Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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Need a Midlife Family Meeting for Aging Parent Disaster Plan

August 21, 2023

 MidLife Sibling Meeting Needed for Global Warming

A midlife sibling meeting needs to be convened after the catastrophic global warming nightmare of Hurricane Dora unleashed on Maui, where 1000 people missing many probably older residents who could not get out quickly creating a midlife sibling nightmare.  The identified dead are all elders. Scores more victims will be identified in the weeks and months to come. While the final list of fatalities will almost surely represent a broader cross-section of ages, the deaths underscore that elderly people are at greater risk in fast-moving blazes.

I was in Los Angeles during Hurricane Hilary when the hurricane struck along with a 5.0 earthquake. It was the first in 84 years because the global warming nightmare of the week is the Pacific Ocean is now warm enough to produce big hurricanes. My daughter and family whom I had a housesat for, took off for Maui finding out Maui was on fire, and went to the big island all this catastrophe in one week. I had to scramble to find flashlights etc. and call her in Hawaii. I ended up being an example of this post.

According to the US Fire Administration people over the age of 65 face the greatest relative risk of dying in a fire: 2.6 times higher than that of the general population. Research from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Fire Administration ties this trend among the elderly to greater frailty and difficulty escaping.

This back-to-back global warming nightmare smacks the climate change catastrophes right in our faces.  On  Dora’s and Hilary’s heels, we will have more hurricanes with hurricane season upon us, that insanely could be on both coasts, with global warming making them monster storms, with the huge elderly death toll. This should terrify adult children enough to take emergency action to protect their parents.

Emergency Diaster plan

 

Midlife Family Meeting of Siblings Need Emergency Disaster Plan

Midlife Family Meeting

This recent confluence of hurricane deaths and hurricanes looming in this global warming nightmare should be a deafening roar in the ear of midlife siblings convene a midlife sibling meeting to create a disaster plan family protecting any aging family members-, no matter where your elderly parents live or what level of care. You need that disaster plan because older people are more likely to die in catastrophes than any other population

So before another hurricane, tornado, earthquake, flood, or any disaster hits, you need to have a  midlife sibling meeting to come up with a disaster plan for aging family members.

What would be the agenda of that midlife sibling disaster family meeting?

If your loved ones are in a FACILITY- do not trust the facility to handle the situation.

Remember Hurricane Irma where above -Florida Nursing home residents are sitting in flooded water. Avoid this

Emergency Disaster Plan Have Midlife Family Meeting

1)Get a copy of the facility’s disaster and evacuation plan. Compare it to state regulations. If it does not include calling the family before the disaster, consider moving your loved one or make sure that is changed.

2)Appoint a sibling to be in charge of reading the disaster evacuation plan and be the contact person.

3)Call your state facility licensing body and find out the state regulations to see if they match the facilities- CCRC, Assisted Living, or Nursing Home

4) Have a telephonic family meeting before the disaster if possible

5) make sure the state requires backup generators for heat and air conditioning- a flaw in Florida’s regulations in Irma

If the loved one is LIVING AT HOME alone or with an adult child have midlife family meeting

Midlife Family Meeting

1) Create a disaster plan for the older person. This would map out what each sibling and family member needs to do

2) Create a disaster team. This would include every adult sibling all over the country, family nearby, caregivers, and neighbors.

4) Include someone on the team who can carry heavy objects like wheelchairs.

5) Name a substitute caregiver if the regular one can’t get there.

6) Make an evacuation plan for your aging family member’s house. Where is the nearest Red Cross shelter 

7) What disaster supplies do you have on hand? Get a list from your local Red Cross 

8)Find out how many people do you need to make the move to safety or a shelter?

9) Put all of the above in writing.

10) Share a copy of your disaster plan with everyone. E-mail copies to everyone on the family disaster team including all adult siblings, neighbors, and friends.

11) Get everyone’s agreement especially midlife siblings and the older person. Be a unified disaster team.

12 ) Call a geriatric care manager to manage the plan or help you create it with your elderly parents, if you live long distance. They can do the heavy lifting, can help moderate a family meeting- can research state laws, be there in a disaster immediately, and create and implement a disaster plan for your parent, that you approve and can be part of.

Professionals check out the chapter “ Preparing for Emergencies” in my Handbook of Geriatric Care Management  fourth edition,

Professionals Check out my book Care Managers Working With the Aging Family, Jones, and Bartlett, with its chapter on Family Meetings and the Aging Family by Rita Ghatak, director of Stanford’s Aging Program. 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, care manager, caregiver, case manager, elder care manager, Elderly Disaster Plan, Emergency Plan, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Jose, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Nursing Home disaster plan, Siblings Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, disaster plan, disaster supplies, E Book on Family Meetings, Hurricane Dorian', Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans opens flood gates, older adults in a dsiaster, Red Cross, sibling, sibling disaster family meeting, sibling family meeting

Ten Warning Signs You Are Working With a Dysfunctional Family

August 8, 2023

Working with Dysfunctional Family

Ten Warning Signs you are Working with Dysfunctional Family represents critical information to share with long-distance caregivers before their holiday visit. Do you know them? They include contentiousness, anger, and cut off and all are listed below. These clinical issues give the visiting caregiver signs that they need to call a care manager and you the care manager the most challenging job of an aging professional. What you have to know is family system theory and be clinically skilled in entering this treacherous family system – to get care for an older person

1. Contentiousness – Old fights erupt; the siblings and parents get into arguments with one another about an old issue

2. Anger – Siblings and family members express physical anger, emotional abuse, financial abuse

3. Distancing & cut off – Some siblings or parents have nothing to do with family and may not speak to parents or siblings for long periods of time.

Ten Warning Signs You are Working with the  Dysfunctional Family – Fusion, Denial, Triangulation, Entitlement

4. Fusion – Siblings and family members, such as the mother and eldest daughter, blend into one another, For example, the daughter sounds, acts, and has the same prejudices as the mother. . Think of the media’s portrayal of Lindsay Lohan and her mother.

5. Denial – Adult siblings do not see a decline in a parent, do not face reality, and do not take care of parent if he or she needs care.                           

6. Triangulation – Tension between two family members or siblings causes one to enlist a third family member or sibling to avoid change For example, two adult sibling object to the cost of care of an aging parent. They gang up on the third adult sibling who thinks the cost of care is reasonable and justified.

7. Sense of Entitlement – Siblings who are accustomed to purchasing services need not personally solve their own, children’s siblings or parents’ problems. This lack of engagement leaves them, unprepared and unwilling in getting involved in solving family tribulations.

Ten Warning Signs You Are Working with a Dysfunctional Family – Narcissism, Needy Adult Siblings, Substance Abuse, and Cut Off

8. Narcissism – One or more siblings has an “it’s all about me” attitude and

other siblings resent this. The self-absorbed sibling either does not participate

9. Needy Adult Siblings – These adult siblings feel starved for affection and often seek affection from professionals and other people in their lives for compensation for the care they didn’t receive as children.

10 . Substance and Other Abuse – The family and siblings have a history of drug, alcohol, and/or child abuse.

If this fits you you and your aging parent needs care may need to contact a geriatric care manager.

SIGN UP FOR MY HOLIDAY WEBINAR –

 

Get Ready for the Holiday Rush

Get Ready for the Holiday Rush

WEDNESDAY, November 16th, 2022, FROM 2 PM – 3:30 PM PST

 Learn how to create!

  • Pre-Holiday Social media campaigns to reach worried caregivers
  • Pre- Holiday-Materials about the warning signs that a parent needs help
  • Pre-Holiday Marketing to help you sign up families who might face a serious decline in aging parents
  • How to sell services to desperate post-holiday callers from Normal dysfunctional & long-distance family
  • How to use tools to contain holiday chaos & arrange care in festive family fright
  • How to move the family to New Year’s stability
  • Know The Ten Warning Signs you are working with a dysfunctional family and position Your Agency ahead of Care Managers who do not have great pre-holiday marketing campaigns and lack the clinical skills how to work with Adult Children and families during the chaotic aging family holiday visit when adult kids find their aging parents need care
  • Featuring

 Cathy Cress MSW author of the Handbook of Geriatric Care

Management     

Find Out More 

 

 

 

  • Find out more in the YouTube for My YouTube, Channel  Geriatric Care 1

 

 

Filed Under: abusive aging parents, adult child physical abuse, Adult children, aging family crisis, aging family system, Aging Life Care, Aging Life Care Assocaition, Aging therapist, Dysfunctional aging family, Dysfunctional Family Inquiry, Dysfunctional Family System, elder abuse, elder care manager, elder fiscal abuse, elder mediator, entitled family, estranged siblings, FREE WEBINAR, GCM COACHING SKILLS, geriatric care manager, geriatric care manager start up, midlife siblings, Siblings Tagged With: adult children of borderline narcissistic VIP families, aging family, black american geriatric care managers, black american social workers, Black Entrepreneurs, Black geriatric care managers, Black RN's, Black start-up geriatric care management, Black travel nurses, blaming familiy members, boundaries dysfunctional families, Clinical Tools Dysfunctional Holiday, cut -off, cut-off sibling, dysfunctional aging family, geriatric care manager, help with dysfunctional family, midlife siblings, Narcissistic Personality, sibling, Substance abuse in the elderly

With Dorian’s Carnage- Do You Need a Midlife Family Meeting for Aging Parent Disaster Plan ?

September 3, 2019

What is MidLife Sibling Hurricane Nightmare

The catastrophic disaster of Hurricane Dorian unleashed on the Bahama’s and heading to Florida should conjure up a midlife sibling nightmare. It brings back the goblins of Katrina -the most gruesome weather cataclysm where 39 elderly residents died, trapped or abandoned in retirement centers and 1400 elder overall died in Katrina’s watery wrath.We just plunged into possible horror again. On Dorian’s heels we may have more hurricanes with hurricane season upon us, and global warming making them , like catagory 5 Dorian, monsters  storms. This should terrify adult children enough to take emergency action to protect their parents.

Midlife Sibling Need Emergency Disaster Plan for Aging Relatives

This recent confluence of hurricane deaths and hurricanes looming right now, should be a deafening roar in the ear of midlife siblings that they need to convene a midlife sibling disaster plan family meeting to protect any aging family members-, no matter where your elderly parents live or what level of care. You need that disaster plan because older people are more likely to die in catastrophes than any other population. As I pointed out in my last blog, just because they are often in a facility in a facility or alone and too frail to escape .Katrina and Irma tell us perhaps they are more in peril. 

 

So before another hurricane, tornado, earthquake, flood, or any disaster hits, you need to have a  midlife sibling family meeting to come up with a disaster plan for aging family members

What would be the agenda of that midlife sibling disaster family meeting?

If your loved ones are in a FACILITY- do not trust the facility to handle the situation. Look at what just happened in Irma.

1)Get a copy of the facilities disaster and evacuation plan.Compare it to state regulations. If it does not include calling the family before the disaster, consider moving your loved one or make sure that is changed.

2)Appoint a sibling to be in charge of reading the disaster evacuation plan and be the contact person.

3)Call your state facility licensing body and find out the state regulations to see if they match the facilities- CCRC, Assisted Living or Nursing Home

4) Have a telephonic family meeting before the disaster if possible

5) Make sure the state requires backup generators for heat and air conditioning- a flaw in Florida’s regulations in Irma

If the loved one is LIVING AT HOME alone or with an adult child.

1) Create a disaster plan for the older person. This would map out what each sibling and family member needs to do

2) Create a disaster team. This would include every adult siblings all over the country, family nearby, caregivers and neighbors.

4) Include someone on the team who can carry heavy objects like wheelchairs.

5) Name a substitute caregiver if the regular one can’t get there.

6) Make an evacuation plan for your aging family member’s house. Where is the nearest Red Cross shelter 

7) What disaster supplies do you do you have on hand? Get list from your local Red Cross 

8)Find out how many people do you need to make the move to safety or a shelter?

9) Put all of the above in writing.

10) Share a copy your disaster plan with everyone. E-mail copies to everyone on the family disaster team including all adult siblings, neighbors and friends.

11) Get everyone’s agreement especially midlife siblings and the older person. Be a unified disaster team.

12 ) Call a geriatric care manager to manage the plan or help you create it with your elderly parents, if you live long distance. They can do the heavy lifting, can help moderate a family meeting- can research state laws, be there in a disaster immediately, create and implement a disaster plan for your parent, that you approve and can be part of.

 

Professionals check out the chapter “ Preparing for Emergencies” in my Handbook of Geriatric Care Management  fourth edition,

Professionals Check out my book Care Managers Working With the Aging Family, Jones and Bartlett, with its chapter on Family Meetings and the Aging Family by Rita Ghatak, director of Stanford’s Aging Program. 

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, care manager, caregiver, case manager, elder care manager, Elderly Disaster Plan, Emergency Plan, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Jose, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Nursing Home disaster plan, Siblings Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, care manager, case manager, disaster plan, disaster supplies, E Book on Family Meetings, Hurricane Dorian', Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans opens flood gates, older adults in a dsiaster, Red Cross, sibling, sibling disaster family meeting, sibling family meeting

7 Tips to Make Labor Day Midlife- Sibling Stress Free

August 28, 2019

Dys-fam90264_CH22_FIG02.jpg

 

Happy Labor Day. 

If you are working with midlife siblings to solve elder care issues and they are attending a Labor Day barbecue-  

Here are 

Suggestions to make the ritual of Labor Day –  a holiday to be enjoyed by midlife siblings and their families  – not dreaded like the annual Thanksgiving dinner where Mom burns the turkey and your uncle gets drunk and sings. 

Here are 7 tips to help them keep the Labor Day heartburn free without a midlife sibling to build a midlife sibling team over aging Mom and Dad issues.

1) Don’t discuss politics. In this era of the Trump presidency with so many families at odds over President The Democratic Presidential Race ,Trump, the Russian hacking investigation, DOMA, the building of the ” Mexican Wall ” –politics can be lethal to families. Spare siblings, and guests. This is bloodier than the civil war with so many kin at opposite poles. So keep it positive and light or just plain pass the time of day. And whatever you do, don’t drink too much and forget the ban on politics.

2) Remember that it is a family gathering and it is not “all about you”.Suggest keeping a positive attitude for the sake of aging parents, if they are there,  and  kids, who will model bad sibling behavior when they face parent- care in the future

3) Call email or Facebook, Evite everyone ahead of time. Ask everyone to bring a dish to share. That is the beginning of building a sibling family team- sharing food. Call every midlife sibling and family member. Do not exclude. Again to build a team effort.

4) Attempt to get all midlife siblings to plan activities ahead and jointly work to make them happen-with a sibling team spirit. Think of softball games, horseshoes, and a treasure hunt, anything that everyone can have joint ideas about beforehand. Use Facebook to do this- hopefully, all your siblings are your Facebook friends.

5) Arrange to split the bill for beverages like alcohol and soft drinks, again sibling team effort. Remember to go light on alcohol because, like the recent Houston explosion caused by hurricane flooding, alcohol can detonate sibling warfare.

6) Share jobs- setting up tables, bringing in equipment for sports or games, lawn chairs- especially ‘manning” the barbecue. (Sisters can cook too) Share it and don’t let anyone be top dog –be the chosen chef, unless everyone is fine with that.This is again modeling a sibling team about helping an aging Mom and Dad.

6) It is a party, not a sibling family meeting. If you want to talk about personal issues, make a date in the future to get together with your angry sister/brother.

7) Don’t make this a family meeting where old sibling grudges get hashed out.It is a holiday.

IF you are an ALCA member or GCMCheck out the chapter ” Working With Adult Aging Siblings” by Cathy Cress and Kali C Peterson in  Care Manager’s Working With the Aging Family – for a deeper dive into how to work with midlife siblings around aging parent care. 

Also, you could apply this to any labor day gathering with siblings and just leave out the aging parent issue.

HAVE A HAPPY LABOR DAY

Filed Under: Aging, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, Geriatric Care Manager, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Siblings Tagged With: blood sibling, brother, Care Managers Working with the Aging Family, celebrations with siblings, Democartic party, drinking on labor day, family and politics, family meeting, Labor Day, Labor Day barbecue, mid-life siblings, midlife sibling, Mitt Romney, New Horizon Press, President Obama, sibling, siblings fights over politics, sister, tea party

8 Ways to Help Organize Long Distance Care Provider Sibling Support Before Holidays

October 27, 2018

 

It takes 1 Mom to Handle 10 children and 10 children can’t manage one Mom

 

 HOW YOU GET OTHER SIBLINGS INVOLVED

Before the coming Thanksgiving celebration, what are some suggestions you can make to the main care provider to get help FROM ADULT SIBLINGS, when all family members have gathered?

Here are some ideas for you as the care manager, can suggest to clients to organize siblings to help share care.            

1. KEEP THEM UP ON THINGS?

                       

ways to keep siblings informed

                                    telephone calls or conference calls with  siblings 

                                    monthly e-newsletters to siblings Constant Contact –

                                    Skype with parents

                                    Facebook Page Parents                                

                                  Make an Amazon Wish list and share it for gifts for parents

                                  Family Meetings  to organize the feast or discuss parent issues 

           

           

2.LISTEN TO WHAT THEY HAVE TO Say

                              be an active listener 

 

3.MAKE SURE AGING PARENTS UNDERSTAND THAT YOU NEED YOUR SIBLINGS HELP

                       

4. IF YOU WANT SIBLINGS TO HELP-TELL THEM SO

                           use open communication   

5. BE SURE TO GIVE SIBLINGS POSITIVE FEEDBACK FOR THEIR EFFORTS

                   

  • Write thank you notes, call, text, e-mail

                       

 

6.SPEAK UP RIGHT AWAY IF THERE ARE PROBLEMS

                        diffuse problems early on

                       

7. INSTEAD OF MAKING ACCUSATIONS- SHARE YOUR   FEELINGS

 

 

8.DIVIDE UP THE DUTIES 

                        example- one sibling handles parents’ finances, bills, for Thanksgiving, everyone                              brings a dish and out of town siblings bring wine, drinks bread etc.

                       one person does a newsletter about the client 

                       use calendar LOTS of HELPING HANDS

This also may be an article for your website or newsletter for November.                       

Get more tips on working with Aging families during the busiest care management season- the coming holidays

Join me in my new Webinar

5 Ways to Tame the Turbulence of Holiday Meltdown in Aging Families   

During the busiest season for care management referrals-

 

You Will Learn:

  • How to give hope to frantic children who call, after seeing their aging parent struggling with the rituals
  • How to sell services to desperate adult child callers
  • How to use GCM tools to contain Holiday chaos
  • How to use financial forecasting to prepare for growth during the holidays
  • How to work with both dysfunctional and long-distance families who call during the holidays
    • Sign Up

 

 

Filed Under: ADULT SIBling, Aging, Aging Family, aging family crisis, aging life business, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, caregiver, elder care manager, Families, Geriatric Care Management Business, geriatric care manager, Geriatric Care Manager, geriatric social worker, Holiday Meltdown in Aging Family, Holiday Rituals in Aging Family, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, SIBLING, sibling rivalry, sibling sharing care, Siblings, Thanksgiving, Webinar Tagged With: adult sibling conflict, adult sibling meeting, aging family Thanksgiving, aging life care manager, care manager, case manager, Communication with adult siblings, geriatric care manager, nurse care manager, sibling, Thanksgiving with midlife siblings

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