black concierge care manager Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

Make Reminiscence a Valentines Gift for Aging Clients- 5 Ways

February 9, 2023

Make reminiscence Valentine’s gift for clients. A great Valentine’s for your client is you the care manager or a caregiver, using reminiscence to gather a client’s memories.

Reminiscence isn’t new. Before the printing press, storytellers and bards were how history was recorded-

You can watch The History Channel to get a history of the world. But History also exists in a family, and you can make your elder family members oral storytellers on Valentine’s Day.

Storytelling only works if the teller remembers the lines. Family history has to be captured when the older person still remembers. So holiday events are a perfect time to tap into that font before it flickers.

Here are some tips to use if you want to capture these family tales during Valentine’s visits with older clients—a perfect time to do this.

1. First, arrive with a real Valentine’s card Just a card that can evoke old memories

2. Reminiscence is Valentine’s gift when you use empathetic listening Make all the messages you give the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting- say, “I want to listen to you.” This in itself is a gift to an older person as few people really listen to them as they age.

3. Reminiscence is Valentine’s gift when you ask questions that prompt the story but don’t make judgments. If there are going to record the family tale, on your I phone, record it in a way that doesn’t distract or stop the older person from talking.

4. Reminiscence is the perfect Valentine’s gift when viewing old family photos as memory prompts.

5. Start somewhere. If the elder isn’t going to tell stories on his or her own, start the story and see if they will follow along.” Did you go to Valentine’s parties as when you were a kid or celebrate the day in school by exchanging valentines?” Did you have a special valentine as a teenager or young adult?”

6. If the client has dementia you can still do this with reminiscence prompts like a valentine, chocolate, some flowers, old photos, or a simple valentine decoration you bring.

7. Or contact the family, if they will visit or call, and teach them how to do reminiscence and do this each holiday they may spend with the older loved one.

8. Use technology tools to help you with this legacy building for your older client like Life Bio- or

Quick Voice Recorder

to catch the memory on your phone.

Story Worth

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

Free Webinar

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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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)

SIGN-UP

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

Sign Up for My Webinar on Death Doulas and End of Life

January 11, 2023

Add Death Doula &Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

Deliver a Good End of Life-

Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

Serve Your Client until Death Do You Part

This webinar is free

Join me on January 24 and 2 PM and learn why End of Life Services Are a perfect new service for care managers

Find Out More

Sign up for my free webinar on Death Doulas

Death Doula – What is that?-In this 1 ½ -hour webinar you will learn “What is Death Doula and how Care managers can work with them.

Sign up for my webinar on Death Doulas and End of Life. In A Washington Post, this week a Post article said that Death Doulas have become a nationwide death-positive, national movement mirroring the traditional ritual in Mexico that many Americans also celebrate, the Day of the Dead. That ritual holiday celebrates death as a positive part of life by remembering those who have died, honoring them with flowers ( marigolds), and “commemorating death as another element of life.

We live in a culture that is afraid of death- where death, like birth, was hidden in institutions, like nursing homes and hospitals for decades so that families never had to experience it. This hiding away from the entrance and exit of life is one reason why we fear death. Death-like birth used to occur at home, where families could see and feel the dying person, hold them, and smell them, so those fears were not there. Now like a birth, that can happen at home death can too at home with the help of a geriatric care manager and a Death Doula who like a midwife of birth – is a midwife of death. This a reason you should sign up for my webinar on Deliver of Good End of Life.

Sign up for my free webinar in Death Doulas and End of Life and learn from an interview with Patti Urban ALCA care manager and Death Doula

What is a death doula?

what exactly does a death doula do?

Do Death Doula work with Hospice, Care Managers, or just families

Is there a Charge

How can I contact a Death Doula

How can a care manager be trained as a Death Doula?

Patti, a Certified Dementia Practitioner, Senior Advisor, and End of Life Doula, is the owner of Aging Care Planning Solutions, a geriatric care management and end-of-life planning practice. She is the former Executive Director of Shoreline of Clinton, a memory care assisted living community, and the former owner of Comfort Keepers, a home care company serving seniors, both located in Connecticut. She is the founder of the Shoreline Area Senior Network, a local networking and educational group for professionals serving the senior community along the Connecticut Shoreline. Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Council of the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut and is a former Board Member of the Shoreline Eldercare Alliance, Association of Women Business Leaders, Orchard House Adults Day Center, Shoreline Chamber of Commerce, and National Speakers Association Connecticut Chapter.

She resides in Connecticut and is the mother of three daughters and one son, all adopted from China. She can be reached at 845-641-8123, pattiurban@agingcarePS.com, and www.agingcarePS.com.

We will Also Cover Serve Your Client until Death Do You Part

Transition the patient/family through the five stages of death
Help clients be active participants in their care
Give the family/caregiver tools to manage care
Provide family center care to family caregivers and family
Choose the right support services through all stages of death
Introduce Hospice and Palliative care and work with their team
Use ALCA End-of-Life Benefits During COVID
Use COVID -19 Family Coaching for GCM

Sign Up

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

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.

Contact

Connect with Cathy

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

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

We will Also Cover Serve Your Client until Death Do You Part

End of Life has 5 Phases

Geriatric Care Managers’ Tasks Before the diagnosis

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

Sign -Up

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

Share Your Thanksgiving Story

Elders sharing stories means passing on history.

Capture Your Families Past Before It Is Gone

Story Telling at Thanksgiving with Story Worth

Contact

Connect with Cathy

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