior experience that -like get a manicure. Exhibit visitors take home the action card/s that inspires them the most and to help impact change in seniors experiencing social isolation in Santa Cruz County.

The exhibition will travel and be replicated in four other California counties, to give more lonely California seniors a chance to organize and create services for loneliness in other areas, through other museums that use art to create community.

Loneliness and isolation in older adults But what has been found is building social connections through the community as MAH has done is what combats this isolation in seniors, in our society. Loneliness puts seniors at risk for depression, cardiovascular failure, insomnia. It can, according to NY Times aging columnist Jane Brody raise levels of stress hormones and inflammation, which in turn can increase the risk of heart disease, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes, dementia, faster and result in cognitive decline and even suicide attempts. It also is a factor in unnecessary placement in nursing homes

Increasing the quality of life is one major answer to loneliness. The primary way to bring more joy into a senior’s life is regaining a foothold in town or village, something that this type of community art exhibit and geriatric care managers both have made a major platform in their work. Nina Herndon a pioneer in quality of life in geriatric care management’s chapter in Handbook of Geriatric Care management where she outlines how care managers can deliver this service to conquer loneliness in seniors

How Do Geriatric Care Managers Give Quality of Life and Joy to LGBT Clients?

February 25, 2019

A recent report found that LGBT elders tend to have more medical problems, higher poverty levels social isolation than straight elders. Same-sex partners are not allowed many of the resources afforded to spouses and biological family members during the aging process. LGBT elders tend to lack support from many mainstream aging programs such as senior centers and places of worship or they are afraid of the stigma and discrimination that could result from joining those programs.

Mainstream retirement communities often deny LGBT elder couples the right to live in them so they often continue to live on their own, even if they need access to the services offered by those communities. These elders may fear discrimination and be ostracized by housing staff and often stay in the closet to obtain housing. Because large numbers of gay elders choose to live alone, they have fewer opportunities for social interaction than their heterosexual peers.

As a result, many LGBT elders live in the community and can really benefit from the quality of life activities that geriatric care managers can bring into the home through a personal assistance service and reminiscence therapy

One LGBT program in California created social connections through arranging dinner parties, shopping trips, and grocery shopping.

**Home Caregiver talking with** older man

Finding activities that help elders grow and nurture their emotional, intellectual, physical, and/or spiritual quality of life can help to nurture an older person’s whole life and bring back joy. For example, look at this youtube on an older woman who reconnected with art, which is her talent and spirituality and younger people plus her family, through a quality of life assessment.

But what about the quality of life for LGBT aging clients. This recent article in the New York Times shows how one retirement community responding and found joy for LGBT clients, where many LGTB aging clients have to fight for acceptance.

If aging life or geriatric care manager want to find resources for LGBT aging clients or more about their issues, The Journal of Aging Life Care has an article with many resources to help you serve these vulnerable clients in finding Joy and acceptance.

The Journal Of Aging Life has a resources list for a research tool for aging LGBT clients In the article below By Jennifer Crittenden

The Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4^th edition has a seminal chapter written by geriatric care manager Nina Herndon with a quality of life assessment to help you pinpoint the quality of life needs of all clients.

Nina also has developed the first activity kit for the quality of life, Joyful Moments .
Care Managers can use this activity kits to develop quality of life activities with their clients and home care and care managers that have home care can utilize the kit to teach their careproviders tocreate quality of life activities that give seniors they serve Joy in addition to care ‘

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