Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

  • Home
  • Products
    • Speakers Bureau Package
    • GCM Manual New 5th Edition
    • VIP Care Management White Paper
    • Books
    • Geriatric Care Management – 4th Edition
    • Mom Loves You Best
    • Care Managers
  • Online Classes
    • GCM Operations Manual Online Course
    • Geriatric Care Management Business Online Course
    • CEUs for Individual Modules
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Past Webinars
  • Recommendations
  • About
  • Blog
    • Aging
    • Geriatric Care Manager
    • Siblings
    • Webinar
  • Contact

Sign Up for My Webinar on Death Doulas and End of Life

January 11, 2023

Si

Add Death Doula &Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

Deliver a Good End of Life-

Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency

Serve Your Client until Death Do You Part

This webinar is free

Join me on January  24 and 2 PM and learn why End of Life Services Are a perfect new service for care managers

Find Out More 

Sign up for my free webinar on Death Doulas

Death Doula – What is that?-In this 1 ½ -hour webinar you will learn “What is Death Doula and how Care managers can work with them.

Sign up for my webinar on Death Doulas and End of Life.  In A Washington Post, this week a Post article said that Death Doulas have become a nationwide death-positive, national movement mirroring the traditional ritual in Mexico that many Americans also celebrate, the Day of the Dead. That ritual holiday celebrates death as a positive part of life by remembering those who have died, honoring them with flowers ( marigolds), and “commemorating death as another element of life.

We live in a culture that is afraid of death- where death, like birth, was hidden in institutions, like nursing homes and hospitals for decades so that families never had to experience it. This hiding away from the entrance and exit of life is one reason why we fear death. Death-like birth used to occur at home, where families could see and feel the dying person, hold them, and smell them, so those fears were not there. Now like a birth, that can happen at home death can too at home with the help of a  geriatric care manager and a Death Doula who like a midwife of birth –  is a midwife of death. This a reason you should sign up for my webinar on Deliver of Good End of Life.

Sign up for my free webinar in Death Doulas and  End of Life and learn from an interview with Patti Urban ALCA care manager and Death Doula

What is a death doula? 

what exactly does a death doula do?

Do Death Doula work with Hospice, Care Managers, or just families

Is there a Charge

How can I contact a Death Doula

How can a care manager be trained as a Death Doula?

 

Patti, a Certified Dementia Practitioner, Senior Advisor, and End of Life Doula, is the owner of Aging Care Planning Solutions, a geriatric care management and end-of-life planning practice.  She is the former Executive Director of Shoreline of Clinton, a memory care assisted living community, and the former owner of Comfort Keepers, a home care company serving seniors, both located in Connecticut.  She is the founder of the Shoreline Area Senior Network, a local networking and educational group for professionals serving the senior community along the Connecticut Shoreline.  Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Council of the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut and is a former Board Member of the Shoreline Eldercare Alliance, Association of Women Business Leaders, Orchard House Adults Day Center, Shoreline Chamber of Commerce, and National Speakers Association Connecticut Chapter.

She resides in Connecticut and is the mother of three daughters and one son, all adopted from China.  She can be reached at 845-641-8123, pattiurban@agingcarePS.com, and www.agingcarePS.com.

Sign Up for my free Webinar

Sign up for my webinar on Death Doulas

We will Also Cover Serve Your Client until Death Do You Part

  • Transition the patient/family through the five stages of death
  • Help clients be active participants in their care
  • Give the family/caregiver tools to manage care
  • Provide family center care to  family caregivers and family
  • Choose the right support services through all stages of death
  • Introduce Hospice and Palliative care and work with their team
  • Use ALCA End-of-Life Benefits During COVID
  • 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: 5 stages of death, 5 Stages of Dying, 5 stages of End of Life, Acute Stage of Dying, Aging deaths, Aging Family, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, ALCA Role Death and Dying, Atul Gawande, black care manager, black concieirge nurse, black concierge care manager, black concierge RN, Black Entrepreneur, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black RN, black RN care manager, black social worker, black travel nurse, Black Travel Nurses, Black Travel RN, Blog, Concierge aging clients, Concierge Care Manager, Death & Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, End of Life, End of Life Care manager, End of Life Cultural Assessment, Five Stages of Death, FREE WEBINAR, GCM role Death and Dying, GCM workinh with hospice, geriatric care management emergency proceduress, Geriatric Care Manager, Good end of life, Good hospice, nurse advocate, Palliative Care, Quality of Life in Death, Quality of Life in Dying, Recovery phase of death, US Medicalization of Death Tagged With: 5 stages of death, Acceptance Phase of Death, adding end of life services, aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, Aging SNF deaths, Benefits of Care Managers To Hospice, care manager, case manager, chronic phase of death, COVID-19 Deaths, COVID-19 deaths SNF's, death and dying, Death Doula, Death Douls at end of life, Deaths in Nursing Homes, disputes at end of life, end of life care, end of life care manager, End of Life Diagnosis, families fretting at end of life, family meeting end of life, Free Webinar geriatric care management, Free webinar on end of life, GCM in Death and Dying, geriatric assessment for end of life, Hospice, Hospice at end of life, Hospice Care, hospice for elderly parent, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Dysfunctional Aging Families Can Wreak Havoc at End of Life

December 6, 2022

What do Feuding families do at the end of life?

 

When a family member is facing death and dying dysfunctional families have flawed conversations. Often they do not communicate at all or engage in destructive banter. They see one another as enemies. They demonize one another.

Feuding families are what I call dysfunctional families. They blame each other instead of locking arms in a crisis.

They sabotage resolution.

They actively compound already difficult decisions with intractable, interpersonal conflict. They create problems independent of the underlying issues.

Facing Fractured Communication

What are some of the struggles that these aging dysfunctional families with fractured communication can face?

Aging parents who lack the capacity to make decisions have no advance directives, DPOA and a

health-care proxy, and adult siblings, who must make end of life decisions, can’t agree

Withdrawal of life support with no designated health care agent and adult children and/or spouse disagree

Pain management adult children and/or and spouse disagree.

Answer to Fractured Family at End of Life – Mediation.

Mediation is a tool that can be a good resource for dysfunctional families at the end of life. It can help with these difficult families face the death of a parent without fracturing the entire family. It can allow an older person to die without pain inflicted by their own family.

 

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

 

Serve Your Client Until Death Do You Part

Upcoming Free Webinar

Deliver a Good End of Life 9 Steps to Death &Dying

Jan 24, 2023 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

SIGN-UP Description

Deliver a Good End of Life- 9 Steps to Add Death and Dying to Your Care Management Agency
Serve Your Client until Death Do You Part
Join me on January 24 2023 and learn why End of Life Services re a perfect new service for care managers
 Learn to guide the patient/family through the five stages of death. Understand how to help clients be active participants in their care. Give the family caregivers tools to manage care. Find out how to provide family-centered care to caregivers and family. Learn to choose the right support services for the client through all stages of death.
Introduce Hospice and Palliative care to the client earlier and work with their team.
Find out how Use COVID -19 family coaching for GCM. Discover the role of Death Doula at end of life.

Time

Jan 24, 2023 02:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

SIGN-UP 

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 caregivers 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: Advanced Directives, Advanced Directives and Covid-19, Aging, aging life care manager, Benefits of ALCA to Hospice, Death and Dying, Death and Dying Care Management, Dysfunctional aging family, Dysfunctional Family Mediation, End of Life, End of Life Care manager, End of life documents, estranged elder parents and adult kids, estranged siblings, Families, FREE WEBINAR, GCM COACHING SKILLS, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Good Death, Hospice Care, mediation, Mediation End of Life, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: adult sibling, aging family, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care planning, caregiver burnout, conservator, death, dysfunctional aging family, dysfunctional family, dysfuntional family, elder care crisis, end of life, end of life family meeting, estranged siblings, families fretting at end of life, fretting at end of life, geraitric assessment, geriatric care management, geriatric care manager, geriatric care managers, mediation, mediator, My Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual, no advanced directive, no DPOA, no health care proxy, withdraw of life support

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

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • Next Page »

Contact

Use the form on the
Contact page to email Cathy.

Email

Latest trending news

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 © 2012–2023 CressGCMConsult & Cathy Cress - Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management | Developed by wpcustomify

Powered byHow to get udemy courses for free