Merrily Orsini News

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Understanding How to Provide Geriatric Care Management Is a Skillset for the Future

Geriatric Care Management HandbookIn 2012 there were 39 million people over 65, and in 2014 there are 43 million. In fact, 10,000 people are turning 65 each day. Now, turning that magic age does not mean that care is immediately needed. In fact, most care is not needed until a person reaches 80. So, that means that, when the first boomers reach 80 in 2026, the onslaught for care will begin. Understanding what aging means in terms of frailty, functionality, and needs is at the heart of geriatric care management.

The Handbook of Geriatric Care Management, the only textbook of its kind on the subject, will be releasing its 4th edition in 2015. Published by Jones & Bartlett, and compiled by editor Cathy Jo Cress, this comprehensive guide for Geriatric Care Managers (GCMs) is an essential teaching tool, with lessons and guidelines on:

  • Supporting clients’ quality of life
  • Assessing and supporting family caregivers
  • Ethnic and cultural considerations in geriatric care management
  • Combining a home care agency and a GCM practice
  • Care planning
  • And much more

As one of the authors of a chapter in this important textbook, I am pleased to announce that I will be revising my chapter, “Marketing Geriatric Care Management.” In this chapter, geriatric care managers learn how to:

  • Market services to the geriatric care population
  • Create a solid marketing strategy
  • Develop a strategic marketing plan
  • Develop their brand
  • Target their marketing message to the right audience
  • Set themselves apart from the competition
  • Use new technology and digital media as a core component to reach those who have a need
  • Use education on issues related to aging to reach those in the first phase of the buying cycle
  • And more

As a veteran of the aging care industry, my professional background is steeped in home care, geriatric care management, and marketing. My business ownership began with a geriatric care managed in-home care agency, which earned the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1996. I founded corecubed (Aging Care Marketing) in 1998 after selling my home care business. corecubed focuses on marketing aging care companies using strategy, design and integration to get results for our home care and aging care client partners.

The corecubed team has won multiple awards, including a prestigious Stevie Award, and a coveted Webby Award nomination, as well as numerous Aster Awards and Web Health Awards for our home care marketing materials.

It is such an honor to be asked to contribute to this informative and timely book, and I am thrilled to be able to bring my marking and aging care expertise to the Handbook for Geriatric Care Management in its latest edition. To learn more about the handbook and about its editor, Cathy Jo Cress, please visit her website.

If you are interested in having a team with in-depth geriatric care experience working with you or your business to better reach a senior care market, the experts at corecubed know how to do it. Just contact us and we will gladly assist you in better targeting your campaigns, branding your business for success, and communicating with those who make decisions.

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Everyone’s a Winner When It Comes to Caring!

caring champions judgeCaregiving is a rewarding job, but, too often, caregivers receive little recognition for their kindness and compassion. Caregivers uniquely engage the older adults in their care, recognize and support the dignity of elders, and take on a difficult professional role with little glory. That’s why, when Caring.com approached me and asked if I would like to judge their 2014 Caring Champions program, I immediately said yes.

This fabulous program recognizes professional caregivers for seniors in the United States. I was honored to be chosen as part of an exclusive panel of senior care experts to provide insight about senior care and identify the professional caregiver nominees who have gone above and beyond based on their submitted stories. As Andy Cohen, CEO of Caring.com, notes, “This program highlights stories of extraordinary professional care, rewards caregivers, and helps families find the best service providers for their loved ones, too.”

Having owned a geriatric care managed in-home care agency, and worked in the home care industry for decades, I have seen firsthand the dedication of professional caregivers and witnessed the ways in which lives are changed by the companionship and friendship that caregivers can provide.

Yesterday, Caring.com announced the winners of their Caring Champions program. Take a moment to read through the winners and learn more about what makes them exceptional caregivers. I am so proud to have been a part of Caring Champions and I extend heartfelt congratulations to all the winners and a sincere thank you to all the nominees. You truly know what it means to care.

Click here to read more about all the Caring Champions nominees and find out more about the Caring Champions program.

 

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The Nation’s Best Healthcare Advertising Awards Go to corecubed!

Gold and Silver Awarded to corecubed in 2014
corecubed is a Healthcare Advertising Award Winner for 2014

Team corecubed wins the trifecta from the 2014 Aster Awards for the nation’s best healthcare advertising. We went for the gold and got it with a calendar designed for Lighthouse Healthcare. Each page has a lighthouse themed photo accompanied by some thoughts by which to live, making each day a wonderful day for the viewer. This year’s silver award for Home Health website was garnered for design and development of Regency Home Care’s new website. Regency serves northern Atlanta including Buckhead, Dunwoody, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Vinings, Alpharetta, and Roswell. Regency Home Care is also a member of corecubed’s unique turnkey home care marketing program, MOST, which helps with their SEO as well, since we update and post regularly with relevant industry information. Our sweet spot!

To round out the trifecta, we won another silver award for Independence-4-Seniors, a Chicago based home care agency run by a husband and wife team who have been with our MOST Program for many years, with their agency growing and outpacing the competition through a combination of excellent service provision coupled with incredible marketing. The silver award is for patient education in a series of tip sheets.

Winning awards really makes us feel proud of our team. However, the bigger award comes from the results that our clients get from working with us. We love partnering with home care agencies to bring marketing, branding, and strategy expertise in a partnership relationship. Our best clients (and these three for whom we won awards, fall into that category) work in tandem with us to create marketing campaigns and ongoing touches that deliver results. And, what results are we delivering? Lead generation from the website and direct mail, reputation building and brand extension through community presentations, and personalized communication so each inquiry feels special and knows that the home care agency understands what issues are important for that inquiry for his or her loved one or client.

Check out the MOST Program, if you have not, and see if it would work for your agency. There simply is no other marketing solution that is specific to home care, utilizes the best strategy and gives your agency a partner who understands the industry and can deliver results.

 

 

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Aging Society Is Aging

In 2014 American Society on Aging is 60
American Society on Aging is 60 in 2014

The American Society on Aging turns 60 this year. Celebrating that milestone, and continuing the education and policy making that has been so important for those 6 decades, the American Society on Aging is having its annual conference in San Diego this week. There is no other organization or conference that takes the long range, high level view that ASA does. Here, one can find research, advocates, policy makers, philanthropists, educators, students, and those of age who want to be a viable part of how society solves its problems.

Much more than just home care, the ASA conference spans all kinds of possibilities for aging: in place, in any place, with anyone, in any way. The issues, you see, of a society, remain as that society ages, but we assume that there will need to be different and better solutions as things change.

So what is going to change? A reverence and respect for elders, is a main theme here. Our society needs to find a way to make the older population a viable part of the fabric of society, and not just a retired, and wasted group. The needs of communities, non-profits, programs….all need assistance implementing and sustaining programs. What better source for talent, wisdom, and energy than the recently retired workforce, with lots to offer and no place to go.

Another theme here is that the boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are not accepting retirement and rules that others have not questioned. This cohort of folks were brought up in a time where authority was questioned, where the norm changed, where nothing traditional was respected for its tradition. That force, en mass, is one with which the nation has to deal, and the ASA is looking for ways to take the number and make them relevant.

How exciting to be among a mixed group of interested, educated, driven professionals who are looking for a better way to engage our citizens as we move into this Age Wave.

Keep posted for ways that I see we can translate what I am learning into a communicated and orchestrated path that I will suggest for my clients. This is the perfect way to mix marketing and trend setting. Fasten your seat belts!

 

The Changing Players in Healthcare

Acquisitions in health care continue
Changing Players in Healthcare. Who’s next?

Lexmark, known for printers, has just entered into the health care field in a large way. They just announced the acquisition of  “PACSGEAR, a leading provider of connectivity solutions for healthcare providers to capture, manage and share medical images and related documents and integrate them with existing picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) and electronic medical records (EMR) systems. ”

The field is a changing one, for certain. The advent of technology, and the recent push to use it in healthcare so the transitions from hospital to home are smoother, is also changing the players. “Capturing and processing digital content” simply means making the information usable across platforms and businesses.

How do these larger changes affect home care and aging care services?  Only the future will answer that for certain, but, for now, one can be assured that many are currently looking for ways to get some market share in the aging care market, and health care is the largest expenditure and growing.

 

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