Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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How Storytelling at Thanksgiving Can Give Elders A Happier Family Holiday

November 22, 2022

Want to increase aging parents’ and everyone’s enjoyment at Thanksgiving? Try storytelling at Thanksgiving using elders’ memories.

As an aging professional, you can bring joy to an older person  through reminiscence, storytelling, and oral history for elders

This Thanksgiving, if you really do travel to a family home or grandma’s house, travel safely  If not make the safest choice, stay home and  use Zoom and include your elderly

 

parent. You can do oral history for elders if they can use a computer or have a family member or friend who visits often and who lives nearby and is in their bubble serve and share Thanksgiving dinner at their home and use zoom with them to see other family members on the holiday.

Share Your Thanksgiving Story

If you are at a family member’s holiday dinner and use reminiscence for elders by asking everyone to tell their favorite story about a Thanksgiving dinner. Start with midlife members to get the idea and then ask

 

again parents to share their stories.

Oral history for elders will bring extra thanks to Thanksgiving by learning about an elder’s past and giving them the opportunity to share, which sometimes they do not do in the hubbub of family talking.

  The “telling ” also means someone documents. That magically gives the elder and a child social interaction and connectedness. Elders vividly recall their past by telling stories from vignettes in their life – especially life in their 20’s, which sparks the richest recall called the “20’s bump”, according to researchers.

Elders sharing stories means passing on history.

So try storytelling at  Thanksgiving and it becomes intergenerational. The older person is given a chance to give the larger picture of their life and family history to children and grandchildren or extended family, who may not have heard all the details of their grandparent’s or parent’s life before. My 10 grandchildren have grown up with their now 80-year-old grandfather. telling them exciting stories of when he was a California Highway patrolman. So a dual dose of a higher quality of life for both the older person and the aging family is increased through oral history and reminiscence.

Capture Your Families Past Before It Is Gone

 

 Many midlife adults now do ancestry and regret that they did not ask questions of older family members when they were alive. Capture that past now on this family holiday. An aging professional or a geriatric care manager can suggest family or friends record the Thanksgiving story as oral history using technology like an i Phone or i Pad.

Story Telling at Thanksgiving  with Story Worth

Another great idea to capture reminiscence for elders is giving them StoryWorth. 

 

My daughter sent this gift to her Dad and both he and I love it. Each week  StoryWorth sends a question to my husband that prompts him to write about his past. He writes his reminiscence out longhand and I easily use the dictation on my phone and email his story to Story Worth.

At the end of the year, my daughter will order a bound book of all the stories- a whole collection of memories, an oral history of an elder father that she might never think to ask and will be saved for her and her children to pass on family history. I will order a copy for all her three siblings. Equally important, my husband, really enjoyed writing about his past and the prompts have brought many vivid memories back to him.

Sweet grandmother holding a beautifully cooked turkey dinner.

 

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Passover Begins Friday-Care Managers Can Support Clients Spiritual Needs

April 11, 2022

Passover begins Friday and brings many Jews will celebrate with a seder

where their spiritual beliefs will be celebrated with food, family, and ritual.

As we age joining in spiritual rituals means more and more to us. Ritual

religious holidays like Passover fill all faiths, but especially elders faiths and both spiritual and emotional needs.

A Care Manager needs to learn how to offer elders support and inclusion during  holidays like Passover or any religious holiday.

Spiritual rituals mean more as we age

Care management is first and foremost a holistic interaction between

a caring professional and an older adult. Holistic care works

with the senior beyond just the necessary formal services. Care

managers should work with the seniors and their families to know their religious needs if any. Getting to know the person includes understanding the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual needs and how you can help them get included in the celebration.

 

Even though Passover begins Friday the average care manager does not see themselves as doing therapy with their clients or encouraging religion. But the work of Carl Jung or Viktor Frankl may be more than is useful. For most care managers , it is helpful to follow a few rules:

1. Listen to the client. Understand the client’s perception of the religious phenomenon as the person describes it and how you can help them celebrate Passover or any religious holiday if they wish.

2. Listen to his or her the perceptions of the client’s faith tradition and

spiritual beliefs and how much and how they want to be included in family celebrations or religious services so you can help them do this, through contacting the family, the spiritual place of worship, so they can attend and have transportation or  arrange some form of celebration if homebound

Passover begins Friday

3. Consult with the Rabbi from the Temple near them, who can help interpret any

beliefs or rituals or symbols that cannot be fully understood from the description of the client and if the temple has transportation for elders to services if the client wishes to attend.

Read Rev.James Ellor’s, Ph.D., LCSW, DCSW, Baylor University’s excellent chapter on Spirituality and the Geriatric Care Manager.

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Filed Under: Aging, Aging and Spirituality, Black Aging Family, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black entrepreneurs, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black RN, Black Travel Nurses, Black Travel RN, Elders & Spiritual Holidays, Emotional Quality of Life, FREE WEBINAR, geriatric care management emergency proceduress, geriatric social worker, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Passover, Quality of Life for elders, Spiritual Holday celebraton, Spiritual Quality of Life, Spirituality Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, black american social workers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black geriatric care managers, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, care manager, case manager, geriatric care manager, Gifts for Easter 0r Passover, Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Passover, spiritual assessment, spiritual quality of life, Spirituality & care management, spirituality and geriatric care management, spirituality in aging

Close the GCM or ALCA Sale to Assisted Living With Benefits not Features

February 11, 2022

Marketing Tactics – Use Benefits 

ALCA members need to sell the benefits of Geriatric Care Management to assisted living. 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 or general when they are not thriving in the resident community.

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

 

 

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 make the sale.

Clients who purchase home care or care management want to buy benefits – what your product or service can do for them.

GCM 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 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 BENEFITS

The problem: Assisted Living does not want residents to move out. Most facilities are strictly non-medical and do not have one to one companion and geriatric care management services. Your  geriatric care management agency can solve that problem through the benefits of ALCA or geriatric care management.

 

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 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 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 sending 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. 

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

 

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

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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

How Can Someone with Dementia Have a Better Quality of Life on a Holiday ?

April 2, 2021

 

Reminiscence and Story Telling

 

This Easter holiday is the perfect occasion to engage elders with dementia. The role of storytelling and reminiscence is very important for elders, as they look back on their life and holidays bring strong long-term memories. It gives them a chance to socialize as they tell their story. It also means someone usually listens or documents. That magically gives the elder social interaction and connectedness. So many Easter rituals can prompt stories for elders with some level of dementia. The ritual of dying easter eggs, finding easter baskets on Easter morning, dressing up for the local Easter Parade, eating ritual foods at Easter dinner or at Easter Brunch. Whether the older person is actually participating or watching, these rituals can prompt stories from their long-term memory.

 

Elders sharing stories means passing on history.

This gives the older person a chance to give the larger picture of their life and family history to children and grandchildren or extended family, who may have not heard all the details of their grandparents or parents’ life before- what they cooked, what they did on holidays like Easter. So the quality of the older person of both the older person and the aging family is increased through oral history and reminiscence

The aging professional can suggest family or friends just sitting down and prompting a story or oral history using  technology like your phone

Even elders with Alzheimer’s can find new joy with Reminiscence

When an elderly person develops Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia, the short-term memory is frequently affected but long-term memories can remain as intact and vivid as they have always been during the course of the patient’s life. As a result, a family can use a practice called reminiscence therapy to help combat the frustration, confusion, and depression that can often accompany dementia and even bring joy to the older person

What is reminiscence therapy?

 Reminiscence therapy is like a therapy session where the elderly person will spend time recalling memories of his or her life, perhaps telling stories about things that happened and events the person can recall.

Sometimes senior experts or family members can use photos, familiar objects, or other such things to help jog the memory of the patient. Some therapists and family members can a scrapbook of a person’s life, including photos, letters, and other such personal memorabilia. This becomes a visual biography of the patient’s life and helps the older person remember who he or she is.

How does this quality of life therapy help? Almost all elderly men and women can start feeling discouraged and frustrated with their memory issues. Reminiscence can give peace and acceptance of the current situation by helping the person remember that he or she has had a good and full life. It also prompts communication skills of elderly people who otherwise may not feel very compelled to open up and share anything with anyone else.

Dementia and Reminiscence of Easter

So this Easter holiday try reminiscence. People with dementia can receive a richer quality of life when people actually listen to them. They feel as their thoughts and feelings actually matter. For anyone who has an elderly loved one suffering from dementia, this benefit alone can make reminiscence therapy a form of joy for a very confused elder. So when you dye Easter eggs, create easter baskets, do an Easter egg hunt, serve an Easter brunch or dinner, get them involved, let them watch, allow them to help if possible, serve them ritual food or to taste it and ask when how they experienced these rituals, when they were young. If you have old albums of pictures from their childhood of them at Easter, look and the photos with them. Then listen.

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Filed Under: Adult children, Aging, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Dementia, Dementia & Holidays, Easter, Easter and Reminiscence, Easter Rituals, Emotional Quality of Life, Families, GCM Working With Aging Family, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, Good Death, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Quality of Life on Easter Holiday, Quality of Life with Dementia, Reminiscence Therapy, Spiritual Quality of Life Tagged With: aging family, aging parent, aging parent care, aging technology, ancrestory.com, assessing for quality of life, care plan, care plan interventions, family caregivers, Family Caregivers using technology, flip video, genealogy, geriatric care management, geriatric care manager, geritaric care manager, grandfather, grandmothers, grandparents, increasing quality of life, LCSW, oral history, oral history and quality of life, oral history and You Tube, parent care, Quality of Life, quality of life assessment, reminicence and elder, Reminiscence and 4th of Jul;y, Reminiscence and Dementia, Reminiscence on the Holidays, storytelling and elders, technology for caregivers, You Tube, You Tube and storytelling

5 Ways Care Managers Can Bring Quality of Life to LGTBQ Elders

June 26, 2020

It is PRIDE MONTH but Many LGTBQ elders have a miserable Quality of Life.A recent report found that LGBT elders tend to have more medical problems, higher poverty levels social isolation than straight elders. Loneliness and isolation among LGTBQ elders bring” elevated rates of depression and mood disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol use and abuse, and suicide ideation and attempts, as well as psychiatric co-morbidity.” 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.

Geriatric Care Managers and Aging Life Professionals can use quality of Life Activities to bring back joy to LGTBQ seniors. Here are five resources.

Use Reminiscence Therapy

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

Arrange dinner parties and Outings for Emotional QOL

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

H

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.

Create LGTBQ Quality of Life in Assisted Living

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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.

Read Journal Of Aging Life Issue on LGTBQ ELders

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 

Read Handbook of Geriatric Care Management QOL Resources

The Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th 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 including LGTBQ seniors they serve Joy in addition to care ‘

With COVID-19  Share Nina Herndon’s  VIRTUAL Activities Program with Your Clients

To respond to COVID-19  and the shelter in place orders for all seniors, who are the most vulnerable including LGTBQ seniors who may have already had HIV  has developed a  Sage Hummingbird Virtual program you can use remotely. 

Nina also has developed the first activity kit for the quality of life, Joyful Moments , that you can use to train care managers on inventive activities to use in your own GCM or homecare program.

Find out more to help not only seniors with COVID but the most discriminated seniors besides seniors of color –-LGTBQ during PRIDE MONTH . 

Filed Under: Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Assisted Living, Blog, care manager, case manager, coronavirus quality of life virtual program, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Helping LBGTQ Elders, innovative new senior centers, LGTB elders, LGTBQ ELDERS, LGTBQ Loneliness& Isolation, Loneliness, nurse advocate, Oral History, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, quality of life in senior centers, Quality of Life with Dementia, Reminiscence Therapy, Senior Isolation, Senior Loneliness, Transgender Elders, virtual Quality Of Life Program Tagged With: aging life and geriatric care manager, aging life care manager, care manager, case manager, geriatric social worker, Joyful Moments, LGTB Elders, LGTBQ Elder Quality of Life, LGTBQ elders and joy, LGTBQ Elders in Assisted Living, Nina Herndon, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

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