Advanced Directives Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

Dysfunctional Families Facing Death Wreak Havoc at End of Life

August 3, 2023

What do Dysfunctional Families do at the End of Life?

Dysfunctional families facing death and dying have flawed fractured family conversations. Often they do not communicate at all or engage in destructive accusations lobbed at others. They see one another as enemies. They demonize one another!

Dysfunctional families facing death are feuding families, escalating the pain of death to a chaotic war room. They blame each other instead of locking arms in a crisis.

Dysfunctional families facing death sabotage resolution.

Facing Fractured Family Communication

What are some of the struggles that these aging dysfunctional families facing death with fractured family communication can face?

Aging parents who lack the capacity to make decisions have no advance directives, DPOA

health-care proxy, and adult siblings, who must make end-of-life decisions, can’t agree

Withdrawal of life support with no designated health care agent then dysfunctional families facing death the adult children and/or spouse disagree

Pain management Dysfunctiona families facing death adult children and/or spouses disagree.

Answer to Fractured Family at End of Life – Mediation.

Mediation is a tool that fractured families can be a good resource for dysfunctional families at the end of life. It can help with these difficult families facing the death of a parent without fracturing the entire family. It can allow an older person to die without pain inflicted by their own aging dysfunctional families.

Understand the Dysfunctional Aging Family System you must enter to get care for elders in aging dysfunctional families
Understand 11 Warning Signs You Are Working with Dysfunctional Family

Master 10 Clinical Tools Professionals Must learn before they work with These Difficult Families
Learn how to solve dysfunctional family problems like End of Life family chaos after you master these tools for aging dysfunctional families
Get care for aging family members when the dysfunctional family members resist
Learn how to work with characters like Rupert Murdock & Logan Roy

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Find out more in the YouTube for My YouTube, Channel Geriatric Care 1

What Good Life to The Very End Can a Care Manager Bring ?

January 18, 2023

Bringing Good Life to The Very End

What Good Life to the very end can you bring -in the terminal phase of life -? Here is a wonderful example

Bill died at the home of his son after he had accepted that he was to die of liver failure and stopped all lifesaving treatment, like dialysis at the hospital and entering hospice. The decision was made that he would die at his son’s home with 24 care from his Care Management agency Livhome and his ongoing care manager Mary Brennan.

After his coming to terms with his death, Bill and his family, sons, grandchildren, and great grandkids were able to say their goodbyes and offer the unconditional love that they had been fearful to express before his acceptance of death. A feeling of light & joy permeated his room, a family room overlooking the garden, where his hospital bed was set up. Great-grandchildren brought pictures and marveled at “grandpa grandpa “ high up in a hospital bed.

The Good Life to The Very End -Joy of Hearing

His son put headphones with a mike on and William could hear and speak, as he had not in years. It was like the wonderful film and concept Alive Inside. Hearing was a gift that gave him such joy in his last weeks of life.

The Good Life to the Very End- Let Family Just be Family

The family could just be family because they had care providers to care for bill. His 24-hour caregivers were gifted loving care providers from a GCM agency Livhome. The 24-hour shifts included a nurse of 18 years from Central America and a man finishing his Ph.D. from the Congo. They cared for him with great warmth, so his family could just be family, relaxing in their love and surrounding him, as if in a circle, that swirled with 4 generations, going every which way while he watched, really loved, and melted into his last stage. His sons, grandchildren great grandchildren, and nephew ate meals, chitchatted, and welcomed each new family member coming in to see William, as he remained in the center in his hospital bed, the fulcrum of the gathering.

The Good Life to the End of a Great Care Manager

The geriatric care manager, GCM Mary Brennan, from Livhome, a seasoned powerful and so kind LCSW, adjusted here and there, with care providers, and family needs. Bill’s needs followed the guidance of hospice, who were slowly increasing the pain meds, and supporting his health and medical care needs in death. The geriatric care management agency worked as a partner supplying 24 care and support for the family.

Bill was able to have again, a magical care provider from Livhome, who had been with him for almost two years and was so at the end.

You are only as strong as your weakest link- those are the care providers. These people were the raft that floated Bill up while the family, offered love and hospice provided medical and end-of-life support. Together they buoyed Bill into his last stage of dying, knowing that his family was the fabric of every step he took toward forward towards death. They gave him that good life till the very end.

If you want to add an End of Life service and other services, plus all the forms necessary, go to my website, and check out GCM Manual

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Deliver a Good End of Life 9 Steps to Death &Dying

Jan 24, 2023 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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Learn About Death Doulas

Upcoming Free Webinar

Deliver a Good End of Life 9 Steps to Death &Dying

Jan 24, 2023, 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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Serve Your Client until Death Do You Part
Join me on January 24 2023 and learn why End of Life Services re a perfect new se

Learn to guide the patient/family through the five stages of death. Understand how to help clients be active participants in their care. Give the family caregivers tools to manage care. Find out how to provide family-centered care to caregivers and families. Learn to choose the right support services for the client through all stages of death.
Introduce Hospice and Palliative care to the client earlier and work with their team.
Find out how to Use COVID -19 family coaching for GCM. Discover the role of Death Doula at end of life.

Time

Jan 24, 2023, 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

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If you really want to add End of Life to your care management business sign up for this webinar now

What Does a Care Manager Do Before End of Life Diagnosis?

November 29, 2022

End of Life has 5 Phases

Before the end-of-life diagnosis, the ALCA or GCM care manager helps clients be active participants in their care and gives the family caregiver the tools to manage the care.

The geriatric care manager serves older adults before they find they are dying. GCMs work with chronic care clients, sometimes for years, who eventually succumb to their illness. But they also work with clients who come to them facing the end of life issues.

The process of acceptance and adjustment to terminal illness has five phases:

before the diagnosis,

the acute phase

the chronic phase

the recovery phase

the terminal phase
Geriatric Care Managers’ Tasks Before the diagnosis
Schedule medical appts
Help family ask questions of medical professionals
Before visiting the client maintain an updated medication list and a list of any drug allergies
Assist the family in organizing all Advanced care planning documents documents
Go to medical appointments with the client or train family members make a list of questions and have ready
Set up personal health records.
Assist family members in setting up and use of a calendar to keep a log of important medication information, questions, and things out of the ordinary that happens to the ill person
Join me Tuesday, January 24, and learn why End of Life Services Are a perfect new service for care managers
Deliver a Good End of Life- Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency
Serve Your Client Until Death Do You Part

In this 1 ½ -hour webinar you will learn how to

1. Transition the patient/family through the five stages of death
2. Help clients be active participants in their care

3. Give the family/caregiver tools to manage care

4. Provide family center care to caregivers and family

5. Choose the right support services through all stages of death

6. Introduce Hospice and Palliative care and work with their team

7. Use ALCA End-of-Life Benefits During COVID

8.Use COVID -19 Family Coaching for GCM
Sign -Up
Free Webinar

If you really want to add End of Life to your care management business sign up for this webinar now

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice

February 28, 2022

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice?

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice are myriad.The geriatric care manager serves older adults before they find they are dying, so know them well. GCMs work with chronic care clients, sometimes for years, before eventually succumbing to their illness. They also work with clients who come to them facing the end of life issues.

Care managers work with the process of acceptance and adjustment to terminal illness has five phases:

before the diagnosis,

the acute phase

the chronic phase

the recovery phase

the terminal phase

Thus the benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice is the care manager is a GPS for both the client and family through all stages at end of life, bringing in critical services like palliative care and hospice caregiver respite and quality of life the whole continuum of care for supporting the end of life- at the right phase at the right time –

Benefits You (as a GCM) will Bring to Hospice

Feature – geriatric care manager will bring the client to Hospice much earlier in the 5 stages of death and dying than the one month before death when most patients enter Benefit- the client & & especially the family have the support and guidance 24x7throughallstages of dying

Care managers do a Quality of Death assessment to find out the patient’s wishes for a good death Benefit- the dying patient has the death he or she wants

You will make sure all the critical paperwork is needed is gathered and organized, including:
Insurance
Legal
Financial
Healthcare
End of life

Interventions vary according to the phase. The GCM may already have served the client and they are now facing a terminal diagnosis. But a geriatric care manager may be brought in when the family is negotiating through any one of these phases, their work begins with making a determination of what phase the client is in and what services are appropriate for that client at that stage. They are also the best professionals to bring in the quality of life to every phase so that the client can have not only a good death but a good life to the very end.

Benefits You Bring To the Family Friends and Hospice

Care Manager will monitor the client/care receiver’s and family caregiver’s health and psychosocial status and the paid caregiver’s care plan, to improve the quality of care and life for the client and caregiver benefit So That Hospice can direct all it’s attention to the client and assured family caregivers needs are being met

Care Manager will accompany the client to all medical appointments and make sure that the 10 minutes cover all questions, that the physician’s orders are recorded and followed, and that all meds are picked up and set up properly Benefit –Hospice does not provide this and ensures the client gets to all appointment relieves the family of another task and everyone is getting all the correct information from the physician

Care Manager will make sure that the family has an online personal health record or a notebook if they wish Benefit -The family has a way to keep track of information from many professionals involved and passes on the correct information to everyone in the family and they can feel more in control in an emotionally chaotic time

Care Manager will do a caregiver assessment and suggest interventions from the local continuum of care, including support groups, counseling, respite care, and private duty home care Benefit–You are insuring a whole family approach and the family caregivers are getting the support and respite they need in this frightening time for their loved one

You will coordinate family meetings to facilitate issues like shock, grief, and shutting down Benefit You are a container, allowing the family caregiver to deposit their tremulous at times desperate feelings in a safe place so they can get help from you and be calmer for the dying loved one
You will coordinate health literacy information and training of disease skills for the family So What- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear, and even hopes and demystifying all the unknown medical terminology to make the family feel more literate and self-assured in approaching the medical staff to get the information they need

You will monitor anticipatory grief in family and friends and bring in resources

Benefit- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear ,even hope and find the help they need to so on with the journey to death

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice

You will review all new medication with family caregivers and care staff- Benefit-you will unravel the confusing litany of pharmaceutical word salad and make sure the family and friends both understand what med does what, how to set up meds, and remind the meds when hospice is not present

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: March 15th 2022

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice

2 PM-3:30 PM PST
Learn

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

What specific problems do you solve for hospice, 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

Find out more by watching my youtube playlist on Death and Dying on my channel Geriatric Care 1

Follow Cathy @ cathycress.com

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice

February 28, 2022

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice?

Care managers work with the process of acceptance and adjustment to terminal illness has five phases:

before the diagnosis,

the acute phase

the chronic phase

the recovery phase

the terminal phase

Benefits You (as a GCM) will Bring to Hospice

Feature – geriatric care manager will bring the client to Hospice much earlier in the 5 stages of death and dying than the one month before death when most patients enter Benefit- the client & & especially the family have the support and guidance 24x7throughallstages of dying

Care managers do a Quality of Death assessment to find out the patient’s wishes for a good death Benefit- the dying patient has the death he or she wants

You will make sure all the critical paperwork is needed is gathered and organized, including:
Insurance
Legal
Financial
Healthcare
End of life

Benefits You Bring To the Family Friends and Hospice

Care Manager will monitor the client/care receiver’s and family caregiver’s health and psychosocial status and the paid caregiver’s care plan, to improve the quality of care and life for the client and caregiver benefit So That Hospice can direct all it’s attention to the client and assured family caregivers needs are being met

Care Manager will accompany the client to all medical appointments and make sure that the 10 minutes cover all questions, that the physician’s orders are recorded and followed, and that all meds are picked up and set up properly Benefit –Hospice does not provide this and ensures the client gets to all appointment relieves the family of another task and everyone is getting all the correct information from the physician

Care Manager will make sure that the family has an online personal health record or a notebook if they wish Benefit -The family has a way to keep track of information from many professionals involved and passes on the correct information to everyone in the family and they can feel more in control in an emotionally chaotic time

Care Manager will do a caregiver assessment and suggest interventions from the local continuum of care, including support groups, counseling, respite care, and private duty home care Benefit–You are insuring a whole family approach and the family caregivers are getting the support and respite they need in this frightening time for their loved one

You will coordinate family meetings to facilitate issues like shock, grief, and shutting down Benefit You are a container, allowing the family caregiver to deposit their tremulous at times desperate feelings in a safe place so they can get help from you and be calmer for the dying loved one
You will coordinate health literacy information and training of disease skills for the family So What- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear, and even hopes and demystifying all the unknown medical terminology to make the family feel more literate and self-assured in approaching the medical staff to get the information they need

You will monitor anticipatory grief in family and friends and bring in resources

Benefit- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear ,even hope and find the help they need to so on with the journey to death

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice

You will review all new medication with family caregivers and care staff- Benefit-you will unravel the confusing litany of pharmaceutical word salad and make sure the family and friends both understand what med does what, how to set up meds, and remind the meds when hospice is not present

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: March 15th 2022

2 PM-3:30 PM PST
Learn

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

What specific problems do you solve for hospice, 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

Find out more by watching my youtube playlist on Death and Dying on my channel Geriatric Care 1

Follow Cathy @ cathycress.com

Contact

Connect with Cathy

Get Cathy’s “10 Critical Success Steps to a Profitable Aging Life or GCM Business”

What do Dysfunctional Families do at the End of Life?

Facing Fractured Family Communication

Answer to Fractured Family at End of Life – Mediation.

Bringing Good Life to The Very End

The Good Life to The Very End -Joy of Hearing

The Good Life to the Very End- Let Family Just be Family

The Good Life to the End of a Great Care Manager

Free Webinar

End of Life has 5 Phases

Geriatric Care Managers’ Tasks Before the diagnosis

Deliver a Good End of Life- Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

Serve Your Client Until Death Do You Part

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice?

Benefits You (as a GCM) will Bring to Hospice

Benefits You Bring To the Family Friends and Hospice

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice?

Benefits You (as a GCM) will Bring to Hospice

Benefits You Bring To the Family Friends and Hospice

Contact

Connect with Cathy

Get Cathy’s “10 Critical Success Steps to a Profitable Aging Life or GCM Business”