Archive for September, 2010
7 Tips for Effective Marketing to Baby Boomers
In the March/April 2007 issue of The Journal of Active Aging, Colin Milner suggests seven tips to help companies market more effectively to the Baby Boomer generation. He recommends the following:
1. Do your homework. Get to know your clients and their needs, so you can better understand what to communicate to these adults and how.
2. Realize that your marketing needs to “capture the spirit” of the viewers, readers or users by featuring real people, with real stories. How would your clients react to your offerings if they captured their spirit? Ask your clients to share their successes online and to encourage others to share theirs.
3. Create a community feeling among your clients from the start. For example, host gatherings in your juice bar or dining area after classes. Program support groups, and invite them to get involved with your center or community. You’ll know you’ve achieved that community feeling when your clients express a sense of ownership about your business. Pride is priceless.
4. Demonstrate that you’re an advocate for your clients. Engage in community events that support mature women or men—from the Red Hat Society, to raising funds for breast or prostate cancer, to hosting postmenopausal education workshops.
5. Create a debate in your community around your offerings.
6. Use your website as an interactive marketing tool for storytelling, and not just as an online brochure. (Seventy percent of adults ages 50–64 use the Internet, as do 82% of those 30–49, and 33% of those over 65, according to a 2006 Pew Internet and American Life Project study.)
7. Be pro-age! Promote “affirmative and hope-driven” attitudes toward aging.
Common Sense Caregiving by Gary Joseph LeBlanc: A must read for anyone caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s
A columnist and book dealer from Spring Hill Florida Gary Joseph LeBlanc offers a personal and down to earth account of his experience caring for his father who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. This common sense account of is a must read for anyone caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease. Written as a completion of sixty-five articles from his column, LeBlanc gives an encouraging and enlightening guide for anyone navigating the turbulent waters of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease.
Ask an Expert: A Service of Caregiver’s Home Companion
Caregiver’s Home Companion is an excellent resource for people facing the task of providing care for a loved one. The site contains thousands of articles on eldercare and offers information, tips, and support to help caregivers make the best choices for their loved ones.
One particularly helpful feature is their Ask an Expert column. Dr. Vivian Argento, a trained geriatrician at Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut answers caregiver questions on a broad range of topics, from Alzheimer’s medications to tax deductions for caregiving. Dr. Argento’s responses are clear and compassionate and can help to take some of the guesswork out of eldercare. Find her column here.
Discussing End of Life Care (Part 2)
In part one of this two part series, we looked at the different types of advance directives people can establish to ensure that their end-of-life care is in line with their wishes. Today, we look at how to talk to your loved ones and encourage them to express their wishes so that as they approach the end of their life, you as the caregiver know exactly how to proceed.
Although there are always different techniques for approaching this conversation, there does seem to be one common opinion: the time to do it is now. “Everyone over the age of 18 should have a health care proxy form filled out and should be discussing what they would want done with a person that would be making decisions for them in the event that they are not able to make these decisions for themselves,” said Fern Wasserman, Founder of New York Legal Nurse Consultants. New York Legal Nurse Consultants helps facilitate conversations between the individual filling out their health care proxy form and the people who will need to carry out these wishes in the event this person is unable to make their wishes known.
Colleen Reynolds, President of Edge Communications and former admissions and marketing coordinator of a skilled nursing facility in Fort Myers, Fla., also emphasizes that time is of the essence. “I’d suggest that the Healthcare POA/Surrogate be discussed well in advance of needing it. A DNR should be gently discussed, but discussed again when the decision is imminent,” she said. “I watched so many people struggle with this decision and family members who wished desperately that loved ones asked for a DNR after they had been resuscitated and then left to suffer brain damage and broken ribs.”
In Reynolds’s work, she had to have these conversations with patients who did not have any advance directives on file. “Because the conversations didn’t happen earlier, it was often left up to me to talk to someone who was admitted, if they were not declared legally incompetent, to see if they wanted to be resuscitated in the event of heart failure. Strangers should not have to do this.”
Medication Log
Use this tool to monitor changes made to your loved one’s medications over time. The type, date and effects of these changes can be recorded and monitored between doctor visits. This log can then be brought to future doctor appointments to track the negative and positive side affects to further alter dosages to ensure the right use of each medication individually as well as the effects of all the medications taken together as a group.
Sample Log ↓
| Start Date: | 12/10/08 |
| Medications For: | Joe Walker, Sr. |
| Log Prepared By: | Joe Walker, Jr. |
| Brand Name: | Seroquel |
| Generic Name: | Quetiapine fumarate |
| Date Prescribed (mo/yr): | January, 2009 |
| Doctor: | Dr. Ryan Smith |
| Pharmacy: | CVS – Boston |
| Monthly Cost: | $50 |
| Reason: | Dementia – Delusions |
| Date | Dosage | Doses Daily | Times of Day | Observations | ||||||||
| 1/13/09 | 50 MG | 2 |
|
Seems to be doing better, a little tired mid-day. |
||||||||
| 5/20/09 | 100 MG | 2 |
|
Dosage increased by Dr. Smith at appointment on 4/15/09. Increased dosage is managing delusions better. Still somewhat tired after taking morning dosage. |
Download → PDF Version DOC Version
RetireLife Launches Free Prescription Discount Card
RetireLife announces free discount prescription card in partnership with Honest Discounts
RetireLife is pleased to offer ScriptSaveRx, a free discount prescription card that saves card bearers 10 to 60 percent off most brand name and generic prescription medications, accepted at over 60,000 pharmacies nationwide.
The ScriptSaveRx card is great for those who fall in the “coverage gap,” need prescriptions not covered by their health insurance, and those without any insurance coverage! Since there are no age or income restrictions or qualifications, the card can be used by people who would simply like a little extra cash in their back pocket.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 43.6 million Americans were without health insurance in 2008. Couple this with the fact that $216.7 billion was spent on prescription drugs in 2006, according to The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Americans can certainly benefit from saving 10 to 60 percent off their prescriptions!
RetireLife in the News
RetireLife is very pleased to be featured in the following articles!
“America’s Most Promising Startups” – BusinessWeek “Frustrated that the aging services industry was “so fragmented and so localized,” she launched a free consumer information site called RetireLife to address the problem last May, the same month she completed her MBA at Babson College. By early February, it had grown into the most comprehensive Web site on the topic in Massachusetts, with some 5,800 listings of residences and professionals across the state. Now she has gone national, increasing total listings to more than 194,000.”
“10 Hot Startups” - Entrepreneur “The Census bureau estimates that the number of people age 65-plus will shoot from 40.2 million in 2010 to 88.5 million in 2050, and some estimates put the eldercare market at nearly $200 billion. At 26, Meagan Shea isn’t anywhere near that demographic, but she’s serving it well with RetireLife.net, which helps aging adults and their caregiver children more easily find care solutions.”
“Hottest Startups of 2010″ - Helium.com “RetireLife.net is a business geared toward the senior section of society and their caregivers. Meagan Shea developed the idea of a central database to help caregivers find services, such as medical, and care facilities for elderly relatives. It is based in Charlestown, Massachusetts.”
“10 Hot Startups with Future Potential” – MSNBC “Shea came up with the idea after going through the onerous process of relocating an aging relative across the country, trying to find appropriate medical and care facilities and services. It inspired her to make an online information and content center for caregivers of aging relatives. RetireLife.net was one of 15 of 42 businesses selected for development by Shea’s business school peers as she was finishing her MBA at Babson College.”
“Young people create services for boomers and seniors” – AARP Global Network “This website focuses on helping adult children finding care-taking solutions for their aging parents. Founded by 26-year-old Meagan Shea, RetireLife.net was one of 15 businesses that was chosen for development by her MBA colleagues at Babson College”
“Monster and Eons Founder Jeff Taylor Starts Incubator as Protest to Startups Fleeing Boston” Xconomy “I moved into this incubator to surround myself with other startups and to get a new set of blood to bounce ideas off of,” said RetireLife founder Megan Shea, who previously worked out of Babson College’s incubator space. Shea’s website, which launched to a Massachusetts audience last May and opened last month as a national elderly care directory, targets the same baby boomer group as Taylor’s businesses.”
“Family pride brings joy to holiday season,” Bay State Banner “Local entrepreneur Megan Shea said caregivers should speak to visiting relatives in advance so they’re prepared for the changes they’ll see. “It’s really hard for family members who are out of the area to understand the stage at which their loved ones are until they actually see it for themselves,” she said.”
“MBA Teams Compete For Cash,” SanDiego.com “Shea launched the site as a result of her four years caring for aged grandparents. The experience, she says, was frustrated because information and resources for the elderly is “so fragmented and localized.” No longer.”