Home Safety Month is coming up in June…

Take the opportunity now to furnish your referral network with home safety information.

Home Safety Month is good time to educate seniors on the importance of eliminating environmental hazards that could interrupt their long-term independence. While heart disease & cancer may be the leading causes of adult death in the United States, falls are the number one cause of injury related deaths for adults 65 and older.

Some accidents can be avoided with a little preparation and an in-home fall prevention assessment. This is a proactive approach to help older adults age in place by having their living environment evaluated for safety and ease of use. The Home Health community is an excellent resource for providing this service. Some common factors that can increase fall risk include:

• Medical impairment                       
• Muscle Weakness
• Poor Vision                                        
• Inadequate Lighting
• Improper Footwear                       
• Obstructed or Uneven Surfaces

Tips for safeguarding against falls:

• Remove tripping hazards like pet toys, throw rugs and cords.
• Declutter and create plenty of walking space.
• Use non-skid mats, hand rails and grab bars in the bathroom.
• Install railings on both sides of stairs and apply anti-slip treads to each step.
• Provide adequate lighting in every room and place night lights in halls and stairways.
• Make often-used items accessible without the use of a step stool or ladder.
• If necessary, use personal walking devices, such as a cane or walker, to aid in stability.

For more information on Fall Prevention visit the National Council on Aging website:  https://www.ncoa.org/healthy-aging/falls-prevention/

How you can participate:

• Visit your local senior care providers and supply them with informational brochures for their patients and caregivers.
• Distribute fall prevention information to local worship communities and offer to teach a class on safeguarding against avoidable in-home accidents.
• Arrange for your Occupational Therapists to lead a discussion group at senior centers in your area. Have them emphasize the importance of maintaining muscle strength and how low impact exercise and basic daily activities can improve mobility. Be sure to have plenty of swag on hand to distribute to the attendees.

For more ideas on branded Marketing materials visit our Web Store: www.tagwebstore.com

Focus on senior safety at home this August

August gives us all a great opportunity to focus on an important topic we should all think more about: home safety.

While as home care professionals, a great deal of our time and effort is spent ensuring our clients are living as safely and healthfully as possible at home, there is much more we can do to not only enhance our services but promote the idea of home safety throughout our communities.

National Safe at Home Week is Aug. 20-26. Use this observance as a catalyst to jump-start your safety efforts. Here are some tips to help you get started.

• Educate seniors in your community about some of the most common and avoidable dangers lurking in their homes. Host a series of seminars at a local senior center with topics such as emergency preparedness, help for those with hearing difficulties, poison prevention, home fire safety, and more. Find some great information to help you lead the discussion at the CDC’s website for Home and Recreational Safety.
• Few things can land a senior in the hospital faster than a fall. Volunteer to teach a senior class on fall prevention at a local adult day care center. TAG Partners offers a ready-made class on fall prevention, complete with script, promotional posters, and presentation flyers for attendees all personalized to your agency. Call 866-232-6477 for information on individual component pricing.
• Hand out personalized first aid kits or potholders to your senior community along with your agency’s marketing brochure and an offer for a free home safety evaluation. Call TAG Partners at 866-232-6477 to explore the promotional product options available to you.
• Partner with your local fire department in providing fire safety education to your community. Get started by checking out the US Fire Administration’s helpful Fire Safe Seniors Tool Kit. It includes tons of handouts, posters and other items to help you deliver an effective presentation.
• Talk to your local radio station about hosting a monthly show about seniors and home safety. There is a wealth of topics to cover, such as preventing falls/balance issues, planning for a disaster, home health care safety, Internet/personal safety, fraud prevention, etc.

Here’s a great community marketing opportunity

It’s time to focus on fall prevention, medication safety and home safety. June is National Safety Month, an observance sponsored by the National Safety Council. Help raise awareness about home safety and how improving safety measures can help adults age where they want to age: at home.

• Most bone fractures among older adults result from falls. Volunteer to teach a class on fall prevention at your area’s adult day care centers. Find a ready-made class here. Distribute branded promotional items such as nightlights to assist seniors in their fall prevention efforts. Call 866-232-6477 to learn more about the many promotional items available to you.
• Host a senior home safety program at a local church that addresses safety and older adults. Topics can include preventing a home invasion, protecting against scammers who prey on seniors, and making the home less likely to be a location for accidents. Invite your local police, an alarm company representative, and a financial safety expert to participate. Make sure your agency is the expert speaking about fall prevention and home safety. Promote the fact that your agency can come into the home for a free safety evaluation.
• Distribute flyers about home safety and medication safety to the waiting rooms of the offices of general practitioners in your area.
• Visit area senior centers and take along a sample disaster supplies kit. Educate attendees on the importance of such a kit and what should go in one. These kits are essential in case of fire, flood, earthquake, tornado or other disaster. Find a recommended supply list and other information here.
• Lend your agency’s public support to an injury-reducing safety initiative, such as improved lighting in parking areas.
• Partner with a local pharmacist for a medication awareness event at a local library. Educate seniors about medication safety and the need to talk to their pharmacist about all their medications, both prescription and over-the-counter. Visit the website for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for information about older adults and drugs. Download, print and distribute to participants the My Medicine Record provided by the FDA.

September Digest: Simple tips to get more referrals

Strokes kill more than 800,000 Americans every year, making this condition the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. A staggering 7 million people over age 20 in this country have had a stroke at some point in their lives. The seriousness of this condition underscores how important it is to get involved in raising awareness about strokes and how to prevent them. A perfect time to do that is Oct. 29, World Stroke Day. You not only may save lives through your outreach efforts, but you’ll be raising awareness of your stroke-specific medical services.

• Call on clinical referral sources in your community and sell them on your agency’s outcomes when it comes to providing care for stroke patients. Find great Patient Outcomes Brochures for the Physician at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-physicians.php. You can easily show off how you compare to your competitors when it comes to a variety of outcomes measures.
• The Patient Outcomes Senior Brochures are a natural companion to the physician brochures. They educate about stroke in easy-to-understand language. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-senior.php.
• While touting your outcomes to physicians, show them that patient education is a strong component of your home health program. Comprehensive Patient Education Guides for Stroke not only are an eye-catching example of your work, but they help patients get more involved in their own care, which improves outcomes. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-education-guides.php.
• Distribute personalized stroke care flyers at community health fairs, libraries, senior centers and anywhere that seniors gather. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/health-care-flyers.php.

October is National Physical Therapy Month. It’s a great time to not only highlight the important work of your staff physical therapists, but to convey to referral sources how physical therapy and home care can improve the lives of their patients.

• Schedule meetings with the orthopedic surgeons in your area to show them how well your home health or private duty company can help improve the outcomes for their hip, knee and shoulder replacement patients. Leave them with a unique orthopedic rehabilitation brochure that outlines your company’s services for this as well as how your outcomes scores stack up against state and national averages. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-physicians.php. Companion brochures for patients are available at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-senior.php.
• You can’t say “thank you” enough to employees who are doing a great job and helping you have a successful business. Gove your physical therapy staff a little extra thanks with a mention in your company newsletter and a fun thank-you card with a little treat. Find the cards at www.tagwebstore.com/giveaway.php.
• Visit an assisted living facility and host a discussion on the benefits of physical therapy for a variety of common health concerns among seniors. Distribute informative flyers about physical therapy to the attendees. Find them at https://www.tagwebstore.com/health-care-flyers.php.
• Promote your company’s hip and knee replacement recovery services at local health fairs. Distribute informative brochures about the procedure and how home care can help. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/disease-information-brochures.php.

October is all about lung awareness – not only is October Healthy Lung Month, but Lung Health Day is Oct. 28 and National Respiratory Care Week Is Oct. 25-30. The number of Americans affected by lung disease is staggering. With about 158,000 deaths every year (more than prostate, pancreas, breast and colon cancer combined), lung cancer is the nation’s deadliest cancer. About 206,000 people are diagnosed with the condition each year. Additionally, about 10 million adults are diagnosed with chronic bronchitis each year, and about 4.7 million others have ever been diagnosed with emphysema – the diseases that make up Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). About 25 million people live with asthma. Take a stand for lung health and encourage your community to spread the word about lung disease.

• Use your agency’s COPD outcome scores to demonstrate to physicians your success at providing quality outcomes for certain conditions. Outcomes brochures for the physician detail the specific services you offer and display your outcome scores as compared to state or national averages. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-physicians.php. Companion brochures for patients are available at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-outcomes-senior.php.
• Hospice agencies can visit with physicians and discharge planners to discuss when referral is appropriate for patients with lung disease/COPD. The hospice specialty care flyer, which includes easy-to-follow end-stage indicators, is a wonderful tool to clearly convey this message. Find it at www.tagwebstore.com/hospice-specialty-care-flyers.php.
• Partner with physicians to improve hospice care for patients with COPD. The COPD hospice disease case study provides a specific patient scenario in which hospice referral would be recommended. Find it at www.tagwebstore.com/disease-case-study.php.
• Empower your COPD patients and improve your positive outcomes by providing them with COPD zone flyers that tell them when their symptoms indicate a call to their home health nurse is needed, and when it’s time to call 911. Find them at www.tagwebstore.com/zone-flyer.php. Reminder stickers and magnets also are available at www.tagwebstore.com/zoneflyer-english-products.php.
• Show physicians you’re serious about giving patients an active role in managing their condition by using patient education guides, which are packed with guidance, tips, goals and logs. Be sure to take the guides along when you call on physicians to discuss potential referrals and the care you provide. Find guides for asthma and COPD at www.tagwebstore.com/patient-education-guides.php.

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.