Episode Transcript
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Music.
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You're listening to Honestly Aging by Friends Life Care Vigor,
a podcast where we explore what it's like getting older, the peaks,
the valleys, and everything in between.
In this season of Honestly Aging by Friends Life Care Vigor,
we're covering topics related to vibrant aging.
I'm your host, Sheryl Proska. Let's grow old together.
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On today's episode, I'm joined by two of my colleagues from Friends Life Care,
Joe Connor and Katie Sarantino.
Joe currently serves as the interim president and CEO of Friends Life Care Partners.
In this role, he oversees the day-to-day operations of both Friends Life Care
Partners and Friends Life Care.
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Before stepping into this position, Joe was the executive vice president of
Friends Life Care Partners and its subsidiary corporations.
Katie Starantino is our Director of Wellness Initiatives at Friends Life Care.
She brings a wealth of expertise as a licensed clinical social worker,
a certified dementia practitioner, and licensed counselor in Pennsylvania,
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along with a master's degree in social work and education.
Joe and Katie, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.
And how are you both doing today?
Thanks, Cheryl. Just very happy to be here today. Yes, thanks for having me
back. I'm a second-time guest, and I'm excited to be here.
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And today, we're kicking off the second season of the Honestly Aging podcast
by discussing the results of a survey we recently sent to Friends Life Care
members about vibrant aging.
Joe and I will start by going over the key findings from the survey.
Then Katie and I will delve into how we're incorporating this valuable feedback
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into our wellness initiatives.
But first, let me give our listeners some background on the survey itself.
As I was planning for this new season, I wanted to hear directly from our members
about their aging experiences and the topics they'd like us to cover to better
support them as they age.
In May, we distributed a survey and were thrilled to receive around 200 responses.
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These insights have been crucial in helping us select topics and guests for this season.
Considering the thoughtful responses from these 200 members,
I want to dedicate this episode to all of you who participated.
Your honest and heartfelt feedback has been instrumental not only in shaping
this podcast, but also in guiding the work we do at Friends Life Care.
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Thank you to everyone who took the time to share your thoughts.
I read every response and deeply appreciate the guidance.
I'm excited to share your insights with our audience today.
So I'm now going to welcome back Joe to discuss the results of the five-question survey.
The survey questions were, what are two to three decisions you made over the
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course of your life that you believe positively influence your aging journey?
How have you maintained purpose and passion as you've gotten older,
or is this a challenge you are facing?
What is the single most important thing to you at this stage of your life?
What does the term triumphant aging mean to you?
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And what topics do you want to learn more about to support you as you age?
So, Joe, before we dive into the individual questions I just reviewed,
are there any initial thoughts about the survey you'd like to share?
Thanks, Cheryl. I appreciate all the work you put into putting this survey together,
and I think the response rate we got was incredible. But first and foremost,
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I'm struck by the proactive and forward-thinking nature of our members.
The depth and breadth of the topics that they're interested in learning about
demonstrates a strong commitment to not only aging, but aging well.
Our members are clearly not content on a passive approach to their later years.
Instead, they're actively seeking knowledge and strategies to enhance every aspect of their lives.
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I was super impressed by that as well.
The dedication of our members who took this survey to lifelong learning.
And some of the responses made me laugh. Some of them were so heartfelt,
and we'll get into it more as we go along.
But how important the connection to others really came through for me.
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So I look forward to talking more about that throughout the episode.
So moving on to the five questions from the survey, what did you learn about
the decisions members made over
the course of their lives that positively influenced their aging journey?
So, you know, I didn't go in as depth that you did, but I certainly looked at all the responses.
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But to me, a few key themes emerged for me and what I think,
you know, we can really focus on.
And the first thing is the health and wellness, health and fitness are really critical.
Many of them talked about the importance of healthy eating, regular exercise
and quitting harmful habits like smoking and excessive drinking.
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Secondly, relationships were key. Having a supportive partner,
strong relationships, and close ties to families made a huge difference in a well-being.
I think from a third view, financial planning was essential.
They emphasized the importance of saving for retirement,
considering long-term care options like friends life care, and choosing meaningful
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work that had good benefits and put them in a good financial situation to be
able to thrive later in life.
I think another area was personal growth was important.
So in the responses, our members talked about pursuing education,
hobbies, and spiritual practices.
Even though we're a Quaker-based organization, we have many different spiritual
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backgrounds that our members practice.
And then really just to summarize, housing.
Housing decisions really matter. I think choosing the right work,
living environment, and staying connected to their communities and having friends
in their communities were also key factors in a positive aging experience.
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And overall, our members' journeys
show that aging well is about making a series of thoughtful choices.
We always talk about our members being planners and making thoughtful choices in life.
And it's about taking care of your body. It's about strong relationships,
planning for your future.
And finding meaningful purpose in every stage of your life.
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And I too wrote down with a big star next to it that I wanted to bring up how
we see in sales and marketing that the people we're interacting with who are
interested in Friends Life Care are planners.
We see a lot of people with that planner mindset. And sometimes with a couple,
we see one One person with a planner mindset and one person really not with a planner mindset.
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So that can be interesting for our plan counselor professionals to navigate.
Yeah, and us getting in contact with that one that is the planner,
obviously, from a marketing standpoint, is key for us to bring them on board
and add them to our wonderful membership team.
And just speaking about purpose, maintaining purpose can get more challenging
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as we get older because when we're like in our youth and adolescence,
there's school and there's activities and it's easy to make friends.
And then as we move into our 20s, that's also a time where some people choose
to couple up or some people are really getting dedicated into their career.
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Then maybe you get even more dedicated into your career or have a family.
And then as you get older, it gets more challenging because the things that
you're dedicating so much of your time to dissipate a bit.
So you have to work harder to maintain that purpose.
Well, I think we hear a lot from our members, you know, in all those stages
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you just mentioned, Cheryl, you know, where, you know, you're going through
the evolution of life. And I think when you are considering Friends Life Care,
you've already made a lot of big decisions.
And, you know, there's things that are happening at this point in your life.
You know, our average membership when they join is in their mid to late 60s.
So in a lot of cases, they're already retired. And you talk about purpose.
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You know, they had a purpose at their career for 30 plus years.
And finding things that really bring meaningful purpose to you after you've
left something that takes up a significant portion of your day,
your week, your year is really challenging.
And that's what I think our members do a great job with.
And we do what we can to help with them with goal setting and having things
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that we present in our care coordination team and what they do from an assessment
standpoint and interventions and just making sure that what they're doing and how they're doing,
they're doing it purposefully and they've made a decision.
If a member comes to us, they want to age in place and they have to have a plan
to be able to do that and we help them with that.
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And what a lovely segue. Look at my next question. How have members maintained
purpose and passion as they've gotten older or is this a challenge they're facing?
I think there's some overlap in all these questions. But I think from this From
this standpoint, I think our members talk about the importance of community, right?
And I just talked about, you know, once they've reached a point where I said,
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you know, overwhelming majority of our members are obviously at the later stages
of their career or already retired.
So importance of community is there, volunteering, joining groups,
staying connected with friends and family are all ways that,
you know, that you can maintain that meaningful purpose. Yeah.
Learning to grow is another big thing, big theme. You know, we're lifelong learning is, is important.
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I think to having a purpose later in life and, and having, being able to thrive
later in life and, and they, they stay active by taking up new hobbies,
learning new skills and, you know, challenging your mind.
If you're not challenging your mind consistently, you know, that's,
that's could be a real challenge to staying active and having a productive later term in life.
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Life even with facing these challenges that you know i think
we've shown they've shown an incredible resilience and
they find creative ways to adapt and keep going because you
know as you hit your 60s 70s and 80s there's things you can do and things you
can't do and being able to adapt to those those realities is really important
and of course staying physically active is and mentally active is is key exercising
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you know maintaining hobbies or creating new hobbies again like i spoke but
before, you know, having a spiritual background,
all play in keeping, you know, fully engaged and fully involved in remaining
in your home and having the ability to remain in your home.
Ultimately, our members are showing that aging is more than just surviving.
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It's about thriving. And, you know, that's the terminology, you know,
we're using all terminology, trying to be aging, vibrantly aging.
It's about, you know, ways of staying connected, keeping Keeping learning and
maintaining a sense of purpose and having a passion about life throughout life.
And I wrote down adapt and keep going. And I think that's a lovely way to summarize
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a lot of what I read in the survey responses where the people that took the
survey or members who took the survey,
they'd been through physical trials and tribulations or the people that they've been close to.
And obviously, as we age, we experience more life and we go through more things.
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So just being able to build that resilience,
not let the natural course of life drag us down, finding ways to maintain that
purpose and growth and mental stimulation really came through for me when I
was reading the results, too. Yeah, absolutely.
I think, you know, it's every stage we need to stay active and really,
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you know, actively engage in our life.
And if we slow down, it's tougher to get back up.
So I think that's a big key. And what I again, what our care coordination team
is really looking to do for our members is really keep them engaged,
keep them goal setting and meet them where they're at, you know,
where, you know, every member comes to us at a different stage in life.
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And it may be a different state of their physical health, their mental health.
And, you know, our care coordination team that is, you know,
multidisciplinary has, has the skillset to deal with, you know,
what our members are dealing with.
2,500 members are all dealing with different things. And our,
I think our care coordination team does a great job of.
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Meeting our members where they're at. So what are the most important things
to members at this stage of their lives?
Well, again, what I read was, I think it was clear in their responses that there
was, you know, what's important, their health, their relationships,
their independence, and their mental well-being.
I think all four of those things are really important for our members.
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They want to stay healthy and active. And we have members that,
you know, they join in their mid-60s And they're still traveling the world.
And, you know, we we keep in contact with them.
And I hear great stories of, you know, one of our members that was on our podcast
that, you know, does travels the world.
She might have been a member. It was it was an employee's mother.
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But, you know, it's at different stages of your life. You know,
they all have the ability to do things and they and they continue to do them.
So staying healthy and active, maintaining strong bonds with family and friends
and wanting to remain independent as long as possible.
You know, our members, you know, hear the story of joining the organization
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and their goal is to age in place.
And I think we do a great job of that. And the other thing is keeping their
mind sharp, you know, the ability to continually stay engaged and have that
ability to keep their mind active.
It's not just about surviving. As I said before, our members want to thrive.
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They want to control their lives and find meaningful relationships,
continue to grow and learn. and these insights are crucial for us as an organization
to be able to develop services and support them.
You know, we are constantly looking at different ways to support our members
and what we're hearing from them and what they want to see from us to reach
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the point where, you know, they can stay in care or stay out of care for as long as they can.
Would you prefer to age independently in your own home or live in a nursing facility?
I know what I'd rather do. Friends Life Care membership offers just that.
Plan today for a future lived at home with vitality, independence,
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growth, and resilience while protecting your savings.
Learn about your options at a free seminar or webinar.
Register at friendslifecare.org slash register or call 215-628-8964.
So moving on to our next question, what does the term triumphant aging mean to members?
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I do want to let everyone listening to the podcast know that before going with
the focus of this season of Vibrant Aging, I was going to go with Triumphant Aging.
That turned out to get some pretty strong feedback that Triumphant Aging was not the right way to go.
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So just a big thank you for whoever threw out Vibrant Aging in the survey results
because I borrowed your word and And that's what I'm going with.
So what else did they tell us, Joe?
Well, I'll say, you know, this is why we do surveys. I think,
you know, our internal marketing team came up with what, when I heard it,
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I thought was a great term, you know, triumphantly aging.
And we did hear some positive on that terminology.
You know, for many, it meant staying active, engaged, positive about overcoming
challenges and maintaining good health and finding purpose.
But we did have members that thought it was too idealistic. And from a Quaker
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base, it sounded like it was more like we were winning something, winning a war.
So I think that we definitely heard from our members about that terminology.
And we're going with vibrant slash vibrantly aging, correct?
Yes, correct. Correct. And I love that. I think that's, you know,
I think the fact that we asked the question and, you know, we get the response
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that we get that, you know, triumphally aging sounds good,
but there was definitely a better feel and a better outcome with probably using vibrantly aging.
So that's what we're going with. And to the members that brought up the association
with triumph and could associate it with winning a war,
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I try to be so focused on our mission and our Quaker values.
And as soon as I read, as soon as I read that, I said, we, I know we can't move
forward in that direction.
And I'm, again, I'm just very grateful that we did come up with a,
a similar, but a better, better wording, better phrasing that I hope resonates
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better with the people that listen to the podcast.
We're not winning aging. We're doing the best we can. And you know,
we vibrantly staying vibrant as possible for as long as we can.
It, it, it just sounds, It just sounds and it feels better than triumphantly.
So, and the survey got us to where we need to be. So it was great input.
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All right. Now, moving on to the topics. What topics do members want to learn
more about to support them as they age?
This, to me, was another one that was pretty clear, that health and wellness is top of mind.
And obviously, that's a key component of our program.
They're interested in everything from the latest medical breakthroughs to managing
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their specific health conditions.
We We have many members that have chronic conditions and our multidisciplinary
care coordination team has expertise in a lot of these, you know,
to be able to help manage the chronic conditions that our members have.
And wanting to know how to stay active, eat healthy, and explore alternative therapies.
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And Katie and you will talk a little bit more about what we do in our Vigor
programming and what this survey will help us even improve that.
But it's not just physical health. They're also concerned about financial planning
and their security, their financial planning and financial security.
They want to understand their options for retirement living.
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Obviously, Friends Life Care is the option they've chosen as being members,
but as they age, they need to understand how to navigate Social Security and how to prepare estates.
These are resources that we can put in their hands to help them better educate
themselves on those things.
And let's not forget the benefit of social connections.
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Our members want to know about local activities that can be done in their area,
volunteer opportunities, and how to combat ageism.
That's something that we've talked about a lot internally, and I think we can
do some more with how ageism is an issue for our members.
Beyond that, they're curious about the practical things like housing options.
They currently live in their home.
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98% of our members live in their home, but housing options, meaning downsizing
or going to a community if that's the absolute need to do that and understanding those options.
And then one of the things that I think is even becoming a greater concern,
issue, something they want to learn more about is technology.
We as an organization are We're committed to providing our services the most
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efficient, effective way possible, and that will be through technology.
And I think we have members that are hesitant to adopt certain technologies
because they're not comfortable with it.
So understanding that and educating them on the technologies that are out there
that help them age in place is really important.
And with that, you know, it's aging in place, new gadgets, you know,
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and finally staying mentally sharp.
I mean, there's technologies that can help you stay mentally sharp as well.
And ultimately, our members are looking for ways to live their best lives as they age.
They want to stay healthy. They want to be financially secure,
connect with others, and then engage with the world around them.
You know, I think isolation is a huge issue for older adults.
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And our ability to help them remain engaged in the world is really important for our members.
It stood out to me too about just how curious our members continue to be and
wanting to learn more about really what I found to be a wide variety of topics.
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And I loved that. I have, I'm doing my best to work with Katie as you're all
here on really finding the best people in the business out there to interview on topics.
So just if any of our listeners have any suggestions of topics or any guests,
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or if you would like to be interviewed, you have something to talk about,
I'd love to hear from you.
Yeah, I'm amazed every day when I hear from Care Coordination Team and through
this podcast, You know, the lifelong journeys and the experiences that our members
have and the skill sets that our members have is amazing.
And, you know, just hearing those stories and listening to the podcasts that
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have highlighted those things have just been amazing.
And I think as we continue this podcast, I think there's more and more that
we can highlight for our members that other members are doing and maybe connecting those members,
you know, in different ways to be able to to have that member that has a skill
set really highlighted for the rest of our members.
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Jo, thank you for discussing the results of the Vibrant Aging Survey with May.
I'm now going to welcome back Katie to share how Friends Life Care is going
to incorporate the feedback into our member wellness programming.
So welcome back, Katie. Thank you. Before we get into that, though,
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what, if any, insights might you like to share about the survey responses?
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Like you, I was also so thankful that people took the time.
What stuck out to me most was the vulnerability of the responses and the hope.
What I mean by this is people opening up to say things like,
I'm feeling lonely and I'd like more socialization opportunities,
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or I'm feeling some grief around recognizing my body can't do what it once did.
At the same time, there's this intense hope that comes through in the answers,
responses saying things like, I want to learn something new to challenge myself,
or I want to make a big change in my life. I'm ready to explore.
So both that hope and that vulnerability were really beautiful and poignant for me.
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Something else that came through a lot, for me, especially on the question,
what's most important to you right now?
Now, it was overwhelmingly geared toward people,
a spouse or a partner or a child or a grandchild or a special friend,
and how grateful people are that they invested in themselves as far as their
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physical and their mental health.
And I found that to be just so admirable and made me reflect on the importance
of the special people in my life, too. Definitely.
So, Katie, how can care coordinators aid our members in meeting the goals outlined in the survey? Okay.
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I'm so glad you asked that because I think when people hear the care in Care
Coordinator, they think they
have to wait until they need care to utilize their coordination benefit.
The fact is that the word care in Care Coordination means we care about your health and well-being.
So you can reach out to your Care Coordinator for support on anything that will benefit your wellness.
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Some things I've seen Care Coordinators assist with are finding mental health
counselors, contractors for aging in place upgrades, housekeeping services,
and elder law attorneys.
And there's so much more. So what I would say is if you want to make a change
to benefit your wellness, talk to your care coordinator about it because you
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will be very surprised in how they can assist you.
And with my relationship with the team,
I have even reached out with questions or concerns that I've had for family
members and asked experts on the team to help me navigate some of the challenges
that come with having people in my life who are getting older.
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So I appreciate the team and all the expertise you have there.
Yeah. Joe mentioned it's a multidisciplinary team.
And while 2,500 members are unique people, there are similar goals that many of them have.
So it's likely if you're going through something, thing, we've experienced it and we can assist you.
And I'll add to that a big focus that I have with the podcast and the topics
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and the speakers who come on is really to let people know about different topics.
And if it's especially if it's a more sensitive topic, making sure that our
members and our listeners and our audience and our friends understand that it's
normal to to experience,
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you know, things that can be tough, some more challenging situations.
And hopefully it normalizes the experience a little bit and helps our members
feel more comfortable reaching out to us for help because we are here for you. Yeah, I agree.
So moving on to the wellness program, what do you have in store?
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So the question on the survey that stuck out to me the most while I was planning
the programming for the rest of the year and for 2025 was the question,
what is the single most important thing to you at this stage in your life?
I mean, that's such a big, important question. So I'm really limited on it.
And I wanted to be sure that we're addressing these topics.
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So folks talked about health and well-being as one of their most important items.
So with Vigor, you'll continue to see fitness offerings, an upcoming webinar
with a nutritionist, and a general focus on physical health.
Relationships were mentioned, and we're pushing out more in-person events both this year and next.
So we have some exercise classes in person, some history-type tours,
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some presentations with experts.
So our members will see all of those things. and relationship building through
socialization tied into some other top answers from the survey,
like community, cognitive health, and positive outlook.
We know that isolation can cause cognitive decline and depression,
so building community with other Friends Life Care members could have a very
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positive impact on cognition and outlook.
And to address members' interest I'm working with an elder law attorney for
some programming in 2025.
I'm also in talks with a physical therapist to offer an age-proofing your home
webinar that's going to address members' interests in independence and functionality.
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I'm so glad that you and your team were able to utilize the responses from our members.
And I always get a sneak peek at the programming that Katie has coming up and I'm so excited for it.
And I look at a lot of the results for the registration for your events and
super excited that we will be offering the fitness type classes.
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I know our members love that, the fitness, the yoga, and also just want to reiterate
about building community.
I hear through the grapevine that when we have these in-person events,
maybe it's a member meeting, maybe it's a bigger event,
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that sometimes the members start to form natural friendships or relationships
and that they are an opportunity to make some connections.
There have been some really beautiful stories of Friends Life Care members that
had never met before and now have just these lovely relationships.
And if you remember that's debating coming to something in person,
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but it feels a little scary to get out there again, just know that we have staff
there and we are actively introducing people and kind of removing that barrier.
So we know a little bit about both of you. We can make that introduction for you. Yeah.
So thank you so much for sharing your input, your thoughts, and introducing
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everyone to what you have in store.
I want to just ask now both of
you, any closing thoughts? I'll start with Katie and then we'll go to Jo.
I would just say I thank you all again for taking the time to give us some insight
into what you're looking for.
And I hope that you attend our events this year, 2025.
Really look forward to seeing you there.
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And just following on from katie i really appreciate all the members taking
their time to complete this survey i think the response rate was incredible
it gives us so much information to be able to.
Modify and build our systems and programs to really support what our members are looking for.
So again, I just really appreciate all the time and effort put in by our members
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to help us get to this point.
And we will continue to progress here because we have so much information and it's got to be fun.
Thank you, Joe. And thank you, Katie, for joining me today to share your insights
about the Vibrant Aging Survey and how we're using members' feedback in our wellness offerings.
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And thank you again to our members who participated in the survey. We truly appreciate it.
Thank you for listening to Honestly Aging by Friends Life Care Vigor,
a unique program focused on aging with vitality, independence,
growth, and resilience.
You can find links and show notes
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from this episode on our website at friendslifecare.org slash podcast.
Thank you to Joe Connor and Katie Starantino for joining us today.
You can learn more about Joe and Katie on Friends Life Care's website and LinkedIn.
If you like our show, please rate, review, subscribe, and join us next time.
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To learn more about aging with vitality, independence, growth,
and resilience, subscribe to our blog at friendslifecare.org slash blog.
Music.