Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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Can Blue Blue Christmas and Hanukkah Come From Dementia ?

December 2, 2020

As Elvis Predicted

Many families have a Blue Blue Christmas-or Hanukkah. Why does an aging crisis occur so often during the holidays? How can so many desperate adult children get care managers on the phone and howl about Mom or Dad in December? There are a million bad reasons, – too much alcohol, too many folks who do not get along and drink that alcohol.  But the physical basis for all of this misery in an elder is often a loss of executive function and IADL’s and ADL’s

Why ADL’s and IADL’s.

It takes  IADLs- (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) shopping for gifts, cooking ritual meals and ADL’s walking to shopping

, decorate serve a ritual meal, climbing ( getting all those decorations out of the attic), grooming ( Mom can be found – in a “messy ensemble” at the feast) by the older person in charge of the holiday to pull it off.  Then add depression to the aging stew – widowhood, loneliness and you have the challenges to an elder, usually the woman in the family,  in managing this entire titanic ritual.

Crash of Executive Skills

The holidays in aging families can be a disaster for another neurological reason. Mom or Dad’s Executive Skills have crashed just like a computer.

Executive functioning involves the ability to organize, plan, and carry out a set of tasks in an efficient manner. It also includes the ability to self-monitor and control our behaviors and multiple other cognitive functions and to perform the goal-directed behavior. It can be described as high-level thinking skills that control and direct lower levels of cognitive functioning.

Planning for the holidays takes those high-level thinking skills -to execute and carry out 25 different major tasks according to a study in the UK- Just think, planning a 

specific holiday ritual menu,( brisket and latkes or popovers and beef prime rib )- then shopping for it cooking it, planning the ritual items in the celebration – a menorah and

Hanukkah bush, Christmas tree, and creche buying them or getting them out of storage on and on.

Why we may end up with burned brisket or turkey.

This is a massive task event/ planning job taken on by one woman usually and as executive functioning power down in her brain- the computer-, which is our aging brain starts to crash- the result- the family freaks out because Mom forgot the ritual steps.

That’s why we need aging life or geriatric care managers to help divide the tasks when Mom cannot do this any longer

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to learn More- Geriatric Care 1 

SIGN UP FOR MY HOLIDAY WEBINAR

FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP!

8 Ways to Tame the Turmoil of the Holidays & Twindemic in the Aging Family

 

 Learn how!

  • How to sell services to the desperate Aging Family during the holiday surge
  • How to give hope to frantic children who call when their aging parent struggling with Loneliness and isolation on the holidays
  • How to help the Aging Family make holiday visits remotely or safely in person
  • How to counsel the Aging Family to track aging decline &Twindemic risk in loved ones
  • How to work with both dysfunctional and long-distance families who call during the holidays
  • How to use GCM tools to contain Holiday chaos
  • How to use financial forecasting to prepare for business growth during the holidays

Sidestep the Many Care Managers Who Do not know how to work with Dysfunctional family or do COVID Coaching of Aging Families so the client chooses you

THIS FREE WEBINAR IS Thursday, December 3, 2020, FROM 2 PM – 3:30 PM PST

Sign Up Now

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: ADL Loss & Holidays, Aging, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Alzheimers, Alzheimers & Holidays, Blog, care manager, case manager, Concierge Senior, Dementia, Dementia & Holidays, Dysfunctional aging family, Families, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, Long Distance Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, Alzheimers, alzheimers & holidays, care manager, case manager, case manager geriatric social worker, COVID & Christmas, COVID & Holiday Season, COVID Virtual Hanukkah Visit, Dementia & Holiday Tasks, early Alzheimers, Executive Skills, Functional Assessment, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, holidays with aging parents, IADLs, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Can Blue Blue Christmas and Hanukkah Come From The Aging Brain Losing Power ?

December 3, 2019

As Elvis Predicted

Many families have a Blue Blue Christmas-or Hanukkah. Why does an aging crisis occur so often during the holidays? How can so many desperate adult children get care managers on the phone and howl about Mom or Dad in December? There are a million bad reasons, – too much alcohol, too many folks who do not get along and drink that alcohol.  But the physical basis for all of this misery in an elder is often a loss of executive function and IADL’s and ADL’s

Why ADL’s and IADL’s.

It takes  IADLs- (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) shopping for gifts, cooking ritual meals and ADL’s walking to shop,decorate serve a ritual meal, climbing ( getting all those decorations out of the attic), grooming ( Mom can be found – in a “messy ensemble” at the feast) by the older person in charge of the holiday to pull it off.  Then add depression to the aging stew – widowhood, loneliness and you have the challenges to an elder, usually the woman in the family,  in managing this entire titanic ritual.

Crash of Executive Skills

The holidays in aging families can be a disaster for another neurological reason. Mom or Dad’s Executive Skills have crashed just like a computer.

Executive functioning involves the ability to organize, plan and carry out a set of tasks in an efficient manner. It also includes the ability to self-monitor and control our behaviors and multiple other cognitive functions and to perform the goal-directed behavior. It can be described as high-level thinking skills that control and direct lower levels of cognitive functioning.

Planning for the holidays takes those high level thinking skills -to execute and carrying out 25 different major tasks according to a study in the UK- Just think, planning a  specific holiday ritual menu,( brisket and latkes or popovers and beef prime rib )- then shopping for it cooking it, planning the ritual items in the celebration – a menorah and

Hanukkah bush, Christmas tree, and creche buying them or getting them out of storage on and on.

Why we may end up with burned brisket or turkey.

This is a massive task event/ planning job taken on by one woman usually and as executive functioning power down in her brain- the computer-, which is our aging brain starts to crash- the result- the family freaks out because Mom forgot the ritual steps.

That’s why we need aging life or geriatric care managers to help divide the tasks when Mom cannot do this any longer

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to learn More- Geriatric Care 1 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, case manager, Concierge Senior, Dysfunctional aging family, Families, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, Long Distance Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, case manager geriatric social worker, Executive Skills, Functional Assessment, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, holidays with aging parents, IADLs, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Starting A Geriatric Care Management Business- How Are You Going Make Money?

September 18, 2019

How will you make money with your Aging Life or Care Management Agency? shutterstock_177982370.jpg

The answer is through your value proposition. What’s that? It’s a promise of value to be delivered to your GCM or Aging Life customer. It’s the primary reason a client and their family should purchase a product or services from your aging life or geriatric care management agency. In a nutshell, a value proposition is a clear statement that

  • Explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (relevancy),
  • Delivers specific benefits (quantified value),
  • Tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (unique differentiation).

The critical part

You are a Top Tiered GCM or aging life professional who welcomes long-term engagement of customers, who can afford care management and home care for many years. That is part of your value proposition leading to one-time/long-term client engagements because that is how you make money. A long-term income does not appear on your website but in your business plan but it must be believed by every member of your team. The team shows it in how you and your staff serve your customer.

 

Hire Care managers who understand  (and convince yourself)  that you want to make money  and will bill for all your services. The door to profit is opened by hiring care managers who have no ethical dilemma about billing. You go through that door by employing care managers who are happy to bill clients and do not have to be trained, coaxed or even counseled to bill clients for their billable time.

Make your target market the top 10% who can afford you.

The target market for a private geriatric care management business is not the 65 million families who need those concierge care management services, but the much smaller subset of those families who can afford to hire a GCM or aging life care manager, is willing to pay for the services that GCMs and can actually find their way to you. This subset really represents the top 10% of the economic spectrum and more precisely the top 1% who actually held onto its share of national wealth in the 2008 economic crisis, and may have even gained a bit.

Sign Up for My Newest Free Webinar 

5 Critical Steps to Start and Run a GCM/ALCA Business

 THIS WEBINAR BEGINS: Tuesday, October 22  at 2 PM PST Ends 3:15 PM PST

 Learn how to transform your GCM entrepreneurial dream into a money-making business with 5 profit driven steps!

 

  • How to Do A Competition Survey

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  • How to Learn GCM Financial Literature

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  • How to Give GCM Concierge Service

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  • How to Bill 85% of your time

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  • What GCM Products Services to Sell

 

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Find out more in the YouTube from My Geriatric Care 1 Channel. 

Filed Under: Aging, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, billing, Blog, care management start-up, care manager, case manager, cash flow, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Wealth Management Departments, Webinar Tagged With: aging family, aging life and geraitric care manager, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, case manager geriatric social worker, geriatric care manager, geriatric sicial worker, geriatric social worker, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Profitable aging life business, profitable ALCA business, profitable care management business

Why Does The Loss of IADL’s Cause That Blue Blue Christmas and Hanukkah ?

November 2, 2017

 

Why does an aging crisis occur so often during the holidays? Why do so many desperate adult children get you on the phone and howl about Mom or Dad? There are a million bad reasons, – too much alcohol, too many folks who do not get along and drink that alcohol, just another Blue Blue Christmas as Elvis predicted. But the physical basis for all of this in elder is a loss of executive function and IADL’s.

It takes  IADLs- (Instrumental Activities of Daily Living) meal planning, shopping, plus ambulation to the person in charge of the holiday to pull it off. Older people Then add depression – widowhood, loss and you have the challenges of aging in managing this entire titanic ritual.

The holidays are a disaster for another neurological reason. Mom or Dad’s Executive skills have crashed just like a computer.

Executive functioning involves the ability to organize, plan and carry out a set of tasks in an efficient manner. It also includes the ability to self-monitor and control our behaviors and multiple other cognitive functions and to perform the goal-directed behavior. It can be described as high-level thinking skills that control and direct lower levels of cognitive functioning.

Planning for the holidays takes those high level thinking skills organizing planning and carrying out 25 different major tasks according to a study in the UK- Just think, planning a  specific holiday ritual menu,( brisket and latkes or popovers and beef prime rib- then shopping for it cooking it, planning the ritual items in the celebration – a menorah and Hanukkah bush , Christmas tree and creche, buying them or getting them out of storage on and on

This is a massive event/ planning job taken on by one woman usually and as executive functioning powers down in her brain the computer which is our aging brain starts to crash- the result- the family freaks out because Mom forgot the ritual steps.

Join me Wednesday, November 8 and learn how to come to the rescue of Concierge Entitled families who find coal in their stockings.

Wednesday, November 8  @11am Pacific Time

Sign Up Now 

2pm CST/ 4pm EST / 8pm LONDON / 5am SYDNEY   (Find your local time)

Sign Up Now 

The holiday season in the aging dysfunctional family triggers amped up turmoil. Mom can’t cook the turkey, she forgets to wrap presents, Dad’s not just drunk but he’s wandering.                             

In this 1-hour webinar, you will learn the 10 clinical steps to handle these long distance and fractured families when the adult children call a care manager for help when they visit during the coming holiday season

 

 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, case manager, Concierge Senior, Dysfunctional aging family, Families, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, Long Distance Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, case manager geriatric social worker, Executive Skills, Functional Assessment, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, holidays with aging parents, IADLs, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Geriatric Care Management Tools 1, “Whole Family Approach”

June 1, 2017

Aging is a family affair.  The aging process does not only affect the older adult, but it ping-pongs through the entire family system.    Family members, friends, neighbors, involved professionals, as well as the community at large are all affected.  Family caregivers take the brunt of the stress of managing the needs of an aging senior.  A substantial body of research shows that family members who provide care to individuals with chronic or disabling conditions are themselves at risk. Emotional, mental, and physical health problems arise from complex caregiving situations and the strains of caring for frail or disabled relatives.

The whole family approach…  As Steve Barlam and Bunni Dybnis say in their chapter, Tools to Support the Family Caregiver in the book  Care Manager’s Working With the Aging Family,  if a stone is thrown into the center of a pond, ripples would emanate from the point where the stone first touched the water.  Consider that touch spot as the senior with care needs.  The perceived ripples are the effects of those care needs on the family caregivers close to the center all the way to the greater society towards the edge of the pond.  From the onset, investing in understanding the impact of the senior’s needs on the family affords the care manager the ability to create more sustainable plans that help balance the needs of the senior and family caregivers. That is why a care manager needs to take a whole family approach to care management.

Care managers need to understand the changing needs of the older client as they impact those of the family.  With this understanding, care managers can use care management tools to create successful interventions to help not only the senior but the entire family system.

But to work with the entire aging family, the care manager must have tools and great expertise to use those tools.These tools include assessment of the older client and assessment of the caregiver, care planning. implemneting a care plan using CORE skills,  and resources from the local continuum of care, without these tools and the expertise to use them like a skilled carpenter, you cannot remodel an aging family to get care for an older person.

Bunni Dybnis MA, LMFT, CMC Director of Professional Services LivHome, LA
and Steve Barlam Chief Professional Officer, Co-Founder LivHome
MSW, LCSW, CMC
, both highly expert care managers, created a seminal chapter on the Tools that a care manager or geriatric social worker need to work with aging families in my book Care Manager’s Working With the Aging Family.  they cover these CORE skills in that chapter.

This is the only textbook out that focuses on care management tools needed to work with the aging family. The text addresses the unmet needs of care managers working with aging clients as well as the client’s entire family. With its in-depth focus on the “ aging family system,” this book fills a gap for medical case managers and geriatric care managers, giving them tools to better meet the treatment goals of aging clients and their families, as the older clients move through the continuum of care in institutional based settings or community-based settings.It is now available for a reduced price through Jones and Publisher

 

 

 

 

 

Geriatric care management tools or an aging professional’s tools  fill up an entire toolbox. They are like tools in a carpenter’s tool box- a hammer, drill, saw and architectural plans. One of those tools, a very potent one that will make your care plan hold up, is the  “Whole Family Approach”. Learn more on this YouTube from my Geriatric Care Management channel.

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, Care Plan, case manager, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, nurse care manager Tagged With: adult sibling, Adult sibling with special needs, aging family, aging family Whole Family Approach, Aging In Place, aging life care manager, aging parent, care manager, case manager geriatric social worker, core skills for geriatric care, geriatric care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

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