geriatric care manager Archives ⋆ Cathy Cress

How Care Managers Can Serve Veterans on Memorial Day-

May 24, 2020

Veterans have not been well treated by the VA during this huge pandemic. The VA gave hydroxychloroquine, debunked as a treatment for COVID_19, to 1300 veterans. The number of COVID-19 deaths in VA facilities has soared to 10,000 to the very veterans who risked their lives and we celebrate on Memorial Day.

In spite of this VA Memorial day travesty, Geriatric care managers can be a huge help to older veterans to get VA benefits. With nearly 10 million veterans in the U.S. who over the age of 65, older vets are usually good candidates for geriatric care management services both now and in the future.

Unfortunately, navigating the services, supports, and benefits available to older veterans can be a challenge for geriatric care managers and clients alike. Services and supports for this population are available at the federal, state, and local level in addition to the service navigation complexity. The configuration of services received by veterans and their families is likely to consist of federal services provided by the Veterans Administration in addition to more localized services for older adults in general like those provided by senior centers, area agencies on aging, etc.

Benefits available to veterans and their families range from federal VA home improvement grants, burial benefits, medical care, respite, housing programs, pension, and even local benefits like business loans and discount programs.

Like most clients served by geriatric care managers, this population will need personalized assistance in meeting their care needs. For this reason, it is important to note that services and supports designed for older adults, in general, are also key resources for veterans.

While the VA is a great resource, don’t overlook the value and expertise offered by local organizations like local healthcare centers, senior centers, and Area Agencies on Aging, among others.

Find the many ways care managers can access hard to find VA services and serve retired vets.

Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition includes a new chapter that will help you help vets Maximizing the Health and Wells-Being of Older Veterans by Dr. Lenard Kaye, director of the Center for Aging at the University of Maine and Glenn Osbourne, director of the National Veterans Legal Aid Group . As an aging life or geriatric care manager, or senior advocate, learn how to to get an elder veteran the benefits he or she so deserves.

On Memorial Day, while abiding California’s Stay at Home Order, I celebrate my Dad, Harry V. Cress, in this photo, who was shot down in World War II and was in Stalag 17 when I was born. His lifelong struggle with PTSD inspired my respect for the VA GRECC program, who served him so well. But I am left now with disdain for the VA now especially allowing these Vets who gave so much and suffered grievously, like my Dad to die in VA facilities without adequate PPE -especially on Memorial Day- a day set aside to honor these men and women.

California Cuts Pushing Frail Elders into the Cesspools of COViD-19

May 22, 2020

Here in California, the frailest, poorest and oldest in the state are being potentially knifed in the back by slashing budget cuts to the very services that keep them out of nursing homes.

The Multipurpose Senior Services Program , one of the first geriatric care management programs in the nation, designed to keep fail elders out of nursing homes, is set to axed from the California State budget.

The Governor has also proposed elimination of $2.9 million of state funding and $3.9 million in federal matching funds for the 11 statewide Caregiver Resource Centers,

providing critical respite care and counseling to caregivers of adults with chronic and disabling health conditions.

Both programs were designed 4 decades ago to keep elders at home and out of more expensive nursing homes and staunch family caregiver burnout. They offer huge safety nets, designed to keep frail seniors in the community.

MSSP is of a daycare program providing rich social and health services to frail elders and their families. The Care Resources Program caregiver respite and support to overwhelmed family caregivers.

These programs save the state a bundle of money. Each of the MSSP clients is disabled enough to be eligible for nursing homes and poor enough to be eligible for MediCal. So instead of the state paying $80,000 or $90,000 per person per year in a nursing home, the State pays only on average a little over $5,000 for the person to be in MSSP.This makes the cuts both fiscally stupid and mystifying.

What California government is doing is ripping giant holes in this web plummeting 45,000 seniors into the cesspool of COVID-19 skilled nursing facilities, where almost half of California COVID-19 deaths occured.

Without the services and supports available through MSSP, and the Caregiver Resource Center, many older Californians will have no other choice but to be admitted to nursing homes, where nearly half of all deaths related to COVID-19 have occurred.

But the doors may be barred. Given the high risk of COVID-19 in nursing homes, owners are reluctant to take new patients. So, the elimination of the Caregiver Resources Center and MSSP is really a death sentence to frail elders. It leaves no fire extinguisher for caregiver burnout of the family caregivers who care for elders with the toughest disease: brain impairment- Alzheimer’s, stroke, dementia, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s other conditions that may cause memory loss or confusion.

This may cause a cascade effect- placement of these horribly demented elders, into the plague-infested nursing home or also to death’s door

Governor Newsome has been a national hero as the first governor to issue a stay at home order to close counties down in California. He slowed the spread of coronavirus and kept California in a safe zone compared to most other states. But this was at the cost of taxpayer dollars as 4.7 Californians were put out of work.

He finds himself in a double bind now with a chasm of a budget hole, that he is trying up to fill with cuts like the ones proposed to the senior program. But the cuts will lead seniors to nursing homes costing $80,000 a year instead of the $5000 for MSSP into those caldrons of coronavirus

California is always the canary in the coal mine- the innovator that most states follow. So, these cuts can be expected across the nationwide. Who is the real villain in these cuts, the Trump Presidency. 875 billion was approved in the House of representatives in the HEROES Act. Cutting both programs saves $119 million. But these cuts would be eliminated if Congress OKs this aid for state and local governments — a prospect many state lawmakers believe is unlikely as President Trump is threatening to veto the money to the states . This has spurred a cacophony of outrage from local legislators and senior advocates. angered state lawmakers from both

major political parties who say it’s irresponsible in light of the coronavirus pandemic that has spread through nursing homes across the state. It’s one of many conflicts emerging this week as lawmakers hold public hearings examining Newsom’s proposal before they must vote on a spending plan by June 15.

Want to help save these programs

PUBLIC COMMENTS – WRITTEN: Submit written public comments by email to: sbud.committee@sen.ca.gov

Aging Life or Care Management Intakes- Do You Know How to Make the Sale?

May 15, 2020

Do you know how to increase your slower inquiry calls during COVID-19?

It all starts

with having Covid-19 products, alongside your existing products and services. But the sale is made at the inquiry when the client calls you.

Especially during the pandemic do you know how to sell over the phone when you cannot yet go to all people’s homes? Even so, do you make this fatal and costly mistake with a client inquiry? When you get a request for information, over the phone, do you drive to the client’s home to do the intake- without first getting a deposit and contract first? How does this break your bank balance?

Aging Life care manager Sally Sanitze received an inquiry call and drove an hour to see the client. After spending two hours explaining her services, doing a geriatric assessment then asking for a deposit and signed contract the older gentleman said he could not afford her services and would not sign the contract at that time. The Aging Life care manager came up empty-handed.

How do you avoid traveling for two hours, spending 3 or more hours with a client, and not getting the case or making the sale?

You do the inquiry over the phone with a complimentary consultation, and then make the sale and ask for the contract and the deposit. You do not drive to the client’s home without first getting a signed contract deposit – first.

Here’s how You Do Two Call Intake

You do a two-call intake. The first inquiry call to your agency taken by a highly experienced staff in your office. That person must clearly understand the client problem, prompting the call to your agency and crucially finding out how it impacts both the client and the care providers.

They then offer an appointment to do a complimentary consultation for 30 minutes scheduled within 24 hours, made for the agency director.

What To Do in the Complementary Consultation

Do briefly outline how you are an expert at solving the problems (moving,keeping at home, COVID-19 safety in an elder’s home or home from the hospital with Covid-19)
Do a mini care plan showing exactly how you would solve the client ‘sand care providers problem outlined in the first inquiry call
Do make the sale by asking the client if they are ready to move forward with a contract and deposit
If they say yes send out a contract through Adobe and get a deposit through Pay Pal.

Join Me in My New Free Webinar

Conquer Care Management Sales- 5 Steps Close the Sale on COVID-19Products

Sales have severely declined in COVID_19. Learn how to increase your, clients,

through all your products but especially the new Covid-19 and telehealth. Sell Successfully this and any GCM product in a 2-part intake. Closing the sale means the client signing your contract and giving you a deposit. Most care managers are untrained and terrified of this process. They are more terrified of going out of business with COVID 19

Learn the 5 steps to make and close a care management sale to get that contract signed, get a deposit, grow your business, bolster cash flow, make payroll, and stop you from being one of the 50% of new US businesses that fail after five years.

When?

Date Tuesday, June 23

What are Covid-19 GCM Services you can offer
How to make the sale in the inquiry call -with a complimentary consultation
How to ” Identify needs using client” challenge questions” to find the problem you need to solve to make the sale
How to present your offer by selling solutions to the problem with a mini care plan
How to manage objections if the caller has concerns about price or product
How to close the sale with non-aggressive closing questions to have your contract signed, get a deposit, and grow your business with a new client
SIGN UP FOR FREE

10 Parts of Care Manager’s Role With Family Death and Dying of COVID-19?

May 13, 2020

GCM Role is Working With Family In COVID-19

Care managers cannot be in the hospital with a patient dying of COVID-19. They can support their bereft children, who cannot see their parents during the hospitalization, in those last moments of goodbye’s or after the death in this deadly pandemic.

In normal times care managers play a big role in end of life issues. They are their navigators through all five stages of dying, many times long before palliative care or hospice are called. Often GCM’s can help the family and client to bring in hospice or palliative care. But is COVID -19 they can offer guidance to the family through the sometimes weeks of hospitalization, intubation, their loved one is on a ventilator and ultimately often- death separated from loved ones.

Navigation Through a COVID-19 Death

The normal final passage through life can emotionally charged. If the family is following a long labyrinth to the end, in coronavirus, the blind alleys may be blocked by a rushed hospitalization, banned from seeing their loved one in the hospital and not understanding the disease that is killing their loved one. Care managers can find an opening through this maze. Family dynamics and fear of dying can all explode a fraught crisis of care in dying of coronavirus. When vital end of life decisions need to be made, the stress of the responsibility and the seriousness of the situation can break in a mammoth wave of distress fear and anxiety over the “ whole family system”. The geriatric care manager specializes in this whole family system even at the end of life.

Facilitate Family talks over hospitalized COVID-19 Elder

Care Managers can facilitate terrified discussions, and clear the way for family members to come together to work as a functional unit around an unknown killer disease that preys on their loved one. Understanding the differing viewpoints is critical. Knowing what a parent wants and does not want during the last days and hours of life help define and simplify the role of the family. It helps the family bear the burden of having the responsibility of making decisions that their parent wants. Turning this around can also help families have some solace that they carried out their parent’s wishes after their parent’s death.

Care managers can help family members handle the stress of an elder’s hospitalization and death by:

Encouraging routines, exercise and social connectedness with friends and family
Advocate for them with the hospital staff to get updates in this chaotic time in hospitals,
Help them maintain contact with hospital personal to get updated medical status
Create opportunities to communicate safely with the hospitalized family member via text, telephone, email, or video chat
Support and mediate if necessary proactive discussions and advanced directive preparation in a rush if not done
Build a circle of care can help to reduce some of the potential conflicts,
Support them in having essential conversations, prior needing intubation, on last wishes if health status deteriorates
Provide opportunities to say goodbye
guide them in setting up rituals that can celebrate the end of life and give solace to a family during a time when there are yet no rituals for a COVID-19 death.
Work with the hospital to set up Zoom with the family to say goodbye to a loved one.
Geriatric care managers do much more with clients and families but especially now with Covid-19 elder’s and their families facing a separated, fractious end of life
See more about Cathy and her book Care Manager’s Working With The Aging Family

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

May 10, 2020

MOTHER’S DAY 6 FEET APART AND LONLEY

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

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

MAKE A SIGN AND VISIT A LOCAL NURSING HOME TODAY

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

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

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

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

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

ONE SMALL STEP FOR PEOPLE IN THE BULLSSEYE OF DEATH

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