July 31, 2025 • 21 mins
What happens when your personal and professional worlds collide in the realm of caregiving? Amber Corbin knows this intersection intimately. As Central Nebraska's Business Relationship Development Specialist for AmanaCare, she guides families through the often overwhelming process of arranging home care – but her expertise doesn't just come from professional training.
Six years ago, Amber's husband Dwayne suffered a massive stroke, becoming AmanaCare's first client west of Lincoln. This profound experience transformed her understanding of the caregiver journey from both sides. "There's trepidation because you're looking at trusting a stranger in your home with your loved one," she explains, "and there's the fear of losing independence." This dual perspective allows her to connect authentically with families facing similar circumstances.
Amber shares exciting news about recent changes to Nebraska's Medicaid program that now allows spouses and parents of minor children to receive payment as caregivers through what they call "Legally Responsible Individual" (LRI) services. This groundbreaking shift addresses a critical challenge many Nebraska families face: maintaining financial stability while providing the best possible care for loved ones. As Amber describes it, "Sometimes that makes it hard when you need to keep putting a roof over your head. By Nebraska expanding those services, that's going to allow more families to have some more income coming into their homes while they're still taking care of their loved ones."
The conversation also highlights the importance of caregiver self-care and respite. Drawing from her own experience as both a professional and family caregiver, Amber reminds listeners that "if you're trying to pour from an empty cup, you're going to get burnout." Her message resonates with anyone walking the caregiving journey: you don't have to do it alone.
Have you considered how home care might benefit your family situation? Share your caregiving story or questions with us – we understand the journey because we've walked it too.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Amber Corbin.
I am the Central NebraskaBusiness Relationship
Development Specialist.
I belong to the North Platteoffice, the Kearney office.
I pretty much cover all ofCentral Nebraska and that is a
big territory it is, and Iabsolutely love what I do.
(00:22):
I love getting to be the firstperson to visit with new
referrals, get to learn theirstory, how we can help them, all
of it.
It's just the most rewardingand blessed job I have ever had.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So tell me more about what you do in that role.
So someone calls and or they'rereferred to you or they're
thinking about a family,thinking about starting home
care.
When do you come in and howdoes that work?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I.
It rings through to my cellphone and I usually get to be
the very first one to talk tothem about what services we
provide, find out a little bitabout their loved one, how we
can help them.
I get to explain our Care360approach to taking care of
clients, as that's taking a lookat the whole client, not only
taking care of them physically,but also emotionally and
spiritually, as well, that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So you cover a large territory and two or three
offices and you're a very busylady, but on top of that, you
mentioned to me that you're afamily caregiver.
So tell me how that works.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I am.
So my husband, dwayne, had amassive stroke almost six years
ago.
He was the very first client ofa monocare west of Lincoln.
So long before I came to workfor a monocare, my husband was a
client and I fell in love withtheir ethics and their integrity
(02:04):
.
I loved how they treated him asa client.
I love how they.
I love how they treat hiscaregivers.
I loved how, even though wewere off by ourselves in central
Nebraska, they never let usfeel like we were walking this
journey alone.
We were always able to havedirect contact with a live human
(02:27):
, which we were new to needingcare in the home.
His caregivers were also new tobeing caregivers, and being
able to ask questions and get alive person and get those
questions answered made it sucha smooth process for us and I.
(02:50):
Actually, about two years afterhe became a client is when I
felt my calling to try to helpothers in similar situations and
that's when I came to work forAmanaCare.
But Duane is still a client ofAmanaCare.
His caregivers go through usand we are blessed to have a
(03:13):
unique family situation atAmanaCare.
Duane is the client.
I am the marketer or businessdevelopment relationship
specialist for this areamarketer or business development
relationship specialist forthis area.
Our youngest son is his paidcaregiver during the day while
I'm working, and ourdaughter-in-law, natalie so our
(03:33):
son's wife is the carecoordinator for this territory
also.
So we've turned a family-ownedbusiness into our family
business, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It sure does, and I have a couple of thoughts about
this.
First of all, when you walkinto the home of someone who's
thinking about care, needingcare, or you're talking on the
phone with them, you absolutelyknow what they're going through,
you know what's on their mind,you know what's in the back of
you know there's so many yes,there's so many feelings and
(04:08):
emotions that go into that.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
First off, there's trepidation because you're
looking at trusting a strangerin your home with your loved one
, hoping that they're going toprovide the type of care you
want your loved one to have.
There's also the fear on theclient side of things of losing
(04:32):
that independence, and it's easyfor me to put myself in their
shoes because it wasn't thatlong ago it seems that I was in
that exact same situation andDuane was having the feelings on
the client side of things ofI'm a strong, independent guy, I
don't need assistance.
(04:53):
And it allows me to talkthrough those feelings and
emotions with not only thefamily but the client and
emotions with not only thefamily but the client and
sometimes just being told theprocess of how careful we are
when hiring caregivers.
I love the fact that ourcompany doesn't just hire
(05:18):
anybody to fill a caregivingposition.
We look for people that trulyhave a heart for service and
want to care for others and withthat, when we do hire a good
caregiver, it's important to ourcompany that we treat them
right and, believe it or not,that can be reassuring because
(05:40):
we enjoy one of the lowestturnover rates in the industry
in our state, which is amazing,but that's because of all the
extra care and benefits that weprovide our caregivers.
So what that means is clientsare not getting a continual
revolving door of not knowingwho their caregiver is going to
(06:05):
be from day to day.
We try to place one or twocaregivers per client.
That way, whether we're talkingabout my husband that has a
brain injury or a client thatmaybe has dementia or
Alzheimer's, knowing the sameroutine day after day of who's
coming to take care of youallows so much bonding to take
(06:27):
place.
The caregivers really get toknow their clients.
They are our eyes and ears.
They're going to be the firstones that notice if a client is
having an off day, for example.
One of the things I want toknow as soon as I'm done working
is did Duane drink enoughfluids today?
Is he hydrated or are weprobably going to be in an ER
(06:50):
getting some fluids?
But by having the samecaregivers with the clients,
they recognize and catch whenthey're having an off day, which
in a lot of times can stop theneed for emergency medical
services.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I think that you're right.
If caregivers are treated wellnumber one and they're trained
well especially when a newdiagnosis comes their way or
somebody they haven't reallytaken care of before having a
little extra help or a littleextra training for those things,
it helps open their eyes towhat might change.
(07:34):
If somebody with congestiveheart failure has really swollen
ankles when you walk in thedoor, that's a time when you
need to call somebody and letsomebody know.
This is a change from yesterdayor two days ago when I was here
.
So those are definitely yeah,they help.
Those things help preventhospitalizations and long
emergency room wait times.
(07:57):
I know everywhere it doesn'tmatter whether you're in a big
city or you're in a rural areahospitals can become overwhelmed
very quickly.
So being able to recognize thatand get something in place to
help correct the situationbefore it gets serious, that's
really important.
Correct the situation before itgets serious, that's really
important.
And so you have a family thatis involved in caregiving, which
(08:20):
is amazing, and you are alsoout there helping others.
I don't think and you don'twish you know challenges on
anyone in life, but there'sprobably not a more perfect
person in the world to talkabout AmanaCare and to help
introduce families to care thansomeone like you, who's
(08:41):
experienced it for many years.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So that's awesome.
I really enjoy it, andsometimes it is such a process
of getting care for your lovedones, whether they're a veteran
and trying to get benefits tothe VA, or if they're trying to
navigate whether or not theirlong-term care insurance will
reimburse for care, or even ifthey're needing to get on the
(09:08):
Medicaid Aged and DisabledWaiver.
There are a lot of steps tothat and I love being able to
try to help guide people alongthat so that they don't feel
like they're walking thisjourney by themselves Sometimes
just somebody saying yeah, it'sa long process.
I know it's been over fourweeks, it's okay, we're going to
(09:31):
get there.
Knowing that you're not walkingthat journey by yourself really
helps.
At least it did for me when Iwas there.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Sure, and you're a counselor, a therapist and a
helper with care, All thosethings.
So let's talk a little bitabout how people can pay for
care.
You're well-versed in this andI know you guys can help with
private.
Private pay is always an option, Long-term care insurance, VA
benefits.
(10:01):
And let's talk about Nebraska'sMedicaid waiver program yeah,
and how family members can becaregivers for families can be
caregivers for families.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yes, so I am very excited.
So Nebraska has made it forquite a few years that family
members could get paid to takecare of their loved ones, except
for in two specific situations,which are parents of children
under the age of 19 and spouses.
One of the changes to NebraskaMedicaid this year is starting
in July.
They have added the LRIservices, which LRI stands for
(10:43):
Legally Responsible Individual.
So in some situations spousescan now get paid to take care of
their spouse, instead of itbeing looked at as just their
responsibility, and also parentsof minor children.
And to me that is very excitingnews because sometimes the best
(11:08):
care situation you can have isto have your loved one taking
care of you.
Sometimes that makes it hardwhen you need to keep putting a
roof over your head and all ofthat.
So by Nebraska expanding thoseservices, that's going to allow
more families to actually havesome more income coming into
their homes while they're stilltaking care of their loved ones.
(11:31):
So I am very excited about that.
I've always guided familycaregivers on this journey and
how to get the caregiver hiredon but yet also take care of the
client side of things get theirloved one ready for us to
convert from a referral into aclient, and so I just see this
(11:52):
helping Nebraskans all the wayaround.
I am a passionate advocate forthat.
I actually am one of the 17people that have been chosen to
sit on the new Nebraska MedicaidBeneficiary Advisory Board at
the state level.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So thank you, so thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I am excited about that because that will give me a
little bit louder voice toadvocate for our Nebraska
families at the state level.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
This is amazing.
I didn't know this washappening and it is July, so
this should be happening now.
As a nurse, I've seen manytimes in the case of small
children that are sick.
The mother has been trainedforever on every IV or G-tube
feeding or tracheostomy care.
They know better than almostanybody how to take care of
(12:45):
their kid and they've beentrained over and over again and
they know how to troubleshootand they know all after years
and years of.
It doesn't even take that long.
It doesn't take years, evenweeks, of taking care of a
disabled child.
They're having a bad day, youknow, you know all the things.
So why not let those mothers orfathers or whoever benefit from
(13:07):
that, from being that caregiver?
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And then it's a win all the way around.
It brings more income into thehousehold, which takes the
stress off.
Usually the parents areproviding the cures anyway, but
they're doing it without gettingpaid, which then they have the
stress of trying to keep a roofover their heads, trying to keep
food on the table.
(13:32):
And I have been so excitedabout these changes because I
feel it really is going toimprove some people's lives.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right Now they have the sole income earner outside
of the home If there's a motherand father together and the
dad's working or the mom'sworking and the other one is at
home.
Now they get a little extraincome from the person who stays
at home and it also lightensthe load for the facilities that
are probably completely fullmost of the time anyway.
(14:04):
So you don't have, and no onewants to send their person to a
facility.
It's great that the moms anddads can get a little extra pay
for their own child in theirhome and not have to go
somewhere else, and spouses too.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
We live in Nebraska, and Nebraskans are notoriously
independent and strong-willed,and there's a lot of situations
where your loved one justabsolutely does not want a
stranger taking care of them.
They want their spouse.
And then you have the spousetrying to figure out how am I
(14:43):
going to take care of my spouse?
How am I going to keep a roofover our head?
How am I going to keepgroceries on the table?
How am I going to keep fuel inthe car?
Hopefully this is going to easethat burden.
Nebraska's had it, grandparentscould take care of
grandchildren and get paidSiblings once they reach the age
of 19, aunts, uncles, but byopening it up to the legally
(15:06):
responsible individuals, so theparents or the spouses, I really
see nothing but good thingscoming out of this.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yes, absolutely, and I think every state should
follow suit on that, as long aseveryone's going through a
reputable home care agency whois managing from a distance,
managing that care, answeringquestions, helping the family,
making sure everyone's qualifiedto be a caregiver.
As long as those things are putin place, the spouse and the
(15:37):
parent are almost the absolutefirst choice for almost
everybody.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, and we whether they're family caregivers or
just caregivers that work for ustaking care of other clients
our company does pride itself ontreating others the way we
ourselves want to be treated,and some of the things that we
offer, which would be includedwith this new LRI for family
(16:03):
caregivers, is we offer paidindemnity health insurance for
caregivers that work over 35hours a week or I believe it's
25 hours and we have a quarterlyperformance bonus that is
offered to all caregivers thatwork over 35 hours a week, and
that's actually a profit sharingprogram.
(16:24):
So that's our way of thankingthe caregivers for literally
being the backbone of ourcompany.
They're the ones keeping theeyes and the ears on the clients
.
They're the ones that arecatching those early signs we
mentioned, and our company feelsthat by taking care of the
caregivers, we're taking stressof life off of their shoulders,
(16:48):
which in turn allows them to beeven better caregivers.
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I appreciate everything that AmanaCare has
been able to do and you all havereally grown in the last six
months to a year.
You have really opened up newoffices and have people out
there everywhere helping folksin Nebraska and that's been a
wonderful thing to see you guysdo such a good job.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Thank you.
It has been very exciting.
I will have been with thecompany four years in November
and just looking back at wherewe came from and where we are
now, it is so exciting to talkto all of these new clients and,
(17:57):
like I said, get to know theirstory and what led them to
needing a little extraassistance in the home.
And sometimes it's having theconversation of if you would
take advantage of some respiteand let us bring another
caregiver in, your wife couldget back to being more of your
wife instead of just yourcaregiver, or your daughter or
your son or whatever.
You can get back to more ofthat family relationship rather
than just the caregiver clientside of things, and it's very
rewarding for me to see thatrelationship be able to stay
intact.
Yes, I'm excited for thespouses and the parents to be
(18:18):
able to be paid caregivers, butI also tell them our company
will never force anothercaregiver on you.
But let's say, something happensand you yourself get sick by
being with our company, you havea team behind you.
We can do what we can to sendsomebody else to take care of
(18:40):
your loved ones.
So if you have medical needsthat you need to take care of.
Please don't feel you're inthis alone.
We are your team, we are yoursupport.
We will help cover you.
We will help take some of theburden off of you, because if
you don't take care of yourselfor, as they say, if you're
trying to pour from an empty cup, you're going to get burnout an
(19:08):
empty cup, you're going to getburnout.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Very true, absolutely , and every caregiver needs to
hear those words and take bettercare of themselves, because it
does become tiring.
We have study after study outthere about how caregivers
sometimes carry themselves intosickness pretty quickly and they
don't take breaks.
But it's okay.
It's okay to take Friday offand go do something fun with
(19:31):
your friends or go to a movie orjust be alone.
Whatever it is you need to do,take care of yourself.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
That's what I'll tell them is there's no wrong or
right way to take respite.
Whatever you need, if you wantto just go in your bedroom and
close the door and take a nap,we're here for that.
If you want to leave your lovedone with us and go get your
hair cut, or run errands withouthaving to hurry and make sure
(20:00):
that you're back for medicationtimes or to make sure that
someone's safe, there is noright or wrong way to take
respite, but it is importantthat you do take it occasionally
and just give yourself a chanceto just breathe.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yep, absolutely.
That sounds like a great wayand I'm proud of the state of
Nebraska for being so forwardthinking.
I am too, because most states Ihope others follow suit very
quickly because I'm in Missouri,so we have a large rural
community of folks.
We have a couple of big townson either side of us, but we
(20:37):
have a lot of rural communitiesout here and a lot of farmland
too, and we are definitely in aplace where we need to make some
good changes to the Medicaidsystem.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Thank you, Amber, for your time, for sharing your
wisdom with us and your story.
We appreciate it.
You're awesome.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Valerie.
I'm Amber Corbin.
I am the Central NebraskaBusiness Relationship
Development Specialist.
I belong to the North Platteoffice, the Kearney office.
I pretty much cover all ofCentral Nebraska and that is a
big territory it is, and Iabsolutely love what I do.
(00:22):
I love getting to be the firstperson to visit with new
referrals, get to learn theirstory, how we can help them, all
of it.
It's just the most rewardingand blessed job I have ever had.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
So tell me more about what you do in that role.
So someone calls and or they'rereferred to you or they're
thinking about a family,thinking about starting home
care.
When do you come in and howdoes that work?
Speaker 1 (01:06):
I.
It rings through to my cellphone and I usually get to be
the very first one to talk tothem about what services we
provide, find out a little bitabout their loved one, how we
can help them.
I get to explain our Care360approach to taking care of
clients, as that's taking a lookat the whole client, not only
taking care of them physically,but also emotionally and
spiritually, as well, that'sawesome.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
So you cover a large territory and two or three
offices and you're a very busylady, but on top of that, you
mentioned to me that you're afamily caregiver.
So tell me how that works.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
I am.
So my husband, dwayne, had amassive stroke almost six years
ago.
He was the very first client ofa monocare west of Lincoln.
So long before I came to workfor a monocare, my husband was a
client and I fell in love withtheir ethics and their integrity
(02:04):
.
I loved how they treated him asa client.
I love how they.
I love how they treat hiscaregivers.
I loved how, even though wewere off by ourselves in central
Nebraska, they never let usfeel like we were walking this
journey alone.
We were always able to havedirect contact with a live human
(02:27):
, which we were new to needingcare in the home.
His caregivers were also new tobeing caregivers, and being
able to ask questions and get alive person and get those
questions answered made it sucha smooth process for us and I.
(02:50):
Actually, about two years afterhe became a client is when I
felt my calling to try to helpothers in similar situations and
that's when I came to work forAmanaCare.
But Duane is still a client ofAmanaCare.
His caregivers go through usand we are blessed to have a
(03:13):
unique family situation atAmanaCare.
Duane is the client.
I am the marketer or businessdevelopment relationship
specialist for this areamarketer or business development
relationship specialist forthis area.
Our youngest son is his paidcaregiver during the day while
I'm working, and ourdaughter-in-law, natalie so our
(03:33):
son's wife is the carecoordinator for this territory
also.
So we've turned a family-ownedbusiness into our family
business, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It sure does, and I have a couple of thoughts about
this.
First of all, when you walkinto the home of someone who's
thinking about care, needingcare, or you're talking on the
phone with them, you absolutelyknow what they're going through,
you know what's on their mind,you know what's in the back of
you know there's so many yes,there's so many feelings and
(04:08):
emotions that go into that.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
First off, there's trepidation because you're
looking at trusting a strangerin your home with your loved one
, hoping that they're going toprovide the type of care you
want your loved one to have.
There's also the fear on theclient side of things of losing
(04:32):
that independence, and it's easyfor me to put myself in their
shoes because it wasn't thatlong ago it seems that I was in
that exact same situation andDuane was having the feelings on
the client side of things ofI'm a strong, independent guy, I
don't need assistance.
(04:53):
And it allows me to talkthrough those feelings and
emotions with not only thefamily but the client and
emotions with not only thefamily but the client and
sometimes just being told theprocess of how careful we are
when hiring caregivers.
I love the fact that ourcompany doesn't just hire
(05:18):
anybody to fill a caregivingposition.
We look for people that trulyhave a heart for service and
want to care for others and withthat, when we do hire a good
caregiver, it's important to ourcompany that we treat them
right and, believe it or not,that can be reassuring because
(05:40):
we enjoy one of the lowestturnover rates in the industry
in our state, which is amazing,but that's because of all the
extra care and benefits that weprovide our caregivers.
So what that means is clientsare not getting a continual
revolving door of not knowingwho their caregiver is going to
(06:05):
be from day to day.
We try to place one or twocaregivers per client.
That way, whether we're talkingabout my husband that has a
brain injury or a client thatmaybe has dementia or
Alzheimer's, knowing the sameroutine day after day of who's
coming to take care of youallows so much bonding to take
(06:27):
place.
The caregivers really get toknow their clients.
They are our eyes and ears.
They're going to be the firstones that notice if a client is
having an off day, for example.
One of the things I want toknow as soon as I'm done working
is did Duane drink enoughfluids today?
Is he hydrated or are weprobably going to be in an ER
(06:50):
getting some fluids?
But by having the samecaregivers with the clients,
they recognize and catch whenthey're having an off day, which
in a lot of times can stop theneed for emergency medical
services.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I think that you're right.
If caregivers are treated wellnumber one and they're trained
well especially when a newdiagnosis comes their way or
somebody they haven't reallytaken care of before having a
little extra help or a littleextra training for those things,
it helps open their eyes towhat might change.
(07:34):
If somebody with congestiveheart failure has really swollen
ankles when you walk in thedoor, that's a time when you
need to call somebody and letsomebody know.
This is a change from yesterdayor two days ago when I was here
.
So those are definitely yeah,they help.
Those things help preventhospitalizations and long
emergency room wait times.
(07:57):
I know everywhere it doesn'tmatter whether you're in a big
city or you're in a rural areahospitals can become overwhelmed
very quickly.
So being able to recognize thatand get something in place to
help correct the situationbefore it gets serious, that's
really important.
Correct the situation before itgets serious, that's really
important.
And so you have a family thatis involved in caregiving, which
(08:20):
is amazing, and you are alsoout there helping others.
I don't think and you don'twish you know challenges on
anyone in life, but there'sprobably not a more perfect
person in the world to talkabout AmanaCare and to help
introduce families to care thansomeone like you, who's
(08:41):
experienced it for many years.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
So that's awesome.
I really enjoy it, andsometimes it is such a process
of getting care for your lovedones, whether they're a veteran
and trying to get benefits tothe VA, or if they're trying to
navigate whether or not theirlong-term care insurance will
reimburse for care, or even ifthey're needing to get on the
(09:08):
Medicaid Aged and DisabledWaiver.
There are a lot of steps tothat and I love being able to
try to help guide people alongthat so that they don't feel
like they're walking thisjourney by themselves Sometimes
just somebody saying yeah, it'sa long process.
I know it's been over fourweeks, it's okay, we're going to
(09:31):
get there.
Knowing that you're not walkingthat journey by yourself really
helps.
At least it did for me when Iwas there.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Sure, and you're a counselor, a therapist and a
helper with care, All thosethings.
So let's talk a little bitabout how people can pay for
care.
You're well-versed in this andI know you guys can help with
private.
Private pay is always an option, Long-term care insurance, VA
benefits.
(10:01):
And let's talk about Nebraska'sMedicaid waiver program yeah,
and how family members can becaregivers for families can be
caregivers for families.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yes, so I am very excited.
So Nebraska has made it forquite a few years that family
members could get paid to takecare of their loved ones, except
for in two specific situations,which are parents of children
under the age of 19 and spouses.
One of the changes to NebraskaMedicaid this year is starting
in July.
They have added the LRIservices, which LRI stands for
(10:43):
Legally Responsible Individual.
So in some situations spousescan now get paid to take care of
their spouse, instead of itbeing looked at as just their
responsibility, and also parentsof minor children.
And to me that is very excitingnews because sometimes the best
(11:08):
care situation you can have isto have your loved one taking
care of you.
Sometimes that makes it hardwhen you need to keep putting a
roof over your head and all ofthat.
So by Nebraska expanding thoseservices, that's going to allow
more families to actually havesome more income coming into
their homes while they're stilltaking care of their loved ones.
(11:31):
So I am very excited about that.
I've always guided familycaregivers on this journey and
how to get the caregiver hiredon but yet also take care of the
client side of things get theirloved one ready for us to
convert from a referral into aclient, and so I just see this
(11:52):
helping Nebraskans all the wayaround.
I am a passionate advocate forthat.
I actually am one of the 17people that have been chosen to
sit on the new Nebraska MedicaidBeneficiary Advisory Board at
the state level.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
So thank you, so thank you.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
I am excited about that because that will give me a
little bit louder voice toadvocate for our Nebraska
families at the state level.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
This is amazing.
I didn't know this washappening and it is July, so
this should be happening now.
As a nurse, I've seen manytimes in the case of small
children that are sick.
The mother has been trainedforever on every IV or G-tube
feeding or tracheostomy care.
They know better than almostanybody how to take care of
(12:45):
their kid and they've beentrained over and over again and
they know how to troubleshootand they know all after years
and years of.
It doesn't even take that long.
It doesn't take years, evenweeks, of taking care of a
disabled child.
They're having a bad day, youknow, you know all the things.
So why not let those mothers orfathers or whoever benefit from
(13:07):
that, from being that caregiver?
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And then it's a win all the way around.
It brings more income into thehousehold, which takes the
stress off.
Usually the parents areproviding the cures anyway, but
they're doing it without gettingpaid, which then they have the
stress of trying to keep a roofover their heads, trying to keep
food on the table.
(13:32):
And I have been so excitedabout these changes because I
feel it really is going toimprove some people's lives.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Right Now they have the sole income earner outside
of the home If there's a motherand father together and the
dad's working or the mom'sworking and the other one is at
home.
Now they get a little extraincome from the person who stays
at home and it also lightensthe load for the facilities that
are probably completely fullmost of the time anyway.
(14:04):
So you don't have, and no onewants to send their person to a
facility.
It's great that the moms anddads can get a little extra pay
for their own child in theirhome and not have to go
somewhere else, and spouses too.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
We live in Nebraska, and Nebraskans are notoriously
independent and strong-willed,and there's a lot of situations
where your loved one justabsolutely does not want a
stranger taking care of them.
They want their spouse.
And then you have the spousetrying to figure out how am I
(14:43):
going to take care of my spouse?
How am I going to keep a roofover our head?
How am I going to keepgroceries on the table?
How am I going to keep fuel inthe car?
Hopefully this is going to easethat burden.
Nebraska's had it, grandparentscould take care of
grandchildren and get paidSiblings once they reach the age
of 19, aunts, uncles, but byopening it up to the legally
(15:06):
responsible individuals, so theparents or the spouses, I really
see nothing but good thingscoming out of this.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yes, absolutely, and I think every state should
follow suit on that, as long aseveryone's going through a
reputable home care agency whois managing from a distance,
managing that care, answeringquestions, helping the family,
making sure everyone's qualifiedto be a caregiver.
As long as those things are putin place, the spouse and the
(15:37):
parent are almost the absolutefirst choice for almost
everybody.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Yeah, and we whether they're family caregivers or
just caregivers that work for ustaking care of other clients
our company does pride itself ontreating others the way we
ourselves want to be treated,and some of the things that we
offer, which would be includedwith this new LRI for family
(16:03):
caregivers, is we offer paidindemnity health insurance for
caregivers that work over 35hours a week or I believe it's
25 hours and we have a quarterlyperformance bonus that is
offered to all caregivers thatwork over 35 hours a week, and
that's actually a profit sharingprogram.
(16:24):
So that's our way of thankingthe caregivers for literally
being the backbone of ourcompany.
They're the ones keeping theeyes and the ears on the clients
.
They're the ones that arecatching those early signs we
mentioned, and our company feelsthat by taking care of the
caregivers, we're taking stressof life off of their shoulders,
(16:48):
which in turn allows them to beeven better caregivers.
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I appreciate everything that AmanaCare has
been able to do and you all havereally grown in the last six
months to a year.
You have really opened up newoffices and have people out
there everywhere helping folksin Nebraska and that's been a
wonderful thing to see you guysdo such a good job.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Thank you.
It has been very exciting.
I will have been with thecompany four years in November
and just looking back at wherewe came from and where we are
now, it is so exciting to talkto all of these new clients and,
(17:57):
like I said, get to know theirstory and what led them to
needing a little extraassistance in the home.
And sometimes it's having theconversation of if you would
take advantage of some respiteand let us bring another
caregiver in, your wife couldget back to being more of your
wife instead of just yourcaregiver, or your daughter or
your son or whatever.
You can get back to more ofthat family relationship rather
than just the caregiver clientside of things, and it's very
rewarding for me to see thatrelationship be able to stay
intact.
Yes, I'm excited for thespouses and the parents to be
(18:18):
able to be paid caregivers, butI also tell them our company
will never force anothercaregiver on you.
But let's say, something happensand you yourself get sick by
being with our company, you havea team behind you.
We can do what we can to sendsomebody else to take care of
(18:40):
your loved ones.
So if you have medical needsthat you need to take care of.
Please don't feel you're inthis alone.
We are your team, we are yoursupport.
We will help cover you.
We will help take some of theburden off of you, because if
you don't take care of yourselfor, as they say, if you're
trying to pour from an empty cup, you're going to get burnout an
(19:08):
empty cup, you're going to getburnout.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Very true, absolutely , and every caregiver needs to
hear those words and take bettercare of themselves, because it
does become tiring.
We have study after study outthere about how caregivers
sometimes carry themselves intosickness pretty quickly and they
don't take breaks.
But it's okay.
It's okay to take Friday offand go do something fun with
(19:31):
your friends or go to a movie orjust be alone.
Whatever it is you need to do,take care of yourself.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
That's what I'll tell them is there's no wrong or
right way to take respite.
Whatever you need, if you wantto just go in your bedroom and
close the door and take a nap,we're here for that.
If you want to leave your lovedone with us and go get your
hair cut, or run errands withouthaving to hurry and make sure
(20:00):
that you're back for medicationtimes or to make sure that
someone's safe, there is noright or wrong way to take
respite, but it is importantthat you do take it occasionally
and just give yourself a chanceto just breathe.
Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yep, absolutely.
That sounds like a great wayand I'm proud of the state of
Nebraska for being so forwardthinking.
I am too, because most states Ihope others follow suit very
quickly because I'm in Missouri,so we have a large rural
community of folks.
We have a couple of big townson either side of us, but we
(20:37):
have a lot of rural communitiesout here and a lot of farmland
too, and we are definitely in aplace where we need to make some
good changes to the Medicaidsystem.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Thank you, Amber, for your time, for sharing your
wisdom with us and your story.
We appreciate it.
You're awesome.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Valerie.
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