December 23, 2024 • 21 mins
Eleonora Tornatore-Mikesh, President & CEO of CaringKind
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everyone, this is Steve Dallison. Welcome to this week's
edition of CEOs. You should know I'm very excited to
be joined by Eleanora, the president and CEO of Caring Kind.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, Hi, thank you so much for having me this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Thanks for coming in. We're so excited to jump in
to your journey to learn a little bit more about
Caring Kind and to be able to inform the listeners. Excellent,
So why don't we start off by talking a little
bit about the amazing work you're doing. You've dedicated so
much of your career to improving dementia care, and your
work's made a real difference. What first inspired you to
(00:31):
get involved with alzheimer and dementia advocacy?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
So a real story. When I was a undergraduate and
I was majoring in psychology and I decided I wanted
to pursue a post master's degree in gerontology and geriatric psychology.
I was talking to my professor at the time and said,
(00:59):
you know, I'm really into sit in getting into the
field of aging. I feel that there's a lot of
people that you know in this you know in the
country that you look at, you know, the elderly differently.
And I was originally born in a little town in Sicily,
and you know how elders are looked at there. And
I said, you know, I really want to make a
difference and I want people over the age of sixty
(01:19):
five to to feel more valued. And and I remember
her comment was, do you really want to work in
such a depressing field? And I said, now, I really
want to work in this field, and and that's really
what got me started. And ever since then, I've always
wanted to sort of change the world on that vision.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
That's awesome. What continues to feel your passion for the work.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The people, the families, the stories, the storytelling, the unfortunate
stigma that is still around ageism, and particularly in my
field right now with brain health and Alzheimer's disease and
related dementias, at caring kind and just really trying to
help families, you know, just get through that disease journey.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
That must be a really rewarding feeling being able to
help those families and individuals. It is.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It is incredibly rewarding. And really, I think a lot
of nonprofits are fueled by mission, and I think with
our particular disease, we you know, I always say Alzheimer's
and dementia is a family affair, and it really impacts
everyone so differently, and so you just really get to
(02:35):
become part of the family absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, You've had a unique career path. You've worked in
long term care, you've worked in nonprofit. How do you
feel like those experiences have shaped you now as presidentcy?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, So when I was managing and running healthcare centers
everything from independent living, assisted living, dementia units, and rehab centers,
I was sort of receiving and looking at all of
the things that were broken in the healthcare system and
so being able to come at caring kind I was
(03:09):
able to sort of hit the ground running. And I
had had some past experience as being the CEO of
the Alzheimer's Association for the State of Connecticut, so knowing
you know, really you know what families want and especially
what people with the disease want, and that's really sort
of the second piece of my career is really making
(03:31):
sure that I can become an advocate and their voice
on that they want to live with Alzheimer's, not die
of Alzheimer's.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
That makes sense giving your extensive background in the space,
what do you see as some of the biggest gaps
or opportunity with dementia care, and how are you planning
to hopefully impact those for the better with Caring Kind.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Unfortunately, the list is long, much longer than this interview.
But I would say I would highlight a couple of
things right now, and that is workforce development. We actually
don't have the unfortunate number of people that are going
into this space and this field, and so we lack
caregivers and you know, a medical team that actually an
(04:17):
expertise in this field. So I would say that's a
that's a big gap in an immediate gap that really
needs to be filled. And Caring Kind is part of
you know, actually our strategic plan focuses on workforce development,
working with you know, trying to inspire people to actually
go into this field and educate and we train and
educate them. If there's a physician, we'll educate them on
(04:38):
diomnual training and dementia specialty. I would say the other
piece that's a tremendous gap, is enough outside of waiting
for pharma to help us get a qure for this disease.
I would say interventions and Caring Kind has recently launched
(04:58):
a new program called to Living under our new strategic plan,
and that is again services that are for the people
with early onset awesome. And so you now after the diagnosis,
you have a place to go and there are things
to do. And we recently developed about two years ago
a program that actually is adopted from the UK called
(05:22):
Cognitive Simulation Therapy. And so you or somebody in your
family has received the diagnosis, it's you know, passed on
to Caring Kind with it as a referral and you
can be registered in these classes and everything is covered,
you know, through our fundraising, so there's no cost.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
That's awesome. Speaking of fundraising, right in the development projects,
how do you balance the both of those? Right? You
obviously want to invest in all these new technologies and
be able to forward think in that realm, but then
also you want to support those families that are impacted.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
In Wow, we just had a board meeting last night.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I feel like we're at our board meeting. You're a
little fly the wall, fly the wall.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I think that's a challenge for every nonprofit in terms
of you know, investment, I think it's it you have
to invest in technology. We just had a meeting this
morning with a very big brand in technology and trying
to adapt homes so people can actually live in their
(06:19):
homes longer. Uh, and just help engineers create things for safety,
for example, guards on stoves and all equipment anything that's
really kind of dangerous. I cannot tell you how many
calls we get because individuals would you know, leave the
faucet on, and they're you know, when you flood your
(06:40):
house three times, it's a problem, and you know, the
damages are thousands and thousands of dollars. It's not a
small little flood. So these become real big issues, not
sustainable issues. And so kring Kind is you know, sort
of looking at those. You know again, how do you
live with Alzheimer's rather you know, die with alzheimer.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it sounds like innovation is really important for the
space on.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
One hundred percent, and with almost seven million Americans that
we know of and that unfortunately is going to triple,
that is something that we're trying to understand why more
and more people, particularly younger, when when you think of
somebody with Alzheimer's disease, you think of somebody probably in
their eighties nineties. Totally most of our clients in our
(07:26):
early stage center are sixties seventies.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It's crazy, scary, that is scary. Yeah, within the innovatoration space.
You just mentioned a few of them, right, helping people
within their households, helping in the innovation space. What are
some of those other emerging technologies or trends you guys
are expecting in the space.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So, I during my time as a CEO in the
Long Term Care, actually during COVID, one of my last
assignments was to the executives were sort of just first
around the northeast leading you know, during COVID because we
had COVID buildings and we leaned into robotics, and so
(08:03):
at our office we have we have a staff person
called Temmy the robot, okay, and so we are looking
to see how robotics can help the workforce, can also
help people live longer in their home. I have one
at my house. And so again, we all, I think,
(08:24):
have experienced how Alexa has been, you know, a lifesaver
for a lot of reminders and you know management. So
we're looking at that kind of same technology because we
understand that people with Alzheimer's disease, it's you know a progressive,
But can you maintain and imagine if you could just
sort of curtail that and even two years the healthcare
(08:47):
costs savings to the family and to the state and
federal budgets.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's awesome. Looking forward to seeing more in that.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, it's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, so we just talked about it. Unfortunately, more and
more people are getting Alzheimer's disease in dementia at a
younger age. How do you believe that the healthcare policies
will will need to evolve in the upcoming years to
be able to obviously keep up with the uptick.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So this is a great question because coming off of
being a few a few days at the Milking Conference,
which is sort of the brain health mecca of sort
of solving for some of you know, not just Alzheimer's,
but a lot of diseases, and so caring kind again
under connect to living is really leaning towards understanding lifestyle
(09:33):
factors and how we can really impact lifestyle. Here, believe
it or not, the BRONX is the highest rated proportion
of individuals living with dementia, Wow, and getting dementia, And
so we our board has agreed to do a pilot
in the Bronx with a with an organization, a company
(09:54):
called Blue Zones. I don't know if you've ever heard
of Blue Zones. It's really a longevity sort of uh brand.
But there are factors in that really mirror the Lancet study,
which really speaks to lifestyle and how we can really
curtail prevention and really starting to take care of your
(10:15):
brain before it's too late.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And And our opinion, you know, through whether through the
studies and things that we've learned, is that you really
got to take care of your brain, you know, when
even you know, even at birth, and so you know,
really educating kids about brain health. You know, what's good
for your heart is good for your brain. And unfortunately,
some of these you know, underserved populations don't do that
(10:42):
because of cultural reasons, because of financial access you know,
to healthcare. And so there are other ways that we,
you know, can educate and really put in an emphasis
and I think caring kind. We're launching this this uh
uh Blue Zone Challenge in the early spring of this year,
(11:03):
and we're excited that it's going to happen in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's awesome, great work you're doing one of the things
you first started saying in the conversation was one of
the things that inspired you really to work. And this
was your conversation with your professor, right, and really changing
that mindset and that perception around aging and dementia. How
do you continue to have that narrative front and center, like,
how do you continue to try to change that mindset
(11:26):
for individuals like your former professor.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I will tell you again, it's the families. So we
have a honorary family member and donor who has completely
inspired us. So we have, for example, this one gentleman,
he ran the marathon two years ago at at that time.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
He was eighty nine. Wow, he's and he.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Actually signed up again at ninety. And this person's schedule
is busier than in mine, and age is no factor.
And so I really do believe that, you know, this
sort of mindset of like life is over at a
certain age has to change. I also think that we
(12:16):
as a society, you know, need to sort of you know,
look at it differently as well, because we know that
there's research out there about social isolation and how social
isolation also leads to depression, and depression that you know
has some has some commonalities to Alzheimer's and dementia, and
so I think that there's so many factors that we
(12:37):
can try to curtail and the end result is perhaps
lower lower in these you know trajectory of numbers of
the increase of Alzheimer's disease, because ultimately it is everybody's
problem because it will bankrup the country. You know, the
amount of money that is spent on services at the
end of life is is astronomical and that needs to change.
(13:00):
We need to do better than that.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Absolutely, How can we do a better job of educating
the public on this important topic.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I think having more people like the gentleman I mentioned
who ran the marathon and you know, continues to do
campaigns and live a life of you know, a you know,
corporate life even at ninety. I think we have to
have more and more of those examples. And so, you know,
I love you know, leaning into you know, the fashion industry,
(13:29):
which we've done with again, you know, putting people that
are even with the diagnoses of Alzheimer's, you know, doing things.
We have a gentleman who is a business owner here
in the city. He runs a coffee company and he's
been diagnosed and he also ran the marathon just recently,
(13:50):
the New York City Marathon through US and also you
know comes to our classes, still runs a company. It's
just really sharing those stories. Yeah, so our theme is
really you know, through storytelling.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, it gives hope to those other individuals one hundred percent. Yeah, absolutely,
that's awesome. Well, it definitely comes off that you're very
passionate about the cause, looking ahead at the future. What's
your ultimate vision for the future of dementia care?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Lowering these numbers, really understanding why it is not it's
it's not a coincidence that the numbers are growing this rapidly.
We have to look at environmental factors. We have to
look at how stress plays a role in activating you know,
these cells. We know we have certain cells in our body,
(14:37):
but you know only ten percent are activated. So what
can we do to make sure that, you know, people
understand really how to take care of their self sure,
and on the other side of dementia care is making
sure that we also take care of the caregiver. The
part of Caring Kind's mission is working with people with
the disease, but also taking care of the caregiver. And
(15:00):
caregivers are at risk for health issues, perhaps not Alzheimer's,
but other diseases because they're so stressed about you know,
this this very long, you know, progressive disease that you know,
their life really kind of just you know, just goes
upside down once you get diagnosed. And it is a
long disease. It could be anywhere from you know, five
to ten to fifteen years, and so it's not you know,
(15:23):
it's not as short as some of the other diseases.
And so really making sure that we have systems and
interventions and services available for family caregivers and financial resources
through federal programs that give them respite dollars so that
they don't have to feel guilty about going to their
(15:43):
daughter's wedding and taking money to go do that rather
than hiring a private caregiver for their loved one, because
those are the choices that people are making.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yep. I think something that you stood out, that stood
out that you said earlier, was that Alzheimer's is really
a family disease, right, one hundred percent impact everyone's loved
ones and the circle around around them. And I would
imagine that's a very emotional draining experience. How has Karen
kind really stepped up to be able to support those families.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So we have created programs even for kids, because again
through this sort of family affair, those sixty one year olds,
those seventy year olds still have young kids. And so
the idea of making sure that our services are just
not one prong, but they're multi prong and that also
(16:34):
means creating, you know, ways of social engagement to happen,
because we know peer to peer support is a wonderful
way of being able to get through these whether it's
to our support groups, and so having clinicians you know,
who are trained in this, be supportive, you know, to
that cohortive people is everything. And so those are the
(16:58):
kind of things that we're continuing to build upon and
scale and our you know, our fundraising you know, continues
because there's so many more things. You know, we don't
want waiting lists, yep, we want to be able to
starve everyone.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
That's awesome work, Thank you. One thing you said was
that we need more people within the field. Right How
can if someone's tuning in, they they're interested in potentially
jumping into a career or exploring exploring what it would
look like to work in dementia here.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It's such a great question. I'm so glad you asked
under the connect to living our vision is and especially
here in New York City, you know, reaching out to
actors and performers and in between their jobs, come volunteer
in an organization like Caring Kind, find your passion and
know that there could be other work within the field
(17:47):
that actually you know, the work that you're doing, even
you know, if you're a singer musician, how you could
actually change the life of somebody living with Alzheimer's disease
through like companionship and so that is part of workforce.
And so I just think people don't know because they've
never been trained. Sure, you know, seek out, start with volunteering,
(18:09):
then you know, learn about the different trainings that are
available and then me I mean I have actually worked
with somebody just recently who never thought they were in
the business world. They want to be a social worker
and they just felt they started volunteering with us through
our helpline. And so I think it's just you know,
I you know, look at that second or third career
(18:32):
and that's certainly good for your brain.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, love that great advice. So looking ahead for you
what is next professionally personally? Are there any upcoming projects
or initiatives that you're particularly excited about.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Continuing to grow Caring Kind? COVID sort of expanded our
footprint and we said no to no one. Although we're
here in New York City, we're serving people really outside
of New York City because some of our programs are virtual,
and just really trying to scale manage that sort of
demand and then also continue to sort of be involved
(19:10):
in the leadership space, both for myself personally nationwide and
also internationally so that I have I'm able to come
back to Caring Kind with all of the opportunities that
are available in this disease space.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That's great. We covered a lot. Do you feel like
there's anything we might have missed that you want our
listeners to know about? Karen Kind, I.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Think, just again, if you are struggling to figure out
on the volunteer side, you know what you love. Don't
think that aging is depressing. Aging is actually so meaningful.
Every day somebody emails me that you're doing and this
is not a religious comment, but God's work of some sort,
(20:00):
and of you know that the work is so meaningful
and precious and so I just would say you keep
your mind open to those opportunities because you'll be surprised
that you may actually fall in love with this field.
And there's not a dull day or moment in my
career that doesn't speak to it.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I love that. Before we close up, how can our
listeners if they want to get involved or they want
to support Karen Kine do so?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Just go to our website which is at www. Caring
Kine NYC dot org.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Awesome, We'll definitely check that out. Please do. Thank you
so much for your insights, for telling us through your
journey and a little bit more about Karen Kine. It
definitely inspired me and I think opened my eyes to
really look at you want to volunteer. Absolutely my job.
I did my job. Yeah, we really appreciate you coming
in and sharing your story and educating our listeners a
little bit more obviously about the very very important topic,
(20:54):
but even more about Karen Kine. Thank you, Thank you,
Thank you for everybody for tuning in and tune next
week's for No Excuse edition of CEOs. You should know
Hi, everyone, this is Steve Dallison. Welcome to this week's
edition of CEOs. You should know I'm very excited to
be joined by Eleanora, the president and CEO of Caring Kind.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, Hi, thank you so much for having me this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Thanks for coming in. We're so excited to jump in
to your journey to learn a little bit more about
Caring Kind and to be able to inform the listeners. Excellent,
So why don't we start off by talking a little
bit about the amazing work you're doing. You've dedicated so
much of your career to improving dementia care, and your
work's made a real difference. What first inspired you to
(00:31):
get involved with alzheimer and dementia advocacy?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
So a real story. When I was a undergraduate and
I was majoring in psychology and I decided I wanted
to pursue a post master's degree in gerontology and geriatric psychology.
I was talking to my professor at the time and said,
(00:59):
you know, I'm really into sit in getting into the
field of aging. I feel that there's a lot of
people that you know in this you know in the
country that you look at, you know, the elderly differently.
And I was originally born in a little town in Sicily,
and you know how elders are looked at there. And
I said, you know, I really want to make a
difference and I want people over the age of sixty
(01:19):
five to to feel more valued. And and I remember
her comment was, do you really want to work in
such a depressing field? And I said, now, I really
want to work in this field, and and that's really
what got me started. And ever since then, I've always
wanted to sort of change the world on that vision.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
That's awesome. What continues to feel your passion for the work.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
The people, the families, the stories, the storytelling, the unfortunate
stigma that is still around ageism, and particularly in my
field right now with brain health and Alzheimer's disease and
related dementias, at caring kind and just really trying to
help families, you know, just get through that disease journey.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
That must be a really rewarding feeling being able to
help those families and individuals. It is.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It is incredibly rewarding. And really, I think a lot
of nonprofits are fueled by mission, and I think with
our particular disease, we you know, I always say Alzheimer's
and dementia is a family affair, and it really impacts
everyone so differently, and so you just really get to
(02:35):
become part of the family absolutely.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, You've had a unique career path. You've worked in
long term care, you've worked in nonprofit. How do you
feel like those experiences have shaped you now as presidentcy?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, So when I was managing and running healthcare centers
everything from independent living, assisted living, dementia units, and rehab centers,
I was sort of receiving and looking at all of
the things that were broken in the healthcare system and
so being able to come at caring kind I was
(03:09):
able to sort of hit the ground running. And I
had had some past experience as being the CEO of
the Alzheimer's Association for the State of Connecticut, so knowing
you know, really you know what families want and especially
what people with the disease want, and that's really sort
of the second piece of my career is really making
(03:31):
sure that I can become an advocate and their voice
on that they want to live with Alzheimer's, not die
of Alzheimer's.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
That makes sense giving your extensive background in the space,
what do you see as some of the biggest gaps
or opportunity with dementia care, and how are you planning
to hopefully impact those for the better with Caring Kind.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Unfortunately, the list is long, much longer than this interview.
But I would say I would highlight a couple of
things right now, and that is workforce development. We actually
don't have the unfortunate number of people that are going
into this space and this field, and so we lack
caregivers and you know, a medical team that actually an
(04:17):
expertise in this field. So I would say that's a
that's a big gap in an immediate gap that really
needs to be filled. And Caring Kind is part of
you know, actually our strategic plan focuses on workforce development,
working with you know, trying to inspire people to actually
go into this field and educate and we train and
educate them. If there's a physician, we'll educate them on
(04:38):
diomnual training and dementia specialty. I would say the other
piece that's a tremendous gap, is enough outside of waiting
for pharma to help us get a qure for this disease.
I would say interventions and Caring Kind has recently launched
(04:58):
a new program called to Living under our new strategic plan,
and that is again services that are for the people
with early onset awesome. And so you now after the diagnosis,
you have a place to go and there are things
to do. And we recently developed about two years ago
a program that actually is adopted from the UK called
(05:22):
Cognitive Simulation Therapy. And so you or somebody in your
family has received the diagnosis, it's you know, passed on
to Caring Kind with it as a referral and you
can be registered in these classes and everything is covered,
you know, through our fundraising, so there's no cost.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
That's awesome. Speaking of fundraising, right in the development projects,
how do you balance the both of those? Right? You
obviously want to invest in all these new technologies and
be able to forward think in that realm, but then
also you want to support those families that are impacted.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
In Wow, we just had a board meeting last night.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I feel like we're at our board meeting. You're a
little fly the wall, fly the wall.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
I think that's a challenge for every nonprofit in terms
of you know, investment, I think it's it you have
to invest in technology. We just had a meeting this
morning with a very big brand in technology and trying
to adapt homes so people can actually live in their
(06:19):
homes longer. Uh, and just help engineers create things for safety,
for example, guards on stoves and all equipment anything that's
really kind of dangerous. I cannot tell you how many
calls we get because individuals would you know, leave the
faucet on, and they're you know, when you flood your
(06:40):
house three times, it's a problem, and you know, the
damages are thousands and thousands of dollars. It's not a
small little flood. So these become real big issues, not
sustainable issues. And so kring Kind is you know, sort
of looking at those. You know again, how do you
live with Alzheimer's rather you know, die with alzheimer.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, it sounds like innovation is really important for the
space on.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
One hundred percent, and with almost seven million Americans that
we know of and that unfortunately is going to triple,
that is something that we're trying to understand why more
and more people, particularly younger, when when you think of
somebody with Alzheimer's disease, you think of somebody probably in
their eighties nineties. Totally most of our clients in our
(07:26):
early stage center are sixties seventies.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It's crazy, scary, that is scary. Yeah, within the innovatoration space.
You just mentioned a few of them, right, helping people
within their households, helping in the innovation space. What are
some of those other emerging technologies or trends you guys
are expecting in the space.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
So, I during my time as a CEO in the
Long Term Care, actually during COVID, one of my last
assignments was to the executives were sort of just first
around the northeast leading you know, during COVID because we
had COVID buildings and we leaned into robotics, and so
(08:03):
at our office we have we have a staff person
called Temmy the robot, okay, and so we are looking
to see how robotics can help the workforce, can also
help people live longer in their home. I have one
at my house. And so again, we all, I think,
(08:24):
have experienced how Alexa has been, you know, a lifesaver
for a lot of reminders and you know management. So
we're looking at that kind of same technology because we
understand that people with Alzheimer's disease, it's you know a progressive,
But can you maintain and imagine if you could just
sort of curtail that and even two years the healthcare
(08:47):
costs savings to the family and to the state and
federal budgets.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
That's awesome. Looking forward to seeing more in that.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Yeah, it's very exciting.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, so we just talked about it. Unfortunately, more and
more people are getting Alzheimer's disease in dementia at a
younger age. How do you believe that the healthcare policies
will will need to evolve in the upcoming years to
be able to obviously keep up with the uptick.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So this is a great question because coming off of
being a few a few days at the Milking Conference,
which is sort of the brain health mecca of sort
of solving for some of you know, not just Alzheimer's,
but a lot of diseases, and so caring kind again
under connect to living is really leaning towards understanding lifestyle
(09:33):
factors and how we can really impact lifestyle. Here, believe
it or not, the BRONX is the highest rated proportion
of individuals living with dementia, Wow, and getting dementia, And
so we our board has agreed to do a pilot
in the Bronx with a with an organization, a company
(09:54):
called Blue Zones. I don't know if you've ever heard
of Blue Zones. It's really a longevity sort of uh brand.
But there are factors in that really mirror the Lancet study,
which really speaks to lifestyle and how we can really
curtail prevention and really starting to take care of your
(10:15):
brain before it's too late.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
And And our opinion, you know, through whether through the
studies and things that we've learned, is that you really
got to take care of your brain, you know, when
even you know, even at birth, and so you know,
really educating kids about brain health. You know, what's good
for your heart is good for your brain. And unfortunately,
some of these you know, underserved populations don't do that
(10:42):
because of cultural reasons, because of financial access you know,
to healthcare. And so there are other ways that we,
you know, can educate and really put in an emphasis
and I think caring kind. We're launching this this uh
uh Blue Zone Challenge in the early spring of this year,
(11:03):
and we're excited that it's going to happen in the Bronx.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
That's awesome, great work you're doing one of the things
you first started saying in the conversation was one of
the things that inspired you really to work. And this
was your conversation with your professor, right, and really changing
that mindset and that perception around aging and dementia. How
do you continue to have that narrative front and center, like,
how do you continue to try to change that mindset
(11:26):
for individuals like your former professor.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I will tell you again, it's the families. So we
have a honorary family member and donor who has completely
inspired us. So we have, for example, this one gentleman,
he ran the marathon two years ago at at that time.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
He was eighty nine. Wow, he's and he.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Actually signed up again at ninety. And this person's schedule
is busier than in mine, and age is no factor.
And so I really do believe that, you know, this
sort of mindset of like life is over at a
certain age has to change. I also think that we
(12:16):
as a society, you know, need to sort of you know,
look at it differently as well, because we know that
there's research out there about social isolation and how social
isolation also leads to depression, and depression that you know
has some has some commonalities to Alzheimer's and dementia, and
so I think that there's so many factors that we
(12:37):
can try to curtail and the end result is perhaps
lower lower in these you know trajectory of numbers of
the increase of Alzheimer's disease, because ultimately it is everybody's
problem because it will bankrup the country. You know, the
amount of money that is spent on services at the
end of life is is astronomical and that needs to change.
(13:00):
We need to do better than that.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Absolutely, How can we do a better job of educating
the public on this important topic.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
I think having more people like the gentleman I mentioned
who ran the marathon and you know, continues to do
campaigns and live a life of you know, a you know,
corporate life even at ninety. I think we have to
have more and more of those examples. And so, you know,
I love you know, leaning into you know, the fashion industry,
(13:29):
which we've done with again, you know, putting people that
are even with the diagnoses of Alzheimer's, you know, doing things.
We have a gentleman who is a business owner here
in the city. He runs a coffee company and he's
been diagnosed and he also ran the marathon just recently,
(13:50):
the New York City Marathon through US and also you
know comes to our classes, still runs a company. It's
just really sharing those stories. Yeah, so our theme is
really you know, through storytelling.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, it gives hope to those other individuals one hundred percent. Yeah, absolutely,
that's awesome. Well, it definitely comes off that you're very
passionate about the cause, looking ahead at the future. What's
your ultimate vision for the future of dementia care?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Lowering these numbers, really understanding why it is not it's
it's not a coincidence that the numbers are growing this rapidly.
We have to look at environmental factors. We have to
look at how stress plays a role in activating you know,
these cells. We know we have certain cells in our body,
(14:37):
but you know only ten percent are activated. So what
can we do to make sure that, you know, people
understand really how to take care of their self sure,
and on the other side of dementia care is making
sure that we also take care of the caregiver. The
part of Caring Kind's mission is working with people with
the disease, but also taking care of the caregiver. And
(15:00):
caregivers are at risk for health issues, perhaps not Alzheimer's,
but other diseases because they're so stressed about you know,
this this very long, you know, progressive disease that you know,
their life really kind of just you know, just goes
upside down once you get diagnosed. And it is a
long disease. It could be anywhere from you know, five
to ten to fifteen years, and so it's not you know,
(15:23):
it's not as short as some of the other diseases.
And so really making sure that we have systems and
interventions and services available for family caregivers and financial resources
through federal programs that give them respite dollars so that
they don't have to feel guilty about going to their
(15:43):
daughter's wedding and taking money to go do that rather
than hiring a private caregiver for their loved one, because
those are the choices that people are making.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yep. I think something that you stood out, that stood
out that you said earlier, was that Alzheimer's is really
a family disease, right, one hundred percent impact everyone's loved
ones and the circle around around them. And I would
imagine that's a very emotional draining experience. How has Karen
kind really stepped up to be able to support those families.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So we have created programs even for kids, because again
through this sort of family affair, those sixty one year olds,
those seventy year olds still have young kids. And so
the idea of making sure that our services are just
not one prong, but they're multi prong and that also
(16:34):
means creating, you know, ways of social engagement to happen,
because we know peer to peer support is a wonderful
way of being able to get through these whether it's
to our support groups, and so having clinicians you know,
who are trained in this, be supportive, you know, to
that cohortive people is everything. And so those are the
(16:58):
kind of things that we're continuing to build upon and
scale and our you know, our fundraising you know, continues
because there's so many more things. You know, we don't
want waiting lists, yep, we want to be able to
starve everyone.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
That's awesome work, Thank you. One thing you said was
that we need more people within the field. Right How
can if someone's tuning in, they they're interested in potentially
jumping into a career or exploring exploring what it would
look like to work in dementia here.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
It's such a great question. I'm so glad you asked
under the connect to living our vision is and especially
here in New York City, you know, reaching out to
actors and performers and in between their jobs, come volunteer
in an organization like Caring Kind, find your passion and
know that there could be other work within the field
(17:47):
that actually you know, the work that you're doing, even
you know, if you're a singer musician, how you could
actually change the life of somebody living with Alzheimer's disease
through like companionship and so that is part of workforce.
And so I just think people don't know because they've
never been trained. Sure, you know, seek out, start with volunteering,
(18:09):
then you know, learn about the different trainings that are
available and then me I mean I have actually worked
with somebody just recently who never thought they were in
the business world. They want to be a social worker
and they just felt they started volunteering with us through
our helpline. And so I think it's just you know,
I you know, look at that second or third career
(18:32):
and that's certainly good for your brain.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Yeah, love that great advice. So looking ahead for you
what is next professionally personally? Are there any upcoming projects
or initiatives that you're particularly excited about.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Continuing to grow Caring Kind? COVID sort of expanded our
footprint and we said no to no one. Although we're
here in New York City, we're serving people really outside
of New York City because some of our programs are virtual,
and just really trying to scale manage that sort of
demand and then also continue to sort of be involved
(19:10):
in the leadership space, both for myself personally nationwide and
also internationally so that I have I'm able to come
back to Caring Kind with all of the opportunities that
are available in this disease space.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
That's great. We covered a lot. Do you feel like
there's anything we might have missed that you want our
listeners to know about? Karen Kind, I.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Think, just again, if you are struggling to figure out
on the volunteer side, you know what you love. Don't
think that aging is depressing. Aging is actually so meaningful.
Every day somebody emails me that you're doing and this
is not a religious comment, but God's work of some sort,
(20:00):
and of you know that the work is so meaningful
and precious and so I just would say you keep
your mind open to those opportunities because you'll be surprised
that you may actually fall in love with this field.
And there's not a dull day or moment in my
career that doesn't speak to it.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
I love that. Before we close up, how can our
listeners if they want to get involved or they want
to support Karen Kine do so?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
Just go to our website which is at www. Caring
Kine NYC dot org.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Awesome, We'll definitely check that out. Please do. Thank you
so much for your insights, for telling us through your
journey and a little bit more about Karen Kine. It
definitely inspired me and I think opened my eyes to
really look at you want to volunteer. Absolutely my job.
I did my job. Yeah, we really appreciate you coming
in and sharing your story and educating our listeners a
little bit more obviously about the very very important topic,
(20:54):
but even more about Karen Kine. Thank you, Thank you,
Thank you for everybody for tuning in and tune next
week's for No Excuse edition of CEOs. You should know
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Monster: BTK
'Monster: BTK', the newest installment in the 'Monster' franchise, reveals the true story of the Wichita, Kansas serial killer who murdered at least 10 people between 1974 and 1991. Known by the moniker, BTK – Bind Torture Kill, his notoriety was bolstered by the taunting letters he sent to police, and the chilling phone calls he made to media outlets. BTK's identity was finally revealed in 2005 to the shock of his family, his community, and the world. He was the serial killer next door. From Tenderfoot TV & iHeartPodcasts, this is 'Monster: BTK'.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.