Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

  • Home
  • Products
    • Speakers Bureau Package
    • GCM Operations Manual New 5th Edition
    • VIP Care Management White Paper
    • Books
    • Geriatric Care Management – 4th Edition
    • Mom Loves You Best
    • Care Managers
  • Online Classes
    • GCM Operations Manual Online Course
    • GCM Business Online Course
    • CEUs for Individual Modules
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Past Webinars
  • Recommendations
  • About
  • Blog
    • Aging
    • Geriatric Care Manager
    • Siblings
    • Webinar
  • Contact

10 Do’s &Don’ts Doing the Dysfunctional Family Calls Post Holidays

September 5, 2023

 

Most Calls for Care Managers Post Holidays

More than half of the aging families who call you inquiring about services will be dysfunctional families post-holidays. The great majority of calls will come from adult children. If you want to make the sale during the inquiry you have to know how to handle these dysfunctional family members on the phone and give them enough trust in you to sign your contract and give you a deposit for your services.

FIND OUT MORE 

How Do You Get Them To Trust You Enough to Sign Contract with Dysfunctional family Post holidays?

  1. Do Be Objective
  2. Do Use Active Listening
  3. Do Give them Hope you can solve their family problem
  4. Do a two-part inquiry and have the problem defined in the first part done by a skilled administrative Assistant
  5. Do study the problem before you do the second call and have exactly how you would solve the problem ready in a planned elevator speech
  6. Do a complimentary 30-minute consultation
  7. Do not give away the store but outline how you are an expert at solving the problems (moving, keeping at home, Alzheimer’s wandering and a bare outline of your solution
  8. Do not criticize dysfunctional family post-holidays
  9. Do not blame,
  10. Do not take sides if several family members points of view and express them

 

Sign Up for My Free January Webinar  

11 Vital Clinical Tools For Desperate Families Post-Holidays

             Thursday, Jan 6, 2022, 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

 

 

  Give frantic adult children hope using vital clinical tools when they desperately call after the holiday Join me Post-holiday and learn how to come to clinically rescue concierge dysfunctional families who found coal in their stocking.      

Learn how to!

  • Understand the Dysfunctional Aging Family System you must enter to get care for elders
  • Master 11 Vital Clinical Tools you to solve client problems
  • Take Six Clinical Steps Professional Must Take to Work with these Dysfunctional family post-holidays 
  • Get care for aging family members when the dysfunctional family members resist

 SIGN UP NOW

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: adult child calls post holidays, Adult Child Caregiver Pain, Adult Child Pain, adult child pain-point, adult child physical abuse, Adult children, Adulyt Child Call Post holidays, Aging, aging family crisis, Aging family pain, aging life business, Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Alarm Bells For Long Distance Family, ALCA Dysfunctional Family Help, Black, Black Aging Family, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black entrepreneurs, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black geriatric care managers, Black RN, Black Travel Nurses, Blog, Care Management Inquiry Call, Caregiver Stress, Caregivers collapsing, Cash Clow, Concierge aging clients, Concierge Senior, Contract signed, Dysfunctional Aging Familu, Dysfunctional aging family, Dysfunctional Family & Holidays, Dysfunctional Family Inquiry, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, inquiry, inquiry call, Intake COVID-19, Make the Sale, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Sign Up Dysfunctional Aging Family, Sign Up GCM Client, Sysfuntional Family post holidays Tagged With: aging dysfunctional family, aging life care manager, aging life inquiry, aging life or GCM inquiry, Black, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black caregivers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black geriatric care managers, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, Black RN's, Black start-up geriatric care management, care manager, case manager, Clinical Tool dysfunctional family, Clinical Tools Dysfunctional Holiday, dysfunctional aging family, Dysfunctional Concierge Family, Dysfunctional family post holidays, dysfunctional family roles, Dysfunctional VIP Family, geriatric care manager, help with dysfunctional family, Holiday Inquiry call, nurse care manager, Tools with Dysfunctional families, Working With Dysfunctional family

4 Dysfunctional Family Markers Clinicians Face

August 2, 2023

 

The normal family is the hand grenade compared to the nuclear bomb of the dysfunctional family

When both are faced with a filial crisis of aging parents being dependent and the adult child needs to take over they cower or explode.

How Do You Know a Dysfunctional Family

1. They lack the ability to resolve conflicts

The dysfunctional family has frequent psycho-social blockages that prevent the family from growing emotionally. They fail miserably at moving through all family stages and orchestrating family rituals. The adult children both love and hate their parents

2. They Cannot make Life transitions

In each dysfunctional family most life transitions in the family, like birth, adolescence, and marriage have been very difficult to make, marked by a lack of support from the parents. Every holiday, family reunion, funeral any family gathering might be drunkenly ruined. The parental figures are usually not in charge, nurturing, or able to establish establishes clear rules. They have never created an Excel spreadsheet on tasks to do to orchestrate a holiday. Like a disease spreading down generations, they never knew how happily celebrate anything together, as their parents wrecked ritual occasions as well.

3. There are murky roles in the  family

 

The chief role of the parent is characterized by a lack of leadership in the family and the ability to nurture the children. Mom rarely became the high priestess at the summer family reunion or the memorial day picnic when everyone gathers at her house or any family ritual gathering. The family members generally do not believe the parent is there for them and can be depended upon. The concierge’s dysfunctional family is colored by bloody strained relationships and unresolved conflicts and ruined ritual memories.

 

4. They inspire great literature

The family is the inspiration for great literature. O’Neil’s wrenching play A Long Day’s Journey into Night” portray the most miserable of dysfunctional families. Alcohol, drugs, and secrets that have been kept by all for generations splatter the pages of this great play mirroring all the ruined family ritual celebrations -children of dysfunctional families recall with horror.  Award-winning plays and films, like Tracey Letts August in Osage County about a ruined ritual funeral from hell when Julia Roberts tries to beat up drug-addled, drunk presiding mother Meryl Streep, or Succession Where a Narcissistic Dad pits his adult children against each other to succeed  him when he dies

ed6855aa32d877d7fc1ef9ee757e0f17-98.jpgRituals Bring Out the Worst in Family

In a dysfunctional family when an aging  Mom does not make the very small things she was able to pull off like the Latkes or the Christmas cookies, the Memorial Day family Reunion or big things like the daughter’s wedding, someone has got to take over or be and family organize or r the successor to Mom, and resentments skyrocket – tempers flare – and the torch just might never get passed.

The family is again thrown into crisis.

That means someone in the tribe has to take over -yet the dysfunctional family has no model or spreadsheet for any transition in power. They cannot pull off any ritual celebrations or even family Taco Tuesdays. Most critically when the rudderless head of the family needs care, these adult children cannot care for a parent who did not care for them. Succession is about the transition of power in the family.

Sign Up for My September Webinar on Working With the Dysfunctional Family

 

 11 Clinical Steps to Work with Dysfunctional Families-

Tuesday, 2:00-3:30 PM

September 16, 2023

 Give frantic adult children hope when they desperately call after the holiday 

Join me 

and learn how to come to the rescue of concierge dysfunctional families who found coal in their stockings.

Learn how to:

Understand the Dysfunctional Aging Family System you must enter to get care for elders

 

Understand 11 Warning Signs You Are Working with Dysfunctional Family 

 

Master the 5 Clinical Tools – you need – to solve these problems with your clients

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learn Six Steps Professionals Must Take to Work with These Difficult Families

Sign -Up Now 

 

 

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

Learn more about how to work with the dysfunctional family in Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 5th edition 

 

Filed Under: adult child pain-point, adult child physical abuse, Adult children, Aduly Child Stress, Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Black, Black Aging Family, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black entrepreneurs, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black geriatric care managers, Black RN, Black Travel Nurses, Blog, case manager, Cut Off, Dysfunctional Aging Familu, Dysfunctional aging family, Dysfunctional Family & Holidays, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric social worker, Holiday Meltdown in Aging Family, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, Holiday season, Holiday Sibling Rivalry, Holidays, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging dysfunctional family, aging life care manager, boundaries dysfunctional families, care manager, case manager, Clinical Tools Dysfunctional Holiday, Dysfunctional Concierge Family, dysfuntional family, geriatric care manager, Holiday Meltdown in Aging Family, Long Days Journey Into Night, nurse care manager

Calls From Long Distance Care Providers -Ready ?

July 27, 2023

 

Inquiry Calls From Long Distance Care Providers

Inquiry calls from long-distance care providers

Inquiry Calls From Long Distance Care Providers– Are You Ready this summer holiday season? Long Distance caregivers under constant stress. They have been flying or driving to 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). They even risk global warming weather events to celebrate summer with their family. So be ready this summer holiday visit with the marketing and clinical tools you need to convert them into clients

Long-distance care providers

Long Distance Family Make Inquiry Call Over Parent’s Confusion

Perhaps when the family gathers at a family reunion at a parent’s home and everyone sees the struggles of an older person like memory loss or ambulation problems- the family may agree to call a care manager. Or the very stress of the parent’s confused behavior on top of the thought of caring for an aging parent long distance may push the designated long-distance care providers over the edge to seek help and call you.

More than 7 million American Families care for older family members from afar. This summer 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 white fear.

LONG DISTANCE CARE PROVIDERS FACE SHOCK NOT AWE

Unpaid bills litter Dad’s desk. He refuses to go to church when he was a devoted churchgoer all his life. When the daughter put the potato salad leftovers in the refrigerator she finds moldy food on every shelf. When asked about the bills and the moldy food, Dad gets really angry when he was an easygoing guy all his life.

It is boiling hot and their air conditioner was not working what will happen when there is no one to check on them? He is alarmed as they did not call him, – With global warming, he feels he needs to call a care manager

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 desperate adult children hope when they frantically call this summer

Long- Distance care providers

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. Understand how to make the sale in this fraught time for long-distance care providers  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 PLUS understand their pain as well and will relive it with your assistance

 

     

 

  • Long Distance care providers

     

  • Position Your Agency ahead of Care Managers who do not have great  marketing campaigns and lack the clinical skills how to work with Adult Children and families during the chaotic aging family holiday visit when adult kids find their aging parents need care
  • Featuring

 Cathy Cress MSW author of the Handbook of Geriatric Care Management        

Subscribe to my Geriatric Care Management Youtube Channel Geriatric Care 1

 

Sign-up for my Free White paper to learn to use the copy & keywords to sign-up for  home care or care management Concierge-VIP Clients who can afford  care management & home care as Medicare does not cover long-term care

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, caregiver, elder care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric care manager, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Holiday Meltdown in Aging Family, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, Long Distance Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging life inquiry, aging life or geriatric care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, geriatric care manager, long distance care provider, nurse care manager

Should You Use Features vs Benefits of Care Management?

July 5, 2023

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN WHAT GERIATRIC CARE MANAGEMENT DOES?

What are the features vs benefits of care management? Actually, what are features vs benefits? Think about your last few marketing campaigns. Look over some of the emails you sent to prospective customers or the social media updates you made promoting your brand-new product or service. Read over some of the blog posts you published.

How much of your promotional content is focused on how your product benefits the caller? How much of your sales pitch described what your products do???

TWO MARKETING APPROACHES

FEATURES

When it comes to marketing, there are two primary approaches you can take with features vs benefits. The first focuses on what your product or service is or does – including all the shiny bells and whistles you’ve worked so hard to develop. The other focuses on how your product or service will improve users’ lives. Features tell the customer “what” and benefits tell the customer “why”

Care Manager selling benefits vs features to elder

Which of these approaches do you think is more effective for the adult children or seniors you market to?

Take a look at the list of features below, taken directly from current advertising and marketing materials.

American Lifetime Self-setting clock for seniors with dementia It is the only one of its kind to include 5 multi-function alarms, with the option to set reminders to take medications throughout the day.

 

Jitterbug Senior Smart Phone 2  with Large 5.5″ screen, easy to see, and  5 Urgent Response button

 umbrella that opens and closes with a button 

Each is a feature-a factual statement about the product or service being promoted. But features aren’t what entice customers, ( adult children you market to), to buy your product. That’s where benefits come in. A benefit answers the question “What’s in it for me? or what will help my parent or me the caregiver”. This means the feature provides the customer/client with something of value to them. As a result, this is where most businesses go wrong.

Benefits

The feature of a self-setting clock is that it automatically resets itself & reminds the person with dementia to take their meds. The clock’s self-setting feature stops the dementia client from resetting it then forgetting needed medications & times. The benefit is the dementia patient will take meds on time, will be healthier and the caregiver less stressed.

The feature is the Jitterbug phone is that seniors with diminishing eyesight and memory have a hard time reading text on phones or recalling phone numbers. As a result, medical emergencies, are very dangerous. The important feature of jitterbugs is a large easy-to-see response button that gets them one person who will help the senior even if they forgot the number. This is just like the operator they used to get on the phone. The benefit of Jitterbug  is it makes the older person much safer and the family members confident they can reach for help if they need it

The benefit of an umbrella that opens with one button is -you stay dryer in the rain as seniors often have arthritis that can make it difficult to push open an umbrella quickly, to keep dry in the rain.

The best way to understand the true benefit of your product or service or to answer the “What’s in it for me?”  A customer’s perception of each feature’s results is what attracts him or her to a particular product or service.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF GERIATRIC CARE MANAGEMENT?

What are the features vs benefits of care management? What if you are selling geriatric care

management to a long-distance son and explain the feature of care management is an assessment? As a result, he has no idea what that is, not being a social worker or an RN. He is just a desperate long-distance son. He wants to know, what’s in it for him. What’s his benefit?

You could say you have a  product called  “Safe at Home” that will make sure his Mom is getting all the support and care she needs and  ( 1st benefit) he will not get midnight panic calls or have to scramble to make emergency flights to solve a crisis, like a hospitalization. Plus you will make sure any problems are solved (2nd  benefit) before they turn into a crisis that he has to solve from far away, always keeping him informed  (3rd benefit)so he can go back to just being a son. This feature vs benefit sales pitch take a huge weight off his shoulder- answering his ” what’s in it for me”

LEARN MORE ABOUT MARKETING GCM FEATURES AND BENEFITS

SIGN UP FOR MY FREE WEBINAR  

SELL BENEFITS NOT FEATURES & GROW YOUR$ BOTTOM LINE

When: July 20 2023
2 PM-3:30 PM PST
Learn
 

A feature is a fact    A benefit tells your customer the advantages of those facts   

Take Advantage of  One Time Low Offers on Products

You will learn

The difference between selling features vs benefits

You will learn how to sell the benefits of your services to each 3rd party you  serve

How Benefits make your sale to wealth managers, elder law attorneys, and concierge physicians to get referrals for new clients

The Benefits that make your sale to upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, Hospice

Step by Step on how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the sale

Even if you cannot attend you will get the recording of the webinar the next day if you sign up 

SIGN UP 

features vs benefits of care management?

Powered by WordPress Support

Filed Under: Adult Child Caregiver Pain, Adult Child Pain, Adult children, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Benefits of Geriatric Care Management, Benefits of Geriatric Care Management Software, Benefits vs Features, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black entrepreneurs, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black geriatric care managers, Black RN, Blog, elder care manager, entrepreneur, entrepreneur business, entrepreneur care manager, entrepreneur RN, Features vs Benefits, FREE WEBINAR, GCM Benefits, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, home care, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, Marketing features and benefits, Marketing Home Care, marketing pitch, marketing to long distance adult children, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, patient advocate, Sales in geriatric care management, Webinar Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, Benefits Of Geriatric Care Managers, Benefits vs Features, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black caregivers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, Black RN's, Black start-up geriatric care management, Black travel nurses, care manager, case manager, features of ALCA, geraitric care manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Home care marketing, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Sell Benefits to Close the GCM or ALCA Sale to Assisted Living

June 20, 2023


Care managers must sell benefits of Geriatric Care Management to assisted living.

Sell Benefits of care managers because GCMs must sell benefits. Care managers are perfect professionals to help assisted living residents if they have just moved in, are unhappy with the move, not participating in activities, isolating depressed, or are lonely – just not thriving in the resident community.

Marketing care management to ALF’s takes some particular marketing tactics 

 

 

GCMs must sell benefits. Although it might seem counterintuitive, consumers rarely want to buy things for the sake of buying them – they want what they purchase to solve their problems.

To borrow from the example of an umbrella, features of this umbrella might be its unbreakable spokes or wind-resistant construction – but the benefit is staying dry even in strong winds that might break lesser umbrellas. The benefit of staying dry in strong winds that break other umbrellas – this makes the sale.

Clients who purchase home care or care management want to buy benefits – They want to know” what’s in it for me” when they buy your service  .

GCM Sell Benefits To Assisted Living 

Let’s take a third party. Care Managers often market to Assisted Living. ALF Directors want to hear how your ALCA or GCM  agency is going to help the Assisted Living site. Of course, you can describe your agency’s features, price, training of staff, gold standard service. However, benefits are what make the sale and keep the Assisted Living dry not flooded by the rain.

But here are some benefits you can offer to Assisted Living when you are seeking referrals and you have a service  for residents that involves Quality Of Life   

YOUR GCM ALCA AGENCIES MUST SELL BENEFITS

Sell Benefits-: Assisted Living does not want residents to move out. Most facilities are strictly non-medical and do not have a one-to-one companion and geriatric care management services. Your geriatric care management agency can solve that problem by selling benefits of 1-1 Companion

 

The assisted living and retirement community population sometimes have clients with needs that cannot be met with their nonmedical, non-one-on-one support services, (usually just an activities director)

  • You will help the facility with residents who are not adjusting to the facility or considering moving by engaging them in activities that will enhance the quality of their life, SO WHAT so they remain in the facility
  • You will help residents not engaging in activities to participate in the ALF’s activities program or outside activities and socialization program through a quality of life assessment & companion, SO WHAT so they do not want to move out of the facility
  • You will engage with new residents who are just adjusting both to the facility and their move, to engage in socialization and activity programs. You can help them make friends & engage in outside activities through a quality of life assessment and companion, SO WHAT so they do not consider moving out
  • You will make monthly monitoring visits to make sure the Companion is meeting all the client’s needs, keep in touch with the family and facility with frequent e-mails, texts or telephone updates plus send a monthly report SO WHAT so everyone is on the same page through your great communication skills.

So, selling the benefits to the third party, who will refer your agency to families of residents who are struggling, is a much more potent selling point that features your agency. 

Sign Up For My Free Webinar   

When: July 20 2023
2 PM-3:30 PM PST
Learn
 

A feature is a fact    A benefit tells your customer the advantages of those facts   

 

Take Advantage of Low Offers on Products

You will learn

The difference between selling features vs benefits

You will learn how to sell the benefits of your services to each 3rd party you  serve

How Benefits make your sale to wealth managers, elder law attorneys, and concierge physicians to get referrals for new clients

The Benefits that make you sell to upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, Hospice

Step by Step on how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the sale

Even if you cannot attend you will get the recording of the webinar the next day if you sign up

SIGN UP 

 

 

Powered bySolar savings

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging Family, aging life business, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Aging therapist, ALCA Beneifits, ALCA business, Assisted Living, Assisted Living & Geriatric Care Managers, Assisted Living Crisis, Assisted Living sales, Benefit of Assisted Living, Benefits, Benefits & Assisted Living, Benefits of ALCA to Hospice, Benefits of Care Management, Benefits of Geriatric Care Management, Benefits vs Features, Black RN, Black Travel RN, Blog, Care Management Inquiry Call, care management start-up, Concierge Care Manager, Concierge Geriatric Care Manager, Dementia Activities, entitled family, Features vs Benefits, FREE MARKETING WEBINAR, FREE WEBINAR, GCM Benefits, GCM Marketing skills, GCM Start-Up, GCM Webinar, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, marketing geriatric care management, Marketing plan, Marketing to Assisted Living, marketing to concierge clients, marketing to upper 10%, Move Management, newsletters, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Quality of Life for elders, Sales ALCA, Sales in geriatric care management, Sales to Assisted Living Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, benefits of ALCA, Benefits of care management, Benefits vs Features, care manager, case manager, features of ALCA, GCM & Assisted Living, GCM Products and Services, Geriatric Care Sales Assisted Living, geriatric social worker, Marketing to Assisted Living, Monitoring Assisted Living Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Quality of Life in Assisted Living

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 32
  • Next Page »

Contact

Use the form on the
Contact page to email Cathy.

Email

Latest trending news

Connect with Cathy

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

  • Home
  • GCM Manual New 5th Edition
  • Books »
  • Services »
  • About
  • Recommendations
  • Blog »
  • Contact

Copyright © 2012–2023 CressGCMConsult & Cathy Cress - Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management | Developed by wpcustomify