Make plans to recognize Senior Citizens Day

Senior Citizens Day is Aug. 21, and it’s an occasion you don’t want to miss. It’s a time to celebrate the nation’s fastest growing demographic and all of the contributions they continue to make to our communities.

Help celebrate the spirit of the day by recognizing the efforts of the seniors in your area. Here are some tips to get started.

• Contact your local chapter of Service Corps for Retired Executives, or SCORE. This agency matches volunteer mentors with small businesses. Offer to support the group by facilitating meeting space, providing refreshments, or hosting a small-business networking event. By supporting these seniors, you are reaching a vital, active section of the community with great connections of their own.
• Remind your community about the vibrancy of your senior community by printing out meaningful quotes from notable people about seniors and aging. Post them on bulletin boards and in the offices of referral sources and senior communities throughout your area. Don’t forget to include your agency’s name and contact information. Find great examples of these quotes at the Emily Fund's website.
• Team up with a local gerontologist’s office and offer an on-site mini senior fair with about six noncompeting local vendors in a doctor’s office parking lot. Have food, marketing brochures and promotional items at the ready. Call TAG Partners at 866-232-6477 or email erica.johnson@partnerwithtag.com to discuss options for promotional items, such as stress balls, hand fans or mini flashlights.
• Contact the producers of a local television morning news show and offer to speak on the air about the importance of aging in place and ways to help seniors do this. Don’t forget to highlight your services.
• Organize and host a caregiver resource fair to help those who are caring for a spouse, parent or other loved one at home. Get tips on organizing the event here.

July digest: Red hot ideas for more referrals

National Safe at Home Week is Aug. 23-29. It’s an ideal time to get out into the community and educate about the potential dangers lurking in the place where we should all feel the safest: home.

• Distribute Home Safety flyers at health fairs and other community events. The flyers are personalized with your agency’s logo and contact information and include information on fall prevention, fire safety and general household safety. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/health-care-flyers.php.
• Show your referral sources this month that you are committed to ensuring patient safety. Integrate patient education guides for fall prevention into your services for those at an elevated risk for a fall. The guides also are an eye-catching tool you can use to show referral sources how seriously you take this issue. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-education-guides.php.
• Host a free educational class at your area senior centers on the importance and basics of fall prevention. Find a ready-made class at www.tagwebstore.com/healthmatters-education-series.php.

Celebrate your community’s seniors this August by taking part in Senior Citizens Day (Aug. 21, 2015). This fast-growing group has long been behind social changes, and they’re not going to stop any time soon. Make an extra effort to recognize your community’s vital older adults and show them the benefits of home care.

• Show prospects (and their physicians) just how successful you are at improving certain conditions with outcomes brochures for patients and physicians. The patient brochures educate on home care and the services you provide. The physician brochures outline specific programs and compare your agency’s outcomes scores to state or national averages. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-physicians.php and www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-senior.php. Outcomes brochures are 50% off through July 31 and highlight the new CMS Quality of Patient Care star rating.
• Drop by your local senior centers and host a fun activity. Be sure to distribute puzzle books personalized with your agency’s logo and contact information to all those in attendance. Find them at https://tagwebstore.com/puzzlebook.php.
• Empower patients and prospects to take a greater role in their own health care with health log books personalized to your agency. Distribute them to existing patients and offer them to referral sources to distribute to their patients. Your name and referral information will go everywhere the patient goes. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-logbooks.php.

The year is halfway over and it’s time to start thinking about 2016. Home care and hospice-specific calendars educate about common conditions and keep your agency in front of referral sources, clients and potential clients all year long. Getting your calendars early means you’ll have them ready for distribution as fall creeps closer – at the rate this year is flying by, that’ll be before you know it. In an offer available this July only, get 25% off all calendars at www.tagwebstore.com (includes wall calendars, weekly planners, pocket planners, and notebook planners).

• Plan your outreach efforts for the second half of the year, including events and opportunities to distribute traditional wall calendars. Time-tested and durable, calendars will remind referral sources, patients and others about your services, and will make them aware of healthcare observances and any other dates that are important to your agency. These calendars are at their lowest price ever. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/homecare-calendars.php.
• Equip your staff with durable and indispensable weekly planners. The spiral-bound planners include plenty of space to keep track of appointments and notes, and also include health care observances. Referral sources will love these, too. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/weekly-planners.php. Other great options include notebook planners (www.tagwebstore.com/notebook-planners.php) and pocket planners (www.tagwebstore.com/pocket-planners.php).
• Hand out magnetic calendars personalized to your agency at health fairs, senior centers and all your educational events. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/magnetic-calendar.php.

July digest: Prepare for August with personalized collateral

Celebrate your community’s seniors this August by taking part in Senior Citizens Day (Aug. 21, 2014). This fast-growing group has long been behind social changes, and they’re not going to stop any time soon. Make an extra effort to recognize your community’s vital older adults and show them the benefits of home care.

• Show prospects (and their physicians) just how successful you are at improving certain conditions with outcomes brochures for patients and physicians. The patient brochures educate on home care and the services you provide. The physician brochures outline specific programs and compare your agency’s outcomes scores to state or national averages. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-physicians.php and www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-senior.php.
• Drop by your local senior centers and host a fun activity. Be sure to distribute puzzle books personalized with your agency’s logo and contact information to all those in attendance. Find them at https://tagwebstore.com/puzzlebook.php.
• Empower patients and prospects to take a greater role in their own health care with health log books personalized to your agency. Distribute them to existing patients and offer them to referral sources to distribute to their patients. Your name and referral information will go everywhere the patient goes. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-logbooks.php.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more people die from lung cancer than from any other cancer. Honor the struggle of those fighting this deadly disease on World Lung Cancer Day (Aug. 1, 2014).

• Meet with your oncologist referral sources and demonstrate your commitment to caring for those with lung cancer. Patient Education Guides focused on lung cancer and cancer with chemotherapy/radiation are great resources for patients, and they show physicians that you have expertise and a plan in place to help their patients. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-education-guides.php.
• Participate in a health fair and distribute flyers about cancer and how your agency can help. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/health-care-flyers.php.
• Hospice agencies can call on referral sources and remind them about the benefits of early conversations about hospice and early referral to hospice. Leave behind a Hospice FAQ Poster to help them start the conversation with their patients. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/hospice-faq-poster.php.

The year is halfway over and it’s time to start thinking about 2015. Home care and hospice-specific calendars educate about common conditions and keep your agency in front of referral sources, clients and potential clients all year long. Getting your calendars early means you’ll have them ready for distribution as fall creeps closer – at the rate this year is flying by, that’ll be before you know it. In an offer available this July only, get 25 bonus calendars free with every 100 you order of the same type and style (includes wall calendars, weekly planners, pocket planners, and notebook planners).

• Plan your outreach efforts for the second half of the year, including events and opportunities to distribute traditional wall calendars. Time-tested and durable, calendars will remind referral sources, patients and others about your services, and will make them aware of healthcare observances and any other dates that are important to your agency. These calendars are at their lowest price ever. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/homecare-calendars.php.
• Equip your staff with durable and indispensable weekly planners. The spiral-bound planners include plenty of space to keep track of appointments and notes, and also include health care observances. Referral sources will love these, too. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/weekly-planners.php. Other great options include notebook planners (www.tagwebstore.com/notebook-planners.php) and pocket planners (www.tagwebstore.com/pocket-planners.php).
• Hand out magnetic calendars personalized to your agency at health fairs, senior centers and all your educational events. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/magnetic-calendar.php.