Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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Care Managers in End-of-Lift- What is their Role?

January 19, 2023

 

Care managers at end-of-life

Care managers at end-of-life don’t just meet dying patients and their bereft children in the emergency room.

Care Managers at end-of-life can bring in Death Doulas to help the family caregivers follow through with what hospice has taught them as caregivers of their loved ones. Or they themselves can be certified as Death Doulas  to help the families through the caregiver journey for a job they never were trained for whole they grieve at the same time

Care Managers play a big role in end-of-life issues. They are their navigators through all five stages of dying, many times long before palliative care or hospice is called. Often GCM’s can help the family and client to bring in hospice or palliative care.

 The final passage through life can be emotionally charged.  If the family is following a long labyrinth to the end, the blind alleys may be blocked by cultural, religious, and moral beliefs. Care managers can find an opening through this maze.  Money, family dynamics, and fear of dying can all explode a fraught crisis of care in dying. When important end-of-life decisions need to be made, the stress of the responsibility and the seriousness of the situation can break a wave of distress fear, and anxiety over the “whole family system” of the dying elder. The geriatric care manager specializes in this whole family syst

 Care Managers  in end-of-life often help facilitate throbbing discussions and facilitate family members coming together t

Care managers at end-of-life

Sign Up for our new Webinar Deliver a Good End of Life 9 Steps to Death &Dying

Care managers AT end-of-life

Hospice trains the family of the dying person to be the caregivers only once, but their primary focus is the dying person. Death doulas are an adjunct to the medically trained professionals in hospices. They reinforce hospice training. ( For example  fear family has of giving morphine in a needle  in spite of training )Death Doulas give emotional support to the patient and family of the dying person and sources respite, support groups, and help with caregiver burnout for the family, among other caregiver issues at death, They are an alternative to the medicalization of death in the US, described by Atul Gawande. Care Managers at end of life can work well with Death Doulas. We will feature an interview with Patty urban a Death Doulas and a geriatric care manager and member of ALCA

Join Us

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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We will feature an interview with Patty Urban a Death Doulas and a geriatric care manager and member of ALCA

FIND OUT MORE 

 

Death Doula

Learn

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 Urban, 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.

Description

Deliver a Good End of Life- Atul Gawande

9 Steps to Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

 

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 service for care managers

Care managers at end-of-life

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 and a Death Doula for non-medical support
Discover the role of Death Doula at end of life.

  • 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 care4. Provide family center care to caregivers and family5. Choose the right support services through all stages of death6. Introduce Hospice and Palliative care and work with their team
  • 7. Understand the Role of the Death Doula

Time

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

SIGN-UP 

 

 

Gwendolyn LAZO Harris MA, CT, Seniors at Home, San Francisco and Diane LeVan MA both highly expert care managers, created a seminal chapter on  End of Life Care Manager in my book Care Manager’s Working With the Aging Family  

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, case manager, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, elder care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric care manager, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, ife care manager, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging life and geraitric care manager, Care managers in end-of-life, death and dying, end of life care manager, geriatric care manager, Hospice Care, hospice for elderly parent

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

January 18, 2023

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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 Manager620-amy-goyer-juggles-work-and-caregiving-mobile-technology.imgcache.rev1382542973676.web.jpg

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)

 SIGN-UP 

 

 

 

 Join Us

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 

 

Good Life to The Very  End

 

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)

SIGN-UP 

 

 

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

Filed Under: 5 stages of death, 5 Stages of Dying, 5 stages of End of Life, Advanced Directives, Aging, Aging deaths, aging family crisis, aging life care manager, Benefits of ALCA to Hospice, Black Aging Family, black care manager, black concieirge nurse, black concierge care manager, black concierge RN, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black entrepreneurs, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black geriatric care managers, Black RN, black RN care manager, black social worker, black travel nurse, Black Travel Nurses, Black Travel RN, care manager, care manager operations manual, Death & Dying, Death and Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, Dementia & Holidays, End of Life, End of life documents, entrepreneur business, entrepreneur care manager, entrepreneur RN, Geriatric care manager & Hospice, Good Death, Hospice, Hospice Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Palliative Care, Private Duty Home Care Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, ALCA in End Of Life, Alive Inside, Being Mortal, care manager, case manager, Dying at Home, end of life care manager, GCM in Death and Dying, geriatric care manager, Good Life to the Very end, Hospice, Hospice at Home, Joy in End of Life, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, terminal phase of death, Terminal Stage of Death

How to Capture Family Stories from Seniors on the Holidays

December 22, 2022

Thanksgiving--2003png.png

Capture Family Tales From Aging Parents 

Have you captured family tales from older family members? Or have you lost an aging parent and wished you had asked them more questions about their past, your family history, and your childhood? Have you dabbled in ancestry and realized that you could have just listened closely to the stories your deceased parents told you and written them down?

Do not look back! Make this New Year the year you collect the stories from your family. Learn to use 10 reminiscence tools, technology, and techniques to hear family history at holiday dinners and events during Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or New Years.

10 Tips to Capture Family Tales from Aging Parents

1. Use empathetic listening. This means to make all the messages you are giving the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting-  all say, “I want to listen to you.”

2. Ask questions that prompt the story but don’t make judgments. If there are going to record the family tale, do it in a way that doesn’t distract or stop the older person from talking.

3. 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.”What was a New Years’ Resolution that you made and kept” ” Do you remember your favorite doll ” What was your first day of school like”

4. Music is just next to memory in the brain shown by Alive Inside So use Alexa, or Spotify, to play  40’s

and 50’s music or especially the -Simple ways to spark reminiscence when you visit older family members :
5. Look at old photos together. Photos trigger memory even with dementia. Choose ones from a period of time the person currently remembers, which could be the person as a young adult, teenager, or even a young child.
6. Play music from their teenage years. It is the background to the most emotional period of anyone’s life and is deeply lined into memory.
7. Enjoy food they like or food that is a family tradition or specialty, particularly ones that have an element

Family With Grandparents Enjoying Christmas Meal At Table

of memory attached to family celebrations. like Mom’s Briscut, Dad’s Sunday Supper lasagna, or “Aunt Helen’s Lemon Cake”.

8. Story Worth was started by Nick Baum, a tecky who was, in a way, a long-distance care provider for his parents in Sweden. He was curious about their past and invented the app based on his own need to gather his family history. My husband is a teller of past tales as a California Highway patrolman, then Hippiedom, then as top marketing director for Pacific Cookie Company, the best cookies here in the west.

Our daughter Kali gave him Story Worth as a holiday gift. He wrote down 40 stories or memories from his past. They were being published by Story Worth in a book, saving in print the precious reminiscence that would have been lost but now is found in a  book that was given to our adult children and then generations to come.

This is a brilliant way to capture reminiscence and I  recommend it to adult children who want to enshrine personal memories in print that otherwise would be lost when they reach back for them.

9. Life Bio-  provides an online template of biography and autobiography questions that have been carefully crafted

10. Quick Voice Recorder to catch the memory on your phone

Use reminiscence as a part of a whole new domain in aging called quality of life or attending to the older person’s need for joy through activities that stimulate the mind. Reminiscence does that- so find out more about how you can increase the quality of life of older people after the holidays and all year long by building a quality-of-life reminiscence program like Nina Herndon describes in her chapter on Quality of Life in Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 

Filed Under: Aging, Blog, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, Legacy Tools, Reminiscence Therapy, Senior Legacy, Story Worth Tagged With: aging life care manager, aging life care on holidays, ancestry, Black, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black caregivers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black Heirlooms, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, care manager, case manager, geriatric care manager, holidays with aging parentrs, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, reminicence & Hanukkah, reminicence & Holidays, reminicence and elder, Reminicence and geriatric care manager, Reminicence Therapy, reminicsence technology, Reminiscence tool, rreminicence and Kwanzaa

Are You Giving Holiday Thanks to Your Employees?

December 12, 2022

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 Are You Giving Holiday Thanks to Your Employees?

Giving holiday thanks to your employees for their work during the holidays is key to being a good employer. Christmas and Hannakka are coming up when we offer thanks to our friends, loved ones, and family. But what about thanking your employees this holiday month? How will you thank your employees, the very people that power your business and profit and may be on call for you right now on New Year?

A holiday party  after hours catered  or  just  ordering pizza plus buying bottles of wine, and nonalcoholic beverages then having a white elephant exchange  hat can be fun and affordable

But if that is not in your plan here are Ideas for inexpensive but really appreciated gifts to thank your employees – this holiday season. Consider gift cards to grocery stores or department stores, or a gift certificate from Amazon all given with a nice personal handwritten note.

Thank Your Staff

How To Thank Staff  All Year

1. Thank your staff all year long for having the amount of productivity to keep the business thriving. Handwriting is not a lost art. It sends a message that you take the time, personally, to really celebrate what the employees do for your business.

2. Giving Holiday Thanks to Your Employees could be sending a handwritten thank-you note to thank your employees, to each staff member during the year applauding something they did. Be grateful by thanking your staff for something specific may be the ultimate reward. If you do it selectively yet authentically, a thank you note may be pinned above your employee’s desk for years. Create a formal letter recognizing your employee’s achievement. Sign it and use the company’s seal to give the letter something extra. If you really want to do it right, frame it.

3. Thank your staff by naming an employee of the month, each month in your newsletter with their picture. Give them a gift GCM-pix-3.jpgto tell them you are grateful for their hard work. Create a formal letter recognizing your employee’s achievement. Sign it and use the company’s seal to give the letter something extra. To thank your employees right, frame it too.

4. Giving holidays thanks to your employees,  if you do feel safe, could be hosting an in-person party,If you do not feel it is covid safe, try a virtual employee holiday party and mail gifts ahead of time to all employees for being such excellent care managers all year. If it is late now so try New Year.

5. When the COVID level in your area is safe enough to gather,  thank your employees, plan employee picnics, birthday parties, and anniversary parties to thank them publicly throughout the year.

6. B.J Curry- Spitler, one of the first and I might say the greatest care managers, founded Age Concerns in San Diego in 1982. and knew how to be grateful to her staff. She was a master at thanking her staff.  To thank her employees, she gave gifts of massages to her care managers. A brilliant gift, a massage recognizes the tough emotional work that care managers do and their need to take care of themselves- which you as their employer are doing

 

This winter 90% of those who die of Covid will be over 65 . January is the deadliest month in the U.S. according to an analysis of the CDC Wonder database.

Understand End of Life this winter

Sign -up for my 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 

 

 Description

Deliver a Good End of Life- 9 Steps to Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

Deliver a Good End of Life

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 service for care managers

Deliver a Good End of Life

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)

SIGN-UP 

 

Sign -Up Even if you cannot attend & receive the recording the next day 

 

     

 

     

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Black Aging Family, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black entrepreneurs, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black RN, Black Travel Nurses, Clinical Tools Dysfunctional families, Cut-Off, Dysfunctional Family & Holidays, Dysfunctional Family System, Families, GCM Webinar, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, Holiday on call, Holiday season, News, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, on-call staff, Thanking staff, Thanksgiving, THANKSGIVING BLOG, Therapist Specializing in Aging Tagged With: aging family, aging family Christmas, aging life care manager, Aging Mom on Christmas, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, Christmas, eldercare, GCM on call, geriatric care manager, Holiday Staff thank you, Holidays calls to GCM's, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, staff on call on Christmas, start-up eldercare, Thank employees, Thank Staff all year, Thank You, thanking staff on Christmas, Thanks staff

Dysfunctional Aging Families Can Wreak Havoc at End of Life

December 6, 2022

What do Feuding families do at the end of life?

 

When a family member is facing death and dying dysfunctional families have flawed conversations. Often they do not communicate at all or engage in destructive banter. They see one another as enemies. They demonize one another.

Feuding families are what I call dysfunctional families. They blame each other instead of locking arms in a crisis.

They sabotage resolution.

They actively compound already difficult decisions with intractable, interpersonal conflict. They create problems independent of the underlying issues.

Facing Fractured Communication

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

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

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 and adult children and/or spouse disagree

Pain management adult children and/or and spouse disagree.

Answer to Fractured Family at End of Life – Mediation.

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

 

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

 

Serve Your Client Until Death Do You Part

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 Description

Deliver a Good End of Life- 9 Steps to Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency
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 service for care managers
 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 family. 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 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)

SIGN-UP 

Join me Thursday, March 11, and learn why End of Life Services Are a perfect new service for care managers

 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 

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

 

Filed Under: Advanced Directives, Advanced Directives and Covid-19, Aging, aging life care manager, Benefits of ALCA to Hospice, Death and Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, Dysfunctional aging family, Dysfunctional Family Mediation, End of Life, End of Life Care manager, End of life documents, estranged elder parents and adult kids, estranged siblings, Families, FREE WEBINAR, GCM COACHING SKILLS, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Good Death, Hospice Care, mediation, Mediation End of Life, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: adult sibling, aging family, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care planning, caregiver burnout, conservator, death, dysfunctional aging family, dysfunctional family, dysfuntional family, elder care crisis, end of life, end of life family meeting, estranged siblings, families fretting at end of life, fretting at end of life, geraitric assessment, geriatric care management, geriatric care manager, geriatric care managers, mediation, mediator, My Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual, no advanced directive, no DPOA, no health care proxy, withdraw of life support

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