Quality of Life and Asssited Living Archives ⋆ Page 2 of 2 ⋆ Cathy Cress

Loneliness & Isolation a Plague Among Elders
Geriatric care managers who work with isolated or depressed clients in Assisted living or at home 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
An elderly couple playing chess together outdoorshttp://195.154.178.81/DATA/shoots/ic_783134.jpg
Brain aerobics
any form of creativity

Here are 6 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. Join local games” meet up” on parlor games. Here is an example where I live.
Help 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 elder to your local community college or local college or theater company musicals and get tickets plus arrange transportation http://www.cabrillostage.com/
. 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.
Order Joyful Moments, Geriatric Care Manager, Nina Herndon’s Quality of Life activity kit book, to get more ideas

Assisted Living has faced a metastasizing crisis for the past 20 years. Geriatric Care Managers can help. This calamity in care has been dramatically documented in Pro Publica’s Elderly at Risk and Haphazardly Protected

In 2013 CANR ( California Advocates for Nursing Homes Residents ) released a report “ Residential Care in California,” Unsafe, Unregulated and Unaccountable Among other staggering findings, they documented infrequent and inadequate state inspections to ensure safe or good care CANR also found that weak penalties for poor or dangerous care- left zero incentive to the facilities to improve care. They kept delivering the same sometimes life-threatening care to elders.

A 2019 American Society on Aging report, cited the perfect storm that brought this accelerating crisis toAssisted Living residents. Americans desire to age in place and not die in a nursing home coupled with a huge increase in private sector expansion in Assisted Living all over the US were both a big factor. These two causes were amplified, according to ASA, by facilities not being covered by Medicare, thus not having the federal oversight and requirements of the feds.

Among the major complaints that families themselves face is poor or no medications management, patients not being encouraged to participate in activities or not enough activities or both, residents not being bathed as often as is needed, and animosity between families and staff members for family members showing up unannounced or being micromanagers

How can geriatric care management help this crisis?

GCM can monitor the care of an older person frequently (every week, every other week-) compensating for the long intervals between state inspectors visits already cited as a problem. This is especially helpful for long distance care providers.
GCM can monitor personal care like bathing grooming getting to necessary Dr.s appointments and work with facility and family to make sure this happens.
Geriatric care managers will do a one to one assessment of the care of the older person in the Assisted Living then find a solution to any problems they find and implement it making sure that problems are solved before a crisis
If they find poor care of patients in the Assisted living they are mandated reporters and will immediately report the abusive problems to Adult Protective Services.
Geriatric Care Management can set up or monitor medications.
Geriatric Care managers will do a Quality of Life assessment for elders who are not engaging in activities and find what activity within the Assisted Living or in the community if the facility has a poor activity program. They can engage the older person by hiring a Concierge Companion to engage the older person in the activity.

If you want to implement a Concierge Companion service/ product in your care management practice check out my GCM Operations Manual with step by step Concierge Companion procedures and marketing, in addition to 13 other innovative geriatric care management products/services.

8 Intellectual Quality Of Life Activities for Elder at home or Assisted Living

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