The 2 Deadliest US Sites of COVID-19 Nursing Homes & Prisons

May 2, 2020

PRISON INMATES AND NURSING HOME PATIENTS NOT 6FT APART – 6 FEET UNDER

70% of inmates in federal prisons have COVID-19. In Kansas, the Lansing Correctional Facility had a riot of inmates over COVID-19 lack of care or protection It took the rebellion to get the coronavirus testing PPE and care. The Bureau of Prisons in Kansas confirmed finally that 79 staff have coronavirus and 88 prisons and prisoners dead.

Older residents in nursing homes cannot rebel like prisoners. Many can’t even walk. The Atlantic Magazine just published an article, We are Killing Elders Now. The writer states “In at least six states, these fatalities account for half of all COVID-19 deaths, and according to the World Health Organization, half of all coronavirus fatalities in Europe have been traced to nursing homes too. Some of this mortality is linked to long-term-care facilities that are shoddily run or that violate health standards. But most of them are doing the best they can with what they have. And they don’t have much”.

KAISER FOUNDATION NURSING HOME STAFFING AND USE OF PPE NOT REQUIRED IN MOST STATES

Kaiser reports -Staff Screening. It is more common for states to recommend rather than require daily screening of staff for illness in NFs (24 states recommend, 16 states + DC require)

Use of PPE. More states recommend (23 states) than require (7 states + DC) staff to use PPE

Two States that require testing for coronavirus of ALL residents of nursing homes are Maryland where 556 have died as of the Washington Post article. and Tennessee

THE FEDS HAVE NO CMS FEDERAL GUIDELINES OR REPORTING

We have no federal guidelines for safety testing according to an article by the Kaiser Foundation

It is now estimated that 16,000 deaths have occurred in nursing homes and that is without the federal government revealing any numbers and not making available any testing. But the numbers are probably huge- if we could just do testing.

CMS announced it would have a meeting of a “panel” of experts “ sometime at the end of May”. After probably 20,000 older people died and the feds did nothing this shows their sense of urgency about this pandemic’s national “elder cleansing”.

WHAT CONNECTS PRISONS AND NURSING HOMES – CONCENTRATION CAMPS

So, what is the connection between the viral spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes and prisons- 6 feet ? Prisoners and residents, in nursing homes, and prisons cannot social distance. Jails and prisons have human beings crammed together with no choice. Nursing homes have 2 beds or if you are on Medicaid three to a room. Neither group has a choice to social distance. They are ” concentrated” as in concentration camps or death camps.

Do SOMETHING – HELP NURSING HOMES PREVENT MORE CARNAGE

So, as someone who has spent her career in aging, I am calling out to everyone, especially professional in aging – do something. Since the feds appear to be doing little- call your congressman, write a letter to the editor.

BE KIND LIKE RACHEL MADDOW REPORTS LA JEWISH HOME LA WAS

Rachel Maddow suggests calling your local nursing homes and see what they need. Be kind like the LA Jewish Home was to a smaller nursing home LA Brier Oaks. They wanted to test their residents and had no tests and the larger LA Jewish Home had tests and shared them with the smaller as a good neighbor. What they found was ravaging but it also showed caring and generosity. Care and be generous and show the helpless elders in nursing homes in your town you are opposed to -nursing home being prisons or concentration camps.

Concierge Clients Who Can Afford Private Geriatric Care Management No Longer Taking Cruises

April 7, 2020

Tens of thousands are dying in the US and worldwide of coronavirus so a cruise ship of any cruise now wreaks of expiring slowly on the ocean with no real hospital and no place to disembark. This is not the product that the upper 10% or anyone would board now. But in better times concierge products like a Viking Cruise as it is understandable to a high-end customer. They buy it –because it has exceptional services and recognizes their entitled station in life. Coronavirus recognizes no status class and kills all equally.

Sell Products Clients Need During the Pandemic

Geriatric care managers, rather than tell inquiry clients they do assessment–should offer products they need in this pandemic – like relocation (moving an older person). Elders who live in dangerous SNF facilities, so vulnerable to COVID-19

In an article from the LA Times Charlene Harrington a Professor from UCFS states”Families with loved ones in nursing homes should consider pulling them out if it’s at all feasible to care for them at home, said Charlene Harrington, professor emeritus at UC San Francisco’s School of Nursing.

“The risk of exposure is so overwhelming,” said Harrington, who has studied nursing homes since the 1980s. “It’s a terrible concern.”

ALCA suggested that you call all the SNF’s in your area and explain that you specialize in moving elders and can be of help to their clients who are moving out of SNF’s due to family concerns.

GCM Products for the Isolated and Lonely Seniors During Stay at Home Orders

Quality of Life (increasing the joy in an older person’s life who is lonely) can be an important service to offer during the coronavirus pandemic. Seniors who live alone are already isolated, lonely, and depressed and the virus only causes this to explode in their lives. Quality of Life programs like Sage Eldercare’s Humminbird Program has gone remote and can be purchased for a minimal amount for client’s by families or agencies, nationally. Nina Herndon GCM, Sage owner and innovator, started this program several years ago because she was tired of watching elders she served watching TV 40 hours a day. She has brought it into the digital world to serve coronavirus patients nationally. Nina also wrote the Chapter on how to set up a Quality of Life program in my book Handbook of Geriatric care Management 4th edition

Products For Seniors Discharged from Hospitals in Pandemic When SNF’s will NOt Take Them

Home from the Hospital is a GCM product the Safely helps the older client through discharge and the first 3 months to make sure they do not return to the hospital, which now is overrun with coronavirus patients and at capacity.

Home From the Hospital pinpoints exactly what the older person needs for discharge with the hospital and why the family is desperately calling for help. They are calling for help at a piercing decibel level because nursing homes will not take them for fear of COVID 19 infection of their residents

To do this, offer these products to families third parties, hospitals, and nursing homes in this crucial time. Develop continuously integrated solutions through a product procedure placed in your company operation manual, along with all of your products so you ensure your staff can deliver, step by a step-that high-end product that the Concierge client especially under the huge stress of the coronavirus with vulnerable parents -just purchased and demands.

If you do not have an operation manual, I have all these products in my GCM Operations Manual plus 11 more, with all the procedures in place so you can instantly offer them. I will offer a 20% discount for the GCM manual during the pandemic for Geriatric Care Management Agencies suffering during the coronavirus outbreak. Contact me here

Virtual Quality Of Life Activities for Elders During the Coronavirus

March 21, 2020

Loneliness & Isolation a Plague Among Elders Especially When Isolated by Coronavirus

Geriatric care managers who work with isolated or depressed clients can use quality of life to bring back joy especially during the coronavirus pandemic

Thomas says this is the plague of so many elders, who suffer loneliness, isolation, helplessness, and boredom because their environment is empty of companionship, intimacy, self-direction, and meaningful activity. Care Managers can fill this void with quality of life now virtually during the coronavirus.

Virtual Humminbird Quality of Life Program

In response to the Coronavirus Nina’s Herndon’s GCM Sage Eldercare has developed a packaged Humminbird Program that already thrived into one that can be used virtually.

Hummingbird Virtual and Phone Programming

The Hummingbird Project is implementing virtual and remote activity sessions to mitigate the negative impact of social isolation on older adults, especially for those with a behavioral expression of unmet needs who are struggling.

They are eager to use our creativity to help support your client and/or loved ones and enhance the quality of life during this difficult time! As such, we are offering reduced rate options and easy to initiate services for remote activity sessions.

Sessions can be conducted in a number of unique and creative ways:

Virtual Video Conferencing: Using Zoom, Facetime, etc. we can offer popular activities such as guided virtual museum tours, intellectual stimulation, live musical concerts, art lessons, and more. Let’s bring Hummingbird magic into the home of isolated seniors across the nation!
Phone Programming: We are pleased to provide the same quality of life activities usually presented in person. This might include legacy projects, oral history projects, lifelong learning, gratitude, spiritual devotion, verbal brain games, storytelling, and much more.
Mail Order Activity Kits: Kit activities come with detailed instructions and engaging materials, so your client or loved one can feel confident as they begin exploring new experiences at the time and pace that works for them.
Social Isolation Activity Plans: We recommend the creation of a social isolation activity plan for each person, which will include a schedule of activities, ideas, and ways to stay connected based on the individual’s life story and interests. We can create and send you this, and you or a family member can then implement it as needed.
Joyful Moments: Quality of life activities like those you’ll find in Joyful Moments therapeutic activity cards help reconnect older adults to what brings them purpose, joy, and meaning in life. You’ll find step-by-step instructions and suggested adaptations for activities that cover all seven domains of quality of life: Physical, Spiritual, Intellectual, Creative, Vocational, Emotional and Environmental. Available online for $24.95 + shipping. Includes a 30-minute complimentary consultation and free tips and tricks handout on how to get started! Click here to order today!
They look forward to being of service during this time of crisis when compassion, therapeutic support, engagement, and joy are needed more than ever! To initiate services, please contact Tiffany Paige Ramirez at tpaigeramirez@sageeldercare.com or 916-990-7944.

Get More information about how to set up a Quality of Life Program check out My Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual that includes step by step procedures on how to set up a Quality of Life Program

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8 Ways to Make Reminiscence a Valentine’s Gift for Aging Clients Tomorrow

February 13, 2020

Want a perfect Valentines’s gift for aging clients?

You already have it. A great Valentine’s for your older client is you the care manager, caregiver or family member- using reminiscence to gather an elders’ memories.

Reminiscence isn’t new. Before the printing press, storytellers and bards were how history was recorded-

Oral storytellers gave us the Odyssey and other oral tales. History exists in a family, and Ulysses or Penelope might be sitting in their home on Valentines’ Day- in the form of your aging clients.

But storytelling or reminiscence only works if the teller remembers the lines. Family history has to be captured when the older person still remembers. So holiday events are a perfect time to tap into that font before it flickers or dries up.

Capture Reminiscence

Here are some tips to use if you want to capture these family tales during Valentine’s visit with older clients—a perfect time to do this before age or dementia wipe their history.

Give Valentine’s gift each week of the year. Use StoryWorth. My daughter Kali Peterson Murphy, who is also in aging as a Program Officer, with the SCAN Foundation, purchased this as a Holiday gift for my husband and her Dad Pete. I love this as a user and a Geriatric care manager. Each week it prompts Pete to answer a question that my daughter chooses when she purchases StoryWorth. Pete can actually change the questions to be ones he wants to answer. Pete writes the answers and I record them on my iPhone and send them into Story Worth with photos that I have gathered of Pete’s life and stored on Google Photos.( this is an option) At the end of the year, her about to be 79-year-old Dad gets a book with all his stories.

It is a slam dunk for reminiscence. The adult child and or family receive the family history to be passed down, the older family members get to both tell her or his story and know that their family is interested in what they have to share from their past and in the end get a book about their lifeform it a fabulous gift.

Order it from Valentine’s Day tomorrow and you will have a year full of family history, an aging adult who knows you care about listening to them and an incredible gift of a reminiscence book for next Valentines’ Day and the rest of your life that you can pass down.

If you visit Reminiscence Tips

2. First, arrive with a real Valentine card and a small sensory gift like a little chocolate or some fresh red and white flowers. Just the card and the gift evoke memories

3. Use empathetic listening Make all the messages you give the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting- say, “I want to listen to you.” This in itself is a gift to an older person as few people really listen to them as they age.

4. Ask questions that prompt the story but don’t make judgments. If there are going to record the family tale, as on your I phone, do it in a way that doesn’t distract or stop the older person from talking.

5. You might ask the client or the family for some family photos of the older person growing up, getting married, and use those as memory prompts.

6. Start somewhere. If the elder isn’t going to tell stories on his or her own, start the story and see if they will follow along.” Did you go to Valentine’s parties when you were a kid or celebrate the day in school by exchanging valentines .” Did you have a special valentine as a teenager or young adult?”

7. If the client has dementia you can still do this with reminiscence prompts like a valentine, chocolate, some flowers or a simple valentine decoration you bring.

8. Use technology tools to help you with this legacy-building for your older client like Life Bio- or

Quick Voice Recorder to catch the memory on your phone.

Follow Cathy Jo Cress’s posts in geriatric care management

10 Intellectual Quality Of Life Activities for Elders

January 10, 2020

Loneliness & Isolation a Plague Among Elders

Geriatric care managers who work with isolated or depressed clients who can use quality of life to bring back joy.

Care Manager Nina Herndon, the national expert of elder quality of life, cites in her chapter on Quality of Life, in Handbook of Geriatric Care Management a quote from the aging visionary Bill Thomas MD in his book, “What Are Old People For” .Thomas says this is the plague of so many elders, who suffer loneliness, isolation, helplessness, and boredom because their environment is empty of companionship, intimacy, self-direction, and meaningful activity. Care Managers can fill this void with quality of life. One way to do this is:

Intellectual Quality of Life activities that engage older person mentally

Hobbies
Learning
Brain aerobics
any form of creativity

Here are 10 other ideas for seniors who live at home, or in Assisted Living

For seniors who are independent.

For seniors who wish to travel again but need support to arrange a trip-Work with a senior travel agency to have the elder plan a trip that the elder would love to take but never did. Arrange for senior to take a class on planning travel and to plan the trip Help them go online
Games checkers dominos, puzzles, simple card games with a deck of cards with whales on them if they like the sea or more complicated games like bridge.
Help the client join a local book club with the kind of literature he likes to read (non-fiction- fiction – romance? )
Help the client join a book club at the local library.
Help the client join a Lifelong Learning Osher group near you with intellectual activities if they enjoy book groups, Current Events, Cosmology, Shakespeare – whatever they love to learn or learn again.
Introduce elders to your local community college or local college or theater company musicals and get tickets plus arrange transportation.
. Identify what music they like and arrange to take them to local concerts, arrange to watch and listen on television or TV, if they have an I Phone Make a playlist of their favorite music, get them Alexa to just tell Alexa what music they want to hear, or join a choir if they used to do that and arrange transportation
Attend a senior computer class or arrange for a 1-1 services with someone who can easily work with seniors and computers.
Suggest joining in a games group at their local senior center or joining local games meet up- an example where I live https://www.meetup.com/Santa-Cruz-Board-and-Parlor-Games/
Order Joyful Moments, Geriatric Care Manager, Nina Herndon’s Quality of Life activity kit book, to get more ideas

Get More information about how to set up a Quality of Life Program check out My Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual that includes step by step procedures on how to set up a Quality of Life Program

Concierge Clients Who Can Afford Private Geriatric Care Management No Longer Taking Cruises

Sell Products Clients Need During the Pandemic

GCM Products for the Isolated and Lonely Seniors During Stay at Home Orders

Products For Seniors Discharged from Hospitals in Pandemic When SNF’s will NOt Take Them

10 Intellectual Quality Of Life Activities for Elders

Loneliness & Isolation a Plague Among Elders

Geriatric care managers who work with isolated or depressed clients who can use quality of life to bring back joy.

Intellectual Quality of Life activities that engage older person mentally

Here are 10 other ideas for seniors who live at home, or in Assisted Living

Get More information about how to set up a Quality of Life Program check out My Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual that includes step by step procedures on how to set up a Quality of Life Program

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