The vision for this blog is to create a community of harmonious professionals across the care continuum who encourage each other in exploring digital media as a way to support businesses and families dealing with elder care.
Written on May 9th, 2012 by tasha
The Seattle conference of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers (NAPGCM) was wonderful! What I love about the GCMs is that they tend to be persons in the caring professions (nurses, social workers, OTs, etc.) who have taken an entrepreneurial risk to open their own business. Care management is not reimbursed by Medicare, so in addition to knowing their field, they also need to become nimble business owners. They are a rare breed with a delightful cross-section of compassion, creativity and business savvy. With interests like these, their keynote speakers are always good.
A few years ago, “Slow Medicine” proponent, Dr. Dennis McCullough was the keynote speaker. He is the author of My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing Slow Medicine, the compassionate approach to caring for your aging loved ones.
Dr. McCullough is a professor at Dartmouth and brings wonderful heart to his exploration of elder care as it should be. In my blogpost from that time, Slow Medicine and Italian Restaurants?, I described his talk about bringing the principles of the Slow Food Movement to the practice of geriatrics (attention to quality, an unrushed process, emphasis on the social interchange…). They say creativity is bringing ideas from one sector and applying them to another. He has done so beautifully. The metaphor is brilliant!
This year my favorite keynote at the conference was Dr. John Sloan, the author of A Bitter Pill: How the medical system is failing the elderly. Like Dr. McCullough, Dr. Sloan is a meta-thinker with a creative bent. (If he ever decides to quit medicine, he could get a job in radio. He has a wonderful baritone and is absolutely hilarious in his impersonations of American vs. Canadian physicians.)
Written on April 18th, 2012 by tasha
Multimedia is near and dear to my heart. In fact, I began my computer career in Oregon working with a research institute that created interactive programs for behavioral health education that were funded by the National Institutes of Health. In the early 1990’s, this meant video discs. We eventually graduated to CDs, and then the Internet came along.
As a behavioral scientist the data were clear: People listen more to folks like themselves than they do to folks not like themselves. This was before social networking. So, we included video to convey the information and help viewers realize they weren’t alone.
Written on April 4th, 2012 by tasha
Check out my guest blogpost at Stanford’s Journal of Palliative Medicine. While I was at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizaion’s conference, I facilitated the Marketing and Development discussion section. More than 50 folks from across the country met to talk about successes and challenges. Late referrals and getting face-time with physicians were the most common problems noted.
In that light, my blogpost is a recap of a superb session by Transcend Hospice Marketing: Rx for Increasing Physician Referrals.
Enjoy!
Written on March 26th, 2012 by tasha
On March 30th, whether you are ready or not, Facebook will convert your company page to the new format. The biggest changes involve the header of your page and the layout of your Wall. Best to be ready with your own creations before the 30th, or Facebook will substitute its best guess of what should be where. Probably not a pretty site.
If you have a Personal Profile, you may be familiar with the new header. It essentially has a very large/long rectangular banner across the top (called the “Cover Photo”), and then a little square graphic (“Profile Picture”) inset in the lower left. Your business page will be converted to the same format. Here are some tips:
Written on March 13th, 2012 by tasha
One of the joys of teaching is the opportunity to review and update my knowledge base. In this case, I’ve been reviewing the Four C’s of Marketing, plus a 5th one of my own.
The last blogpost was on the first 2 C’s: Customers and Convenience.
This one is on Cost, Competitors and my personal addition: Contribution. Since the impetus for this article was to teach new entrepreneurs in the field of geriatric care management, the “Cost” section is geared for the private pay sector (e.g., private duty home care, GCMs, etc.). But the other two C’s (Competitors and Contribution) apply to anyone in the elder care industry.
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