Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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Emergency Go Binder -Family Caregivers Need for Global Warming

August 16, 2023

What Senior Services Can Do in Disasters

What Senior Services can do in disasters – You can prepare an emergency plan for your own agency. This is critical now for all care managers, home care agencies, and any senior service because of global warming. With the Maui Fire, CSA, or any senior agency watching another global climate change disaster, happening right in Maui. Senior service providers need to know how to prepare elders and their agencies for fires. Many of those suspected dead in Lahaina are thought to be older people who could not escape quickly enough as it was a fire that was swept by Hurricane Dora’s 80-mile-an-hour winds spread the fire so fast that many many just could not escape and now suspected snapped power lines . Lionel Montalvo, retired fire chief in Lahaina, said that many dead elderly would be found  Fema puts out a handout that can be shared with elders about how to prepare for fires with their level of disability.

In An Emergency, I  Panicked

What Senior Services can do in disasters was vividly revealed to me. I live in Santa Cruz County, Ca. , where the disaster of a 6.9 earthquake, in 1989 happened and future earthquakes stalk us. But we had a double disaster in  Aug 2021. Covid had started and then one of the 30 fires begun by lightning strikes all over California set the Santa Cruz mountains, with ancient 3000-year-old redwoods, ablaze. The fires caused 70,000 evacuations, and flames destroyed 1,490 structures, as the firefighters did not have enough fire personnel to fight the fire. There were so many fires statewide that all firefighters in the state were not enough to fight the blazes. In addition to the horror, the fast-spreading fire, our three assigned planes to drop water on the inferno, could not fly as smoke and fog prevented it. They went to other California fires.

I Had No Grab and GO, Binder

When all this was announced by emergency alerts we were told to prepare to evacuate too. In spite of just teaching how to put together a go binder for COVID- I had no go binder myself. I had no list of what I would take in an emergency from a 5 bedroom house with multiple family heirlooms, original art by children, grandchildren, and now famous friends, I had never scanned the multiple photographs of our family in frames to GOOGLE PHOTOS  all over the house nor those critical important documents like our trust, birth certificates, passports, insurance info in a filing to add a go binder. I  never made a GO Binder. I did that later now when the fire is 30% contained when it was no help in the emergency, but I do now when worldwide global emergencies, world wide spread like the black death.

What to put in Go-Binder

Emergency plan

What Senior Services can do in disasters is help clients create a grab-and-go binder with all the emergency contacts, documents like advanced directives, DNR power of attorney, and family contacts, the family cannot physically go into the hospital or evacuate but this Go binder can take your place. With important information about your family member when they are admitted without you by their side. Your go-binder should contain your family members’ most important information and documents. This will include.

  • Medical information
  • Emergency Contact List
  • Advanced Directives 
  • Critical medical, insurance, social security, Trust/will docs 
  • You can also order them pre-prepared 

Prepare for Double Disasters Now

In emergency situations, people sometimes do not think rationally as I did in the Santa Cruz mountain fire. We never know how we are going to react in an emergency until it actually happens. In order to prepare for any situation, hurricanes & COVID, Fires creating a grab-and-go binder should be an important part of your shelter-in-place plan for aging friends or relatives.

If Covid returns with new variants and many anti-vaxers who refuse immunizations,  older people sheltering in place, can still contract COVID and be rushed to the hospital in an emergency. But on top of COVID other emergencies like storms, wildfires, and floods occur on the top of the pandemic. Think of this summer and fall  when the hurricane season is predicted to be catastrophic due to climate change, the warming of the Oceans, and in the last week Hurricane Dora creating, along with drought the brutal disaster on going in Maui, where 1000 people are still missing and the dead over 100.

EMERGENCY PLAN FOR EVERY DISASTER

Prepare for emergencies

Emergency Plan Needed for all Senior Service Agencies to Serve Clients in the Misdst of Disasters and Exploding Global Climate Change 

What Senior Services must do in disasters, especially exploding climate change events, is to create an emergency plan for all emergencies for all staff, caregivers, and aging clients in your senior agencies or you as a practitioner. With hurricane Dora causing the  Maui fire and the west once again facing massive wildfires, tornados already wreaking devastation this season and the polar vortex perhaps coming again next year-do you have emergency procedures?

The emergency plan to prepare for emergencies should contain specific policies and procedures,  like who will care for your clients when the agency members have to evacuate, and a plan that is written out and made explicitly. It should include directions that the owner or manager would like followed in emergency circumstances. The emergency plan should be signed and dated by both the owner and the manager, reviewed periodically, and updated as policies and procedures or circumstances change. An emergency plan is your first line of defense when an emergency or disaster occurs.

Informal agency emergency procedures work in a start-up care management business but what if the solo practitioner is ill and out?

If illness, accident, or some other unforeseen event overtakes an owner or man­ager, like, no emergency procedures can be suicide in an emergency, not to mention liabil­ity to your elderly clients.

You could be like  GCM Jim Boyd who lost his business in the Paradise Fire that knocked him out.

PARADISE FIRE DEVASTATION OF A GERIATRIC CARE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE

GCM Jim Boyd of Paradise, California lost everything in the catastrophic fire in the town of Paradise, where he lived and practiced. He was trying to evacuate aging clients in Paradise, located in the midst of the Sierra forest when the huge forest fire immolated the entire town. Another care manager in the Sierras took over for him as an Aging Life Care partner. Although a “Go Fund Me” started by the Aging Life Care Association raised almost $10,000 for Jim, he did not have enough to rebuild his Paradise home where he had his home-based GCM business. Then he and  90% of the residents of Paradise never returned.

Emergency Plan-Every geriatric care professional needs a formal, written backup plan that dictates action, should a disaster or emergency arise.

 

It‘s necessary to assess your company’s risk of temporary or permanent service disrup­tion  you will prepare for emergencies with an agency emergency plan

if a disaster or emergency is experienced. This may seem an overwhelming task at first, but when you break it down into pieces, it becomes workable.

One part of your emergency plan should be explaining an emergency plan and checking the home for safety at intake. Then at each monitoring visit have an emergency plan checklist to make sure safety devices work- and are still in the house –are their batteries that still work, flashlights fire alarms, if an emergency exit plan is still posted, and family or paid caregivers still trained on what to do in an emergency.

Learn how to prepare for emergencies and how you can prepare yourself, your clients, and your staff for disasters and absences of key personnel.

With global warming’s effects causing fires like the Maui Fire -floods, larger hurricanes, and the specter of more catastrophic weather events, you need to prepare for emergencies. Get the new Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition now at my website –  out in Kindle or hardback with an excellent chapter on how to prepare your agency for disasters, plus forms to use, by former GCM President Liz Barlow.           

 

 

 

Filed Under: Advanced Directives and Covid-19, advanced directives& COVID-19, Aging, aging family crisis, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, ALCA COVID-19 Crisis, ALCA Disaster Plan, ALCA Products for COVID_19, Blog, Coronavirus Coaching, Coronavirus emergency plan, Coronavirus safety elders, coronavirus shut down, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, COVID, COVID-19 & Care Management, COVID-19 & Wildfire, COVID-19 &Shelter in Place Plan, Covid-19 and GCM SERVICES, COVID-19 Emergency Go Binder, COVID-19 Emergency Plan, Covid-19 GCM Products, COVID-19 Hospital Discharge Plan, COVID-19 Plus Hurricane, COVID-19 Recover at Home Plan, elder care manager, Emergency Go Binder, Emergency Plan, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: 5th edition GCM OPERATIONS MANUAL, ADVANCED DIRECTIVES & COVID-19, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, COVID GCM Procedures, COVID- 19 GO Binder, COVID-19 PRODUCTS, Covid-19 Telehealth, COVID-19& LONG DISTANCE CARE, crisis with aging parents, geriatric care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, parent care crisis

What is President Biden’s New Infrastructre Caregiver Plan?

April 14, 2021

President Biden announced the American Jobs Plan, a $2 trillion investment in infrastructure, jobs, and home care. It includes a $400 billion investment to expand access to Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS)

Why This Plan for Home-Based Care?

Only 15% of U.S. seniors 80 or older receive care at home. In Switzerland, Denmark, Mexico, and Sweden, that figure is above 30%, with numbers even higher in Israel and Lithuania.

Medicaid has slowly evolved over the years, placing a greater emphasis on home- and community-based services. But the ground gained has been relatively minor compared to investments in other settings like nursing homes.

In 1995, Medicaid spent about 18 cents out of every long-term care dollar on HCBS services. Today, that number has reached 57 cents per dollar.

The Scale of the Problem is Mamouth

The number of seniors is projected to grow by more than 40 million, approximately

doubling, by 2050, while the population older than 85 will nearly triple. Unlike most other industrialized nations, the United States does not provide a public long-term-care benefit for all older adults.

Only10-15% of Americans can Afford Private Duty Homecare

Because Medicare does not pay for home care, only the top 10-15 % can afford private duty home care, while in many other nations it is a right and free to all through the government. What Biden’s new plan does is take a giant step in making home care possible a greater number of Americans.

The plan calls for expanding access to and quality of HCBS to help more older adults and people with disabilities live in the community and extending the Money Follows the Person program to help individuals who are in nursing facilities and other institutions return to the community. 

What The Pandemic Has taught us about Aging and Dying

at Home

What the continuing pandemic has painfully taught us is when we are ill- we want to be home in the arms of our family. When we are threatened with or facing death, we do not want want to be in a sterile hospital with only anonymous caring nurses and zoom to comfort us in our last minutes in this world. We want to be at home- in the arms of our family and loving caregivers.

Long before the COVID-19 emergency, health care policy experts have increasingly recognized the value of home-based health care. A recent AARP survey found that three in four adults 50 years and older would prefer to age in their homes and communities. And a growing body of evidence suggests it is less expensive to deliver care in the home.

Indeed, for years we’ve seen hospitalized patients more quickly returning to their homes and communities to heal and recover safely, reducing costs for themselves and the health care system.

The Plague of Isolation on top of the Plague of COVID -in Locked Down Nursing Homes

Home-based care addresses negative health effects of social isolation and loneliness, which drive poorer health outcomes that annually cost billions of excess health care dollars. 

Isolation is also equal to 15 cigarettes each day. Elders in a nursing home during the pandemic were isolated from the families and their fellow residents so much so that despair may have led to the 174000 deaths as of March 2021. 

So Biden has launched a bill the builds the infrastructure of home care for the lower 30% on Medicaid until in America’s future, Medicare and home care for all is reached.

 

Filed Under: Age at home, AGING IN PLACE, American Jobs Plan, Blog, COVID-19 Recover at Home Plan, COVID-19 Safety, Expanding Medicare to Home Care, FOLLOW THE MONEY, geriatric care management emergency proceduress, geriatric care manager, Geriatric Care Managers value, geriatric social worker, Good Death, Home Based Care, home care, Home Care for All, Home From the Hospital, LOSING CLients TO COVID, Monet Follows the Person Program, Quality of Life, quality of life -COVID-19, Quality of Life for elders Tagged With: aging life and geriatric care manager, aging life care management, aging life care start up, aging life geriatric care manager, aging life or geriatric care manager, American Jobs Plan, Biden's Home Care Plan, Biden's Infastructure Bill, Deaths in Nursing Homes, Expanding Home Care, Home and Community Based Care, Home Based Care, home care, Isolation in Nursing Homes, Medicaid & Community Based Care, Medicaid funded Home Care, Medicare for All, Money Flows to the Person, nurse advocates, nurse entrepreneur

Using Telehealth During Covid? Learn to Market GCM COVID -19 Coaching

January 28, 2021

COVID-19 Coaching Service for Aging Families

If you have designed COVID -19  coaching services for your agency or attended my last webinar to learn how to create one using  telehealth coaching ( If you missed it click on this link to watch  )

Take the next step

 Take the next step and learn to market COVID coaching and sign up new clients for your Aging COVID-19 coaching services, for both long-distance and local- adult children. These services need to be based on science and sound public health policies. Help family care providers faced with a pandemic, support aging love ones through a COVID Hospitalization and recovering at home.

Mixed Messaging by Feds creates Chaos 4 Aging Families

Be able to offer care management COVID services that help  fill the gap that the new administration is attempting to recalibrate from the last administrations bungled in  the federal government, state, county, cities, and CDC‘s mixed messaging, leaving family caregivers confused and 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 to safety right now.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel , Geriatric Care Management, to learn more about marketing geriatric care management 

Filed Under: Aging Families and Disaster, Blog, Coronavirus Coaching, Coronavirus emergency plan, Coronavirus safety elders, coronavirus shut down, Covid 19 Webinar, COVID-19 & Care Management, Covid-19 and GCM SERVICES, COVID-19 Recover at Home Plan, COVID-19 Webinar, email newsletter, Emergency Plan, FREE WEBINAR, GCM COACHING SKILLS, GCM COVID 19 Crisis, GCM Disaster Plan, GCM emergency procedures, George Bush, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker Tagged With: aging family, aging family crisis, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, coronavirus and seniors, Coronavirus disaster plan, covid -19 geriatric care manager, COVID COACHING, COVID discharge coaching, COVID-19 coaching services, Covid-19 Telehealth, COVID-19 Telehealth product, GCM closed downs COVID, GCM Telehealth Product, geriatric care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Shelter in place & telehealth

Why You Need a Marketing Data Base Especailly Now with COVID?

September 21, 2020

COVID Has Made Marketing To Lead Sources Critical

Geriatric Care Managers Need a Marketing Database

You need a marketing or Contact Management database( CRM) to market to lead sources. An aging life or geriatric care management agency’s marketing has three key target audiences or lead sources: individual clients who need care, referral sources, and children of aging parents.  Marketing databases are the key to reaching lead sources such as 3rd party referrals like elder law attorneys, upscale assisted living, trust officers, concierge physicians.

In the Deadly Fall Confluence of COVID and Seasonal Flu You Really Need the Right Marketing DataBase

The JAMA Journal tells us “The confluence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and seasonal influenza this fall and winter will result in considerable morbidity and mortality, stressing the health

system. With more than 200 000 COVID-19–related deaths already, the US could see a second wave of disease later this year. In 2018-2019 (a “moderate” year for influenza), the US experienced 35.5 million influenza cases, with 490 600 hospitalizations and 34 200 deaths related to influenza.1 An effective COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely until 2021. Even though seasonal influenza vaccines have variable year-to-year effectiveness, they can significantly reduce morbidity and mortality, especially with high coverage.”

Here are some of the many choices ALCA or Geriatric Care Managers can check out

  • SalesForce For Small Business 
  • GoldMine 
  • Act!
  • Highrise is a contact management database.  Easier to use than SalesForce,  Basic account for 6 users, with 5 GB of storage and 5,000 contacts is $24.00 monthly.
  •  Zoho lets you have 3 users and up to 5,000 contacts. An Excel spreadsheet of contacts can work in a start-up if the file is set up correctly to capture the necessary information.
  • Clear care can also be used as a contact database and a client database used by Aging Life GCM who have a home health component 
  • WHY DO YOU NEED Customer Relationship Database FOR MARKETING?

  • Rolodex on Speed                                               
  • Throw away all those business cards
  • ADD all 3rd party targets you need to market to for referrals
  • all contacts in the community that help you weave a care plan- can be the same as targets
  • all the contacts that you use as your individual prescription- which is your care plan
  • Will send a form elder law letter to all elder law  or third party contacts o ( Att) track all calls or marketing visits to a concierge physician or any contact group C(P)Track your marketing visits, data, send Follow up letters
  • Adding all of your continuum of care or all contacts in the community that help you weave a care plan- physicians, elder mediators, CCRC and all housing, MFT who specialize in aging-Use all the really good contacts that you use as your individual prescription- which is your care plan-  
  • SIGN UP For FREE WebinarMARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT DURING COVIDOctober 22 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST
  • As you are approaching the busiest season for care manager’s  the holidays when families visit remotely or in-person for the holiday and see their elderly parents skating on very thin aging iceLearn 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 COVIDConvert 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. THIS FREE  WEBINAR  FROM 2 PM – 3 PM PST October 22, 2020

     

    You are invited to a Zoom webinar.
    When: Oct 22, 2020, 02:00 PM Pacific Time (the

    US and Canada)
    Topic: MARKET THIS Fall LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT

    Register in advance for this webinar:

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

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Community & Covid-19, Aging deaths, Aging Families and Disaster, aging life business, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, ALCA Disaster Plan, Benefits of Care Management, Benefits vs Features, Coronavirus Coaching, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus marketing, coronavirus quality of life virtual program, Covid 19 Webinar, COVID-19 & Care Management, COVID-19 &Shelter in Place Plan, Covid-19 and GCM SERVICES, COVID-19 Recover at Home Plan, COVID19 Deaths Essential worker, database, e-newsletter, Features vs Benefits, FREE MARKETING WEBINAR, FREE WEBINAR, GCM Start -Up, GCM Start-Up, GCM technology, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric care manager, geriatric care manager start up, geriatric social worker, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, Marketing data base, marketing pitch, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging life care manager, aging life or geriatric care manager, aging life target audience, benefits of ALCA, Benefits of care management, Benefits Of Geriatric Care Managers, Benefits vs Features, care manager, case manager, COVID & Christmas, COVID & Halloween, COVID & Holiday Season, COVID & Holidays, COVID & Seasonal Flu, COVID COACHING, COVID GCM Procedures, Covid-19 Telehealth, COVID& Thanksgiving, CRM care manager data base, CRM for Geriatric Care Manager, Fall Tempest of COVID&FLU, GCM contact data base, geriatric care manager, marketing data base, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Qualifying for VA Benefits

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