Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

  • Home
  • Products
    • GCM Manual New 5th edition
    • Books
    • Geriatric Care Management – 4th Edition
    • Mom Loves You Best
    • Care Managers
  • Online Classes
    • Recommendations
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Past Webinars
  • Speaking
  • About
    • Recommendations
    • Interviews
  • Blog
    • Aging
    • Geriatric Care Manager
    • Siblings
    • Webinar
  • Contact

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

Is Your Marketing Plan 4 Your Business Updated For COVID?

January 26, 2021

 Do You Have a GCM Marketing Plan  During COVID

Marketing plans have to be updated regularly when changes occur in your market – like the COVID pandemic. When it comes to distinguishing an aging life care management business, nothing compares to a solid and well-thought-out constantly updated marketing plan. A strategic and successfully executed marketing plan has the power to shape an aging life care management business and how it is to be perceived by current and potential customers. But have you updated it for COVID?

What Does a GCM ALCA Marketing Plan Do?

  1. It forces you to define that new audience. Your targets are now not only for direct services, but also a larger audience of targets: managed care companies, and others that are creating models using value-based payment as a method to reduce costs in post-acute care.

             2. It forces the Aging Life or Geriatric Care Managers to take the time to define the values and unique benefits they offer and to develop various, affordable (time and money) ways to communicate those things to a specifically defined target audience.

3.Understanding who is the new target audience will allow the Aging Life and Geriatric Care Managers to create that critical market plan.

4. It forces you to update your marketing plan to overcome new barriers in your market like a pandemic

DURING COVID YOU NEED TO ADJUST YOUR MARKETING  PLAN

Your new audience during COVID is everyone that wants to know that it is safe to use your services. So, how are you going to add that to your marketing plan? Will you have clearly defined COVID -safe policies on the front page of your web site like Lifespan, a geriatric care management agency in

Santa Cruz Ca. Will you use very videos from your staff to show your agency’s commitment to COVID safety? How will you adjust your marketing plan to make clients choose you over your

competition in your area? Will you add a new COVID -19 Coaching service to help local and long-distance families understand how to keep their elders safe from COVID while sheltering in place, recovering from COVID at Home, or going into the hospital and recovering after hospitalization

 

 

  • Subscribe to my YouTube channel, Geriatric Care Management 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Aging, aging life care manager, Coronavirus Coaching, coronavirus marketing, coronavirus shut down, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, Covid-19, Covid-19 GCM Products, elder care manager, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, Marketing copy, marketing geriatric care management, Marketing Plan for COVID, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: adding geriatric care management, aging life care manager, ALCA marketing, Care Management marketing plan, care manager, case manager, COVID ALCA Marketing, COVID-19 Telehealth product, free webinar, Free webinar marketing, geriatric care manager, geriatric care marketing, marketing plan, Marketing Plan for COVID, marketing target, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, target audience, Updating marketing plan ALCA

How Do Long Distance Families Cope with Elders Threatened by COVID-19

July 19, 2020

Caring for COVID-19 Risk From a Distance

Long-Distance Family caregivers are trying to get a handle of the new reality COVID 19 has on their lives. as caregivers, at a distance.  For many families, the number one concern is the seniors in their family.  As a Long-Distance Care provider, finding the balance between safety and well -being for seniors during the COVID 19 pandemic can be a new challenge added to the many overwhelming challenges that long-distance families face daily. Care managers can now overcome the distance with telehealth and Hipaa certified telehealth platforms. 

Long-Distance Care Providers Already offer the Most Expensive Care and Now COVID-Care $

They already live far away from their loved one, a national average of 450 miles, and travel an average of 4-7 hours to give care. Long-distance caregivers have the highest annual expenses (about $8,728) compared to co-resident caregivers (about $5,885) or those who care for a loved one nearby.

The experience of a long-distance caregiver is much different from and more complicated than that of a caregiver who lives in the same town. It’s important to know the local resources and services. Long-distance care providers are either not familiar or have vague memories of stores and resources that have changed since they moved away.

Long-Distance Caregivers Suffer Depression, Anxiety and Now Fear of COVID

 The crunch of caregiver demands frequently leads to depression, anxiety, and a feeling of helplessness. Caregiver overload is especially common among the long-distance sandwich generation, or those caring for their distant aging parents along with their own children and many times grandchildren. Long-distance caregivers are more likely to report emotional distress (47%) than caregivers either residing with their care recipient (43%) or residing less than one hour away (28%).

Neglecting Everyone in the family

 When the long-distance caregiver tends to ailing parents, they feel they are neglecting their own family and work responsibilities. Yet when they tend to their family, spouse, or job, they feel they are neglecting their parents. They live in a double bind.

Keeping seniors safe yet socially connected

For most families, keeping senior loved ones safe coronavirus infection is their number one priority as it is with families that live locally. But Long Distance Families must do this remotely which means forgoing in-person visits and finding other ways to create a connection. These families their number one concern is the safety of the seniors among their families or friends. It is important to find a balance between safety to avoid contracting coronavirus and being able to maintain happiness through social interactions with family and friends.

Seniors and their concerned families want to avoid isolation, depressions, and hospitalization with COVID while sheltering in place.

Like any disaster but especially with this pandemic- you may not be prepared and are desperately seeking a plan.

JOIN ME FOR MY NEW FREE WEBINAR 

Create 5 Telehealth Products for COVID 19

WHEN. THURSDAY AUGUST 6

TIME- 2 PM Pacific Standard Time

Care Management businesses are struggling with pandemic close-downs.

Support your business bottom line, clients, and their families.

Create 5 COVID-19 products.

Products from sheltering in place through the hospital, recovery at home, discharge from an SNF, or hospital for local and long-distance elders. Increase your bottom

line as COVID spreads throughout the US and more shutdowns loom

Learn Step by Step How to Consult with Aging Families and Seniors to:

  • Choose the best Hipaa Compliant Telehealth Products to Remotely Consult with Client
  • Help a Local Family Help a Loved One Safely Shelter in Place
  • Help a Long-Distance Family Help a Local Loved One Shelter in Place
  • Help an Aging Family Help a Loved on Hospitalized for Covid-19
  • Help an Aging Family Help a Loved one Recover when Discharged from a

Nursing Home

  • Help an Aging Family Help a loved one Recover when Discharged from a

Hospital

WHEN. THURSDAY AUGUST 6

TIME- 2 PM Pacific Standard Time

       REGISTER NOW 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, Covid-19, COVID-19 & Care Management, Covid-19 GCM Products, COVID-19 Webinar, Families, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Long Distance Care, Long Distance Care & COVID-19, Long Distance Care technology, Long distance caregiver, Long Term Care Coverage, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Pandemic, Telehealth COVID-19products, Webinar, Webinar ALCA GCM Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging long distance care, aging parent crisis, care manager, caregiver burnout, caregiver depression, COVID_19, COVID-19 prevention, COVID-19& LONG DISTANCE CARE, family caregiver stress, geriatric care manager, long distance family, Long Distance Technology, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

How Do You Detect COVID–19 Symptoms in Seniors While Living Long Distance?

July 1, 2020

COVID–19  Detecting Symptoms in your loved one from a Distance

We can not always be with our loved ones. Long-Distance Families make approximately 43.5 million caregivers who have provided unpaid care to an adult or child in the last 12 months.  How can you keep a watchful eye on long-distance older family members for symptoms of COVID-19?  First, you will need to know what symptoms to watch and listen to.

Did you know that COVID -19 is known to develop into a severe acute respiratory syndrome and may result in death? The elderly are more susceptible to this contagion simply due to their age. Your job is to become their health detective by paying acute attention to physical symptoms and asking questions when conversing with your loved one.

Symptoms to Listen & Signs to Look for

Signs and symptoms of COVID-19 may appear 2-14 days after exposure, commonly referred to as the incubation period. Common signs and symptoms can include:

  • Fever, cough or tiredness – If your loved one is suddenly not making sense or acting confused when you are talking with them, this could be an indication of having a fever and an infection.  Listen for coughing during your conversation and don’t be afraid to ask if they are napping more often or sleeping longer than usual or if they are weaker than usual.

Other symptoms can/may include:

  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing             Muscle Aches
  • Chills                                                                             Sore Throat
  • Loss of taste or smell                                                 Headache
  • Chest pain

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO BE KNOWLEDGEABLE OF MEDICAL HISTORY

If your loved one has existing medical conditions such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, severe obesity, chronic kidney or liver disease, or compromised immune systems they may be at greater risk for contracting COVID-19.  

CALL YOUR LOVED ONE’S PCP OR ARRANGE FOR THEM TO BE TAKEN TO THE HOSPITAL IMMEDIATELY IF MORE THAN ONE OF THESE SYMPTOMS APPEAR.

As your loved one’s health detective – Vigilantly Monitor their Physical Appearance

Call often.  Listen for symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, inability to complete sentences without having to take a breath. Are they suddenly confused or confused more than usual?

Use your technology.  Face time with your loved one. Look at them.  Are they having a hard time breathing?  Watch and count how many times their chest raises per minute. Normal breathes per minute in the elderly is 10-30. With COVID-19 the rate will be lower. Look for the appearance of lost sudden weight loss. The virus can decrease their appetite as it affects their sense of smell, making food less appetizing. Look at your loved one’s lips.  Are they discolored or have a light blue tint? This is a sign of oxygen deprivation and could potentially be very serious.

If you see any of these signs call your loved one’s PCP immediately and take/arrange for them to be taken to the hospital immediately.

JOIN ME FOR MY NEW FREE WEBINAR               

Create 5 Telehealth Products for COVID 19

WHEN. THURSDAY AUGUST 6

TIME- 2 PM Pacific Standard Time

Care Management businesses are struggling with pandemic close-downs.

Support your business bottom line, clients, and their families.

Create 5 COVID-19 products.

Products from sheltering in place through the hospital, recovery at home, discharge from an SNF, or hospital for local and long-distance elders. Increase your bottom

line as COVID spreads throughout the US and more shutdowns loom

Learn Step by Step How to Consult with Aging Families and Seniors to Choose the best Hipaa Compliant Telehealth Products to Remotely Consult with Client

  • Help a Local Family Assist a Loved One Safely Shelter in Place
  • Help a Long-Distance Family Guide a Local Loved One Shelter in Place
  • Help an Aging Family Help a Loved on Hospitalized for Covid-19
  • Help an Aging Family Care for  a Loved one Recover when Discharged from a

Nursing Home

  • Help an Aging Family Care for a loved one Recover when Discharged from a

Hospital

WHEN. THURSDAY AUGUST 6

TIME- 2 PM Pacific Standard Time

       REGISTER NOW

Filed Under: Aging Community & Covid-19, Aging Family, aging family crisis, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, ALCA COVID-19 Crisis, ALCA Products for COVID_19, Blog, coronavirus, coronavirus marketing, Coronavirus safety elders, coronavirus shut down, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, Covid-19, COVID-19 & Care Management, Covid-19 Nursing Home, Covis-19 Services, FREE WEBINAR, GCM COACHING SKILLS, GCM COVID 19 Crisis, GCM products in COVID-19, GCM technology, GCM Webinar, geriatric care management emergency proceduress, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Home From the Hospital, inquiry COVID-19, Long Distance Care, Long distance caregiver, Pandemic, Symptoms of covid -19 Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, Care Managers Working with the Aging Family, caregiver burden, COVID-19 -inquiry, COVID-19 & INFECTION CONTROL, Covid-19 Symptoms, COVID-19 Telehealth product, GCM Telehealth Product, long distance care provider, long-distance, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, social distancing covid-19

Nursing Homes residents in Pandemic -Need Help Today, Mother’s Day& Future

May 10, 2020

MOTHER’S DAY 6 FEET APART AND LONLEY

Nursing home residents, like prisoners, are locked in space “less” than 6 feet apart in facilities with a growing death rate that has reached 20% of all Covid-19. Support them on Mother’s Day and every day in the future. Their situation is increasingly dire as in Florida, a state with the largest elderly population the cases have spiked radically since restrictions were lifted  60% of new cases are in nursing homes 

If you are an aging professional- step up to the plate. Through the Hartford Foundation join Huddles.The network is designed to support nursing home leadership, staff, residents, and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the week of May 11-15, the huddles will focus on testing. They have organized the Engage Initiative for COVID-19 in Nursing Home. So join and advocate for  facilities with the highest death rate in the country- where the federal government does nothing as a holocaust is occurring

MAKE A SIGN AND VISIT A LOCAL NURSING HOME TODAY

Support older residents in nursing homes by making a SIGN and standing outside the facility. Gather some friends. People all over the country are doing this, showing the residents they are loved. In Holiday Florida, nursing home residents were treated to a mother’s day parade. In Chillicothe, Ohio. residents drove around the driveways of a nursing home in HONK for HUGS 

Today or someday this week, just call a nursing home in your city and tell them what you are doing. Get their permission and ask if you can go from window to window with your sign of Happy Mother’s Day or ” whatever you wish for them “and wave. It is that simple. Today these elderly, sick and threatened mothers, cannot see anyone, often have family long distance who cannot see them, and are literally locked in a facility where beds are not 6 feet apart.

PLAY IT FORWARD – DO SOMETHING FOR NURSING HOME RESIDENTS IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS

No matter what your state, town, or the facility is doing to protect them they are the number one target of coronaviruses doing to protects them. AARP  has started a mutual Aide group to both give and receive emotional aide during a pandemic. Join a group or organize a group to make phone calls to residents of the local nursing homes. If you are a retired medical professional down to an aide or someone who can answer the phone- instead of virtually, you could really step up to the plate, and volunteer to help a nursing home that is understaffed in the pandemic .

In my home state, CALIFORNIA, you can join the Social Bridging Program. You can also join the Friendship line to call older people who are lonely and just need you to be there to listen.

 

ONE SMALL STEP FOR PEOPLE IN THE BULLSSEYE OF DEATH

The point is to do something one small thing whether it is on Mother’s Day Monday or this week. Take a step to help the bullseyes targets of COVID-19 the elderly who are terrified, lonely, and now on Mother’s Day alone.

Filed Under: Blog, coronavirus, Covid 19, Covid-19, COVID-19 & Care Management, Covid-19 Death Nursing Homes, Covid-19 Nursing Home, Death and Dying Care Management, GCM COVID 19 Crisis, GCM products in COVID-19, geriatric care management emergency proceduress, geriatric care manager, Geriatric Care Managers & Assited Living, geriatric social worker, Hartford Foundation & Nursing Homes, Mother's Day, Mother's Day in Skilled Nursing, Nursing Home Deaths, Senior Isolation, Senior Loneliness, Social Bridging Program Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, COVID-19 Deaths, COVID-19 deaths SNF's, COVID-19 Mother's Day, death and dying in COVID-19, mother's day Nursing Home, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, nursing home deaths, Visit Mom in Nursing Home

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Contact

Use the form on the
Contact page to email Cathy.

Email

Connect with Cathy

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

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

Copyright © 2012–2021 CressGCMConsult & Cathy Cress - Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management | Site Designed by Kissa's Kreations