Does the caregiver's role feel like an uphill climb? Are you grappling with how to navigate the stressors associated with caregiving? As your hosts for this insightful episode, we promise to equip you with tools to manage the demands of caregiving and strategies to avert burnout. We delve into the root causes of caregiver stress, ranging from family dynamics to office miscommunication, and provide practical advice on managing these pressures. Moreover, we explore the profound sense of personal responsibility caregivers often feel and how unanticipated situations with clients or family members can amplify stress levels.
Venturing deeper, we recognize the emotional baggage caregivers carry, particularly grief and loss. We understand the tough decisions you are tasked with and acknowledge the tremendous importance of readying for the inevitable loss. In this episode, we dissect the various stages of grief, emphasizing their unique manifestation in every individual. We understand that equipping you with the right knowledge is essential to delivering excellent care to your clients while also ensuring you feel supported and understood.
Finally, we shift gears to the business side of caregiving. In a world teeming with competitors, we'll help you stand out. Discover unique marketing strategies and the art of gift distribution in this engaging segment. We also discuss innovative promotional tactics, like offering home safety assessments and hosting social events, that can lure referral sources to your home care business. Empathy, compassion, and kindness are at the heart of every strategy we explore. So join us, whether you're a caregiver, part of a care agency, or simply looking to gain a deeper understanding of the caregiver experience. We promise you won't regret it.
Follow us and learn more:
https://asnhomecaremarketing.com
https://www.facebook.com/homecaremarketing
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk75cRzwU4Nsefc4Gk7Xa0w
https://www.tiktok.com/@homecaremarketing
https://www.instagram.com/homecaremarketingexpert/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ltc-expert-publications-llc/
Does the caregiver's role feel like an uphill climb? Are you grappling with how to navigate the stressors associated with caregiving? As your hosts for this insightful episode, we promise to equip you with tools to manage the demands of caregiving and strategies to avert burnout. We delve into the root causes of caregiver stress, ranging from family dynamics to office miscommunication, and provide practical advice on managing these pressures. Moreover, we explore the profound sense of personal responsibility caregivers often feel and how unanticipated situations with clients or family members can amplify stress levels.
Venturing deeper, we recognize the emotional baggage caregivers carry, particularly grief and loss. We understand the tough decisions you are tasked with and acknowledge the tremendous importance of readying for the inevitable loss. In this episode, we dissect the various stages of grief, emphasizing their unique manifestation in every individual. We understand that equipping you with the right knowledge is essential to delivering excellent care to your clients while also ensuring you feel supported and understood.
Finally, we shift gears to the business side of caregiving. In a world teeming with competitors, we'll help you stand out. Discover unique marketing strategies and the art of gift distribution in this engaging segment. We also discuss innovative promotional tactics, like offering home safety assessments and hosting social events, that can lure referral sources to your home care business. Empathy, compassion, and kindness are at the heart of every strategy we explore. So join us, whether you're a caregiver, part of a care agency, or simply looking to gain a deeper understanding of the caregiver experience. We promise you won't regret it.
Follow us and learn more:
https://asnhomecaremarketing.com
https://www.facebook.com/homecaremarketing
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk75cRzwU4Nsefc4Gk7Xa0w
https://www.tiktok.com/@homecaremarketing
https://www.instagram.com/homecaremarketingexpert/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/ltc-expert-publications-llc/
I am going to go ahead and get started because it is a minute after the hour. I hope everyone's having a great Friday, happy Friday. Well, we'll go ahead and get started. Everyone can see my screen. You can hear me. Okay, it's all good.
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Speaker 1:Yes, Okay, today we are going to talk about preventing caregiver stress and burnout, diffusing caregiver stress and burnout when it's already too late, the stages of grief and bereavement guidelines. We felt like these are some things we have not touched on as of yet, and we all know being a caregiver is completely and totally stressful, family caregiver especially, and even professional caregivers. So Lisa and I thought this would be a good topic to cover. So when we talk about caregiver stress, the first thing we've got to think about is why are they stressed to begin with? What's causing this underlying stress? And we know we also.
Speaker 1:I wasn't working as a caregiver professionally. But even working with the client and family members on the outside not as a caregiver is stressful. So being in their home day in, day out, dealing with all the family dynamics and there's some drama that comes along with that this is a very hard part of everyone's life. You know, mom was fine, she was healthy, it was all going great, and now not. She was in charge of everybody, now not so much. You can imagine what's happening, the dynamics in the family, what's going on, and then we walk right in the middle of all of that right and we're trying to level it out, fix it. Everybody gets used to the new normal. So of course there's going to be stress for us, our caregivers. So let's talk about what is causing the stress, besides all the things that I just talked about, that you're walking into an uncomfortable situation most of the time. There's. Sometimes there's hope and everything's going to get back to normal eventually, and sometimes it does, but sometimes this is a life changing, forever kind of thing now, and so everyone has to kind of manage that in their own way.
Speaker 1:I found a big piece that I've seen that is stressful for the caregivers is that sense of personal responsibility. They really the really good caregivers really feel that sense of personal responsibility where they are doing this all on their own. You know they show up, they don't show up, the client's not coming if I don't come. All of that kind of thing is going on in their mind. So that's definitely a big piece of it and these are things that I've seen through the years. These are things that you know we are caregivers.
Speaker 1:Through the years these are things that have come up too. So I just tried to think of anything, anything and everything that might cause stress A big one we always got a complaint about we have 400 caregivers is lack of communication from the office. You know they're very instant gratification. Caregivers tend to be that way and so when they don't get instant response from us they get upset, especially if it's about their paycheck or my client doesn't seem right today, something's off and we don't respond right away because they don't always get a slide right. We're busy with things.
Speaker 1:And it seems like these things happen on Mondays and Fridays when you're already dealing with call-offs and everything else that could go wrong. Then something like this happens and then they really feel that sense of personal responsibility because they just let this, the voicemail that their client seems off and they didn't get a call right back in five minutes. So lack of communication from the office is definitely a big thing maybe for just bigger offices, not sure, but it was definitely an issue for us. Response time from the office is too long, not enough detail regarding the new client they have. They're not getting enough detail ahead of time. They're walking in and they're finding out the client's a whore or a lift maybe, or they're finding out that the client can walk totally on their own and isn't going to let us help them shower, even though the care plan says I'm supposed to help them shower. They use a worker. So making sure that they're not getting enough detail really really stresses them out. Walking into situations they don't feel prepared for. Maybe we didn't know the client at all, timers, we didn't ask, we didn't dig in and the caregiver goes in there and it's completely different story than it doesn't match the care plan.
Speaker 1:Issues with the client or their family members can cause a lot of stress. Pressure from the client to do more than they're supposed to do, and then we need to prep our caregivers with that. She is not supposed to walk by herself, you are supposed to have hands on at all times, and then the client won't allow that. So, just in pressure to maybe stand up on a ladder and clean the ceiling band, they get asked to do all kinds of things that are outside of what they're supposed to be doing and they want to please their client. They don't want the client to be mad at them or the family member to be mad at them. So that definitely adds pressure. Pressure from the office to do more than they have time or skill level to do. So they're already working 40 hours. The client has requested that they stay one more day. Please, please, please. Can she just stay overnight, one more night? And I've been in that situation where, oh, we just needed to stay 12 more hours. It's not that much. I've done it myself because I know it's just going to blow. She won't. I'm asking them to do that, asking them to do something. They're not. You know, maybe they used to holler at one time ago and we just we just got two clients or got a client in with a holler lift and they're like, oh, years ago, I don't know how comfortable I am. You know that's going to add stress to them. Definitely. Problems solve this stuff as it's coming up.
Speaker 1:The care plan must be looked at again. I can't stress it A hospital visit, a discharge from a SNF things change when they've been in a SNF or in a hospital. We have to look at that care plan again and we have to make those changes. And so anytime there's a change, the care plan has to change, because that caregiver that's been there ongoing. Maybe they're there after and they tell you oh, now she's a transfer assist and she's this, and that we don't change the care plan, that's going to be a problem for our fillings, right. So it's really important that care plan is changed.
Speaker 1:The condition of the clients home we do go into SNFs and we sign clients up in the SNF. That's the best way to do it. They're set in place, you're good to go. They're not going to call any other home. Please, you have more time now, right, to find the caregiver. All of the things are great and we have to look at that home. We have to either show up the first day with the caregiver or we have to go before the caregiver goes, because I have I'm sure all of you I know Lisa will agree have walked into homes. There's, you know, seven cats running around. There's poop on the cat, poop on the floor. It's dusty. There's a little trail to walk. You know they might be quarters. There's nowhere for the caregiver to sit so we have to walk.
Speaker 1:At the condition of clients home help definitely add some stress there is. Sometimes the caregivers don't feel heard. They will tell them to run over again. You know this client should not be alone at night. And they have that again, that sense of personal responsibility, six, seven o'clock at night and they know the caregiver, the client's going to be alone all night. And they've told us two, three days now, you know. And we're trying to reach the adult children, we're trying right behind the scenes to get them to sign up for overnight. We're trying to make that happen. But it's not fast enough for the person, the caregiver who's watching it, who has to leave them there knowing they're at risk. It's a totally different thing for them than for us in the office. So staying in contact with that caregiver would be important.
Speaker 1:They feel out of control a lot of times. That's another piece of not feeling heard. They also feel out of control when they're being asked to do things they shouldn't be doing, not feeling important, not feeling like we are prioritizing them, causing them a lot of stress. They have a lot of personal life stressors too Relationships, finances, even. You know they're clientized and Lisa's going to talk about that too that stress and they do seem to have, you know, a lot going on in their personal lives a lot of the time and they work a lot of hours. Sometimes we're not the only home care company that they're working for, maybe they're working for several and they need to work a lot of hours to be able to make rent or make their mortgage payment. So these are all the things that can cause the stress and the burnout with your caregivers Signs to look for from your caregivers that they might be burnt out or stressed or headed in that direction.
Speaker 1:As they start arriving late to work, they call out sick, they're causing problems with other caregivers in the home or they're causing problems with the client's family members or the client in the home. They have a bad attitude. They're complaining about everything. They're speaking poorly about the company to the client and their family members. That's how that happened before. Especially when they call in and tell us something's going on in the home and they don't feel like we're taking care of it quickly enough, they will start to.
Speaker 1:I did what I could. I told the office, you know. I let them know that this was going on. I don't know why they're not taking care of it. They're not engaging with their clients, they're not returning our calls no call, no show or they're ghosting the office altogether. We don't want any of these things to happen, right? I mean absolutely not. And if there's anything we can do to help and keep that from happening, prevent it, then let's do that.
Speaker 1:So always stress the importance of a team approach. You're not in this alone. We all are working together. We care about the client just as much as you do. We're gonna do everything we can in our power to make sure that they're safe and healthy and that you're safe and healthy. Communicate with them often. I can't stress enough how important it is to have a retention program. So we have one here. If you don't wanna reinvent the wheel, we have one. It's wonderful. If you don't wanna do that and can't do that. Have some kind of retention program in place.
Speaker 1:Your caregivers need to hear from you every week the first 90 days of employment, absolutely, and they should be hearing from you monthly on going after that. And this isn't where's your TV, where's your CPR? That's not the kind of things they need to hear from you. They need to feel supported. So it's gonna be important, especially if you're this team approach, then they should be hearing from their team members. Encourage them to reach out to the office. I know sometimes it's like, oh my gosh, it's Mary again. She's calling again. Oh my God, we have those caregivers that just are constantly calling the office. We have to listen to them.
Speaker 1:We can't have an office we kind of a business, we can't grow without the caregivers. So you have to have someone on your team and it may not be the schedulers. They're busy with the whole client side of the business, right? They've got all the client stuff going on New clients coming in, clients falling clients needing more hours. They're dealing with all the adult children. They don't have time to take those kinds of phone calls.
Speaker 1:So find a place, a way to have somebody that can take those types of calls and really make the caregivers feel supported. Get back to them right away. We do that with this retention program. It really helps. It's text messaging. They can text the office really quick when they're with a client and we can text them right back. Are we gonna fix what's going on? We can text them? Probably not, but they're gonna get that information to the right person so we can get that. The caregiver needs to feel heard. If they can get a text really quick, it's really the fastest, best way to get back to them. Provide great detail about their clients. Let them know everything that you know about the client.
Speaker 1:When whoever's signing that job up has been out to the home. They need to be very detailed. Yes, we need a care plan. We also need to know what's going on. They look at their spouse. Does their daughter come every other month? Is there a neighbor that comes and checks on them? The caregiver doesn't wanna be sitting there and have the neighbor just walk in and have no idea what's going on. The lay of the land is so just as important as the care plan. So let's make sure that we give them all the detail about the clients. Support them when issues arise with clients. Support them. I hear what you're saying and we all know there's two sides to every story. Right, I always. The truth is always somewhere in the middle, always somewhere. That's what I did if I'd learned to take care of.
Speaker 2:Three sides. There's three sides to every story your side, their side and the truth.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:If.
Speaker 1:I'm not recording anything in home. There it is. The truth is in the middle somewhere. When issues arise with their clients, don't ask them to take on more than they can handle. If there has a tent sorry, has a tent about taking on, how to find? Listen to that, and I know it's hard Please stay 12 more hours, please, please, please.
Speaker 1:I know you've done four over nights in a row. Please stay another over. You're gonna have to figure it out. You're gonna have to figure it out Because what's gonna happen? You're gonna burn them out anyway and they're gonna leave and you're gonna lose like three clients because they're on three clients right In the moment. It feels so, so tempting. Nope, I'm just gonna stretch her Just one more night. I'm telling you from experience at least, as her head's going yes, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. Figure out something else. Get your salesperson back involved and have because this is the story, I've heard it a million times my mom's not gonna let anybody else come tonight. She likes Barry.
Speaker 1:If Mary can't stay another night, I don't know what we're gonna do. Your person who signed them up your salesperson is the person. Pull them back in and ask them to call this daughter and explain to her we're going to burn Mary out and then you're never going to see Mary again, I'm just going to have to. So we have an overnight caregiver for you tonight. She's gonna come two nights. Mary will be back because Mary needs rest and so your salesperson should be able to handle that for you. So keep them in the loop.
Speaker 1:Always Be sure care plans are accurate, especially after hospital and SNF stays. Don't go to clients or go to clients homes before they do. We talked about that. Listen to them and take action if needed. Let them know I hear you we're gonna look into this. It may be a couple of days, but I will get back to you. Give them an idea of when they're gonna hear from you again. Don't allow them to work long stretches without breaks. Support them with a reason when they have personal problems. I know I've seen it all. I have to move today. I can't work. We're letting them use our truck. I mean all kinds of things happen within reason. Support them, have personal problems and make them a priority. It's so important they are a priority, I mean for your business that we can't grow without caregivers, so make them a priority.
Speaker 1:I created this handout. These are caregiver signs for the caregivers to look for in themselves If they're facing burnout or stress or anything any of the above I've got, part of me is like we really wanna give this to them because I don't want them calling. I'm getting caregiver burnout, I can't come in today. I don't want that to happen.
Speaker 1:But when you're doing training, you're doing orientation, they need to know that your company is different and you really care about them. Handing them something like this, putting it in their take home folder, just let them know that you care and you're concerned and you know that burnout happens and that it exists, and so just giving them this, they may never look at it again. But while you're in training and you're in orientation and you're saying, please take care of yourself. If these things are happening to you a loss of interest in work or insomnia, mood swings, getting sick frequently, stress, eating, symptoms of anxiety or depression If any of those things are happening, please call the office so we can help to support you and then maybe you never need to talk about it again.
Speaker 1:I don't wanna give them an excuse to call out. I know how that works, but I think during training and orientation there's a good purpose for this. The Google link is here. The Canva link is here. You can change the colors, the logo, the phone number, all of that great stuff. So, anyway, I thought this was a good handout for training, for orientation, so they know that you care this.
Speaker 1:May. They may go to two orientations companies two different weeks and when they see you showing an interest in how and in how they're feeling, that's gonna set you apart from the others. Okay, I see some chat. Is it just all us? It's all us. Okay, great, all right. So I think what are we up to now? Oh, diffusing. I thought you were up, lisa, but I've got a couple more. But what do you do when it's too late? They're already stressed, they're already upset, they're already burning out, they have had it and they're just done. I found through the years, the best way to diffuse any situation is to give the person space to vent without interrupting or defending them. It's human nature to go but, but. But. But she didn't mean no, no, that's not the schedule. The scheduler told me. You said this. Don't do any of that, just give them the floor. They would.
Speaker 4:As you know, they're up here right now and they're just as they're talking going down and it's going down and you're gonna have a reasonable person to have a conversation with.
Speaker 1:If you let them, you let them talk and speak and feel heard. So always give them the event, without interrupting them and without defending anything. Even if you know what they're saying is wrong, let them say it. They need to be heard. Repeat what you heard to check for understanding. This is what I hear you saying. You are upset because this is, this is what the client said to you. You're telling me that the scheduler you know said this to you. Is that what you're saying? I mean, repeat what you've heard to check for understanding. Ask those clarifying questions. So you're especially upset because, or when the client's daughter came in the house and asked you to do this. Is that what you're upset about? Or, out of all the things you just said, what are you most upset about? Get some clarifying questions, because you can't fix it if you don't really know what's wrong. Sometimes it's just a matter of how somebody is talking to them in the home or how the scheduler comes off over the phone, even though the scheduler didn't mean to come off that way. Sometimes it's not as big as it feels and once they've diffused a little, they're not as upset If your staff owns some of the responsibility in this situation.
Speaker 1:Assure them that you will deal with it and take the necessary action now to resolve the situation and action now to avoid the same situation in the future. Your staff's not perfect and you have repeat offender caregivers and the staff has a short fuse for those people sometimes, but sometimes something really did happen and they really should have been supported when they weren't, even though it's the 20th time they've done something. This time was different, maybe, and if your staff is responsible, you do need to take a look into that. If the client or their family members own some of the responsibility in the situation and show them the same thing, you're going to deal with it. You're going to take action now to resolve it and Action now to avoid the same thing happening in the future.
Speaker 1:I have had to have several talks with clients and family members. I let things you know, I hear what's going on and I call and we just have, like this, just a little issue I want to discuss, and then they assure me no, that's not happening, everything is fine. If it continues, then I call it a smackdown. That's what I've always called it. They're like don the new smackdown, it's time to smackdown and it's not that it's not a terrible sound, but it really is. This is the third conversation We've had about it, about this. It continues to happen. I have more than one caregiver saying the same thing.
Speaker 1:If it doesn't stop, a way to have to pull services, and it's just the way that it is, and they don't, and I don't want to pull services. We love your mother, but your father or the neighbor, it's usually not the client, it's usually some external Somebody that's causing drama. And and how sad would it be for your mother to lose services because of so-and-so? I mean that can they maybe not be at the house? For the caregivers, there is that an option. Work out a plan, try to figure something out that that works, because it is sad for the client to lose services because they have some wild family member that's just causing so many problems for everybody.
Speaker 2:Especially, they were born with that, with that caregiver.
Speaker 1:After they've come down and they understand you're going to take action and work with all parties involved and do they own some Responsibility in a situation, because that doesn't need to be looked at. If so, address it now, point it out and ask them if they see their part in it, and hopefully they will. Yes, mary, this, this and this happened, but if you had responded differently, maybe the rest wouldn't have happened. You're right, all of these happen, these things happen and they shouldn't have. But do you see this, this piece, your piece, and this too? It's important that you do that as well, and I've had to. You know I talked to the caregiver too. I know she has some blame here and that's also being addressed. So all parties know it's being handled. Make them feel supported. Even when they have some responsibility, they still need to feel like you have their back and you're going, and sometimes that's Disappointment, sometimes it is. Sometimes you have to have that hard top. That is still support. Okay, go ahead. Lisa. Is that for preparing for loss?
Speaker 2:Okay. So, whether at end of life, on hospice or just a sudden change in condition and a lot of this don't kind of cover but preparing your caregiver for clients in the life, it's gonna help them cope with that loss of their clients and we're talking just loss of client, not of their own family members but maybe soften the blow. And the time does come. I mean honestly, the time leading up to a client's death or really big change can be really hard and grief may have already set into a Degree. I mean you, you know the person your caregiver held near and dear to them, the person they breakfast with every morning, walked with the dog after meals. That person is now failing to thrive and it's a tough place to be for anyone, especially one. You're in that unique role where this is their job. Some caregivers will remain with their client through every change in condition and some caregivers will tell you they can't handle or don't want to see, you know, their client change from a person living to someone transitioning on, and so some people just can't handle it and it's good that they're telling you that and listen to that.
Speaker 2:I've been in situations where I've been like well, do you think if I Did this, you could still stay because you know and I I have been like you know this person's gonna really miss you. Kenny, is there anything I can do to to make this better situation? And sometimes they they'll try it a few days and it's just too much for them and we have to respect that and, you know, move forward with it. And so many caregivers have come to me to ask you know, how's client Sally? I just couldn't bear seeing her suffer anymore. And these caregivers are sharing in a grieving process in a different way. They just decided to make the choice in dissing themselves Because they didn't want to hurt by watching that person hurt or suffer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't think that makes them a bad caregiver either. I mean, I definitely, but it's a hard thing for some people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. Sometimes you're like, dang it, I have to get it, you know. But we have to remember and, I guess, address it the way we would want. I've been in both where I'm like, oh man, I've got to get someone else, and same time I'm like, yeah, I guess I understand. If that's their limitation, that's their limitation.
Speaker 2:But you know, preparing for loss, talk to your caregivers we you just kind of touched on this, but it works in this setting too. I mean, talk to them, let them know what the new plan of care is and walk them through every piece of information. Um, details are key, you know, give them a heads up that there'll be a lot more family around and it's okay to excuse yourself. I've had wives, you know, call me and say, you know, can they just not hover right Right now? And I'm like, you know they need to know that. So that's good that you told me that, because now I can let them know. Okay, you know, and those are things that you might not even think you need to tell someone, but you know, go ahead and give the family some space. It's okay to give them that permission. Let your caregiver know there may be other care providers caring for their patient as well, and that you'll be working side by side with the totally different set of duties and some May crossover, like bathing and turning things with those. Things are pretty common in the crossover.
Speaker 2:Um, if someone's on hospice or other. But they need to know they're representing the company and need to to remain professional at all times. Um, you know, caregivers sometimes take it personally when someone else comes in and starts doing the things that they're doing. So they need to be told these things so that they don't Catch an attitude or, you know, represent the company in a way you don't want them to. Uh, you know, listen to your caregivers, give them time to process all the change, hear them out, listen to what they can handle kind of touched on that before. But, you know, newer and experienced caregivers may not want to work with someone who's on hospice, but they may be okay while that person on hospice is still able to get out of bed or, you know, with other certain conditions they're still able to get up at E, you know, and then offer training and educate. Ask the current caregiver if they want to learn bedside care. I want to know more about hospice or the situation that they're experiencing now or that their client has changed over to you know they're not going to be able to do that, so I think that's a great way to do that. Um, and let them know how we work side by side with hospice. You know that's a misconception, that when hospice comes in, that they don't need anything else. Well, yeah, they do. Hospice isn't there as long as that caregiver can be.
Speaker 2:And then you know five stages of grief. Uh, so what a unique job to have, right, a job where we build such a relationship with our clients. They become a huge part of your everyday life. I mean, we literally moved that client from you know, morning to breakfast, afternoon to you know, and so just a super big part of their life. This professional, personal bond a caregiver grows over time, but the client should be recognized. When a client passes, it does hurt, uh, leaving the caregiver without that client, that friend she lived and they cared for for all this time. So, even though there are, there are five common stages of grief that have been recognized Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Speaker 2:Every human being is different.
Speaker 2:These five stages of grief can manifest themselves in different ways, in a different times and in any order.
Speaker 2:Some people might just accept it right away, um, and others it may take some time, but and I've often heard people trying to like justify why they didn't cry at that exact moment or you know that they were supposed to, or you know why they or, in contrast, is burst into tears, you know so.
Speaker 2:There's no right or wrong way to grieve, but we just need to make sure that we have an idea of what it may look like and create guidelines on how to care for your caregivers when they experience a loss. So denial uh, you know denial is refusing to admit truth in reality or something unpleasant. So it's your caregivers defense mechanism if they stop and think for a moment and admit the truth, especially with the nature of our jobs in home care, it's going to affect them in many ways and I have found a lot of times caregivers used denial with with this level of loss, like nine out of 10 times, um, and it's not. It's not why you think it's, it's really because they guess they're going to miss their long-time client and their routine. But your caregivers thinking of their next paycheck too.
Speaker 2:So it kind of comes as a double-edged sword. And then I put a little note there. You know your caregiver needs to work and earn a paycheck. It needs to know you do have a plan in place for them. Um, and I put, it's a tough gig. Some caregivers it is well act like it doesn't affect them and we'll just move on. Uh, you know, to the next client, no problem. Um, this stage of grief doesn't end right away and it may take some time for a caregiver to bond with another client. So just keep those things in mind. Anger, uh, anger is an emotion or a strong feeling of displeasure and shows itself as bitterness, or it can look like resentment or even hostility. A caregiver could end up quitting their job over this uh feeling as if you did this to them.
Speaker 2:You know you put them in a situation where they were forced to experience this loss. Um, and that's just all part of how they, you know, push it back on to someone. They could take it out in your scheduler or client care coordinator or client's family member. Um, you know, just depends. They could be at a store and just blow up at someone you know. Um, you know, and so it was sorry I had lost my place, but just make sure you offer a safe place to address their feelings in any concerns. Bargaining. Bargaining is a negotiation or an attempt to reason. It can't really bargain with that.
Speaker 2:This is a time where caregiver may reflect and obsess over different possible outcomes. I call it the woulda, coulda, shoulda stage. What that looks like is, if I would have not let them give her that last bit of morphine, she'd still be with us, because that's a common misconception, that morphine is the end all. If I could have just been on shift and not called off, she would still be here. I should have just whatever it is and she would still be here. So the truth is there's nothing that you could have done differently. The caregiver needs to be told that and reiterated that they did a great job and it was inevitable.
Speaker 2:Depression is the state of feeling sad or degree of sadness and despair. It's the hardest and longest lasting stage of grief and usually sets in after the loss has been accepted, once you've kind of processed it. Missing a loved one and being depressed or sad about it is a totally normal human reaction. To be sad during a sad event is normal. When a person is depressed they may experience loss of appetite, concentration, social withdrawal, feel like not just doing much of anything and it could be a constant or just coming waves of feeling sad. And remember to check on your caregivers after a loss Acceptance. Acceptance of a loss is a major part of moving in the right direction towards healing and it kind of, I think doesn't necessarily have to be in order, like I said, but acceptance is huge. To accept is to acknowledge something is true. So acknowledging your pain and acknowledging that person is gone and taking the time to mourn is important. Your caregiver is not gonna accept and get over that loss the same time or the same way. There's too many variables. Just encourage your caregiver to take time to remember their client, something that will always live on with them A saying, the story shared, an inside joke, a smile, a laugh, happy thoughts, guidelines.
Speaker 2:I have separate guidelines that I didn't include today, for I called it EOS end of service that you would kind of conduct with the family, talking with the family, but this is for the caregiver. So we need to make sure we've created a safe place for our caregivers, whether comfortable enough to come into the office and share their feelings with us. So one call the caregiver immediately, and this is what I have done. So call the caregiver immediately or, depending on how close you were with the client as the care manager or client care coordinator, go to the home to support your caregiver, and in that it can kind of be double where you're talking with the family as well, kind of closing that loop. Ask your caregiver to meet you at a local coffee shop, or ask them to stop by the office before they head home and pay them for that time or the time of their shift, or figure it out in a way that makes sense and helps the caregiver too. Keep the communication open. Let them know you're available for them and you do have an open door policy for them. Of course there has to be rules on that too, but you get the idea.
Speaker 2:Have a list of bereavement support groups or resources in the area and give them some space by offering a few days off, whether it's paid or not. I mean, that's something that each individual agency would have to speak on. It's not a requirement, I don't think federally, and there may be some state laws, but I'm pretty sure that there's no requirements there. You can give three to five days bereavement time off if it's a close family member, which it's not. So just look at the laws to make sure they match. Contact them after their time off, asking how they are and if they're ready to get back to work and have them come into the office for their next shift. Have the caregiver sit down with scheduling and find a shift that closely matches their previous schedule, or ask them what they wanna do. Allow your caregiver to sign a sympathy card for the company and be involved in anything else, like sending flowers or donation and move flowers. Ask if they'd like to attend the funeral and get that information for them, giving them the time off needed for that day, and then contact the caregiver after the funeral just to check in Office memory box.
Speaker 2:I found this on Amazon, but you could literally just do a DIY shoe box, cover it with a beautiful paper and with a hole to add, and we could create some keywords. But I think this is a good way to kind of just make someone feel better about the situation and help share a memory that will live on and it'll live right in that box in the office. And so it has little cards. I think it comes with 50 cards. They're really pretty, but you could get any little cards to create something like that and just kind of to help close the loop and finalize what they're feeling inside and remember that person. So I think that would be great to have something like that in the office for them and encourage them when they come in to write something up and put it in the box, and it'll live there.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea, Okay, so moving on to our handouts, our leave behinds, the August leave behind, and I will go through these. I know some of you have never been here before. Some of you've seen the August leave behind 30 times not 30 times, but we do go through it each time. So August is National Wellness Month. It's remember to take care of yourself, and I was on TikTok early this morning and people are doing not the whole home care, Everybody is doing. They're really celebrating National Wellness Month kind of everywhere. So research shows self-care helps manage stress and promotes happiness. So giving this out to your referral sources with back bombs, face masks everything is under a dollar for each piece, put in a little bag. You can even give them the little thing to put around their finger. We do have somebody here today, Keaton, who did this, and he sent me this. These are his bags. He did a great job here and he, I think, are you here, Keaton.
Speaker 4:Yes, I am, can you hear me?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, if you wanna speak about this, he had some pretty good outcome from this Go ahead.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we did so. Thank you so much for sending this gift. We were thinking about something to do, start out the marketing, and this was perfect time for us. So what we did is we prepared the labels and the prepared bags and started handing out the referral sources we are connected with and so far I think we handed out about 30 bags or so some CCRC and SNFs and everywhere and out of those ones we did get some referrals right away. So within a couple of days those referral sources called us. One of the referral was 24, the 24-7.
Speaker 1:You didn't tell me that. Not fabulous, that's awesome.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What was in those bags? I know what did you put in there. Was it just that box? I'm just kidding.
Speaker 4:What we put in it's the things you sent out, like lip balm, the bat balm and the face mask. And also we put in our pen, okay.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, beautiful.
Speaker 4:And I started reaching out to all the people like whom out agency. We've been working with the owner and I said, hey, I have some small gift for you. Can I swing by and give it to you? So we are handing out like a small gift to all the referral sources. We do need to hand out another 20 or 30 or so.
Speaker 4:We did purchase more masks. I think the mask, if you look at the box, had more bombs than masks. So we did purchase more masks and we kind of do the same thing. Also, we reached out to one of the private PTOD company. So this particular company has a therapist and they only provide to the clients who exist at the home health benefits and they need to pay out of the pocket. And they visited us in the office and then we give them back. And they talked about that. Their biggest customer is workers comp company and so I asked them if they can connect me with the workers comp company and see if they can work with us so we can build a relationship. So she did that part and today I'm supposed to call the couple of the workers comp company and follow up and see if we can work Wonderful.
Speaker 1:Those are good jobs. That's great. I think it's for you yeah.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's like a slam dunk right there. That was a good one.
Speaker 4:Yes, so I'm very encouraged by this thing. So we did buy product for the September and we're gonna start Wonderful. That's great.
Speaker 1:Thank you for saying that I have a question for you.
Speaker 4:So some CCRC, we have like context about 20 people. That's right, so we are. We have connections in IELA and nursing home, partages and all the things. Do we give out the backs to everyone we connect with or what's your recommendation?
Speaker 1:I typically would. I mean in each place. It's not gonna be the whole building. So the the SNF, it's a SNF. There's probably three, four people, always the front door person. I never leave them out because they see you walking with it. In assisted living it's usually your director nursing, maybe the executive director Also. There might be a couple of other people in there.
Speaker 4:Social workers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there might be some social workers that are still living as well. So, yeah, I would. I would do, because the thing is that they're in a meeting and they're like you know, keaton came by and I didn't do anything, you know, so they do talk to each other.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I definitely would, but it doesn't mean to every worker in the building.
Speaker 1:All the buildings need something, but yeah, definitely the main people I would definitely do that with, but that's awesome.
Speaker 4:I do another question. We do work with some of them as a male social worker or the marketer or something, and do we give this gift to male client referral sources as well?
Speaker 1:I know the male thing as hard because it's not as many, and what I've always done is, like you know, do you have a mom, a sister, a girlfriend, something like that? If you really want to, you could do a male bag. You know some things for men to do. I mean some men will do a bath bomb or face mask. I don't know. I mean they're doing more and more of that kind of thing. But you could get some male type, like you know, shaving lotion, or I'm trying to think of beef jerky, I don't know, just a guy stuff.
Speaker 1:You could if there were a couple of male Shaving more.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so we did give it a couple of mil and that just same thing. So, hey, we're trying this things out. Let us know what you think, and I'm sure they will think of someone to give it to.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, they totally will, fred. Almond says yes big turkey, big turkey, big turkey is a good one, high protein. Well, I'm so glad that this worked for you and I can't stress it enough Anytime. You know, every month I would always do some kind of fun handout like this and my curls would increase. It definitely works. I don't know why it works, but it does. It keeps you from money. Yeah, it keeps you separate, you know, it keeps you separate from all your competitors.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because everyone else brings a food and I think most of the times they don't like the food because it's cookies and chocolates and everything. It's always sugar.
Speaker 1:It is always sugar. That's very true, very true. So, yeah, this will, and just being kind of clever and sticking with, you know, sometimes you bring it back to the business and you know about what it is you do in front of us. It's just like we do with the character, because we just want to check out and see how they're doing, and that's what this one is. It's just we want you to be well, you know, and that's basically what this is. Okay, so we're going to move on to the next handout, august.
Speaker 1:Another August week. Behind it is National Safe at Home Week, the last week of August. Let's light the way. Call now for a free home safety assessment. This is a great way to get into the homes, the social workers. You know they might have somebody going home and this person will not talk about home care. This is not something they want to deal with. And the social worker may say well, just let them come in for a free home safety check. That's all. That might be a way to get your door.
Speaker 1:I've been in many homes doing a safety assessment and while I was there, it's like oh, this shower. You know there's a huge lift there. You use it on a walker you might need some help. Or maybe they have a bathtub shower and that's all they have. How are you getting in there? You know there's usually ways to then bring the home care into the, into the mix, but I do have these great light up key chains on Amazon because it's left like the way together. So it's kind of the same thing here. Move on to the next one. September is fall season and fall. It is also fall prevention month, just like these socks. Our services can help to prevent falls and we have the socks here. You put them in a little white bag, like Kate and used here, yeah, and then you put the socks in there and attach the handouts to the outside of the bag. The socks, I believe, are individually wrapped as well.
Speaker 2:And just sorry, and just remember that social workers and they don't know what these people's homes look like. So it's a really good sales point for you too. When you're out talking with social workers, you know we can give a report back in as to you know how safe they are, et cetera. So think of it that way too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true, and many of them wish they could see the home because they do worry, just like the caregivers. I'm sending them home, let me, you know, get home care set up and they're worried about it. So knowing that you're going to go check that out, that'll build a bond between you and that social worker too. We have weeks, september 18th through the 24th. We've done ice cream socials for things like this. You're not going to do this at every single rehab and go to. Maybe you're going to do it at a rehab You're trying to break into. Maybe you're going to do it at a rehab. You're going to have to do it at a rehab, so it's a really good way to get the ice cream. So it's a really good way to get the ice cream so you can have those already referring to kind of thank them. You can attach these to these ice cream scoopers or any ice cream scoopers you want. We have little cups to serve the ice cream in when you do the ice cream social, so that that's a really fun one for rehab week.
Speaker 1:September is also national assisted living week, september 10th through the 16th and so we just went with that and you know your reflection is an example of empathy and compassion and we have mirrors to go with that because it's reflecting. Mirrors are reflecting. We try to be clever, right. So that's part of the assistant. It got you in your right there. We have some questions or something. Let's see. I recently did a lunch and learn for a hospital social worker and case manager and we use the same white bags and put litter and snacks along with lunch. Yes, that's a great, great point. You can use those bags for lunches for all kinds. They're very inexpensive. We use them for everything, everything, everything. Okay, we'll keep going.
Speaker 1:October, leave behind keeping the person at the heart of collaborative care. It is national case management week. This is their theme, so we are just using their theme. We're just talking about the heart and keeping the person in the club in the heart of collaborative care, and we're just saying your heart shows. We have some little heart shaped healing crystals I don't know their little heart shape and we also have heart shaped stress balls, and so we thought these could be fun to go out with this for national case management week and we're just going to start over. Also, we've done this for years and years.
Speaker 1:It is a pumpkin decorating contest. This is how you can get the social workers, assisted living, everybody to come out and talk to you. This is a fillable. You're going to decide what they win, but basically the justice. You start early September and I think people excited about this we're going to have a pumpkin decorating contest. Start handing this out all by itself. Email it out right away to in September. Get everybody excited. You're going to bring them pumpkins and they're going to decorate them and I'm going to carve them. Nobody will ever, probably ever, ever do that and they're going to decorate them.
Speaker 1:Then they're going to send you pictures of what they've done. So it's simple they decorate. They send you a picture via text because we want this number is you want to be on a texting basis with these people when they have somebody just charging and they can text you and they'll reach out to you and you give them a due date and so you decide what they're going to receive. We do, we do three hours of care for a patient. That's just charging. Totally up to you. The Google link here will allow you to swap this out. Swap the logo out and swap out the phone number and contact information. So start in September with this. It will help you get in front of them. They will respond to you, you'll get their cell phone number and they're going to see you in action. What you're going to get their call. Their official name are we be little pumpkins.
Speaker 1:You can find them at Walmart. You can find them at nursery. You can find them at farmers market. They're about three to four inches. You purchase them. You drop them off around the first of October to give them time to decorate. You can participate in two ways, though. You can give one or two to each facility and let them decorate and participate in the contest, or you can deliver enough to run an activity yourself or your marketing person. They sit with the activities director and they decorate pumpkins with the seniors and they can still be entered into the contest. You can play scary music. You can sit and decorate with them. Get to know everybody. Make sure the social worker is invited if it's in a snips, so they see you in action. If you decide to do the activity, you must bring whatever they're going to decorate with.
Speaker 1:Don't just expect that they're going to take care of that. Bring the pump, bring everything they're going to need. Here's an Amazon link for these really fun decorations, for they're going to be doing this every year. It's it's gone off very, very well they all. Every year, are you doing it again? About this time of year they start asking are you doing it again? And you're going to do it again. They love it.
Speaker 1:Here are some decorated pumpkins from previous years. They're really cute. Rebecca Brown, care with luxury talks. Last week they did this last year. This is their pumpkin. I think they had them all in like a really cute little barrel. They're going to be doing a sticker with their handout. This is their results, some of their you know winners, some of the people that submitted pumpkins. It just makes life a little bit more fun and the fall is just a fun time. Halloween is fun. So anyway, that is. That's great for October. Another handout for October.
Speaker 1:And we have home care and hospice month and home care and hospice work hand in hand. A sauce, a small symbol to help deal with everyday industry challenges. And the symbol are these really cute bracelets. They're only about their less, I think, than a dollar piece and they have really nice touching things on them, so with them in a bag and attach this to the back. I also have this for hospice and home care month. I think it's wonderful.
Speaker 1:It's a recipe of caring, comfort, support, patients and love. You have your ingredients and it's best served warm. This is something you could attach to. These are brandy's or you know. I know we just talked about sugar, but once in a while, once in a while, people, yeah, I love that, yeah case inside. I love the recipe one. I love the recipe one to. I was thinking I don't know how expensive or how this would work, but you know those recipe cards. You know just the cards. I was thinking about your contact information on a recipe card and attach it to this. Yeah, we're a DC home care, these are our services, this is our phone number you know to attach to this, and actual speak hard could be really fun to attach this as well.
Speaker 2:And that's an original. Lisa Marsal a poll.
Speaker 1:And her autograph. She's available for autograph. Okay, we're going to keep going. Another fun one that I handed out. I've only done this once, but boy, they get it out every year and put it on their desk. It's a little turkey and his little, but has your phone number and your logo and you can attach with a ribbon around his neck. Don't be a turkey and stress over discharges. We can help you. This is just a Google link. It's not in camp, it's not super fancy, but it is fun. They love this if the stress fall and we're talking about stress and this is tying your services right because we're telling them we're going to help you with this charges. This is great for a snip and you just kind of attach this to his neck and they will get it out each year and you'll be on their desk for a month every year and I have the link to purchase the turkeys to their little more expensive. They're definitely like $1.75, maybe something like that, but the link to purchase is there as well.
Speaker 1:Another fun handout in November is these big posters. They're gigantic. They're like four feet by 60. You're not going to do this for everyone. They're about 50 bucks, so they're not cheap. They can be customized, which is something I really love about them. So I went on and just kind of made a mock up. While you're doing this, though, you're not going to play like the way the mock up looks. So I called the company and they said call us after you submit it and we'll make it exactly how you want it. So that that's just a little sidebar.
Speaker 1:And I actually saw one of these hanging up in a sniff recently. It's a four by four foot by six foot by four foot by five foot poster. You're going to have your logo printed on it and you're going to put the name of your company, for a senior network is thankful for all you do at ABC sniff. Before dropping this off, how long that part in. So it really really stands out where this came from. They can hang it in their break room. They can hang it out in the lobby. That's what I saw, and I saw it hanging in the lobby in a sniff. And this was after I did this. So I'm not sure if they were mastermind I can't remember the name of a company but it was after. So anyway, it's very therapeutic to color. They might put it in their break room, but that's okay, social workers in the break room, they might put it in the lobby, on the hallway. So make sure you bring markers, give them everything, the tax to pin it up, give them everything they're going to need, or it's just going to sit somewhere and never get hung up, and so this will be up the entire month of November as well.
Speaker 1:And we've got some more comments here. It would be nice to attach to some Mason jars with soup recipe, but I love that case and just going back to the recipe, that's a great idea starts to get a little colder to like. I like that. I already responded to her. Okay, I just saw it light up. Alright, so these posters are wonderful, I you know. Again, they're 50 bucks, so you're going to need to do you know where? Where is it worthy? Where am I going to take this? There's a Facebook link and an order link to the company down here on the bottom to order these posters. All right, that is it. Does anybody have any questions? Comments? Topics for next time. Can I just speak up or chat Today?
Speaker 1:It is quite today Okay our next mastermind is August 25. So it's two weeks from tail. Be doing what some time? Oh, thank you so much. You are very welcome to miss Junie. Valerie had to go and I believe this is in her, her zoom. You're going to have to log out. We're not going to like kick you out. You'll have to log out to enter me. Thank you everyone for coming. Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see you in a couple of weeks. Thank you for speaking today to thank you, don.
Speaker 2:Don Valerie said you can log out. She gave me controls.
Speaker 1:Okay.