November is National Home Care & Hospice Month

Elder Care Guides joins our colleagues in the California Association of Health Services at Home (CAHSAH) in celebrating National Home Care and Hospice Month during the month of November.

"During National Home Care and Hospice month, we take time to honor the thousands of individuals in home care and hospice who, on a daily basis, provide remarkable care in people's homes. Thank you for all that you do."
-- CAHSAH President Joe Hafkenschiel

Every day, Elder Care Guides' geriatric care managers and caregivers are actively engaged in our mission to better the lives of elders living with physical and cognitive impairments, providing services that center on the goals of the individual, and foster within them a lifelong sense of purpose. We see firsthand the impact of our team approach, of finding "the right match" and seeing a client transformed -- whether it is through healthier eating, more physical activity, opportunities to connect socially, or just a hand to hold in the last hours of life.

We're proud of the time, care, and attention to the details that matter most to our clients that our Human Resources department expends in selecting skilled and qualified professional in-home caregiver employees. Day in and day out, they work hard to enhance the quality of our clients' lives, and they have our full support, 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. We take this commitment to a highly professional and well-supported staff very seriously, as they are key to fulfilling our mission.

As such, we strongly support AB-899, the Yamada Home Care Services Act of 2011. This legislation will require California's Department of Social Services to license and regulate home care agencies, holding the agencies responsible for ensuring that their professional caregiver employees are qualified and reputable. For information about this legislation and how to support it, please visit: California's Legislative Information page at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html

Are Your Employees Orange?

We have spoken earlier about the great research done by Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick in The Carrot Principle, a book about employee engagement and the effects of recognition in the workplace. The authors have done it again, this time in The Orange Revolution, which discusses teamwork. The book encompasses what makes a great team, and how an "orange" team, or one with a high sense of unity in a common goal, achieves breakthrough, positive results.

Teams exist in almost every organization, in every arena. The elder care industry is no exception, especially when you consider geriatric care management, and the team it takes to care for an elder in their home. Elton and Gostick found that once an initial level of basic competence is met, there are 5 key factors every team needs in order to achieve "orange" status and be effective:

• Goal Setting (knowing where the team is going)
• Communication (wise use of your voice and ears)
• Trust (believing in others and being trustworthy)
• Accountability (doing what you say you will do)
• Recognition (appreciating others' strengths and contributions)

A geriatric care manager and an organization that employs caregivers to the elderly has a key responsibility to ensure their employees are humming the same tune when it comes to those five factors. Supervisors who set clear goals, encourage and provide detailed communication, build trust, hold team members accountable, and recognize great work will undoubtedly have an engaged team environment built around the client.

Since October brings us lots of orange in pumpkins, Halloween, and harvest colors, I encourage you to survey your employees and client care teams to see if they are engaged and orange, too.

Long Term Care Planning: Bridging Home and Community

We were invited to write a series of brief articles for the monthly newsletter of our friends at MDK Insurance Services, describing the continuum of long term care, and how to navigate oneself through it. You can sign up for the newsletter on their website, and each month we provide a copy of the article here as well. Please share the information with someone you know who is thinking ahead about how to plan for (and pay for) their own or a loved one's long term care.

Volume V: Bridging Home and Community

In previous issues, we’ve outlined the resources that are available when planning for the care at home of a disabled elder. It’s important to remember that those who lose connections with friends, community organizations and social groups, or who fail to build new connections and participate in engaging activities are at risk of social isolation, known to negatively impact physical and mental health. Fortunately there are community-based programs available to help those living at home with physical or cognitive impairments to remain socially connected, physically active, and mentally stimulated well into their old age.

Adult day health care programs are licensed centers that provide medical services and a variety of therapies, social services, and stimulating activities, as well as meals for the participants, who usually attend the program between 4-8 hours per day, several days per week. Adult social day care provides a similar structure, but does not offer skilled medical services and emphasizes socially, physically, and intellectually stimulating activity. Senior centers are neighborhood-based facilities that offer an array of social and educational opportunities, often offered on a drop-in basis. Many provide exercise programs and nutritious meals for participants on the days that they attend. For those who are no longer driving, it is essential to plan for transportation alternatives, to ensure access to all of the types of services that have been described. To find transportation and other resources in your community, contact your local Area Agency on Aging, or log on to the national Eldercare Locator: www.eldercare.gov.

The above resources can supplement a care plan that provides safety and support at home while keeping the elder connected and engaged. Next month, we’ll discuss the different levels of community care that are available for those who are considering making a move from a private home.

We Love Carrots!

I recently attended the 62nd Annual SHRM Conference, the largest HR Conference in the world with over 11,000 attendees from 140 countries. As you can imagine, the general and breakout sessions were packed with valuable information on managing, supervising, and engaging employees. However, one session that stood out above the rest was "The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent and Accelerate Results," presented by Chester Elton.

Elton is a dynamic and insightful speaker, who engaged the audience by encouraging participation, using multiple types of visual aides, and even throwing stuffed carrots into the audience. His message, backed by years of research, was simple: recognize your employees for a job well done frequently, specifically, and immediately, and they will feel valued and appreciated. As mentioned before on this blog, valued and appreciated employees stick around. The metaphor of the carrot as it relates to business is "something used to inspire and motivate the employee." In Elton and Adrian Gostick's book, it states:

"When employees know that their strengths and potential will be praised and recognized, they are significantly more likely to produce value."

So how does this relate to employees that care for elders for a living? The demographic that makes up the majority of caregivers, are those that live paycheck to paycheck. Don't those employees just want more money? Nope. At least, that's not what Elton and Gostick reported. One-third of people you give a cash award to will use that money to pay bills, and one in five won't remember in a few months how much they received or where they spent the money. But they will remember receiving a hand-written note from their direct supervisor, or better yet, the President of the company, thanking them specifically and timely for something they did that was above and beyond. If those appreciative notes and phone calls keep coming, employees will keep going above and beyond, because rewarded behavior gets repeated.

I highly recommend Elton and Gostick's book and website. Read them, study them, and implement a recognition program. Your employees will appreciate it, and become motivated to do better and be more committed, which directly translates to your companies mission, goals, and values.

The Power of Purpose

The February issue of HR Magazine hit the nail on the head with Haley Rushing's article, "Managing with the Power of Purpose." The central theme of the article suggests that a successful career and a successful business begin with a sense of purpose for what the employees are doing. Yes, the goal of any business is to make money. However, unless the employee working for that business believes in what they are doing, and are inspired by the goals and objectives of the business, the profit will not come.

Elder Care Guides is proud of our mission statement, which centers on bringing purpose to our clients and employees:

We better the lives of elders in San Diego County living with functional impairments by providing professional care management services that center on the goals of the individual, and foster within the elder a lifelong sense of purpose. We believe that:

• by cultivating every client’s unique sense of purpose, we help them develop a meaningful elderhood with a high quality of life.
• by identifying and reinforcing the strengths of our clients, we promote the development of healthy relationships of interdependence amongst the elder, their family, and other supports.
• our employees are fundamental to our success, and their full engagement enhances the services we provide.
• professional caregivers who are employed by an agency and work as a team with a geriatric care manager deliver the best outcomes for our clients.
• the standards and ethics of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers provide a solid foundation for our clinical and business practices.

Defining a company culture begins with the company's purpose. Key questions the Rushing article posed include:

• Why does the organization exist?
• What difference is the organization making in people's lives?
• What do the employees strive for, and do their goals match the organizations goals?

Employees are an organization's most important clients. Guiding employees to define their own sense of purpose, then showing them how their desires align with the companies mission and vision is the central component of a successful business. Master that connection, and the revenue will follow.