Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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Celebrating the Resurrection in the season of COVID-19 deaths in Nursing Home

April 12, 2020

Nearly 2000 residents of nursing homes or skilled nursing facilities are dead

from the coronavirus epidemic epidemic. According to The New York Times yesterday  “The virus has perhaps been cruelest at nursing homes and other facilities for older people, where a combination of factors — an aging or frail population, chronic understaffing, shortages of protective gear and constant physical contact between workers and residents — has hastened its spread.”

 Advocates blame the nursing homeowners who cut staff. “The residents are sitting ducks,” said Richard Mollot, the executive director of the Long Term Care Community Coalition.

World Wide Deaths

This is not just New York but it estimated that over 2100 nursing homes across the country  This holocaust of elders is not limited to the US. In France 3237 have died Madrid alone 4260 and Italy 8859 deaths prompting a parliamentary inquiry

We need an inquiry but more than that we need a federal response, which there is none and national coverage which is just starting to occur after the most vulnerable on the planet were locked up in buildings where no one  could visit, filled with the people with the highest risk, and staff going from facility to facility as they need three jobs to keep them afloat and spreading the virus then becoming ill themselves 

TRUMP CUT BACKS IN NURSING HOME STAFFING INFECTION CONTROL

This lack of staffing and cut back in infection control federally mandated by the Trump government. Trump cut back regulation upgrades mandated by the Obama administration

The Obama administration effort, finalized in 2016, requiring all long-term care facilities to develop infection control and prevention plans to detect, report and contain communicable diseases.  It also covered telemedicine, so needed now publishing infection control rates weekly in Nursing homes that manage from 1.6 million to 3.8 million infections each year, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. A 2017 analysis by Kaiser Health News found that 74 percent of nursing homes have been cited for lapses in infection control — the most frequent type of health violation.

ALCA GCM’S AND ALL AGING PROFESSIONALS PAY ATTENTION TO CARNAGE

Geriatric care managers who very often see patient in a nursing home have to sit up and pay stark attention to this, as do, adult children across the country who have placed their aging parents in what now is a cauldron of coronavirus with no one to track what is going on inside their parent’s last 

IN LA SUGGESTIONS TO TAKE RESIDENTS HOME

In LA where — death 8500 deaths  have been reported in a nursing home an LA County authority suggested family pull older residents out of the nursing homes past haste

Filed Under: Aging deaths, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, ALCA & Skilled Nursing Facility, Blog, coronavirus, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus shut down, Covid 19, Death and Dying Care Management, Nursing Home Deaths, SNF death COVID-19, telemedicine, Universal Precaution Tagged With: aging, aging family, aging family crisis, aging life and geraitric care manager, aging life care manager, aging life care managers, aging parent care, care manager, Covid-19, COVID-19 Deaths, COVID-19 deaths SNF's, geraitric care manager, nursing home deaths, Obama Nursing Home regs, President Trump, roll back Nursing Home protections, roll back nursing home regs

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

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 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.
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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 

   

Sign Up For My Newest Free Webinar 

 

Filed Under: aging life business, Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, aging life care manager, Blog, Coronavirus emergency plan, coronavirus quality of life virtual program, Dr. Bill Thomas, elder care manager, Emotional Quality of Life, geriatric social worker, Intellectual Quality of Life, Long Term Care Coverage, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, Quality of Life Virtual Program, Quality of Life Virtually, Senior Loneliness Tagged With: aging life care manager, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, coronavirus, coronavirus and seniors, Coronavirus virtual quality of Life, geraitric care manager, geriatric care manager, Handbook of Geriatric Care Management third edition, Humminbird Program, increasing quality of life, Intellectual quality of life, isolation and quality of life, Nina Herndon, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Should You Use Benefits vs Features to Market Geriatric Care Management

January 22, 2020

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN HOW GERIATRIC CARE MANAGEMENT DOES?

Think about your last few marketing campaigns. Look over some of the emails you sent to prospective customers or the social media updates you made promoting your brand-new product or service. Read over some of the blog posts you published.

How much of this promotional content focused on what your product does?

TWO MARKETING APPROACHES

FEATURES

When it comes to marketing, there are two primary approaches you can take. The first focuses on what your product or service is or does – including all the shiny bells and whistles you’ve worked so hard to develop. The other focuses on how your product or service will improve users’ lives.

Which of these approaches do you think is more effective for the seniors you serve when you find they need them?

Take a look at the list of features below, taken directly from current advertising and marketing materials.

American Lifetime Self-setting clock for seniors with dementia that is the only one of its kind to include 5 multi-function alarms, with the option to set reminders to take medications throughout the day.

Jitterbug Senior Smart Phone 2  with Large 5.5″ screen,easy to see and  5 Urgent Response button

 umbrella that opens and closes with a button

Each is a feature-a factual statement about the product or service being promoted. But features aren’t what entice customers, ( adult children you market to), buy your product. That’s where benefits come in. A benefit answers the question “What’s in it for me? or what will help my parent or me the caregiver”. This means the feature provides the customer/client with something of value to them.  This is where most businesses go wrong.

Benefits

The benefit of a self-setting clock is the person with dementia cannot reset it so the clock does this automatically and as they forget medications & times, the self setting clock will remind them

The benefit of the Jitterbug phone is seniors lose eyesight and have a hard time reading text on phones. They can have medical emergencies and forget telephone numbers or get lost. The benefit of jitterbug’s large easy to see response button is it gets them one person who will help the senior even if they forgot the number. This is just like operator they used to get on the phone.It makes the older person much safer and the family members confident they can reach help if they need it

The benefit of an umbrella that opens with one button is you stay dryer in the rain as seniors often have arthritis that can make it difficult to push open an umbrella quickly, so make you keep dry in the rain.

The best way to understand the true benefit of your product or service or to answer the “What’s in it for me?” question-is to focus instead on results. A customer’s perception of each feature’s results is what attracts him or her to a particular product or service.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF GERIATRIC CARE MANAGEMENT?

You are selling geriatric care management to a long-distance son and explain the feature of care management is an assessment. He has no idea what that is. Not being a social worker or an RN, he is – just a desperate long-distance son. He wants to know, what’s in it for him

You could say ( product) called  “Safe at Home” that will make sure his Mom is getting all the support and care she needs and he will not get midnight panic calls or have to scramble to make emergency flights to solve a crisis, like a hospitalization. Plus you will make sure any problems are solved before they turn into a crisis, as he lives far away, always keeping him informed so he can go back to just being a son.This take a huge weight off his shoulder- anwering his ” what’s in it for me”

LEARN MORE ABOUT MARKETING GCM FEATURES AND BENEFITS

FREE Webinar

LEARN HOW TO MARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT 

January 23 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST

The busiest season for care managers is January & February after as adult children have just visited for the holiday and seeing their elderly parents skating on very thin aging ice

Learn care management marketing so you can:

Capture those desperate clients in January after the festive fright-

Develop strategic marketing that brings more customers

Market care management benefits and make the sale

Understand branding         

Develop a positioning strategy so the caller chooses you

Understand lead generation in care management

Get the best marketing software  

Create a 5 Star Marketing Plan for the top 10% of seniors who can afford you.

Click Here To Register 

FIND OUT MORE 

THIS FREE  WEBINAR  FROM 2 PM – 3 PM PST Thursday, January 23, 2020

SIGN UP NOW  

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, elder care manager, Features vs Benefits, home care, Marketing aging life care, marketing ALCA /GCM, marketing care management, Marketing Home Care, marketing to long distance adult children, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, patient advocate, Sales in geriatric care management, Webinar Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, Benefits Of Geriatric Care Managers, Benefits vs Features, care manager, case manager, features of ALCA, geraitric care manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, Home care marketing, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

10 marketing messages for Adult Kids Who Call 911 GCM After Holidays

December 29, 2019

wonder.woman.05.jpg

 

“Geriatric care managers are wonder woman for long-distance care providers? “

This is an important marketing message for care managers to use for the call you will get from long-distance family members who just spent the holidays with aging parents and freaked out at the decline.

So be prepared with terrific marketing copy and messaging when they call you.

Your copy in an ad or website should include-

“It’s a preventative and prudent idea to have a geriatric care manager in the town where your older relative resides. If there is a crisis, it is cheaper to have a GCM solve it. In an urgent situation, a care manager can go to the hospital or emergency room. This is saner and more cost-effective than you getting on last-minute, expensive flights. You can still go but they can immediately be there to deal with the crisis. They are good insurance.

Even when making marketing visits to 3rd parties like elder law attornies or wealth managers, you can pitch “Before any crisis,  the GCM do an initial assessment and visit your long-distance older relative periodically (once a month, once every two months).This is preventative. That way they are there for you when you need them and have all the information to solve the problem.”

Here is a better marketing message for long-distance adult children:

“Think of care managers the way you do one of those “blow-up beds.” You can pump them up when you need them in a crisis—actually avoid that crisis, and you yourself can sleep more soundly and with more peace of mind in your own bed.

Some of the things a geriatric care manager can do for long-distance care providers are:

1. Save you money by helping keep your parent out of the hospital and you off emergency long-distance flights.

2.Facilitate a family discussion of needs, resources, and division of labor among friends family

3. Recommend ways to proactively prepare and plan for a parent’s possible health care crisis.

4. Work on family cooperation to formulate a realistic parent-care plan.

5.Assess the strengths and weaknesses of all of the potential caregivers

6. Help adult siblings resolve conflicts about care decisions.

7. Help siblings act together in the best interest of the parent

8.Decrease the tension between hometown and long distance siblings

9. Help the long-distance care provider deal with guilt and frustration that may result from their inability to provide more of the day-to-day care.

10. Locate aging resources in your elder parents’ area quickly and without you having to do it.

Learn more about gaining new long-distance care provider clients -this coming holiday season.

FREE Webinar

LEARN HOW TO MARKET LIKE YOUR BUSINESS DEPENDED ON IT 

January 23 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm PST

The busiest season for care managers is January & February after as adult children have just visited for the holiday and seeing their elderly parents skating on very thin aging ice

Learn care management marketing so you can:

Capture those desperate clients in January after the festive fright-                   

Develop strategic marketing that brings more customers,

Understand branding         

Develop a positioning strategy so the caller chooses you

Understand lead generation in care management

Get the best marketing software  

Create a 5 Star Marketing Plan for the top 10% of seniors who can afford you.

Click Here To Register 

FIND OUT MORE 

THIS FREE  WEBINAR  FROM 2 PM – 3 PM PST January 23, 2020

SIGN UP NOW  

 

Join me in my new  FREE Webinar                 

 

Filed Under: Aging, aging family crisis, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Care Management Products, care management start-up, care manager, case manager, elder care manager, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Holiday Meltdown in Aging Family, inquiry call, Marketing aging life care, marketing care management, marketing to concierge clients, marketing to long distance adult children, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Webinar Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging life or geriatric care marketing plan, aging parent crisis, care manager marketing, caregiver burnout, case manager, geraitric care manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric care marketing, help with elders, holiday misery, holiday with aging parents, long distance care provider, marketing plan, Marketing to long distance care providerse, nurse advocate, nurse care manager

Caregiver Assessment- When The Caregiver Loses Sense of Self

September 22, 2019

One Homeostatic SystemChiCheng_hmpgHdr.jpg

When you assess an older client with a family caregiver, you really have two clients. The needs of the family caregiver are different than the needs of the care receiver and the geriatric care manager or aging professional must differentiate those needs to make sure the care receiver’s functional and psychosocial needs are met. The care receiver and the family caregiver are one homeostatic system encompassing the whole aging family. To keep that family healthy and whole, in the middle of swirling care crisis, the care manager must first recognize that there are multiple clients including the person who gives or supervises care. In a health care insult, family members who give care are often referred to by the inanimate wooden term “ resources”. They have also been referred to as “ informants “.

 

Stripping Caregivers Personhood

This stripping of personhood denudes them of their status as individuals and melts them into the caregivers, thus breeds professional ignorance, like the crowd who watched the emperor with no clothes. We are blind to caregiver’s humanity and thus their own needs.

Seld-Esteem Vanishes With Caregiving

Many family caregivers lose their self-esteem because they fail at so many other parts of their lives when their whole life seems to be taken up by caregiving. They do not get vacations as the care-receiver does not take a break from illness and aging. Often there are few others to give them respite. Caregivers, often they just do not know where to find help or even ask for it. If family caregivers have children and husbands, they are often squeezed between their needs, the needs of the care receiver – thus have no room for their own needs. They are breathless and slogging forward.

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

Filed Under: Aging, caregiver, caregiver assessment, Caregiver Burn Out, caregiver burnout, caregiver mental health, CAREGIVER RESOUCES, case manager, elder care manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, nurse advocate, nurse care manager Tagged With: aging parent, aging parent care, assessing the caregiver, caregiver assessment, caregiver burden, caregiver burnout, caregiver overload, caregiver overwhelm, caregiver stress, geraitric care manager, Geriatric Assessment, Geriatric care management operations manual, geriatric care manager, informal caregiver, long distance care provider, National Assocaition of Geraitric Care Managers

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