On August 12, 2012, the Orlando Sentinel (through Reuters) published an article that highlighted the increased need for care options in the elderly community.  Cynthia Ramnarace, author, pointed out that the gap between basic elder assistance and 24-hour care looms large and costly for seniors and their loved ones.  

To find out more about this pressing issue and for access to the full article, click here.

Amy will be speaking at TEDxOrlando  2012, an independently organized TED event on October 13 from 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. at the Winter Garden Theatre.  TEDxOrlando will provide a fun and fascinating afternoon designed to encourage connection and insight, provoke learning, and incubate bold plans for a better future. TEDxOrlando is a local, self-organized event that brings people together to share a TED-like experience. A wonderful group of local and national speakers will be showcased, each with an idea worth spreading. Amy will be speaking about how to take the stress out of caring for an elder. 

To learn more about TEDxOrlando check out their website: TEDxOrlando 2012 or to purchase tickets to this wonderful event, click here.

The More You Are Involved, the Better the Healthcare

 AARP has published to results of a study about the effect of patient involvement in their own care. Involvement means having studied about the medical condition, the medications prescribed and having a grasp of the potential problems and solutions.

 It seems like an obvious conclusion, but the magnitude of the difference is striking. 

Those who are less involved are:

-         Twice as likely to be readmitted to the hospital

-         Twice as likely to experience a medical error

-         Three times as likely to have poor coordination between providers

-         Four times as likely to suffer a consequence due to poor coordination

-         Four times as likely to lose confidence in the healthcare

 If your elder gets a new diagnoses or goes into the hospital you need to go to work and learn about what is happening. Get online, the information you need is there, Google it! Write down your questions to ask the doctor or the hospital staff. Be sure you can also give each care provider all of the information about your elder. You need to take on the role of information coordinator. Assume each person involved with providing care is not aware of what the other providers have done. You may find that sadly your assumption is probably true.

Work on this as if their life depended on it, because too often it does.

caregivertips@elderissues.com

About 200 advocates for the elderly and the poor jammed a public hearing in Orlando on Thursday to voice concerns about Florida’s proposed Medicaid overhaul –echoing the same reaction seen at public hearings throughout the state.

Although representatives from several HMOs offered examples of how they have coordinated care for patients and saved lives, most of the people at the hearing criticized the state’s plans to move most Medicaid recipients into managed-care plans.

“Managed care works if you’re well. It does not work if you have complex health problems,” said Amy O’Rourke of the Cameron Group, a professional geriatric-care management company based in Orlando. “I have 13,000 elders, and I have not seen one managed-care program work for elders with complex care.”

Thursday’s hearing was the 10^th in a series of 11 public hearings organized by the Agency for Health Care Administration during the past week. The state agency is gathering comments from Medicaid consumers, families and others about the state’s Medicaid proposal before submitting the plan to the federal government.

The public comments are to be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where officials must approve Florida’s proposed changes because they require a waiver of federal Medicaid rules. State agency officials said they plan to turn in the waiver request Aug. 1

In Orlando, advocates for the poor also warned that the state has based its Medicaid makeover on a five-year pilot project that was riddled with problems.

The new Medicaid managed-care program “will be built on the incredibly shaky foundation of the reform pilot of the last five years,” said Greg Mellowe of Florida CHAIN, a statewide advocacy organization focused on health-care issues. “You can imagine the uproar that would occur of a pharmaceutical company began selling a new medication without bothering to finish the trials. That’s what is happening here.”

Throughout the state, the hearings have been magnets for critics of the new plan. In West Palm Beach, more than 200 people packed an auditorium, where elder-law attorneys warned that the new Medicaid program would reward managed-care companies for moving senior citizens out of nursing-home care

And at a public hearing in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County Medicaid patients begged state health officials Thursday not to expand the managed-care program they say failed miserably in their county and prevented them from getting medications and doctor appointments, The Associated Press reported.

Yet Robinson Johnson, a registered nurse and certified case manager for Wellcare, told the Orlando audience how she coordinated care for patients and sometimes persuaded managers to make exceptions to get her HMO patients specialized care. “I haven’t ever heard, ‘We can’t do that,’ ” she said. “There’s another face to managed care: It’s people like me who really, really care about the [patient].”

Linda Solash-Reed, an attorney affiliated with the Florida Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, criticized the new law because she said no data prove it would save money. Worse, she said, the state has no evidence that the new program would work for senior citizens because they were not included in the original pilot project.

“No data, wrong data and bad data spells disaster for Florida taxpayers,” Solash-Reed said.

If approved, the state’s Medicaid managed-care program would be phased in, but the first group to be moved into managed care would be seniors in long-term care. The long-term care program would be fully implemented by October 2013, while the managed care for other Medicaid beneficiaries is scheduled to be fully implemented by October 2014, according to the state agency.

Although Sen. Joe Negron, one of the architects of the state’s Medicaid makeover, on Wednesday urged tea-party members to show up and express their support for the plan, it did not appear tea-party proponents attended the Orlando hearing. Negron has defended the Medicaid plan, saying that charges of “grant dumping” are scare tactics.

The public can also submit written comments by email to cynthis.mann@cms.hhs.gov or FLMedicaidManagedCare@ahca.myflorida.com, or letters can be sent to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Center for Medicaid and State Operations, 7500 Security Blvd., Mail Stop S2-01-16, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850

What do think about the idea of making a tradidtiontional nursing home a place looks nothing like a nursing home, a place where residents feel little reason to leave? Toni Davis, director of the Green Hill Retirement Community in West Orange, N.J., along with two dozen other nursing home directors, are trying to build this idea. They have been remodeling their traditional nursing homes with new floor plan, added fixures, and a whole new care plan system.  They want to bring the comfort, the home-like feeling to senior residents; and they are very  successful.

We came across this interested article and would like to share.

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Inspired by an Orlando Sentinel guest editorial, join us for a discussion of how the psycholgical notion of “anti-aging” denies our past and invalidates our future, thus preventing us from embracing who we are now.

- A light lunch will be served -

                          Presenters:

   Amy Cameron O’Rourke

         President, The Cameron Group

   Robert Bernstein

         Orlando Sentinel, Guest editorial writer

Cost: Institute members $10

         Nonmembers $15

Thursday, December 1

11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

Library Community Room

Winter Park Public Library

460 E. New England Ave.

Registration Requested: register online or all 407-623-3279

Memberships Available: institute members do not pay most program fees and receive other valuable benefits as well. call 407-623-3279 for more information

Recently, Amy was featured as the ElderCare  Expert on ElderCare Matters.  Read her article about Late Life.   “Watching a parent grow older, become more frail and maybe more vulnerable can be an enriching experience when there is a framework for understanding the stage they are in…”

Click Here to Read Full Article

Caregiving can be stressful on families.  We found this article this past weekend in the New York Times and wanted to share it with you.  For those providing care for a loved one, this  article has some good tips.

Easing The Stress of Daily Care-Giving

A. Caregivers often feel they have one choice: quit their jobs and become full-time caregivers or keep working but do an inadequate job of meeting the needs of  their ailing family member, says Denise M. Brown, founder of Caregiving.com, an online resource and forum for family caregivers. Fortunately, she says, it’s not nearly that cut and dried.

     As you look for solutions, don’t be  afraid to ask your employer for help. Ms. Brown suggests tapping into your company’s employee assistance paln or looking into work/life benefits that the company may offer. Those often include the services of a geriatric care manager who can research and coordinate care in the community where you need it.

    You might also talk to your human resources department about taking some weeks off through the Family and Medical Leave Act. “Sometimes just taking two weeks off allows you to get a care plan in place and makes it much easier to get back to work,” Ms. Brown says.

Q. Should you talk to your manager and colleagues about the situation?

A. “We encourage people to let their close colleagues and manager know about the situation,” says Andy Cohen, C.E.O. of Caring.com, a Web site that provides information, forums and local resources for caregivers. More than 40 million Americans are caring for someone over age 50, so chances are someone else at your office is facing a similar situation, Mr. Cohen says.

Explain to your boss what’s happening with your loved one and how you plan to deal with it. Before the meeting, assess your current workload and responsibilities and determine what steps need to be taken for you to meet your job requirements and ensure that co-workers and clients aren’t negatively affected, says Faun Zarge, a work and life consultant based in Newton, Mass.

“Present a plan to your boss that outlines how you will manage your day-to-day responsibilities along with your care-giving responsibilities,” she says. “Consider how tasks critical to your team and the organization will get done if you are out.”

Keep one or two colleagues up-to-date on projects in which you’re involved, so that if you have to leave unexpectedly someone can step in for you.

Q. It’s likely that you’ll have to take phone calls at work or leave midday for doctor appointments or emergencies. How should you handle this?

A. Be honest with your manager about the amount and type of flexibility you will need, so you aren’t trying to sneak around or cover up phone calls and absences. “That will actually allow you to maintain or improve your performance, because you won’t be distracted and stressed by the care-giving tasks on your plate, “ says Ms. Zarge.

It’s also crucial to check in with your manager regularly to make sure your flexible schedule and coverage arrangements are working. Send an e-mail every few weeks to your manager and those colleagues helping you, to thank them for their support and gauge how things are going.

“Ask them: ‘Is there anything we need to adjust to make the plan work more smoothly?’ You want to make sure that at any point, if things aren’t working well, they know they should tell you,” says Ms. Zarge.

Q. Being a caregiver can be enormously stressful. What can you do about that?

A. Exercise is a good way to reduce stress hormones and cause the release of endorphins, biochemicals that relieve pain and cause a feeling of well-being, according to Debbie Mandel, a stress management consultant and author of “Changing Habits: The Caregivers’ Total Workout.” It’s also important to eat right, get enough sleep and keep up hobbies that make you happy.

Get some help by looking for volunteers at your house of worship or advertise for help from college or graduate students majoring in subjects like psychology, geriatric care or social work, Ms. Mandel says. They can visit and spend time with your loved one.

“These students need the internship experience,” she says. “They can provide some stimulation to that family member and in return, they get a letter or recommendation from you for their work.”

There are many support groups and forums for caregivers that provide advice and understanding, Mr. Cohen says. Contact your local Area Agency on Aging for resources close to you and use sites like Caring.com and AARP.org, for online support.

Try not to feel resentful about your situation. Don’t ask “why me” because there is no answer, says Ms. Mandel, who cared for her parents — both of whom had Alzheimer’s disease — while working full time.

“Everyone gets hit with problems in their lives. Let go of the past and thinking about what you once had and live in the present instead,” she says.

Keep in mind that just remaining on the job can provide stress relief. Doing your job — and doing it well — gives you a break from all the care-giving, says Ms. Mandel, and “lets you tap into your larger identity.”

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Orlando Business Journal – Amy Cameron O’Rourke, founder and president of The Cameron Group — a professional care management business for youth and the elderly — has grown her business from her kitchen table and first-year revenue of $19,000 in 1999 to revenue of $1.7 million in 2009.

The reason: “There is such a need for the elderly and their families to plan for the future,” O’Rourke said.
The 50-year-old entrepreneur said many families seek The Cameron Group’s help after they’ve seen their parents have trouble living on their own. Instead of waiting until the situation worsens, they decide to plan ahead and avoid a bigger problem later on, she said.

Baby boomers, in fact, are expected to be more independent and prefer to stay at home, which likely will increase demand for in-home care, said Linda Cramer, professional care manager for SeniorBridge in Naples and president of the Florida chapter of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers.

That’s why, after working in the nursing home industry for 16 years, O’Rourke decided to mortgage her house and, with the support of her friends, go from a licensed nursing home administrator to an entrepreneur.

“I started in my dining room with no formal marketing,” O’Rourke said. “The first six years, we grew more than 100 percent. So about every three years, I had to get increased office space.” As her business grew, O’Rourke moved from her home to an 8-foot by 10-foot office in a landscaping business. In 2003, she moved to a 1,600-square-foot office and then into her current 3,000-square-foot office in 2006.

In addition to helping guide and consult with families about elder care for more than 10 years, The Cameron Group provides assistance navigating through hospital and nursing home systems, as well taking care of day-to-day necessities such as grocery shopping, doctor appointments and exercise.

Although The Cameron Group’s main clientele is women and men age 65 and older, it also cares for clients with special needs, age 12 and older.

“We help them not go into an institution, unless they want to,” said O’Rourke. “And if they do, we help them decide which one is best for them.”

For instance, client Fred Smith, 79, came to The Cameron Group after his neighbor saw him fall outside his home and called the group. Today, Smith said he feels safer with The Cameron Group helping him while he lives at home
“I’ve got a nervous temperament about me, but my caregiver takes care of me so well now that I don’t have to worry about anything,” said Smith.

Myrtle Rutberg, 98, is also a client of The Cameron Group. Her son, Gerald, called the company when he realized his mother’s vision and hearing were slowly getting worse. Her care managers now make sure Rutberg gets out and enjoys life.

As for her success, O’Rourke credits that to friends, her faith in God and hard work.
“I love advocating for the elderly and their families,” O’Rourke said. “I wanted to make a direct impact on others.”

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Orlando Business Journal – This elegant evening celebration, honoring Central Florida’s top female executives, will be held at the exquisite new Waldorf Astoria. During the awards program, we will name the Business Owner, Business Executive and Up & Comer of the Year. You will also have an opportunity to congratulate the 2010 Businesswoman of the Year.

Of the 2010 Nominees is our very own Amy Cameron O’Rourke.