Start-Up Geraitric Care Management Marketing and PR Checklist

October 5, 2020

To Start an ALCA or Geriatric Care management business, you must do- do marketing and public relations.( usually social workers and nurses have never done )Here is a helpful start – a beginning of PR Marketing Checklist.

This list was created by legendary former GCM Merrily Orsini, who created the model for Senior Bridge, now Humana, from her own ultra-successful Geriatric Care Management business in Louisville. She authored the chapter, Marketing Geriatric Care Management, inHandbook of Geriatric Care Management Fourth Edition. Orsini now owns Corecubed a Marketing Agency for Senior Marketing Merrily Orsini for more information.

Start-Up Geriatric Care Management PR/ Marketing Checklist

1. Brand Identity- including logo design and collateral material design

Services needed to complete

Research competition, develop key differentiating features, develop a brand-positioning statement, and develop business names, graphic design for the logo. , colors for business communication Consider consulting a branding firm.

2. Business Identity –

Get coordinated business card envelopes, note cards, and folders

Services needed to complete

Graphic design, printing, and delivery

3. Products sheets or Sell sheets, Brochures

Services needed to complete- Copywriting, graphic design, printing, and delivery

4. Identified and 3rd party targets – including a prospect profile

Services needed to complete-

Identify targets ( elder law attorneys, assisted living, concierge physicians, trust/wealth management departments) in your services area Research develop prospect profiles, mailing lists, key factors in specific communication messages per target audience. Add to marketing excel sheets.

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MARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT DURING COVID

October 22 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST

As you are approaching the busiest season for care manager’s the holidays when families visit for the holiday and seeing their elderly parents skating on very thin aging ice

Learn care management marketing that works at all time but especially during COVID so you can:

Consult with and help client’s during COVID and post COVID

Convert Consultation into regular clients

Understand branding

Develop a positioning strategy so the caller chooses you

Understand lead generation in care management

Understand how to do an e-newsletter

Get the best marketing software

Understand Public Relations Press, TV-Radio,

Social Media Coverage

Understand Zoom Webinars

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130 million Dead COVID- Trump will not require the #1 deterrent -Masks

July 9, 2020

Number 1 Prevention of COVID -19 Wearing A Mask

The Coronavirus yesterday reached the 3 million mark in mark in cases The number one preventative step we could have taken is to wear masks

Citing Lone Ranger-TRUMP Refuses National Order For Masks

Yet, President Trump refuses to issue a federal order to wear masks and leaves it up to the states. In Texas, where the coronavirus rampages, the Republican governor has also refused to issue a state order to wear masks. Like ordering the US to wear masks, has something to do with his looks, Trump said a mask makes him look like the Lone Ranger. The Lone Star state topped over 1000 cases 5 days in a row

33 Million Would Not Be Dead if Masks Ordered in October

A new study says wearing masks would have saved 33 million lives since last October. Yet there are still no federal mask requirements.

Lack of President’s National Response Leading to New Depression- Says World Bank

This lack of federal response, like no federal order to wear masks, is not only killing huge swaths of the world population but has torpedoed our economy. President Trump wants to reboot the economy yet by not using federal controls, according to the World Bank the President is moving us to a recession and the cusp of depression worldwide.

Less than half the States Require Masks

Only 20 states require masks as Trump, instead of requiring masks, has left it up to the states. He relented recently, narcissistically, saying he thought he looked good- like the lone ranger in a mask but ordered no federal requirement.

Dr. Anthony Fauci predicts a few days ago that the huge COVID spread could leave 100 million a day dying. Masks are our # 1 deterrent again this slaughter by the omission of using federal powers

33 States Now in Crisis Surge of Virus Sunbelt Devastated

A total of 33 states now have a coronavirus surge with 7 states in the southwest at a crisis level.

Without required preventative steps from the Trump government and the wildfire surge immolating ¾ of our states, COVID 19 is not going away, in fact, may last well into 2021

Mixed -Messaging by President, States, Counties Gives Families no Path to Virus Safety

The problem is made more confusing by the administration’s mixed messaging with different states, cities, counties telling residents what to do to be safe. Families have no idea which way to turn to keep themselves and the most vulnerable senior family members safe.

JOIN ME FOR MY NEW FREE WEBINAR

Create Science-based, data-backed, mixed -messaging- free products to keep seniors safe

Create 5 Telehealth Products for COVID 19

Products from sheltering in place through the hospital, recovery at home, discharge from an SNF, or hospital for local and long-distance elders.

Increase your bottom

line as COVID spreads throughout the US and more shutdowns loom

Learn Step by Step How to Consult with Aging Families and Seniors to:

Choose the best Hipaa Compliant Telehealth Products to Remotely Consult with Client

Help a Local Family Help a Loved One Safely Shelter in Place

Help a Long-Distance Family Help a Local Loved One Shelter in Place

Help an Aging Family Help a Loved on Hospitalized for Covid-19

Help an Aging Family Help a Senior when Discharged from Nursing Home

Help an Aging Family Help Elder Recover when Discharged from a Hospital

WHEN. THURSDAY AUGUST 6

TIME- 2 PM Pacific Standard Time

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How Do You Detect COVID–19 Symptoms in Seniors While Living Long Distance?

July 1, 2020

COVID–19 Detecting Symptoms in your loved one from a Distance

We can not always be with our loved ones. Long-Distance Families make approximately 43.5 million caregivers who have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the last 12 months. How can you keep a watchful eye on long-distance older family members for symptoms of COVID-19? First, you will need to know what symptoms to watch and listen to.

Did you know that COVID -19 is known to develop into a severe acute respiratory syndrome and may result in death? The elderly are more susceptible to this contagion simply due to their age. Your job is to become their health detective by paying acute attention to physical symptoms and asking questions when conversing with your loved one.

Symptoms to Listen & Signs to Look for

Signs and symptoms of COVID-19 may appear 2-14 days after exposure, commonly referred to as the incubation period. Common signs and symptoms can include:

Fever, cough or tiredness – If your loved one is suddenly not making sense or acting confused when you are talking with them, this could be an indication of having a fever and an infection. Listen for coughing during your conversation and don’t be afraid to ask if they are napping more often or sleeping longer than usual or if they are weaker than usual.

Other symptoms can/may include:

Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing Muscle Aches
Chills Sore Throat
Loss of taste or smell Headache
Chest pain

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO BE KNOWLEDGEABLE OF MEDICAL HISTORY

If your loved one has existing medical conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, severe obesity, chronic kidney or liver disease, or compromised immune systems they may be at greater risk for contracting COVID-19.

CALL YOUR LOVED ONE’S PCP OR ARRANGE FOR THEM TO BE TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL IMMEDIATELY IF MORE THAN ONE OF THESE SYMPTOMS APPEAR.

As your loved one’s health detective – Vigilantly Monitor their Physical Appearance

Call often. Listen for symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, inability to complete sentences without having to take a breath. Are they suddenly confused or confused more than usual?

Use your technology. Face time with your loved one. Look at them. Are they having a hard time breathing? Watch and count how many times their chest raises per minute. Normal breathes per minute in the elderly is 10-30. With COVID-19 the rate will be lower. Look for the appearance of lost sudden weight loss. The virus can decrease their appetite as it affects their sense of smell, making food less appetizing. Look at your loved one’s lips. Are they discolored or have a light blue tint? This is a sign of oxygen deprivation and could potentially be very serious.

If you see any of these signs call your loved one’s PCP immediately and take/arrange for them to be taken to the hospital immediately.

JOIN ME FOR MY NEW FREE WEBINAR

Create 5 Telehealth Products for COVID 19

WHEN. THURSDAY AUGUST 6

TIME- 2 PM Pacific Standard Time

Care Management businesses are struggling with pandemic close-downs.

Support your business bottom line, clients, and their families.

Create 5 COVID-19 products.

Products from sheltering in place through the hospital, recovery at home, discharge from an SNF, or hospital for local and long-distance elders. Increase your bottom

line as COVID spreads throughout the US and more shutdowns loom

Learn Step by Step How to Consult with Aging Families and Seniors to Choose the best Hipaa Compliant Telehealth Products to Remotely Consult with Client

Help a Local Family Assist a Loved One Safely Shelter in Place

Help a Long-Distance Family Guide a Local Loved One Shelter in Place

Help an Aging Family Help a Loved on Hospitalized for Covid-19

Help an Aging Family Care for a Loved one Recover when Discharged from a

Nursing Home

Help an Aging Family Care for a loved one Recover when Discharged from a

Hospital

WHEN. THURSDAY AUGUST 6

TIME- 2 PM Pacific Standard Time

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Dear Governor Newsome – Don’t Sentence Frail Elders To Ca. Nursing Homes Wrenching Them from Free Loving Family Caregivers!

June 18, 2020

Dear Governor Newsome :

I am on the board of the Health Project Center in Santa Cruz, County that operates the MULTI-PURPOSE SENIOR SERVICES PROGRAM (MSSP program ). and CAREGIVER RESOURCES PROGRAM (CRC) in both Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties.

KEEP THESE NURSING HOMES CERTIFIED SENIORS IN THE CHEAPER COMMUNITY

I am writing to support these programs and implore the governor not to cut their funding. These senior programs were created to keep people out of expensive nursing homes in the 1970s and keep them in the cheaper and nurturing community. By cutting MSSP and CRC the state will only accrue more debt by spending more money to fund now COVID -19 disease-ridden nursing homes. These nursing home certified beneficiaries who are the frailest and poorest of our elderly population. They are kept in the community by MSSP where they receive food services, socialization, and therapy. Their family caregivers receive respite.

Giving these caregivers respite can be the difference between caregiver burnout due to unpaid relentless 24-hour care of a loved one. Burnout ends in placement in nursing homes. But with COVID -19 still rampaging many cannot even get in.

CAREGIVER RESOURCE CENTER KEEPS FRAIL SENIORS IN FREE FAMILY CARE VS NURSING HOME PLACEMENT $80,000 a year

Respite to caregivers to stop inappropriate placement in nursing homes is one of the main functions of the Caregiver Resources Centers in California, which needs its funding kept intact by the governor. The Center provides support to families caring for loved ones with cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer’s Disease, making referrals to caregiver counseling, support groups, local caregiver service, and giving small respite grants. Without the caregiver falling apart, which the Caregiver Resource Center stops, once again, the older nursing home certified client will just end up being forced to trying to get into a nursing home at $80,000 a year, when the family caregiver was FREE.

IF these programs are demolished by the governor and MSSP and CRC are axed out in a blood-spattered cut and these frail seniors will be dumped into California nursing homes where the state will spend needless money it does not have.

STATE WILL PAY $80,000 A YEAR PER PERSON FOR NURSING HOME PLACEMENT VS. $5000 FOR MSSP

These programs save the state money. Each of the MSSP clients is disabled enough to be eligible for nursing homes and poor enough to be eligible for MediCal. So instead of the

state paying $80,000 or $90,000 per person per year in a nursing home, the State pays only on average a little over $5,000 for the person to be in MSSP and nothing for the family caregiver. .This makes the cuts both fiscally wrong and mystifying.

MSSP CUTS MAKE RECIPIENTS GO TO NURSING HOMES WITH 0 TESTING, JUNK PPE THAT LOOKS LIKE GARBAGE BAGS WITH HOLES

Seniors have borne the greatest share of death already from COVID-19, as over 50% of the dead in the US are now elders from coronavirus who lived in a nursing home rife with the virus. These MSSP participants, without the support of MSSP, will have to turn to nursing homes. According to the House Select Committee on Nursing Homes a few days ago, these facilities do not have enough testing and personal protective equipment to stop the virus from spreading. They do not even have PPE and at CMS direction, FEMA has been sending out junk for PPE that looks like garbage bags with holes. This is what you would be sentencing these frail elders to with the scrawl of the governor’s seal.

CRC CUTS SEND Frail ELDERS FROM FREE FAMILY CARE TO $80,000 YR NURSING HOMES

You are sending these seniors from the loving care of their family to nursing homes with few beds, COVID-19 raging from one bed to the next bed, beds not 6 feet apart, and no

testing or PPE. All this while the state pays $80,000 or $90,000 per person per year in a nursing home when the State pays only on average a little over $5,000 for the person to be in MSSP.

CUTS TRAVESTY IN JUDGEMENT AND MORAL FISCAL BANKRUPT CHOICE

I am a graduate of Berkeley with a master’s in SW in aging planning and community development and this is just planning for more state debt and more seniors dying in expensive, CMS FEMA and Federally caused, death traps called nursing homes.

Sincerely

Cathy Cress MSW

Cathy Cress
cressgcm@got.net
CressGCM Consult
https://cathycress.com/

Santa Cruz, Ca 95062

California Cuts Pushing Frail Elders into the Cesspools of COViD-19

May 22, 2020

Here in California, the frailest, poorest and oldest in the state are being potentially knifed in the back by slashing budget cuts to the very services that keep them out of nursing homes.

The Multipurpose Senior Services Program , one of the first geriatric care management programs in the nation, designed to keep fail elders out of nursing homes, is set to axed from the California State budget.

The Governor has also proposed elimination of $2.9 million of state funding and $3.9 million in federal matching funds for the 11 statewide Caregiver Resource Centers,

providing critical respite care and counseling to caregivers of adults with chronic and disabling health conditions.

Both programs were designed 4 decades ago to keep elders at home and out of more expensive nursing homes and staunch family caregiver burnout. They offer huge safety nets, designed to keep frail seniors in the community.

MSSP is of a daycare program providing rich social and health services to frail elders and their families. The Care Resources Program caregiver respite and support to overwhelmed family caregivers.

These programs save the state a bundle of money. Each of the MSSP clients is disabled enough to be eligible for nursing homes and poor enough to be eligible for MediCal. So instead of the state paying $80,000 or $90,000 per person per year in a nursing home, the State pays only on average a little over $5,000 for the person to be in MSSP.This makes the cuts both fiscally stupid and mystifying.

What California government is doing is ripping giant holes in this web plummeting 45,000 seniors into the cesspool of COVID-19 skilled nursing facilities, where almost half of California COVID-19 deaths occured.

Without the services and supports available through MSSP, and the Caregiver Resource Center, many older Californians will have no other choice but to be admitted to nursing homes, where nearly half of all deaths related to COVID-19 have occurred.

But the doors may be barred. Given the high risk of COVID-19 in nursing homes, owners are reluctant to take new patients. So, the elimination of the Caregiver Resources Center and MSSP is really a death sentence to frail elders. It leaves no fire extinguisher for caregiver burnout of the family caregivers who care for elders with the toughest disease: brain impairment- Alzheimer’s, stroke, dementia, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s other conditions that may cause memory loss or confusion.

This may cause a cascade effect- placement of these horribly demented elders, into the plague-infested nursing home or also to death’s door

Governor Newsome has been a national hero as the first governor to issue a stay at home order to close counties down in California. He slowed the spread of coronavirus and kept California in a safe zone compared to most other states. But this was at the cost of taxpayer dollars as 4.7 Californians were put out of work.

He finds himself in a double bind now with a chasm of a budget hole, that he is trying up to fill with cuts like the ones proposed to the senior program. But the cuts will lead seniors to nursing homes costing $80,000 a year instead of the $5000 for MSSP into those caldrons of coronavirus

California is always the canary in the coal mine- the innovator that most states follow. So, these cuts can be expected across the nationwide. Who is the real villain in these cuts, the Trump Presidency. 875 billion was approved in the House of representatives in the HEROES Act. Cutting both programs saves $119 million. But these cuts would be eliminated if Congress OKs this aid for state and local governments — a prospect many state lawmakers believe is unlikely as President Trump is threatening to veto the money to the states . This has spurred a cacophony of outrage from local legislators and senior advocates. angered state lawmakers from both

major political parties who say it’s irresponsible in light of the coronavirus pandemic that has spread through nursing homes across the state. It’s one of many conflicts emerging this week as lawmakers hold public hearings examining Newsom’s proposal before they must vote on a spending plan by June 15.

Want to help save these programs

PUBLIC COMMENTS – WRITTEN: Submit written public comments by email to: sbud.committee@sen.ca.gov

California Cuts Pushing Frail Elders into the Cesspools of COViD-19

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