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December 12, 2024 13 mins

What if you could bring the warmth of Thanksgiving to those who might otherwise go without? Join me, Kristi Gurule, on the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast as I recount our heartwarming tradition of delivering nearly 200 Thanksgiving meals to our community. This episode is all about gratitude and connection, reflecting on the smiles and heartfelt thanks from those who received the meals. With the help of local partners, we manage to spread joy far and wide, showing that the spirit of Thanksgiving isn't just about family gatherings—it's about reaching out and making a difference.

Switching gears, we explore the concept of "aging in place," a movement that's reshaping the way we think about growing older. Imagine the comfort of staying in your own home, surrounded by cherished memories, as opposed to moving to a facility. We discuss how this approach can enhance one's mental and emotional health, drawing parallels to the simple joy of returning to your own bed after a holiday visit. Listen in to understand why more people are choosing to age in their own homes and how this can lead to a more fulfilling life. Whether you're considering options for yourself or a loved one, this episode offers insights into creating a comfortable and supportive environment where age is just a number, and home is the ultimate sanctuary.

Please visit our website for more information: https://www.comfortkeepers.com/offices/florida/davie/

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast,
where we elevate the humanspirit.
Here's your host, christyGroulet.
Hello everyone and welcome backto another episode of the
Comfort Keepers Davy podcast.
Christy, I must say we arecoming off the heels of
Thanksgiving and I am feelingincredibly grateful today.

(00:22):
What about you?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
You should.
It's what it's all about.
I'm feeling very gratefulmyself and thankful to still be
with family, even right now andreally coming down probably from
a sugar high.
That was way too much.
It's that time of year when youcan get all that good food in.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Absolutely, and I know you've been really busy, as
you often are, but you arealways doing some.
You're always up to good thingsin the community.
What did you do?
Talk a little bit about yourThanksgiving and what you did
for your local community.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
We look forward to it every single year, but we
realize that not everybody hasthe opportunity to be around
family, or they may not have themeans to have a nice fulfilling
Thanksgiving dinner or lunch orwhatever it might be.
So we actually put togethermeals ourselves and we deliver
them to clients, sometimesoutwards, an hour and a half

(01:15):
from where our office is located, but it is absolutely worth it
being able to hand them over adinner that they can warm up the
next day or same day, and theyjust I can't even tell you
hearing somebody say you thoughtabout me, you wanted to bring
this all the way out here for me, and it, yes, we do so.
You're a part of our family.
Family is all aboutthanksgiving, and so here let us

(01:37):
bless you with this food andplease let it just bring joy to
your day, and that's's what it'sall about.
So close to 200 meals are alldelivered, yeah, and again,
absolutely worth the driving,just everything, all the
logistics that go behind it.
My team and I we absolutelythrive and love doing this every

(01:57):
single year.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
So you said putting together, did you actually?
You didn't actually cook allthe stuff too, did you?

Speaker 2 (02:03):
We did cook some of the stuff, not all of it.
I will not take credit foreverything.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
You don't take all the credit there.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
I will not.
I will give credit where it isdue, but we've partnered with
some local resources that havehelped get us half of the meal,
and then we did like the sideportions.
We are much easier at beingable to put together the sides,
but it was a full meal andthat's really what matters.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Good stuff, good stuff.
So topic for today is somethingthat we have talked about
before, and it's this idea ofaging in place.
Now, yes, yes, the name implieswhat it is, but why don't you
start there, talk a little bitabout this concept, this idea of
aging in place?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
really the aging in place, I would say movement
really has become really popularwithin the last decade and the
whole idea is that as you age,stay put.
You stay where you're at.
You stay in the home,surrounded by the things that
you love, things that bring youmemories, joy, of times past.
And that is aging in placewhere resources come to you

(03:09):
versus you going to a placewhere resources are already
there, and most people willcompare this to staying at home
versus going into an assistedliving facility or a nursing
home.
And really there's been a lotof studies around all of this
aging in place that somebodywill have a more fulfilling life
being in their home Again.

(03:30):
The comfort level.
I compare it to okay, thinkabout Thanksgiving, right?
So if you traveled and you wentand you stayed with a relative,
even just for that whole day,not even spending the night Okay
, you went to your relative'shome to have a great meal and
you got there and you'recomfortable, right.
But at the end of the day youwant to kick off your shoes, you
want to put on comfortableclothes and you want to lounge

(03:51):
and watch whatever you want onTV, like it's, you can't do that
because it's not your place.
And I think that's just theeasiest way to compare this to
is that when you're comfortablein your space, then you can live
in your space comfortably withresources coming in, versus you
needing to leave, and it's justbetter.
Peace of mind, mentally, youfeel better.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, From a mental health standpoint, it just seems
like obviously dealing withchallenges when you're younger
and change is a lot easier, I'dimagine, than dealing with it as
you get older.
And the older you get, the lessyou want to put your body
through these types of stressesand changes, and I could just
see how staying at home would beincredibly beneficial.

(04:35):
But with that there must comesome challenges right.
What are some of the obstaclesand challenges that you've seen
that you've faced with clientsas they get older, staying in
the home longer?

Speaker 2 (04:47):
So let's just talk about the size of somebody's
home.
A lot of times that becomes.
One of the biggest, trickiestthings to overcome is that you
have a house that had, at onepoint, many other people in it
and now it does not, and even ifyou are still living with a
spouse or a significant other,it's still a lot of extra square
footage that is not being used.
So most of the time, you'restill wanting to make sure that

(05:11):
every square inch of your homeis clean and properly just in
its place, everything in itsplace, and that becomes
burdensome because it's so muchlarger than really what you're
needing.
So that's, that seems like avery simple thing, but that is
definitely something that wecome across often.
Another thing is, say, somebodylives in a home that has stairs

(05:32):
, and now they're at a pointwhere stairs are trickier,
they're harder for them tonavigate up or down, and so
there are accommodations thatcan be made to one staircase so
that they can be safe.
But still these are real thingsin somebody's living, their
home, that can pose, that canpose problems for them staying
there.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
Yeah, it sounds like something that should be on your
radar before you get, so likewhen your kids go away you don't
need as much space.
Maybe start looking atdownsizing your home a little
earlier so that when you do getolder you don't have to worry
about that having too much space, right?

Speaker 2 (06:08):
And there'll still be people, jeremy, that want to be
in their home, regardless,because they're planning for the
future.
Maybe kids will come back andthere'll be a place for them to
stay and I love all that becauseit's a wonderful thing to be
able to stay.
Then that's where we selectourselves.
Comfort keepers come in andlisten to you, so it's not such
a big burden on you to take careof your home.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
Hold on a second.
You're glitching out here.
I don't know if it's here andCan you hear me?

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, I can hear you just fine.

Speaker 1 (06:33):
Okay, all right.
Hopefully the recording pickedit up.
If not, we apologize for that.
These things happen from timeto time, right, they sure do
yeah.
From time to time, right, theysure do yeah.
So, from your perspective asthe owner of Comfort Keepers,
this is really what you do withyour clients is help them be
comfortable at home.
How do you support?

Speaker 2 (06:50):
So, similar to what I just said, we can come into
your home and we can do a fullhome assessment to see what it
is that you need help with, andthen we can go from there fully
customizable.
So we want them to be able tostay in their home.
We've even helped people movetheir bedroom suite from
upstairs to their downstairssuite so that they can again

(07:13):
have more accommodation justbeing able to get to their
bedroom easily.
We want to do everything thatwe can, no matter the skill
level, whatever stage of lifesomeone's in, to be able to stay
in their home Anything.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Yeah, very important.
What are some?
Let's go down.
You've been doing this a while.
You're an expert in this field.
What are some tips that you cangive to listeners?
Maybe they haven't yet reachedout to a company like yours, or
they're in this position withtheir parents where they're
thinking about maybetransitioning them to assisted
living, or they're thinkingabout maybe getting some folks
to come help them in home.
What are some tips and ideasyou can give them as they broach

(07:51):
that subject?

Speaker 2 (07:51):
help them in home.
What are some tips and ideasyou can give them as they broach
that subject?
It really comes down to havingconversations very lightly and
as often as possible.
It's been it's all thrown thatit's overwhelming for both sides
family members, caregivers andfor the loved one that you're
concerned about.
So the sooner that theconversation can take place, the
better, and really it couldstart something as simple as mom

(08:14):
, you need somebody to help youonce a week to go get groceries.
Let's look for that person,let's look for that company, and
that's where we can step in andsay great, yeah, let us come in
and help you go get groceries,put groceries away, cause, let's
be real, that's a whole daything at times and it can be
very exhausting.
So now we're helping with that.
That can transition into let ushelp you meal prep for the

(08:35):
whole week.
How much less stress would youhave if we were able to help you
meal prep so that you havethings ready to throw into a
crock pot or into the microwaveor into the oven and it's ready
to go.
It's just like, little bylittle is really the best advice
that I have for all familieswhen you start to see that your
loved one does need extra helpand you may not have the ability

(08:57):
to do that, and that is okay.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
That's what we're here for to be an extension of
your family, in whatevercapacity that might be see that
being home longer can be in manyways easier now with all the
latest technological advances,things like smart home devices,
health monitoring tools.
How do you at Comfort Keepers,or how are you preparing to meet

(09:22):
the future needs of agingadults?

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, I love that you're even mentioning that,
because it's always everevolving Telehealth doctor's
appointments that take placetoday.
It's very overwhelming forsomebody to do that for the
first time.
So, being able to help somebodyget logged in, get set up on
their computer or whatever, andthen stepping out of the room
for that privacy, that'ssomething that we can help with.
One of the biggest technologicalthings that we have is a

(09:46):
personal emergency responsesystem very easily known as the
PERS and what that is thatdetects any falls and it detects
where they have fallen, andthat is a huge thing.
So, whether somebody wantssomebody in our, if somebody
doesn't want our services intheir home, one of the best
things that we can recommend isthat, because that is, we've
said in other episodes, one ofthe leading causes of there

(10:09):
being no chance for you to stayat home once you have fallen,
and now you need to go to thehospital and then you're going
to rehab and then you're goinginto an assisted living facility
.
That is not the route we wantpeople to go.
So the PERS unit will notify usimmediately of a fall and then
we can respond, and then alsothe company that does all of the
technology behind this willnotify the EMS.

(10:30):
That is what needs to be done,or the must notifies, which are
usually your first round offamily members.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, it seems crazy to not have something like that
implemented with an elderlyloved one that's living by
themselves.
This recently happened to mybrother's wife's father.
He had a stroke or some kind ofepisode and he was on the floor
, I think, for at least a day,maybe even two days, before they
found him.
And all of that could have beenavoided if he had some kind of

(10:59):
monitoring system like you werejust talking about.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
And everybody says I've got my phone.
I'll have my phone on you.

Speaker 1 (11:05):
Honestly.
Well, what if you?

Speaker 2 (11:08):
can't yeah what if it falls?
How?

Speaker 1 (11:09):
many times yeah.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
And you don't have your phone on you and you can't
get to your phone, like you justcan't guarantee oh, I've got a
smartwatch, that's fantastic.
I love and support all of that.
But in the moment of crisiswhere you can or cannot respond
like that is what you need to,not doom and gloom, but that's
really what you need to beprepared for.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah, absolutely.
What else you got, christy?
What did I miss?

Speaker 2 (11:31):
No, I feel like we just went right all around aging
in place and again it's abuzzword.
It's what people are reallylooking when they're looking for
care for their families, and Ireally think the first thing is
just talking about it and thenunderstanding that aligns
exactly with why we are in.
The business that we are in isto keep people in their homes
safely and happily for as longas humanly possible.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
Absolutely, and it really, like you said, just
comes down to starting theseconversations and having it on
the radar early enough so thatit's not a dramatic experience
or a stressful experience whenyou have to deal with it.
Yeah, All right, good stuff.
Stressful experience when youhave to deal with it.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, all right, good stuff, christy.
Always a pleasure, thank you.
It's always a pleasure myselfas well, and our listeners to be
a part of this.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Yeah, thank you everybody for tuning in.
If you, as always, if you haveany suggestions, topics that
you'd like to discuss, anyquestions, drop them in below in
the comments and we'll pick itup on another episode.
Everyone, take care and have awonderful day.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Have a good one, bye.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Thank you for listening to the Comfort Keepers
Davey podcast.
For more information, visitcomfortkeeperscom or call
954-947-7954.
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