Next month is National Home Care and Hospice Month. It’s important to make sure we are all recognizing the hard work that home health care and hospice agencies do. Their nurses, home care aides, therapists and social workers make a remarkable difference in the lives of our clients each and every day.
Homecare agencies and various types of home care settings such as assisted living facilities and nursing homes are excellent referral sources for our businesses. It is important for us to support these organizations and foster strong relationships with them.
Taking advantage of these opportunities to support them will not only help the clients in your community, enhance work appreciation at these organizations but it will also help to build stronger relationships for you and your business.
Here are some ways that you can support home care organizations all while fostering better relationships with them.
1) Identify
Identify the home care organizations, assisted living facilities and nursing homes that you would like to foster a stronger relationship with. Be strategic when picking who you would like to foster a relationship with. If the organization has an extremely small census, it may not make sense for you to collaborate with them since they may not be the best referral resource for you.
2) Come up with ideas!
Here are some ideas on how you can support these organizations during the month of November:
Sponsor a lunch and learn:
Many nurses, aides and clerical staff may not be familiar with what a geriatric care manager does. By sponsoring a lunch and learn for an organization, you are able to network with employees and take time to explain what your business does and how you can help their clients. If COVID is keeping you from being able to give a talk in person, have lunch sent to the organization and do your speaking event through zoom!
Choose a speaking topic:
A great way to foster engagement with employees and have them remember you is to speak on a topic that resonates with them. You could speak on a possible struggle that they may have such as communication methods when working with individuals with Alzheimer’s, best approaches of communication with family members, games and activities to stimulate the memory. You know your strengths the best. Identify a topic that could be a problem for staff at these organizations and showcase your knowledge. This is not only helping the staff you’re speaking to but also helping to show them how you and your business can assist in solving their problems.
If you’re having a problem with coming up with a topic, ask the Director at the organization what their staff’s challenges are. This will give you insight on the topics that they will be interested in learning more about.
Work with the Recreational Coordinator/Art Therapist
Most assisted living facilities and nursing homes have a recreational coordinator or art therapist on staff. This individual’s function is to create stimulating activities for the residents. You can reach out and coordinate with them to create a special art activity that says thank you to all of the staff. You could donate snacks to the residents who are going to participate and either assist them with the project in person (if that’s possible) or have them bring you in virtually through zoom so everyone can still get to know you. It’s a great way of bringing the seniors and staff together as well as connecting with the organizations to highlight your business.
3) Reach Out
Reach out to the home care organizations, assisted living facilities and nursing homes that you identified with your ideas. You can also talk to them about things they have planned and how you can take part in them (in-person or virtually). Get involved and become a key partner for these organizations!
4) Get Gifts
Whether you are collaborating with a home care organization to do a lunch and learn or giving a free talk, providing gifts helps to not only make people feel special but it also helps them to remember you and your business. Take a look at Positive Promotions. They have a special page designated for National Home Health Care Month. For each gift, you can also personalize them with your business name and logo to help advertise your business.
https://www.positivepromotions.com/hospice-home-care-month/c/hlchospicehomecaremonth/
Make sure to leave a comment in the thread letting us know which idea you’re going to use to celebrate National Home Health Care Month!
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