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Chris Kantrowitz, MSW, has a gentle and soft-spoken manner that has served her well in her thirty-year career as a social worker specializing in the care of the elderly. As Director of Client Services for the Fort Lauderdale office of SeniorBridge Family, Kantrowitz puts her rich experience and nonthreatening approach to highly effective use in building relationships with clients and their families. SeniorBridge Family is a rapidly growing national eldercare company that offers a distinctive model of care, creating a full range of at-home services to ease older adults and their families through the many transitions and problems of aging.

As a care manager, Kantrowitz develops individualized plans to meet the needs of the aging person, linking them to essential services, advocating for them with physicians and other professionals and monitoring their well being. She also communicates with and supports the family, helping them to manage the older person’s problems as they age and to cope with the emotional aspects of having an elderly parent or relative who may be declining. SeniorBridge Family utilizes an assessment process that becomes a blueprint for helping the client in very specific, customized ways. The assessment identifies problems, limitations and needs but also focuses on strengths and support systems.

Kantrowitz believes that relationships are the key to working effectively with clients, families, physicians and others.

“Personal relationships are everything,” she claims. ” I try to slowly build a relationship because that becomes the foundation for everything that follows. The rest flows more smoothly once you have established trust and found common ground.”

This philosophy helps Kantrowitz resolve differences among family members regarding the need for care and services.

“It is common for the client and family to have differing perceptions of the problem. Sometimes, the adult child feels anxious about the many issues of an aging parent and will call me in a crisis state with a ‘laundry list’ of things that they feel need immediate attention. But I know that if I come in like gangbusters, with a lot of things that I am going to change to ‘fix’ someone’s life, I will scare them away. That is very threatening. Instead, I develop a relationship, in a gradual and deliberate way.”

Her approach is informal and gentle, beginning with what she terms “friendly visiting.” This consists of being with the client as a warm, friendly presence, listening and letting the client talk about who he or she is and what matters to them. She lets the client take the lead, never bringing up the “big issues” but waiting until they do so themselves.

This respectful and sensitive approach wins people over and before long, Kantrowitz has their trust and a solid relationship.

“If I was to go in there armed with forms and legal pads and questionnaires, I would not reach them. I would scare them. You can’t tell people how to live their lives, especially older people who have lived autonomously for a very long time. And for some, social work has a stigma and they will resist the idea of needing one,” she says.

Resistance may also come from siblings who are the adult children of the client. There may be conflicts about how to best help the parent. Kantrowitz finds that such conflicts often stem from the different relationships siblings have with parents.

“I don’t judge them,” she says, “but instead try to reach out to the skeptics. I might ask them what they would like me to know about their parent or how I can communicate with them. The key is to engage them and bring them into the loop. Once they know that I am credible, they become comfortable. In some cases, it may just be a matter of them not being familiar with care management and simply needing to be informed.”

Once the relationships are established, Kantrowitz remains in constant communication with family members and clients. She becomes an integral part of the client’s support system and continually monitors them, adjusting the plan of care as needed. The combination of services and care management creates a strong safety net that gives peace of mind to all concerned.

“I am a resource to my clients and to their families, but they are still in charge. They trust me and know that I am reliable. I assure my clients that when I visit, I will tell their families I was there, but what we talk about is confidential,” she says.

For Chris Kantrowitz, human relationships are the essence of her successful work as a care manager. But for her personally, they are also the best part of the job.

“I love my work and my clients and my relationships with them are the best reward. I am so privileged to work with older people; I enjoy and respect them enormously.”