Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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I’ll be Home For Christmas in Spite of COVID if my Sibling’s Not there

December 6, 2020

      

 Holiday Films Can Be About Ruptured Relationships        

For many of us, the road home for the holidays is rutty especially this year with rampant COVID. For some, the path has gaping potholes. It can remind us of childhood conflicts between siblings that ruptured our relationship. Adult children who would still gather with elderly parents and siblings may be glad we all should not travel on the holiday this year due to the pandemic, as they avoid the awful holiday with an estranged sibling.

A great film to watch for nasty sibling rivalry with the comic brilliance of Vince Vaughn and  Paul Giamatti is Fred Claus. Fred neglected by Mrs. Claus by favorite son St Nick, who takes all his presents, turns to life as a repo man to get even. It sounds like a dumb film and is a little dumb but has a stellar cast in Kathy Bates, Miranda Richardson, Kevin Spacey, and Rachel Weisz. 

Adult Sibling Rivalry Usually Starts in Childhood

Serious sibling rivalry happens when the damage was done by a sister or brother years ago, leaving a  never healing gash in our mind. In fact, that old wound from a sibling may still fester and ooze enough to lead us to say we believe we don’t want to see the family on the holidays.

We feel we hate our siblings for many different reasons. The chief complaint that lurks in our mind is that Mom or Dad favored them over us. She got the new prom dress for her high school celebration, and a few years later we ended up with her hand-me-down. Dad sent him to a great four-year college, and we were sent to a community college near home. She was the baby so got to grow up with late curfews and loose rules, when Mom and Dad were unbearably strict with the rest of us. He was the oldest and Mom needed him to take care of the bunch of us, so she let him boss us around. He was the stepsibling who moved in and took over half our room.

Sibling Rivalry Can Stop Adult Children FRom Helping Aging Parents Stay Safe From COVID

That can all come back again if adult children do travel back for the holidays, against all CDC and State warnings. Just traveling back could give the adult child or worse, the elderly parent, the unwanted gift, like lethal coal in their stocking,  COVID. But if the siblings do journey all back to the family celebration, they all can open Pandora’s box of the past, picking favorite siblings or parental slights. Whatever happened in their childhood, can flashback like holiday PTSD. If the aging parents are struggling they may look for a GCM, so make sure that skill is on your website and be very sure you have skills in working with sibling rivalry.  My book Care Managers Working with The Aging Family has a chapter in it with tools to work with adult siblings.

Siblings Need TO Work Together to Keep Aging Parents Safe From Pandemic

This is a time when adult parents need adult siblings to work together as a team to ensure aging parents’ safety during COVID. This means not even going home to risk COVID. Adult children staying home also means one sibling setting up a virtual family

meeting to create a family plan to increase aging parents quality of life while sheltering in place alone with rising loneliness and isolation, It means making sure they have and are using all safety precautions against getting the virus and having a family plan if they are hospitalized, then discharged to recover or even to recovering with no hospitalizations if hospitals are full and turn patients away. . A geriatric care manager can offer that to the family.

Start a Coaching COVID Service for AGING Families

So pre Holiday, add Coaching Adult Children  and marketing this skill  to Help their older relatives with COVID risks and use your knowledge of helping adult sibling strife to help them help their

parents as a family team

 

 

Filed Under: Aging, Blog, COVID & HOLIDAY SEASON, Covid Holiday Remote Visit, COVID-19 & Care Management, COVID-19 &Shelter in Place Plan, COVID-19 Emergency Plan, Cut-Off, Dysfunctional aging family, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Holiday Meltdown in Aging Family, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, Holiday season, Holiday Sibling Rivalry, HolidaySeason and COVID, Senior Isolation, Senior Loneliness, sibling rivalry, sibling sharing care, Sibling Strife Christmas, Sibling Strife COCID, Sibling Strife COVID, Sibling Strife Holidays, Siblings, Virtual Family Meeting, Virtual Family meeting COVID Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, care manager, case manager, estranged midlife sibling, geriatric care manager, 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

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

Save Post Our Office -Shut Down is Devastating Threat to Elders

August 18, 2020

The Slowdown by the US Postal Service is Calamitous to Older Americans

They grew up with the mail reaching Americans regardless of their political party. Older people knew it as the beloved circulatory system of their communication and now much more that. For them, it was “enshrined in the Constitution.”  Article 1, Section 8 says: … The U.S. Constitution, in 1789, authorized Congress to establish “Post Offices and post Roads”, because they grew up taking civics, which was zeroed out of the national curriculum to our peril.

 In an NPR interview, a postal carrier states “I mean, for goodness sake, I think the Grand Canyon, we reach people via donkey”.

 Now every American and the elderly seem to be getting their mail by donkey

This slow down to mail is a crisis for seniors. It is about “not getting” the ” Much more than that” I talked about. Older people depend on the timely mail delivery of everything from prescription medications to Social Security checks, to Va checks and free VA meds sent in the mail. The Postal Service says it’s also the leading delivery service for online purchases. They vote online as they do not want to risk getting coronavirus in the crowded precincts or stand in long lines in the November cold. So elders use the PO to get groceries, emergency supplies, pay their bills by mail, get VA Checks, and send the precious cards from their grandchildren.

Shelter in Place Takes meds on-line delivered by PO

During COVID -19, elders medications not arriving on time in the mail becomes critical to their health. Seniors are supposed to shelter in place, so online delivery by the PO gets them the medications they need, delivered to their home. They are told not to go to the pharmacy and risk infections. A whopping 20 percent of adults over 40 who take medication for a chronic condition get those pills by mail order, according to a survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association.

Wildfire Tornados, Hurricanes, and COVID The Trifecta of death this Summer

On top of this, we are in the spine-chilling season of weather emergencies. The West just started the brutal wildfire season where California is now having wildfire tornados. Deep in the hurricane season this month, when climate change has doubled our chance of these fearsome storms the East coast is threatened daily by these mammoth storms actually 2 right now.  In an escalating COVID-19 calamity where elders are the most at risk for death, they are faced with mind-bending double disaster threats.

The CDC is telling seniors to shelter in place

and get their meds and emergency supplies on line in their warning” Give yourself more time than usual to prepare your emergency food, water, and medicine and medical supplies. Home delivery is the safest choice for buying disaster supplies;” But the mail slowdown and nasty weather have colluded to stop this lifeline. So deliveries are not the safest choice if they do not get there before the disaster. Seniors cannot always go to shelter because people are less than 6 ft apart, so older people are going to die at home or end up in the COVID infected hospitals in November Twindemics without all the medication they need. They will die needlessly if their write-in ballot never shows up or they are reduced to standing in freezing lines at the polls.

PO Destroying Huge Machines That Sort the Mail to Slow it

That lifeline is being cut by the head of the Postal Service the US postal service, laying off workers, 33 top supervisors, taking mailboxes off the street dragging off out over 50 huge bar code sorters worth millions and destroying them wrecking the very equipment that makes the mail go fast—–make all those critical ways to destroy the PO- a beloved circulatory system in our country.

Call Your Local Congressman or Woman

If you work with seniors, have them in your family or care for them to do this to help. Call your representative in Congress and tell them you want them to save the Post Office. They want to get re-elected and if enough constituents tell them that this is a critical issue – they act. You might not have had civics but this is how government works, according to Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Do not allow our post office our elders our American to dissolve and die. Rage Rage at the Coming of the Night.

Filed Under: Blog, Contact Your Congressman, coronavirus, Coronavirus emergency plan, Coronavirus safety elders, coronavirus shut down, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, COVID-19 & Wildfire, COVID-19 &Shelter in Place Plan, COVID-19 Plus Hurricane, GCM Disaster Plan, Hurricane and Covid, nurse advocate, On-line Delivery for Meds, On-line delivery for Pandemic, Pandemic, parent care, Post Office shut Down, Retired Veterans, USPO Destroyed, Wildfire Tornados Tagged With: aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, Call Your Congressman, geriatric care manager, global warming, Hurricane Season, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, On line deliveries, On-line Delivery of meds, On-line Voting &PO, Seniors Shetering in Place, slow mail delivery, USPO destroyed, Wildfire Tornados

What Do Long Distance Care Families Need for Parent’s Sheltering in Place 4 COVID ?

August 15, 2020

 

 Long-Distance Care Providers need a safety net for themselves.

Adult Children who live at a distance from older family members need someone to cover the tasks to help their loved ones when needed.  During COVID -19 when all elders should shelter in place because they are the most vulnerable to the novel, deadly virus long-distance care providers really need help.

COVID -19 means it is best for people over 65 to have little contact with others. But not all the supplies can be ordered online. In fact with the Post office delivery slowing down, everyone who lives long distance, may wait a long time for delivery of needed items for COVID safety, especially if they live in a rural area,. These family caregivers may need someone to actually shop and pick meds at the last minute when needed food or meds do not arrive by mail. Having another person to accompany the elder on walks with a mask and safe distancing or a drive breaks up the tedium that can arise from the loneliness and isolation of sheltering in place.

 

Safety Net for Double Disasters

If there is an emergency on top of the pandemic- Long-distance care providers need someone to respond as they live far away. During this summer with double disasters like wildfires now in Colorado, hurricanes blowing up the east coast they need an emergency plan on top of the COVID threat. A surrogate must be ready to help the older loved one right away and get them out of harm’s way fast and check if it is even safe to go to a shelter.  What they need is an emergency safety net.

Call a Care Manager

If family at a distance does not have a friend or neighbor who can do this, they should consider the perfect emergency and daily safety net in a geriatric care manager. The Aging Life Care Association has an online search tool to find a professional by ZIP code. It also includes a list of questions to ask when you look to hire someone.

GCM can Provide & Supervise Caregivers’s For Covid Related Tasks

If the family caregivers chooses, the care manager will arrange for well screened aide, practicing covid saftey,  to do all the shopping, take the elder out in the neighborhood for a walk or a car ride, prepare

meals, engage in social connections, and do all the cleaning and disinfecting need daily with  the coronavirus threat . The GCM will visit aging parents on a regular basis to check on the health status of the elder in general and in relationship to Covid-19 exposure plus confer with their care providers along with texts calling and email them for supervision. Most of all they will regularly confer with with the family caregiver to get keep them up to date.

Find Help Now

The Long Distance care provider can have care providers from the care management agency care do all of these tasks, depending upon other back-up and care level of your older loved one. A care manager themselves, will directly monitor your loved one’s health, respond in emergencies like hospital admission, accompany them to a doctor and manage the care management care providers when you are not there and directly report to you. To find care managers go to the Aging Life Care Association 

Successfully Market Your GCM COVID 19 Service

 

If you are a geriatric care manager or Aging Professional 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, using telehealth. 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  

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

Filed Under: Aging, aging family crisis, aging life care manager, Blog, coronavirus, Coronavirus emergency plan, Coronavirus safety elders, CORONAVIRUS Stay at Home Plan, Covid 19, COVID-19 & Care Management, COVID-19 &Shelter in Place Plan, Covid-19 and GCM SERVICES, GCM COVID 19 Crisis, GCM Disaster Plan, GCM emergency procedures, Geriatric Care Manager, Geriatric Care Managers value, geriatric social worker, Loneliness, Long Distance Care & COVID-19, Long distance caregiver, Long Term Care Coverage, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Pandemic Tagged With: covid -19 geriatric care manager, covid & hurricanes, covid & wildfires, covid disaster emergency plan, covid safety net, COVID-19 prevention, COVID-19&LONG DISTANCE CARE, hiring geriatric care manager, long distance caregiver, long distance families, long-distance surrogate

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