Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pure, your host for this morning. And here we are
on another bright Sunday set No. Eight that we're in
all in New York. So it's raining again on a Saturday.
And if you listen to the show on a regular basis,
and you listened last week, I quoted some poetry from
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and the key line was, into every life,
a little rain must fall. We segued to Noah's Ark
(00:23):
and building the arc for your family from a financial
and legal perspective, and we're gonna carry that analogy right
through today's show because you know what, it's still raining
and there's flood warnings and thunderstorms and oh my goodness,
stay close to the radio, stay close to us. We're
gonna give you some information today that we think will
be helpful to you today but also into your future.
(00:45):
Because the show talks about legal planning, it talks about
financial planning. Not we don't do investments, but we coordinate
with financial advisors like Dave Kopek and Steve Bousche and
we make sure that the finances are in line with
the legal planning. We talk about insurance products and bring
our guests, our special guests, Bob Vandi in to talk
(01:07):
about life insurance and long term care insurance. But today
we're going to focus on the last piece, which is healthcare.
And healthcare is so important, and boy is it in
the news every day. The healthcare system has just become
so fractured, so fragmented, and so difficult to navigate, and
we'll talk about some of those experiences. We're going to
(01:29):
talk about how to plan, how to make sure that
you have the right resources available to you regardless of
what happens. The theme of the show is life happens,
and when you're living your life into that life, a
little rain will fall. It's just a matter of time
if you live long enough and you age into your
(01:51):
eighties nineties. I have my aunt Nettie one hundred and two,
and we all have people we know that have aged
through this process. What happens when you get to the
point where you need help, where you just can't function independently.
And in our society, we have more and more people
aging into their late eighties nineties, We have more and
(02:13):
more people who have disabilities, chronic illnesses. We are not
a terribly healthy society in America, and it results in
extremely high health care costs. And when you talk about
health care, you're looking at hospitals and doctors, and that
system is broken. But when you look at long term care,
(02:35):
the care that you need, which is not acute care,
it isn't going to the doctor and getting better. It
isn't getting a treatment, it's getting help that you need
to live day to day. And when we talk to
our clients, we talk to the people that listen to
this show, and we talk to the people that we
see at seminars. They want to live in an independent setting,
(03:00):
them in their own home, some in another home that
may be an apartment with some enriched housing, things like that.
All of those are options, but the bottom line is
you don't want to be in an institution. We live
our lives to build some economic security. We have social
(03:20):
security hopefully, we have maybe a pension. We have put
away money into a four oh one kira. We have income,
and we want that income to put us in a
place where we can live freely and independently. And then
that rainfalls and you get the diagnosis and you go
(03:40):
to your doctor and you've been a little bit forgetful.
But the doctor says, well, we think it's more than
just a little forgetfulness. You have some dementia and maybe
it's Alzheimer's type dementia, or you're not able to do
the things you used to do physically and you're starting
to just fumble the keys and drop things, and the
doctor says, oh, I'm sorry, you have Parkinson's, or you
(04:03):
have MS, or you have als. When those diagnoses hit,
they hit like a ton of bricks, and if you're
not prepared, it's going to take not only your mental
health and challenge that, but your financial wellbeing and your family,
and all of these things become overbearing to the families
(04:27):
that we work with because they're trying to put pieces
together of a puzzle that just don't fit. They're trying
to put pieces together to get a home health aid,
to bring home help in, to coordinate transportation services and
nutritional services, meals and health and help us if we
can get some socialization and recreation into the mix, into
(04:50):
a plan. So today we're very, very fortunate to have
with us experts in this field of bringing help to
you in your own home, and that company aptly named
is ever Home Care Advisors, and we have with us
today Diane Mikkel Gottabiowski. Good morning, Diane, Good morning. And
(05:13):
we also have with us one of the care coordinators
extraordinary from Everhome, Nina Crisanda. Good morning, Nina, good morning.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I am doing well? And Everhome is a is a
company based here in the Capital region, but they kind
of go in different directions, and we have with us
people who are doing this on a day to day basis,
and we're going to talk about the challenges that you
face and we hope that you're willing to share some
of those challenges and hopefully we can help you here
(05:41):
on the radio. So we're going to open up the
phone lines. It's eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine again eight hundred
eight two five fifty nine forty nine, And I'm going
to flip the script Nina, and I'm going to start
with you. Because you're out there in people's homes, you're
sitting with them. What background do you bring that helps
(06:05):
you pull these problems apart and kind of put solutions
back together for them.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So I have a very very wide variety of experience
through my years as a treating occupational therapist. So I've
worked with individuals with disabilities. I've worked in skilled nursing
and rehab facilities. I managed a residential site of an
(06:35):
independent living and an assisted living that covered around three
hundred residents that I did by myself. I also worked
for acute rehab, helping clients get in too acute rehab
understanding the right levels of care. And then in twenty
twenty four, I transitioned to my role here at ever Home,
(06:55):
where I get to do everything I've ever wanted to
do for my clients, which is meeting clients where they
are prioritizing their needs and goals to protect their independence
and their dignity and their overall quality of life.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And families just get hit with this. Most of them
are not prepared. It's a job that I when I
had to be a caregiver for my mom who had Alzheimer's,
it was like Holy cow. I'm an elder law attorney.
I do this for a living. I counsel people doing
this for a living, But when it's you, it's a
whole different perspective. So how do you coordinate the families
(07:34):
and what are the methods that you use to bring
the families together to help put this plan of care together,
because Lord knows, my family was not in agreement on
what that plan of care should be. You know, should
we put mom in an assisted living? Well, well, wait
a minute, Mom wants to be in her own home
and most people do.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So if the question is is as simple as that,
potentially we could spend just an hour on the phone
or meeting together depending on locality of people, and just
have a frank discussion of the loved ones desires because
at the end of the day, that is what matters,
and then what's actually feasible, So figuring out and educating
(08:21):
on what level of care is most appropriate if it's
assisted living, enhanced memory care, skilled nursing, and all of
the places in between, enrich housing and things like that.
So it could be a little call like that, or
it could be me doing the legwork to find exactly
the match for your loved one.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And we have a caller right out of the gate,
Leonard from sco Harry, Good morning, Leonard, Welcome to life happens.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I kind of take care of my mother in law
and we're running into a problem and maybe you have
a suggestion. The the since we started a PPL. It's
been really hard to find a source to find aids.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Now.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I know there's a shortage on aids, but before PPL,
there used to be representatives that could give her some
names and give her some numbers or send somebody to
her house. And now we're kind of lost. We hate
to just run ads in the paper because you never
know what's going to show up.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Why did you open up?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Is there any platforms or anything like that where she
can get AIDS without going through an agency where they're
assigned tour.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
You are you're talking to the right folks, because Nina
and Diane do this on a daily basis. PPL just
for our listeners, and I think I have to give
a little bit of background on what PPL is and
what's going on in that system. We have something called
the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Plagment and that's cd PAP
(09:59):
is it's nickname. And CDPAP is a program where you
can find your own aids, put them through a system,
and have that system then pay them through the state
and the state payroll. Is it used to be locally?
I'll throw names out there, and I don't know if
you were working with Consumer directed Choices but at one point,
(10:23):
and we've had them on this show in the past
and we worked with them extremely closely. At one point,
there were six hundred what they call fiscal intermediaries agencies
locally that help families like yours find care, coordinate care,
do the things you need to do to make the
system work. And the state and Governor Hockle decided that
(10:45):
they wanted to have not six hundred, but one single
fiscal intermediary. And you're not alone in this, Leonard. There
are two hundred and eighty thousand people who were using
the Consumer directed program in January first, they all had
to start going through this new enrollment process with PPL.
(11:05):
They had to put their aids on the PPL payroll,
and two hundred and eighty thousand people were supposed to
have been enrolled by April first. Well, needless to say,
that didn't happen. There is litigation, there are lawsuits, there
are injunctions. It's gotten very hot and heavy in terms
of the state's handling of this. But Nina has worked
(11:27):
with families through this process, and I'm going to flip
it to Nina to talk about her experience in helping people,
because what choices used to do. You don't get from
the agencies anymore. You need a private health advocate and
that's what Nina is. So, Nina, talk about your experience
with cd PAP, the Consumer Directed Program and the state
(11:49):
of play right now in helping families like Leonards fine
care and coordinate with that fiscal intermediary.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I've had quite my time.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I'm on hold with PPL and working with PPL, coordinating
with one fiscal intermediary, also with VNS, trying to figure
out what the exact story was, what the exact route
and process we needed to do. Recently, so one of
(12:20):
my clients lost his hours from one hundred and twelve
to thirty two. We had to fix that. He lost
four months of his authorization date. We had to fix that.
He then now most recently lost one of his caregivers,
so now he only has two gargivers for one hundred
and twelve hours a week. PPL said, oh, you need
(12:43):
a new authorization for this. VNS said, no, you don't,
just cover the hours, and luckily VNS was right. So
my friend gets to enjoy the people that he has hired,
that he is close with, and gets to continue receiving
their care.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
So, Leonard, where are you in the process right now?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Well, she has three aids. One of them is kind
of a primary, but they're all part time. They all
just work a couple of hours. She has sixty three
hours a week and she needs to fill the midday
aid because she lost one and we're having a hard
time trying to figure out where to get that from.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So that this is the question of the day, and
it's like finding the UNI.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
She is enrolled in PPL, so she's got.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Our hours approved. It's just a matter of now finding
the aid to fill the outs.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, she's got the aids. She has some aids that
and she's got one that's really good. That's why she
doesn't want to go with an agency because they were
through the CDPAP program.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
That's right, and that's so important. And we've worked with
our clients and our firm does a lot of medicaid work,
so we helped get medicaid eligibility, which you need to
qualify for this.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
For this she has medicaid for.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
The Consumer directed program. So that's part of it. That's
the legal part of it. But what you're in now
is the care portion, and that is kind of beating
the bushes to try to find find that aid. There
are some resources, There are some online resources and Diane,
Diane Mikkel Gottabiowski, who has worked in home healthcare and
is a licensed physical therapist, what are some of the
(14:21):
resources that you can bring to bear and what does
everhome do to help families through this crisis.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
So, Leonard High and I understand your pain and trying
to find these individuals. And it's not like you can
just go to a website. And there are websites out there,
of course.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
And actually I've actually sent feedback to Craigslist that they
ought to do a platform for patients and aids where
they can post things and connect to each other.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
There are some of those resources out there that Diane
is familiar with.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
Absolutely our different resources and I don't want to start
naming lists here, but if you go on the internet,
but the question is it's the internet, right. We're all
cautioned to not just blindly search for people, but we
get into a situation we're kind of desperate because we
(15:19):
need these hours filled, and many of our clients, you know,
get into this position what we do, and we're here
to talk about our services. So I'll just you know,
I'll say that that's exactly what I'm doing. But what
we can do, or another care management company can do,
is use the resources that we have, the people that
(15:41):
we have connected with. We have found private aids for
other people. We know about registries, which is where aids
can go to register their services, and we can connect
people with a registry and we can give people advice
on how to search, and we can do some of
(16:01):
that legwork for people as part of our services. But
it isn't easy, Leonard, And I'm not going to tell
you that. You just go out there and out here,
call this number and you'll you'll find someone. You're in
Scohari County, correct.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Now she's in Schenectory.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
She's okay, So that makes it a little bit better.
We certainly serve people in Scohari and some of the
outlying counties where there's not a population density.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So and your officers are right in schnector.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
Aren't We just moved our offices to Schenectady. Yes, we did,
And so we have contacts. We're a pretty tight network
of people our company, other care management companies, community based organizations.
And I'll tell you that we contact with churches, with
other types of organizations who have people who do this
(16:53):
kind of work. But the key is to be able
to have some I don't want to say control, but
control is the word, or have some assurances that who
you're getting in your home you're comfortable with, and we
can help with that process as well.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Leonard, can you stay with us because we have to
take a short break. I want to keep this conversation
going because this is really the topic of the day
and you've let us right into it. So if you
could stay with us, sure, Okay, I'm going to take
a short break and we'll come back and we're going
to flesh this out. How to find care, how to
get care, how to coordinate it, and how to vet it.
(17:31):
How to make sure that the caregivers that you're putting
in the home, because this is a very sensitive job,
are the right people and that they're doing the right things,
and how do you monitor the care once it's in
the home. And we'll talk about all of that on
Life Happens. You'll be back with us hopefully right after
the break every Saturday morning here at nine am on
w Guy, stay with us, Welcome back. I'm lupirol live
(17:57):
in studio with two very special guests. Diane MCA got
to Biowski of ever Home Care Advisors along with her
care coordinator, Nina Cressanda. We're talking about how to find care,
coordinate care, make the families job doable. And I'm just
gonna throw a little anecdote out there because I did
this twenty five years ago with my mother who had
(18:17):
Alzheimer's and many of these resources didn't exist then, and
you know, she was not on Medicaid, but we still
couldn't find agencies in her hometown. There were just I
called every agency there were three in that community, and
every agency that I called said, Nope, we don't have
any staff. And I think that's something that's a common
experience when the well is dry in many of these agencies,
(18:39):
they just don't have the people. So the consumer directed
program is there to fill that gap, so you can
go out and find your own people, hire them, and
have them paid by the state. But we were just
we used a care manager back then, and this is
how I kind of got involved with care management. Gentlemen
by the name of Joe Jackson and Joe if you're
listening over there in Lenox, Massachusetts. Good morning. But Joe
(19:00):
went and he put ads in the newspaper. You mentioned this, Leonard,
He actually put ads in the paper. Back then the
paper was a thing and that was all online, but
he put ads in the paper. He got twenty twenty
five resumes or letters. He screened them, he narrowed it
down to five people. My sister and I interviewed those
five people. We chose two of the five. Joe trained them,
(19:22):
indoctrinated them, showed them how to keep records, how to
keep the notebook on the refrigerator. We'll talk about that
in a minute. To make sure that we're tracking all
the care and we kept my mom at home for
about three and a half years with Alzheimer's with these
two aids, and they stayed with her for those whole
three and a half years. That's kind of the genesis
for me of the whole care management, but also why
(19:43):
consumer directed is so important, because we got to choose
who those people are. And so let's go back and
Diane just flesh it out a little bit more as
to some of those resources, and you mentioned one of them, Leonard.
But the whole PPL thing, and there's litigation all over
the place has put a chill in this whole market.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Sure, Leonard.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
There are different resources out there, such as care dot com,
which is a little bit you were talking about Craigslist
or someone having a registry or a list of people,
and care dot com does that. People who provide care
put their information on this site so that you can
connect with them. Sometimes we talk about it's like we're matchmakers,
(20:30):
but we're matchmaking for caregivers. Different organizations have registries. Consumer
Directed Choices now has a registry. What that simply means
is that they have they keep a list of people,
and they do some of the vetting of those people
and they put them on their list and they can
(20:51):
provide that list to you. You can do a search
by area, You can do a search by language you
need spoken and what kind of care could be provided.
And Nina and I both have you know, many contacts
in the area. Like I said, we have worked with
different agencies, but we've worked with different groups as well,
(21:13):
and we just get ourselves out there so that people
come to us and say, I provide care, and you know,
you can refer to me. And then once you get
to know somebody, and for example, we had a case
of a woman who she actually had a cancer diagnosis
and wasn't sure what to do, and she was alone,
(21:34):
and she had friends, but those friends were there to
visit her socially, so they took care of the social
isolation isolation piece, but she needed care, and we sat down,
we asked all the questions, we did an assessment of
the situation and determined that she was actually eligible for hospice.
(21:56):
And that's a whole other topic for a whole other day.
How people sometimes think of hospice as the last hurrah,
the last final weeks or days of life. So we
are able to look at what the needs are and
help point you in the direction of who should you
be contacting or what services are available to you, and
(22:19):
what's the right fit. But it's not easy. If I'm
sitting here sounding like it's easy, it's not. But that's
what we're paid to do and that's what our area
of expertise is and we have those connections.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
One of the things that's happening is the public resources
that are available are just overwhelmed. There are too many
people in need of care and too few resources that
the government can provide. So every home care Advisors is
a private organization, not a public organization, So yes, you
have to pay for services, but you get a professional
(22:52):
advocate to help you through the system. And sometimes in
today's world, especially with the PPL debacle that's going on
right now, that becomes necessary. So Leonard, you know, Diane,
why don't you give your number? Is Leonard gone?
Speaker 6 (23:10):
So with us?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Leonard Leonard might have left, but why don't you give
your contact information out? I'm here there you are, okay, thanks,
Diane said.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
She is Medicaid and low income, and I don't think
she can pay for it.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Okay. Does she have a pool trust? Is any of
her income over the one and twenty a month? No, okay,
all right, we have to take a news break, which
is not under my control. So we're gonna take a
short break for the news. Leonard, thank you so much
for your call. We're gonna come back and keep talking
about this. On the other side. Thank you for staying
(23:50):
with us, and Diane and Nina. We're gonna come back
and kind of pull this apart. And it is a
matter of resources and resource management, so let's talk about that.
You're listening the Life Happens Radio every Saturday, morning on
talk radio WGY be right back after the news. It'll
the rain will stop and the sun will come up someday,
maybe today later this afternoon. Looks like the sun may
(24:11):
peek out later and tomorrow is supposed to be a
decent day, So stay with that and hopefully get outside
tomorrow and do some of those wonderful spring things because
summer is almost upon us. We're into June. Did get
a little hot this past week, so the heat will
be ramping up through July and August. So hopefully you're
enjoying your indoor activities today and tomorrow you can get outside. Today.
(24:33):
We're gonna walk you through some things here on life
happens that are critical to families, critical to people planning
for this, And we talk a lot about crisis situations
because guess what, people don't plan They fall into the
crisis because mom has the stroke or breaks the hip
and ends up in the hospital and ends up going
to rehab and then getting a list of nursing homes
(24:55):
that she can go to because they don't have a
plan to bring mom back home. So how do you
plan for that? We're going to go through that in
this next half hour, But I want to go back
and segue to Leonard's call. His mom is on consumer
directed She is fighting the system with that consumer directed program,
a Medicaid based program which allows you to hire your
(25:18):
own aids and pay them through a system that is
now run by a single agency PPL that was brought
in by the state, and the local agencies that we're
helping people through this process are now out of business,
six hundred of them, or at least temporarily out of business.
We don't know because the litigation is still going on
and it's it's a chaos. So how do you get
(25:39):
through that chaos? And I know that some people on
Medicaid have absolutely no resources. When we do some planning,
we have something called a pool trust, and if your
income exceeds the level, which is one eighth and twenty dollars,
you can actually use that pool trust to hire professionals
to help you through the care process. So we help
(26:01):
as attorneys marshall resources and Nina, what would be the
first entry step for someone like Leonard who just needs
to get personal advice and walk through the situation to
see what resources are available to his mom in Schenectady,
New York.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So The first step would be that he would call
in and one member of our team would take down
all of his relevant information, so his name is contact information,
that kind of thing. If an LCC, a life care
coordinator like myself is available, I will get transferred the
(26:41):
call and we might do a one hour care consultation
at that moment.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
But we'll talk briefly about the situation.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And then we'll discuss the services that we offer, the
resources that might be available, and then we'll write a
summary and have a discussion on what might be the
best steps forward in that situation and what and what
is feasible.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So that's a professional consultation on what the care options are.
And usually you schedule that for an hour.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Usually it's an hour, yes, okay?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And what does something like that cost to get a
professional consultation?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
So a one hour consultation is two hundred and fifty dollars.
And in addition to an hour of the time we
spend together, there's other time that's used by me that
I'm writing up a summary, a little bit of time,
so that's.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
My boss looking. But so that's kind of a seems
like a reasonable entry point to get answers and just
get your questions answered. And we do the same thing
as attorneys. We offer free consultations if we think there's
going to be more to it and a big plan,
but we also offer paid consultations for people that want
(27:58):
to get legal questions answer. And so that's kind of
the same thing we're talking about here, a care consultation
where you can get answers, you can get a professional,
you get a little write up, get referred to resources
that you may not know about, and how to approach this.
So and that plays out all along the spectrum, whether
(28:19):
you're thinking way ahead and saying I just want to
talk to someone about my choices. What are my housing choices?
And there are a lot of them. It's not just
your own.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Home, that's right, there's tons of options. It depends on
the person's level of function and what their needs are
and what they want.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So we could say they.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Want assisted living, and we could look at all the
assisted livings and they could think they want one place,
but after a tour, they really want somewhere else, and
then we have to do an assessment and see if
they're a right fit for that place.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I have more and more clients coming in and saying
I'm tired of taking care of my house, and I'm
one of them. It's a lot of work to maintain
a private home. You have the outside maintenance, the inside maintenance,
the new roof, all the things you need to do.
And we have some really interesting options for very independent seniors.
And you go when you get a beautiful, you know,
(29:14):
eighteen hundred square foot apartment with two bedrooms and you
live a very very nice lifestyle at places like the
Beverwick or Avela, and they are places where you know
you would go to retire their their retirement communities, and
that's a lot of what people have open to them
now to kind of make those choices.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I mean I worked personally at the Beberwick and Independent
Living facility and at Avela as an occupational therapist. I
want to throw out that that there is Wesley and Saratoga, not.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
To you know, in Kingsway and some others.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
There's lots of choices, and that's the point.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
You don't know about them. You may have heard one
from a friend or a relative, but there are ma
any options out there, and that consultation can be used
to kind of open up the world of where do
I want to live throughout my retirement? And that's question
number one on our interview of a client, where do
we want to be? Question number two is who's going
to take care of me when I need care? And
(30:18):
that becomes the family decision. How do you do that?
And what family members are going to step up? And
we work with you guys with a lot of clients.
Make sure they have the right health care proxy, make
sure they have the right power of attorney, the documents
that are necessary for people to have legal authority to
do things when that time arises. But then the family
(30:38):
comes down to, okay, when they do need care, how
are we going to find that care and how are
we going to pay for it? And we kind of
jumped right into the Medicaid side of things. We talk
about the insurance policies and I will tell you, folks,
and I'm sure Diane and Nina can back me up
on this. Cash is king. When you have the ability
(31:02):
to go out and private pay for care, and you
can pay thirty dollars an hour versus the Medicaid reimbursement
rate of eighteen, you're going to get the caregiver. And
Diane just talk a little bit about that you've worked
with home health agencies, one of the largest in the
Capital region. Medicaid is one portal. Medicare used to be
a portal for home health care. It is not anymore.
(31:23):
So take Medicare folks out of the game. It just
is not a player in this world. So it's your money,
an insurance policy or.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
Medicaid, right, So when you start that search for care,
it's really important to know which bucket your care is
going to come out of and where you can get
that care. And as Lou said, if you can pay privately,
your options are going to be greater. And how much
(31:55):
care do you need? We have clients that say I
was told that my loved one needs to twenty four
to seven care.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
Well, what does that really mean?
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Does it mean that someone's physically taking care of them
for twenty four to seven And we look at different
care providers. We know a provider that provides live in
twenty four to seven care. That's a different price point
than someone that you're paying for three to four hours
of care once a day or twice a day. And
(32:24):
we also know that some agencies have minimal hours at
their charge. You know, if you think about it, and
I'm just gonna get real here. Your loved one needs care,
perhaps going to the bathroom or taking a shower. Sometimes
those things aren't scheduled. So how do you get someone
in the home. You can't just call someone who's ten
(32:45):
miles away and say I have to go to the bathroom. Now,
you actually start looking at trends and patterns and say
when's the best time to have someone here, and we
can help you, you know, work through that, and then
looking at who accepts, what, how much their rates are,
what you're getting for that. There's a whole list of
(33:05):
things that we need to consider. How you're paying for
it is important. And there are some long term care
policies out there that do have some benefits.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
We can help you engage those as well.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
If there are assessments that need to be done by
these insurers or by some agency, we can advocate and
help you through that process.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, accessing benefits under a long term care contract, because
they're contracts, all right, These are legal questions.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
That's the lawyer.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
So the definition of who who a qualified care provider
is is different in all the contracts, and you have
to really know what that definition is and how to
find those people. The best type of policy in Bob
Vanny and I talk about this all the time. It's
called an indemnity policy, which just pays you cash and
you then go out and find the care and spend
the money on whatever you think is appropriate. But then
(33:56):
you also have to look at the home. Is the
home the right place? Is there a bathroom on the
first floor? Do you need to navigate a staircase? Do
you need a lift to go up the stairs? What
do you need grab bars? Do you need to move carpets?
Because someone is not shuffling their feet. So I'm sitting
with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist and their
heads are nodding up and down furiously. So just talk
(34:18):
about some of the issues in the home and what
people should be looking for and thinking about to prepare themselves.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Okay, I'll start, and then I'll pitch it to Nina,
because as an occupational therapist, she has such a broad
perspective on function and what's needed in a home. As
a physical therapist, it's what I did for many years
in my career. So the first question we ask is
where's the home? What's the situation? Is that where you
(34:45):
want to go and is it safe? And then that's
the broad question. Then you get to the more specific
question of that Lou just listed off those things. Is
there a first floor bathroom, et cetera. But Nina can
go into more detail as she looks around at home.
When if she does an assessment, which is a service
that we provide too, is to go into home and
(35:06):
do this assessment.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
Nina, why don't you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Sure, So this is called comprehensive assessment. It could take
a little bit of time. It is not only home centered,
but it's also client centered. So as an occupational therapist,
I can perform standardized assessments of the client. So for balance, safety,
it could be cognition. It depends on the case. Some
(35:31):
of these are baseline predictive scores that doctors like to
know and keep track of.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
They could be done repetitively.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So when we're looking at the home, we're looking from
the outside all the way inside, from the top all
the way down to the bottom. How many stairs do
you have to enter? Which side is the rail on
do you have of you know? The first store?
Speaker 6 (35:54):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Where's the handle? How exactly do you step in. What
do you pull on? Are you using a piece of
equipment that was recommended for you? Maybe it's time for
a walker. If it's time for a walker, now we're
talking about rugs. We're having an emergency alert.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
All right, folks, All right, two by two into the arc.
Let's go, everybody out into the arc. We're all going
we're gonna be saved. Wow. So that's flash flooding. Make
sure your loved ones are safe. In all seriousness, check
on your loved ones. Make make sure that this flood
is not a risk to them. Make sure that they
can get food, Make sure that they can get the
(36:35):
things they need if there's an emergency, make sure they
have transportation. So check on your loved ones. It's not
just about you. It's about those around you and those
that you love. So let's get back to it. And
we're gonna take a break in one minute. But I
want to just kind of come back to this. And
we have done this with a number of clients, including
(36:56):
my relatives over the years, and one who was a
particular person who had falls and she was falling and
ending up in the hospital. Most of the falls happened
at night, and there was an assessment done by Everhome
and went in and said, okay, let's track it. And
you know, Diane, there are technologies that have evolved that
(37:20):
allow you to monitor track in a just course as
you go and those have been life savers literally for
many people.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
So there are technologies and full disclosure, we happen to
have some of that technology in a company called Viva Links.
And when people hear technology, they sometimes get a little
nervous and what does that mean? And my loved one
doesn't want anything to do with technology? And there's a
broad scope of what's offered out there. I'll speak to
(37:53):
what particularly I've used in my parents' home, and I
know Lou was referring to as well, and something that
we provide and that's called Viva Links. And we have
a in home device which is something we try to
make as benign as possible and non threatening as possible.
So right now we're using a seventeen inch touchscreen tablet
(38:16):
which becomes the communication hub. So for example, we just
had a flood warning. If we wanted to, we could
also broadcast that on this device in a simple message
that says, you know, don't go outside, or make sure
you know you talk to your relatives, make sure you're okay.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
And more than that, you could video chat absolutely, and
a lot of seniors don't have the access or know
how to use an iPhone, but the tablet allows you
to do that in ways that are so easy.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
One touch, one touch, touch the person's picture. You're connected
to them. And you know, I've dealt with an iPhone
with individuals don't remember the access code, get the screen crooked,
say if it's showing them instead of the person they're
talking to.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
This is a static device that you check.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
In on and that's and you know, I'm going to
also be very frank here, that's also proof of life,
proof of life for your loved one that you're caring for.
When they check in every morning, you know that they
had the physical and the cognitive ability to follow that.
Speaker 6 (39:24):
But there's more, and we could go on and on.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
There's you can do biometric readings, which means you can
check blood pressure, blood sugar, things like that, and you
can get that information, share that information.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
You can reach out to people.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
You can enter it manually and tell me what you
were pointing to their Nina.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
What's amazing with that is that this tablet that's taking
in all of this information is sinking live with an
app through a HIPPOC compliant technology system to anybody that
the client and family agrees to. So all of that
lovely information is tracked, monitored, and trended for you.
Speaker 6 (40:09):
If you go to the doctor, it's lovely.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
So we have to take one more short break. We're
going to come back. We're going to talk about a
very special woman who just passed away, who was a
mutual client of ours and yours and talk about her
story and her family story. And this is all about
family and caring for your loved ones, honoring their wishes,
and doing it in a way folks, that doesn't break
(40:34):
the bank, and that doesn't break your spirit. Because I
have had clients that have gone through divorces because of
caring for aging parents, that have lost their jobs or
given up their jobs to care for aging parents. That
is not the way. There are solutions out there for
people to cling to and to utilize. We're going to
come back after this short break and talk about what
(40:56):
is available now and what the future holds in terms
of caring for our loved ones. And let's face it,
if we live long enough for ourselves we'll be right back.
All right, we have about seven minutes left, so we're
not going to solve the world's problems Neda and Diana
in seven minutes, but let's give them a way to
contact you so we don't get crushed at the end
of the show. How can they reach out to Ever
(41:19):
Homecare advisors learn more about your care coordination services and
also the novel technology that you're you're out there working
with called Viva Links.
Speaker 5 (41:28):
Sure, certainly there's the internet, which www dot ever Homecare
dot com or www dot Viva Links v I v
A L Y n X dot com. You can get
information that way. But a direct call to the following
number five one eight nine two five three two nine
(41:52):
seven five one eight nine two five three two nine
seven we'll get directly to our offices and you can
reach out and ask for ever home or Viva Links
during that phone call.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
So Everhomecare dot com and that number that'll get you
to Nina.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yes, it'll get it'll get me, it'll get pretty much
anybody that's in the office.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
We will say.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I just want to note that right now we have moved,
so we are in Schinectady. So if you google us
and this phone number is not compatible. Do not worry
you will reach us, and certainly feel free to also
call the one eight hundred number because we do get
those phone messages on the website.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
All right, So what's your new address.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
It is two.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Fifty one State Street, Schenectady, Suite two hundred to two
hundred and six.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
There you go, all right. So ever, Home Care Advisors
worked on a pilot program that I was part of
in Columbia County, and in Columbia County we had some
funding to put this technology in use and we had
a number of people that were utilizing it in families,
utilizing it for two years. It was a two year pilot.
The funding stopped and the pilot went away, but we
(43:04):
still have the ability to do this for people privately.
But one of the clients that became one of our
success stories was a woman by the name of Kitty Romano,
and Kitty was a lovely woman and her daughter Leisha
were a tremendous team. And we actually had Lesia on
this show two or three years ago talking about her
(43:26):
experience with her mom, and Lisia became a tremendous force
and advocate for the use of this technology, because a
caregiver becomes a slave to the care and they have
their lives take us a back seat and become secondary.
And Lesha's comment was, I wasn't my mother's daughter anymore.
(43:48):
I was her caregiver, and everything in our dialogues became
just about her care and getting the resources and being
there for her because I had to be there for
her twenty four to seven. So, Diane, the vivlinks technology
became a tool that Lesha used with her mom and Kitty,
as Lisha said, couldn't use a TV remote, but she
(44:11):
was able to use the vivil links technology very successfully.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
Absolutely, and we'd like to offer our condolences to the
family and pay homage to Kitty, who really was a
great champion for us and Lesia as well. If you
go on those websites that we just mentioned before, you
can actually go to videos and find a video of
Kitty and Lisha talking about their journey in getting care
(44:40):
and using this technology. And Kitty really couldn't use the
television remote, but she became very attached to this device
in the home that we talked about, where she checked
in and was able to video chat with her daughter
at and her family at multiple times of the day,
(45:02):
and what just popped into my mind And I'm thinking
at a very poignant time right now, Kitty had a
grandson who was across the country and didn't get to
see her very often. Once this technology was involved, the
grandson was given access to the app, the information, and
to communicate with Kitty.
Speaker 6 (45:20):
Through these video chats.
Speaker 5 (45:22):
And he made the comment that he never knew his
grandmother as well. He got to know her through these
video chats where he wouldn't because using a cell phone
just wasn't adequate. FaceTime was a challenge that he felt
such a connection with his grandmother through this technology. Wrapped
up all together, Alicia was able to travel, she could
(45:44):
be in touch with Kitty whenever she needed.
Speaker 6 (45:46):
She would know what she was doing.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
We have chair sensors and door sensors knowing when doors
were opened that shouldn't be or left open, for example
a bathroom door, so there was just a security. I
often talk about this technology gives us information and then
we can decide what to do based on that information.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
Is everything okay? It seems to be. There are no alerts.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Mom has checked in and Kitty was able to feel
very comfortable there was also some social engagement through the app.
There were some games on this tablet that she was
able to play and she loved that.
Speaker 6 (46:24):
She really loved that.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
And a lot of our clients have used this technology
and it's a game changer. And Lisha was able to
go to Italy she hadn't traveled to three or four years,
go to Italy for weeks and manage her mom's medication,
manage her schedule, manage her appointments all through the app
on her iPhone from Italy, which is pretty remarkable. And
it gave her the security of knowing that she had
(46:47):
the ability to do that. And she said it gave
her back her mom and her mother daughter relationship because
she was now connected in ways that she hadn't been before. Nina,
you have some experience too with this. We had about
one minute left.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
I mean, I think I'm being gled to talk more
about Viva Links, but what I'd like to speak about
is how important caregiver respite is. You probably neglect yourself
more than you think you do when you are taking
care of someone, taking paying for an aide for one
(47:21):
day a week for four hours so you can take
care of yourself. Please do that you deserve it. Your
care your caregiver, your career loved one. They deserve that
because then you get to be your natural role with
that person.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
All Right, We're gonna let that be the last word.
Diane Mikkel, Gotta Biowski, and Nick Orsanda, thank you for
spending time with us today here on Life Happens Radio.
We hope our listeners appreciate the level of knowledge and
the resources that are available to you. Bringing you Life
Happens every week is our privilege. We hope that you
enjoy it. We hope that you can join us every
(48:00):
Saturday here on Life Happens. See you next week.
Pure, your host for this morning. And here we are
on another bright Sunday set No. Eight that we're in
all in New York. So it's raining again on a Saturday.
And if you listen to the show on a regular basis,
and you listened last week, I quoted some poetry from
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and the key line was, into every life,
a little rain must fall. We segued to Noah's Ark
(00:23):
and building the arc for your family from a financial
and legal perspective, and we're gonna carry that analogy right
through today's show because you know what, it's still raining
and there's flood warnings and thunderstorms and oh my goodness,
stay close to the radio, stay close to us. We're
gonna give you some information today that we think will
be helpful to you today but also into your future.
(00:45):
Because the show talks about legal planning, it talks about
financial planning. Not we don't do investments, but we coordinate
with financial advisors like Dave Kopek and Steve Bousche and
we make sure that the finances are in line with
the legal planning. We talk about insurance products and bring
our guests, our special guests, Bob Vandi in to talk
(01:07):
about life insurance and long term care insurance. But today
we're going to focus on the last piece, which is healthcare.
And healthcare is so important, and boy is it in
the news every day. The healthcare system has just become
so fractured, so fragmented, and so difficult to navigate, and
we'll talk about some of those experiences. We're going to
(01:29):
talk about how to plan, how to make sure that
you have the right resources available to you regardless of
what happens. The theme of the show is life happens,
and when you're living your life into that life, a
little rain will fall. It's just a matter of time
if you live long enough and you age into your
(01:51):
eighties nineties. I have my aunt Nettie one hundred and two,
and we all have people we know that have aged
through this process. What happens when you get to the
point where you need help, where you just can't function independently.
And in our society, we have more and more people
aging into their late eighties nineties, We have more and
(02:13):
more people who have disabilities, chronic illnesses. We are not
a terribly healthy society in America, and it results in
extremely high health care costs. And when you talk about
health care, you're looking at hospitals and doctors, and that
system is broken. But when you look at long term care,
(02:35):
the care that you need, which is not acute care,
it isn't going to the doctor and getting better. It
isn't getting a treatment, it's getting help that you need
to live day to day. And when we talk to
our clients, we talk to the people that listen to
this show, and we talk to the people that we
see at seminars. They want to live in an independent setting,
(03:00):
them in their own home, some in another home that
may be an apartment with some enriched housing, things like that.
All of those are options, but the bottom line is
you don't want to be in an institution. We live
our lives to build some economic security. We have social
(03:20):
security hopefully, we have maybe a pension. We have put
away money into a four oh one kira. We have income,
and we want that income to put us in a
place where we can live freely and independently. And then
that rainfalls and you get the diagnosis and you go
(03:40):
to your doctor and you've been a little bit forgetful.
But the doctor says, well, we think it's more than
just a little forgetfulness. You have some dementia and maybe
it's Alzheimer's type dementia, or you're not able to do
the things you used to do physically and you're starting
to just fumble the keys and drop things, and the
doctor says, oh, I'm sorry, you have Parkinson's, or you
(04:03):
have MS, or you have als. When those diagnoses hit,
they hit like a ton of bricks, and if you're
not prepared, it's going to take not only your mental
health and challenge that, but your financial wellbeing and your family,
and all of these things become overbearing to the families
(04:27):
that we work with because they're trying to put pieces
together of a puzzle that just don't fit. They're trying
to put pieces together to get a home health aid,
to bring home help in, to coordinate transportation services and
nutritional services, meals and health and help us if we
can get some socialization and recreation into the mix, into
(04:50):
a plan. So today we're very, very fortunate to have
with us experts in this field of bringing help to
you in your own home, and that company aptly named
is ever Home Care Advisors, and we have with us
today Diane Mikkel Gottabiowski. Good morning, Diane, Good morning. And
(05:13):
we also have with us one of the care coordinators
extraordinary from Everhome, Nina Crisanda. Good morning, Nina, good morning.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I am doing well? And Everhome is a is a
company based here in the Capital region, but they kind
of go in different directions, and we have with us
people who are doing this on a day to day basis,
and we're going to talk about the challenges that you
face and we hope that you're willing to share some
of those challenges and hopefully we can help you here
(05:41):
on the radio. So we're going to open up the
phone lines. It's eight hundred talk WGY. That's eight hundred
eight two five five nine four nine again eight hundred
eight two five fifty nine forty nine, And I'm going
to flip the script Nina, and I'm going to start
with you. Because you're out there in people's homes, you're
sitting with them. What background do you bring that helps
(06:05):
you pull these problems apart and kind of put solutions
back together for them.
Speaker 3 (06:11):
So I have a very very wide variety of experience
through my years as a treating occupational therapist. So I've
worked with individuals with disabilities. I've worked in skilled nursing
and rehab facilities. I managed a residential site of an
(06:35):
independent living and an assisted living that covered around three
hundred residents that I did by myself. I also worked
for acute rehab, helping clients get in too acute rehab
understanding the right levels of care. And then in twenty
twenty four, I transitioned to my role here at ever Home,
(06:55):
where I get to do everything I've ever wanted to
do for my clients, which is meeting clients where they
are prioritizing their needs and goals to protect their independence
and their dignity and their overall quality of life.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
And families just get hit with this. Most of them
are not prepared. It's a job that I when I
had to be a caregiver for my mom who had Alzheimer's,
it was like Holy cow. I'm an elder law attorney.
I do this for a living. I counsel people doing
this for a living, But when it's you, it's a
whole different perspective. So how do you coordinate the families
(07:34):
and what are the methods that you use to bring
the families together to help put this plan of care together,
because Lord knows, my family was not in agreement on
what that plan of care should be. You know, should
we put mom in an assisted living? Well, well, wait
a minute, Mom wants to be in her own home
and most people do.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
And that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (07:58):
So if the question is is as simple as that,
potentially we could spend just an hour on the phone
or meeting together depending on locality of people, and just
have a frank discussion of the loved ones desires because
at the end of the day, that is what matters,
and then what's actually feasible, So figuring out and educating
(08:21):
on what level of care is most appropriate if it's
assisted living, enhanced memory care, skilled nursing, and all of
the places in between, enrich housing and things like that.
So it could be a little call like that, or
it could be me doing the legwork to find exactly
the match for your loved one.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
And we have a caller right out of the gate,
Leonard from sco Harry, Good morning, Leonard, Welcome to life happens.
Speaker 4 (08:50):
I kind of take care of my mother in law
and we're running into a problem and maybe you have
a suggestion. The the since we started a PPL. It's
been really hard to find a source to find aids.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
Now.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
I know there's a shortage on aids, but before PPL,
there used to be representatives that could give her some
names and give her some numbers or send somebody to
her house. And now we're kind of lost. We hate
to just run ads in the paper because you never
know what's going to show up.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Why did you open up?
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Is there any platforms or anything like that where she
can get AIDS without going through an agency where they're
assigned tour.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
You are you're talking to the right folks, because Nina
and Diane do this on a daily basis. PPL just
for our listeners, and I think I have to give
a little bit of background on what PPL is and
what's going on in that system. We have something called
the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Plagment and that's cd PAP
(09:59):
is it's nickname. And CDPAP is a program where you
can find your own aids, put them through a system,
and have that system then pay them through the state
and the state payroll. Is it used to be locally?
I'll throw names out there, and I don't know if
you were working with Consumer directed Choices but at one point,
(10:23):
and we've had them on this show in the past
and we worked with them extremely closely. At one point,
there were six hundred what they call fiscal intermediaries agencies
locally that help families like yours find care, coordinate care,
do the things you need to do to make the
system work. And the state and Governor Hockle decided that
(10:45):
they wanted to have not six hundred, but one single
fiscal intermediary. And you're not alone in this, Leonard. There
are two hundred and eighty thousand people who were using
the Consumer directed program in January first, they all had
to start going through this new enrollment process with PPL.
(11:05):
They had to put their aids on the PPL payroll,
and two hundred and eighty thousand people were supposed to
have been enrolled by April first. Well, needless to say,
that didn't happen. There is litigation, there are lawsuits, there
are injunctions. It's gotten very hot and heavy in terms
of the state's handling of this. But Nina has worked
(11:27):
with families through this process, and I'm going to flip
it to Nina to talk about her experience in helping people,
because what choices used to do. You don't get from
the agencies anymore. You need a private health advocate and
that's what Nina is. So, Nina, talk about your experience
with cd PAP, the Consumer Directed Program and the state
(11:49):
of play right now in helping families like Leonards fine
care and coordinate with that fiscal intermediary.
Speaker 6 (11:56):
Oh yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
I've had quite my time.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
I'm on hold with PPL and working with PPL, coordinating
with one fiscal intermediary, also with VNS, trying to figure
out what the exact story was, what the exact route
and process we needed to do. Recently, so one of
(12:20):
my clients lost his hours from one hundred and twelve
to thirty two. We had to fix that. He lost
four months of his authorization date. We had to fix that.
He then now most recently lost one of his caregivers,
so now he only has two gargivers for one hundred
and twelve hours a week. PPL said, oh, you need
(12:43):
a new authorization for this. VNS said, no, you don't,
just cover the hours, and luckily VNS was right. So
my friend gets to enjoy the people that he has hired,
that he is close with, and gets to continue receiving
their care.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
So, Leonard, where are you in the process right now?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
Well, she has three aids. One of them is kind
of a primary, but they're all part time. They all
just work a couple of hours. She has sixty three
hours a week and she needs to fill the midday
aid because she lost one and we're having a hard
time trying to figure out where to get that from.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
So that this is the question of the day, and
it's like finding the UNI.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
She is enrolled in PPL, so she's got.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Our hours approved. It's just a matter of now finding
the aid to fill the outs.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Yeah, she's got the aids. She has some aids that
and she's got one that's really good. That's why she
doesn't want to go with an agency because they were
through the CDPAP program.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
That's right, and that's so important. And we've worked with
our clients and our firm does a lot of medicaid work,
so we helped get medicaid eligibility, which you need to
qualify for this.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
For this she has medicaid for.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
The Consumer directed program. So that's part of it. That's
the legal part of it. But what you're in now
is the care portion, and that is kind of beating
the bushes to try to find find that aid. There
are some resources, There are some online resources and Diane,
Diane Mikkel Gottabiowski, who has worked in home healthcare and
is a licensed physical therapist, what are some of the
(14:21):
resources that you can bring to bear and what does
everhome do to help families through this crisis.
Speaker 5 (14:27):
So, Leonard High and I understand your pain and trying
to find these individuals. And it's not like you can
just go to a website. And there are websites out there,
of course.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
And actually I've actually sent feedback to Craigslist that they
ought to do a platform for patients and aids where
they can post things and connect to each other.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
There are some of those resources out there that Diane
is familiar with.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
Absolutely our different resources and I don't want to start
naming lists here, but if you go on the internet,
but the question is it's the internet, right. We're all
cautioned to not just blindly search for people, but we
get into a situation we're kind of desperate because we
(15:19):
need these hours filled, and many of our clients, you know,
get into this position what we do, and we're here
to talk about our services. So I'll just you know,
I'll say that that's exactly what I'm doing. But what
we can do, or another care management company can do,
is use the resources that we have, the people that
(15:41):
we have connected with. We have found private aids for
other people. We know about registries, which is where aids
can go to register their services, and we can connect
people with a registry and we can give people advice
on how to search, and we can do some of
(16:01):
that legwork for people as part of our services. But
it isn't easy, Leonard, And I'm not going to tell
you that. You just go out there and out here,
call this number and you'll you'll find someone. You're in
Scohari County, correct.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
Now she's in Schenectory.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
She's okay, So that makes it a little bit better.
We certainly serve people in Scohari and some of the
outlying counties where there's not a population density.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
So and your officers are right in schnector.
Speaker 5 (16:31):
Aren't We just moved our offices to Schenectady. Yes, we did,
And so we have contacts. We're a pretty tight network
of people our company, other care management companies, community based organizations.
And I'll tell you that we contact with churches, with
other types of organizations who have people who do this
(16:53):
kind of work. But the key is to be able
to have some I don't want to say control, but
control is the word, or have some assurances that who
you're getting in your home you're comfortable with, and we
can help with that process as well.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Leonard, can you stay with us because we have to
take a short break. I want to keep this conversation
going because this is really the topic of the day
and you've let us right into it. So if you
could stay with us, sure, Okay, I'm going to take
a short break and we'll come back and we're going
to flesh this out. How to find care, how to
get care, how to coordinate it, and how to vet it.
(17:31):
How to make sure that the caregivers that you're putting
in the home, because this is a very sensitive job,
are the right people and that they're doing the right things,
and how do you monitor the care once it's in
the home. And we'll talk about all of that on
Life Happens. You'll be back with us hopefully right after
the break every Saturday morning here at nine am on
w Guy, stay with us, Welcome back. I'm lupirol live
(17:57):
in studio with two very special guests. Diane MCA got
to Biowski of ever Home Care Advisors along with her
care coordinator, Nina Cressanda. We're talking about how to find care,
coordinate care, make the families job doable. And I'm just
gonna throw a little anecdote out there because I did
this twenty five years ago with my mother who had
(18:17):
Alzheimer's and many of these resources didn't exist then, and
you know, she was not on Medicaid, but we still
couldn't find agencies in her hometown. There were just I
called every agency there were three in that community, and
every agency that I called said, Nope, we don't have
any staff. And I think that's something that's a common
experience when the well is dry in many of these agencies,
(18:39):
they just don't have the people. So the consumer directed
program is there to fill that gap, so you can
go out and find your own people, hire them, and
have them paid by the state. But we were just
we used a care manager back then, and this is
how I kind of got involved with care management. Gentlemen
by the name of Joe Jackson and Joe if you're
listening over there in Lenox, Massachusetts. Good morning. But Joe
(19:00):
went and he put ads in the newspaper. You mentioned this, Leonard,
He actually put ads in the paper. Back then the
paper was a thing and that was all online, but
he put ads in the paper. He got twenty twenty
five resumes or letters. He screened them, he narrowed it
down to five people. My sister and I interviewed those
five people. We chose two of the five. Joe trained them,
(19:22):
indoctrinated them, showed them how to keep records, how to
keep the notebook on the refrigerator. We'll talk about that
in a minute. To make sure that we're tracking all
the care and we kept my mom at home for
about three and a half years with Alzheimer's with these
two aids, and they stayed with her for those whole
three and a half years. That's kind of the genesis
for me of the whole care management, but also why
(19:43):
consumer directed is so important, because we got to choose
who those people are. And so let's go back and
Diane just flesh it out a little bit more as
to some of those resources, and you mentioned one of them, Leonard.
But the whole PPL thing, and there's litigation all over
the place has put a chill in this whole market.
Speaker 6 (20:04):
Sure, Leonard.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
There are different resources out there, such as care dot com,
which is a little bit you were talking about Craigslist
or someone having a registry or a list of people,
and care dot com does that. People who provide care
put their information on this site so that you can
connect with them. Sometimes we talk about it's like we're matchmakers,
(20:30):
but we're matchmaking for caregivers. Different organizations have registries. Consumer
Directed Choices now has a registry. What that simply means
is that they have they keep a list of people,
and they do some of the vetting of those people
and they put them on their list and they can
(20:51):
provide that list to you. You can do a search
by area, You can do a search by language you
need spoken and what kind of care could be provided.
And Nina and I both have you know, many contacts
in the area. Like I said, we have worked with
different agencies, but we've worked with different groups as well,
(21:13):
and we just get ourselves out there so that people
come to us and say, I provide care, and you know,
you can refer to me. And then once you get
to know somebody, and for example, we had a case
of a woman who she actually had a cancer diagnosis
and wasn't sure what to do, and she was alone,
(21:34):
and she had friends, but those friends were there to
visit her socially, so they took care of the social
isolation isolation piece, but she needed care, and we sat down,
we asked all the questions, we did an assessment of
the situation and determined that she was actually eligible for hospice.
(21:56):
And that's a whole other topic for a whole other day.
How people sometimes think of hospice as the last hurrah,
the last final weeks or days of life. So we
are able to look at what the needs are and
help point you in the direction of who should you
be contacting or what services are available to you, and
(22:19):
what's the right fit. But it's not easy. If I'm
sitting here sounding like it's easy, it's not. But that's
what we're paid to do and that's what our area
of expertise is and we have those connections.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
One of the things that's happening is the public resources
that are available are just overwhelmed. There are too many
people in need of care and too few resources that
the government can provide. So every home care Advisors is
a private organization, not a public organization, So yes, you
have to pay for services, but you get a professional
(22:52):
advocate to help you through the system. And sometimes in
today's world, especially with the PPL debacle that's going on
right now, that becomes necessary. So Leonard, you know, Diane,
why don't you give your number? Is Leonard gone?
Speaker 6 (23:10):
So with us?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Leonard Leonard might have left, but why don't you give
your contact information out? I'm here there you are, okay, thanks,
Diane said.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
She is Medicaid and low income, and I don't think
she can pay for it.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Okay. Does she have a pool trust? Is any of
her income over the one and twenty a month? No, okay,
all right, we have to take a news break, which
is not under my control. So we're gonna take a
short break for the news. Leonard, thank you so much
for your call. We're gonna come back and keep talking
about this. On the other side. Thank you for staying
(23:50):
with us, and Diane and Nina. We're gonna come back
and kind of pull this apart. And it is a
matter of resources and resource management, so let's talk about that.
You're listening the Life Happens Radio every Saturday, morning on
talk radio WGY be right back after the news. It'll
the rain will stop and the sun will come up someday,
maybe today later this afternoon. Looks like the sun may
(24:11):
peek out later and tomorrow is supposed to be a
decent day, So stay with that and hopefully get outside
tomorrow and do some of those wonderful spring things because
summer is almost upon us. We're into June. Did get
a little hot this past week, so the heat will
be ramping up through July and August. So hopefully you're
enjoying your indoor activities today and tomorrow you can get outside. Today.
(24:33):
We're gonna walk you through some things here on life
happens that are critical to families, critical to people planning
for this, And we talk a lot about crisis situations
because guess what, people don't plan They fall into the
crisis because mom has the stroke or breaks the hip
and ends up in the hospital and ends up going
to rehab and then getting a list of nursing homes
(24:55):
that she can go to because they don't have a
plan to bring mom back home. So how do you
plan for that? We're going to go through that in
this next half hour, But I want to go back
and segue to Leonard's call. His mom is on consumer
directed She is fighting the system with that consumer directed program,
a Medicaid based program which allows you to hire your
(25:18):
own aids and pay them through a system that is
now run by a single agency PPL that was brought
in by the state, and the local agencies that we're
helping people through this process are now out of business,
six hundred of them, or at least temporarily out of business.
We don't know because the litigation is still going on
and it's it's a chaos. So how do you get
(25:39):
through that chaos? And I know that some people on
Medicaid have absolutely no resources. When we do some planning,
we have something called a pool trust, and if your
income exceeds the level, which is one eighth and twenty dollars,
you can actually use that pool trust to hire professionals
to help you through the care process. So we help
(26:01):
as attorneys marshall resources and Nina, what would be the
first entry step for someone like Leonard who just needs
to get personal advice and walk through the situation to
see what resources are available to his mom in Schenectady,
New York.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
So The first step would be that he would call
in and one member of our team would take down
all of his relevant information, so his name is contact information,
that kind of thing. If an LCC, a life care
coordinator like myself is available, I will get transferred the
(26:41):
call and we might do a one hour care consultation
at that moment.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
But we'll talk briefly about the situation.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
And then we'll discuss the services that we offer, the
resources that might be available, and then we'll write a
summary and have a discussion on what might be the
best steps forward in that situation and what and what
is feasible.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
So that's a professional consultation on what the care options are.
And usually you schedule that for an hour.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Usually it's an hour, yes, okay?
Speaker 1 (27:13):
And what does something like that cost to get a
professional consultation?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
So a one hour consultation is two hundred and fifty dollars.
And in addition to an hour of the time we
spend together, there's other time that's used by me that
I'm writing up a summary, a little bit of time,
so that's.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
My boss looking. But so that's kind of a seems
like a reasonable entry point to get answers and just
get your questions answered. And we do the same thing
as attorneys. We offer free consultations if we think there's
going to be more to it and a big plan,
but we also offer paid consultations for people that want
(27:58):
to get legal questions answer. And so that's kind of
the same thing we're talking about here, a care consultation
where you can get answers, you can get a professional,
you get a little write up, get referred to resources
that you may not know about, and how to approach this.
So and that plays out all along the spectrum, whether
(28:19):
you're thinking way ahead and saying I just want to
talk to someone about my choices. What are my housing choices?
And there are a lot of them. It's not just
your own.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
Home, that's right, there's tons of options. It depends on
the person's level of function and what their needs are
and what they want.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
So we could say they.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Want assisted living, and we could look at all the
assisted livings and they could think they want one place,
but after a tour, they really want somewhere else, and
then we have to do an assessment and see if
they're a right fit for that place.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I have more and more clients coming in and saying
I'm tired of taking care of my house, and I'm
one of them. It's a lot of work to maintain
a private home. You have the outside maintenance, the inside maintenance,
the new roof, all the things you need to do.
And we have some really interesting options for very independent seniors.
And you go when you get a beautiful, you know,
(29:14):
eighteen hundred square foot apartment with two bedrooms and you
live a very very nice lifestyle at places like the
Beverwick or Avela, and they are places where you know
you would go to retire their their retirement communities, and
that's a lot of what people have open to them
now to kind of make those choices.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I mean I worked personally at the Beberwick and Independent
Living facility and at Avela as an occupational therapist. I
want to throw out that that there is Wesley and Saratoga, not.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
To you know, in Kingsway and some others.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
There's lots of choices, and that's the point.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
You don't know about them. You may have heard one
from a friend or a relative, but there are ma
any options out there, and that consultation can be used
to kind of open up the world of where do
I want to live throughout my retirement? And that's question
number one on our interview of a client, where do
we want to be? Question number two is who's going
to take care of me when I need care? And
(30:18):
that becomes the family decision. How do you do that?
And what family members are going to step up? And
we work with you guys with a lot of clients.
Make sure they have the right health care proxy, make
sure they have the right power of attorney, the documents
that are necessary for people to have legal authority to
do things when that time arises. But then the family
(30:38):
comes down to, okay, when they do need care, how
are we going to find that care and how are
we going to pay for it? And we kind of
jumped right into the Medicaid side of things. We talk
about the insurance policies and I will tell you, folks,
and I'm sure Diane and Nina can back me up
on this. Cash is king. When you have the ability
(31:02):
to go out and private pay for care, and you
can pay thirty dollars an hour versus the Medicaid reimbursement
rate of eighteen, you're going to get the caregiver. And
Diane just talk a little bit about that you've worked
with home health agencies, one of the largest in the
Capital region. Medicaid is one portal. Medicare used to be
a portal for home health care. It is not anymore.
(31:23):
So take Medicare folks out of the game. It just
is not a player in this world. So it's your money,
an insurance policy or.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
Medicaid, right, So when you start that search for care,
it's really important to know which bucket your care is
going to come out of and where you can get
that care. And as Lou said, if you can pay privately,
your options are going to be greater. And how much
(31:55):
care do you need? We have clients that say I
was told that my loved one needs to twenty four
to seven care.
Speaker 6 (32:02):
Well, what does that really mean?
Speaker 5 (32:03):
Does it mean that someone's physically taking care of them
for twenty four to seven And we look at different
care providers. We know a provider that provides live in
twenty four to seven care. That's a different price point
than someone that you're paying for three to four hours
of care once a day or twice a day. And
(32:24):
we also know that some agencies have minimal hours at
their charge. You know, if you think about it, and
I'm just gonna get real here. Your loved one needs care,
perhaps going to the bathroom or taking a shower. Sometimes
those things aren't scheduled. So how do you get someone
in the home. You can't just call someone who's ten
(32:45):
miles away and say I have to go to the bathroom. Now,
you actually start looking at trends and patterns and say
when's the best time to have someone here, and we
can help you, you know, work through that, and then
looking at who accepts, what, how much their rates are,
what you're getting for that. There's a whole list of
(33:05):
things that we need to consider. How you're paying for
it is important. And there are some long term care
policies out there that do have some benefits.
Speaker 6 (33:15):
We can help you engage those as well.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
If there are assessments that need to be done by
these insurers or by some agency, we can advocate and
help you through that process.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
Yeah, accessing benefits under a long term care contract, because
they're contracts, all right, These are legal questions.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
That's the lawyer.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
So the definition of who who a qualified care provider
is is different in all the contracts, and you have
to really know what that definition is and how to
find those people. The best type of policy in Bob
Vanny and I talk about this all the time. It's
called an indemnity policy, which just pays you cash and
you then go out and find the care and spend
the money on whatever you think is appropriate. But then
(33:56):
you also have to look at the home. Is the
home the right place? Is there a bathroom on the
first floor? Do you need to navigate a staircase? Do
you need a lift to go up the stairs? What
do you need grab bars? Do you need to move carpets?
Because someone is not shuffling their feet. So I'm sitting
with a physical therapist and an occupational therapist and their
heads are nodding up and down furiously. So just talk
(34:18):
about some of the issues in the home and what
people should be looking for and thinking about to prepare themselves.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Okay, I'll start, and then I'll pitch it to Nina,
because as an occupational therapist, she has such a broad
perspective on function and what's needed in a home. As
a physical therapist, it's what I did for many years
in my career. So the first question we ask is
where's the home? What's the situation? Is that where you
(34:45):
want to go and is it safe? And then that's
the broad question. Then you get to the more specific
question of that Lou just listed off those things. Is
there a first floor bathroom, et cetera. But Nina can
go into more detail as she looks around at home.
When if she does an assessment, which is a service
that we provide too, is to go into home and
(35:06):
do this assessment.
Speaker 6 (35:07):
Nina, why don't you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Sure, So this is called comprehensive assessment. It could take
a little bit of time. It is not only home centered,
but it's also client centered. So as an occupational therapist,
I can perform standardized assessments of the client. So for balance, safety,
it could be cognition. It depends on the case. Some
(35:31):
of these are baseline predictive scores that doctors like to
know and keep track of.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
They could be done repetitively.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
So when we're looking at the home, we're looking from
the outside all the way inside, from the top all
the way down to the bottom. How many stairs do
you have to enter? Which side is the rail on
do you have of you know? The first store?
Speaker 6 (35:54):
What is it?
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Where's the handle? How exactly do you step in. What
do you pull on? Are you using a piece of
equipment that was recommended for you? Maybe it's time for
a walker. If it's time for a walker, now we're
talking about rugs. We're having an emergency alert.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
All right, folks, All right, two by two into the arc.
Let's go, everybody out into the arc. We're all going
we're gonna be saved. Wow. So that's flash flooding. Make
sure your loved ones are safe. In all seriousness, check
on your loved ones. Make make sure that this flood
is not a risk to them. Make sure that they
can get food, Make sure that they can get the
(36:35):
things they need if there's an emergency, make sure they
have transportation. So check on your loved ones. It's not
just about you. It's about those around you and those
that you love. So let's get back to it. And
we're gonna take a break in one minute. But I
want to just kind of come back to this. And
we have done this with a number of clients, including
(36:56):
my relatives over the years, and one who was a
particular person who had falls and she was falling and
ending up in the hospital. Most of the falls happened
at night, and there was an assessment done by Everhome
and went in and said, okay, let's track it. And
you know, Diane, there are technologies that have evolved that
(37:20):
allow you to monitor track in a just course as
you go and those have been life savers literally for
many people.
Speaker 5 (37:31):
So there are technologies and full disclosure, we happen to
have some of that technology in a company called Viva Links.
And when people hear technology, they sometimes get a little
nervous and what does that mean? And my loved one
doesn't want anything to do with technology? And there's a
broad scope of what's offered out there. I'll speak to
(37:53):
what particularly I've used in my parents' home, and I
know Lou was referring to as well, and something that
we provide and that's called Viva Links. And we have
a in home device which is something we try to
make as benign as possible and non threatening as possible.
So right now we're using a seventeen inch touchscreen tablet
(38:16):
which becomes the communication hub. So for example, we just
had a flood warning. If we wanted to, we could
also broadcast that on this device in a simple message
that says, you know, don't go outside, or make sure
you know you talk to your relatives, make sure you're okay.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
And more than that, you could video chat absolutely, and
a lot of seniors don't have the access or know
how to use an iPhone, but the tablet allows you
to do that in ways that are so easy.
Speaker 5 (38:50):
One touch, one touch, touch the person's picture. You're connected
to them. And you know, I've dealt with an iPhone
with individuals don't remember the access code, get the screen crooked,
say if it's showing them instead of the person they're
talking to.
Speaker 6 (39:07):
This is a static device that you check.
Speaker 5 (39:10):
In on and that's and you know, I'm going to
also be very frank here, that's also proof of life,
proof of life for your loved one that you're caring for.
When they check in every morning, you know that they
had the physical and the cognitive ability to follow that.
Speaker 6 (39:24):
But there's more, and we could go on and on.
Speaker 5 (39:26):
There's you can do biometric readings, which means you can
check blood pressure, blood sugar, things like that, and you
can get that information, share that information.
Speaker 6 (39:37):
You can reach out to people.
Speaker 5 (39:42):
You can enter it manually and tell me what you
were pointing to their Nina.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
What's amazing with that is that this tablet that's taking
in all of this information is sinking live with an
app through a HIPPOC compliant technology system to anybody that
the client and family agrees to. So all of that
lovely information is tracked, monitored, and trended for you.
Speaker 6 (40:09):
If you go to the doctor, it's lovely.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
So we have to take one more short break. We're
going to come back. We're going to talk about a
very special woman who just passed away, who was a
mutual client of ours and yours and talk about her
story and her family story. And this is all about
family and caring for your loved ones, honoring their wishes,
and doing it in a way folks, that doesn't break
(40:34):
the bank, and that doesn't break your spirit. Because I
have had clients that have gone through divorces because of
caring for aging parents, that have lost their jobs or
given up their jobs to care for aging parents. That
is not the way. There are solutions out there for
people to cling to and to utilize. We're going to
come back after this short break and talk about what
(40:56):
is available now and what the future holds in terms
of caring for our loved ones. And let's face it,
if we live long enough for ourselves we'll be right back.
All right, we have about seven minutes left, so we're
not going to solve the world's problems Neda and Diana
in seven minutes, but let's give them a way to
contact you so we don't get crushed at the end
of the show. How can they reach out to Ever
(41:19):
Homecare advisors learn more about your care coordination services and
also the novel technology that you're you're out there working
with called Viva Links.
Speaker 5 (41:28):
Sure, certainly there's the internet, which www dot ever Homecare
dot com or www dot Viva Links v I v
A L Y n X dot com. You can get
information that way. But a direct call to the following
number five one eight nine two five three two nine
(41:52):
seven five one eight nine two five three two nine
seven we'll get directly to our offices and you can
reach out and ask for ever home or Viva Links
during that phone call.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
So Everhomecare dot com and that number that'll get you
to Nina.
Speaker 3 (42:08):
Yes, it'll get it'll get me, it'll get pretty much
anybody that's in the office.
Speaker 2 (42:13):
We will say.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I just want to note that right now we have moved,
so we are in Schinectady. So if you google us
and this phone number is not compatible. Do not worry
you will reach us, and certainly feel free to also
call the one eight hundred number because we do get
those phone messages on the website.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
All right, So what's your new address.
Speaker 2 (42:35):
It is two.
Speaker 3 (42:36):
Fifty one State Street, Schenectady, Suite two hundred to two
hundred and six.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
There you go, all right. So ever, Home Care Advisors
worked on a pilot program that I was part of
in Columbia County, and in Columbia County we had some
funding to put this technology in use and we had
a number of people that were utilizing it in families,
utilizing it for two years. It was a two year pilot.
The funding stopped and the pilot went away, but we
(43:04):
still have the ability to do this for people privately.
But one of the clients that became one of our
success stories was a woman by the name of Kitty Romano,
and Kitty was a lovely woman and her daughter Leisha
were a tremendous team. And we actually had Lesia on
this show two or three years ago talking about her
(43:26):
experience with her mom, and Lisia became a tremendous force
and advocate for the use of this technology, because a
caregiver becomes a slave to the care and they have
their lives take us a back seat and become secondary.
And Lesha's comment was, I wasn't my mother's daughter anymore.
(43:48):
I was her caregiver, and everything in our dialogues became
just about her care and getting the resources and being
there for her because I had to be there for
her twenty four to seven. So, Diane, the vivlinks technology
became a tool that Lesha used with her mom and Kitty,
as Lisha said, couldn't use a TV remote, but she
(44:11):
was able to use the vivil links technology very successfully.
Speaker 5 (44:15):
Absolutely, and we'd like to offer our condolences to the
family and pay homage to Kitty, who really was a
great champion for us and Lesia as well. If you
go on those websites that we just mentioned before, you
can actually go to videos and find a video of
Kitty and Lisha talking about their journey in getting care
(44:40):
and using this technology. And Kitty really couldn't use the
television remote, but she became very attached to this device
in the home that we talked about, where she checked
in and was able to video chat with her daughter
at and her family at multiple times of the day,
(45:02):
and what just popped into my mind And I'm thinking
at a very poignant time right now, Kitty had a
grandson who was across the country and didn't get to
see her very often. Once this technology was involved, the
grandson was given access to the app, the information, and
to communicate with Kitty.
Speaker 6 (45:20):
Through these video chats.
Speaker 5 (45:22):
And he made the comment that he never knew his
grandmother as well. He got to know her through these
video chats where he wouldn't because using a cell phone
just wasn't adequate. FaceTime was a challenge that he felt
such a connection with his grandmother through this technology. Wrapped
up all together, Alicia was able to travel, she could
(45:44):
be in touch with Kitty whenever she needed.
Speaker 6 (45:46):
She would know what she was doing.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
We have chair sensors and door sensors knowing when doors
were opened that shouldn't be or left open, for example
a bathroom door, so there was just a security. I
often talk about this technology gives us information and then
we can decide what to do based on that information.
Speaker 6 (46:07):
Is everything okay? It seems to be. There are no alerts.
Speaker 5 (46:12):
Mom has checked in and Kitty was able to feel
very comfortable there was also some social engagement through the app.
There were some games on this tablet that she was
able to play and she loved that.
Speaker 6 (46:24):
She really loved that.
Speaker 1 (46:25):
And a lot of our clients have used this technology
and it's a game changer. And Lisha was able to
go to Italy she hadn't traveled to three or four years,
go to Italy for weeks and manage her mom's medication,
manage her schedule, manage her appointments all through the app
on her iPhone from Italy, which is pretty remarkable. And
it gave her the security of knowing that she had
(46:47):
the ability to do that. And she said it gave
her back her mom and her mother daughter relationship because
she was now connected in ways that she hadn't been before. Nina,
you have some experience too with this. We had about
one minute left.
Speaker 3 (47:01):
I mean, I think I'm being gled to talk more
about Viva Links, but what I'd like to speak about
is how important caregiver respite is. You probably neglect yourself
more than you think you do when you are taking
care of someone, taking paying for an aide for one
(47:21):
day a week for four hours so you can take
care of yourself. Please do that you deserve it. Your
care your caregiver, your career loved one. They deserve that
because then you get to be your natural role with
that person.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
All Right, We're gonna let that be the last word.
Diane Mikkel, Gotta Biowski, and Nick Orsanda, thank you for
spending time with us today here on Life Happens Radio.
We hope our listeners appreciate the level of knowledge and
the resources that are available to you. Bringing you Life
Happens every week is our privilege. We hope that you
enjoy it. We hope that you can join us every
(48:00):
Saturday here on Life Happens. See you next week.
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