Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice

February 28, 2022

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice?

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice are myriad.The geriatric care manager serves older adults before they find they are dying, so know them well. GCMs work with chronic care clients, sometimes for years, before eventually succumbing to their illness. They also work with clients who come to them facing the end of life issues.

 Care managers work with the process of acceptance and adjustment to terminal illness has five phases:

                                                    before the diagnosis,

 the acute phase ­

the chronic phase

 the recovery phase

 the terminal phase 

Thus the benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice is the care manager is a GPS for both the client and family through all stages at end of life, bringing in critical services like palliative care and hospice caregiver respite and quality of life the whole continuum of care for supporting the end of life- at the right phase at the right time –

Benefits You (as a GCM) will Bring to Hospice

 

  • Feature – geriatric care manager will bring the client to Hospice much earlier in the 5 stages of death and dying than the one month before death when most patients enter Benefit- the client &  & especially the family have the support and guidance 24x7throughallstages of dying
  • Care managers do a Quality of Death assessment to find out the patient’s wishes for a good death Benefit- the dying patient has the death he or she wants
  • You will make sure all the critical paperwork is needed is gathered and organized, including:
  • Insurance
  • Legal
  • Financial
  • Healthcare
  • End of life

Interventions vary according to the phase. The GCM may already have served the client and they are now facing a terminal diagnosis. But a geriatric care manager may be brought in when the family is negotiating through any one of these phases, their work begins with making a determination of what phase the client is in and what services are appropriate for that client at that stage. They are also the best professionals to bring in the quality of life to every phase so that the client can have not only a good death but a good life to the very end.

Benefits You Bring To the Family Friends and Hospice

  • Care Manager will monitor the client/care receiver’s and family caregiver’s health and psychosocial status and the paid caregiver’s care plan, to improve the quality of care and life for the client and caregiver  benefit So That Hospice can direct all it’s attention to the client and assured family caregivers needs are being met
  • Care Manager will accompany the client to all medical appointments and make sure that the 10 minutes cover all questions, that the physician’s orders are recorded and followed, and that all meds are picked up and set up properly Benefit –Hospice does not provide this  and ensures the client gets to all appointment relieves the family of another task and everyone is getting all the correct information from the physician
  • Care Manager will make sure that the family has an online personal health record or a notebook if they wish Benefit -The family has a way to keep track of information from many professionals involved and passes on the correct information to everyone in the family and they can feel more in control in an emotionally chaotic time
  • Care Manager will do a caregiver assessment and suggest interventions from the local continuum of care, including support groups, counseling, respite care, and private duty home care Benefit–You are insuring a whole family approach and  the family caregivers are getting the support and respite they need in this frightening time for their loved one
  • You will coordinate family meetings to facilitate issues like shock, grief, and shutting down Benefit You are a container, allowing the family caregiver to deposit their tremulous at times desperate feelings in a safe place so they can get help from you and be calmer for the dying loved one
  • You will coordinate health literacy information and training of disease skills for the family So What- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear, and even hopes and demystifying all the unknown medical terminology to make the family feel more literate and self-assured in approaching the medical staff to get the information they need
  • You will monitor anticipatory grief in family and friends and bring in resources

    Benefit- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear ,even hope and find the help they need to so on with the journey to death

    The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice
  • You will review all new medication with family caregivers and care staff- Benefit-you will unravel the confusing litany of pharmaceutical word salad  and make sure the family and friends both understand  what med does what, how to set up meds, and remind the meds when hospice is not present

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties  to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: March 15th 2022  

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice


2 PM-3:30 PM PST
Learn
 

What is a benefit vs features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to?

What specific problems do you solve for hospice, wealth managers, elder law attorneys, and concierge physicians  

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s  

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the sale

SIGN UP


Find out more by watching my youtube playlist on Death and Dying on my channel Geriatric Care 1

Follow Cathy @ cathycress.com

Filed Under: 5 Stages of Dying, 5 stages of End of Life, Acute Stage of Dying, Adult Child Pain, Advanced Directives, Aging, Aging deaths, aging family crisis, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, ALCA Role Death and Dying, Benefits, Benefits of ALCA to Hospice, Benefits of Care Management, Benefits of Care Management to Hospice, Benefits of Geriatric Care Management, Benefits vs Features, Benifits & Assisted Living, Blog, care manager, case manager, Death & Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, elder care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Goof Death, Hospice, Hospice Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Palliative care manager Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, Benefits, benefits of ALCA, Benefits of Care Managers To Hospice, Benefits Of Geriatric Care Managers, Black, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black caregivers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black geriatric care managers, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, Black RN's, care manager, case manager, end of life, end of life care manager, Features and Benefits, Features and Benefits of geriatric care management, five phases of death, free webinar, Free webinar marketing, geriatric care manager, Hospice, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, palliative care manager. Hospice

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice

February 28, 2022

The Benefits of a Care Manager’s Role in Hospice?

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice are myriad.The geriatric care manager serves older adults before they find they are dying, so know them well. GCMs work with chronic care clients, sometimes for years, before eventually succumbing to their illness. They also work with clients who come to them facing the end of life issues.

 Care managers work with the process of acceptance and adjustment to terminal illness has five phases:

                                                    before the diagnosis,

 the acute phase ­

the chronic phase

 the recovery phase

 the terminal phase 

Thus the benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice is the care manager is a GPS for both the client and family through all stages at end of life, bringing in critical services like palliative care and hospice caregiver respite and quality of life the whole continuum of care for supporting the end of life- at the right phase at the right time –

Benefits You (as a GCM) will Bring to Hospice

 

  • Feature – geriatric care manager will bring the client to Hospice much earlier in the 5 stages of death and dying than the one month before death when most patients enter Benefit- the client &  & especially the family have the support and guidance 24x7throughallstages of dying
  • Care managers do a Quality of Death assessment to find out the patient’s wishes for a good death Benefit- the dying patient has the death he or she wants
  • You will make sure all the critical paperwork is needed is gathered and organized, including:
  • Insurance
  • Legal
  • Financial
  • Healthcare
  • End of life

Interventions vary according to the phase. The GCM may already have served the client and they are now facing a terminal diagnosis. But a geriatric care manager may be brought in when the family is negotiating through any one of these phases, their work begins with making a determination of what phase the client is in and what services are appropriate for that client at that stage. They are also the best professionals to bring in the quality of life to every phase so that the client can have not only a good death but a good life to the very end.

Benefits You Bring To the Family Friends and Hospice

  • Care Manager will monitor the client/care receiver’s and family caregiver’s health and psychosocial status and the paid caregiver’s care plan, to improve the quality of care and life for the client and caregiver  benefit So That Hospice can direct all it’s attention to the client and assured family caregivers needs are being met
  • Care Manager will accompany the client to all medical appointments and make sure that the 10 minutes cover all questions, that the physician’s orders are recorded and followed, and that all meds are picked up and set up properly Benefit –Hospice does not provide this  and ensures the client gets to all appointment relieves the family of another task and everyone is getting all the correct information from the physician
  • Care Manager will make sure that the family has an online personal health record or a notebook if they wish Benefit -The family has a way to keep track of information from many professionals involved and passes on the correct information to everyone in the family and they can feel more in control in an emotionally chaotic time
  • Care Manager will do a caregiver assessment and suggest interventions from the local continuum of care, including support groups, counseling, respite care, and private duty home care Benefit–You are insuring a whole family approach and  the family caregivers are getting the support and respite they need in this frightening time for their loved one
  • You will coordinate family meetings to facilitate issues like shock, grief, and shutting down Benefit You are a container, allowing the family caregiver to deposit their tremulous at times desperate feelings in a safe place so they can get help from you and be calmer for the dying loved one
  • You will coordinate health literacy information and training of disease skills for the family So What- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear, and even hopes and demystifying all the unknown medical terminology to make the family feel more literate and self-assured in approaching the medical staff to get the information they need
  • You will monitor anticipatory grief in family and friends and bring in resources

    Benefit- You will create a forum for the family caregivers to express their grief, fear ,even hope and find the help they need to so on with the journey to death

    The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice
  • You will review all new medication with family caregivers and care staff- Benefit-you will unravel the confusing litany of pharmaceutical word salad  and make sure the family and friends both understand  what med does what, how to set up meds, and remind the meds when hospice is not present

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Sell Benefits not Features to Third Parties  to Grow Your Care Management Bottom Line

When: March 15th 2022  

The benefits of a care manager’s role in hospice


2 PM-3:30 PM PST
Learn
 

What is a benefit vs features and how to find benefits for each 3rd party you market to?

What specific problems do you solve for hospice, wealth managers, elder law attorneys, and concierge physicians  

What specific problems to solve for upscale Assisted Living, accountants, financial planners, MD’s  

Step by Step how to set up meetings with 3rd parties to make the sale

SIGN UP


Find out more by watching my youtube playlist on Death and Dying on my channel Geriatric Care 1

Follow Cathy @ cathycress.com

Filed Under: 5 Stages of Dying, 5 stages of End of Life, Acute Stage of Dying, Adult Child Pain, Advanced Directives, Aging, Aging deaths, aging family crisis, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, ALCA Role Death and Dying, Benefits, Benefits of ALCA to Hospice, Benefits of Care Management, Benefits of Care Management to Hospice, Benefits of Geriatric Care Management, Benefits vs Features, Benifits & Assisted Living, Blog, care manager, case manager, Death & Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, elder care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Goof Death, Hospice, Hospice Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Palliative care manager Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, Benefits, benefits of ALCA, Benefits of Care Managers To Hospice, Benefits Of Geriatric Care Managers, Black, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black caregivers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black geriatric care managers, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, Black RN's, care manager, case manager, end of life, end of life care manager, Features and Benefits, Features and Benefits of geriatric care management, five phases of death, free webinar, Free webinar marketing, geriatric care manager, Hospice, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, palliative care manager. Hospice

How Does Atul Gawande View Quality of Life in Dying ?

September 15, 2021

 

   A good life to the very end 

Atul Gawande’s acclaimed book, “Being Mortal“ opened our eyes to the medical way of death. He showed millions of readers how the quality of life and human interaction while dying trump the number of years gained through questionable painful procedures and dying in an institution.

He tells us that “our ultimate, goal, after, is not a good death but a good life to the very end

 

Quality of Life Can Be There to the End of Life

GCM Nina Herndon brings you that same quality of life message- about dying –where an elder can still live the end of life with joy. Her chapter “Supporting Clients’ Quality of Life: Drawing on Community, Informal Networks, and Care Manager Creativity” in the Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition is a geriatric care management Nina has devoted her career to giving elders a care plan for a happy life and a happy life to the very end.

 Bringing Joy in the here and now of Dying

 Bringing joy in the here and now of dying can be done through using quality of life tools- Spiritual, emotional, intellectual, creative, and physical quality of life. Increasing the spiritual quality of life can mean for a person is dying and wishes to return to a spiritual group she knew before, connecting them to the faith they are familiar with. Even homebound clients can have visits from members of a religious community or a prelate. They can have hymns sung, prayers said or whatever religious ritual their spiritual group follows, like communion, at home. Care providers can be trained to engage them by reading religious texts or playing hymns.

The Power Reminiscence at End of Life

Spirituality can be the environment. I once had a client who was in a nursing home dying of cancer and wanted to go home to die with hospice and 24-hour care. Hisgrandma_holding_rosary_shutterstock_40017103-255x255.jpg spirituality was the environment and he had been a lead volunteer to build a trail in Santa Clara California from Los Gatos up the steep winding highway 17 over the Santa Cruz mountains to the Lexington Reservoir. He had no family so the care manager asked the volunteers he had worked with if they would visit him at his home. They happily agreed and 300 volunteers took shifts, 24 hours a day to sit with him reminisce, tell stories and sing while he died over several weeks. This is what joy that bringing a spiritual quality of life can offer in dying.

Tools for Reminicance at End of Life

Friends emailing short personal videos with good wishes and memories, that a family member can show on a phone or computer- can bring emotional joy at end of life. Sending notes, not of condolences but great memories can be a salve to dying. Volunteering to give respite to family members, if visiting is allowed during COVID or post the pandemic, can give an opportunity to share old memories or look at old photos and give family respite. You may have thought those old photo albums should be dumped but they can bring the joy of reminiscence if shared at end of life or with seniors at any time.

 

 

Subscribe to my Youtube channel 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, care manager, case manager, Death & Dying, Death and Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, End of Life, End of Life Care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Good Death, Hospice, Hospice Care, Hospital care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Photo Albums& Reminicance, Quality of Life, Quality of Life and Reminicance, Quality of Life for elders, Quality of Life in Death, Quality of Life in Dying Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, assessing for quality of life, Atul Gawande, Being Mortal, black aging family, black american geriatric care managers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black geriatric care managers, Black Nurse Entrepreneurs, Black start-up geriatric care management, Black travel nurses, care manager, case manager, death and dying, geriatric care manager, Handbook of Geriatric Care Management, nurse care manager, Quality of Life at end of life, quality of life in dying, Reminicence Therapy, Reminiscence at End of Life

Can You Give a Good Death without” Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light”?

March 9, 2021

slide-worried-manjpg.jpg

Dylan’s Thomas warns us in his poem

 

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at  close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

 Give a good death – not a cold terrifying dying of the light.

 

But today a care manager or geriatric social worker can help an older client go gentle into that good night, they do not have to burn and rage at the close of their day because you will be giving them as Atul Gawande suggests – a good death – not a cold terrifying dying of the light.

 

The terminal phase of any life-threatening illness is the time between diagnosis and the final decline when no cure or extension of life is in the offing. The individual confronts progressive decline and deterioration. Death is imminent. The care manager has a role.

The focus of doctors and patients now changes from attempting to cure the illness or prolong life to trying to provide relief from pain and to comfort the sufferer. Religious concerns such as what happens after someone passes away or how to handle the suffering at the end of life or how to give comfort to family members are the focus during this time as well as trying to tie up any loose ends.

Death to Rage About- Alone in the Hospital

But in the time of the plague, when  95.5 % of souls still die in the hospital and not at

home the care manager has a critical role with the family. High tech introduced by the care manager and at times the hospital with the care manager coordinating the family outsides and unable to touch their dying loved one – can make this death full of rage more gentle as the person passes into the night.

Care Manager tasks:

Make a referral to hospice if the family has not  already reached out

Partner with hospice and work under them

Monitor anticipatory grief needs

 Communicate that this is the end (and time to say goodbye)

 Assess spiritual needs and contact the appropriate religious-spiritual counselors to provide comfort and healing.

 Encourage family members to say The Four Things That Matter Most   “Please forgive me”, “I forgive you”, “Thank you”, and “I love you”.

Assess the need for paid caregivers to help the family or help family members share round the clock care among family and friends

 Support the family members in their need to grieve and have respite by continuing to assess for overload and burn out with a caregiver assessment tool 

Prepare family for the active phase of dying which can be loud and disturbing to someone who is not aware of what will occur

Bring in technology if death is alone in the hospital

 

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

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

 

Serve Your Client Until Death Do You Part

 In this 1 ½ -hour webinar you will learn how to

 

 

1.Transition the patient/family through the five stages of death

2. Help clients be active participants in their care

3.Give the family/caregiver tools to manage 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

 

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

 

 

Filed Under: 5 Stages of Dying, 5 stages of End of Life, Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, ALCA Role Death and Dying, Blog, care manager, case manager, Death & Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, elder care manager, End of Life, End of Life Care manager, End of life documents, Families, Five Stages of Death, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Good Death, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Palliative care manager, Webinar, Webinar ALCA GCM Tagged With: 5 stages of death, adding geriatric care management, aging life care manager, ALCA &end of life, ALCA Death and Dying, Atul Gawande nurse care manager eldercare manager, Benefits Care Managers, Benefits of Care Managers To Hospice, care manager, case manager, death and dying, eldercare manager, end of life care, free webinar, geriatric care manager, Hospice at end of life, Hospice Care, Palliative Care, terminal phase of dying, US medicaization of Death

What is the GCM’s Role is the Recovery Phase of Death and Dying ?

March 7, 2021

photo.JPG

 

The recovery phase of death and dying 

This occurs when people finally are able to cope with the mental, social, physical, religious, and financial effects of their disease, a heavy load  In the disease process and acceptance process, this is the period of time after a medical procedure such as chemotherapy, radiation or surgery. The client’s response to treatment is being monitored. Recovery does not always mean remission, but instead, it is the ability to accept and deal with the struggles of their illness

A Story About the recovery phase

William died at the home of his son after he had accepted that he was to die of liver failure. He was hospitalized and had not signed a Do Not Resuscitate because he actually did want everything done to save him. He had new twin grandsons a grandaughter he adored and loved life. He was having dialysis to treat his symptoms. A care manager knew that the doctors suspected cancer but believed the procedure to find out would kill him. But they felt their hands were tied by the DNR and the hypocritic oath. The care manager, finally, after talking to a nun on the staff of the Catholic hospital who said she would help,  and talked to the lead physician and asked that he order palliative care. He did and all 4 physicians talked to Bill gently and about removing the dialysis and signing a DNR. He did and after a family meeting lead by palliative care and hospice, William came home with 24-hour care.

The Recovery Phase Begins

After his coming to terms with his death, he and his family, sons, and grandchildren were able to say the goodbyes and offer the unconditional love that they had been fearful to express before his acceptance. A feeling of light joy permeated his room. For almost a month he lived in the family room overlooking the garden, where his hospital bed was set up. Great-grandchildren brought pictures, marveled at “grandpa grandpa “ high up in a hospital bed. His son put a  headphone with a mike on and William could hear and speak, as he had not in years. His 24-hour caregivers were gifted loving care providers from a GCM agency  Livhome. 

Home Care and Care Management in End of Life

.

The 24-hour shifts included a nurse of 18 years from Central America and a man finishing his Ph.D. from the Congo. They cared for him with great warmth, so his family could just be his family, relaxing in their love and surrounding him, as if in a circle, that swirled with 4 generations, going every which way while he watched, really loved, and melted into his last stage. They ate meals, chitchatted, and welcomed new family coming in to see William, as he remained in the center in his hospital bed, the fulcrum of the gathering.

End of Life Geriatric Care Management Well Done

The geriatric care manager, GCM Mary Brennan, from Livhome, a seasoned powerful and so kind LCSW,  was an orchestra leader in Bill’s death. She adjusted here and there, with care providers, family needs, Bill’s needs, and followed the guidance of hospice, who were slowly increasing the pain meds, and supporting his health and medical care needs in death. The geriatric care management agency worked as a partner supplying 24 care and support for the family.

Bill was able to have again, a magical care provider from Livhome, who had been with him for almost two years and was there at the end as were all his sons – a life fully lived and a good, good death.

You are only as strong as your weakest link- those are the care providers.

These people were the raft that floated bill up while the family, offered love and hospice provided medical and end of life support. Together they buoyed Bill into his last stage of dying, knowing that his family was the fabric of every step he took toward forward towards death.

 

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

 

Serve Your Client Until Death Do You Part

 

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 their 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

Filed Under: Aging, Aging deaths, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Benefits of ALCA to Hospice, Benefits of Care Management to Hospice, Benefits of Geriatric Care Management, Death & Dying, death and dying care manager, elder care manager, End of Life, End of Life Care manager, End of life documents, FREE MARKETING WEBINAR, FREE WEBINAR, GCM Clinical Tools, Good Death, Home From the Hospital, Hospice, Hospice Care, Hospital care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Palliative Care, Palliative care manager, Private Duty Home Care, Quality of Life in Dying, Recovery phase of death Tagged With: end, end of life care, end of life family meeting, free webinar, geriatric assessment for end of life, geriatric care manager, Good Life to the Very end, Hospice, Hospice at end of life, Livhome, Navigation through END of LIfe, recovery, recovery phase of death, recovery stage of dying, webinar end of life

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