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

5 Ways Care Managers Can Bring Quality of Life to LGTBQ Elders

June 26, 2020

It is PRIDE MONTH but Many LGTBQ elders have a miserable Quality of Life.A recent report found that LGBT elders tend to have more medical problems, higher poverty levels social isolation than straight elders. Loneliness and isolation among LGTBQ elders bring” elevated rates of depression and mood disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol use and abuse, and suicide ideation and attempts, as well as psychiatric co-morbidity.” Same-sex partners are not allowed many of the resources afforded to spouses and biological family members during the aging process.  LGBT elders tend to lack support from many mainstream aging programs such as senior centers and places of worship or they are afraid of the stigma and discrimination that could result from joining those programs.

Mainstream retirement communities often deny LGBT elder couples the right to live in them so they often continue to live on their own, even if they need access to the services offered by those communities. These elders may fear discrimination and be ostracized by housing staff and often stay in the closet to obtain housing. Because large numbers of gay elders choose to live alone, they have fewer opportunities for social interaction than their heterosexual peers.

Geriatric Care Managers and Aging Life Professionals can use quality of Life Activities to bring back joy to LGTBQ seniors. Here are five resources.

Use Reminiscence Therapy

As a result, many LGBT elders live in the community and can really benefit from the quality of life activities that geriatric care managers can bring into the home through a personal assistance service and Reminiscence Therapy

Arrange dinner parties and Outings for Emotional QOL

One LGBT program in California created social connections by arranging dinner parties, shopping trips, and grocery shopping.

H

Finding activities that help elders grow and nurture their emotional, intellectual, physical, and/or spiritual quality of life can help to nurture an older person’s whole life and bring back joy. For example, look at this youtube on an older woman who reconnected with art, which is her talent and spirituality and younger people plus her family, through a quality of life assessment.

Create LGTBQ Quality of Life in Assisted Living

–

But what about the quality of life for LGBT aging clients. This recent article in the New York Times shows how one retirement community responding and found joy for LGBT clients, where many LGTB aging clients have to fight for acceptance.

Read Journal Of Aging Life Issue on LGTBQ ELders

If aging life or geriatric care manager want to find resources for LGBT aging clients or more about their issues, The Journal of Aging Life Care has an article with many resources to help you serve these vulnerable clients in finding Joy and acceptance.

The Journal Of Aging Life has a resources list for a research tool for aging LGBT clients In the article below By Jennifer Crittenden 

Read Handbook of Geriatric Care Management QOL Resources

The Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition has a seminal chapter written by geriatric care manager Nina Herndon with a quality of life assessment to help you pinpoint the quality of life needs of all clients including LGTBQ seniors they serve Joy in addition to care ‘

With COVID-19  Share Nina Herndon’s  VIRTUAL Activities Program with Your Clients

To respond to COVID-19  and the shelter in place orders for all seniors, who are the most vulnerable including LGTBQ seniors who may have already had HIV  has developed a  Sage Hummingbird Virtual program you can use remotely. 

Nina also has developed the first activity kit for the quality of life, Joyful Moments , that you can use to train care managers on inventive activities to use in your own GCM or homecare program.

Find out more to help not only seniors with COVID but the most discriminated seniors besides seniors of color –-LGTBQ during PRIDE MONTH . 

Filed Under: Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Assisted Living, Blog, care manager, case manager, coronavirus quality of life virtual program, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Helping LBGTQ Elders, innovative new senior centers, LGTB elders, LGTBQ ELDERS, LGTBQ Loneliness& Isolation, Loneliness, nurse advocate, Oral History, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, quality of life in senior centers, Quality of Life with Dementia, Reminiscence Therapy, Senior Isolation, Senior Loneliness, Transgender Elders, virtual Quality Of Life Program Tagged With: aging life and geriatric care manager, aging life care manager, care manager, case manager, geriatric social worker, Joyful Moments, LGTB Elders, LGTBQ Elder Quality of Life, LGTBQ elders and joy, LGTBQ Elders in Assisted Living, Nina Herndon, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

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.

Filed Under: 4th of july, 7 touches marketing, adult child physical abuse, Adult children, adult emotional abuse, ADULT SIBling, Aging, Aging Alcohol Abuse, Aging Community & Covid-19, Aging deaths, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Aging therapist, ALCA & Skilled Nursing Facility, ALCA Beneifits, ALCA business Loans, ALCA Cobtract, ALCA COVID-19 Crisis, ALCA Disaster Plan, ALCA Ethical Dilemma, ALCA Financial literacy, ALCA Products for COVID_19, ALCA sales, Alcohol Abuse and Aging, Angela Jolie, Aretha Franklin, Assisted Living, Assisted Living & Geriatric Care Managers, Assisted Living Crisis, Assisted Living sales, bankruptcy, Barack Obama, 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, Bill Clinton, billing, Billing 85%, billing 85% of GCM hours, Blog, borderline client, Borderline narcissistic family, borderline-narcissistic families, brand, branding, branding ALCA business, Branding GCM Business, cardiac care manager, care management market sizing, Care Management Products, care management start-up, care manager, Care Plan, caregiver, caregiver assessment, Caregiver Burn Out, caregiver burnout, caregiver mental health, CAREGIVER RESOUCES, case manager, Cash Clow, cash flow, cash glow, Choice to Move Elder, CIRCLE OF CARE, client database, Close The Sale, competition survey, Concierge aging clients, Concierge caregivers, Concierge Client, concierge clients, Concierge Senior, Conservator, Contract signed, coronavirus, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus marketing, coronavirus quality of life virtual program, coronavirus shut down, Covid 19, Covid-19, Covid-19 Death Nursing Homes, Covid-19 Nursing Home, Cut Off, Cut-Off, database, Death and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, Dementia Activities, Dementia and Spirituality, DNR, Dr. Bill Thomas, dysfunctional aging familt, Dysfunctional Aging Familu, Dysfunctional aging family, Dysfunctional Family & Holidays, Easter, Easter gifts Mom, elder abuse, elder care manager, elder fiscal abuse, elder mediator, Elderlaw Attorney, Elderly Disaster Plan, Emergency Plan, Emotional Quality of Life, Employees recognition, End of Life Care manager, End of life documents, entitled family, estranged siblings, ETHICAL DILEMMA, Ethical Will, Euology, failing business, Families, Features vs Benefits, Filial Crisis, fiscal abuse, Fiscal Elder Abuse, FREE MARKETING WEBINAR, FREE WEBINAR, GCM bankruptcy, GCM Benefits, GCM COACHING SKILLS, GCM Constract, GCM COVID 19 Crisis, GCM Disaster Plan, GCM Ethical Dilemma, GCM financial literacy, GCM Operations Manual, GCM products in COVID-19, GCM Speaker's Bureau, GCM Start -Up, GCM Start-Up, GCM technology, GCM Webinar, George Bush, Geriatric Assessment, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric care management emergency proceduress, geriatric care manager, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager start up, Geriatric Care Managers & Assited Living, geriatric social worker, Grandchild gifts for grandma, Guardian, Hanukkah, Helping LBGTQ Elders, high end clients, Holiday Meltdown in Aging Family, Holiday on call, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, Holiday season, Holiday Sibling Rivalry, Holidays, home care, Home care disaster plan, Home Care Emergency Coronavirus Plan, Home From the Hospital, Hospital care manager, Hurricane, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maris, ife care manager, Income inequality, infection control in SNS, innovative new senior centers, inquiry call, Intake, Intellectual Quality of Life, John Mc Cain, Jose, Late Life remarriage, Legacy Tools, Legal Guardian, LGTB elders, LGTBQ ELDERS, LGTBQ Loneliness& Isolation, living will, Loneliness, Long Distance Care, Long distance caregiver, Long Term Care Coverage, marketing, Marketing 4P's, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, Marketing copy, Marketing data base, marketing geriatric care management, Marketing Home Care, marketing pitch, Marketing plan, Marketing to Assisted Living, marketing to concierge clients, marketing to conservators, marketing to guardians, marketing to long distance adult children, marketing to the top 10$, marketing to upper 10%, marketing to wealth managers, mediation, Medicare For All, midlife siblings, Mission, MONEY FOR GCM BUSINESS, Mother's Day, Mother's Day in Skilled Nursing, Move Management, moving parent in your home, Moving To CCRC, narcissistic client, Narcissistic Personality, Natasha Beauchamp, Nearly Normal Aging Family, new customers, New Year Resolutions, New Years, News, newsletters, Non-profit, Non-Profit adding Profit services, normal aging famiilies, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Nursing home abuse, Nursing Home Deaths, Nursing Home disaster plan, on-call staff, Oral History, paid caregiver, paid caregiver for concierge client, Palliative care manager, Pandemic, parent care, Partnership, Passover, patient advocate, Paying for Long term care, Poor Nursing home staffing, positioning, POST HOLIDAY CALLS, POST HOLIDAY SEASON, postioning, PR, Pre-Emptive Move, Presentations, Private Duty Home Care, Professional class retirees, Profit, profit in ALCA, Public Relations, Public Reltions, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, Quality of Life in Dying, quality of life in senior centers, Quality of Life Virtual Program, Quality of Life Virtually, Quality of Life with Dementia, Rachel Maddow, Reminiscence Therapy, Respect, Sales, Sales in geriatric care management, Sales to Assisted Living, SBA business loan, Sell Sheet, selling a relationship, Selling ALCA Business, Selling GCM Business, Selling Your Business, Senior centers, Senior Drinking, Senior Isolation, Senior Legacy, Senior Loneliness, SIBLING, sibling rivalry, sibling sharing care, Siblings, Skilled Nursing Facility, SNF death COVID-19, Social Media, Social Media for Care managers, Social Media for eldercare, social media marketing, social media marketing campaign, Speaker's Bureau, speaker's buyreau, Speakers Bureau, Speaking to Adult Children, Spiritual Quality of Life, Stanford Hospital care manager, START UP, Stepmonster, Story Worth, Sweetheart scam, telemedicine, Thanking staff, Thanksgiving, THANKSGIVING BLOG, Thanksgiving Parent crisis, Therapist Specializing in Aging, Third Party Referral, Timeline, Town Hall, Transgender Elders, Trust Departments, Trust Officer, Uncovered Long Term Care, Uncovered MedicareServices, Universal Precaution, Valentines gifts for family caregivers, value proposition, value propostion, VIP marketing, VIP Products, VIP Syndrome, VIPS markeing, Wealth Management Departments, Wealth Managers, Webinar, Webinar ALCA GCM, Written Geriatric Assessment Tagged With: aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, case manager, Covid-19, COVID-19 prisons, death and dying in COVID-19, Federal Response To Covid-19, geriatric care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, nursing home deaths, nursing home saftey, Prison death

Afraid of Your Competition ??-You Can Learn How to Position Your Business From Them

January 14, 2019

 

Your competitors can show you how to position your business so you stand out from the competition. Positioning is how you make clients in your area choose you over others in the area you serve. Your ALCA or Care management competition survey, ( which should so yearly by getting a mystery shopper). The Trump administration says there are lots of people out there be a mystery shopper since he shut the government down. These mystery shopper calls ( the coast guard or your staff) let you identify and survey other direct GCM competitors like the area agency on aging which may have a GCM arm or for-profits like accountants or elder law attorneys who include geriatric care management in their service mix.

Identify substitute providers like hospitals, often through their home health services.   These can also be part of your competition to take market share from you. Private duty home care agencies offer geriatric care management to their web site. But you have to discover whether they have a certified aging life geriatric care manager as part of their staff. Tracking this down takes having a secret shopper calling all of these agencies and talking to the actual geriatric care manager and asking for their credentials, prices, services, and many more variables.

Professional Patient advocates in your area should also be tracked as possible competitors.

Non-profits often spin off for profit geriatric care management arms to help with the more needy clients they serve. Many religious denominations have geriatric care as a choice so you can learn how they are leveraging their brand. Area Agencies on Aging offer private geriatric care management and can do a good job of leveraging their respect and brand in the community.

Trust departments or wealth management services can have care management to assist with their elderly clients or the adult children in wealth management, who care for their parents.

All these competition surveys will show you marketing/positioning alternatives in your this competitive landscape. They will show how to better brand and shape your branding message- so you are the top choice of customers.

Find out how you can position your own GCM/ALCA  agency, over your competition and be chosen by clients seeking care for loved ones.

Join me in my new FREE Webinar
Learn to Market Like Your Business Depended on it!
When: January 23, 2019
2PM-3PM PST
Learn

How to position your agency so it stands out from your competitors
How to develop or rewrite a strategic marketing plan in 2019 that brings more customers
How to use branding to build positive gut feelings about your agency
How to develop lead generation and tactics through third parties
How to set up leads generation with both a speakers bureau to do co-presentations & join the rubber chicken circuit to reach adult children and targeted audiences:
•
• Sign -Up –

Filed Under: Adult children, ADULT SIBling, Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, brand, branding, care management market sizing, care management start-up, care manager, case manager, competition survey, Concierge aging clients, Concierge Client, Concierge Senior, elder care manager, Families, GCM Start -Up, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maris, ife care manager, inquiry call, Intake, Intellectual Quality of Life, John Mc Cain, Jose, Late Life remarriage, LGTB elders, Long Distance Care, marketing, Marketing 4P's, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, Marketing plan, marketing to concierge clients, marketing to long distance adult children, marketing to the top 10$, Mission, Narcissistic Personality, Nearly Normal Aging Family, News, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Nursing home abuse, Nursing Home disaster plan, Oral History, Palliative care manager, patient advocate, Poor Nursing home staffing, positioning, postioning, Private Duty Home Care, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, Quality of Life in Dying, Quality of Life with Dementia, Reminiscence Therapy, Respect, SIBLING, sibling rivalry, sibling sharing care, Siblings, Social Media, Social Media for Care managers, Social Media for eldercare, Speaker's Bureau, Spiritual Quality of Life, Stepmonster, Sweetheart scam, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Parent crisis, Third Party Referral, Timeline, Town Hall, Transgender Elders, Trust Officer, Wealth Management Departments, Webinar, Written Geriatric Assessment Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, care manager, case manager, competition survey, geriatric care management, geriatric care manager, nurse care manager

How Do Geriatric Care Managers Give Quality of Life and Joy to Aging LGB and “T”ransgender Clients?

September 1, 2018

The lives of older transgender people are nearly absent from our culture . But Photographer Jess T. Dugan and social worker Vanessa Fabbre traveled throughout the United States creating To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults.

An article in the New York Times  in the past week talks about the book and the void in not only the public’s mind about transgender elders but I might point out the aging community. It is time to pay attention. These older men and women rarely have families and retirement communities often present so much bias that these elders still live alone

A recent report found that LGBT elders tend to have more medical problems, higher poverty levels social isolation than straight elders. Same-sex partners are not allowed many of the resources afforded to spouses and biological family members during the aging process.  LGBT elders tend to lack support from many mainstream aging programs such as senior centers and places of worship or they are afraid of the stigma and discrimination that could result from joining those programs.

Mainstream retirement communities often deny LGBT elder couples  the right to live in them so they often  continue to live on their own, even if they need access to the services offered by those communities. These elders may fear discrimination and being ostrasized by housing staff and and often  stay in the closet to obtain housing. Because large numbers of  gay elders choose to live alone, they have fewer opportunities for social interaction than their heterosexual peers.

As a result many live in the community and can really benefit from quality of life activities that geriatric care managers can bring into the home through a personal assistance service .

One LGBT program in California, created social connections through arranging dinner parties, shopping trips and  grocery shopping .

Finding activities that help elders grow and nurture their emotional, intellectual, physical, and/or spiritual quality of life can help to nurture an older person’s whole life and bring back joy. But what about the quality of life for LGB or Transgender  aging clients. This recent article in the New York Times shows how one retirement community responding and found joy for LGBT clients, where many LGTB aging clients have to fight for acceptance.

 

If aging life or geriatric care manager want to find resources for LGBT aging clients or more about their issues. An article in the Gerontologist has a resources list for research tool for aging LGBT clients.

Besides reading speaking to older LGTB groups in what a geriatric care manager can do to understand their needs and how your services can help. I will be speaking to my local local group in the Diversity Center of Santa Cruz County this fall , just to do that. Reach out to your LGTB community. It can grow your business and help elders who are often without support.

 

 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, Cut Off, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, LGTB elders, marketing care management, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Quality of Life for elders, Transgender Elders, Webinar Tagged With: aging family, aging family crisisaging life care manager, aging life care, aging life care management, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, Assisted Living, care manager, geriatric care manager, Handbook of Geriatric Care Management, Journal of Aging Life Care Association, Joyful Moments, LGBT elders, LGTB Elders, Nina Herndon, nurse care manager, Sage Elder Care, Transgender Elders

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