Caring for Our Community: Inside Milton's CARES Program

In this episode of Milton and Mane, we take a closer look at the CARES Program, a vital initiative designed to connect Milton residents with essential health resources. Join us as we explore the impact of community paramedicine, the power of proactive care, and how this program is redefining public safety. Guests Mark Haskins and Derek Hoffmann share their insights on bridging the gap between emergency services and preventative healthcare, highlighting real stories that showcase the program’s effectiveness. We also address common misconceptions about emergency calls and discuss how wellness visits and local partnerships are making a difference.

Tune in to discover how Milton’s CARES Program is shaping a healthier, safer community—and how you can be a part of it.

Learn more about CARES: https://www.miltonga.gov/government/fire/milton-fire-cares

PulsePoint Information: https://www.miltonga.gov/government/fire/pulsepoint

How to get in touch of Derek Hoffmann: The CARES program is generally staffed between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. between Monday and Friday. Those with questions or seeking more information email [e-mail] or call 770-686-0948

With the community in mind, this podcast explores the stories, people, and initiatives that make our community unique. Each episode offers insights into local government, highlights Milton's history and future developments, and showcases the vibrant arts, culture, and sustainability efforts shaping our city. Join the conversation, celebrate our community, and discover how we're building a better Milton together.

Do you have an idea for an episode or would like to request a specific topic to be covered? Email Christy Weeks, [e-mail]

Learn more about the City of Milton at www.miltonga.gov.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Welcome to Milton and Maine, the official podcast for
the city of Milton.
We want to bring you closer tothe heart of our community
through stories that inform,inspire and connect.
Each episode offers abehind-the-scenes look at the
people, projects and prioritiesshaping Milton, covering
everything from local governmentand future development to arts,
culture, sustainability andpublic safety.

(00:30):
Whether you're a resident, alocal business owner or just
curious about our city, this isyour front row seat to what
makes Milton special.
Hey, everyone, glad you couldjoin us.
I'm your host, christy Weeks,the communications manager for
the city of Milton, and todaywe're diving into an incredible
program that truly embodies thespirit of service and care in
our community Milton's FireRescue Cares Program.

(00:52):
Joining me today are twoamazing guests who play vital
roles in this initiative MarkHaskins and Derek Hoffman.
Mark Derek, welcome to thepodcast.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thanks for having us Excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Glad you could join us.
So before we get into thedetails of the CARES program,
can you both share a littleabout yourselves your career in
fire, how you came to MiltonSure, All the things.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I guess I can go first.
So, yeah, I've been with Miltonfor almost 14 years now,
started back in early 2011.
So this was my first firedepartment job.
After the economy kind oftanked back in 08, 09, I was
thinking, well, what can I getinto that might be a little bit
more stable?
Ended up getting my EMT and myparamedic and then I got hired

(01:38):
at Milton Fire Rescue rightafter I got those.
So, yeah, I've been in EMS forabout 17, 18 years somewhere in
that ballpark and then now withMilton going on just about 14.
So it's been good, been a goodexperience for me.
I love working here.
The community's awesome.
They treat us so well.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Milton does like their fire department.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
It's been.
It's been good.
They, they really do take goodcare of us.
You know dropping stuff off atat the fire station constantly
and then just you know whenwe're on calls or if we're out
and about in the community.
It's been good.
So, yeah, I've.
I've worked my way up fromfirefighter to driver to captain
and then recently got promotedto division chief about three or

(02:23):
four months ago.
Oh, congratulations.
So I'm over the medicalservices division here at Milton
and CARES is part of that.
So we do anythingmedical-related training, our
logistics equipment, every oneof our apparatus is outfitted
with medicine and all of themedical equipment to handle a
call that an ambulance wouldarrive at.

(02:44):
So our division handles thetraining and logistics and
licensing with all of themedical equipment to handle a
call that an ambulance wouldarrive at.
So our division handles thetraining and logistics and
licensing with all of that.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
So, and unlike other fire departments and you guys
can correct me if I'm wrong allof our firefighters are at least
EMTs, if not paramedics.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
That's correct, yeah, so, and I don't think that's
common across everywhere, is it?

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Is that a thing?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
It's not in every single fire department in
Georgia, correct, but it'smoving that way because the
majority of calls that we end uprunning as a fire department
they're medical calls.
So I think most progressivecommunities see the need to have
at least the level of EMTtraining for all of their
employees.
That makes sense.

(03:24):
But we're a little bit abovethat, because each of our
apparatus are equipped withadvanced life support equipment.
So that's where the paramedicscome into play.
If you think of a paramedic,they're kind of like a nurse in
the field.
We can give medicine.
There's certain things that wecan do with regards to cardiac
monitors.
We can defibrillate people, wecan read heart rhythms, we can

(03:47):
intubate people.
There's things like that thatparamedics can do that EMTs
can't.
So we have to have a paramedicon each of our apparatus in
order to sustain that ALScertification.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
How about you, Derek?

Speaker 3 (04:00):
I started in EMS about 10 years ago.
First got my EMTT worked on anambulance for a little bit.
After a couple years went andgot my first fire job at a not a
Milton at a differentdepartment.
From there worked my way intoMilton.
Been in Milton now for aboutseven years.
Worked in a bunch of differentsectors in EMS.

(04:20):
I've worked at racetracks, I'veworked at special events, all
over the place.
I worked at Whitewater a bunchof places to gather experience
and different clientele I'veseen all over the place.
So different populations.
I've got a little bit of varietyin my experience as far as
pre-hospital medicine.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
So Derek and I were on the same crew for a little
bit we were.
He was my captain.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
And here you guys are again working together.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
Correct.
Yeah, yeah, I got my paramedichere with Milton and thankfully,
because of the CARES program,we saw the expansion, so went on
and got my registered nurse.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Right on.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Been registered nurse now for about six months.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Oh, congratulations Relatively new.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, still got fresh numbers.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
It's really time to talk about the basics of CARES
and how this program came about.
And for those who may not befamiliar our listeners that
might not know can you explainwhat the CARES program is and
its overall mission and how itcame to be?

Speaker 2 (05:20):
Sure.
So CARES is an acronym.
It's Community Advocates forReferrals and Education Services
.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
That's what it stands for.
In Georgia it's still not thatcommon to have community
paramedicine programs.
There's not a lot, I mean,would you say maybe 10, 15?
.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Yeah, in the state In the entire state.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
So it's not that common.
And usually when people wouldthink of a community
paramedicine program nationwide,they kind of stem out of the
necessity to reduce 911 frequentflyer callers.
You know you have people thatjust will abuse the 911 system
and they call for trivial thingsor they just they tax the

(06:06):
system.
So you're taking these fireengines and even ambulances out
of service to respond to callsthat aren't all of that
important, right?
But maybe the people just don'thave a way to get to the
hospital or maybe they justdon't know what to do.
You know there's differentreasons people call 911.
Milton's a little different.
Our demographics in our cityit's not low income or there's

(06:29):
not much of an indigentpopulation.
There's not a ton of homelesshere.
So what we had to do isidentify a need that was a
little bit different than mostcommunity paramedicine programs
and then see if that could befilled within the city.
So around maybe 2020, 2021, wehad our previous medical

(06:49):
services officer.
He would visit certain peoplein the community on a
semi-regular basis, justchecking in with older ones,
making sure they were okay, ifthey were taking their medicines
properly, things like that.
So the program started a littlebit to evolve then, and then we
decided to try and expand it inlate 2021.

(07:09):
And that's when we startedhaving part-timers.
That would work the CARESprogram.
But we rebranded it and we wereable to kind of identify, from
its infancy stages to that point, what might work for our city
versus what was going on.
It had to be more than justmaybe visiting some older ones
here and there to see how theywere doing.

(07:30):
So we saw that, okay, there's aneed in our community to kind
of fill in that gap betweenpeople accessing the 911 system
or accessing a hospital.
And then what do I do when Iget home?

Speaker 1 (07:47):
Right, that's a big one.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah.
Or what do I do if grandma orgrandpa needs to go to a rehab
center, or they need to go toassisted living, or maybe they
need in-home hospice or theyneed in-home healthcare, or
they've sent me home with all ofthese instructions on this
discharge paperwork and I don'tknow what any of this means.
What does this medicine mean tome?
Or how does it interact withother medicines?

(08:09):
Because you sit there and youlisten to the doctor when they
discharge you Right, but who'staking that in?

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Nobody.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
That's a lot of information coming at people
that's really hard to process onthe spot.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Right, and it's a difficult time in life.
You're stressed out, right,stress on the spot, right and
it's.
It's a difficult time in lifeyou're stressed out, or if you
don't have someone that's amedical professional with you,
that's listening, that canexplain all that to you later
when you get home, you justdon't really know how to
navigate that stuff.
So that was part of it.
We're like how can we bridgethat gap and help our community
understand what to do when theyget back home?

(08:43):
Or or do I really need to call911 before, right?
So if people have questions,this would be a needed program
for us.
So that was part of it.
Part of it, too, was educationin general, because part of
CARES stands for educationservices.
So people in the community,when it comes to CPR, stop the

(09:05):
bleed.
You know we have a babysittingclass.
There's different educationservices that we know that we
could provide, that people areinterested in the community.
So we saw those needs and wefigured we could rebrand it,
identify those needs and thenfigure out a way to fill it.
And then Derek got the fulltime job.
Was it?
Here I am?

Speaker 1 (09:25):
And here I am.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
he says yeah, it was the end of 2022.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah, october, yeah so that.
So I started uh kind of thefull-time role of it.
Obviously I had my own ideas.
Uh, before that I was on theengine in Milton for quite a bit
of time so I got to see livewhat I thought the program
needed and how we can expandwhat Mark was going off of to
meet those core measures.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
And we're going to talk about all the pillars
individually as we go along.
But what was it that grabbedyour attention with this
particular program?

Speaker 3 (10:00):
So what grabbed my attention was how we could mold
it.
Essentially it's infancy and wecan create what caters to
Milton.
Like Mark was saying, withcommunity-based medicine
programs.
Every city's got their ownthing.
What Alpharetta has their ownprogram, even being next-door
neighbors, theirs probably isn'tgoing to work in Milton, and
vice versa.
So it's all unique as far aswhat demographic you're dealing

(10:25):
with, what population densityyou're dealing with, what kind
of diseases are usually presentin that community.
So there's a lot of variablesthat play into it.
And so when I took it over,kind of like I was looking to
see what can I do as anindividual to help out the city
and help out the community Fromthere, I kind of like launched
it and made these different thatwe're going to talk about, um,

(10:46):
and kind of expanded from there.
Before we were targeting just akind of a high-risk population
and now we've opened it up todifferent programs, different
things that people might need.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah, I think we started with just that.
I think too, and I don't wantto speak for you, but it's
exciting to build something fromthe ground up.
So I know Derek.
He loves change, he likes to beable to.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Wait a minute and you're part of the fire
department.

Speaker 3 (11:10):
I know he's a weirdo.
Is that even allowed?
You can ask me about my bags.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
No, you've got to have somebody that wants to be
able to change and adapt,especially when you're building
a program kind of from the floorup, because what you think it
needs initially, it changes it.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Does you need to be?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
adaptable.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
You have to be flexible, so Derek's very good
with that, so, and helping tobuild something from the ground
up that's fabulous and that'skind of what Parks and Rec, when
we had them on, they talked alot about how I have the ability
to build this program andthat's the beauty of a lot of
things in Milton, because we area relatively new city and so a

(11:49):
lot of these things that areevolving are coming from the
ideas and the passion and thedrive of those within the city,
which is an amazing thing to see, and I feel like Milton is very
connected in their purposes andit's all very, very community
driven.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
Yeah, and we had a lot of support too from our fire
chief.
You know he was big in wantingto create a beneficial community
paramedicine program.
I think he saw how it wasoperating before and knew that
there was room for growth withinthat.
So you know, we've always hadthe support of our fire chief.
We had the support of our cityleadership and council.

(12:29):
I mean, they've been great.
I think that we've given themsome feedback on what it is that
we do and that's really helpedthem to see the need for it.
But they've been nothing butsupportive too.
So it's nice to again.
I talked about the communitytaking care of us, but city
leadership takes good care of ustoo, and they've been a big
part in helping us get this offthe ground and grow.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, that's amazing.
I can't wait to hear more aboutit, because I'm relatively new
to the city I've only been heresince July of last year so for
me to get to understand and knowexactly what you guys do, I
know it'll be beneficial for meas well as the listeners.
The way things generally go ispeople know and a lot of people
don't know, right Correct.
So the point here is to spreadthe word of the resources that

(13:14):
we have available to thiscommunity.

Speaker 2 (13:16):
Right, and I think that's a good point too, because
this is not just for an olderpopulation.
Anybody can access thisinformation, and it's beneficial
for a wide swath of thepopulation in Milton.
So when we talk about it, Ihope our listeners will see that
.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Yeah, with that being said, let's get into it.
Let's break down these threeobjectives response, education
and prevention and I really wantyou guys to be able to explain
what they mean, how you've beenable to as you've already
mentioned, make them evolve,develop them and to support the,
the true mission of cares.
So let's go with our firstresponse response.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
You want to start go?

Speaker 3 (13:57):
ahead yeah sure, I'll do do my pillar here.
So, uh, response is one of thepillars that we use.
It's essentially what you wouldthink of as a typical 911 call.
So I normally respond in apickup truck, no fire engine, no
ambulance, but with lights.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Oh yeah, with lights, for sure Lights and all the
equipment, All the fun stuff.
Yeah, he has all the equipmenton him.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
So my truck is ALS equipped, so Advanced.
Life Support Unit and you've gotme as a paramedic slash rn
responding to the call.
Two benefits to that is I'm ina pickup truck, not a giant fire
truck, so I can get throughtraffic a little bit easier and
usually get to the the incidentmuch faster.
You know, and kind of figureout what's going on from there,

(14:39):
essentially start the triageearly, figure out that's going
to be a life-threateningemergency.
Do I?
I need more people?
What do I need, or is thismaybe something I can handle on
my own?
So a benefit to that is, ifsomething okay, I can take care
of this on my own, we can cancelthe fire engine coming and kind
of saving a little bit ofdollars as far as fuel wear and
tear and hopefully have thoseengines available for other

(15:02):
incidents that might pop upRight.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
You get just to build on what Derek said there on an
engine, if you have three orfour people on the engine and we
also have a rescue apparatus,which is extra manpower in our
city for higher acuity medicalcalls, both those apparatus are
dispatched so you can have sixpeople rolling to the scene.
And then if Derek can pick upthat call he listens to the

(15:25):
radio when he's on shift and helistens to it and if he's nearby
the call or if it's somethingthat's either right in his
wheelhouse where it might be atypical cares patient or a high
acuity call, he'll informdispatch hey, I'm going to
respond to this call with engine44 and rescue 42 or whatever

(15:46):
other apparatus are going.
And if he gets there first andrealizes, okay, this isn't super
serious, amr, which is ourambulance agency they're
contracted to deliver ambulanceservices to North Fulton and to
Milton If they're on their wayand they're just a minute or two
out, he can say, okay, engine44, you can stand down and go
back in service.

(16:06):
And then now they're available.
If a fire tones out or ifanother medical call tones out,
right, they're not at a callbeing used up within the 911
system, they're available torespond.
So that helps out the entirecommunity.
So that's not all of Derek'sday is responding to 911 calls,
but that fills in those gaps,right, he's always listening to

(16:28):
the radio, he's always kind ofout there just driving around
the city and he can pick upthese calls and keep these other
apparatus in service.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
So it's a nice— Responsible management of
resources is what it sounds liketo me.

Speaker 2 (16:40):
And then he was talking—when he's on scene,
there's other benefits,absolutely, yeah, so like to me.
And then he was talking whenhe's on scene there's other
benefits, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:44):
So like the second part to me, going to 911 call is
, this is how I meet most of mypatients.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Right.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
And literally that's the first.
You know they always say 10seconds right To make an
impression.
So that's where you kind ofstart meeting that person, you
build that rapport and kind ofsee how these people are living
right the worst day of theirlives to call 911.
So I get to see your worst dayand see how things are for you.
What can I do to fix thisalready?

(17:13):
So I'm already thinking of whatcan I give them.
What services can I provide.
So it's kind of like a it's anassessment period, yeah exactly
A big one and that kind of helpsspeed up the process.
So by the time you know theyget out of the hospital or they
get back home, I'm able to havethose resources ready,
facilitated for them kind ofready to go, so that way,
there's no waiting period and,yeah, it's just building that

(17:35):
patient rapport, like having acontinuum of care.
The way I always like to look atit, and even some of our
part-time people that I talk to,is you treat somebody with
respect and you treat themcorrectly, provide great care.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
They don't want to see you again.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Right.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Go to the doctor.
If you have a doctor that's ajerk to you, he's not going to
want to see him again.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, that's a big check mark for me.

Speaker 3 (17:54):
Exactly I've changed.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
I've changed several because of a bad bedside manner.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
Exactly, and that's one of the keys to the thing is
having good bedside manner andreally helping out figuring out
what these people need.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
Right.
He builds that relationshipright from the first visit.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
So if he's the first one, that shows up.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
They see Derek.
First he builds a rapport withthem and then they're happy to
see him again after they getdischarged.
Yeah Right, because we try andfollow up One of our goals.
We have goals for each year.
Because we try and follow upOne of our goals, we have goals
for each year.
One of our goals for 2025 isfollowing up on our citizens
that had to access 911.
Whether they're discharged fromthe hospital and come with

(18:33):
orders, or maybe they justvisited the ER and then they get
back home, we're going to popin on them and just see okay,
how are you doing?
Is there anything that we cando for you now and get some
feedback from them, even if it'sjust a regular 911 visit?
So when we were talking beforeabout how this program is really
for anybody in the community,that's what we mean.
You know, maybe it was justyour son or daughter had a

(18:55):
sprained ankle.
You took them.
They went by ambulance to thehospital.
Well, now we show up the nextday when they're back home.
Is there anything else that youneed?
Did you understand everything?

Speaker 1 (19:09):
at the hospital, any services that you need and we
can just build on that initialrelationship.
Oh, that's amazing because thatgoes way past just your elderly
population, that's.
You know, you think about asingle mom or a single dad who's
dealing with something withtheir child, whether they're
sick, they're hurt, they've gotchronic issues, they're hurt,
they've got chronic issues, andto have somebody show compassion

(19:29):
and care and follow up it meansa lot and I don't think that
happens enough in our worldtoday.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
Hopefully that's something as we grow, you know,
and Derek's just one man, thoughhe does a great job Are we
cloning?

Speaker 3 (19:44):
you now?

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yeah, I need a clone, but as he gets out there and,
depending on how busy theprevious day was with 911 calls,
we're going to try and pop inon those people again.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
I love that.
Were you going to follow upwith that?

Speaker 3 (19:56):
No, I was just going to say, yeah, that's kind of the
thing about the response pillar.
Some people are like, oh it'sjust running, 911 calls response
pillar, Like.
Some people are like, oh, Ijust just running out of one
calls.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
It's a little bit beyond the 911 call.
So outside of 911, is there anumber somebody can call if they
don't want to call 911 andstill access a cares?

Speaker 3 (20:13):
So I'm glad you brought that up.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, we're in 2025.
We just talked about goals.
One of our programs we want toroll out is a nurse information
line.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Ah right, so I was supposed to bring that up later,
but this is a perfect time tobring it up.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
So you know, derek went ahead and went through all
of the schooling to become aregistered nurse, right, and so
we mentioned that like aparamedic is kind of like a
nurse on scene, but the nursingcomponent of what it is that
they can offer to our citizensis it's a little bit different
from a paramedic.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
They're big into patient assessment, education
right there, yeah, so I put itthis way the nurse, I will
holistically look at you, figureout every aspect to get you
back to your independent state.
The paramedic is hey, if you'rein an emergency situation.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
I have all the skills right now.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, exactly, so a little bit of both worlds per se
, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
So, derek being a nurse, we thought, well, okay,
how can we offer that to ourcitizens, right?
To take advantage of thiscertification that he's got.
So we're going to roll out anurse information line.
You know, sometimes it may notbe exactly like an insurance
provider.
Sometimes they have a nurseinformation.
You call the nurse if you havequestions about XYZ, so it's
something similar to that, buthe's going to be able to maybe

(21:33):
answer questions that they havethat are health related.
Maybe they have questions abouttheir medications or maybe they
have questions about theirdischarge paperwork, any of
their doctor's orders or justwhat to do.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Right now.
This is not emergency.
There's an emergency.
We want you to call 911.
Absolutely so these arequestions that our citizens in
Milton might have.
It'll be a free service, sowe're going to want them to call
Derek, ask what, and whileDerek is on shift he'll be able
to answer those questions.
So if he's obviously he doesn'twork 24 hours a day, seven
days- a week.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
You don't, oh, we're going to have to clone you.
That's what I said.
That's coming up.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
So we'll have the ability for them to leave a
message and then he can callthem back when he's on shift.
But it'll be another nice addedfeature for our citizens to be
able to have a resource toconnect them to answer questions
that they might have.
So we're going to call that ourcares nurse information line
and we want to roll that out in2025.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
So we might need your help with that being our
communications.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah, absolutely, we'll circle back on this and
make sure we get all theinformation out on it, cause I
think that's a super usefulservice.
There's days where you havequestions.
You don't want to haul yourselfinto the urgent care because
it's not an urgent care matter.
But who do you talk to?

Speaker 2 (22:47):
And two.
As you probably know, you callan insurance company to get
those answers and either you getput on hold forever or you
weave through the navigationsystem before you find actually
somebody to talk to, andbasically this is just going to
be Derek's work cell.
So, that's like a, it'll be adirect line.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Can I get that number ?
I might need it and if he canpick up he'll, he'll talk to him
right then and there.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
So I think that's just a more personal service.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Efficient?
Yeah, yeah, cause it's hard.
I mean, medical situations arehard and my parents are older
and if you ask my mother and momI love you, I promise I do but
if you ask her what she's takingand why, most of the time she
can't remember why, but it's inher lineup.

(23:37):
So then I have to go and do allthe background because I want
to make sure that she's takingwhat she's supposed to be taking
when she's supposed to betaking it, and I'm not a medical
professional.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
I mean, I watch a lot of medical shows.
I watch you know Grey's Anatomy.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Technically I'm sort of a medical professional.
I've watched the whole season.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Don't shark flatline.

Speaker 1 (24:03):
So that's amazing.
I love that that's coming outand we'll be sure to keep
everybody posted on.
When that's live, we'll bringyou guys back and you can talk
about that.
And, by the way, any of theinformation that we provide here
as far as website and numbersto call and questions, I'll be
sure to include in the shownotes so people will have access
to the information.

(24:24):
Awesome, perfect.
So I do want to ask a quickquestion about home visits.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
And that's something that you do Correct, but can
citizens request a home visitthat kind?

Speaker 2 (24:38):
of ties into that other arm of prevention.
Okay, so maybe you could talkabout like our wellness visits.

Speaker 3 (24:45):
and yeah, absolutely so we have like a prevention
pillar that we call it kind of.
In this pillar we're a littlemore proactive rather than
reactive.
Yeah right, because it's not anactive 911 incident and we're
trying to avoid that.
So we have a few littleprograms that we've added as
this program has grown.
First one I'll talk about islike the wellness visit.
Essentially those are just I'llcome by your house, just

(25:08):
nonchalant, show up in my pickuptruck, no lights, no sirens,
you know neighbors not coming upRight.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Just something very nice and easy.
Don't want to alarm anybody.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
Exactly.
I'll come in depending on thecondition.
Usually I grab your baselinevital signs.
If you have any cardiacconditions, we can do an EKG on
scene, check your blood sugar If.
If you have any cardiacconditions, we can do an EKG on
scene, check your blood sugar Ifyou're diabetic.
Just a slew of things arewithin my scope and we'll follow
up monthly and we'll just kindof watch to make sure there's
nothing that's going to change.

(25:35):
So essentially right, like howlong is this visit you go to a
doctor?
So we usually do those monthly.
We have like a set list ofpeople we'll contact and again,
they just kind of flow down theline there if they need
resources at some point, easy wealready know them right, we can
get it for them.

Speaker 2 (25:50):
It's kind of building off of what we talked about
before that original communityparamedicine program.
There was a list of certainpeople that just they would get
visited on a regular basis,maybe once a week.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Is that their request , or is that?

Speaker 3 (26:04):
so normally it is their request.
Okay, can be family, family, itcan be family as well.
Correct?
Ultimately, the person has tosay yes, but also part of it too
is we'll go in there like smokedetectors, right?
So it's not just all medical,but I mean, I'm still a
firefighter.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
So it's second nature .

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Yeah, right, do smoke detectors, carbon monoxide
detectors.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Make sure those are working look at the house.

Speaker 3 (26:33):
Make sure there's no gas leaks right, no holes in the
roof kind of those safetyissues, exactly just
environmental factors.
Okay to look for to make surethat if you have asthma and you
haven't changed your air filterin two years, then yeah, maybe
something to do that might thinkabout that one yeah that's kind
of the uh in a nutshell whatthe wellness component is on our
prevention pillar.
The other one we added fairlyrecently we actually teamed up
with Northside Forsyth on thisone is the hospital to community

(26:56):
transition program.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Right on, tell me about that.

Speaker 3 (26:59):
So that is normally when somebody gets discharged
from the hospital, like Mark wastalking about.
You get all this dischargepaperwork, take this medication,
take this, go fill it at thisWalgreens.
Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
All this stuff that don't wash this until don't take
the bandage off till and youhave a whole novel to read right
Right.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
So the whole component of that is for us to
follow that plan that the doctordischarges you with,
essentially called a care planand we'll design our own care
plan as well, to be have anindividualized part, and again
it's kind of a nursing componentthat we add to it, but we have
an individualized care plan thatwe'll follow as well and have
the patient make sure they meettheir goals.

(27:39):
Uh, usually we try to set it upbetween 30 and 90 days for them
to meet the set criteria and wehope you know at that point that
the idea is to get you back tothe state you were before you
went to the hospital right so,following everything they give
you at the hospital, all thesenew medications, all this, and
that we'll follow up with theperson.
And it really depends on theperson.

(28:00):
Everybody's going to bedifferent.
Some people are going to be hey, everything looks good.
I only got to visit you likethree times.
It looks like you're gettingeverything.
You understand it.
You know, if you need me again,here's my number Some people
they got to stay for 90 days andyou know, continually just
reinforce education, make surethe medications are going, get
them additional resources ifthey need it.

(28:21):
So that's kind of what thehospital community transition is
.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
And resources.
I feel like people's access tothat, especially some
populations that may not be techsavvy.
So finding resources isn'topening up the yellow pages
anymore, correct, you know whatI mean.
So where do they?
If they don't have familythat's close if they don't have
neighbors checking in on them,where do they find these

(28:48):
resources?
So it's really hard.
It becomes a brick wall.
Just again, talking to myparents, they're semi-tech savvy
, but still to use the Google.
You know what I mean.
It's a whole different ballgamein accessing the services that
you need.

Speaker 2 (29:06):
Right ball game in accessing the services that you
need Right and you're trying tofind maybe rehab facilities for
or PT OT.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
How do you know?

Speaker 2 (29:15):
Yeah, and then as it moves on down the line.
Maybe assisted living,specialized nursing care, you
know.
So there's all of thosedifferent resources and that
those are just a few and the sadthing is is a lot of them are
for profit.
So you know you're kind ofworried about is it a sales deal
, you know right.
So how do we find the best carefor them?

(29:37):
So Derek has made all sorts ofconnections through this job
that he's been in for the lasttwo or three years now, where
he's able to line up people withthe right people and you don't
have to just google it and hopethat the reviews are good all in
itself, yeah and he wasmentioning that that hospital to
community transition programit's.

(29:57):
It's established with north sidefor scythe.
But we also just recently metwith wellstar north Fulton and
they're creating the same thingfor us.
So those we found are the twohighest frequency hospitals that
are utilized in Milton.
So the vast majority of peoplego to Wellstar North Fulton but

(30:19):
there's a good chunk that go toNorthside also.
So if we can kind of get anagreement with both of those to
give us discharge follow-ups.
It's beneficial for thehospital, right?
Because if the hospital hasreadmissions within a certain
amount of time, that doesn'tlook good for them, right?
Imagine if they just, yeah,they discharge you and then now
you have to go back to thehospital later in the day or the

(30:40):
next day.
They don't want that, so theywant to utilize us to be able to
stop in to help to reinforcethose discharge instructions.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
Right, because then you start seeing the backup in
the ER.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (30:52):
Right, and you had talked earlier about the
difference between a paramedicand a nurse, and the first thing
that I thought of is when we goto the ER, we're not going to
get a diagnosis.
Most of the time, they're thereto make sure you're stable and
to fix the immediate issue andnot to give you the full

(31:14):
diagnosis and that and that'shard, for I remember having
issues with kids when they werelittle and I was like but you
didn't tell me what's wrong andthey're like check with your
doctor specialist specialistspecialist, your specialist.
Here's a number and you can getin in six months.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Yeah, you know as Derek.
So he's doing regular wellnesschecks with people as prevention
.
He's doing this hospital tocommunity transition, which
helps prevent further issues.
Then, on top of that, he'spartnered with Milton police,
where Milton Police areoftentimes exposed to maybe

(31:50):
other issues that people havethat are different maybe from a
physical problem, maybe they'rehaving a mental health crisis.
So they run across more ofthose people on those to make
sure that they also get theresources that they need, which
hopefully then prevents greaterissues in the future or prevents
them from having to continue toaccess the 911 system.

(32:13):
Right.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
And what does that look like for you, Derek, when
you get called in on those?

Speaker 3 (32:18):
So usually I'll get sent from PD.
They'll send a request eitherthrough the form that we have on
the internet or, uh, kind oftalk a lot with officer tidwell.
Yes, she's um in charge of thatwhole component, so she'll
might send me a referral fromthere.
Um, usually, me and her willteam up and kind of either go to
the person's house it dependshow they they want to be

(32:40):
contacted, right right noteverybody wants us showing up at
their house necessarily phone'sfine, you you know, or email,
we'll get them the informationthey need and send it over.
Just make it as seamless andeasy for them as possible,
because we're not trying to makemore stress for anybody here.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Right, right.
Remove the element of shamethat often is coupled with
mental health issues.
Absolutely yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Remove that stigma from there.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
That's the nice thing about that that tide is kind of
changing with the way thatpeople view.
You know our mental health,mental health and physical
health.
It's just both aspects of ourhealth.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
If we can have the right resources for either one,
we take advantage of it andthere should be no shame in
asking for it.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
So is there anything else on prevention that you
since we're on that topic thatyou want to throw in there?

Speaker 2 (33:32):
I think those are the big four that we were talking
about, right, that that hospitalto community transition, those
wellness visits that we doregularly, that mental health
co-response, and then folding innow this nurse information line
, right.
We hope that those four thingswill hopefully prevent either

(33:53):
people's issues from gettingworse or maybe prevent them from
having to access 911, right andjust really help them out.
And then, if we fold a part ofthat personal care in with the
next pillar that Derek wastalking about, education,
because education, you know,that's a big part of CARES

(34:14):
education services, so we offerclasses, but also part of
education is personal.
So people need education abouttheir disease process, they need
education about how to care forwhatever's going on, or
education about their medicineregimen, anything like that.
And that's what Derek provideson a one-on-one level in

(34:35):
addition to education.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
Which is so much more consumable than being inundated
as you're being discharged fromsomewhere.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
Absolutely.
A lot of what my patients hearis like yeah, I got the
discharge paperwork.
Nurse came by, told me this,this and that I was more
concerned about why my monitor,why the monitor was beeping next
to me in the bed um, yeah, youknow why I was tangled in this
and this and that.
So yeah, having thatreinforcement as well, like just
so individualized education.

(35:04):
Okay, what did you hear aboutwhat the nurse said?
I would go ahead and reinforceit.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Right.
Well, and that's something elseto look at is when you go to
the hospital or you're in the ER, the people who are giving you
care see this stuff every day.
It becomes part of their everyday.
So they kind of lose sight.
Sometimes not all, not all, Ipromise ERs, I'm not dogging on

(35:31):
everybody they lose sight of thefact that maybe the person
sitting there is not as familiarand may not know.
You know, I remember aninstance with a grandmother
being in the hospital and wewere all waiting and waiting and
waiting for test results tocome back hours and hours.
And so when I went and foundthe nurse, she's like oh well,
everybody went home.
I go, excuse me.

(35:53):
I mean, every family's got thatone member who loses their mind
on the floor at some point andrallies everybody up for answers
.
That was me.
I had everybody in there and Isaid my grandfather, who's 90 is
standing here, has been herefor hours and you guys haven't
updated us at all about any ofit.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
You know they just hospitals are notorious for that
yeah, one way to look at it too.

Speaker 3 (36:22):
And you know I can say this.
You know, freshly I did a bunchof clinicals as a nurse and I
did a lot of clinicals as aparamedic so I got to see both
sides of the world, per se, Iwill say on the nursing side,
especially in the ED.
They call it chaos coordinationfor a reason.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Right.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
There's usually it depends on the hospital right
the nurse-to-staff ratio.
Sometimes you have one to four,one to five, sometimes it's one
to two if there's criticalpatients.
So looking at that and lookingat what CARES does right, a lot
of what we do on CARES isone-on-one.
That's the ratio I always dealwith.
Normally In the ER setting orhospital setting they're dealing

(37:02):
, you know.
I've heard some places in COVIDthey had 15 patients and
they're dealing.
You know, I've heard, I'veheard someplace in COVID they
had 15 patients.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
And they're busy, I get it.
They're not there just tocoddle me and make me feel
better, I get that.
But sometimes a little insightas to what's going on around you
is game changing.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Wow, I like the individualized.
So you've we've talkedprevention, we've talked
response.
That leaves us education andyou've touched on it a little
bit.
So why don't you guys go aheadand get into that topic?
Let's see what's what?

Speaker 3 (37:34):
Yeah, Like we just talked about kind of
self-education.
We do a lot of that.
It could be medication, couldbe a disease process, like Mark
was saying.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Again, big component is education, if you're educated
you know what's going on.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Hopefully that is preventative right so you know,
again, being proactive insteadof reactive in all these
situations.
Um then, the other component ofthe education is we do a lot of
community education per se.
That's what we call it.
So that is your cpr classes.
Stop the bleed classes we havethe safe sitter class.
I think we all know what cpr is.
Tell us what.
Stop the bleed classes.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
We have the safe sitter class.
I think we all know what CPR is.
Tell us what stop the bleed is.
I think it describes itself,but just in case, let's see what
you got.

Speaker 3 (38:15):
Well, like you said, it's literally stop the bleed
techniques.
But to dive in a little bitdeeper in the class you'll learn
how to pretty much bandage awound.
You'll learn the differentdegrees of a wound.
You'll learn how to apply atourniquet.
In my class I have people applytourniquets themselves to see
how much, how painful it couldbe, right, the importance of it.

(38:36):
And we do have actually a dummyarm that she kind of throws
blood out.
So you know, show you how topack a wound.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
The thing about that is, sadly, in the world that we
live in now that that's an issueright.
Right, we have active shooterscenarios that people are
worried about.
So if you think about that, inan office-type setting, a school
setting, even within our citygovernment, at the courthouse or
at city hall, anywhere whereyou have a large group of people

(39:01):
, these classes then teach thosethat are on scene how to
mitigate injuries so that thepeople can basically stay alive
until they can get definitivecare at the hospital.
So some of that Derek's talkingabout.
Right, Do you know how to applya tourniquet?
Do you know how to stop activebleeding from a gunshot wound?

(39:23):
There's different stop thebleed kits now that are more
commonplace.
They're posted oftentimes nextto AEDs at different office
parks or in city buildings.
We have stop the bleed kits.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
I think we have one.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
We do Right here in City Hall.
We have stop the bleed kitsposted on each floor at City
Hall and then also next to theAEDs at the courthouse.
So that's something thatanybody in the community can
take advantage of.
It's a free service.
We offer those classes.
Normally those are duringbusiness hours.
But yeah, there's large officeparks down off of Deerfield

(39:59):
Parkway.
There's office buildings evenright in through here in
Crabapple where you can receivethat sort of education, that
sort of training, for free.
We'll come in, we'll come toyour location and teach.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
And so organizations can reach out to y'all and get
it scheduled and get theiremployees their staff trained.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yeah, we do those CPR classes again for businesses,
homeowners, association groups,your softball team, your kids'
soccer team coaches.
That's one thing that we doevery year is we partner with
Parks and Rec to teach thecoaches that come out to all of
our city facilities so teachthem CPR.

(40:41):
We can teach them stop thebleed too.

Speaker 1 (40:44):
So I think it's important to note that the CPR
classes yes, they teach you CPR,but they do not give you a
certification.
Is that correct, that is?

Speaker 2 (40:51):
correct.
We offer the same sort oftraining though.
Yeah, because we want everybodyin the community to know how to
do CPR, so we offer the sameclass for free, just to make
sure that everybody's trained inhow to operate CPR and an AED,
and then, when they're done, wetry and get them to sign up for
the PulsePoint app, which is alocal application, go ahead and

(41:14):
talk about it.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Within our city where it will alert you if someone's
experiencing cardiac arrestwithin the locality.
So the whole point ofPulsePoint, of that app, is to
get whoever's trained on CPR tothe person experiencing cardiac
arrest the fastest.
Sometimes that's the firedepartment crew coming from the

(41:37):
fire station, but sometimes it'sjust the person within the
building that you're in in apublic place, that you all of in
a public place that you all ofa sudden find out on the second
floor of city hall someone'sexperiencing cardiac arrest.
And if you've got that pulsepoint app, well now you just
walk upstairs and you start CPR.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
And it'll send you notifications.

Speaker 3 (41:55):
Yes, or is it?

Speaker 1 (41:56):
something that you have to keep open.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
It'll send you a notification, kind of like a
text message.
Oh, I got you literally pop upand it will ask you if you want
to respond and click yes.
It'll literally Google map walkyou to the location, right to
the person.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
It's so amazing and I will be sure to include
PulsePoint in the show notesbecause I think that's important
to highlight that we do havethat program and it is available
and it's a free.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Right, it's a free service service.
So yeah, we, what we do is atthe end of each of our CPR
classes we we show a littleslide about pulse point and we
try and get everyone just tosign up for the app right down
there.
So the more people in thecommunity we can have to sign up
for, that, it's just going tobe better for us long-term.
I mean, hopefully we never haveto use it, right it's our hope
that, but you know we want tomake sure that anyone who's

(42:41):
trained in CPR is going to bealerted so that they can use it,
because why get trained for itif you don't ever want to use it
?
But you want to be availablejust in case.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
Yep Like insurance Exactly, and we all love
insurance.

Speaker 2 (42:58):
But we talked about Stop the Bleed and CPR.
We also have a program that wejust rolled out this past summer
called safe sitter.
So, and one of our we stillhave some cares part-time medics
.
Uh, they work for our firedepartment and they help fill in
when Derek's off and he can'tagain he does get time.

(43:18):
We want them to be refreshed atwork, so when he's off, they'll
fill in for him.
Them to be refreshed at work,so when he's off, they'll fill
in for him.
And one of our cares medics,brandy Sadowski.
She's a mom, so she wentthrough the safe sitter course
to learn how to be a safe sitterinstructor and what safe sitter
is is so you know if, if you'regoing to have or going to hire

(43:39):
a 13 year old or 14 year old or12 year old young lady to come
babysit your children, you wantto make sure that they know what
to do in the event of anemergency.
So that's what this classinstructs them on is okay.
What do you do if your child, ifyou see a child that's choking,
you know, or something happensto them?
How do you determine if it's areal emergency where you need to

(44:01):
call 911, or is it somethingthat you can handle, and if you
can handle it, we'll show youhow to handle it?
So she teaches that right on.
And then there's little stufftoo.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
It's beyond just that , right correct yeah, there's um
, like weather relatedemergencies, um proper technique
to change a diaper because,yeah, surprisingly, a lot of
people don't know and there's alot of stuff you gotta look out
for honestly you know and whendoing doing that, just looking
as a nurse the amount ofinfections and stuff that could
happen from it, so veryimportant.
And then also it teachesbusiness skills at the end.

(44:32):
How to help out this persontaking the class.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
How to negotiate your rate that's right.
How to market yourself.
Yeah if you've got a young onethat wants to become a
babysitter and they want to takethat on in the summertime,
she'll teach that class.
Now there's there's a littlecost involved in that.
All of our other classes arefree, but safe sitter provides
books and curriculum and acertificate at the end.
So I think it was at $75.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
It is $75.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Yeah, that's the cost for that class, but we've been
lining those up on every fewmonths on a Saturday, so we've
got some coming up for 2025.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Yeah, perfect, and we'll keep those.
Those dates are usually pushedout definitely on our website
and I know it goes out on ourFacebook page as well when those
are available and, from what Iunderstand, they fill up pretty
quickly.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yeah, those get snapped up, usually within about
a week.
Which one SafeSitter,SafeSitter.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Yeah, how many attendees do you have?
Do you accept?

Speaker 3 (45:25):
So usually about 12.
That's kind of our trainingroom what can hold, and it's
about an eight-hour class.
We want people to becomfortable.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
Kind of keep them fresh.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
And those generally take place over at 43?
Correct Right.

Speaker 2 (45:36):
On a Saturday.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
We've kind of talked about all the pillars.
Talked about all the pillars.
Do y'all have any warm, fuzzystories or any kind of most
memorable moment that you?

Speaker 2 (45:51):
can share out of the benefits of this program.
It's Derek, yeah, you shouldtalk.
Share that story about, uh yeah, I got you with the at the
out-of-town mom it was police.
Remember that she was callingthe cops to get her a diet coke.
Yeah, multiple times a day,like every day.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
No, yeah, this yeah chief griffin's gonna get me
well, actually so not not to notto roast on bd though yeah, she
called 9-1-1, um all the time,yeah, requesting a diet coke,
and it got pushed to me becausethey were like oh, this sounds
like your domain, let's go see.
So I go over there to her houseand kind of see what's going on

(46:29):
, because this obviously isreally not one for a.
Diet Coke, necessarily right.

Speaker 1 (46:34):
Probably not your first option.
Maybe to some people it's anemergency, but yeah right.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
So you know it's a way to raise the suspicion, like
what's going on?
Right.
So I go over there and kind oftalk to her a little bit and try
to see what's going on.
And you know she told me astory about how police would
bring her a Diet Coke all thetime.
So I did call the policedepartment, you know, and I was
like hey, do you guys know thisaddress at all?

(46:59):
And they're like I have no ideawhat you're talking about.
So there's a little bit of racesuspicion there.
And kind of looked at hermedicines, you know, because
she's like I need this Diet Coketo take my medicines.
That's essentially what it was.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Right.

Speaker 3 (47:10):
So I was taking a look at her medicines and kind
of going to start putting apicture of the medical history
from there.
So I would ask her to leave.
At the time she had renalissues, I think.
So I was like, okay, hey, dietcoke probably not your best,
yeah, sodium, you know, we knowyou too well, but I'm telling
you you need water.
And she's like well, I don'tlike water.
I'm like, well, unfortunately,it's gonna be your best thing.

(47:32):
So you know, I talked to her alittle bit and I found out she
lived by herself, got got toknow her a little bit more and
kind of get her social what wecall the social assessment okay
and kind of like understand herfamily dynamic.
Where's her closest family?
Who did we need contact in caseof emergency?
And she was a little bit on theolder side so she was like no,
I live alone.

(47:52):
I looked at the house.
I could see obviously somedamage, like there was.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
She wasn't able to get up either, right to like go
get her own water, to get herown.
Yeah, she was stuck in a chair.

Speaker 3 (48:04):
So yeah, so yeah, deep, diving into it more, and
it got her the water and waslike hey, I think you should go
to the hospital just to getchecked out, like, are you able
to get up?
And she said no, andunfortunately, in ems
pre-hospital medicine if aperson is technically alert and
oriented and we ask them aseries of silly questions and
and they can answer them, thenwe have to go abide by what they

(48:26):
say.
We can't take anybody.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
You can't force someone to go to the hospital,
even though if you feelmedically, yeah, it would be in
their best interest.

Speaker 3 (48:35):
Yes, so we obtained the refusal and I was like
here's my number If you need tocall me, yada yada, so I get a
call next day.
Same exact thing, and she was alittle more irritated this time
by me saying I'm not bringingyou a diet coke.
We already had this this bringyou some water yeah, so I went
over there and brought her water.
Um kind of noticed that shehasn't moved in from her

(48:57):
location.
Um, from there looked a littlebit deeper and saw her ankle
looked a little bruised.
She had been again.
She hasn't moved, so she hadbeen soiling herself in there,
first thing that you know.
I kind of thought was, okay,she needs to get to a hospital,
something is not right, and kindof started going down the line,

(49:22):
went down the A&O times againand she still denied, denied,
denied, you know any transport.
So I was like, well, at leastlet me clean you up and get you
fresh clothes at minimum yeah sowe did that, got her all
cleaned up um, got her situatedand I was like I need to call
somebody because I can't justleave this person here yeah you
know, and she got angry I.

(49:43):
I get it, you know it's fine,but I called her daughter and
her daughter was actually out ofstate and was like I'm coming
down right now.
So she came down within thenext day.
She was at the house, shecalled me and she's like hey,
how do I facilitate getting hertaken to the hospital Because
we're not doing this?
You know there's something isnot like her and I told her okay

(50:03):
, this is what I suspect iswrong with her as a uti, just
based off all this informationyou've been giving me and at
this point, her mental statushas been altered because, it's
progressed to a point.
So eventually we got her there.
We got her to the hospital,yeah, diagnosed with the uti so,
and kind of facilitated hergetting to an assisted living
facility, explained to thedaughter like, hey, let's take

(50:26):
care of all the house stuff andwhat can we do to help you in?

Speaker 1 (50:29):
that aspect.

Speaker 3 (50:30):
And yes, I would say she's one of the success stories
that unfortunately, we caughtthat one.

Speaker 1 (50:36):
Somebody else would have skated past it and taken
the no.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
thank you Well the daughter never would have even
known right.
The mom wasn't calling thedaughter.
The daughter was completely inthe dark as to what was
occurring.
She was just going to keepcalling for a Diet Coke every
day.
I think what was happening isshe had a personal number for
one of the police officers andso whenever he was on duty he
was just bringing her a DietCoke.

(50:59):
But it's just, Derek identifieda need, he took care of her,
not just getting her thereferrals, but I mean he
physically cleaned her up,helped her out, called her
daughter in another state,informed her daughter of what
was going on, who came down thevery next day and then made sure
that her mom was taken care of.

(51:20):
So that kind of yeah, it gets itall the way, from the very
beginning to the very end, um ofof the care that she wasn't
getting, helping her daughternavigate through all of it and
then get the care that sheneeded.
So that stuff like that ithappens, you know, on occasion
and UTIs.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
I'm not going to lie, they're tricky because,
nobody's going to immediately go.
Oh, it's a UTI and it doescause confusion and at one point
, like with my grandmother, she,she, couldn't speak.
Right, she had one so bad thatshe could not even speak, so she
couldn't advocate for herself.

(51:59):
If they're not treated, thosepeople will die yes, even though
we all know it still happens.
And now we got to take grandmaback to the hospital.
Well, it's a utah and she'slike well, I drank my water.
She had one little bottle, notgonna lie, she had one little
bottle that had water in it andshe would sip on it and so we're
talking made of all of eightounces in a day, but I've been

(52:22):
drinking water all day.
Okay, you need like eight ofthose exactly a minimum a
minimum right, and even thenit's still hard to keep an older
person hydrated absolutely yeah, and that's the other thing too
.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
You know, the older you get, things break down a
little bit more.
So you know, it's kind of likean older car sometimes a little
bit more effort, yeah, a littlemore maintenance, exactly.
So, yeah, you know another story.
Um, you know this was a lotshorter, but um, kind of like
showing a little bit on theresponse side is.
You know, I responded to a 911call an actual um event for a

(52:54):
low blood sugar incident.
Uh, found out the crew's beenthere the night before for the
same issue.
So we fixed her up, got her um,you know the glucose she needed
to get the blood sugar back up.
Um, however, vital signs weretrending towards what we thought
was sepsis oh so we were veryconcerned for her and she didn't

(53:14):
want to go to the hospital.
And there was again doingsocial assessment, being there
with a family member andexplaining like, hey, this is,
this is what's going on.
And you know, I was able torelease the engine because and
the rescue at the that time- Igot this one yeah.
We're somewhat stabilized rightnow.
Um, really, what she needs todo to go to the hospital?
Um, even the ambulance had toleave at that point and I stayed

(53:37):
on that scene for four hourswith her um, giving her
education, giving her thedifferent things that we're
looking at and really explainingto her deep down.
you know pretty much almost aphysiology class with her about
kind of what's going on in thebody right now.
This is why you need to go tothe hospital.
Thankfully, eventually she wentand yeah, she had to go to ICU.

(53:58):
She was in a septic shock.

Speaker 1 (54:00):
Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Caught that one before it came into rest.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
But now she's doing well, she's out so he has the
ability or the freedom with hisschedule to spend extra time
with people.
Right, you can't keep a fireengine on scene for someone who
doesn't know if they want to goto the hospital or not for four
hours, right you?
Just, we don't have thatability or that luxury.
So it really is.
And then, through therelationships that he builds

(54:30):
when he's on scene, he's able tobuild trust so that they
eventually make the decisionthat would be best for their
long-term health.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Because somebody took the time to talk to them and
not lecture them and not pushthem and tell them what they're
doing wrong, because nothingwill make somebody dig their
heels into the sand more thansomebody telling you you're
wrong.
I'm right, you've got to go3,000%.

Speaker 3 (54:50):
Wow, exactly.
And you gotta, you gotta meetpeople that were there.
Right, you do.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
I love it.
Is there anything else you guyswant to include in this for our
listeners to know about theprogram?
I again, all the informationwill be in the show notes.
I want to make sure we didn'tforget anything.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
I think we've covered it well.
It's just I want to encourageanybody within the community is
just, don't feel bashful aboutreaching out.
Yeah Right, you know there's.
There's easy ways to get incontact with us.
If you go on the website andsearch cares, you're going to
find an email address, derek'swork cell phone.
If you you know you yourself oryou have a family member or

(55:30):
you're just having a hard timefiguring out what to do when it
comes to what resources you needto take care of your health or
any sort of education that youfeel like you would like for
yourself or for your business,just feel free to shoot us an
email, give us a call.
We'll talk about it.
We'll do our best to help.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
I love that.
This is amazing.
I'm really impressed because,as I said, I'm kind of new and
learning, and I'm reallyimpressed with the level of care
that you all are able toprovide the community, because
they deserve it that you all areable to provide the community
because they deserve itAbsolutely.
We love it Perfect.
Mark Derek, thank you so muchfor joining us today and sharing

(56:10):
all the incredible work you'redoing through the CARES program.
It's very clear that thisinitiative is making a profound
impact on our community andwe're so very grateful.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
Thank you, Thank you Kristen.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
And to our listeners.
Thank you for tuning in.
If you'd like to learn moreabout the CARES program or get
involved, be sure to visit theCARES page on.
Visit us online atwwwmiltongagov for resources,
news and upcoming events.
Until next time, thanks forbeing part of the conversation

(57:11):
and we'll see you on the nextMilton and Maine.