Field Notes
July 26, 2014, began as an ordinary, beautiful summer day. But in an ordinary instant, our lives changed dramatically. It was about 4:00 p.m. that Saturday when I received a call from my son’s girlfriend that she couldn’t rouse Matt. She had tried all day and couldn’t get a response. She asked me what to do.…
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Putting Person-Centered Care into Action CICOA’s Flourish Care Management department places great value on practicing a person-centered approach to care management. What exactly does this mean? To me, person-centered care means viewing each client as an individual with different wants and needs. It also means that the client should be highly involved in every decision…
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One thing I have cherished about CICOA in my first six months with the agency is its core values, because they are similar to my own. In particular, I appreciate that we pride ourselves on diversity and inclusion. I have attended diversity trainings, and I have numerous clients on my caseload from diverse backgrounds. I’ve…
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Indiana Division of Aging Provides Greater Flexibility to Meet Needs During COVID-19 Pandemic I always look for the silver lining in situations or times that seem difficult, so it should come as no surprise that I have been searching for that silver lining during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each week I spend hours and hours…
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Across America and throughout the world, people are working from home. Some, like the care managers at CICOA, have had this privilege for some time. Some are new to it. However, if you are like me, the fact that we cannot go out makes me want to explore that much more. While the times are…
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This is a question I’m repeatedly asked. Since January 2013, I’ve been working as a care manager. During my second maternity leave, our family decided to move from the north side to the south side of Indianapolis. My first concern was how I was going to handle my north side caseload? While I was on…
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As a care manager assistant, my job is to complete various tasks for other care managers. Since being hired, I’ve particularly noticed the heartwarming impact home modifications have on our clients and caregivers. At first, home modifications were daunting tasks because of the numerous steps involved. Now that I’ve mastered and seen the positive outcomes…
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Dr. Healey, a geriatrician with St. Vincent’s Center for Healthy Aging, made a presentation to CICOA’s care management staff in May about the need for a paradigm shift in the medical field from disease-centered to person-centered care management. As a care manager, this presentation hit me like a ton of bricks at exactly the right…
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The role of care manager is important. It’s also a role with no concrete job description, and that is one of the aspects that I love most. A Client in Need of Compassion I had a client, Jimmy, who was a bit of a salty character with no friends, no family and new to case…
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By Julia Ollikainen and Trellie Johnson, MSW Interns A question we get asked often is, “Why social work?” For Julia, it felt like something she was called to do. For Trellie, it was having a job that had a purpose. We currently are first-year graduate students at IUPUI working on a Master of Social Work…
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