Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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11 Parts of Care Manager’s Role With Family Death and Dying of COVID-19?

February 4, 2021

 

GCM Role is Working With Family In COVID-19

Care managers cannot be in the hospital with a  patient dying of COVID-19. They can support their bereft adult children, who cannot see their parents during the hospitalization, in those last moments of goodbye’s or after the death in this deadly pandemic.

In normal times 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 are called. Often GCM’s can help the family and client to bring in hospice or palliative care. But is COVID -19 they can offer guidance to the family through the sometimes weeks of hospitalization, intubation, their loved one is on a ventilator and ultimately often- death separated from loved ones.

Navigation Through a COVID-19 Death

 The normal final passage through life can emotionally charged.  If the family is following a long labyrinth to the end, in coronavirus, the blind alleys may be blocked by a rushed hospitalization, banned from seeing their loved one in the hospital, and not understanding the disease that is killing their loved one.

Care managers can find an opening through this maze.  Family dynamics and fear of dying can all explode a fraught crisis of care in dying of coronavirus. When vital end-of-life decisions need to be made, the stress of the responsibility and the seriousness of the situation can break into a mammoth wave of distress fear, and anxiety over the “ whole family system”. The geriatric care manager specializes in solving these end of life decisions for whole family system even at the end of life.

Facilitate Family talks over hospitalized COVID-19 Elder

Care Managers can facilitate terrified discussions outside the hospital, and clear the way for family members to come together to work as a functional unit around an unknown killer disease that preys on their loved one. Understanding the differing viewpoints is critical.  Knowing what a parent wants and does not want during the last days and hours of life help define and simplify the role of the family.  It helps the family bear the burden of having the responsibility of making decisions that their parent wants. Turning this around can also help families have some solace that they carried out their parent’s wishes after their parent’s death. 

 

Care managers can help family members handle the stress of an elder’s hospitalization and death by:

  • Encouraging routines, exercise, and social connectedness with friends and family
  • Advocate for them with the hospital staff to get updates in this chaotic time in hospitals
  • Help them maintain contact with the” hospital quarterback “ to get updated medical status and give input
  • Find technology for the family to communicate with the hospitalized family member  via text, telephone, email, or video chat
  • Support and mediate if necessary proactive discussions and advanced directive preparation in a rush if not done
  • Build a circle of care can help to reduce some of the potential conflicts,
  • Support them in having essential conversations, prior to needing  intubation, on last wishes if health status deteriorates  
  • Provide opportunities to say goodbye via technology
  • guide them in setting up rituals that can celebrate the end of life and give solace to a family during a time when there are yet no rituals for a COVID-19 death.
  • Work with the hospital to set up Zoom with the family to say goodbye to a loved one. 
  • Geriatric care managers do much more with clients and families but especially now with Covid-19 elder’s and their families facing a  separated, fractious end of life
  • Deliver a Good End of Life- Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

     

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

     Sign Up   

    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 care3.Give the family/caregiver tools to manage care

    4. Provide family center care to caregiver 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

     

     See more about Cathy and her book Care Manager’s Working With The Aging Family

  • DyingGriefandBurial in the AgingFamily

Filed Under: Advanced Directives and Covid-19, Aging, Aging Community & Covid-19, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, ALCA COVID-19 Crisis, ALCA Role Death and Dying, Blog, care manager, case manager, CIRCLE OF CARE, coronavirus, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus shut down, Covid 19, COVID-19 & Care Management, Covid-19 Death, Death and Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, elder care manager, End of Life, Families, FREE WEBINAR, GCM role Death and Dying, GCM Working With Aging Family, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Good Death, nurse care manager, Therapist Specializing in Aging Tagged With: adding end of life services, aging life and geraitric care manager, death and dying, death and dying in COVID-19, Death and Dying in hospital, end of life care manager, geriatric care manager, Hospice at end of life, Hospice Care, hospice for elderly parent, Navigation through END of LIfe, Palliative Care at end of life, Technolog COVID-19 in Hospital, Tools to manage end of life

Avoid Aretha Franklin’s Fate- Help Elders at Risk of Covid & Prepare End Of Life Docs Fast

January 30, 2021

Preparations for Death a Hard Step for Some

Everyone must prepare for the end of life. When Aretha Frankin died a tribute to her was an armada of 100 pink Cadillacs at her funeral. But in spite of the glittery homage to her storied life and career, she died without a will.

According to Aretha’s ‘lawyer, Ms. Frankin was aware she needed to take care of this but ” never got around to it”. This left her estate liable for potentially millions of dollars of taxes and attorney fees and a drawn-out timeline for her 4 sons to inherit the proceeds from her estate.

Franklin was, as many have said, ” a force of nature” and a woman who would be hard to sway. But care managers specialize in working with VIP clients and the rich and famous. These clients are often uber difficult to work with- entitled, narcissistic equally hard to sway. Aretha Franklin’s attorney might have convinced her that she needed to work with him to protect her family and her estate before she died.

In the Year of the Plague Care Managers Preparing Clients For Death  More Urgent

You as a care manager must take a more urgent  approach by yourself or with the client’s attorney because the stakes are so much higher as now elders are likely to die with this virus rampaging throughout the world, striking the people with comorbidity, like people over 65, the hardest

Most geriatric care managers work with the wealthy top 10% if they want to survive as a business as Medicare does not cover long term care. Only the top 10%, like Aretha Frankin, can afford it. But what comes from being a good care manager is knowledge of death. End of Life care is one of their jobs.  Making sure their client has all their legal documents ahead of time is critical at this minute. With COVID-19 that clock runs on speed.

, these documents- one a living will- are an important job of the geriatric manager, as death

may be shrouded and waiting around the corner for many of your clients 

Advanced  Care Planning Discussions In Covid Critical

Once the COVID-19 is known with an elderly client, the care manager who has added “end of life services” to their agency, is often the one who will initiate and guide advance care planning discussions. The problem with COVID-19 is that the onset of the disease can be rapid.  As difficult as these discussions may be, the burden on the family is significantly lessened if decisions about advance care planning are made before the client’s condition worsens.

Hopefully, this has already been done but many people put it off for fear of death. A recent study found that less than 50% of severely or terminally ill patients had an advance directive in their medical record.

Advance directives are legal documents that allow clients to make decisions about their health care and finances in advance of when they are not mentally or physically able to do so. These documents must be signed, dated, and witnessed naming another person to make decisions for you.

Your job as a care manager is the make sure your older client has these documents before they have COVID-19:

  • A durable power for an attorney for healthcare 
  • A living will
  • A do not resuscitate order DNR (efforts to restart the heart after it has stopped

 If No Advanced Care Documents & COVID Strikes Elders Wishes Unfulfilled

If the client does not have these legal documents and wishes to create them, the Geriatric Care Manager will suggest that the documents be put in place with the oversight and consultation of an elder law attorney.

But During Covid-19 could rush an elderly client towards death like a mammoth mudslide sweeping them into a hospital where no one can enter, even the family.

Care Managers play a big role at end of life issues. They are their navigators through all five stages of dying, which is the time before COVID-19 could be long before palliative care or hospice are called. 

 

But in this plague reign, there is little time to plan so the five stages of death are on steroids. So, talk to your clients now before they get into a screaming ambulance to the hospital where no one can follow the including you, and may never return.

GCM Care Planning Stope Elders From Dying Without a Will Like Aretha Franklin

 Proactive discussions and legal planning now can help to reduce the risk of dying like Frankin leaving the legacy of her music, a soundtrack to her life but a family both shattered and at war with each other. The COVID-19 clients you see now could be in this position and their families will be left with no rituals no funeral no advanced directives and only hopefully a zoom family meeting to say their last words. Good legal guidance can also help clients make better decisions,  avoids all this other legal horror on top of the torturous death of coronavirus. Making a will or a trust now will save the family from adding to the burden of a lonely painful death.

SIGN UP FOR MY LATEST FREE WEBINAR

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

 

Serve Your Client Until Death Do You Part     

S

 

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 caregiver 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

Recommendations

 Cathy is a great consultant who has helped me remain focused and balanced while developing my business and juggling other responsibilities.   I highly recommend using the operations manual as a guide for businesses, especially startups.   Also, tools such as Cathy’s competition survey, marketing survey, and Cathy’s book entitled Handbook of Geriatric Care Management are great resources to use now and future.  Cathy is the business coach/business consultant I needed.  I will always be grateful for the time and money she saved me during this process.  Thanks, so much Cathy for all that you do!  I appreciate you!

Patrice Harrison LMSW, IPR

 

 

 

 

Presented by:
CATHY CRESS, MSW

 

 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life care manager, Aretha Franklin, case manager, Concierge Senior, coronavirus, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus shut down, Covid-19, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, DNR, elder care manager, Elderlaw Attorney, End of Life Care manager, End of life documents, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, living will, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Quality of Life in Dying, Wealth Management Departments Tagged With: Advanced Directives, aging life and geraitric care manager, aging parent crisis, coronavirus, coronavirus and seniors, COVID_19, COVID-19 Deaths, COVOD_10& Advanced directives, death and dying, death and dying in COVID-19, geriatric care manager, Hospice Care, hospice for elderly parent, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Free Webinar

October 2, 2020

 

Free Webinar

October 7th and October 8th

9:00a-12:30p

 

Lifespan Care Management for Elders  is pleased and excited to invite aging care professionals and community members to join us for a free2-day webinar series.

We have engaged a compelling group of speakers like Taney Hamill  CEO of ALCA and Cathy Cress MSW author of the Handbook of Geriatric Care Management. who will address a wide range of aging and health-related topics including COVID and Quality of Life while sheltering in place, COVID & seasonal flu and COVID and Hospice COVID and AGING LIFE CARE  Resources  and other topics relevant to the interests of aging persons and those who support them; be they professionals, family members, or other concerned parties.  Attendees may come and go, participating in whichever sessions fit your busy schedules and draw interest. There is something for everyone!

Please share this widely. We look forward to having you join us!

For More Information and to Register

Filed Under: Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Blog, coronavirus, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus marketing, coronavirus quality of life virtual program, Coronavirus safety elders, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, Covid 19 Webinar, COVID Webinar, COVID-19 & Care Management, COVID-19 &Shelter in Place Plan, COVID-19 Webinar, geriatric care manager, Lifespan Care Management for Elders, Webinar, Webinar ALCA GCM Tagged With: CORONAVIRUS WEBINAR, covid -19 geriatric care manager, COVID & Seasonal Flu, free webinar, social distancing covid-19, Webinar ALCA, Webinar Cathy Cress MSW, Webinar Lifespan

HOW TO MARKET YOUR TELEHEALTH SERVICE With An E- NEWSLETTER

September 23, 2020

 

How do you market a COVID-19 telehealth service?

The best way during the pandemic that rages this fall is to sell your coronavirus coaching products or other services is  in an email marketing marketing campaign using an e-newsletter format in Constant Contact  or Survey Monkey  other choices

This will boost the clients you can serve, as COVID has made adult children and elderly clients hesitant about having visitors come to their homes, exposing them to the virus. You can do the intake via telehealth and continue the services if they decide to become a client if you have taken the CDC safety precautions for visiting and or rendering care to the older person

Other Ideas to Add to your e-newsletter about COVID

  • Local information about home food delivery from local grocery stores used by                   seniors or designated shoppers as elders should not even get out and shop 
  • Since large gatherings are dangerous in COVID-19-, information about accessing religious services streamed broadcast of TV or radio with the holiday season on Jewish New Year beginning the season last week – and stretching to Christmas.

Include Videos in your e-newsletter like this terrific e-newsletter that Lifespan, a care management agency in Santa Cruz, Ca. uses introducing their staff products and services during COVID. 

OFFER Quality of Life activities that your agency or another agency like Well-Being offered by Lifespan which  provides 1-1-activies done with all COVID safety pecautions for seniors who are even more isolated, lonely, and depressed during the pandemic. 

  • Recommend A COVID-19Home From the Hospital or Move Management product/service if you have one, to help families deal with discharge from hospitals after COVID -19 and not end up back in the hospital and or can move to a safer place to recover like their long-distance relative.
  • Tell a story with the COVID products you want to advertise 
  • Use your i phone to record your video

  • Include a list of great reasons that a client or customer should work with an ALCA or Geriatric Care Manager during the Coronavirus pandemic. ALCA members get this in a flyer “Why Work With An ALCA Member During A Crisis “.The Aging Life Care Association has huge resources for dealing with coronavirus impact on geriatric care management. This makes joining ALCA now a great idea in this lethal pandemic and its deadly effect.
      • FREE Webinar

        MARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT DURING COVID

        October 22 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST

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

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

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

        Convert Consultation into  regular clients

        Understand branding       

        Develop a positioning strategy so the caller chooses you

        Understand lead generation in care management

        Understand how to do an e-newsletter

        Get the best marketing software  

        Understand Public Relations Press, TV Radio, Social Media Coverage

        Understand Zoom Webinars

        Create a 5 Star Marketing Plan for the top 10% of seniors who can afford you.

        Click Here To Register 

         

        FIND OUT MORE 

         THIS FREE  WEBINAR  FROM 2 PM – 3 PM PST October 22, 2020

        SIGN UP NOW  

         

 

 

Filed Under: aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Aging therapist, ALCA Disaster Plan, ALCA Products for COVID_19, Blog, branding, branding ALCA business, Branding GCM Business, Care Management Products, coronavirus, Coronavirus Coaching, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus marketing, coronavirus quality of life virtual program, Coronavirus safety elders, coronavirus shut down, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, Covid 19 Webinar, COVID-19 & Care Management, Covid-19 GCM Products, e-newsletter, FREE MARKETING WEBINAR, FREE WEBINAR, GCM Webinar, Geriatric Care Management Business, Hanukkah, Holiday season, HolidaySeason and COVID, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, Marketing copy, marketing geriatric care management, marketing newsletter, marketing pitch, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, postioning, quality of life -COVID-19, Social Media for eldercare, social media marketing, social media marketing campaign, Telehealth COVID-19products, Telehealth with ALCA, Telehealth with GCM, Therapist Specializing in Aging Tagged With: aging family, aging life and geraitric care manager, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, COVID-19 intake, COVID-19 PRODUCTS, Covid-19 Telehealth, COVID-19 Telehealth product, COVID-19 Webinar, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Use HIPAA Compliant Telehealth to Coach Families on COVID

August 22, 2020

Why must Telehealth Be Hippa Compliant?

The HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information. It is designed to reduce healthcare fraud and abuse by setting industry-wide standards for health care information on electronically shared information. When care managers are giving and receiving health care information through telehealth,  that is protected under HIPAA. Plus, importantly,  want to assure your clients that you are never sharing their private health care information, just like most people protect themselves from spam by not allowing cookies. 

Geriatric care managers can really benefit from telehealth during COVID-19 and after. If your agency does my employ, essential workers, you cannot see clients in person. But they must choose a product that is HIPAA compliant. 

Telehealth Protects Your Caregivers and Clients

 Even if your employees, nurses, and social worker, geriatric care managers, are essential workers they may be reluctant to expose themselves to COVID-19 risk. Many times your clients do not feel safe seeing your care managers. If you have clients in skilled nursing or assisted living you may be prohibited from seeing any clients at all- So how do you see your clients- through telehealth.

What is telehealth in geriatric care management

What is Telehealth? Telehealth refers to the exchange of medical information from one site to another through electronic communication to improve a patient’s health . Telehealth is the use of digital information and communication technologies, such as computers and mobile devices, to access health care services remotely and manage your health care. These may be technologies you use from home or that your doctor or in this case care manager uses to improve or support health care services.Geriatric care managers can see an older client in their residence and talk to the family caregiver or private caregiver without the care manager traveling to the home, especially during the pandemic when the care manager, client, and care provider may be exposed to the virus during the visit.

 

How Do Geriatric Social Workers, Nurses Use Telehealth?

Geriatric Social Workers use Telehealth to assist patients and families navigating healthcare and welfare decisions in these confusing and critical moments; they also coordinate or provide therapeutic services to the affected and their loved ones. Telehealth nursing is a tool for delivering nursing care remotely to improve efficiency and patient access to healthcare. A telehealth call or inquiry is more than just a phone call, however, and the nurses who respond to these calls are participating in the healthcare continuum.

The benefit of Telehealth by Family Caregivers

For caregivers who commit time and money to care for an aging loved one, telehealth can be a valuable lifeline. From a merely practical standpoint, it helps ease the burden of traveling to engage with health providers. Family caregivers with have full-time jobs can avoid taking excessive time off work to meet with you by using telehealth. Moreover, these services empower family members by giving them more opportunities to ask questions and take a proactive role in their loved ones’ care and recovery.

Long Distance Clients Really Benefit From Telehealth

Family Caregivers who live a long distance from their family members can often really benefit from telehealth as they can meet with the care manager from even thousands of miles away, get coaching on caregiving, ask questions about the care of their loved one, and report symptoms or status.

JOIN ME FOR MY NEW FREE WEBINAR

Successfully Market Your GCM COVID 19 Service

 

Learn to market and sign up new clients for your Aging COVId-19 coaching services for, both long-distance and local- adult children, based on science step and sound public health policies. Help family care providers faced with a pandemic, support an aging loved one through a COVID Hospitalization, and recovering at home.

 

Be able to sell care management COVID services that fill the gap  created by the federal government, state, county, cities and CDC‘s mixed messaging  have created, leaving family caregivers confused frustrated, with no clear path to safety from the raging pandemic,

 

Gain new customers and help aging families stay safe from COVID using care management’s most potent tool – navigation- through the potholed path they have right now.You will learn

 

  • How to create an e-newsletter with the right copy, to get out the word about your COVID 19 services

 

  • How to Use social media to alert aging family caregivers to the clear path your GCM agency provides to safety from the accelerating virus in the US

 

  • Be able to set up a Zoom webinar to teach local aging agencies and caregivers about your COVID coaching services and other local resources to assist caregivers in the community

 

  • Get local media coverage of your COVID -19 Coaching Services with radio and TV coverage plus pick local newspapers where adds may pay off to sell your COVID Products

  • How to generate word of mouth customers for your COVID -19 service using your continuum of care in your community

SIGN UP

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
When: Sep 10, 2020, 02:00 PM Pacific Time (the US and Canada)
Topic: 5 Steps to Market Your COVID Coaching Service for Aging Families

Register in advance for this webinar:


After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Aging therapist, Blog, coronavirus, Coronavirus Coaching, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus marketing, Coronavirus safety elders, coronavirus shut down, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, Covid 19, COVID-19 & Care Management, Covid-19 GCM Products, Covid-19 mixed messaging, COVID-19 Webinar, FREE MARKETING WEBINAR, FREE WEBINAR, GCM Webinar, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Home Care Emergency Coronavirus Plan, Long Distance Care & COVID-19, Long Distance Care technology, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Pandemic, Telehealth COVID-19products, Telehealth with ALCA, Telehealth with GCM, telemedicine, Webinar, Webinar ALCA GCM Tagged With: aging life care manager, aging life or geriatric care management, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, CORONAVIRUS WEBINAR, Covid-19 Telehealth, COVID-19 Telehealth product, free webinar, geriatric care & telehealth, Geriatric care management telehealth, geriatric care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, nursing telehealth, Shelter in place & telehealth, social work telehealth, Webinar Telehealth

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