Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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How to Assess the Caregiver and Avoid Hospital Readmission

October 1, 2017

 

Assessing the Family Caregiver is a relatively new but crucial concept for geriatric care managers and professionals in aging.As geriatric care managers and aging professional, we are health and social services oriented. For almost 3 decades we have assessed the care receiver for problems with function, social connection, and psychological issues. If we suspect depression we have completed that screen. If our client plans to move, has cultural needs and preferences, exhibits signs of dementia, need ways to improve quality of life or a spiritual connection, we have assessed the care receiver for those problems.

All our assessments have left out the major fact – care is an exchange. To receive care, the patient/client usually needs a family caregiver to give or supervise it. That family caregiver is the glue that holds it all together and his or her inner bond begins to break with the strain of caring.

Other countries have seen what the US has yet to grasp. In the United Kingdom, a seminal law passed in 1995 called the Recognition and Services Act , which provided British caregivers a statutory right to request an assessment at the same time that a frail elder or adult with disabilities is assessed.

So developing a caregiver assessment is critical, especially in this era of penalties to hospitals for readmission. The caregiver is the key to keeping an older person in the community and not back in the hospital. If they are not trained, have physical problems that inhibit caring, find some tasks, like changing adult diapers uncomfortable, have no car to pick up meds or drive to the doctor’s follow-up an appointment, you have a problem and probably a readmission.

Learn how to do a caregiver assessment along with a care receiver assessment.This will help you keep your aging client both out of the hospital and potentially out of inappropriate placement in a skilled nursing facility. Plus you will learn just not how to assess caregiver burnout but be able to create a care plan that will help your family caregiver have a better quality of life while they giver better care to their loved one. Read the chapter ” Assessing the Caregiver ” in my book Care Manager’s Working With the Aging Family, Jones and Bartlett. The price has just been cut in half to make it more affordable for the practitioner.

 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, caregiver, caregiver assessment, case manager, elder care manager, Families, GCM Start -Up, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, home care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Private Duty Home Care, Quality of Life Tagged With: aging parent, aging parent care, caregiver assessment, caregiver burnout, caregiver family meeting, caregiver overload, caregiver overload with sisters, caregiving family members, caring for a yourself as a parent, case manager, elder care crisis, geraitric assessment, geriatric care management, geriatric care managers, geritaric care manager, National Association of Geriatric Care Managers, parent care, Psychosocial assessment, red flags for a family meeting, stress and burden

How to Assess the Caregiver and Avoid Hospital Readmission

August 30, 2017

 

Assessing the Family Caregiver is a new but crucial concept for geriatric care managers and professionals in aging.As geriatric care managers and aging professional, we are health and social services oriented. For almost 3 decades we have assessed the care receiver for problems with function, social connection, and psychological issues. If we suspect depression we have completed that screen. If our client plans to move, has cultural needs and preferences, exhibits signs of dementia, need ways to improve quality of life or a spiritual connection, we have assessed the care receiver for those problems.

All our assessments have left out the major fact – care is an exchange. To receive care, the patient/client usually needs a family caregiver to give or supervise it. That family caregiver is the glue that holds it all together and his or her inner bond begins to break with the strain of caring.

Other countries have seen what the US has yet to grasp. In the United Kingdom, a seminal law passed in 1995 called the Recognition and Services Act , which provided British caregivers a statutory right to request an assessment at the same time that a frail elder or adult with disabilities is assessed.

So developing a caregiver assessment is critical, especially in this era of penalties to hospitals for readmission. The caregiver is the key to keeping an older person in the community and not back in the hospital. If they are not trained, have physical problems that inhibit caring, find some tasks, like changing adult diapers uncomfortable, have no car to pick up meds or drive to the doctor’s follow up an appointment, you have a problem and probably a readmission.

Learn how to do a caregiver assessment along with a care receiver assessment .This will help you keep your aging client both out of the hospital and potentially out of inappropriate placement in a skilled nursing facility. Plus you will learn just not how to assess caregiver burnout but be able to create a care plan that will help your family caregiver have a better quality of life while they giver better care to their loved one. Read the chapter ” Assessing the Caregiver ” in my book Care Manager’s Working With the Aging Family, Jones and Bartlett. The price has just been cut in half to make it more affordable for the practitioner.

 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, caregiver, caregiver assessment, case manager, elder care manager, Families, GCM Start -Up, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, home care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Private Duty Home Care, Quality of Life Tagged With: aging parent, aging parent care, caregiver assessment, caregiver burnout, caregiver family meeting, caregiver overload, caregiver overload with sisters, caregiving family members, caring for a yourself as a parent, case manager, elder care crisis, geraitric assessment, geriatric care management, geriatric care managers, geritaric care manager, National Association of Geriatric Care Managers, parent care, Psychosocial assessment, red flags for a family meeting, stress and burden

Aging Dysfunctional Family-How Do You Know Them

December 5, 2014

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The holidays are upon us. Aging professional are called on often to help aging families get through what may be the toughest time of the year for the toughest families – dysfunctional or challenged families

Evaluating Family Interaction

 An aging professional like a Geriatric care manager can bring a sense of calm and assuredness to these dreaded holidays because of the training and special knowledge they bring. They can properly evaluate the quality of interaction and the roots of conflict among family members to help families problem solve more successfully and at least get through Christmas Hanukah or spiritually significant days for Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans and Zoroastrians. The dysfunctional family and holidays know no boundaries or religions :

Here is a quick way to evaluate dysfunction a families in any culture on any holiday. You look at family interaction.

·      Compatible vs conflictual: Do family members easily come to an agreement over care issues, or do they argue constantly, even over relatively unimportant issues? Do old conflicts between siblings or between adult child and parent resurface during the crisis period?

·      Cohesive vs. fragmented: Does the family present as a unit, or do they contact the GCM individually with their problems? Do family members ask the GCM to keep conversations secret from other family members?

·      Productive vs. nonproductive: Can the family respond to the GCM’s suggestions and take necessary action to create change in the older adult’s life? Are there individual family members who are unable to mobilize and feel powerless to act?

·      Fragile vs stable: Has the family been stable over time? Is there a history of emotional cut-offs or distance on the part of one or more family members? Is there a pattern of divorce, remarriage, or other disruptions in relationships that changes the balance within the family system?

·      Rigid vs flexible: How has the family handled previous crises? Did the members accept the need to change roles in those times? Are members able to exchange or share important roles in managing family affairs? If one member is unavailable to provide care, can other members assume the caregiving role? Do family members respond readily to crises?

·      If you find at least two of these interactions in an aging family, you are working with a dysfunctional family- on the worst month of the year.

Filed Under: Aging Tagged With: dysfunctional aging family, holidays with aging parents, National Association of Geriatric Care Managers, visting aging parents during the holiday

What TO Take When An Elder Moves?

November 10, 2014

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In addition to the important functions of maintenance, stimulation and support that a home plays in our lives, the home is given meaning by the individual in three other critical ways: 1) social-centered process 2)  person centered 3)  body-centered process.   

The social centered process represents the way in which we order our home and interpret rules and behaviors.  We develop expectations and standards for the way we live with family and others.  When we live in our own home we concern ourselves with our own rules, behaviors and expectations. 

 Relocating older adult, leaving the family home and moving into another environment may present a new set of rules, behaviors and expectations that they may no longer have control over yet be required follow. Dinner served at five, bushes only 4 ft high in an over 55 community, cook a meal for all once a week in  senior co-housing .Rules you did not make yet have to follow.

The person-centered process refers to the way in which our environment reflects our life course and our knowledge of the features within our home.

For example, my dining room set is from my grandparents vintage 1933.

 I grew up with it and then inherited the beloved set. I and have taken 5 years to needlepoint two  seats, which were worn out when my parents shipped the set. It represent a lifetime full of family, the warmth of experiences , like my grandfather sitting in one chair in the sun everytime I walked into their apartment.

To leave that dining room set  behind when and if I have to move, may represent leaving the significance of its acquisition .You can see mt Dad, sitting at it with his great grandson, in my dining room in the picture in this blog.

To me it is my grandfather buying it when he in 1933 when he was a successful bookie in Atlantic City .Its role in my life course is leaving Atlantic City and bringing my grandparents to California by needle pointing those chairs ( I have four left) and moving my Dad to California to be with his great grandchildren.  In this case, of my dining room set  is much more than a large piece of furniture to be disposed of.It tells the story of several generations and my love of Anna Mae and Ike Cress my grandparents and my Dad , Harry Cress.In other words, my
environment reflects my  life course  through the features within our home.Will that be accounted for as I get old?

 

Filed Under: Aging Tagged With: elder relocation, grandfather, moving, National Association of Geriatric Care Managers, relocation

Long Distance Care Provider- Geriatric Care Manager Coaching on Visit to Dr.

March 8, 2014

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Filed Under: Aging Tagged With: GCMs coaching, geriatric care manager, National Association of Geriatric Care Managers, patient advocate, physicians visit

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Cathy Cress is the leading national expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management. She is author of Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition, Jones and Bartlett, published 2015 and known as the bible of geriatric care management. Continue Reading >

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