Home Care Marketing & Sales Mastery by Approved Senior Network®
Home Care Marketing: Part 2 - Building Strong Partnerships in Geriatric Care Managers- Guest Speaker
Unlock the secrets to forging strong partnerships in the home care industry with our special guest, Kathy Jacobs, owner of Together in Caring Geriatric Care Management. Kathy shares her expert insights on what geriatric care managers look for in home care agencies, the habits behind their referrals, and the factors that influence their choices. Learn how to enhance communication and trust to elevate client care, understand clients' readiness for home care, and navigate their resistance to accepting help.
Dive into the pivotal role adult children play in the transition to home care and discover how geriatric care managers collaborate with them to ensure comprehensive support for their elderly parents. We'll also discuss the crucial challenges family caregivers, especially spouses, face and how introducing home care services can prevent burnout and provide much-needed relief. You'll hear from Annette and Gabby on the additional support needed in various care facilities and get practical advice on selecting a qualified geriatric care manager.
Finally, we explore the positive impact Geriatric Care Managers (GCMs) have on healthcare outcomes, from reducing hospitalizations to better chronic disease management. Celebrate wellness with creative ideas for special occasions and learn about strategies for team appreciation and caregiver support. Don't miss Kathy's invaluable advice on fee structures, matching the right professional to specific needs, and ensuring ongoing support tailored to each family's unique circumstances. Join us for a comprehensive discussion packed with essential information to enhance your approach to geriatric care management.
Visit our website at https://asnhomecaremarketing.com
Get Your 11 Free Home Care Marketing Guides: https://bit.ly/homecarerev
Unlock the secrets to forging strong partnerships in the home care industry with our special guest, Kathy Jacobs, owner of Together in Caring Geriatric Care Management. Kathy shares her expert insights on what geriatric care managers look for in home care agencies, the habits behind their referrals, and the factors that influence their choices. Learn how to enhance communication and trust to elevate client care, understand clients' readiness for home care, and navigate their resistance to accepting help.
Dive into the pivotal role adult children play in the transition to home care and discover how geriatric care managers collaborate with them to ensure comprehensive support for their elderly parents. We'll also discuss the crucial challenges family caregivers, especially spouses, face and how introducing home care services can prevent burnout and provide much-needed relief. You'll hear from Annette and Gabby on the additional support needed in various care facilities and get practical advice on selecting a qualified geriatric care manager.
Finally, we explore the positive impact Geriatric Care Managers (GCMs) have on healthcare outcomes, from reducing hospitalizations to better chronic disease management. Celebrate wellness with creative ideas for special occasions and learn about strategies for team appreciation and caregiver support. Don't miss Kathy's invaluable advice on fee structures, matching the right professional to specific needs, and ensuring ongoing support tailored to each family's unique circumstances. Join us for a comprehensive discussion packed with essential information to enhance your approach to geriatric care management.
Visit our website at https://asnhomecaremarketing.com
Get Your 11 Free Home Care Marketing Guides: https://bit.ly/homecarerev
today is june 7th. Welcome to mastery circle. We're going to go through our what do we call this? Our I don't know rule of regulation like housekeeping the road, that's it. That's what valerie calls. She usually does this part, so I'm a little out of my realm here. Okay, so keep your minds muted and less speaking. Share stories and tips.
Speaker 1:We do want to hear from you guys today, especially because we have a special guest and we are hoping there will be questions at the end, and so we would love for you to ask some questions of our special guests, which we'll announce here in a little bit. Make recommendations, tell us what you want to know. A lot of our masteries will come from your input, comes from the things that you want to know, things that you're curious about, things you're having trouble with. We're here for all of it. I'm Dawn Biela. I have been with the Prune Saving your Network for two years now. I've been in home care. For close to 20 years. I've been in sales, marketing, retention, recruiting I don't know all of it. In home care. You can't escape all the hats, right? We're all wearing hundreds of hats. And then go ahead, lisa, you introduce yourself please.
Speaker 2:I'm Lisa Marcella. I feel like I have a similar story. I was in home care for just ever in a day and never stay in your own lane, so I've done every little piece of it. I'm happy to be here with you guys, love being on the other end too and just being involved with you. Annette, hello.
Speaker 3:I'm Annette Ziegler Ditto. I have to say I have over 20 years of experience in home care and home care marketing, so we're really happy to have you on this Friday. I'm in our special guest.
Speaker 1:And Valerie is off today. Gay Valerie, she's off at the ocean somewhere in a couple of pictures, a little envious but happy for her. And so how do you watch the meetings that you have missed? Some of you are here live and some of you probably are watching a meeting that you've missed. Right now You're going to log in to the Home Care Sales Forum. Your username is your email address. Your password is whatever we've emailed to you. You can use the workout your password feature if you don't remember the password.
Speaker 1:When you're in the forum there's discussion. This is where we're chatting about everyday things. You guys should be using the forum, any questions that come up throughout the week. You've got stuck. A social worker said I don't need to see you, I have other home curators to talk to. What do I do? What do I do? This is where you ask those questions. Up here on the left, you're under discussions here. If you go to learning, that's where you're going to find the meetings that we've already talked about. You'll see mastery circle. You'd click on that and then all of the classes that we've done so far this year are here. With the click on it, you'll see the video and you'll have access to the slides with the hyperlinks for all of the documents that we've shared with you.
Speaker 1:So today we have a special guest. I've been so excited about this. Her name is Kathy Jacobs. She's the owner of Together in Caring Geriatric Care Management. Today we're going to discover what geriatric care managers are looking for in a home care agency, if geriatric care managers consistently refer to the same home care agency and why. And then we're going to go through our June, july, august lead behinds and we will have some times for questions so that you guys can ask Kathy some of the questions maybe you've had for years about geriatric care management and their role and how we can help them. So I'm going to let Annette go ahead and do introductions here.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I'm really happy to introduce our guest speaker today, kathy Jacobs. And while I was in home care, I personally worked with Kathy and her team. We had a great partnership and I'm just really excited for her to share what works and how great it is partnering and working with home care agencies. So Kathy is a proven leader in care management. She's certified by the National Academy of Certified Care Managers, advanced Professional Member with the Aging Life Care Association. Certified Aging in Place Specialist through the National Association of Home Builders, essential ALZ. Certified by the Alzheimer's Association. Extensive experience working with people with disabilities and those with chronic and or terminal illnesses. Experience working with people with disabilities and those with chronic and or terminal illnesses. She has a bachelor's degree in psychology, an MBA from the Simon School of Business focused on healthcare administration, and a Gerontology certificate from St John Fisher. So welcome Kathy. Yes, welcome Kathy. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being here today. Do you have anything to add to all of this? This little lie? You're certified for sure.
Speaker 4:No, I think that's more than enough about me.
Speaker 1:Thank you again for joining us today and tell us a little bit about your business and the services that you offer.
Speaker 4:Thank you. I'm happy to, I'm very happy to be here with all of you today Together. In Caring is a private geriatric care management practice. We have offices in Rochester and Syracuse, new York, and we essentially cover the greater Finger Lakes region of New York State between the two locations, and we're pretty comprehensive in the services that we offer. So we have nurses and social workers, but we also have financial care managers. We have RNs who offer assessments for placement and wound care as well. We have nurses who will do relocations, so we really cover a lot of different areas of need when it comes to geriatric care management. But we're growing and we're just so excited. I'm thrilled that Annette allowed me to be here today.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great, and it does sound like you offer a full circle kind of service. That's wonderful. So explain to us your fees and how you're paid. I've often wondered that myself as a home care agency. How is it that you get paid and how does you take insurance? Is it private pay, like how all of that works?
Speaker 4:Absolutely so. We are private pay. We do not have any services that would be covered by traditional insurance, but we do often work with long-term care plans to help our clients be able to submit the claims and get some of their care covered in that way. Private pay we do typically just charge the seniors directly, but if I'm being honest, honestly, it's the families who are typically hiring us in order to provide services for their aging parents and loved ones, okay, okay.
Speaker 1:And how do they come to you? How do you gain clients?
Speaker 4:We have many referral sources, home care certainly being one of the top ones. We also work very closely with people that we refer to in the community, professionals such as elder law attorneys, other providers such as neurology, ortho, people that we typically have to connect our clients to for services. We also work very closely with senior housing all levels from independent up through skilled and I mean those are our typical sources, but certainly we have marketing in place, so we do get people directly from social media or a website, and word of mouth is definitely one of our top referral sources.
Speaker 1:That's great. Wait, explain who your typical client is and where oh, we just did where your referrals come from. So who is your typical client?
Speaker 4:So it's hard sometimes to say who a typical client is, but I can tell you what the typical situations are that come to us.
Speaker 4:Certainly one of the ones and this is a great collaboration that we have with home care companies is folks who are trying to age in place, and so they may already be getting support, or the family is concerned that things are not safe and so they're looking for support.
Speaker 4:So this is where we'll go in and we will do a thorough assessment and we'll see what needs to happen in the environment, the physical environment, the supports that are needed, any medical issues that are not being addressed, and we'll come up with a care plan. And this is really one of the most common situations where we partner with home care agencies. Where we partner with home care agencies, but we also deal with crisis situations. So we work very closely with hospital discharge teams. If someone is needing to leave the hospital, but they really are not prepared to go home or their home is not safe, they will call us in. And, again, one of the most common needs that we have to fill is home care. So, again, I'm just so thrilled to talk to you about it because it really is a great partnership you.
Speaker 1:So what are you looking for in an agency? What makes you feel like they're the real deal, or I can trust them, or they've got this handle? What does that look like?
Speaker 4:So certainly we have to build that experience over time and build that trust. But really there are three or four things that are key for us. One of them is consistency. So do we always get what we're hoping to get? Are we able to get coverage for the staffing hours that we set up, and do we always get the same type of response? And can we count on a person there who's our contact to return our calls and have good communication? So that consistency is really huge for us. The communication is key and I would imagine that that's really a reciprocal thing.
Speaker 4:I'm sure that the home care agencies feel the same way. Yes, so we really try to establish the proper channels. Understanding because every home care agency is different. They have different roles. So sometimes there might be a care manager within the home care agency, Sometimes it's the scheduler that we work with. So we just try to establish that communication up front. Cooperation each of us respecting the roles that we're playing and knowing that there will be times where there are issues and having that open dialogue and just having that spirit of cooperation is huge. So that is absolutely something we look for. And then I think the last thing I would say is commitment. As a company, we have a commitment to our mission and our desire to have high quality personal care, and that's what we would look for in partnering with a home care agency as well.
Speaker 1:And so if I'm a new home care agency or new to you, haven't met you yet and we haven't established that trust, what would be the best way to approach you and maybe get your attention so that you would trust me one time at least, just to give me a shot? What is it? And even if I am brand new because sometimes people will say reputation, but if I'm brand new I don't have that yet either what might make you say I'm going to give this one a shot?
Speaker 4:So typically if we haven't worked with somebody, we require having a meeting with them, with their ownership or with their leadership team, and we talk about what their hiring practices are, we ask them about their training, we ask them about their supports to the caregivers If a caregiver has an issue kind of what's your process, and that really gives us a good feel for whether or not they've prepared themselves and their employees for success in the home care field.
Speaker 1:So that's typically how we do it Okay, and that seems fair, because then you're getting an inside look at the company, maybe their backup plan, or if a caregiver calls out sick because you don't want for your client to kind of be left tie and dry, you need to know that things are going to be handled and if the caregiver is supposed to be there, they're going to be there or there's a backup plan. So that's great. It's great that you give everybody that fair shot and you sit down and you have that meeting with them so that you're able to learn more about them. Why did you think home care and direct care management partnerships are so effective?
Speaker 4:Yes, as I shared earlier, home care services are really the top thing that we have to put into place in gosh, I would say at least 60 to 70 percent of our cases. So it really is the key resource and it has to be successful for us to be successful. So that's why that partnership is just so important. Annette shared that we work directly together is just so important. Annette shared that we work directly together, so the company that she was working for we actually were sharing office space and her care manager was coming to our in-person weekly meetings just for a few minutes at the beginning, and that could certainly be done remotely as well, but just to talk through those shared clients and see what's the status. Was there anything that's going on that we need to discuss? And I really can't tell you how helpful that was Again, building that trust, creating ways to have communication that work both ways. It just I even we learned and we were surprised at how effective that could be in developing that relationship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I have found that too, because the caregiver even for a home care agency, the caregiver knows more than we do too, because they're in the home and so if we needed, if we had anybody asking us any questions, the caregiver knows.
Speaker 1:So I could see where that would be valuable to sit down and kind of, and then we would hear from your side what's going on with the other pieces of their life, because we again are in one window. So I can imagine those meetings are really good, and I had a couple of geriatric care managers that I worked with too in the past, and it's nice because it is a reciprocal relationship. It really is a relationship where both parties are equally able to refer back and forth, and it's always like that when we have other kinds of referral sources. I guess that would be how I feel about it too. Is that you really can have this, and I know that you and Annette, did you get this great partnership where you're able to refer back and forth and you trust each other? You know enough to do that. Once you start working with a home care agency, do you consistently refer the same company, or why do you choose one company over another? How does that work?
Speaker 4:So for our experience, we definitely stick with people who we know, and I think it's just that trust and the consistency and the communication that we talked about before. But there are certainly situations where every home care company is different. For instance, if we are working with someone who has a minimum requirement for the shift and for the week and we have a client who really needs to get started, just on a much lower scale maybe a day a week or a couple hours there are times when we have to work with another company that may not have the same restrictions in place. So it certainly is important to have the ability to do that and I think again, that would be reciprocal. If a geriatric care manager couldn't accompany or couldn't accommodate a need from the home care agency, I think you'd have the same thing. But typically it has to do with accessibility, and the just restrictions on hours and shifts is typically why we would need to work with a different company.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep, and that makes sense too. Communication you mentioned that between the geriatric care manager and home care agency. Who do you communicate with regarding clients' that between the geriatric care manager and home care agency who do you communicate?
Speaker 4:with regarding clients' needs and the home care team. So we found that typically there is somebody at the home care agency who is functioning in that care manager or communication role, and so we'll work directly with them, and just from experience we've learned that it's really important to establish that chain of command, if you will, or that communication channel. It's really important because then the caregivers understand who to go to when they have a question and it allows the care manager to know, respectfully, how much involvement they have and who to contact if they're having a concern, because anyone who's had that experience with a care manager knows that the care manager can certainly get very proprietary about their clients and so you just everyone's working towards the same goal. So establishing the correct path for communication is really important when you start up with somebody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think setting those expectations on the front end, like you said, is really important, and just everybody knowing who's responsible for what too, I mean that's another piece of it. When do you so? If you're with a client, I don't know that they always need home care right away, but when does that criteria hit and you're thinking I need, this person needs home care. What does that look like? When do you make that decision where I need to get a home care company involved with this client?
Speaker 4:For us. Honestly, it's usually the initial assessment that we do determines whether or not. So we talk to them about what are you able to do by yourself, what are the challenges that you're facing. But even more importantly, we talk to them about how do you feel about having people in your home, and a lot of times it's just that counseling session and that's you kind of prepare them for what is it going to feel like when you have strangers coming in and we talk to them about even though it might be hard at first that those relationships you build with the caregivers. They become like family to you. It's kind of scary and you may have some resistance initially. Then it will feel very comfortable over time and they come to depend on them. So a lot of what we do finding out what the real need is during the assessment, but then also talking through the challenges that we face typically when we try to bring in care to the home.
Speaker 1:And do you see a lot of resistance where they don't want a stranger in the home and it's hard to get over that, unfortunately, yes, Because, I mean, we all want to pretend that we can do everything for ourselves.
Speaker 4:So we go and you all know, because you've had so much experience, it goes so far beyond understanding that you might have the need accepting that you aren't who you were and that you can't do everything for yourself. So it's that loss of independence that it's really hard, it's really hard. Yeah, it's that loss of independence that is really hard, it's really hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really hard. Do you find yourself because I know with myself and home care tag teaming with the adult children to try to get mom or dad to just give them one chance, just have the care to work and for one day let's just see how it goes? And I'm guessing, I mean, they're probably more open to your services maybe than they would be to home care, but you probably get very close, I would imagine, with the adult children.
Speaker 4:Yes, we do, and of course, every family is different. Sometimes the message of how home care could be beneficial is better coming from us, because we're more objective and, let's face it, any of us who have kids, even if we're not there yet, the idea of them telling us what we need is kind of hard to swallow.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is, and children don't want to be that person either when they come to the home care agent. This is their mom. Can you take this and fix it? It's not like they don't want to care for them, they just are out of their realm. They've not been in charge, right? Mom has always taken care of everything, and now they're just bewildered, right? And so I would imagine working with a home care agency that understands that piece too and can kind of take the baton. Do you ever sit in on the assessments with the home care agency when they do their assessment? Is that something that you would like to do? Okay, okay, yeah, I've often wondered if that was something that you do. So I know with everybody on right now they're probably wondering this sounds wonderful. How do I find a genetic care manager that I can work with? Because sometimes, annette, do you want to share? When you called Kathy, when did you get Kathy involved in some of your, with some of your, and why? When was it time to pull the trigger there and get Kathy involved?
Speaker 3:When things got really when they really needed more assistance that we could offer, we were there providing the home care. But they had so many things going on not going to their doctor's appointments, financial situation, money situations, so many things that was so complex and they really needed help. They had nobody to help them and it just got to the point where we could not be that person. So we would contact Kathy and they would come in and take over that part and help this our client get on track. Also, too, there were many times when I would talk to people the inquiries, prospects that called looking for our services and they were out of our scope or we could not help them.
Speaker 3:But I also referred Kathy to Together in Caring Many of those people that called because they didn't know where to turn and I said you should call a geriatric care manager. They're going to be able to help you and guide you and help with the best route for carers. It could be the adult, children, it was maybe the spouse. So I also would send a lot of referrals. I think that weren't my clients and I think that helped our partnership grow too, because Kathy had trusted me. I would refer to her and then if she had a client she would call me or her company, because she knew we were referring them as well. I mean, kathy, do you think, am I sounding?
Speaker 4:No, absolutely. I think that's kind of a key piece is that if it's coming from the home care agency to us, it's typically that things are becoming very complex and that could be medical, it could be financial, could be behaviors with dementia, anything like that, that you really just need some more resources. That's a great tipping point, if you will, for bringing in a GCM. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And Kathy, do you I mean just in the general terms of everything are you guys more like home care, like wanting to keep them home longer? Is it based on what the family is wanting, or are you more? Do you better at home? I mean, of course, if there's behavior and it's time to go into memory care or something like that. How, I mean, do GCNs feel in general about being like aging in place? I guess?
Speaker 4:So I think that and obviously I can't truly speak for everyone, but I think whenever it's safe, it's the desire of the family and the people. I think we always are trying to prioritize aging in place. But aging in place may or may not be in like home. They've been in 50 years. It could be in an independent facility or an apartment. But I think the key piece is that sometimes we also have to recognize, say, it's a spousal relationship and the one spouse is the caregiver and that role is really taking a toll on them and they don't want to give up. They don't want to feel like a failure. If we can get them to agree to home care, you might be able to help them continue and have more longevity to staying at home. And when they finally have to face that maybe it doesn't work anymore, it's not a safe plan, then we're there to help them through that, because that's a very difficult transition.
Speaker 1:Okay, and so that might be a good time too to get you involved is when the home care agency has tried everything, and, believe me, we try everything because, they want to stay at home, they love their caregiver and it's going great.
Speaker 1:And sometimes a new condition pops up or something. The spouse dies, and now it either needs to be 24 or they need to move because the spouse isn't there when we're not, when we're not there, and I think that would be a really good time also, and so I, yeah, that's great. And, annette, did you have some more things to?
Speaker 3:I was just going to share too many times. Kathy would place people they'd be in memory care, assisted living nursing homes. We would get referrals many times to go where they are Maybe somebody that just moved into memory care. They were having a hard time adjusting. They needed 24-7. I felt like we got a lot of 24-7 clients through Together in Caring because they had a lot of crisis situations and like it doesn't necessarily have to be home, it could be in a hospital, just bed sitting, skilled nursing facility, assisted living memory care. So all those included were many of the referrals too.
Speaker 1:And so if you're looking to work with a geriatric care manager, this is a great place to go to find some in your area. Gabby, what would you? Maybe not warn us, but what should we be looking for? Is it enough that they're a part of this association? Is that enough for us to be like, OK, they're in this association, they're good. What would you? What should our criteria kind of be if we're looking for somebody to work with in our area?
Speaker 4:Okay, there are three levels of membership at ALCA. There's advanced professional. You can only get to that level if you have the qualifications to sit for one of the certification exams. That would be a certified case manager or a care manager certification. So that's you know. The advanced professional is truly the highest level of education and experience. So you can at least know, if you're pulling someone from their list which goes by zip code, that if you are choosing an advanced professional, they at least have the experience and education that's at the top of their field.
Speaker 4:Now there also is the professional level, so that would be people who still have a lot of education and experience but have not sat for that license or not licensing, but certification exam.
Speaker 4:And then there are also associate members, and it isn't that they aren't good, it's just that they may be just starting out or they just don't have the years of experience yet to go into the professional category. So the great thing is that every member of ALCA has to meet minimum requirements and they are pretty stringent. And then the cost of it is enough to make you. You definitely want to be committed to that. But as far as finding the right person, I think it's really important to look at their sites, because every care management practice might focus on different things. Background you're going to find that there are a lot of care management practices that are truly social work, and so they may very well have enough experience just helping people through medical situations, but if there are no nurses on board if that's a piece that you need then I would certainly make sure, before you call them, that they have nurses on their team.
Speaker 1:Oh that's, I would have never thought about that. That's a really good point. Oh that's, I would have never thought about that, that's a really good point. And so we have some questions coming in. Somebody's asking what your fees are so?
Speaker 4:typically we just charge our hourly fee, except for our initial consultation.
Speaker 2:So our initial consultation is $300, and then our hourly fee is $165.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, and what would a typical? And then is there ongoing? I mean, are there you're their geriatric care manager, kind of ongoing? Is there like a contract to keep you in the mix, or do you get them all set up and then they come back to if they need more later on? How does that part work?
Speaker 4:Dawn, it can work either way. So some people we keep. I think a lot of it depends on whether or not the family is local or the age of the family. If they have a career that really takes a lot of their time, so then they want us to be that oversight. So it might be a weekly visit or we go to all the doctor appointments because that's what the family wants. So it really depends on the situation.
Speaker 1:Okay, but there's that flexibility. It sounds like where they could have it, because I think I would want you in my back pocket just in case, especially so many of these adult children, I mean and they are. I mean they feel like they're in crisis. It's not like someone's going to die tomorrow, but this is a whole new world for them. It's the first time they've been through it and they're really needing as many partners on their team as they can get, and sometimes I would connect with the adult daughter and with the senior, and now it's time to add hours and the adult daughter is calling me. My mom's not going to do it unless you talk to her. She's just not going to. So I'd imagine people get attached to you that in that way too and that they need you to come back. My mom needs a talking to Not listening again. Kathy, can you please come have another sit down with us, so I can imagine that your back and forth was many of them probably through their journey.
Speaker 4:It's very flexible that way, but I can't say that all care management practices would be like that. Some of them just may be a little bit more strict with having to be signed up. Some of them take retainers.
Speaker 1:We don't happen to do that, but I do know that some of them will do retainers, okay. Okay, that's good to know too. Does anybody have any questions for Kathy? You can either kind of speak up or send it in a chat. If you don't want to, you don't want to talk. I don't know if Lisa has any questions, or Annette has anything kind of to add, or, kathy, do you have anything else? You think we should know that we didn't ask you.
Speaker 4:I think honestly, from a marketing standpoint right now I don't know Every area of the country I'm sure is different I can tell you in our part of New York that staffing is just so dire in the facilities. I mean it's literally scary that we are calling on home care companies and especially companion agencies, because a lot of the assisted living won't allow licensed care to come in. They can't because of New York State regulations, but just having eyes on them during the day because they're not taking them down to meals or they're getting their medication wrong. And it's just so scary that I think there's a huge opportunity to really focus on this partnership between GCMs and home care. So at least in our market that's happening right now and again it just provides more opportunity for both companies to thrive across the entire country and as home care agencies you can also offer to help staff their communities.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's another avenue. We did that quite a bit during COVID because they were short-handed. So even if in assisted living here in Arizona you have to have your assisted living certification as a caregiver to do hands-on and assisted living, but what they would do is they would hire us to deliver meals. Will people to the meal room do all of that stuff so that their people could do the hands-on piece? So there's always kind of a way to work around if you need to. So that's a really good point. And in GCM, even if they have somebody in assisted living, it sounds like you would feel more comfortable having a caregiver with them for the eyes on, because they're short staffed, probably in skilled nursing facilities too. Everybody's feeling this staff crunch across the country. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Do we have any questions in the chat, anybody? No one has anything else to ask. Kathy, maybe we were just really thorough guys.
Speaker 2:I had so much. Lisa, did you have something? No, I just wanted to say that I did send in the chat the Find a GCM near you. You go to aginglifecareorg. I put the URL there for you guys to look, maybe find someone. Maybe you can go on. Once you find someone, go on LinkedIn and then go request them and maybe get to meet them.
Speaker 1:That's smart. Yes, and Annette, did you have another something else to add?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I also found, as Kathy said, making sure you have the right caregivers.
Speaker 3:We worked really closely with Kathy and her team of making the right fit of a caregiver for the clients and I know that was really important. So there were times that we would set up services and pick the caregivers. We felt our scheduler picked the best people, our scheduler picked the best people, and then we would talk, we would the care managers Kathy or some of our other team members would call and say this person isn't the right fit for this client. So we worked a lot with maybe switching things around, but I know that was a big important thing and I know that is important to the care manager too that they get very this is like their family, their client and there are sometimes Kathy was sometimes our person that we only spoke to. We never spoke to the family members. We just really made sure that we had the right people and had the right care in place and sometimes it took a little while to get things going, but it usually did and worked out great. So I just wanted to add that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, kathy, thank you so much.
Speaker 3:And we're going to go through.
Speaker 1:if anybody has any questions, feel free to put it in the chat. We are going to share our lead behinds. Lisa's going to go through these, but if anybody thinks of a question that you have, you put it in the chat. We are happy to answer those while Lisa can kind of stop and Lisa can, and we'll get those answered for you. Go ahead, Lisa. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And feel free to interrupt me too. If you don't want to put it in the chat. You can just say, hey, I have a question. But so it is June and I want to see pictures of you guys using all of these different June handouts here. So National Hydration Day we did this one last year too, but I just like this. Water is life. You add the flavors, they hydrated on us.
Speaker 2:You can take this out to anywhere that you're going out and doing your weekly visits to Google and Canva. Links are on the bottom here. You can click on those and make your changes. Just remember to make a copy and save, or download and save and you can make any changes there. Next slide You're going to want to pair this with.
Speaker 2:You can grab some bottled waters and take them out individually to a social worker or whomever you're visiting. You can slap your logo onto that water bottle and then maybe I don't know if you guys have ever seen those little. They're little like glue stickers Slap a little glue sticker on the water bottle and put one of those drink packs there one or two, who knows. But I just thought this was a really good way to show everyone that, yes, we need to drink water. We need to stay hydrated, because a lot of us just don't do that because we are running around all the time. Or what you could do is take like a bottle or a box of these drink packets there's 50 in there and then maybe like a couple of packs of water and take it out to a whole team and just let them know that you care about them. You want them to drink their water and feel good and stay hydrated. So there's that idea.
Speaker 2:Another one all we have is now that june is alzheimer and brain awareness month, sorry, and so this one we just kind of I just did a general message here. You can change these messages however you want. And the next page I kind of stayed with more of the traditional silicone bracelets here, but I also we did something back in May, if you guys remember the Older Americans Month, where we had these extra large print paperback brain games and word searches and things, so you could repurpose those and give those out. Make sure that you do. Also slap your sticker on there with your contact info, your logo, and it looks like we have a question.
Speaker 1:Okay, Kathy, how do you help responsible parties who have a loved one with dementia overcome the resistance of accepting help? Any tips that have helped responsible parties to step up care for their loved one when they have anosagnosia Sorry and will never realize they need help? Okay.
Speaker 4:So it depends on the situation. One of the first things that we will do is we will talk to the family about what some of the motivators are for the person. So if the motivation is to stay home or if that's the concern, sometimes we'll talk about some therapeutic fibs where we talk about oh, the first 30 days is free, it's a trial. So that way the person doesn't have that ability to resist because of the money piece piece. And also, sometimes we are going to give a referral.
Speaker 4:If the person is not being followed by someone in neurology, we will often refer them and get that set up, because sometimes the primary care physicians are not great about being able to help with medications that can reduce anxiety, and anxiety is typically the driver of the fear that people have about losing control, losing independence. So often medication is a piece that we need to manage. So it's not just one thing, but it's quite often finding what will kind of hit home with them, what are their motivators, and then making sure that on the medical side we have good support from the doctors.
Speaker 1:I love that, and that's a really good question, carla. It is hard to get responsible parties to overcome that resistance, and sometimes they're in denial that mom isn't functioning the way that she used to, and so that can be a part of it too. Okay, any more questions? All right, lisa, we're heading on to snappy discharge, okay we'll go to snappy discharge and then I'll go back.
Speaker 2:Carla had another question, so I don't know if we want to stay there or snappy discharge.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, let's stay there. I guess I missed it. I'm sorry, that's okay. Where I'm sorry, where is that?
Speaker 2:question. I'm not seeing it. It's not on my screen. Go ahead, lisa. Can you perform the cognitive eval testing right now, because their neurologist takes months to get in and the testing is four hours and nobody wants to wait through a four-hour test. So can you help with that too, or is that something that GCMs can help facilitate, or is that something that?
Speaker 4:GCMs can help facilitate. Some can. So I'm certified to administer the MOCA, but that's not a requirement for GCMs or for being part of ALCA, so that will vary from place to place.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I don't have that question. So everyone else check the chats too. For some reason I don't have that part of it.
Speaker 2:It went straight to me. Oh, that's fine, all right.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that to you, sir. Okay, national Lobster Day is June 15th. I know probably no one cares about that, but this is the cutest. I mean, lots of people love lobster actually. But I wanted to bring this snappy discharges into play because we want people to know that they can call us for this. It's not a burden, it's. We're going to do it. We're going to do it really snappy Home in time for dinner. Give us a call now for snappy discharges and we have Okay, we'll do the next slide.
Speaker 1:and then we have another question Go ahead, be so, if you're, if you're leave behind.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, oh, I just wanted to kind of play on words. Here she's snapped. Or you can go for the little, a little more healthier harvest snaps, but that's just a great way to tie in the snappy everything. And you can find that stuff here.
Speaker 1:Okay, next question. Next question how do you suggest approaching a GCM in a near in my nearby area about my home care services? What would first steps be?
Speaker 4:So I would go to their website first see if they have a marketing person on their team. If they do, that's who I would first approach, because they're usually responsible for that community development. But on smaller teams there isn't always a marketing person. So then I would go to their leadership person, the owner they're typically the person doing business development and I would take a look at their website and glean from what they're writing what some of their key things are, what their key services are, and then I would just approach them on how your team would be a great fit and I wouldn't hesitate to talk about.
Speaker 4:You were at a meeting when Elka member was speaking and talked about the great relationship that home care and GCMs have and use that as your lead in. I mean, it's just such a key relationship that there shouldn't be a hesitation. But I think finding that either common mission or something that you guys specialize in that fits to what they provide, I think is a good way to approach it and, Cappy would you say, scheduling an appointment, calling, emailing, what works best for you If someone were to stop in?
Speaker 1:what would be the best first approach If you don't have a computer, I guess?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I don't. Not. All GCMs, especially a smaller practice, won't have an office to stop in or won't staff that office very often. So I would say, if there's an email available, that's the best way, because even if they are looking at it after hours, they can reply to you and you can get something scheduled.
Speaker 1:Okay, great, thank you. Okay, we'll keep going. Any more questions? Keep sending them in Another one. Oh, another one. Do you have any metrics or data you could share that you track for families with GCM? Improve health care outcomes for providers. Urgent alerts handled in the home. Reduction in hospital admissions decrease in total positive care.
Speaker 4:I would have to check and see. Alca would certainly be the organization that would have that information. So I am certainly happy to check and then I can get back to Annette or Dawn or Lisa and give you that information. I can tell you, in our particular market we have a nonprofit. It's called Lifespan and I know that they contracted with government agencies and they did do research into their services, which are very similar to GCMs but just on the nonprofit side, and they did find that the data showed that there were improved outcomes, fewer hospitalizations, better management of chronic disease and things like that.
Speaker 1:I can just share that, that they had that done and it did prove to be a positive experience and I can imagine it would be yeah, because you're managing all the things, the things that that, all the problems that could arise, so that, yeah, that makes sense. The things that fall through the cracks. Yes, fall through the cracks, and just having someone managing all of that would definitely make be very impactful. All right, lisa, go ahead. If there's questions, keep sending them sure we'll sure, okay.
Speaker 2:So, yes, we want to celebrate fathers and father's day and doesn't have to be a father like you can give it to me, you can come into my office, give it to me and I'm gonna just recant it or maybe eat the candy that comes with it. But just wanted to recognize father's day and I wanted to pair it with a couple little bottle opener, key chains and maybe a little baggie of root beer barrels. You can get a little little baggie, tie it up and have all this stuff inside and attach or leave behind to that. Um. Next the line uh's cool to care. So now we're in July, it's cool to care. We did this one last year too. If you want to go to the next slide, this is the one where we use the Otter Pops and you take them out just like this. You don't want them frozen because they'll be getting all over the place, but take them out like this. Your social workers will keep them in the freezer and they'll use them later on. But I just think it's a really cute idea, nice and colorful, very summery. Next one is yes, definitely celebrating our independence since 1776. You can go in and again, with the canva and the google docs. You can change this and make it yours and next slide. So I found these little lapel pins and I thought were really super cute. You can, you know, add those. You can change this and make it yours and next slide. So I found these little lapel pins that I thought were really super cute. You can, you know, add those on. You can pin them into the leave behind even and add that to something. Or the little handheld American flags. I had one in my pencil holder forever and ever and I totally loved it. And we do have quite a few Canadian clients, so I did want to do something for them as well. I felt that in the past I just didn't even think about it, so I was thinking about it for them. I think it's on the first they have Canada Day, so we'll look at that too, and same type of thing. I did find some lapel pins and little flags that I thought were really cute. You can take those out anywhere. People will really appreciate these.
Speaker 2:Next National Wellness Month. So this one here. I know Dawn did this one last year and I just loved it. Because the finger and the little if you forget something, you tie a string around your finger and it's supposed to help you remember stuff. So I thought it was really cute. But we need to remember to take care of ourselves. So when you go out to the social worker or whomever you're visiting, just let them know to take five. Research shows that self-care does help. But here's all the stuff that you could use. You could come up with different ideas too, but taking this stuff out with that leave behind would be really cute. And you can again a little mesh bag. You tie a ribbon around this stuff and it'll look. Or even use this twined. I think it would look really cute together.
Speaker 2:Next, this one for national wellness month. This is a prescription for self-care take, take 10 minutes break, preferably outside. Take a deep breath and pop open a capsule for maximum wellness. So pair these with these little. I thought these were so cute and I was trying, I was thinking about this for like months. Like how do I use these? They're so cute. And so what you do is when you pop open a capsule, it has little messages of affirmations and just really cute positive messages here, and so I think like a little drawstring bag, maybe three or four, but you can add anything else to it too Full punch. This little lead behind and maybe attach it with that ribbon that's already there and take this out, and I just think people will love it. It's super cute. You can get maybe a couple of bottles of those pills there.
Speaker 2:Another one for National Wellness Month, the importance of exercise we're wanting, promoting health and wellness. You see, here you know your spiritual, your body, of course, your mental, your social, your emotional, moral. And then I wanted to give a note here that kind of touched on what we do. So we're trained in guiding patients through their prescribed home exercise regimen. Call today. So that's a good take on. Yes, of course we're not PT, but we can guide you through that little one sheet that you get that comes home with you. We can guide you. And so we want the social worker or a discharge planner or whomever to understand that. We understand that and we can help continue that so the person continues to progress.
Speaker 2:And then with this I just I wanted to use those same little baggies. I think if you buy a whole bunch you'll have these for lots of different giveaways. But there's these little motivational stress balls. I just thought they were really cute, kind of keeping up with the positivity theme there, and there were some bracelets too that come with this. I just didn't like how they looked on the page so I didn't include them, but they do come with it as well.
Speaker 2:And also August is National Safe at Home Week. It's the last week of August and so we wanted to light the way, and of course, I paired it with a couple of different little keychains that have lights on them. But I've seen a whole bunch of different lights that I found that kind of, I guess, anywhere you're looking, even if there's a one step up or something at a home, and you can just kind of they're this big and you can just stick them, I guess, to the surface, and it really would light up and keep someone safe at home. I just thought it was a good idea. But here a little key change you can add your logo. If you have some stickers, you can cut it to size, and I think that would be really cute too. Want to get your logo on anything you possibly can.
Speaker 1:The other thing about this is call me out for a free home safety assessment. Why is that? All it takes to kind of get in the home. We've talked, even here with Kathy, that many of them are resistant to having anyone even come in and talk to them, so this could be the how to get in. Do a free home safety assessment. We've been in several homes to know, though they're not. They've got extension cords running across the living room. Throw rugs over the extension cord. I've seen so many hazards going into homes, so offering a free home safety assessment, I think, is a really smart thing to do as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you for mentioning that. I think I was trying to go fast. Oh, we're good. And then this one is super cute because I mean, who wouldn't want to have coffee? Talk, right? So I'm on me, redeemed by text only, so to set a date, text me and we can get together and take this out to your social workers or anyone that you know that you would have a connection with. And because you guys do the same type of thing, you're in the same market. So why not connect and become referral, refer to each other and if this goes to someone who just really can't leave their community or where they're working, offer to bring it to them and maybe take an order. Maybe this turns into an in-service or a lunch and learn or something. But I just think this is super cute and maybe the little handwritten note the back and I'd really love to connect with you or something. But I like it because it's redeemable and it's just a really cute idea and redeeming by text only gets you on a texting basis.
Speaker 1:With this referral source and with social workers, that can be a powerful thing because they're very fast and very busy and if they can text you really quick about a discharge coming up, that's wonderful. And if they have to call other people, they might choose you because they can text you and it's quick and you can certainly edit this to say coffee or tea on me, I'll bring it by. I mean, you can edit the words so that it can say what makes the most sense for you. And so again, we have Kathy with us. Does anybody have any questions? I know some of you came a little bit later to the meeting. There might have been some sign-in issues, I'm not sure. If you missed this, though, we will be sending out a replay. It'll be out on all of the podcasts.
Speaker 1:We have Kathy Windus. She's a geriatric care manager. I don't know if anybody else has any questions. Before we end, we want to thank her for coming. For sure, you just have so much knowledge, kathyathy. This was helpful for me being in home care all this time. I I learned a lot today. If you have a question for kathy, feel free to put it in the chat or just speak, unmute yourself and any questions. You've always been dying to know. Any answers to questions? No, okay, now or forever. Hold your peace here we have it. Call us later.
Speaker 2:Let's see.
Speaker 1:We always have been team appreciation during the CNA week of June. Has anyone had successful staff events that caregivers attend and you could still step every shift that day and responded well to and was affordable, okay. So she's asking us for cna week if we've ever held appreciation at the office for our caregivers, our cnas, and that they actually came and they attended and we could still staff all the shit. So that's a tall order, carla. But we had caregiver parties and it was an open. She said I know all right, it was an open event. So said I know right, it was an open event. So it was 12 hours, guys. I mean we buckled up, we got ready for it and it was an open house and we were open for 12 hours.
Speaker 1:Caregivers popped in and out throughout the day. They got a gift, we had food on staff and we were constantly replenishing the food. We had crockpots of food, mostly the staff. We had a great staff that loved to cook and I'm telling you I gained 15 pounds working at that company. Everyone was cooking all in a big kitchen and because we were teaching the carvers how to cook too during training sometimes the 24-hour carvers we'd bring them in to show them like meals that they could create, but we cooked in there all that.
Speaker 1:I was always eating, but anyway, we had crockpots of food and cookies and dessert and we would just keep replenishing and it was a 12-hour open house, come you want. They always brought their kids, so you have to have a lot of food because the kids are coming with them. It's just the way that it is and they would eat and we would always have some kind of gift for them to take back with them and appreciate them T-shirts, polos, hand sanitizer. We had one event where you know if they were celebrating their one year, their three month or whatever, we had that gift for them too. That's what worked for me. How about Annette and Lisa? You have anything to add?
Speaker 3:we used to do the same type of thing. I don't know if we did 12 hours but we did 12, so they went missing.
Speaker 3:We were hoping some we did a couple drop ins. I remember one that we had that was really nice, that they really enjoyed. It was for Valentine's Day. So they stopped in and we had Valentine treats and the whole room was decorated for Valentine's Day and we had little gifts for them and candy and when they were, they can come in between this time and that time and I think they like that. They said, oh, this is I mean. They would say it was so nice and sometimes you're really busy and you don't have time to do this. It takes a lot.
Speaker 1:It's a whole day that you're scheduling this, but they really do appreciate it. Yeah, caregivers need to feel like they have that sense of community, like they're a part of something, and I think that they really it energized them. We did it a couple of times a year and they were like re-energized. Some of them brought their clients with them, which was fabulous. The clients got to see us and meet everybody in the office too. Elisa, how about you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we actually did several caregiver appreciation, had the office kind of open. We also had before, especially before COVID, we had the office open. We had a kitchen with snacks and they could actually come anytime and get water, snacks, little care package if they needed. But yeah, we had a whole caregiver appreciation day. We also did a Thanksgiving where we served them and we had tables out in our, I guess where our conference room slash where we used to train everybody, with our dummy in the background in the back in the bed and our lawyer back there. But yeah, we definitely did that and they loved that because we would give them gifts, of course, and we just were an appreciation. They would bring their family, their kids, even their clients, which we love, because just having that engagement and interaction was really great for everyone to see that we were doing this for the caregivers and how many people came. Lots of people came and they loved it.
Speaker 2:I know one time we even did a taco cart outside. I want to say that was maybe after COVID. I want to say we did some open houses and yeah, all the same thing. I think they really appreciate that. We did do a couple taking maybe flowers to a client or a caregiver on shift if they were really close and they've been there for a while. But yeah, I made sure it's okay and all that. But yeah, we love the little things like that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we did a holiday party and then one opposite party, like summery time kind of thing, barbecue or something. So I hope that answers your question, carla. And and still, not everybody was able to come. There are people on 12s 24s. It was hard and if we felt if they really wanted to come they're like I have to work or whatever sometimes we would send a lead caregiver to give them a break so they could run it all in part of it and I could be, or someone from the staff would go be with their clients so they could come to the parties.
Speaker 1:If it's a caregiver who's been with you a long time and they're really sad to be missing it, I guess you just do whatever you can so that they get to be a part of it and they get to feel that. And there's just so much really warm, passionate energy in that office when everybody's there. I can't explain it. We're all on the same passion, right? We're all on the same mission and it just feels really good and I think they need that rejuvenated the office too, not just the caregiver.
Speaker 1:So well, kathy, I again want to thank you for coming. You were just full of knowledge. It was so helpful. We really appreciate it, and if you guys think of questions later on, I'm sure we can send Kathy questions and she would be happy to get those back and we can add those to the replay or something too. So thank you again, kathy, for coming. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Of course, everyone have a great weekend. We're going to stay on here just a little bit with Kathy, but have a great weekend and thank you. Bye, everybody, bye.