Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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

March 9, 2021

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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 Care Manager’s Role with Hospice?

February 25, 2021

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What is a Geriatric Care Manager’s Role in Hospice?

The geriatric care manager serves older adults before they find they are dying. GCM’s work with chronic care clients, some times for years, who eventually succumb to their illness. They also work with clients who come to them facing the end of life issues.

 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 

 A care manager is a GPS for both the client and family through the

5 stages, 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

  • You (as a geriatric care manager) will bring the client to Hospice much earlier in the 5 stages of death and dying than one month before death

 

  • You will do a Quality of Death assessment to find out the patient’s wishes for a good death

 

  • 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

  • You 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 So That Hospice can direct all it’s attention to the client and assured family
  • caregivers needs are being met
Shot of a wife consoling her husband during a counseling session with a therapist
  • You 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 So What –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

 

  • You will make sure that the family has an online personal health record or a notebook if they wish So What -The family has a way to keep track of information from many professional involved and passes on the correct information to everyone in the family and they can feel more in control in an emotionally chaotic time

 

  • You 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 So What –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 So What- You are a container, allowing the family caregiver to deposit their tremulous at timesdesperate 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 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

    So What- 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

 

  • You will review all new medication with family caregivers and care staff- So What-you will unravel the confusing litany of pharmaceutical terminology  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: February,20th 2020
2PM-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 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: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, 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 and Dying Care Management, death and dying care manager, elder care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, 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, 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

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