LANCE A. SLATTON: 2023 “50 Under 50” Honoree - Redefining Caregiving - Love Conquers Alz

Episode Transcript
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Susie Singer Carter (00:00):
Hi everybody, it's Susie singer
Carter and I just wanted to takea minute to tell you about a
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And because all of us must fightelder abuse and work together to
bring awareness to this issuesays the obvious supporting my
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documentary, No Country for Oldpeople and I thank you so much.

(01:27):
When the world has gotten down,

Don Priess (01:30):
and Alzheimer's sucks, it's an equal opportunity
disease that chips away ateverything we hold dear. And to
date, there's no cure. So untilthere is we continue to fight
with the most powerful tool inour arsenal. Love. This is love
conquers all is a real andreally positive podcast that

(01:50):
takes a deep dive intoeverything. Alzheimer's, The
Good, the Bad, and everything inbetween. And now here are your
hosts Susie singer Carter, andme, Don priests.

Hi, everybody. I'm Susie singer
Carter.

Don Priess (02:09):
And I'm Don priests and this is love conquers all
calls. Hello, Susan.

Donald, you sound like a million miles away.
Where are you?

Don Priess (02:18):
Well, it's interesting. If anyone's paid
attention to any of our episodesup till now. We're both kind of
in different worlds and kind oflike in a parallel universe is
you're not sitting where youused to be sitting. And I'm not
sitting where I used to besitting. And yeah, we had made
some changes in our scene. Idon't know. I mean, I'd moved

(02:40):
from where I am currentlyworking into an office that's
not here. It's actually rightnext to you, isn't it?

It is because of the documentary
folks, we've moved into the sameoffice in the loft where I my
office normally is and so thatwe can edit together and and
kill each other.

Don Priess (03:02):
That's right. When she reaches out to when she
reaches out to hit me, she canactually reach out and hit me
down. So it's perfect. I'm notright now. I'm gonna

watch that.
Watch this. Watch this watch.

Don Priess (03:20):
That's Entertainment

magic right there. This is we're here. It's
love conquers all in this andlove will conquer this hiccup
for a while. But it's all for agood cause. Because we're
editing. We're in the editingprocess of No Country for Old
people, which is our documentarythat we are now. We're still
raising money for what did Imention that? Again, it's

Don Priess (03:45):
just shocking. So

we are we have a GoFundMe, which you're
welcome to share with with yournetwork and with your friends
and family as we're stillraising money for the finish the
film. And there is, of course,the link and the QR code in our
show notes. But today, we're notgoing to talk about that too

(04:09):
much, because we got a reallyterrific guests that I am
excited to have. And I know youare done. You know? Yeah. I
mean, I'll let you introduceLance is it's Lance a Slaton,
who is all all home carematters, which Don will
introduce formally, but I justwant to say that we're really

(04:31):
excited and, you know, proud tohave him here as a guest. And we
were we were able to meet Lanceand his team when we were
guests, Rick mountcastle and Iwere guests on his show back in
April. And there he's done.
They're just a terrific presencein our community and so really

(04:51):
excited to to have him with ushere on our podcast. So Don, Why
don't you introduce ourillustrious guest?

Don Priess (05:03):
Without further ado, is

that what you're saying? Without further
ado or a don't?

Don Priess (05:08):
Exactly. Well, here we go. Let's say slack is
redefining caregiving throughhis companies enrich life,
homecare services and all homecare matters. As founder and
senior case manager, heidentified a lack of resources
for caregivers, and now hisaward winning homecare company
has been Michigan's top ratedservice for the past five years.

(05:29):
But Lance did not stop there isingenuity led to the creation of
his podcast and YouTube show allphone care maps, reaching over
12 million viewers globally. Theplatform serves as a beacon of
support to communitiesworldwide. As a contributor to
Midnight's homecare news Lance'sarticles explored diverse topics
from the state of Medicare toinnovations in senior care

(05:52):
technology to caring for thecaregiver and so much more.
Lance's tireless dedication andfar reaching impact demonstrate
that he's a leader not just fortoday, but for many years to
come in the caregiving sector.
And with that, let's welcome theoh so busy Lance a. Slaton?
Hello, Lance.

Unknown (06:11):
Hello, Don, thank you so much, Susie. Always good to
see you.

It's wonderful to see you. I mean, oh
my gosh, you are so busy. Likeso busy. I don't know how you I
don't know how you manage it.
Like you have what 20 balls inthe air. And yet you're very
calm and cool. And and, and yourdemeanor just comes off. So
Real. So comforting, comforting,why you probably are so perfect
in this in this industry,because you bring comfort just

(06:37):
by you who you are.

Unknown (06:41):
Oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah, we you know, I am a little
busy, I do get asked quite a bitaside from you know, being the
host of all homecare matters.
I'm a senior case manager forour family's home care company,
we actually serve as the bottomhalf of Michigan. And then I
have three wonderful children.
And one of them, I'm theirsoccer coach. And I'm on the

(07:01):
senior center board of directorsfor one of our local cities and
the school board.

Amazing 10 minutes seriously, like, you
need to do a podcast on how tomanage your time. And I mean,
it's very, very impressive. Imet you, because you reached out
to me and said, you know, we welove what you're doing. And we
want to support you and what youhave. And so we're very grateful

(07:30):
for that. And likewise, I wantto support you, which is you
know, very much in line withwhat I have been doing, whether
it's been in a podcast, or it'sbeen walking, the walks out, you
know, out with the public withthe Alzheimer's Association and
Alzheimer's, Los Angeles, usagainst Alzheimer's, I have I

(07:52):
have really leaned into thecaregiving community. And it has
grown exponentially since Istarted, hasn't it?

Unknown (08:01):
It absolutely has. And, you know, to follow up on that
Susie, you know, the work thatyou and Rick and Don are doing
for No Country for Old people.
This, this is something that wesay all the time when we're
helping to share posts or youknow, have you on or Rick on,
this is something that needs tobe shared, this is something
that is going to affect andtouch every family everywhere at

(08:22):
some point and don't sit thereand think, Well, you know, my
mom's healthier, I'm healthier,my spouse is healthy, whatever
it may be. We're all healthyuntil we're not. And you know,
these families need to be awareof the realities of what happens
when their loved ones are facedwith long term care illnesses or
having to go into long term carefacilities.

It's true, and the challenges are there,
they're monumental, they reallyare the infrastructure is just
not there. And whether you're inyou know, long term care or
assisted living or even homecare for what you, you know, do
it. This the infrastructure asbest as we even in the best case

(09:05):
scenario is still lacking, youknow, for the for, for the kind
of quality of life that weexpect and deserve. Absolutely.
So, and that's why what you'redoing is so super important as
well. So you talk I want to geta little personal because I want
to know why what brought you tothis there, it has to be a

(09:28):
story. So what brought you tothis, this, this focused in your
life?

Unknown (09:34):
Absolutely. So years ago, my grandparents lived in
the South, and my family and Iwe lived up here in Michigan,
and I would spend my summerswith my grandparents growing up
because you know, you only getweekends you know, and that's
not a lot of time to go downsouth to see and visit. You
know, and occasionally we wouldget holidays and things if

(09:56):
things worked out. And I becameextremely close with my
grandparents. You know, and as Igrew older, you know, my
grandparents get, you know,sick, they develop, you know,
illnesses. And you know, mygrandfather passed, and then my
grandmother is now living aloneand being old school southern
mentality. She never got adriver's license, never worked

(10:19):
outside of the home, but sheworked in the home, you know,
she raised six children and alsoran a Christian orphanage and
adopted two children. You know,they were the prime example for
how I would want to live my lifeor how I would want my family's
life to be an example of, and mygrandmother would wake up in the

(10:40):
evenings or in the morning andshoot, Call the local police.
And being up here in Michigan,you know, I tell people all the
time, you can have a phone callwith a loved one, and think
everything's fine. But it'sreally once you get below the
surface, when you really startto notice there's issues, right.
And so finally, after the thirdor fourth time of calling the
police, they contacted thefamily down there that was

(11:03):
living there. They contacted mymother and said, you know, mom
is not doing well, she's wakingup calling the police thinking
there's these massive partiesgoing on in the home. And
there's nobody there. So shecame to live with us for the
last years of her life. Andultimately, it got to the point
where she had to be in a nursinghome, that really had a profound
impact on me. And I haddedicated my life and career and

(11:27):
education to healthcare. I wasin route to go into medical
school, and we get up my wifeand I now fast forward, we get a
call, my father is not doingwell. And the home health nurse
basically said he can't live onhis own. He came to live with
us. And he needed a 24 hour carethat my wife and I were
providing no outside help. Andaside from the nurses that would

(11:50):
come once or twice a week for ashort visit. We're going through
this journey for two plus yearsa very intensive journey. And
never once had anybody evershared with us. Have you thought
about getting home care? Haveyou thought about getting some
respite? You know, we're in ourearly 20s, my wife graduated
started her career, I'm pursuingmedical school, our hands are

(12:11):
full. And again, just like formost families, you don't know
what you don't know. When thattime comes. You don't know.
Okay, there's homecare, there's,you know, the Area Agency on
Aging, all these differentresources available. And it made
me a little upset once Irealized that there were all
these resources in this wholeworld out there. I knew more
Hospital Health Care Medicine,not all these social support

(12:34):
services, and nobody ever sharedthem with us. And so we kind of
talked about finding a way tohelp families that were going
through what we went through,because if we went through it,
there's got to be countlessothers, not knowing there's a
whole industry of homecare outthere. And so I thought I
invented the wheel bysuggesting, hey, let's let's

(12:54):
find people that can go in andhelp these families. And so our
family decided to start ourcompany, and our company has
been in business now for almost12 years. And something we're
very proud of is the last fiveyears, we've been the number one
rated company in Michigan. And Idon't say that to you know, puff
my chest out or to bebraggadocious in any way. I say

(13:16):
that because we're rooted in thevalues and the principles of a
family, not as a corporation,where you know, the most
important thing is just thebottom line. The most important
thing to us is these familiesare getting the support and
their loved ones are getting thecare that we all deserve, when
the time comes that we needcare. So part of that was for

(13:36):
the last 12 years or so minusCOVID. We would go out to
communities, we were hostingcaregiver support groups, we
were doing Long Term CareResource seminars, we had two
semi trailers packed full wallthe wall with cases of unopened
depends walkers, shower chairs,wheelchairs, power chairs,
hospital beds, and all thesefamilies that were at these

(13:57):
events, if they couldn't affordit, or maybe they didn't even
qualify for Medicare, we wouldloan this equipment out to them
just to help them in their timeof need. And then minus the
supplies you don't want backafter they're used. Why you know
walkers and shower chairs, theywould give them back to us so
then we can help another family.
So COVID hits us and we'reseeing the writing on the wall
senior centers, nursing homes,churches, all these public

(14:18):
gatherings and spaces areclosing. And so we are like how
can we continue helping people?
What can we do to still reachthese people who are so in need?
And if like you guys, for us,our governor, we're going to be
shut down for two weeks. We'regoing to be shut down for three,
you know, and that turned intotwo, three years. But we just

(14:38):
started all homecare mattersjust as a temporary gap to fill.
While we're waiting for thingsto open back up and now it's
turned into a whole thing on itsown. And, you know, we're just
always looking for more waysthat we can help reach families
and educate them and supportthem.

Incredible and so, just on a on a on a
business side is Is thenonprofit or is it for profit?
Like how does how do you? How doyou launch something like that
you know where you are going,you actually gather getting all
this equipment and you know,things that to help.

Unknown (15:13):
Yeah. So I've had so many people tell us over the
years, you need to be anonprofit, we're not a
nonprofit, Suze. But we operatein the sense of a nonprofit, you
know, when our staff go into ahome, same as it would be with a
nonprofit, they're expecting toget paid for their work. But if
we're going in and doing supportgroups, or loaning out equipment

(15:34):
or supplies, we're not expectinganything in return, other than
knowing we've helped somebody.
And because of that, all thesefacilities and senior centers in
different places aroundMichigan, they know who we are,
they know, we're not going totake this brand new, you know,
power chair and put it on eBay,or Craigslist, or Facebook
marketplace, they know who weare, because we've established

(15:54):
that reputation that it's goingto get to the people that really
need it, not the ones thatdon't. So they just, it gets all
donated to us, and then we turnaround it and donate it out to
the families.

Wonderful.
Wow, it's really it's really amodel that, you know, is is
unfortunately not prevalent, youknow, and so that's the sad part
is like, you know, organizationslike your organization, all
homecare matters is far and fewbetween. So you know, I I have
people reach out to me, and thisis not, you know, I am I am not,

(16:27):
I don't do what you do, youknow, I bring conversate Don,
and I bring conversation to thetable because we like you have
lived this, and I lived it for,you know, 16 years with my mom
being her, her her point person,her person. And, and her being
my favorite person in the world.

(16:49):
And so and realizing that, youknow, other other people like
you, same same mentality must begoing through the same thing
that I'm going through and justdon't you know, but just don't
have not either had the platformto ask for help or didn't know
how to ask for help, I wasplaying Whack a Mole like I was
doing, and not just not havingthe bandwidth to to to get the

(17:13):
help they needed. So what we'redoing is really keeping the
conversation going with loveconquers all. And then and then
trying to keep it as positive aspossible, trying to find the
silver lining and everything.
Because when you're in it, youknow, like, you know how dark it
can get. And, and that thatdoesn't note that does that

(17:33):
doesn't do? anybody any good. Itdoesn't do anybody any good to
get dark, it can get dark, andit can get frustrating and
depressing. And, you know, butBut what is the alternative?
Eric? Right. So we need to keepit, you know, like what you're
doing is so beautiful. Becauseyou're you're you're actually

(17:54):
you're out there doing? I'mtalking about it? I'm opening up
the conversation with Don, andyou are you are you are who we
are directing our audience to ifthat makes sense, right?

Unknown (18:10):
Absolutely. Yeah. And, you know, we like to tell
families, you know, if if wecan't help you, we don't want to
hurt you, you know, if if, ifyou need help, we're gonna find
a way we can help you it may notbe with having our staff in your
home. It may not be throughsupplies, but it might be
directing you to the type ofhelp that will support you and
help you and your time in need.
And far too often Susie, youknow, families are taken

(18:31):
advantage of, you know, based ontheir, you know, blissful
ignorance. And I don't meanignorance in a negative sense.
But I My favorite thing is youdon't know what you don't know,
you know, we didn't know, wedidn't know, we could get
support for like for my father,you know, but nobody told us
either, you know, in so many ofthese families, they're just,
you know, they're either stillraising children, grandchildren,

(18:53):
and now they have a parent,they're trying to support.
They're trying to do the bestthey can, we don't need to
hinder that we need to helpsupport that.

Right. Like we are the we're the sandwich
generation, you know, onsteroids, like now because we
were all living longer, which iswonderful. But, you know, we're
not we're like the Dagwoodsandwich of generations, because
we're multi multi generational,right.

Unknown (19:20):
So absolutely.

Let me ask you a hard question. Don, you
can just butt in any time. I'lljust keep talking. I don't
actually

Don Priess (19:27):
I don't. Yeah,

but But you know, just sort of circling back
to what I said a couple minutesago was that this art caregiving
industry has exploded. And I sawit you know, because when I
started really after my stepdaddied about eight, eight years
ago, and no, it was 2010 thatwas way over eight years ago. My

(19:58):
that was when the year my My mommoved in with me because she was
experiencing Groundhog's Day aswhen you like you do with
Alzheimer's. Right. And so andwhen I started, when I did my
film, my mom and the girl, thatwas really the beginning of the
conversations that we continueto have now. And and when we did

(20:20):
that, when we started even loveconquers AWS, which was 2019. It
there was not that many sourceresources, there just wasn't
there was reached, there wereresources, but not like there
are now how but But with that,come with, with the abundance of
resource also brings a littlebit of, you know, greed, for

(20:45):
lack of better word, and there'sa lot of there are now a lot of
resources. But, but also,there's so many how do we how do
we think how do we find out whoare the good ones? And who are
the bad ones? who are who areout there just for the greed
just to just to cash in on the53 million caregivers, that is
the number we hear ad nauseam,in fear in the community, we

(21:09):
hear well, there's 53 millioncaregivers out there. And, you
know, just to go back to a pilotthat Don and I wrote for Fox
called Silver Linings, and, youknow, which was we kind of
predicted this 10 years ago whenwe wrote it for Fox. And and it
was about this young woman whowas in her 30s, who was an agent

(21:29):
phobe, totally get ageist but,but saw dollar signs in older
people's eyes to ching chingching. And you know, her arc was
falling in love with the olderpeople and finding out that they
were actually worthwhile. But itwas comedy, obviously, but with
a message. But the point is thatthat has come to what I've

(21:50):
noticed, and And wow, if I wasin the throes of it now and I
was playing whack a mole, like Iwas last year, it is so
difficult to decipher who arethe good people and who are not?
And, you know, how are youdealing with that? And how are
you working with your clientsand trying to steer them in the
right direction? And do youagree with me? Maybe you don't

(22:11):
agree with me? Maybe No, I

Unknown (22:13):
fully agree with you.
We, you know, it's gonna be kindof a two part answer. We might
take a little bit of a rabbittrail. But two things first
popped into mind as you'redescribing that. About eight
years ago, we we gave a bigpresentation to the UAW
headquarters in downtownDetroit, you know, Motor City,
the UAW president was there. Andwe gave this wonderful

(22:34):
presentation, just explainingexactly what people are entitled
to about Medicare, what they canget what they can't get, just so
they knew what to expect,because these are retirees, and
you know, they're going to begoing into that phase, either
with their parents orthemselves. And one of the
gentleman came up to us at theend, and he said, You know, I
need to talk to you guys. Hismother was 98 years old, lived

(22:55):
in one of these big, historic,beautiful homes in downtown
Detroit that her and her husbandmoved there in the 40s, I guess,
and raise him and his sister andall their family. She's in a
nursing home, she had a hipreplacement, the nursing home,
would not let her go home.
Unless she had a hospital bed.
They weren't even interested inhiring us. That wasn't the

(23:15):
point. He's saying. We had topay $4,800 to buy her a hospital
bed. And conveniently, they hadto buy it through the nursing
home who happened to own amedical supply and equipment
wing? Go no

Don Priess (23:30):
surprise, right?

Unknown (23:33):
Well, he did not know any better, and nor should he
noni butter. So we're explainingto him, you know, go talk to
your mom's primary carephysician, don't talk to the
physician at the nursing home,explain the situation, get them
get an order for a hospital bed.
Her Medicare will help coverthat hospital bed for you. And
it just blew him away. He waslooking at us kind of you know,

(23:55):
a little suspect and we havenothing to gain by this. Just,
let's say he says no, and yougot to get from the nursing
home. Hey, worst case scenario,you're buying it anyways. Best
case scenario is we're right.
And we're saving you and yourmother a lot of money. That man
call this this was like on aThursday, he called us Friday

(24:16):
evening, and he was in tearsliterally grown man crying in
tears. And a he couldn'tunderstand why the nursing home
would try to take advantage ofthem be why didn't the social
worker or the discharge plannerever even explained to us Hey,
we'll go through Medicare. Andhe toured the checkup and gave
it to the nurse or the dischargeplanner at the nursing home and

(24:38):
just was disgusted. But thereare people even nursing homes,
hospitals, home care companies,everybody unfortunately, has to
be very aware of what you areable to get what you're not able
to get and what resource ourresources are available to. The
second one Suzy is and I don'tknow if this company may have

(24:59):
reached out to you and I won'tpublicly shame them by saying
their name but we had a fewmonths ago, we had a Alzheimer's
company, I use that term looselyreach out to us wanting to be on
all homecare matters. And theywere offering us a significant
amount of money to do like ahalf an hour preview or, you
know, infomercial with them. Andwe look them up, and they are

(25:21):
selling a cure to Alzheimer's.
And on their website, let's sayDon, you know, saw and he goes
to their website. $7,900 is thecheapest item you can buy. And
it's like a two week supplement.
Well, now let's say you need amonth or six months. And you
know, we just very politelysaid, you know, our reputation,

(25:42):
our integrity won't allow us towork with you. And really, you
should be shameful, even tryingto give people this kind of
false premise that you have acure at Alzheimer's. And my
other thought, and we didn't saythis was if you really had the
cure, you wouldn't need to comeon our show, you wouldn't be on
the front of every newspaper inthe world, you know, exactly.
But to answer your question, youknow, if it's medical advice,

(26:04):
talk to your primary caredoctor, they're going to give
you good sound advice, if it'sfor equipment, contact your
arms, buds, men for Medicare,talk to them about your
resources, what you know, it'scalled DME is durable medical
equipment, there's a lot ofthings that Medicare will help
cover the costs for, you know,and if you have a question, or
you're not so sure, do yourhomework, do your research, like

(26:26):
you said, You did somereconnaissance for our talk
today. Do your research, youknow, look these people up if it
sounds too good to be true, itprobably is,

right. I mean, I have that I didn't have
that company, I think God reachus but you know, the truth. But
I'd have a lot of, of of ouraudience say to me, Susie, have
you heard about this? Have youheard about that would you
should have them as a guest onyour show, yada, yada, and I'll
say and I want, and it's, it'sheartbreaking to me because

(26:56):
they, they, they're, they feelthis false hope is out there.
There's a lot of false hope. Andso and I feel like I'm the
bearer of bad bad news saying tothem, you know, listen if this
were true, because I'm I workvery closely with the
Alzheimer's Association,Alzheimer's, Los Angeles, here
in Los Angeles, and, and, andalso us against Alzheimer's in,

(27:20):
in DC, I mean, all of theseorganizations would know about
these, these products and thesethings far before I would, and
far before anyone else would. Soif you know, these are, it's
it's Charlotte, it charlatansreally is what's going on. And
even beyond that, like, forinstance, you you and I want to
get to dementia, TLC and all ofyour other, you know, you you've

(27:44):
got some partnerships out therethat you're you are endorsing
and becoming a part of which iswonderful. A lot of them
actually. And, and, but but forall the ones that you're working
with, there's there's now 1000sof others. And the information
is there's a flooded, there's aglut of information out there, a
lot of it is repurposed. And alot of it is is people you know,

(28:09):
I don't know, if they're tryingto cash in on the 53 million. I
don't know why we're gettinginto this conversation. But I
feel like because you're soinvolved with it. And like, I
wonder, I feel like it'simportant for some, someone like
you that is very prolific. Imean, we just have one podcast,
and this is our baby, we don'tdo it for money, really, we do

(28:29):
this because we want to keep thepositive conversation and bring
our wacky silliness, whatever wecan and make people smile at the
same time while they're goingthrough a shitty time, you know,
for lack of a better word. Andso we just, you know, that's why
we do it, but but you areactually offering the service,

(28:50):
which is different than whatwe're doing. And how how can you
know, Susie, or dawn or youknow, the millions of other
people out there that are goingthrough things like this? How
does how do we how do we getthrough all the noise there's a
lot of noise out there. There'sa lot of podcasts. There's a lot
of organizations, there's a lotof there's a lot of, you know,

(29:13):
you've got caregiver, you've gotthe caregiving.com you've got,
you know, Home Care Networkyou've got and these are all
people that I love, but I'msaying how do we there's so many
there's only so much time how

Don Priess (29:26):
David with social media, but yeah, you're
inundated with social mediaposts. Yeah. So your information
is coming at you continuously.
How do you get through it? Andno, it's what

Unknown (29:39):
I for me and this is just my opinion. I think you go
with brands that you trust,people that you trust, but also
find the ones that reallyresonate with you like like with
our show Susie. We don'tspecialize just in dementia or
Alzheimer's but we cover it andwe include it. We're trying to
reach people you know, dealinglike we had a mother last share,

(30:00):
you know, she shared the storyof her disabled son that grew up
that grew up never even knowinghe had any sort of disability or
he was any different. And shedidn't tell him till he was in
his early 20s. And, you know, asa parent, and as a son, I'm
thinking, you know, how would Iwant to get what I as a child
would I want to know, and as aparent, what I want to tell

(30:20):
them, you know, so we try tocover topics that are just in
long term care in general,without a specialty in just one
area. But as far as for, youknow, your audience, or if, like
your example, I would go withwhat really resonates with you,
you know, like, the ladies, thesisters doing Confessions of a

(30:41):
reluctant caregiver, their,their spin is a little bit
different than like our spin,you know, they're, they're just
kind of putting it all out theretheir personal experiences. And
it's not sugar coated, which iswhat kind of drew me to their
show, because so many times onsocial media, everything is
sunshine and rainbows or it'sall doom and gloom, right? You
know, in, in caregiving, it's,it's a little bit of both, you

(31:04):
know, and you got to take thegood with the bad and the bad
with the good, but I still feelat the end of the day, it's more
good than bad. You know, I thinkpeople just have to decide, you
know, what ones they they feelmost resonated towards, and also
making sure that you're nothearing crazy stuff. Like, you
know, I probably wouldn't be,you know, here with the

(31:24):
privilege of speaking with you.
And Don, if we were talkingabout Yeah, we've, we got a
company here, they got the cureto Alzheimer's, you think we're
crazy, you know, and you wouldnot want to introduce your
audience to that. That's thesame approach we take, you know,
we're trying to, you know, wewant leading experts, people
that are of sound mind, a soundmessage. And, and, and sound
integrity, and sound integrity,amen.

No, it's true. And there's, there's just,
I find it daunting myself, youknow, being in the Senate. So
just I find it daunting andsaying, Wow, every time I go to
social media, there's 10 newprofiles on dementia alone. And
I think, what new informationare they bringing? And and why
are they there? What is what'severybody's reason for being

(32:13):
there? I know what my reason is,and I am just curious, this is
no, no, I'm not throwing shadeor anything. I'm just trying to,
to see, like, as if I were, ifthis were 10 years ago, and I
was going I was in the thick ofit, how would I? How would Where
would I go and I and I and Iwonder if my audience feels the
same? You know, and I think so.

Unknown (32:34):
Well, and I guess I would look at it like, you know,
let's say Susie's 10 years ago,and there was another Suzy doing
Love conquers halls, Suzy 10years ago would probably be
drawn to that, because you'retalking about your experience
caring for your mom. Right? Youknow, so Suzy 10 years ago would
resonate and could identify withthat.

Right, right. No, it's true. I mean,
and then, yeah, I'm just I couldgo on for days about this. But
let's talk about you. And let'stalk about all your your
incredible collaborations thatyou're doing right now, which I
again, I don't know how you'redoing it, but I'm open to

(33:16):
learning because I love whatyou're doing. Not that we're not
busy enough with ourdocumentary, which is really
been, you know, keeping us it'sa beast of a project. That's all
I'll tell you is it's a beast.

Unknown (33:30):
You know, probably takes more it probably is more
involved in everything we'redoing.

Oh my gosh, it's it is I mean, I love a good
channel

Don Priess (33:37):
so deep. It's unbelievable. Yeah, we didn't I
mean, even though we've beenaggregating as of yet all the
interviews and the informationeverything and and every day,
something new comes in that canchange the course of telling
that story.

It making a film is fluid. It's a fluid
process, right? Yeah,

Unknown (33:59):
I Yeah. So I'm in all of you guys. Well, thank

you. Well, well then it's mutual but I
think it's great to have youguys out there you in particular
lancing the face of it because,you know, I it makes it makes it
gives me a sense of comfort thatwhen you when you start to
connect with another group, Ithink well good, you're gonna
bring your values to that group.
And I hope that you know, Ithink well because I felt for a

(34:25):
while there I was like, thinkingI'm Superwoman I'm gonna bring
my goodness like I'm gonna bethe mythbuster for everything
out there everything dementia Ican't I'm just one little girl
and and I know what those

Unknown (34:43):
Susie you're small but mighty,

thank you.
Well, thank you. But while I'min the midst of this
documentary, which is reallylike Don said, it is a rabbit
hole and it is a fluid processand I am I am not to like leave
any stone unturned. So just aswhat I think we've got
everything that we could evenimagine that we need, something
comes along and we go, Oh, God,darn it, we have to date, we

(35:07):
have to have to, we have toincorporate this. It's too
important. So I'm

Don Priess (35:13):
sure you experienced the same thing, you know,
because there is new informationevery day in all areas of
caregiving, you know, and everyday, it's every day. And that's
probably what led you to thatthere. The various you know,
starting all home care matters,and, and McKnight and all those
things, you know, becausethere's so many different ways
you need to disseminate thisinformation.

Unknown (35:37):
Yeah, and you know, I'll just follow up. I mean, my
passion is writing, I sharedwith you guys and you know, our
pre call, we didn't start allhomecare matters really to be an
ongoing forever thing. Westarted it because of COVID. And
these facilities and centers,and you know, everything, just
kind of closing their doors, andit was a temporary thing,
because I just enjoy helping inso you know, people say, well,

(36:01):
like Susie, how do you do all ofthis? For me, it's not really
work, you know, kind of like foryou guys, I just enjoy doing it.
So it's not like I'm dreading itor, you know, I begrudge it, or
I'm miserable doing it. It'sjust very naturally easy to do
when you enjoy it, and you lovedoing it. And you're just hoping
you're reaching that one personwho needs to hear that one thing
on that one day, and we getemails like that. And it's like,

(36:23):
okay, you know, missionaccomplished. We don't get
another email, you know, sothat's why I take great pride
in. So yeah,

no, did I get it? It's like, when we did
my mom and the girl, that aboutmy mom, which was not a
documentary, it was, it was afilm. And, you know, people kept
saying that the story is toogood. You have to do a film on
it. And I was like, just whatpeople need another film on or
on Alzheimer's? Because thereisn't enough films on

(36:52):
Alzheimer's. And then, you know,I started seeing the value in
this little story that came frommy mom, that was so profound.
And I thought, well, maybe, whynot? Let's do it. And to this
day, like, you know, I just gota a, an email yesterday about
from some people that I respectso much it that are out to, you

(37:17):
know, altruistic people in thisin our industry, who are quietly
bringing so much resource topeople in the background, like
amazing people who said, We justwatched your film and cried our
eyes out, laughed and cried, andwhat better, what better reward
is that set up six years, sevenyears later, and to continue to

(37:40):
touch people. And this littlelove story, really, which is how
I want to do the documentary isa love story. It's a love story
to my mom, and to everyone elsewho's going through this right
now. So I think love is thepowerful thing, and that, you
know, whether you're loving whatyou're doing, or loving the
people that you're doing itwith, and if you're lucky
enough, both like me, then thenit's it is a win win, right?

(38:06):
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
That's why That's why we are weconnected really well. Go on.
Oh, wait, yeah.

Don Priess (38:16):
I did want to share my voice still work. I think
that the you know, this, the Thearena is so huge that sometimes,
you know, you get overwhelmedyou oh my god, you know, how can
we how can we really make adifference? And something
similar to what you said, youget an email, if you change one

(38:37):
person's life, if you made oneperson's life even better for an
hour, or saved a life? Or youknow, I mean, that's that's
worth all of it. And we have torealize that it cuz sometimes
you might think oh my god, it'sfutile. It's few I kids too big.
But I think that all of us incoming from what we're doing

(38:58):
what we're doing what some otherpeople are doing these great
things, is to look at it thatway. It's that, you know, we're
chipping away a little bit.
We're not going to solve it allat once. There is no solution,
per se. But there's ways to justmake it better

to navigate it. Well. It's the starfish
story. It's one starfish at atime. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
And that's what it is. And it'sso simple. It's really at the
end of the day. It's simple, butmy mom used to say was that
what's the alternative? My mom,I go mommy, how are you? This
was in the middle of her thedepths of Alzheimer's. I'd come

(39:33):
and see her. Good morning,mommy, how are you today? I'm
great. I'm alive. And thealternative sucks. You know, and
because she really did lovelife, and she loved people. She
didn't suffer fools but shedefinitely loved the people. She
had such a good bear youbarometer for good people. And

(39:54):
she was able to bring the bestout of people. And I just
thought wow, look at her in herall's Mine was in the throes of
Alzheimer's, and yet she's stillfinding a way to love life.
That's a beautiful thing. Yeah,that's, that's what we all
that's that's the lesson that weall need to learn. Because life
is not easy, no matter what,like you're talking about your

(40:15):
story with someone whose son hada disability born with that, you
know, life is it's not fair.
It's equal opportunityunfairness. And so we need to
figure out how to enjoy thisgift that we're given, which is
the breath that we breathe,until we can't breathe it
anymore. And and, and that's thekey to me, is and that's what

(40:38):
makes me that's what motivatesme every day is to, is to, you
know, disseminate that thatpoint of view that I did not
originate, but I inherited it.
And so, and I think it'simportant, I think that's what
it's all about, you were herefor a very short time. And we

(41:03):
everything or else around us isborrowed. But what we have is
our hearts that last forever,that's the that's the thing.
That's what we have is the love.
And that's what that's the big,that's the big driving force. So
tell us about dementia TLC,because I love to talk about
dementia. And now you're you'repartnering up with dementia TLC
yet another thing that Lance andhis team are doing.

Unknown (41:30):
So a few, two months ago, we're actually this will be
a first we haven't announcedanything yet, we were given the
opportunity to take overdementia TLC, because the
founder, Leah Waller is apracticing attorney or lawyer
over in the UK. And she startedit just out of a passion to help

(41:51):
others like how so many of thesegreat projects do start. And we
talked with her and you know,something that meant a lot to me
personally is because sheappreciated and respected our
values and our integrity. Shehad opportunity to actually sell
this to some companies and sheturned them down. And you know,

(42:11):
all home care matters issomething she really admires.
And she said, You know, I'd bewilling to give it over to you.
So we've taken over her domainhad dementia tlc.co.uk. So if
you go there, it just rerouteyou to all homecare matters. But
then we've also built out anentire massive resource section
of dementia, TLC on all homecare matters is website. And

(42:35):
it's pretty much the Genesis andthe revelation of dementia from
everything you need from thestart to the end. And we're just
excited because what we'replanning to do now, Susie, and
I'll make the offer to hearwhile we're talking. Anybody
that has projects, worksarticles that they want to

(42:55):
contribute, and they get fullcredit to it, of course, we're
going to have that as part ofdementia TLC brought to you by
all home care matters, to justcontinue to try to get the word
out to people and share theseresources. So we were very
honored to have this, you know,opportunity to take over this
really respected and renownedbrand

wonderful thing. That's wonderful. And
thank you actually very much. Imean, we actually did an
interview with another podcastadvocate in in the UK PIPA
Kelly, I don't know if you know,Pippa,

Unknown (43:27):
but if you don't know pepper, I don't know her
personally, but I know what youshould know of

her. And you should have her she is an
amazing, first of all, she's aincredible journalist. And it's
probably the best interview I'veever had songs yours. But I
mean, as he was, it was reallyshe really approached it like
such an incredible journalistand she knew everything about my
history. I was uncanny. And Iactually after listening to it

(43:56):
back and I don't listen to myinterviews very often. But for
some reason I was I did and Iliterally forwarded it to my
daughters and said, Well, thisis your mother's legacy. Just
listen to this interview. If youever want to know my legacy,
this is it because she hadframed it so well and just
really told the story of Susieand Mike in terms of dementia

(44:17):
and Alzheimer's but really who Iam and what I what I represent
and what I brought to theindustry. And it was so
beautiful because sheacknowledged stuff that I had
forgotten that I had been deadand her passion for my film was
over the top like it you know,it was just amazing and I think

(44:38):
her passion for the dementiarealm and for Alzheimer's is is
incredible. You shoulddefinitely PIP if you're
listening you know I love youand she will you should
definitely connect up with her.
We're in terms of dementia TLCbecause she is a just a plethora
of classy resource. I mean sheis a class act

Don Priess (45:01):
We'd love to.
Absolutely. I mean, it seemsright, you know, right down
there. Yeah. Right. Right inyour ballpark. I want I wanted
to go back a little bit. And,and talk about, you know,
because where do you get yourresources for? Where did you
find when you first started? Yousaid, I didn't know anything
about it? How did you go fromfive years ago, not knowing
anything about it to now whereyou are now and exploding and

(45:24):
doing these amazing things?
Where do you find yourresources,

Unknown (45:32):
lots of classes, reading a lot of books. I mean,
this is going back now done 21years, maybe 20, to about 21
years 20 to be safe. Lots andlots of books, my wife jokes
with people, she says, you know,he's so exciting. He reads
Medicare books for fun, youknow. And, you know, in a lot of

(45:56):
Gerontology courses at college,hospice, palliative, but, you
know, again, I was already, youknow, in the medical school
route, so it wasn't too far offthe path. But, you know,
medicine is more about, youknow, the physiology and cells
and, you know, biology, wherethis is more gerontology, you

(46:18):
know, what happens when peopleget to a certain age of 65 or
older, you know, in learning andresearching all the resources
and everything that is availableto families, so that if I ever
come into contact, who was in asituation like I was, you know,
20 plus years ago, they'll havean answer, you know, I'll give

(46:39):
them most resources, you know,we we just started back up our
dementia conferences that we doall over, where it's a year long
program, it's once a month,totally free, we don't charge
anybody. And we have books foreach topic. So like this past
month, it was called MakingSense of dementia. Next month is
going to be the, you know, thedementia caregiver toolbox. And

(47:00):
we come in and you know, thebooks are about 2030 pages. And
then we set up tables with allthese different hands on
resources that people can get,you know, and we'll tell them
where they can get a mat, youknow, books that we recommend,
you know, the 36 hour day is atremendous, tremendous resource
and book, but for some families,it's a little over their head,

(47:21):
because it is more, you know,scientific and medically
inclined. You know, one of thebooks I'm a big fan of, I had to
actually read it. During one ofmy courses. It was, my name is
Hannah Hannibal he shakes. Andthis lady and her husband,
they're kind of pioneers. Andthis goes back to the late 70s,
early 80s, where her husbandstarted showing signs of memory

(47:46):
loss, while the doctors justwrote it off as being senile
still at that point. And shekind of wrote her the biography
about how she still kept herhusband in her home, the
accommodation she had to make.
It was really from the time thediagnosis till his passing. And
she became kind of an icon inthe world of dementia. But it
was before the advent of socialmedia and internet, so not as
many people are aware of her.

(48:10):
But she would go and speak atdifferent conferences, and just
a remarkable book that in mycaregiver support groups that we
facilitate, we recommendeverybody read it. It's an easy,
quick read. But these people aretrying to figure out how do we
do the day to day stuff? Notwhat medicine to take
necessarily, or what tests weshould have? But how do I best
take care of my husband or mywife or my parent? And this lady

(48:32):
wrote a remarkable roadmap fordoing so.

It's wonderful. No, I love it. I
think, you know, I'm not to pushour own project, but it's sort
of like with my mom and thegirl, which is our movie, you
know, from, and it will, I willdo this because I've been asked
to do this, I just haven't hadthe time to do it. But it really
does identify almost almostevery challenge a caregiver or

(48:57):
someone who is has a loved onethat is experiencing those
stages, the earlier stages ofwhich I call crossing over the
bridge, it's you know, whenthey're in fright flight,
because they know they have it,but don't want to admit it. I'm
not sick. How dare you, youknow, that kind of a thing. And

(49:18):
this is the part of the of thedisease, which is the hardest, I
think. And I and I love talkingabout it because I stumbled
through it. And my movie reallyshows those stages of how I
leaned into it and embraced it.
And that's how I found the joy.
And that's how I allowed my momto have her joy. Instead of

(49:40):
correcting her or, you know,admonishing her for having
behavior that may on the outsideseem wrong, bad. I mean, it's
not it's the disease. And so ifwe can get around that and
realize that that's the diseasetalking it's it's If someone had

(50:00):
too much to drink, I'm nottalking about like an alcoholic,
but someone who might be alittle tipsy and say something
that's a little off. It'sbecause it's because of
something else. That's not whothey are. Exactly. And so and
but I and I made every mistakein the book, and I tell that all
the time on my podcast, thereisn't a mistake I didn't make. I
used to take Mommy, what day isit? You know, the day? Where do

(50:23):
you live? I would go througheverything because I thought I
was going to teach her out ofit. I was going to, you know, I
was going to be no one elsecould cure it. But I was gonna
mom and I were so close. We gotthis. Um, you know, I would tell
her everyday, you know, youhave, what do you have mom? I
have Alzheimer's. Like, like,like, that was gonna change
anything. You know, all it didwas it was a source of pain for

(50:47):
her. But she loved me so muchthat she trusted me. Yeah. So
that's why I think and I thinklike we You said this book that
you've just mentioned, bookslike that, that are stories.
Movies, films, are storytellingare. It's just a powerful tool.
Yes, it's a powerful tool,because it makes it reminds us

(51:10):
that we're not alone. We can seeit. We can visualize it, we can
hear it. And so we realize, oh,my gosh, we are, we're just a
part of another community. It'sjust a community, we didn't know
we're going to be a part of.
Exactly right. So I love whatyou're doing. I love that I
think that's, it's actually moreimportant than than anything is
just to know that you're notalone. And to know that what

(51:34):
you're doing is probably exactlywhat you should be doing. And I
have a lot of our audience andfriends will tell me Oh, my God,
you know, thank you for tellingus that because we didn't, we
thought we were going crazy. OrI was, you know, I'm feel awful.
Because my mom told me I wishthat you were never born. Well,

(51:55):
that's not your mom talking.
That's the disease talking. Andif you asked her in a lucid
moment, she probably would breakinto tears like my mom would do.
Right? So I mean, those are,those are the things that that
we like to talk about.

Don Priess (52:11):
And you talk about a lot of that on McKnight on care
news, you write articles thatemploy some of this, you know,
this practical information, youknow, because you can get all
the medical information youwant. But the practicality of
it, right? Where people can useit in everyday life. When did
that start? And where do youcome up with those those

(52:31):
subjects? And is it based onwhat people ask you? Or is it
else a little bit,

Unknown (52:36):
it's a little bit of both done, we do a column for
them once a month. And it'sreally geared towards the long
term care industry. So moretowards professionals. And, you
know, like the one we just did,this month was about, you know,
the future of Medicare and longterm care. Because being in home

(52:57):
care, we come into contact withcountless families. And as you
guys may or may not know,Medicare and health insurance
doesn't pay for home care. Andthe best place for anybody, as
long as it's safe and aspractical and possible is to be
in their home when they havedementia. Because if they've
been in that same home for 40years, they still have that

(53:18):
portion of those memories andtheir long term memory part of
their brain, you take them outof that home, put them in a
strange facility, they're notgoing to get the quality of care
is Susie. Sure well knows. Andthey're never going to get that
sense of comfort and safety.
Because it's just like the waythat dementia works. It's not
going to go from that short termfeeling, okay, I'm safe here,
Mom, you're fine, you're gonnabe okay. It will never have the

(53:41):
chance to transform and passover to the long term portion.
So now it's going to be thatsame thing every day, that fear
that fright, the confusion,feeling loss, I want to go home
where I am, I want to go home,you know, so I just I try to
touch on topics that you know,are really relevant today, you
know, and also things that maynot be getting discussed as much

(54:03):
as they should. You know, I'm abig proponent that I think we
need to find a way I don't knowthe answer. I don't pretend to
know the answer. But I think weneed to find a way, especially
with our baby boomers, like Suzehas alluded to 53 million,
right? That's a lot of peopleare facilities as a stand in
America, I don't believe theycan support all these baby

(54:24):
boomers having resonance inthem. You know, and I use, I use
COVID as a prime example, where,you know, a lot of our
communities and states they wereall enacting these emergency,
you know, mash units, almostthese hospitals and parking lots
and taking over communityjanitors and putting in beds,
makeshift hospitals. That was inships in New York. Yes. So

(54:46):
that's that was for COVID andthe COVID numbers, you know,
whether they are anticipatingthe numbers to be greater than
the baby boomer population thatI don't know. But if we have to
do that for COVID, what are wegoing to have to do when All
these baby boomers need to maybebe in a nursing home or a long
term care facility for years totake care of them in their own
home, it's going to be costly.

(55:09):
Yes, it's going to be costeffective. I feel like they will
maintain their health at ahigher level. I even tell
families when they have a lovedone with dementia, you may look
at it and say, oh my gosh, youknow, mom, dad, their memory, I
said, but they're going tofunction at a higher level and
maintain their health for longerby being in this home. Then if
you take them out now, and allof a sudden they're waking up in

(55:31):
a strange facility, you will seea decline and they may not
recover from that

100% 100%.
If I could do one thing i If Icould do over again, I would
have kept to my mom, I wouldhave fought to keep her in my
home because that's when she wasthriving. When she lived with
me. Her her life was good. Sheloved it, she was enjoying
herself. And people wereenjoying her still. And the
minute she had to I was forced,my hand was forced. That's when

(55:58):
everything went downhill. 100%Because that is not going to
imprint where you're at. It'sjust not and even living with
me. That was hard. She She keptwondering where's her home, and
I had signs everywhere yourhome. This is your home. This is
you live here with me and yourgranddaughter and the puppies.

(56:20):
And you're your favoritedaughter, because I'm the only
daughter you know, and a lot ofhumor and a lot of a lot of
music and a lot of love. Yeah,and

Unknown (56:35):
I you know, I was talking to somebody the other
day Susie about the trailer forthe film, which is so just
powerful, impactful, which Ithink is absolutely and I think
that's what you want, right froma trailer. But I I said and I
don't mean this in any way otherthan what I'm trying to convey
is everybody has Susie's mom.
Yeah, everybody has Susie's mom.

(56:56):
And that's why, you know,everybody needs to see this
film, they need to takeattention to it and really
understand. This isn't unique toSusie and her mom, this could be
any one of our family members.
And that's why it's so importantthat we get this film out there
for everybody to

us. It's us. It's our Yes, it's our
future. Yes. Also, one otherthing I wanted to talk about is
that you, you know a lot aboutMedicare and Medicaid. And I
have a part of that, that I talkabout in the documentary where
and I've asked everyone that weinterviewed what is can you
describe what Medicare is? Canyou describe what Medicaid is?

(57:32):
And every single answer fromexperts was different. Because
it's that complicated. It's,it's so complicated that it is
so hard to to navigate thatwhole CMS system. And and for,
and when you're in a crisismode, you know, like whether

(57:53):
your parent is going throughwhat my parent went through last
year, or just dementia ingeneral, or just need someone
coming out of a hospital needs abed? Well, you're in a crisis
mode, because that has tohappen, like right away. But we
don't know, we as as a publicare so uneducated, in this CMS
system, the systems that are youknow, that we just don't know.

(58:14):
And and it's also so confusing.
So I don't know, you know, Iencourage you, I know that would
be another interview like thatwould take a whole interview
with you. But if you it soundslike you really have knowledge
of this, and I think that peopleare missing and don't understand
it enough. Because, you know,even when you said that I and I

(58:35):
know just from my research thatyes, Medicare doesn't cover home
care. But it could depending onwhere you're at in your home
care if are you in hospice andhome care, where are you in your
home care? Am I Am I correct?

Unknown (58:54):
kind of sorted? Yes.
It's a confusing. Yeah. So Sohospice is completely paid for
through Medicaid. There is nocost to the family. It probably
would be another interview. SoI'll try to kind of summarize
very you know, soundbites foryou but Medicaid vary state to
state Medicaid is ran by thestate Medicare is ran by the
national federal government.

(59:18):
Every state is different.
Medicaid is for poverty level,essentially. But let's say I'll
use my father as an example. Hehe didn't get Medicare because
he had a federal job. So but hegot really good insurance
because he didn't get Medicareis kind of a trade off. He had a
very, very generous pension. Andwhen it got to the point where

(59:39):
he no longer could safely stayin our home due to the care he
required, which is IVantibiotics, every you know,
eight hours, things like that.
He had to go in a facility thatwas never a choice. It wasn't
voluntary. We weren't. There wasno decision to be made. It was
something that had to be done.
He ended up having We need to doa complete spin down of all of

(01:00:00):
this money in order to thenqualify for Medicaid. And
unfortunately, because he wasnow on Medicaid, and he was not
going to be coming out of thefacility, he got to live on $60
a month. Right, because ofthat's the Medicaid guidelines
at that time for Michigan,Medicare. He got 21 days in a
nursing home slash rehab, longterm care facility, however you

(01:00:26):
want to call it because theykind of changed their names a
little bit to get away from thatnursing home stigma. But they're
essentially the same thing.
Some, if you have supplements,you can get up to 100 days, but
they also look at the timeline.
It's not, okay, I'm in here for100 days, I'm gonna go home go
in the hospital, you have to bein the hospital 72 hours to then
qualify to go back into afacility for Medicare to cover

(01:00:47):
it. If you still have Medicaredays left, they will look back
over this timeline as period oftime. And if you've already used
up those days, Medicare is notgoing to pay. Just like you get
so many rehab visits, you get somany visits, and so many that in
a lot of families aren't even alot. A lot of families aren't
even aware that they could getwhat's called home health care.

(01:01:09):
So you have home hospice, youhave home health care, and you
have home care. Home care is theone not covered by any sort of
health insurance or Medicare.
That's your support staff, youractivities of daily living,
bathing, grooming, toileting,dressing, you know, things like
that, home health care, Susiewill, will use you, let's say

(01:01:31):
you're in the hospital, you'reon Medicare, and you don't want
to go in a rehab facilitybecause you just had a hip
replacement, you want to gohome, well, you can get an order
for home health care, they willcome the nurse physical
therapists will come to yourhouse, usually it's a nurse will
come they'll be like your casemanager, you get nine weeks at a
time, you had to be in thehospital for 72 hours. And you

(01:01:53):
can go and then go into a rehabor you can decide you know, I
don't want rehab, I want to gohome home, I have home health
care, home health care cancontinue nine weeks at a time,
then the physician can recertifyit and get another nine weeks
and continue going like that.
However, that's only if you'restill in need of these skilled
services. So if the nurse says Idon't think Suzy really needs

(01:02:14):
any more physical therapy, wethey're going to have a goal or
a target for what you know, thedata or analytics say that is
the best they're gonna get youto, even if they if they get you
to that point, they're stoppingtheir visits, even if you want
to still come and you still wantmore physical therapy. They're
saying we got Suzy as good as wecan get her. There's no more
improvement that can be madebecause they have to justify,

(01:02:37):
you know, billing Medicare andhaving you come out for it.
Right. And then hospice, youknow, hospice would take over
all of your care. And, you know,admission is voluntary, you can
discharge yourself. I know likewith my father, when he went
into hospice, he became severelydehydrated. The hospice provider

(01:02:57):
that we had, they believed indoing hydration, so he could get
fluid IVs, just for hydrationpurposes, not antibiotics. But
that's the thing I want tostress here. It's not a one size
fits all. Different hospiceshave different ideologies or
different philosophies and whatthey will provide and Don shake,

(01:03:18):
and he knows. So ask thosequestions.

Don Priess (01:03:23):
That's so much a big part of the documentary is that,
you know, we've asked how manypeople what the definition of
hospices and there is no, noteven close to being a single
answer. I mean, and it's soconfusing. And you ask

Susie Singer Carter (01:03:38):
hospice versus palliative, and it's just
No, one no way to know what.
Yeah. Yeah, it's very confusing.

Unknown (01:03:50):
Palliative is becoming a little more popular, at least
here in our area. And you know,sometimes families think, well,
I don't want Mom, I don't wantmy spouse, whoever it is. I
don't want to go into hospicebecause they think it's
impending immediate death.
Right. Okay. It doesn't alwaysmean that, you know, their,
their job is to make sure theperson is out of pain and
comfortable for something theydo not expect nor plan to treat

(01:04:11):
or cure. Palliative, you'll geta little more services, there's
a lot more options for care. Butagain, it's it's voluntary. You
know, we had a lady she was inhospice, and she cut herself
really, really badly. She wasgoing to need antibiotics, all
these different things. Shedischarged herself from hospice,

(01:04:33):
went to the hospital, gottreatment, and got that taken
care of then came home and gotreadmitted into hospice. You
know, but again, hospice is justlike home care Susie and Don,
Michigan's a non licensed statefor homecare. Michigan is a non
licensed state for home care.
There is no state oversight intothe home care industry in

(01:04:56):
Michigan. I could hire Don to bean NGO We need to take care of
somebody, Don may have not aclue of what to do or how to do
it. But there's nothingpreventing us from doing that.
Illinois, on the other hand,they are a licensed state. So it
is regulated through theDepartment of Health and Human
Services. I'm a big proponent.
We're all a big proponent of thestate of Michigan, because we're

(01:05:17):
not the only state either I wantto stress that, but I'm just
worried about our state, I'm abig proponent of our state
becoming a licensed state, butyou know, then you're getting
into politics, legislation, and,you know, stuff way out of my
paygrade. But, you know,families get taken advantage of
in that too, because they'llhire somebody think they're
accompany. And it's really, youknow, two sisters or two

(01:05:37):
cousins, or two best friends whoare, you know, just saying we're
a company because they can, butthen it's like, do they have the
credentials? Do they have thetraining? What happens if one of
the people get sick? Do theyhave somebody else to come and
be there, because you have to beat work in the morning, and you
can't leave your dad alone, youknow. And, you know, then you
get into insurance workman'scomp and all the other assets

(01:05:58):
that, you know, a true companywould have, and background
checks and everything else. But

this is this is this is actually the
fear of my fear for the future.
With this didn't have theexponential growth of our
seniors, where, you know, we'rebasically creating a COVID like,
situation, you know, becausethere's no, there's not going to
be the infrastructure. And asyou know, in COVID, all the

(01:06:25):
regulations went out the door,even the states that had
regulations, you know, CNAswere, I mean, anybody could be a
CNA, there was no training thatwas required, there was no,
nothing all, all bets were off.
It was like, as long as theycould get bodies in there. They
were happy. And so that's why somuch, you know, so many more

(01:06:47):
tragedies happened, becausethere were a lot of, you know,
the majority. And I'm notexaggerating, the majority of
frontline workers were not, youknow, they were not qualified to
be there. And that's what'sgoing to happen. That's because
we're not going to have enoughin infrastructure. And so it's

(01:07:09):
going to be you know,

Unknown (01:07:11):
it's the Wild West.
Scary.

It's the Wild West. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
So, wow, we could just talk forlike, 12 more hours. You know,
we

wanted to ask you.
Yeah, I know, you were justhonored. recently. I know what
the number 50 in it. Can youtell us a little bit about that?

Unknown (01:07:32):
Okay, so yeah, I have trouble talking about myself.
But we, we found out about twoweeks ago. Well, actually, it
was announced about two weeksago. And we found out back in
January that I had been chosenas a 50. Under 50 for 2023.
Something I was extremely proudof. And it's a great honor. And

(01:07:55):
we had posted our team on socialmedia, because I didn't want to
make it about me whatsoever. Andmy philosophy with that down in
my perspective is I think all ofus, you know, Susie, you, Rick,
you know, I saw you guys hadpatina on recently. Everybody in
this? Yeah. Oh, she's amazing.
Everybody in this field to me,though, is the 50, under 50.

(01:08:16):
Because we're all trying to helpand we're all trying to make a
difference. I don't feel likeanything I've done is any
different than what anyone elseis doing. But it was just it was
quite an honor. And quite asurprise that, you know, I'm
pretty proud. You should

be proud.
You should absolutely. Well, youknow, it's like frig mon castle.
When I first met him. He waslike, I have this 15 minutes of
fame. And I never thought Iwould have 15 minutes of fame.
And I said, well then wear it,but you do it work at baby
because you know what, it's it'simportant. And that and that,
that, that gives you a toolthat, you know, gives you a

(01:08:52):
little power. And that'simportant. And that's, you know,
it's like we were our podcast,our little little tiny podcasts
that we started in December2019. And in June of 2020, we we
get chosen best podcast out ofnot expecting it not think not.
And it was more like wow, peopleare listening to us people like

(01:09:14):
it people were doing a goodthing. Yeah, right. And so
that's that's how you have tolook at it. And, you know, and
the same with there are awardsfrom my mom and the girl was
like, is it not? Yeah, ofcourse, it's nice. It makes you
feel good. But more thananything, it really gives us a
tool and some credibility in thefield that I want to that I want

(01:09:35):
to be have credibility in. So Ithink that that that's that's
it's an honor, but it's also youknow, it, it gives it's, it's,
it's well, it's well, it waswell given to you, because you
you have the infrastructure touse it. So yeah, you should be
proud and and we're proud toknow Are you? Oh, yeah, we're,

(01:09:59):
yeah. And I'm so happy that youare in our sphere. And we hope
like to be continued thisconversation because a lot, a
lot to talk about with you. And,you know, listen, our audience I
know that you did if you haven'tmet this man you you will follow

(01:10:20):
them now because so much greatinformation such a big heart,
such a, you know, a throwback toa time like you just give such a
sense of comfort that is soneeded in all the tumult that's
out there. So follow all of yourthings which will be in our show

(01:10:43):
notes. There's too many to sayright now. We'll be there'll be
there's so many my friends tofollow Lance and his and his
team. And knew so much greatinformation and and resource.
And we thank you for sharingyour time with us a lot of

(01:11:04):
privilege. Yeah, absolutely. Doanything else done. You want to
say all

right. I don't have anything else to say, Lance. Was
there anything that we didn'tcover that you wanted to say? Or

Unknown (01:11:18):
a week? I just want to say thank you, to you and Susie,
I, I just want to say thank youagain, to you and Susie for the
incredible work. I've just grownto love Susie and admire
everything you guys are doingwith this film. And anytime,
anywhere, we can do anything tohelp get the word out more, you
know, just let us know. We'rehappy to do so.

Let me choose that.
Thank you and vice versa.

Yeah. All right, everybody. We'll talk to
you soon. And

Unknown (01:11:47):
take care. Thanks, you guys.

Wow. That's all I can say is wow, that is a
wow. Oh, my gosh, a lot. Ithought that I thought that we
did a lot and frankly, I'm alittle bit I'm a little bit
feeling inept. I feel like weneed to. Yeah, I feel like we
need to up our game here. Alittle bit done. I don't

know we're, we're doing enough.
My gosh, amazing.

I know.
Well, I hope listen, I hope thatyou know, we there was so much
to touch on in this episode. Ifelt like we were jumping around
like, you know, like, we were onsome kind of relay race. Like I
wanted to get it all in. Yeah,clearly, there wasn't enough
time to get it all in becausehe's just a plethora of great
information. I'd love to get himback on the show to talk about

(01:12:53):
Medicare. And yeah, more indepth. Because it's such a it's
such a confusing topic. I mean,even after what he tried to
explain today, I am stillconfused. Are you?

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. You know, it was just kind
of those Well, what why? Yeah,it's like, yeah, I mean, okay. I
get that little moment. Butwait, what about this, and then
it changes from state to statewith Medicaid and it's just
state this combination is justYeah, it's, it's insane.

It's daunting. It's daunting. I'm
glad that we just talked aboutAlzheimer's and

so much easier. less complicated.

Easy, breezy. No problem.

But no, and I just like his spirit to I like his
spirit. I like to you know,yeah, great sense of person. And

he's very tall and makes you feel very
calm and and cared for his verygood book, Bowie buoy. As I say,
not, that would be David. Yeah.
It's not him. It's not Davidboy. This is Lindsey Slaton. And
he's, but you know, I like Ifeel like his story is, is not

(01:14:09):
dissimilar to all of ours, whichis that, you know, his interest
in this field, in particularcomes from his relationship to
it personally. And, and like hesaid, When, which I relate to is
that when you're doing somethingthat you love to do, it's not
work. And you know, becausepeople I say, Susie, how are you

(01:14:32):
know, can you please just sitdown and rest and stop doing
something for a second? And, andthe fact is, it doesn't feel
like work when you're doingsomething that you love.

Yes. And you know why that is? Why that's because
that's because love is powerful.
Love is contagious, and loveconquers all.

Thank you, Don. Thank you, everybody for
watching and listening andsharing. And don't forget to
donate To our GoFundMe for NoCountry for Old people and don't
forget to come and listen to usagain

(01:15:14):
hey, this is Susie singer Carterand I just wanted to take a
minute to talk to you about bedsores. I know but if you're like
I was you probably don't have aclue what a bed so really is.
Most people don't. I mean, noone told me and I really just
assumed it was part of the bodythat was like the name says sore
from lain in one position toolong and if you change the

(01:15:35):
position, all better. Wrong.
bedsore is really a euphemismfor more appropriate names such
as pressure wound, and keep itas ulcer. Unfortunately, I
discovered what a bedsore reallywas. When my mom was admitted
into the hospital last year witha stage four ulcer, that is the
worst level, you don't ever wantthat to happen. bed sores can
develop quickly and worsenrapidly and can lead to serious

(01:15:57):
health issues, even death ifthey're not properly treated, or
properly treated. And thatincludes cleaning and dressing
the wound, but most importantly,reducing pressure off the sore
by frequently changing theposition of the person off of
their wounds so it can heal andthat can mean propping the
person up 30 degrees to theside, far enough to be off the
lower back, but not too far asto be on the side hip where

(01:16:20):
there isn't much cushion rightbetween the skin and the bone.
This is why I'm so excited totell you about that sir rescue,
which was designed by an amazingwoman when Jul a nurse who was
tired of fooling around withsimple pillows and bulky wedges
that just don't work. The bedsare rescue positioning wedge
cushions are uniquely designedto provide ergonomically correct
and comfortable support for asustained period of time without

(01:16:43):
touching the sore and thecurvatures and bilateral angles
and make it possible for thebedside cushion to be used to
support many other body parts aswell. You can flip the heels you
can put it under the head, youcan put it under the arms behind
the knees, both sides. You caneven use it as a breakfast in
bed table, the curvatures of thebed so rescue fit the curvatures
of your person's body, and it'smade to meet all the patients

(01:17:06):
safeties, and bed boundpositioning standards for acute
and long term care facilities. Iwish I had it for my mom, I
really do. So chances are if youhave a loved one in long term
care facility, or at your home,you may become a pressure injury
soldier too, but bedsores shouldnever never get to stage four
and one way to ensure that theydon't is to make sure that as

(01:17:28):
soon as one begins to develop,you keep the pressure off. You
can do that easily with beds soa rescue and you can find
bedsore, rescue and many otherpressure solutions online at
jewel nursing solutions home ofthe patented bedsore rescue
positioning wedge cushions padsand pillows that's Jul, je w e l
l nursing solutions.com. Andwhen you use the special code

(01:17:51):
and C F O P the entire amount ofyour purchase will go to support
our important documentary NoCountry for Old people, which
chronicles my mother's journeynavigating the nursing home long
term care crisis that literallybegan with an unreported
untreated pressure wound. Sotake the pressure off yourself
and your loved one with thebedsore rescue

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LANCE A. SLATTON: 2023 “50 Under 50” Honoree - Redefining Caregiving

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}LANCE A. SLATTON: 2023 “50 Under 50” Honoree - Redefining Caregiving