Cathy Cress

Expert in Aging Life and Geriatric Care Management

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Make Reminiscence a Valentines Gift for Aging Clients- 5 Ways

February 9, 2023

Make Reminiscence a Valentine’s Gift

Make reminiscence Valentine’s gift for clients.  A great Valentine’s for your client is you the care manager or a caregiver, using reminiscence to gather a client’s memories.

Reminiscence isn’t new. Before the printing press, storytellers and bards were how history was recorded-

You can watch The History Channel to get a history of the world. But History also exists in a family, and you can make your elder family members oral storytellers on Valentine’s Day.

Storytelling only works if the teller remembers the lines. Family history has to be captured when the older person still remembers. So holiday events are a perfect time to tap into that font before it flickers.

Here are some tips to use if you want to capture these family tales during Valentine’s visits with older clients—a perfect time to do this.

1. First, arrive with a real Valentine’s card Just a card that can evoke old memories

2. Reminiscence is Valentine’s gift when you use empathetic listening Make all the messages you give the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting- say, “I want to listen to you.” This in itself is a gift to an older person as few people really listen to them as they age.

Reminiscence is Valentine’s gift

3. Reminiscence is Valentine’s gift when you ask questions that prompt the story but don’t make judgments. If there are going to record the family tale,  on your I phone, record it in a way that doesn’t distract or stop the older person from talking.

Reminiscence is Valentine’s gift

4. Reminiscence is the perfect Valentine’s gift when viewing old family photos as memory prompts.

5. Start somewhere. If the elder isn’t going to tell stories on his or her own, start the story and see if they will follow along.” Did you go to Valentine’s parties as when you were a kid or celebrate the day in school by exchanging valentines?” Did you have a special valentine as a teenager or young adult?”

6. If the client has dementia you can still do this with reminiscence prompts like a valentine, chocolate, some flowers, old photos, or a simple valentine decoration you bring.

7. Or contact the family, if they will visit or call, and teach them how to do reminiscence and do this each holiday they may spend with the older loved one.

 

8. Use technology tools to help you with this legacy building for your older client like Life Bio-    or

Quick Voice Recorder

to catch the memory on your phone.

Story Worth

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Deliver Valentine’s Gifts for Family Caregivers at the Last Minute

February 14, 2022

Last Minute Valentines’ gifts for family caregivers?

 

 Valentine’s gifts for family caregivers, who pay your bills for loving care is a great idea for care managers or home care agencies Here are ideas for the last minute as this is Valentines’ Day. What a geriatric care manager and home care does each day is about love.  Family caregivers who care for an aging family member represent the heart and soul of the love of Valentines’ Day.

Here are some ideas

last-minute Valentine caregiver gift

Valentine’s gifts for family caregivers are a sweet idea. It acknowledges their caring while letting them know your agency cares about them, the people who pay your bills. Using an email newsletter like constant contact with a valentine’s wish is easy and perfect Valentine’s. It will get there today.  Offering a special package of on-time-reduced fee hours to give thank them for using your agency maybe on valentine’s day itself or another time would be a sweet gift.

Another last-minute caregiver gift is the simple act of thanking them personally in a phone call, an email valentine for all they do at such a cost to themselves, which is rarely voiced.

 

Gifts For Aging Parent Caring for a Spouse

 Valentine’s gifts for family caregivers

To an aging parent caring for a spouse, they can experience most fraught-filled valentine’s day. The person who they gave all your heart to – at times for many decades- is there but not there in a way in many ways. So,  suggesting to siblings or close friends that they might take taking the family caregiver for dinner and provide respite to the spouse and taking her to a special valentine’s brunch or event- can make a perfect gift. This can be a soulful warm gift for someone spending time with the love of their life who is not able to share the romantic day anymore.

Caregiver Gifts From Adult Children

Give adult children ideas for last-minute Valentine caregiver gifts for valentine’s day. Grandchildren can also make inexpensive valentines gifts if she is caring for grandpa.

Be a gold standard care management agency on Valentine’s day and show love for your family caregivers in any way you can.

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging, Aging Family, aging life business, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Black Entrepreneur RB, Black Entrepreneur RN, Black entrepreneurs, Black Geriatric Care Manager, Black geriatric care managers, Black RN, Black Travel Nurses, Black Travel RN, Blog, care manager, caregiver Valentine gift, elder care manager, Families, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, last minute caregiver gidt, Long Distance Care, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Siblings, Valentines Gift from care managers, Valentines gifts for family caregivers Tagged With: aging family, aging life and geraitric care manager, aging life care manager, aging parent care, aging parent crisis, Alzheimers caregiver, care manager, caregiver well being, case manager, family caregivers, geriatric care manager, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, spousal caregiver, Valentines Day Gift for caregivers

8 Ways to Make Reminiscence a Valentine’s Gift for Aging Clients Tomorrow

February 13, 2020

Want a perfect Valentines’s gift for aging clients?

You already have it. A great Valentine’s for your older client is you the care manager, caregiver or family member- using reminiscence to gather an elders’ memories.

Reminiscence isn’t new. Before the printing press, storytellers and bards were how history was recorded-

Oral storytellers gave us the Odyssey and other oral tales. History exists in a family, and Ulysses or Penelope might be sitting in their home on Valentines’ Day- in the form of your aging clients.

But storytelling or reminiscence only works if the teller remembers the lines. Family history has to be captured when the older person still remembers. So holiday events are a perfect time to tap into that font before it flickers or dries up.

Capture Reminiscence

Here are some tips to use if you want to capture these family tales during Valentine’s visit with older clients—a perfect time to do this before age or dementia wipe their history.

  1. Give Valentine’s gift each week of the year. Use StoryWorth. My daughter Kali Peterson Murphy, who is also in aging as a Program Officer, with the SCAN Foundation, purchased this as a Holiday gift for my husband and her Dad Pete. I love this as a user and a Geriatric care manager. Each week it prompts Pete to answer a question that my daughter chooses when she purchases StoryWorth. Pete can actually change the questions to be ones he wants to answer. Pete writes the answers and I record them on my iPhone and send them into Story Worth with photos that I have gathered of Pete’s life and stored on Google Photos.( this is an option) At the end of the year, her about to be 79-year-old Dad gets a book with all his stories.

It is a slam dunk for reminiscence. The adult child and or family receive the family history to be passed down, the older family members get to both tell her or his story and know that their family is interested in what they have to share from their past and in the end get a book about their lifeform it a fabulous gift.

Order it from Valentine’s Day tomorrow and you will have a year full of family history, an aging adult who knows you care about listening to them and an incredible gift of a reminiscence book for next Valentines’ Day and the rest of your life that you can pass down.

If you visit Reminiscence Tips

2. First, arrive with a real Valentine card and a small sensory gift like a little chocolate or some fresh red and white flowers. Just the card and the gift evoke memories

3. Use empathetic listening Make all the messages you give the older person— tone, how fast you speak, how they are sitting- say, “I want to listen to you.” This in itself is a gift to an older person as few people really listen to them as they age.

4. Ask questions that prompt the story but don’t make judgments. If there are going to record the family tale,  as on your I phone, do it in a way that doesn’t distract or stop the older person from talking.

5. You might ask the client or the family for some family photos of the older person growing up, getting married, and use those as memory prompts.

6. Start somewhere. If the elder isn’t going to tell stories on his or her own, start the story and see if they will follow along.” Did you go to Valentine’s parties  when you were a kid or celebrate the day in school by exchanging valentines .” Did you have a special valentine as a teenager or young adult?”

7. If the client has dementia you can still do this with reminiscence prompts like a valentine, chocolate, some flowers or a simple valentine decoration you bring.

 

8. Use technology tools to help you with this legacy-building for your older client like Life Bio-    or

Quick Voice Recorder to catch the memory on your phone.

Follow Cathy Jo Cress’s  posts in geriatric care management

 

Filed Under: Adult children, Aging Family, Aging Life Care, aging life care manager, Blog, care manager, case manager, Dementia Activities, elder care manager, geriatric care manager, geriatric social worker, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Oral History, Quality of Life, Quality of Life for elders, Quality of Life with Dementia, Reminiscence Therapy, Valentines gifts for family caregivers Tagged With: aging family, aging life care manager, aging life or geriatric care manager, care manager, case manager, geriatric care management, nurse advocate, nurse care manager, Reminiscence on the Holidays, reminiscence technology, Reminiscence Therapy, StoryWorth, Valentines Day, Valentines Day Gift for caregivers

Have you Gotten a Gift for a Caregiver-The People Paid Little or Nothing But Are the Meaning of True Love??

February 12, 2017

 

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What can we do for family caregivers for valentine’s day? Valentine’s day is about love. Can we count the ways family care givers caring for an aging family members represent the heart and soulful  love of Valentines Day.

What can you give a caregiver on Valentine’s Day?

Loving gifts, including chocolate which we all covet but comes in handy to relieve stress and of course added to respite maybe  a few hours off, maybe on valentine’s day itself would be sweet gift.

Another gift is the simple act of thanking them for all they do at such a cost to themselves that they rarely voice . Here is another list of gifts including pampering  caregivers and a way to find the right spa  . AARP has its own terrific list with aromatherapy and bath essentials

 

If you have an aging parent caring for a spouse they can experience most fraught filled valentine’s day. The person who you gave all your heart to – at times for many decades- is there but not there in a way they can be a classic valentines love  . So, taking the couple out for dinner or  giving respite to the spouse and taking her to a special valentine’s brunch or event- so she can share the love you have for him or her. This can be a soulful warm gift for someone spending time with the love of their life who is not able to share the romantic day any more.

 

Can’t make a gift yourself and want an idea. Pinterest has a whole board of gifts for caregivers in including valentine . Amazon has a whole list and if have a prime membership you can order today and they will deliver it

Finally, AARP has a tech list for caregivers that has good ideas

Filed Under: Aging, Blog, Families, Siblings Tagged With: Alzheimers caregiver, care manager, caregiver well being, case manager, family caregivers, geriatric care manager, nurse care manager, spousal caregiver, Valentines Day Gift for caregivers

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