How To Become Trusted Referral Partners with Senior Living Facilities ft. Darrian Pennant
On a recent episode of the CareCraft Podcast presented by Panacea, host Ariadne sat down with Darrian Pennant, Director of Sales at The Blake at Hollingsworth Park in Greenville, South Carolina. In this episode, he shares valuable insights into how care managers can create meaningful partnerships with senior living facilities.
Key Takeaways for Care Managers:
Create Value for Senior Living Employees:
Share critical client information—financial, clinical, and emotional—to help senior living employees make informed decisions.
Develop a strong understanding of the services, regulations, and limitations of local senior living facilities to set realistic expectations for clients.
Determine If You Can Become a Trusted Referral Partner:
Build a reputation for being a problem solver and patient advocate.
Demonstrate expertise in your client’s needs—social, emotional, clinical, financial, or legal.
Highlight credentials and affiliations, such as membership in the Aging Life Care Association, which showcases your commitment to professional standards.
Evaluate Contribution Over Time:
Consistently solve problems for clients, such as coordinating care transitions, resolving family conflicts, or securing necessary resources.
Foster trust through transparency, diligence, and a proactive approach to complex situations.
Reflect on past partnerships and use feedback to improve outcomes for future residents and families.
By applying these strategies, care managers can not only enhance their collaboration with senior living facilities but also build a solid foundation of trust and mutual support, ultimately improving outcomes for the seniors they serve. Listen to the full episode for more in-depth insights!
Transcript
[00:00:04] Ariadne: Welcome to the CareCraft podcast presented by Panacea. I'm really excited for today's topic where we'll be talking about how care managers can become a trusted referral partner with senior living facilities.
And our guest today is Darrian Pennant, who is the director of sales at the Blake at Hollingsworth Park in Greenville, South Carolina. He's originally from Orlando, Florida and he is earned his degree in health sciences from Valencia College. He kicked off his career as a business owner and personal trainer, then transitioned to being a firefighter and EMT in 2018, and then transitioned into senior living in 2022 as a community relations director before becoming an assistant executive director.
So he's seen a lot of different roles in his career so far and we're super excited to have him on today. How are you doing?
[00:00:55] Darrian: I'm wonderful, ariadne. Thank you so much for having me this morning. And I look forward to talking about care management.
[00:01:02] Ariadne: Awesome. Well, maybe just as a little bit of background, can you explain for our listeners, you know, your role as the director of sales and how you're really interacting with the clients and then potential care managers that you've had the pleasure of working with so far.
[00:01:18] Darrian: Absolutely. So as a Director of Sales, you know that that term is is interchangeable in a lot of communities.
You know them as community relations directors or move in coordinators or admissions directors. Our roles are all the same in that we work with families that are seeking supportive care environments for their loved ones or individuals that have come to the realization that they need more support that may not be able to be met in the home.
In those relationships where we're diving deep, getting into the nitty gritty to identify what their true needs are. and whether or not our community can be the appropriate fit to meet those needs. As in regards to working with care managers locally and regionally, care managers really know most about their clients.
They're able to share with us information that families may not know would be pertinent to the process of seeking placement in a supportive care environment. Whether it be financial, it be clinical or it be emotional and social. And so as we navigate our relationships with our families, we're also seeking to intentionally navigate the relationships with care management so that we're not missing pertinent informations that can lead to a successful outcome for all parties involved.
[00:02:36] Ariadne: How do you help care managers be involved in that decision making process and make life easier for senior living employees like yourself?
[00:02:44] Darrian: Yeah. So I think the, the way that care managers make life easy for us here in the senior living space would just be simply an open line of continuous communication between ourselves as admissions directors, between the community in their care team and between the mutual client that they're working with.
A lot of times families don't know what information is necessary because they're lay persons. They're not in the industry. They don't understand our lingo. They don't understand what is needed. And so oftentimes they can't appropriately articulate things such as health care planning changes in their needs.
And so having an open line of communication between ourselves as a community and between the care manager that's working more personally with the client is very important, and it makes life a lot easier. Another aspect that makes life easy for us is A care manager's knowledge of their local assisted living communities, the services that they render and the local and state regulations that those communities are governed by.
Having a good understanding of how we operate and the standards in which we're held to will help them educate our resident and or their families on what we can and cannot do so that they have an appropriate perspective and expectation for our services.
[00:04:05] Ariadne: Are there specific examples you could share where you've seen the care manager provide that value and the explanations that really helped set that expectation for the family?
[00:04:19] Darrian: Yeah, I think there's been circumstances in which I've worked with individuals who, you know, a lot of our seniors, they, they hold to their independence as much as they possibly can. And one specific area was an instance where I worked with a family where their loved one wanted to hold on to managing their medications.
And the family didn't necessarily think that there'd be an issue with that because, you know, they have their medi set that medications been set for the week to their knowledge. Mom has not had any issues with managing her medications, has done everything on time and appropriately per the physician.
But under these circumstances, the family lived out of state. Mom was only articulating via phone. Hey, I'm taking my meds. Everything's okay. But the care manager noted that with some in home visits, things weren't necessarily going the way that they thought they were, and through further conversations between myself and the care manager, we were able to identify that it wouldn't necessarily be appropriate for that individual to continue to manage their own medications.
Of course, we had to navigate that situation very sensitively because that was the final thing that the resident was clinging to, or that was the final sense of independence that the resident was clinging to. And so what we did was we let the resident know that they'd have to be able to identify their medications and tell us, you know, what kind of medications they were taking and why they were taking them.
And the resident agreed to that evaluation, but was understanding that if they couldn't meet the criteria that we'd have to take it over. And so the care manager, you know, was wonderful in that circumstance because they were able to beautifully navigate conversation with that resident given that they knew them on a personal level, help them understand that it wasn't us trying to take away that level of independence, but there was a standard and state regulations that needed to be met and allowed for that resident to peaceably transition to our community and allow us to take over medication management.
[00:06:29] Ariadne: That seems like a really nuanced decision and that care manager obviously having the relationship with the resident, I'm sure played a big role in that transition. So are you. normally interacting with care managers that are already engaged with clients that then become residents? Or are there times where you have a resident that you think could really benefit from a care manager and make that referral out?
[00:06:55] Darrian: Yeah, so there are definitely times in which I've identified in the past the resident is in need of care management services, whether that be that they don't have family involved, whether that be that family was far out of state, and they're currently living in our community and resources aren't being met, or whether it be that the resident is Doesn't seem to be making any effort in their care planning themselves, but there's an obvious need for resources and services that aren't being met.
And so I have referred and there's, there's been plenty of circumstances in which I've found that our residents could use those services
[00:07:32] Ariadne: I'm just curious, like when you are making that referral out, what are the things that you're thinking about to decide who might be the best fit for the referral?
[00:07:43] Darrian: Yeah, I when I'm thinking about who may be what type of care manager would be the best fit for referral. One. It's really important that I have some type of knowledge and how they carry themselves, the character qualities that an individual has plays a huge role on whether or not I'm going to refer my resident to them.
Their level of patient advocacy is very important. You know, are they the kind of care manager that is a problem solver or are they the kind of care manager that is dismissive of the problems? Their knowledge of their current caseload is super important. So when I'm looking at referring a resident to a care manager, I'm looking back at the mutual clients that we've shared in the past.
How knowledgeable were they of that individual's needs socially, emotionally, clinically, financially, or legally? And how intentional are they with their clients? That would definitely determine whether or not I'd refer any additional clients to them.
[00:08:44] Ariadne: Got it. And if a new care manager approaches you or new to you, maybe they've been established for a while.
What are the factors that would make you consider or that you would want to know before considering sending them a referral?
[00:09:02] Darrian: If a new care manager came to me seeking to establish a referral partnership, I would want to know a little bit about their credentials and their background. know if they're a part of Aging Life Care Association or not, not that that would necessarily play a role, but Aging Life Care Association is a, is a overseeing governing body for care management and they provide a lot of education and resources to individuals that work in that space.
So knowing that they're tied in and locked in with that entity would give me a lot of peace of mind. But additionally, I would want to know what type of resources they have for clients whether or not they're heavily tied into the senior living space, whether they're heavily tied in the hospice and home health care space, what physicians they know, the legal services and financial services that they can offer to a client.
[00:09:57] Ariadne: For the residents that you've seen work with a care manager, how do you evaluate over time like that care managers impact with your residents
[00:10:08] Darrian: it sounds very simple but it's the truth, you know, when there are issues or problems that need to be solved, whether that's a family member who's seeking to exploit the resident financially, whether it be that the resident is approaching a new stage in their care and they need additional supports coming into the community, whether it be that the resident just can't get a doctor's appointment scheduled for whatever reason with their provider or can't coordinate transportation to said doctor's appointment.
It's whether or not those problems are being solved consistently, consistently, and whether their needs are being met.
[00:10:46] Ariadne: Have there been times where there are particular residents are very tricky or the situation is very tricky and, and maybe that particular instance doesn't go smoothly. What have the care managers done to create better outcomes in the future and with other residents so that you continue to have that trust in them?
[00:11:05] Darrian: I've seen care managers walk away from clients before, and I've seen care managers do their due diligence.
[00:11:12] Ariadne: When have they walked away from clients before?
[00:11:16] Darrian: When in the instance in which I've seen them walk away from clients before, was When the family, the individual was no longer cognitively fit to make their own decisions. And the family was durable power of attorney covered financial and clinical. And they were a very, very difficult family to work with.
And the person didn't have a voice themselves to articulate. And in the care managers kind of came to their wits end. They tried every resource and the family kept wanting to go in their own direction and they would support them in that, but then it would be negative outcome after negative outcome.
And in a sense, they just didn't want the blood on their hands any longer because the family wasn't listening. And so, you know, they took a step back and they removed themselves from the situation. In other instances, you know, there was a situation where a family just could no longer afford their support.
Yeah. Because a lot of care managers in the private duty space are privately paid for their services. But I'm thinking of a particular situation where the president went, I mean, a care manager went above and beyond to ensure that there was a positive outcome. I can think of one particularly when I was back in the state of Oregon, we, we worked very closely with Multnomah County and they had care managers for individuals that were, had their stay funded through Medicaid, and we had a resident she was jovial, she was lovely but she was a challenge to support in the assisted living setting, and there was a lot of conversations being had on whether or not she truly was appropriate in our setting, or whether or not her needs would be met more suitably, and a behavioral health setting and this individual brought in behavioral health specialists brought in psychiatry to support, we had collaborative meeting after collaborative meeting week after week to try to maintain and reserve placement.
And after about two months of trial and error to support this resident, we identified that. Our community would not be an appropriate setting or safe setting for the individual and so that case manager, that care manager, my apologies, was able to, all along while we were making all of these attempts to support the individual and preserve placement, that care manager was making efforts in finding a plan B.
if the situation wasn't resolved and that care manager was able to identify a facility that the individual could transition to where she could happily live out the rest of her days.
[00:13:58] Ariadne: That's incredible. Thank you so much for sharing that story. What metrics do you use to determine whether they, the care manager continues to bring value to your org organization and to, to yourself and your role?
[00:14:11] Darrian: Yeah, so some of the metrics that I'm looking at with regards to identifying if a care manager continues to bring value to our organization, our community would be, are they effectively and efficiently supporting our residents? You know, when our nurses are seeking resources for our residents, are nurses being brought those resources by the care manager?
When our team is having challenges coordinating and corresponding with the families of our residents, are they helping bridge that gap? And in my role specifically, it would be the number of quality and qualified referrals that we receive for potential placement. Are they, are they bringing individuals who are truly appropriate for our setting?
Of course, that will not limit or discourage me from working with them if they are a wonderful care manager that provides resources to our residents in the community at large. But it is a metric that I measure a relationship. To determine if it truly is mutually benefiting.
[00:15:22] Ariadne: Last question, are there any parting words of wisdom or one takeaway that you hope a care manager listening will will take from this conversation.
[00:15:33] Darrian: I think my parting words for all the care managers out there would be to encourage them to get out into their communities and see what the local assisted livings and memory cares have to offer their clients.
[00:15:44] Ariadne: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it.
Definitely shared a lot of good advice from your perspective and I really appreciate you being on the Carecraft podcast.
[00:15:57] Darrian: Thank you so much. You take care.