Educate seniors about the risk of HIV and AIDS this September

According to the AIDS Institute, about half of those living with HIV infections (the virus that causes AIDS) in the United States are age 50 or older. Additionally, 1 in 6 new diagnoses of the disease in the U.S. is in people age 50 or older.

Although the fear and stigma surrounding AIDS is vastly less than when the disease emerged in the 1980s, it is still a serious and potentially deadly condition.

October is National AIDS Awareness Month. Help raise awareness of HIV and AIDS and how you’re helping those who have been diagnosed with the disease.

• Include an article about HIV and AIDS in your next company newsletter and be sure to encourage your readers to be tested for the disease.
• Partner with other health care providers in your community to offer free HIV tests throughout the month.
• Make an effort to spread the message about HIV and AIDS awareness to the seniors in your community. This group often doesn’t discuss safe sex and other precautions to avoid contracting the disease. Since pregnancy no longer is a concern for sexually active seniors, they often forego contraception and leave themselves open to contracting HIV or another sexually transmitted infection. Additionally, studies show that older adults know less about the disease than younger people and may not know how it spreads. Visit the AIDS Institute’s website for National HIV/AIDS and Aging Awareness. Print out fact sheets or brochures about the HIV and aging and have discussions about this important topic in senior centers, ALFs and ILFs in your community. The site even has a PowerPoint presentation you can use for inspiration or as a starting point for your discussion.
• Visit with your local infectious disease specialists and discuss the benefits that hospice or home health can have for their patients with AIDS, including reduced rehospitalizations and increased adherence to difficult treatment regimens. Stock their waiting rooms with disease-specific flyers personalized to your agency.
• Visit the HIV/AIDS section of the National Prevention Information Network’s website. Be sure to check out the Materials page for informative pieces on topics such as Medicare and HIV/AIDS.
• Visit the website www.ageisnotacondom.com and check out their toolkit for educating adults over 50 about the risk of AIDS and HIV.
• Contact your local HIV/AIDS awareness organization and offer to speak to its members about coping with the illness and how your services can help.

November 2014: Ho! Ho! No! The holidays are here! Are you ready?

If you haven’t started thinking about Christmas and Hanukkah yet, now is the time. Thanksgiving will be here in a blink and you don’t want to get caught unprepared for your business’ holiday needs. So get in a festive mood and make sure you’re ready to not only celebrate, but share the season with your referral sources, health care partners, clients and staff.

• Holiday Cards are a time-tested way to get into the spirit of the season, capture the attention of your referral sources and health care partners, and send a subtle reminder of the value of home care. Cards are personalized to your agency and are appropriate for all faiths. The newest available line of cards partners with a nonprofit agency that helps developmentally disabled adults learn job skills. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/holiday-cards.php.
• Stand out from the holiday noise by sending a card that can be used all year long. Holiday calendar cards are personalized to your agency and include a one-page 2015 calendar. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/holiday-calendar-cards.php.
• Spread holiday cheer with a high-value, low-cost giveaway for clients, referral sources, senior centers, and employees. Personalized CDs with beautiful instrumental versions of many holiday classics will enliven any environment and make sure your agency stays top of mind year after year. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/holiday-cd.php.
• It’s not too late to order personalized home care calendars and get them in the hands of referral sources, community stakeholders, volunteers and patients. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/homecare-calendars.php.

Keeping patients, prospects, referral sources and community members informed is one of the greatest ways we can further our marketing efforts all year long. One of the best ways to do this is by distributing a monthly agency newsletter. It can be difficult for agencies to find the time or resources to compose strong newsletters month after month, but it doesn’t have to be.

• Visit https://www.homecarenewsletters.com/ and check out its collection of dozens of ready-made newsletters available for home health, private duty and hospice. These newsletters are written in a friendly format and cover a wide range of topics relevant to physicians, patients and family members. Send them every month (digitally or via traditional mail) and keep your agency top of mind with these topical, informative marketing materials.

This International AIDS Awareness Month, make a commitment to increase community awareness of AIDS and HIV and the ways your agency can help. Be sure to also take part in World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

• Provide HIV specialists with agency-personalized pain and symptom logs for them to distribute to their patients (and your prospects). The logs provide an easy way for patients to track their pain and other symptoms and communicate this information to their physician. Find them at https://tagwebstore.com/painsymptomlog.php.
• Hospice agencies should be sure to leave behind personalized hospice specialty care flyers about HIV for use by physician office personnel. Find them at https://tagwebstore.com/hospice-specialty-care-flyers.php.
• Call on HIV specialists in your community and discuss the benefits of hospice care for end-stage AIDS patients. Leave behind a personalized Guidelines for Hospice Admission flip chart, a physician tool that describes the common end-stage indicators for common illnesses, including HIV disease. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/flipchart-hospice.php.
• Call on local clinics specializing in AIDS and HIV. Offer to host a free chronic disease management course that their clients will find helpful. Find the class (which can be taught by a non-clinician) at https://www.tagwebstore.com/healthmatters-education-series.php.

The amazing work done by volunteers is irreplaceable in our communities, as well as in many of our own agencies. Dec. 5, 2015 is International Volunteer Day. Make an effort to recognize those volunteers who help you do all that you do.

• Hand out personalized giveaway cards complete with a small treat for your volunteers. Make sure to sign it yourself and have many of your agency’s leaders sign as well. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/giveaway.php.
• Puzzle books are a fun and easy way to keep your agency’s name at the fingertips of almost anyone. Offer puzzle books to your volunteers. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/puzzlebook.php.
• There are many fun and inexpensive ways you can treat volunteers with something special. Visit http://theadamgrp.espwebsite.com/ to check out tons of options, including personalized lanyards, water bottles, T-shirts, lip balms, and pens.
• Your volunteers are among the best people to help spread the word about the good work your agency does. Make sure every volunteer has a stash of agency marketing brochures in their car so they can be ready to hand one out anytime someone expresses an interest in home care or hospice. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/marketing-brochures.php.

Plan for November: The holidays are here! Are you ready?

If you haven’t started thinking about Christmas and Hanukkah yet, now is the time. Thanksgiving will be here in a blink and you don’t want to get caught unprepared for your business’ holiday needs. So get in a festive mood and make sure you’re ready to not only celebrate, but share the season with your referral sources, health care partners, clients and staff.

• Holiday Cards are a time-tested way to get into the spirit of the season, capture the attention of your referral sources and health care partners, and send a subtle reminder of the value of home care. Cards are personalized to your agency and are appropriate for all faiths. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/holiday-cards.php.
• Stand out from the holiday noise by sending a card that can be used all year long. Holiday calendar cards are personalized to your agency and include a one-page 2014 calendar. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/holiday-calendar-cards.php.
• Spread holiday cheer with a high-value, low-cost giveaway for clients, referral sources, senior centers, and employees. Personalized CDs with beautiful instrumental versions of many holiday classics will enliven any environment and make sure your agency stays top of mind year after year. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/holiday-cd.php.

Speaking of holidays, New Year’s Day is only weeks away, which of course means the end of 2013. If you haven’t already, it’s definitely time to make sure your agency is putting the new year to work for you. Don’t miss out on the incredible opportunity to put your agency’s name and contact information in the hands of referral sources, prospects and clients all year long.

• Personalized home care and hospice wall calendars are an excellent way to promote your agency while educating referral sources and patients. Distribute them to everyone and ensure that your agency maintains community awareness throughout the year. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/homecare-calendars.php.
• Call on local senior centers and referral sources this month and make sure to leave behind a lasting and helpful reminder of who you are and what you do. Personalized magnetic calendars will find homes on refrigerators and file cabinets all year long, jogging their memory about your agency every time they glance at the date. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/magnetic-calendar.php.
• Arm your employees with notebook planners or weekly planners personalized to your agency that will not only accentuate their professional appearance, but will keep them organized. Planners feature plenty of room for notes and scheduling, and also list important health care observances. These also are useful tools for referral sources. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/notebook-planners.php and www.tagwebstore.com/weekly-planners.php.
• Attend local senior-focused health fairs and distribute personalized pocket planners to prospects. Clients also will find these helpful for keeping track of their appointments – and remembering your agency name if they need home care services again in 2014. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/pocket-planners.php.

December is an important month in health care because it’s the time of year when we highlight one of the world’s most serious diseases: AIDS.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1.1 million Americans ages 13 and older were living with HIV in 2009, including 207,600 who had undiagnosed infections. About 50,000 people are newly infected with the virus that causes AIDS each year. In fact, someone in the U.S. is infected with HIV once every 9.5 minutes. Additionally, about 30,000 people were diagnosed with AIDS in 2011. This is in addition to the estimated 487,692 people already living with an AIDS diagnosis in 2010. The disease remains deadly in spite of recent medical advances – 15,529 people with an AIDS diagnosis died in 2010 in this country. About 636,048 people with an AIDS diagnosis in the United States have died since the disease was discovered.

This International AIDS Awareness Month, make a commitment to increase community awareness of AIDS and HIV and the ways your agency can help. Be sure to also take part in World AIDS Day on Dec. 1.

• Call on local clinics specializing in AIDS and HIV. Offer to host a free chronic disease management course that their clients will find helpful. Find the class at www.tagwebstore.com/healthmatters-education-series.php.
• Hospice agencies should be sure to leave behind personalized hospice specialty care flyers about HIV for use by agency personnel. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/hospice-specialty-care-flyers.php.
• Call on HIV specialists in your community and discuss the benefits of hospice care for end-stage AIDS patients. Leave behind a personalized Guidelines for Hospice Admission flip chart, a physician tool that describes the common end-stage indicators for common illnesses, including HIV disease. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/flipchart-hospice.php.
• Provide HIV specialists with agency-personalized pain and symptom logs for them to distribute to their patients (and your prospects). The logs provide an easy way for patients to track their pain and other symptoms and communicate this information to their physician. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/painsymptomlog.php.