October 10, 2024 • 26 mins
In this episode of Advice From Your Advocates, Attorney Bob Mannor and Lance A. Slatton, known as “The Senior Care Influencer," discuss the challenges and experiences in the long-term care industry, particularly focusing on home care services. Lance shares his personal journey that led him to start a home care company after facing his father's health difficulties. They explore the impact of COVID-19 on home care, the importance of social media and podcasting for outreach, and the various needs of clients, including those with cognitive degenerative diseases. The discussion emphasizes the importance of family support, adapting to caregiving challenges, and planning for the future.
Episode Takeaways:
- Lance's personal experience led to the creation of a home care company.
- COVID-19 did not significantly disrupt their services due to prior preparedness.
- Social media and podcasts can effectively reach and support families in need.
- Home care services are not just for the elderly; they also assist younger individuals with disabilities.
- Families often feel isolated in their caregiving journey, but resources are available.
- Adaptation is key in caregiving situations to meet changing needs.
- Understanding a loved one's wishes is crucial for future planning.
- There are many resources available for families, even if they feel they can't afford them.
- Communication with friends and family is essential to avoid feelings of isolation.
- The importance of advanced directives and legal planning in caregiving.
More about Lance A. Slatton:
Lance is a writer, author, and Healthcare professional with over 20 years in the healthcare industry.
Lance A. Slatton is the host of the Award-Winning podcast & YouTube show All Home Care Matters. He is also a senior case manager at Enriched Life Home Care Services in Livonia, MI. Lance was also named a 50 under 50 for 2023 and received the distinction as the Top Influencer for Healthcare and Advocacy for 2024.
Lance is also a columnist for multiple healthcare and news websites and print.
Official Website: https://www.
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ABOUT US:
Mannor Law Group helps clients in all matters of estate planning and elder law including special needs planning, veterans’ benefits, Medicaid planning, estate administration, and more. We offer guidance through all stages of life.
We also help families dealing with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other illnesses that cause memory loss. We take a comprehensive, holistic approach, called Life Care Planning.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Advice from your Advocates, a
show where we provide elder lawadvice to professionals who work
with the elderly and theirfamilies.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome back to Advice from your Advocates.
I'm Bob Manor, I'm a certifiedelder law attorney in Michigan
and we have a really interestingguest today, lance A Slatton.
He's an influencer in thelong-term care industry and
welcome Lance.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you for having me, Bob.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, and so people can get more information about
you at LanceASlatincom.
Okay, so, it's LanceASlatincom,and tell us a little bit about
your work.
I know you have some regionalwork and then you do some social
media and online education, sotell us about both of those
things.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah.
So you know, without going toofar into my personal story right
now, my wife and I we werenewlyweds and she had already
graduated with her career anddegree and I was pursuing
medical school.
And we got a phone call oneevening that my father,
unbeknownst to us, wasrecovering from some pretty
serious surgery and the homehealth nurse didn't think he
(01:03):
could live on his own.
The choices were either goinginto a short or long-term care
rehab facility or come live withus, and I like to think most
families, if they're able, theywould choose the latter and have
them come live with them for awhile during their recovery.
And my wife and I had no ideawhat we were getting into.
I quickly came to therealization, you know, if we're
(01:25):
going through something likethis and this was two and a half
years of 24-7 care there's gotto be countless other people out
there experiencing the samethings.
And what really had stood out tous was we had one of the best
healthcare systems in the world,and now we're both in Michigan,
right, bob?
So we'll leave that one there.
And never once were we everoffered resources or put into
(01:45):
contact with any sort of supportservices, and it was only when
I went to have lunch with afriend of mine that there was a
home healthcare company hiringand I was asking them questions
and they knew nothing about whatthey're hiring for or anything.
I left that lunch with myfriend, called my wife and said
you know what?
There's got to be a way wherewe could send people into the
(02:06):
home to help families goingthrough what we're going through
, because I'm sure there'scountless others out there and
unbeknownst to us.
There's an entire industryalready existing.
But we didn't know that becauseno one in our health care
community during my father'srecovery and procedures ever
made us aware of that, and so westarted our company.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Let me be clear because I want to make sure that
the audience and I understandit's basically saying going in
and providing some advocacy andsome clarity for families going
through this.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, it's that and a lot more.
It's also providing help withtheir ADLs, their activities of
daily living, the bathing,grooming, toileting, dressing,
helping them with medicationreminders you know, hands-on
care, everything, everythingbelow requiring a licensed
healthcare professional.
So, like with my father'ssituation, we had home
healthcare.
Medicare will pay for that upto nine weeks at a time, work,
(03:00):
home care.
Medicare does not cover thoseservices in any state because,
as your viewers and listenersmay be aware, medicare is
federally regulated.
Medicaid is a state by stateregulation and Medicare does not
cover those types of they callthem non-skilled services.
And so we didn't realize therewas services out there like that
(03:20):
.
So we decided to start acompany.
We've been in business now foralmost 14 years.
Last seven we've been thenumber one rated company in
Michigan and I don't say that ina braggadocious way, I say that
because we got into this from avery personal experience, a
very difficult time, you know,emotionally, physically,
financially, trying to supportour father.
(03:42):
My father and we wanted to helpother families, and so that
created our company.
But as a result of our companywe would go over all the
counties in southeasternMichigan facilitating caregiver
support groups, doingeducational talks.
I had multiple semi-trailersfull of medical equipment and
supplies that we would just giveto people that churches and
(04:04):
senior centers and even some ofour prisons would donate to a
senior center because theydidn't need them.
They would donate it to usbecause they're not in the
business of really providingsupport like that for their
participants and their members.
And that went on for aboutseven plus years.
Well then, covid rears its headand we made the decision before
the governor made the decisionfor us that you know what, we're
(04:26):
going to stop public gatheringbecause of this virus.
And it started, as you know, atwo week deal and then it was
another two weeks.
So during that time I'm I'mtrying to figure out a way.
How can, other than providingour staff into these homes,
people that hire us, how can westill do this goodwill?
We called it a ministry way ofsupporting families and giving
them these resources.
(04:46):
I heard a podcast one eveningand, I'll be the first to admit,
knew nothing about whatpodcasts were.
I literally thought they werelike your network TV shows and
news, just taking the audio andputting it out there for
digesting, not realizing anybodycould have a podcast.
Well, I happened to hear acouple of gentlemen who had a
home care company, so thatcaught my interest and it was
(05:07):
really awful quality.
It sounded like people weretalking in a bathroom.
There was echoes.
You could hear kids screamingin the background.
And that evening I went homeand told my wife.
I said you know what?
We need to start a podcast.
Well, her first question to meis what do you know about
podcasts?
I said absolutely nothing.
So I spent several monthsresearching what podcasts were
Is there space for us in thisarea?
(05:28):
And we quickly discovered, yeah, there's plenty of room.
And so we launched All HomeCare Matters in May of 2020.
And it's been kind of awhirlwind ever since then.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So the name of your podcast is All Home Care Matters
?
Yes, all Home Care Matters.
Okay, and what's the name ofthe home care?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
company that you Enriched Life.
Home Care Services.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, and you service Southeastern Michigan,
southeastern Michigan, okay, sois that is my understanding,
that's a company that youstarted yourself, or did you
have some partners in that?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
No, it's a family-owned business,
family-owned and operated,except for, you know, the
majority of the staff are, youknow, hired staff.
But it is a family company.
You know we've had severaloffers over the past few years
to, you know, license, our nameand stuff, but we're just not
really in the mindset right nowthat we want to give up that
name.
When you build something fromthe ground up and you know you
(06:22):
build a great reputation, you'revery protective of that
reputation and it's not to sayin the future we wouldn't
revisit that, but at this timeit's just solely owned and
operated by our family.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Now, hopefully, a lot of this is behind us, but I'm
always curious about how people,especially people in the
long-term care industry andparticularly the home care
industry, got through that COVIDprocess.
So how were you able tocontinue to service your clients
, your families, in that settingwhere everybody was pretty much
afraid to have physicalinteraction?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Sure and that's a great question and sometimes
people raise their eyebrows whenI give the answer I'm about to
give it didn't really affect usthat much.
And what I mean by that is youknow, when you're dealing with
somebody going through chemo orradiation, they already have a
weakened immune system.
So for us that means our staffare going to go in there, make
sure they don't have a cold,they don't have a fever, they
(07:16):
don't have a cough.
When they're doing personal,one-on-one, hands-on interaction
, they're wearing a face maskand they're wearing gloves.
We protection, they're wearinga face mask and they're wearing
gloves.
We were already equipped for allof that.
You know when people weremaking a mad run on.
You know buying masks andfinding masks.
You know we have a secondbuilding in our company and
that's all of our supplies andyou know equipment, if you will.
So we were already wellprepared and equipped for it and
(07:39):
we were already practicingthose.
You know PPE personalprotection equipment practices
really before COVID ever hit.
The difference for us was, youknow, we're a lot more mindful
if a staff isn't feeling goodand maybe they're just taking
care of a sweet gentleman or asweet lady who doesn't have a
necessarily a weakened immunesystem.
(08:00):
But now you have to take thatextra step and treat them as
though they do.
Because here's the thing is,I'm sure you guys are aware,
with COVID I might have went topick something up at the
drugstore, not realizing I cameinto contact with somebody with
COVID because they didn't knowthey had it.
And now I'm going in to takecare of an elderly person, or
(08:20):
even a child, whatever theperson may be, I might be
transmitting that virusunbeknownst to me.
So we're taking a lot moreprecautions.
You know, every home wasequipped with gallons of hand
sanitizer, boxes of masks, boxesof gloves.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I know that some of the home care agencies that we
deal with locally hereespecially the family owned ones
, not the franchises were havingstaffing issues at the time.
How did you deal with staffingissues and making sure that you
could service your clients?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Thankfully, I can tell you this.
We lost one employee onlyduring the entirety of COVID and
it was voluntarily.
They were in their mid-60s.
Their family became very, veryconcerned and I don't begrudge
them this, I don't judge themfor this, but I would say it was
probably a little more thannecessary, if you will, and they
(09:14):
were more concerned about theirmom and their grandma going
into a home and contractingCOVID rather than mom or grandma
being out in the public doingher grocery shopping, getting
her gas and contracting COVID.
But I do know, I know companieshere locally where we were
hired in place of anothercompany because the staff they
(09:36):
would tell the family literallywe have zero staff, they have
all quit or they've all steppeddown.
We count ourselves very, veryfortunate that we did not have
that issue during COVID.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So tell us a little bit more about your social media
presence and how that.
I know that you started tellingus about how that came about,
but now tell us a little bitmore about what you're doing on
social media your podcast andthings like that and how that's
really advanced things andhelped people.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, that really happened by pure accident.
It was never intentional.
I literally, like I said, Ishared how I came up with the
idea and it was really atemporary thing for the meantime
because, again, when you'regoing out to, you know six,
seven, 10 different communitiesduring the week doing your
support groups, educationaltalks and fun activities, and
(10:24):
you know all these concerts.
All that's taken away andthat's really where I get my joy
.
I just love interacting withpeople and either giving them a
smile or giving them helpfulinformation, and we needed to
find a way for me to continuedoing that during COVID.
So the solution was a podcast,really designed just for a month
at the most, and then you knowthat couple of weeks that month
(10:44):
turned into almost three years.
So it really let us hone in onthe the craft of the show and
improve it and make changes.
What worked, what didn't?
I got more comfortable.
I never wanted to be in frontof a camera or a microphone.
That wasn't my thing.
I wanted to just help people.
That's why I was going to go tomedical school and we, about
six, seven months into the show,one of the major news outlets
(11:09):
had reached out and said youknow, we got you know, you got
our attention.
Tell us what you're doing.
I knew nothing, bob, aboutYouTube subscribers.
Didn't know.
You know like we got our silvercreator work from YouTube.
Didn't even know that was athing, didn't know any of this
stuff.
So they did a really greatarticle about us.
Next thing we know like we'regoing from 50,000 subscribers to
(11:30):
60 to 70.
It was just it's been such afast acceleration that we never
really had adjusted for orplanned for.
It's just this kind of happensreally organically.
And but the greatest thingabout it is I said, okay, this
is a great way.
We're not just helping ourlocal communities here in
Michigan, now we're helpingpeople in Alaska, texas, florida
(11:52):
, the UK, australia, asia, india.
It's been remarkable to justkind of sit in the middle and
watch it.
So that's been very rewarding.
And one of my passions iswriting.
And one of my passions iswriting and because of the
heightened awareness to ourbrand and our show, it led to
opportunities for me to now, youknow, write for several
different news platforms,monthly articles, and then I
(12:15):
finally forced myself to sitdown and write my book.
And the book really I don'tpromote it much, I don't market
it, we don't really brand it allthat much.
The purpose of the book issomething I wish I had back when
I first started helping takecare of my dad, because, like I
said, we never got thoseresources.
We never were asked how can wehelp you?
(12:36):
What can we do for you?
Have you guys thought aboutthis?
Did you know about that?
And so I wanted to kind ofwrite a book that, regardless of
where you're at in yourcaregiving journey whether
you're at the beginning, themiddle or towards the end
there's something applicable inthere for anyone throughout,
whatever stage of caregivingthey're in.
And I really, like I said, Iwrote it in the lens of what I
(12:57):
wish I had back then that Ididn't have.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So is there a particular type of audience or
families that you find thatyou're working with mostly?
I'll give you an example ofwhat I mean by the question.
A few years ago we were lookingat our clientele and those that
we help, we talk about.
We help people find get.
(13:24):
75 percent of the people thatwe help was someone that had
some dementia, alzheimer's ormemory issues and I'm curious as
to what you're, if that's whatyou're finding with your home
care options or if there'sreally a whole different kind of
approach or typical client thatyou see.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
If I had to say the most common, it would be a
cognitive degenerative disease,whether it's dementia or what
have you.
But I wouldn't say it's themajority, but it's the most
common.
And what I mean by that is wemight have an elderly person who
no longer can drive becausemaybe the glaucoma is preventing
them from safely driving andthey got the keys taken away.
But the son lives in Ohio andthe daughter's working full-time
(14:07):
for a law firm.
They need mom to be able to getto her appointments, make sure
mom's seeing her medicationscorrectly.
You know things like that.
But then we also have really anunspoken group of people that
often isn't really consideredand that's children with
disabilities.
You know there's wonderful stateassistance for that, but also
finding the help that's going towork right for you, work out
(14:30):
best, is rather difficult forfamilies, at least they tell us.
Sometimes they age out of thoseprograms but they still their
needs haven't aged out.
They still have the same needs,if not greater.
So you know it's really a rangeof you know needs and you know
illnesses and abilities or lackthereof.
I tell people all the time.
You know home care isn't justfor seniors.
(14:52):
You know we've sadly had peoplein their late 30s who had a
very aggressive form of breastcancer.
Or you know a gentleman who wasworking at GM and got hit in
the head severely and it causeda brain injury.
There's all car accidents,there's all sorts of things that
(15:13):
really prevent people frombeing able to live safely on
their own or without some extraassistance.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Can you share with us some of the insight that you
help families with?
So I know you've had thispodcast.
Is it mostly YouTube is yourprimary source, or are you on
other social media also?
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, so we're on all the you know the usual suspects
Instagram, linkedin, twitter, x, facebook and YouTube and then
what we do, so like, let's say,we're interviewing you right now
, bob.
We would take the video of youand I and then we would put it
up on YouTube, but then our teamwould strip the audio down so
you have the audio version, andthen they would distribute it
(15:53):
out through all the podcaststreaming platforms.
So any, any episode isdigestible on any platform.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
What do you find is some of the key insights that
you are able to share throughyour podcast, through social
media?
That is very helpful tofamilies.
I agree with you.
It's a really nice thing to beable to reach out to anywhere
someone in Alaska that might nothave those resources.
So what are some insights thatyou think are most important to
share with families?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
place my personal, and it may not be the right one,
because I don't know if there'sa direct, right, correct answer
.
I think there's a lot ofdifferent ways to.
You know make potatoes, but forme it's families, knowing that
they're not alone.
You know, that is probably theloudest and biggest common
thread, whether it was ourcaregiver support groups we
facilitate, or, you know, peoplereaching out to us on the show,
or families we encounter thatwe're helping.
(16:47):
They don't know that all theseresources are out there.
They don't know that there'sother people going through
similar situations and I takegreat pride in equipping them
with as much information andresources as they probably can
handle, and probably more thanthey even want.
But I don't want them to everfeel like you know what, I'm the
(17:08):
only one going through this.
If I have a second, I couldgive you an example of that,
that'd be great.
So one of our caregiver supportgroups that we were facilitating
, there was a woman that came infirst time visitor.
And now I was not the onefacilitating this group, I was
facilitating another one and shecame in, just sat there, you
(17:28):
know, probably middle-aged, youknow not, not maybe more than 55
.
And she sat there the entiretime and you know she had
Kleenex, wiped their eyes and,you know, thanked us.
And then she did come back tothe following meeting, which is
encouraging, and that meetingshe was very inconsolable, very
upset and she decided, you knowwhat I'm going to share what's
(17:49):
going on.
When they asked her and wedon't want ever, ever to make
somebody feel like they're beingpressured or must talk, you
know this is just for you toabsorb, if that's what works
best for you and she said youknow my best friend and her
husband and this goes back now Isaid she's like in her mid
fifties.
They were kids all the waythrough elementary, middle
school, high school, high schoolsweethearts, you know, best
(18:10):
friends.
It was a couple of best friends.
And she basically told me I'm,we're not friends anymore and
she thought I was too good forher, didn't have time for her.
I mean all this just reallyhorrible stuff.
And you know we, our advice toher was no-transcript.
(18:58):
She'll never have to go throughit herself.
She can't appreciate the shoesyou're walking in right now and
the recommendation we give topeople.
Sometimes it's hard to have aface-to-face conversation.
Sometimes it's hard to have atelephone call.
You know people can say thingsthat they may not say in person,
on a phone call, and they maynot want to talk to you
face-to-face.
Sit down and write a letterexplaining to her what it is
(19:22):
you're dealing with daily.
You can't go to the dinner andmovie this Friday because you
know your husband is incontinentand he's, you know,
inappropriate.
Not his own fault, it's thedisease, not him.
She's trying to spare him.
You know his integrity, butshe's also trying to spare you
and your husband from the publicembarrassment and what might
(19:43):
transpire, because she doesn'tknow day to day what's going to
happen and you know that didhelp her and hopefully you know
they're.
They're friends now.
But people that don't gothrough it don't understand what
they're going through.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
No, that's, that's very true and it's very I think
it's very difficult.
We had a guest on our podcastrecently.
He talked about so manyfamilies tend to.
He called it cocoon.
He talked about so manyfamilies tend to, he called it
cocoon.
So once we have this situation,there might be lots of resources
out there and they might bedifferent.
You know, my mother hadAlzheimer's and I remember the
last time we probably took herout to dinner and a lot of the
(20:17):
family wasn't reallyacknowledging the issue yet and
so but it was.
It seemed quite obvious as faras her inability to order a meal
or really interact in a fashionthat the family or the waitress
or anybody would have expectedon that.
And so sometimes you have toshift and it might not be that
you go out to the Olive Garden,but it might be that you know
(20:40):
there are resources out therefor families, because cocooning
into the house, where you justnever leave the house, that
frankly probably makes it worse.
Now, the gentleman that we hadon our podcast, his company
offered therapy services forfamilies with forms of dementia
and neurodegenerative diseases,and so his point was there's
(21:01):
lots of resources out there, buta lot of families are just so
uncertain of that and aren'taware of the resources that
might be out there, they tend tojust kind of lock the door and
hide in their house, not seekoutside resources, not interact
with friends that they'veinteracted with before, and it
sounds like that's kind of oneof the things that you help
people understand is well, itmight not be going out to dinner
(21:23):
anymore in the same kind ofsettings.
There's still options andopportunities to go out in the
community and not just kind ofcocoon yourself into your house
and not go out into thecommunity or seek resources you
(21:47):
know, adapt to what thesituation calls for.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
You know um a related , but not necessarily directly
related, and be in their reality.
You know we had a woman losther husband of you know, 70
years I think, and every dayshe's running going around the
house looking for and the kidswould say you know, mom, dad
died, you know, and one of herolder kids had passed also.
Mom, you know, joey's died.
You know that's not servinganybody's benefit, you know if
(22:11):
mom is looking for him, he he'sat work.
Still, you know that littlewhite lie is going to spare her
maybe from having a verydramatic emotional breakdown and
episode and it might change herwhole entire day, which then in
turn is not going to help thefamily, but just adapt to what
the situation calls for.
It's easy for me to sit hereand say that, but it's really
(22:32):
the best advice that you can getis adapt to what the situation
calls for.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
No, that's great advice and the thing is it's one
of those things where, ifsomeone's forgotten about a
death of a close loved one, whymake them regrieve that?
Why make them go through thatgrieving process again?
My sisters had come up with agreat answer with regard to my
mom, who had Alzheimer's, andshe would often ask about her
mother where's my mom?
Or she'd ask about her sister.
(22:58):
And so my sisters came up witha great answer Whenever she
would ask about her mom, she'dsay, oh, she's with Aunt Helen,
and when she would ask about hersister Helen, she'd say, oh,
she's with mom, because they hadboth passed.
And it was a great answer andit solved and it distracted her
from the end where she didn'thave to grieve a death anymore.
It was just OK, let's move onfrom that.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, yeah, great advice.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, I appreciate everything that you do and how
you educate the communitythroughout the country, and so
any last thoughts that you wantto give and then we'll give out
your resources again here.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Any last thoughts for our audience families don't
take today for granted ortomorrow.
Make sure you know what yourloved one's wishes are.
You know there's wonderfulresources out there like elder
law attorneys for advanceddirectives, power of attorneys,
(23:54):
living wills, trust, and youknow if people can't afford an
attorney, there's a wonderfulresource it's a couple of
dollars called five wishes.
You know that's a wonderfultool.
I don't know if you've comeacross those Bob Sure Remarkable
resource.
And you know, understand andknow what your loved one wants
to have done or not have done.
(24:14):
When that time may come, wherethey can't share what their
wishes are, you'll already knowand it can prevent a lot of, you
know, heartache and you knowtough decisions where you know
guilt can be involved and youknow sometimes one of the
children may want this and theother doesn't want something.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
But if you know what your loved, one wants, it takes
away all the guesswork.
Yeah, that's good.
I'll add to that In Michigan,at least in most areas, they're
going to be covered by some kindof legal services, where so in
my main office it's pretty muchanybody over age 60 can get some
basic legal services, like youmentioned a patient advocate or
a power of attorney.
But in probably most areas ofMichigan, if they don't have the
(24:56):
means to hire a lawyer, theyshould have access to that.
I'm guessing in most areas ofthe country they have something
like that.
So I agree with you 100% thatthose are important things to do
, and if you don't feel like youhave the money or resources to
do it, it's still important tolay out you know what you would
want to happen if you can'tspecify your medical desires
anymore or you're not able tocommunicate those, you know
(25:18):
those answers anymore.
Absolutely so, lance, I'm happythat you're out there educating
the community and for thoseinterested, his podcast is All
Home Care Matters, via YouTubeand all the other places you can
find podcasts.
Thank you so much, bob, and ifyou like our podcast, don't
forget to subscribe.
(25:38):
We're Advice From yourAdvocates and you can find us on
any place that you can findpodcasts or you can go to our
website at manorlawgroupcom andgo to our podcast link.
So thank you for listening andwe'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
To learn more, visit manorlawgroupcom.
You're listening to Advice from your Advocates, a
show where we provide elder lawadvice to professionals who work
with the elderly and theirfamilies.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Welcome back to Advice from your Advocates.
I'm Bob Manor, I'm a certifiedelder law attorney in Michigan
and we have a really interestingguest today, lance A Slatton.
He's an influencer in thelong-term care industry and
welcome Lance.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you for having me, Bob.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, and so people can get more information about
you at LanceASlatincom.
Okay, so, it's LanceASlatincom,and tell us a little bit about
your work.
I know you have some regionalwork and then you do some social
media and online education, sotell us about both of those
things.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah.
So you know, without going toofar into my personal story right
now, my wife and I we werenewlyweds and she had already
graduated with her career anddegree and I was pursuing
medical school.
And we got a phone call oneevening that my father,
unbeknownst to us, wasrecovering from some pretty
serious surgery and the homehealth nurse didn't think he
(01:03):
could live on his own.
The choices were either goinginto a short or long-term care
rehab facility or come live withus, and I like to think most
families, if they're able, theywould choose the latter and have
them come live with them for awhile during their recovery.
And my wife and I had no ideawhat we were getting into.
I quickly came to therealization, you know, if we're
(01:25):
going through something likethis and this was two and a half
years of 24-7 care there's gotto be countless other people out
there experiencing the samethings.
And what really had stood out tous was we had one of the best
healthcare systems in the world,and now we're both in Michigan,
right, bob?
So we'll leave that one there.
And never once were we everoffered resources or put into
(01:45):
contact with any sort of supportservices, and it was only when
I went to have lunch with afriend of mine that there was a
home healthcare company hiringand I was asking them questions
and they knew nothing about whatthey're hiring for or anything.
I left that lunch with myfriend, called my wife and said
you know what?
There's got to be a way wherewe could send people into the
(02:06):
home to help families goingthrough what we're going through
, because I'm sure there'scountless others out there and
unbeknownst to us.
There's an entire industryalready existing.
But we didn't know that becauseno one in our health care
community during my father'srecovery and procedures ever
made us aware of that, and so westarted our company.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Let me be clear because I want to make sure that
the audience and I understandit's basically saying going in
and providing some advocacy andsome clarity for families going
through this.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Well, it's that and a lot more.
It's also providing help withtheir ADLs, their activities of
daily living, the bathing,grooming, toileting, dressing,
helping them with medicationreminders you know, hands-on
care, everything, everythingbelow requiring a licensed
healthcare professional.
So, like with my father'ssituation, we had home
healthcare.
Medicare will pay for that upto nine weeks at a time, work,
(03:00):
home care.
Medicare does not cover thoseservices in any state because,
as your viewers and listenersmay be aware, medicare is
federally regulated.
Medicaid is a state by stateregulation and Medicare does not
cover those types of they callthem non-skilled services.
And so we didn't realize therewas services out there like that
(03:20):
.
So we decided to start acompany.
We've been in business now foralmost 14 years.
Last seven we've been thenumber one rated company in
Michigan and I don't say that ina braggadocious way, I say that
because we got into this from avery personal experience, a
very difficult time, you know,emotionally, physically,
financially, trying to supportour father.
(03:42):
My father and we wanted to helpother families, and so that
created our company.
But as a result of our companywe would go over all the
counties in southeasternMichigan facilitating caregiver
support groups, doingeducational talks.
I had multiple semi-trailersfull of medical equipment and
supplies that we would just giveto people that churches and
(04:04):
senior centers and even some ofour prisons would donate to a
senior center because theydidn't need them.
They would donate it to usbecause they're not in the
business of really providingsupport like that for their
participants and their members.
And that went on for aboutseven plus years.
Well then, covid rears its headand we made the decision before
the governor made the decisionfor us that you know what, we're
(04:26):
going to stop public gatheringbecause of this virus.
And it started, as you know, atwo week deal and then it was
another two weeks.
So during that time I'm I'mtrying to figure out a way.
How can, other than providingour staff into these homes,
people that hire us, how can westill do this goodwill?
We called it a ministry way ofsupporting families and giving
them these resources.
(04:46):
I heard a podcast one eveningand, I'll be the first to admit,
knew nothing about whatpodcasts were.
I literally thought they werelike your network TV shows and
news, just taking the audio andputting it out there for
digesting, not realizing anybodycould have a podcast.
Well, I happened to hear acouple of gentlemen who had a
home care company, so thatcaught my interest and it was
(05:07):
really awful quality.
It sounded like people weretalking in a bathroom.
There was echoes.
You could hear kids screamingin the background.
And that evening I went homeand told my wife.
I said you know what?
We need to start a podcast.
Well, her first question to meis what do you know about
podcasts?
I said absolutely nothing.
So I spent several monthsresearching what podcasts were
Is there space for us in thisarea?
(05:28):
And we quickly discovered, yeah, there's plenty of room.
And so we launched All HomeCare Matters in May of 2020.
And it's been kind of awhirlwind ever since then.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
So the name of your podcast is All Home Care Matters
?
Yes, all Home Care Matters.
Okay, and what's the name ofthe home care?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
company that you Enriched Life.
Home Care Services.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Okay, and you service Southeastern Michigan,
southeastern Michigan, okay, sois that is my understanding,
that's a company that youstarted yourself, or did you
have some partners in that?
Speaker 1 (06:00):
No, it's a family-owned business,
family-owned and operated,except for, you know, the
majority of the staff are, youknow, hired staff.
But it is a family company.
You know we've had severaloffers over the past few years
to, you know, license, our nameand stuff, but we're just not
really in the mindset right nowthat we want to give up that
name.
When you build something fromthe ground up and you know you
(06:22):
build a great reputation, you'revery protective of that
reputation and it's not to sayin the future we wouldn't
revisit that, but at this timeit's just solely owned and
operated by our family.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Now, hopefully, a lot of this is behind us, but I'm
always curious about how people,especially people in the
long-term care industry andparticularly the home care
industry, got through that COVIDprocess.
So how were you able tocontinue to service your clients
, your families, in that settingwhere everybody was pretty much
afraid to have physicalinteraction?
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Sure and that's a great question and sometimes
people raise their eyebrows whenI give the answer I'm about to
give it didn't really affect usthat much.
And what I mean by that is youknow, when you're dealing with
somebody going through chemo orradiation, they already have a
weakened immune system.
So for us that means our staffare going to go in there, make
sure they don't have a cold,they don't have a fever, they
(07:16):
don't have a cough.
When they're doing personal,one-on-one, hands-on interaction
, they're wearing a face maskand they're wearing gloves.
We protection, they're wearinga face mask and they're wearing
gloves.
We were already equipped for allof that.
You know when people weremaking a mad run on.
You know buying masks andfinding masks.
You know we have a secondbuilding in our company and
that's all of our supplies andyou know equipment, if you will.
So we were already wellprepared and equipped for it and
(07:39):
we were already practicingthose.
You know PPE personalprotection equipment practices
really before COVID ever hit.
The difference for us was, youknow, we're a lot more mindful
if a staff isn't feeling goodand maybe they're just taking
care of a sweet gentleman or asweet lady who doesn't have a
necessarily a weakened immunesystem.
(08:00):
But now you have to take thatextra step and treat them as
though they do.
Because here's the thing is,I'm sure you guys are aware,
with COVID I might have went topick something up at the
drugstore, not realizing I cameinto contact with somebody with
COVID because they didn't knowthey had it.
And now I'm going in to takecare of an elderly person, or
(08:20):
even a child, whatever theperson may be, I might be
transmitting that virusunbeknownst to me.
So we're taking a lot moreprecautions.
You know, every home wasequipped with gallons of hand
sanitizer, boxes of masks, boxesof gloves.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
I know that some of the home care agencies that we
deal with locally hereespecially the family owned ones
, not the franchises were havingstaffing issues at the time.
How did you deal with staffingissues and making sure that you
could service your clients?
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Thankfully, I can tell you this.
We lost one employee onlyduring the entirety of COVID and
it was voluntarily.
They were in their mid-60s.
Their family became very, veryconcerned and I don't begrudge
them this, I don't judge themfor this, but I would say it was
probably a little more thannecessary, if you will, and they
(09:14):
were more concerned about theirmom and their grandma going
into a home and contractingCOVID rather than mom or grandma
being out in the public doingher grocery shopping, getting
her gas and contracting COVID.
But I do know, I know companieshere locally where we were
hired in place of anothercompany because the staff they
(09:36):
would tell the family literallywe have zero staff, they have
all quit or they've all steppeddown.
We count ourselves very, veryfortunate that we did not have
that issue during COVID.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So tell us a little bit more about your social media
presence and how that.
I know that you started tellingus about how that came about,
but now tell us a little bitmore about what you're doing on
social media your podcast andthings like that and how that's
really advanced things andhelped people.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah, that really happened by pure accident.
It was never intentional.
I literally, like I said, Ishared how I came up with the
idea and it was really atemporary thing for the meantime
because, again, when you'regoing out to, you know six,
seven, 10 different communitiesduring the week doing your
support groups, educationaltalks and fun activities, and
(10:24):
you know all these concerts.
All that's taken away andthat's really where I get my joy
.
I just love interacting withpeople and either giving them a
smile or giving them helpfulinformation, and we needed to
find a way for me to continuedoing that during COVID.
So the solution was a podcast,really designed just for a month
at the most, and then you knowthat couple of weeks that month
(10:44):
turned into almost three years.
So it really let us hone in onthe the craft of the show and
improve it and make changes.
What worked, what didn't?
I got more comfortable.
I never wanted to be in frontof a camera or a microphone.
That wasn't my thing.
I wanted to just help people.
That's why I was going to go tomedical school and we, about
six, seven months into the show,one of the major news outlets
(11:09):
had reached out and said youknow, we got you know, you got
our attention.
Tell us what you're doing.
I knew nothing, bob, aboutYouTube subscribers.
Didn't know.
You know like we got our silvercreator work from YouTube.
Didn't even know that was athing, didn't know any of this
stuff.
So they did a really greatarticle about us.
Next thing we know like we'regoing from 50,000 subscribers to
(11:30):
60 to 70.
It was just it's been such afast acceleration that we never
really had adjusted for orplanned for.
It's just this kind of happensreally organically.
And but the greatest thingabout it is I said, okay, this
is a great way.
We're not just helping ourlocal communities here in
Michigan, now we're helpingpeople in Alaska, texas, florida
(11:52):
, the UK, australia, asia, india.
It's been remarkable to justkind of sit in the middle and
watch it.
So that's been very rewarding.
And one of my passions iswriting.
And one of my passions iswriting and because of the
heightened awareness to ourbrand and our show, it led to
opportunities for me to now, youknow, write for several
different news platforms,monthly articles, and then I
(12:15):
finally forced myself to sitdown and write my book.
And the book really I don'tpromote it much, I don't market
it, we don't really brand it allthat much.
The purpose of the book issomething I wish I had back when
I first started helping takecare of my dad, because, like I
said, we never got thoseresources.
We never were asked how can wehelp you?
(12:36):
What can we do for you?
Have you guys thought aboutthis?
Did you know about that?
And so I wanted to kind ofwrite a book that, regardless of
where you're at in yourcaregiving journey whether
you're at the beginning, themiddle or towards the end
there's something applicable inthere for anyone throughout,
whatever stage of caregivingthey're in.
And I really, like I said, Iwrote it in the lens of what I
(12:57):
wish I had back then that Ididn't have.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
So is there a particular type of audience or
families that you find thatyou're working with mostly?
I'll give you an example ofwhat I mean by the question.
A few years ago we were lookingat our clientele and those that
we help, we talk about.
We help people find get.
(13:24):
75 percent of the people thatwe help was someone that had
some dementia, alzheimer's ormemory issues and I'm curious as
to what you're, if that's whatyou're finding with your home
care options or if there'sreally a whole different kind of
approach or typical client thatyou see.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
If I had to say the most common, it would be a
cognitive degenerative disease,whether it's dementia or what
have you.
But I wouldn't say it's themajority, but it's the most
common.
And what I mean by that is wemight have an elderly person who
no longer can drive becausemaybe the glaucoma is preventing
them from safely driving andthey got the keys taken away.
But the son lives in Ohio andthe daughter's working full-time
(14:07):
for a law firm.
They need mom to be able to getto her appointments, make sure
mom's seeing her medicationscorrectly.
You know things like that.
But then we also have really anunspoken group of people that
often isn't really consideredand that's children with
disabilities.
You know there's wonderful stateassistance for that, but also
finding the help that's going towork right for you, work out
(14:30):
best, is rather difficult forfamilies, at least they tell us.
Sometimes they age out of thoseprograms but they still their
needs haven't aged out.
They still have the same needs,if not greater.
So you know it's really a rangeof you know needs and you know
illnesses and abilities or lackthereof.
I tell people all the time.
You know home care isn't justfor seniors.
(14:52):
You know we've sadly had peoplein their late 30s who had a
very aggressive form of breastcancer.
Or you know a gentleman who wasworking at GM and got hit in
the head severely and it causeda brain injury.
There's all car accidents,there's all sorts of things that
(15:13):
really prevent people frombeing able to live safely on
their own or without some extraassistance.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Can you share with us some of the insight that you
help families with?
So I know you've had thispodcast.
Is it mostly YouTube is yourprimary source, or are you on
other social media also?
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Yeah, so we're on all the you know the usual suspects
Instagram, linkedin, twitter, x, facebook and YouTube and then
what we do, so like, let's say,we're interviewing you right now
, bob.
We would take the video of youand I and then we would put it
up on YouTube, but then our teamwould strip the audio down so
you have the audio version, andthen they would distribute it
(15:53):
out through all the podcaststreaming platforms.
So any, any episode isdigestible on any platform.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
What do you find is some of the key insights that
you are able to share throughyour podcast, through social
media?
That is very helpful tofamilies.
I agree with you.
It's a really nice thing to beable to reach out to anywhere
someone in Alaska that might nothave those resources.
So what are some insights thatyou think are most important to
share with families?
Speaker 1 (16:26):
place my personal, and it may not be the right one,
because I don't know if there'sa direct, right, correct answer
.
I think there's a lot ofdifferent ways to.
You know make potatoes, but forme it's families, knowing that
they're not alone.
You know, that is probably theloudest and biggest common
thread, whether it was ourcaregiver support groups we
facilitate, or, you know, peoplereaching out to us on the show,
or families we encounter thatwe're helping.
(16:47):
They don't know that all theseresources are out there.
They don't know that there'sother people going through
similar situations and I takegreat pride in equipping them
with as much information andresources as they probably can
handle, and probably more thanthey even want.
But I don't want them to everfeel like you know what, I'm the
(17:08):
only one going through this.
If I have a second, I couldgive you an example of that,
that'd be great.
So one of our caregiver supportgroups that we were facilitating
, there was a woman that came infirst time visitor.
And now I was not the onefacilitating this group, I was
facilitating another one and shecame in, just sat there, you
(17:28):
know, probably middle-aged, youknow not, not maybe more than 55
.
And she sat there the entiretime and you know she had
Kleenex, wiped their eyes and,you know, thanked us.
And then she did come back tothe following meeting, which is
encouraging, and that meetingshe was very inconsolable, very
upset and she decided, you knowwhat I'm going to share what's
(17:49):
going on.
When they asked her and wedon't want ever, ever to make
somebody feel like they're beingpressured or must talk, you
know this is just for you toabsorb, if that's what works
best for you and she said youknow my best friend and her
husband and this goes back now Isaid she's like in her mid
fifties.
They were kids all the waythrough elementary, middle
school, high school, high schoolsweethearts, you know, best
(18:10):
friends.
It was a couple of best friends.
And she basically told me I'm,we're not friends anymore and
she thought I was too good forher, didn't have time for her.
I mean all this just reallyhorrible stuff.
And you know we, our advice toher was no-transcript.
(18:58):
She'll never have to go throughit herself.
She can't appreciate the shoesyou're walking in right now and
the recommendation we give topeople.
Sometimes it's hard to have aface-to-face conversation.
Sometimes it's hard to have atelephone call.
You know people can say thingsthat they may not say in person,
on a phone call, and they maynot want to talk to you
face-to-face.
Sit down and write a letterexplaining to her what it is
(19:22):
you're dealing with daily.
You can't go to the dinner andmovie this Friday because you
know your husband is incontinentand he's, you know,
inappropriate.
Not his own fault, it's thedisease, not him.
She's trying to spare him.
You know his integrity, butshe's also trying to spare you
and your husband from the publicembarrassment and what might
(19:43):
transpire, because she doesn'tknow day to day what's going to
happen and you know that didhelp her and hopefully you know
they're.
They're friends now.
But people that don't gothrough it don't understand what
they're going through.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
No, that's, that's very true and it's very I think
it's very difficult.
We had a guest on our podcastrecently.
He talked about so manyfamilies tend to.
He called it cocoon.
He talked about so manyfamilies tend to, he called it
cocoon.
So once we have this situation,there might be lots of resources
out there and they might bedifferent.
You know, my mother hadAlzheimer's and I remember the
last time we probably took herout to dinner and a lot of the
(20:17):
family wasn't reallyacknowledging the issue yet and
so but it was.
It seemed quite obvious as faras her inability to order a meal
or really interact in a fashionthat the family or the waitress
or anybody would have expectedon that.
And so sometimes you have toshift and it might not be that
you go out to the Olive Garden,but it might be that you know
(20:40):
there are resources out therefor families, because cocooning
into the house, where you justnever leave the house, that
frankly probably makes it worse.
Now, the gentleman that we hadon our podcast, his company
offered therapy services forfamilies with forms of dementia
and neurodegenerative diseases,and so his point was there's
(21:01):
lots of resources out there, buta lot of families are just so
uncertain of that and aren'taware of the resources that
might be out there, they tend tojust kind of lock the door and
hide in their house, not seekoutside resources, not interact
with friends that they'veinteracted with before, and it
sounds like that's kind of oneof the things that you help
people understand is well, itmight not be going out to dinner
(21:23):
anymore in the same kind ofsettings.
There's still options andopportunities to go out in the
community and not just kind ofcocoon yourself into your house
and not go out into thecommunity or seek resources you
(21:47):
know, adapt to what thesituation calls for.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
You know um a related , but not necessarily directly
related, and be in their reality.
You know we had a woman losther husband of you know, 70
years I think, and every dayshe's running going around the
house looking for and the kidswould say you know, mom, dad
died, you know, and one of herolder kids had passed also.
Mom, you know, joey's died.
You know that's not servinganybody's benefit, you know if
(22:11):
mom is looking for him, he he'sat work.
Still, you know that littlewhite lie is going to spare her
maybe from having a verydramatic emotional breakdown and
episode and it might change herwhole entire day, which then in
turn is not going to help thefamily, but just adapt to what
the situation calls for.
It's easy for me to sit hereand say that, but it's really
(22:32):
the best advice that you can getis adapt to what the situation
calls for.
Speaker 2 (22:37):
No, that's great advice and the thing is it's one
of those things where, ifsomeone's forgotten about a
death of a close loved one, whymake them regrieve that?
Why make them go through thatgrieving process again?
My sisters had come up with agreat answer with regard to my
mom, who had Alzheimer's, andshe would often ask about her
mother where's my mom?
Or she'd ask about her sister.
(22:58):
And so my sisters came up witha great answer Whenever she
would ask about her mom, she'dsay, oh, she's with Aunt Helen,
and when she would ask about hersister Helen, she'd say, oh,
she's with mom, because they hadboth passed.
And it was a great answer andit solved and it distracted her
from the end where she didn'thave to grieve a death anymore.
It was just OK, let's move onfrom that.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
Yeah, yeah, great advice.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
Well, I appreciate everything that you do and how
you educate the communitythroughout the country, and so
any last thoughts that you wantto give and then we'll give out
your resources again here.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Any last thoughts for our audience families don't
take today for granted ortomorrow.
Make sure you know what yourloved one's wishes are.
You know there's wonderfulresources out there like elder
law attorneys for advanceddirectives, power of attorneys,
(23:54):
living wills, trust, and youknow if people can't afford an
attorney, there's a wonderfulresource it's a couple of
dollars called five wishes.
You know that's a wonderfultool.
I don't know if you've comeacross those Bob Sure Remarkable
resource.
And you know, understand andknow what your loved one wants
to have done or not have done.
(24:14):
When that time may come, wherethey can't share what their
wishes are, you'll already knowand it can prevent a lot of, you
know, heartache and you knowtough decisions where you know
guilt can be involved and youknow sometimes one of the
children may want this and theother doesn't want something.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
But if you know what your loved, one wants, it takes
away all the guesswork.
Yeah, that's good.
I'll add to that In Michigan,at least in most areas, they're
going to be covered by some kindof legal services, where so in
my main office it's pretty muchanybody over age 60 can get some
basic legal services, like youmentioned a patient advocate or
a power of attorney.
But in probably most areas ofMichigan, if they don't have the
(24:56):
means to hire a lawyer, theyshould have access to that.
I'm guessing in most areas ofthe country they have something
like that.
So I agree with you 100% thatthose are important things to do
, and if you don't feel like youhave the money or resources to
do it, it's still important tolay out you know what you would
want to happen if you can'tspecify your medical desires
anymore or you're not able tocommunicate those, you know
(25:18):
those answers anymore.
Absolutely so, lance, I'm happythat you're out there educating
the community and for thoseinterested, his podcast is All
Home Care Matters, via YouTubeand all the other places you can
find podcasts.
Thank you so much, bob, and ifyou like our podcast, don't
forget to subscribe.
(25:38):
We're Advice From yourAdvocates and you can find us on
any place that you can findpodcasts or you can go to our
website at manorlawgroupcom andgo to our podcast link.
So thank you for listening andwe'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
To learn more, visit manorlawgroupcom.
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Dateline NBC
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