Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Good morning everyone. Welcome to LifeHappens Radio, your weekly radio broadcast that
brings you ideas, thoughts, plans, and things that you can take to
heart and to your plan, toyour family, to your wealth. We
talk about estate planning, wills,trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare proxies.
We talk about health care, howto keep yourself well throughout your lifetime,
(00:25):
and we talk about how to keepyour finances in order so that when
you retire, you are secure andthat your future is secure and the income
that you have planned for is goingto be there for your entire lifetime.
So we look at all of thosefactors and we are very lucky in that
we have a number of wonderful peoplewho come in and are willing to be
(00:46):
our guests. And so we havetwo people with me in studio today who
I'm going to introduce to you whoare in the healthcare field and related healthcare
fields, working with people with disabilitiesand also working not only with people with
disabilities, but also in Diane's case, in a broader market. And I'd
(01:07):
like to introduce first the CEO ofLiving Resources, and Living Resources is one
of our local organizations that serves peoplewith disabilities, and I'm going to introduce
Elizabeth and let her tell you aboutLiving Resources and a little bit about herself
as well. Great, well,thank you of them. I'm glad to
be here. Yeah. Living Resourceswe are based in Albany. We provide
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services to people primarily with intellectual anddevelopmental disabilities, but we also serve people
with traumatic brain injury as well.We cover primarily the Capital region, but
we do go down to the HudsonValley with our supports and services, and
we provide a variety of different programsto help people live lives with dignity,
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independence and happiness. It can befrom residential programs, which can include group
homes, but it can also includenon certified housing so independent apartments. We
provide day programs for people. Wehave community have we have employment supports.
We do self direction in the OPWDDworld, which is intellectually help mental disabilities.
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We cut down at the acronyms weget broughtest. Lawyers don't give acronyms
out on the radio. Yeah.OPWDD is it's the state agency that stands
for Office of People with Developmental Disabilities. OK. So that's like the Department
of Health Governs kind of a differentpopulation most of us and seniors and elderly,
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and we'll talk about them in aminute. But OPWDD Office for People
with Developmental Disabilities covers just that,yes, absolutely. And then so how
many of those people do we haveliving with us in New York State?
In New York State, it's aboutone hundred and twenty thousand if I remember
correctly, at least that are receivingOPWD these services, so that the actual
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population is much larger than that,But those that qualify for the supports and
services that are available through the stateand medicaid, I want to say about
one hundred and twenty thousand. Soour law firm, Piero, Connor and
Strauss does a lot of work withspecial needs individuals, including people with developmental
disabilities, people with traumatic brain injuries, and a whole host of other types
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of disabilities, and planning for thoseindividuals is so important. So we work
with the parents, we work withsiblings to put a plan together. And
you have a population here in theCapital District primarily of those people that have
developmental disabilities. And how many peopledoes Living Resources serve in any given years,
About fifteen hundred, that's a bignumber. Yeah, So you have
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fifteen hundred people with disabilities and youare going through the services that you provide,
yep. And it's a lot ofhousing. A lot of it is
housing. About quote half of ouroperation is residential, mostly the traditional group
homes is what we do, andthen the other half is a variety of
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other different types of non residential supports. Okay, So let's introduce Diane Mikkel
Gottabiowski and Diane is with EVER HomeCare Advisors. Good morning, Dan,
good morning. And Diane is aphysical therapist by trade, but has not
practiced that and has been involved inhealthcare and primarily home healthcare and home services
community based services for many years.And tell us a little bit about your
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organization and yourself. Okay, AsLouse stated, I'm a physical therapist,
which kind of colors my view ofhow I look at function and how people
function in their environment. Ever HomeCare Advisors is a care coordination organization.
We employ social workers, nurses,and occupational therapists to give a broad person
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perspective on how to help people connectto the services that they need, to
connect to the care that they need, to connect to the resources that they
need. So they can live wherethey want to be in alignment with what
Elizabeth just said, in a safeand happy environment. And so these are
common needs. When you want tohave good housing, you want to get
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good healthcare, You want to havethe ability to live independently and maintain your
independence throughout your lifetime, whether youhave a disability from birth, or whether
you have a disability like TBI thatcomes on traumatic brain injury that comes on
at some point in the course ofyour life through an accident, injury,
or or some other event, orlater in life. Disability finds us as
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we age. We have chronic conditionsthat render us unable to do certain things,
whether it be cognitive or physical.So there is a commonality in all
of that for the developmentally disabled.Elizabeth, what are the primary issues that
they face in the needs that theyhave that that your organization fulfills. It's
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basically needs, Like what kind ofwhat you're saying, It's what everybody has.
You know, people like to referto them asving special needs, but
it's just really needs that everybody has. Big one is housing. Affordable,
safe, accessible housing is a hugeone. They often need supports with just
living their lives and gaining independence andmaintaining their independent living skills, so knowing
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how to cook, manage their theirtheir personal budgets, knowing their nutrition,
social skills, interpersonal skills, understandinghow to interact with other people is also
a big one. Employment supports knowingwork skills. Those are other things that
we also provide supports with. Becauseof their disability, they need a little
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bit more help in those areas andthat is what our staff will provide for
them. That's great. And inyour background, you didn't start in disability
services, No, I didn't know, So tell us a little bit about
your history because you've worked on theother side of this as well, engaging
population. Yeah, I did sowell. I actually started with a county,
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but in the human services world,and then I and then about god,
it's probably twelve thirteen years ago.I ended up going into the physical
disability world. And that was atConsumer Director Choices where they did Consumer Director
of Personal Assistance. And what waswonderful is that I really got the bug.
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The founder of that organization, thefounding CEO there was Constance Layman,
and she brought me under her wingand she just really brought home the concept
of disability rights and independent living,and it was it was like a new
was like the next frontier of civilrights movement, and I just got hoked.
Constance was a friend of mine.Yeah, and she sat in that
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chair, her own chair because shewas in a wheelchair, and she was
on this radio show probably eleven yearsago. Yeah, And so Constance was
a force to be reckoned with.And when people have a disability and they
become self advocates, they become verypowerful. And she was a consumer of
these types of services and became theCEO of an organization she founded. And
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it's a wonderful story where it's verysad that she's no longer with us,
but they give an award out forher every year at Consumer Directed Choices,
which is the organization. But peoplelike that are certainly inspirational, motivational and
people we all try to follow absolutely, And so I really fell in love
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with the whole movement there. Andactually it was one of the reasons why
I decided to when the opportunity camearound to go to a living resources was
to bring that philosophy and that conceptin that world of that really disability rights
movement and bring it over into theintellectual development of disability world where I think
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that my personally opinion was that theywere trying to move in that direction,
but they were they weren't quite thereyet. So I'm like, I'm gonna
I'm going to make change. I'mgoing to bring this over here and I'm
going to make some really incredible progress. And a lot of times it's for
the disability world. It's the parentswho are advocating for their children. Some
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people are self advocating, but it'sso much more powerful when you see the
circle of wheelchairs that are keeping legislatorsout of the elevators and preventing them from
going up into the legislative office building. The attention that gets and the emotions
that it elicits, it's just apowerful phenomenon. And I've been in the
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lob when that's going on, andit's just an incredible atmosphere. It is
great. Yeah, absolutely, Andthat's one of the things that we want
to do is by helping people becomemore independent, they're also becoming their own
advocates at the same time, andthat's the elevation of people to their highest
state of being and their highest levelsof achievement. YEP, and so your
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transition from the consumer directed program,and we're going to talk about that at
a future show because that's under attackright now in the New York State budget.
They're trying to cut funding for thisprogram that's keeping people out there,
and Diane Ever, home Care Advisorsprovides a level of service to people that
tries to help them coordinate these servicesin the home. Just talk a little
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bit about that and maybe mention theconsumer directed program because that's something we're going
to be talking a lot about.Sure. When people start to struggle with
decision, struggle to get the carethat they need, very often they don't
know where to turn. And ourcare Advisor's care coordinators can help them put
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those goals down, list those goals, list what the barriers are, list
where they need to go, andhelp connect them to the people they need,
help them communicate with consumer direct choices, find out what services are available
to them, what they can access, where they can get what they need.
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And sometimes they don't know what theyneed or they don't know what's available,
and it's putting that all together.There are a lot of AHA moments
in our world. There are alot of moments where I didn't know I
could do that. I didn't knowthat was available to me, or wow,
I didn't think I'd ever be ableto do this. So it's very
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rewarding that our care advisors can reallyhold someone's hand along the way and take
them down that path and say didyou know about this? Or we learn
a lot from these individuals as well. They teach us more than we teach
them sometimes. And oh, bythe way, did I mention that the
consumer directed program only happens if you'reon Medicaid? So Medicaid is a prerequisite
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to get into the consumer directed Personalassistance program, and Medicaid is something our
law firm does a great deal of, and people like you, the aha
moment comes when you say, oh, yeah, we can have you eligible
next month for home care services underMedicaid and you can use the Consumer directed
Personal Assistance program. Well, itgot so successful and it grew in the
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bottom line of the State of NewYork that now they're looking at how do
we cut that budget and how dowe But this all comes back to a
common theme and care, whether it'speople with developmental disabilities, physical disabilities,
or aging disabilities, and that iswhere are you going to find caregivers.
Where are you going to find staffthat can take care of people in the
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numbers that need taking care of Andthat's a struggle everywhere. We're dealing with
it. We've been dealing with itfor years, just like in the personal
care world. We're dealing with itand it's very, very hard. The
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amount of need for people to livetheir lives outside of an institution is growing,
and it's growing faster than the numberof people who are willing and able
to support that care. And so, you know, a big part of
it is wages. The state hasnot really valued the work enough and so
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they seem to really think that,oh, it's just a minimum wage job,
and again that's across the board,and it's not. It is actually
a very skilled job, even thoughyou don't need a bachelor's degree for it.
It's skilled work paying more for somebodythat's willing to take care of a
cheeseburger, yes, than they arewho's willing to take care of your son
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or daughter with a developmental disability,or your mother or father who needs care
in the home. That's the realityof the situation. Yes, yep.
I even saw one stat one timewhere a vettech was earning more money on
average than somebody delivering human services andhome care and stuff like that, which
was kind of interesting. It's asociety where our priorities are. But you
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know, so we keep trying differentthings to you know, advocating for the
state to get more money. Weare investing in training programs because there's also
beyond money, there's also the supportsand engagement, and so we're investing in
all that stuff and we'll keep fightingfor that because it's necessary. And I'm
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going to stop you right there,because there's a reason that the two of
you were in the studio today atthe same time. Yeah, and that
is that the number of people whoneed care is growing at a pace that
the number of people available to themis actually declining, and you have this
disconnect of available care. Where tohell do I find a caregiver for my
mom or my son or daughter witha disability? Where do I find the
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people to do this? And what'shappening and what has to happen, is
that the gaps in care are beingfilled with technology and now AI enabled technology
that is bridging that gap and allowingthe people who are available to do the
things that are needed. Because youcan never replace human touch, but to
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supplement that and allow them to dothe job and do it better and more
efficiently, and to serve more people. So we're going to take a short
break and when we come back,we're going to explore this new world,
opening up the universe to technology that'sserving people with disabilities, serving aging people
who want to live independently in theirhomes, and is really the few future
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of care in our country. I'mLuke Piro, your host for this morning.
You're listening to Life Happens Radio everySaturday morning at eleven am on Talk
Radio WG WHY. We will beright back. Welcome back. You're listening
to Life Happens here on Talk RadioWG WHY. I'm Luke Piro, your
host with this morning, and Ihave two very special guests with me in
studio. Elizabeth Martin, the CEOof Living Resources, and Diane Mikkel Gottabiowski,
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the vice president of Client Relations atever Home Care Advisors. I think
that's your title, Diane. Closeenough, close enough, Okay, So
Elizabeth works with people with developmental disabilities. Diane works with a whole host of
different types of individuals, seniors,people with disabilities, and a whole range
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of individuals who need care. Andthe common theme here is people need care
and sometimes that care supply is justshort. You open up the cupboard and
the cupboard is bare. And wehave this experience. And I work with
ever Home Care Advisors, Pierre O'Connorand Strauss as an elder law firm and
Everhome as a care management entity.We work together collaboratively and have had some
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tremendous success stories. Maybe we'll talkabout Stan who's going to be our guest
on Bay sixteenth again. But puttingtogether this kind of package of legal services,
care coordination, care management services,you still end up with this gap
and a doughnut hole that just rightnow can't be filled. So technology has
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come on the scene, and Elizabeth, you have just launched a pilot utilizing
technology, and Diane happens to beone of the providers of that technology.
Talk a little bit about how yougot interested in it. I know you're
doing this on a broader scale,but what does it mean to bring AI
enabled technology into the care world.Well, it kind of tackles a couple
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of different objectives. I mentioned beforefor about how I became hooked on this
concept. Of disability rights and reallyensuring people are living as independently as possible
and controlling their lives and their destinies, and technology is a pathway to that.
With the advances of technology, people, it can really help people with
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a whole variety of different types ofdisabilities to live much more independently. And
the more independent somebody is, themore the healthier they are, the happier
they are. And quite honestly,I also believe that they're also less vulnerable
because they are less reliant on somebodyelse. So there's just so many wonderful
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things about it, and so andon top of that, the second thing
is that with the shortage of workforce, the ability to have individuals live as
independently as possible means that they're onlyusing the staff support, the human support
that they really truly need. Itdoesn't replace entirely human support. You're never
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going to replace that, You're alwaysgoing to need that. It complements it,
it supplements it. And then italso allows a worker to do work
that is much more meaningful. Ratherthan doing something that's you know, counting
pills or something like that to helpsomebody take their medications, they're doing something
much more engaging about helping a personto live out in the community, and
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so that's what started. And sopart of our strategy was to eventually become
a tech first kind of organization whereevery time that somebody comes to us and
says I need supports, we're thinkingabout the technology that can be used to
help support the person as part oftheir natural supports before we introduce human supports.
So that's kind of where we started. And then I encountered O our
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home care advisors and Viva Links,and I knew what they were doing in
the past for the elderly population andfor people who had mild to moderate bunch
of conditions and being able to liveat home, and so the thinking is,
well, if they're succeeding with technologyat home, I got to think
it's going to be able to workwith people with intellectual developments and disabilities as
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well. And so an opportunity camealong to say, hey, let's try
this out, and so that's whatstarted it, and that's how we came
across the whole thing. So itwas great, and it's a combination of
passive technologies which are monitoring things andhealth scans and motion and different things that
are placed in the home and awhole host of other things that are coming
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online. We had a conference callthis morning about new innovations into Viva Links.
But Diane, you've been working withever Home and Viva Links and they're
kind of one in the same,and Viva Links has evolved as an enabling
technology across the spectrum of care.So just talk a little bit about what
vv links does. And oh,by the way, Diane's a user of
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Viva Links. She is a caregiverfor aging parents and has used the app.
Why I am also aging, SoI think as I'm listening and these
parallels, you know, definitely comeacross. Viva Links is the great connector,
the great collaborator and communicator. Inmy mind, viva links itself is
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an app that app connects to aseries of or a suite of services that
we can put in someone's home.So we talk and I'll start with LINGO.
We talk about a care recipient.So whether it's a living resources client
who's the care recipient, or myparents or the neighbor, someone who's aging,
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someone who's had a TBI, thecare recipient has technology in their home
and ever Home care advisors can bepart of that plan to help determine what
that technology should be for that individual, what are their needs. It's very
individualized. We do not give everyone. It's not just all or none.
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It's what do you need to besuccessful to meet your goals? So we
start right there. What are yourgoals, what are the barriers to those
goals, What are the resources youhave available to you. So it could
be a touchscreen tablet in the homethat's very user friendly, hard to do
anything wrong to where you can dovideo chats with your caregivers and your loved
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ones. You can manage your schedule, your medications, you can play games,
you can read the news, youcan see what the weather's going to
be. It can be monitors andsensors which would be could be cameras,
could be pressure sensors in a chairor a bed to let someone know when
you're up or down. It couldbe motion sensors that can be part of
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a fall detection process as well.It could be door sensors to let you
know when a door is opened.And I could go on and on and
on. So I know we onlyhave so much time, and I start
to think about the use case hereand it keeps going. It does.
And we got about a minute tillthe news, but your experience, Elizabeth
bringing it in and we're going totalk a little bit more about this,
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but what was the response where theysaid, oh, we're going to bring
technology into the home. Well,I will be honest that there was initially
some a little bit of doubt bysome people and being like, oh,
we see it all the time,it's not going to work. Oh they're
not going to use it. I'mnot sure. Oh I'm scared or something
like that. But and it's aprocess, you know, you start with
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educating people, showing people, assessingpeople, things like that. Are the
individuals that are involved in this pilotproject and it's it's a group of people
in a nurse and a group homeas well as some people in independent apartments.
They have taken on to these tabletslike crazy and they are enjoying it.
We're going to talk about that,and Diane and are one of our
other colleagues, Karen Wolf did allof that initial intake and training and I
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just want to kind of cover theseis the joy of finding that solution,
and we're going to be back withsome joy after the news because the news
never brings joy, So we'll beback with Life Happens right after this.
Welcome back. I'm Luke Piro,your host for this morning on Life Happens
Radio, and we're gonna bring joyinto your home right now or to your
(24:18):
car wherever you're listening to Life Happensin WGY. I'm live in studio with
Elizabeth Martin, the CEO of LivingResources, and Diane Mikkel Gottabiowski, the
vice president at ever Home Care Advisors, and we're talking about a very difficult
set of problems that is finding careand in many cases, how do you
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pay for care? How do youmodify the cost of care? Because human
labor is the big part of care. It's putting people in homes, putting
people into these residences that have tobe there, hands on and taking care
of people. The cost is runningaway and the budget cuts are reflective of
that. But technology, it's abig scary word, right Tech. Oh,
(25:06):
I don't want any more tech inmy life. Well guess what text
with you? Regardless? And youthink back, and I'm old enough to
think back. When I started mylaw practice, there wasn't a such thing
as a computer. And I tellyoung associates in my office that what how
did you practice? How did youwork? How did you live? There
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was no computer, There was nothing. The big revolution was an IBM selectric
typewriter that had a ball on itthat you could erase backwards and you could
wipe things out. Weighed about onehundred pounds. It was a great anchor
for your boat. And who wouldthink ten years ago that everybody virtually has
a phone, an iPhone, nota flip phone anymore. Because all the
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things that you can do in thepalm of your hand with an Android or
an iPhone or unimaginable twenty years ago. So technology doesn't have to be scary.
It maybe at first, but itis going to become ingrained in healthcare,
ingrained in caring for people who havedisabilities, who have chronic conditions.
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This is going to be part oflife. So we have two people that
are piloting this whole concept, andwe started talking a little bit about the
whole marketplace. But we're going tonow kind of get down to the pilot
program. And I asked Elizabeth beforethe break, if you weren't with us,
what the reaction was to the familiesand the individuals and her staff when
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they started to talk about bringing technologyinto these group homes and independent homes for
people with developmental disabilities. And yeah, there there's some doubt among some of
the people about No, I don'tknow if it's going to work or anything
like that. And it's it's sofar has been well received by especially by
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the individuals that are using it.So everybody, those that the individuals with
disabilities, they all have tablets andthat entertainment part of it is it's great
because that's getting them used to it. They're really engaged with the news,
the entertainment that part of it.And I'll let Diane talk about how people
get adopt adopt the technology and whatdraws. Yeah, and that's and that's
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the starting point. We're starting tobuild in the medical appointments and other parts
of the application in there. Soit's it's really going well and very excited
for it. We are going tobe for at least the group home doing
sensors and everything like that, sowe're we're really excited about where this is
heading. It's I'm very excited.And how does it impact your ability as
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a CEO because you're in charge ofbudgets you're in charge of staffing all of
those things, how does it impactyour ability to provide care to the greater
number of people who need it andhave it be done on a cost effective
basis. Well, so we're hopingis that you can get those efficiencies when
it comes to like, if you'rethinking just budget kind of thing, that
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we will be able to deliver moresupport to more people at a at the
same or less cost as a resultof it, because the technology actually doesn't
really cost that much relatively It's yeah, absolutely, it's really not that.
It's really not that expensive relatively speaking. So that's what we're hoping to do.
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But quite honestly, I even moreso than that, is really just
the notion that people are going tobe more independent in doing things that they
never thought they could do on theirown is exciting it. And I'm hopeful
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actually that that also helps with staffing, because I think staff want to be
in an organization that is doing coolstuff, that is doing things that has
purpose, that is doing things that'smeaningful, and if so, I'm hoping
that that whole excitement can add toit. I know one staff person who
(29:11):
was also doubtful of technology, whoactually is already seeing the benefits of this
and is excited about it because therewas a concern about it. Oh my
god, is this going to replaceme. It's like, no, no,
no, it's not going to replaceyou. We need you, we
need you. But he was alreadynoticing the work is different, yeah,
and again better. So it's good. Stories like that, I'm hoping actually
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helps draw in more staff, quitehonestly. And people thought when the Internet
was created, and oh, bythe way, there was a time in
our lives where the Internet didn't exist. If you can imagine such a things,
such a thing you had the EncyclopediaBritannica on your shelf in twenty volumes,
and now you've got Google that givesyou a thousand times more information,
probably multiples of that. But technology, Diane in the home is something that
(30:02):
again we have to cross the thresholdthere. But you've had experience working with
it yourself, but also with theclients of ever Home. And there's a
pilot program where you have a numberof individuals in Columbia County, New York
who are utilizing the technology. Whathas been the experience that you've had.
It's so interesting because the experience atliving resources as opposed to you know,
(30:26):
working with individuals with developmental disabilities andthe elders in the community. It's generational.
It's generational, and it's also whatyou shouldn't do and what you can't
do as opposed to what can Ido. So you know, we talked
to I talked about an AHA momenta little while ago, and what we
(30:48):
really have started with in all instancesis show me, show me play with
it. And that doesn't sound verytechnical or professional, but play with it.
Don't be afraid of this. Andfor people that dig their heels in
and say, you know, oh, I don't want this. I don't
even have a cell phone. Idon't want this. I mean, we
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have examples of people who wanted nothingto do with this technology who now can't
live without it. And I'm beingdramatic when I say they can't live without
it, but no, there's actuallya great case study. Don't want to
talk a little bit about that.One of our models who was actually on
this radio show, her daughter,absolutely individual living in senior housing, had
(31:32):
never touched technology. We've made herour motto. If she can do it,
anybody, you know, anybody cando it, and you know,
started playing games, a little bitvideo chats. Her daughter had the app.
Her daughter was with her mom allthe time, couldn't leave her for
long. And suddenly there was afreedom because the mom knew how to connect
(31:55):
with her by touching a tablet.And this is a mom who didn't know
how to use a television remote.No, she could not use a television
remote. They both adopted this veryquickly. It became a part of their
lives, from scheduling to communication,to medication management. Unfortunately, with aging,
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there are some things we can't fight. And she did start to show
signs of memory loss decline, andthere were some safety issues, and she
did transition to assisted living. Ithappened very quickly. They were able to
find her a place quickly. Itwas a weekend. The tablet. Can
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we bring it? Can't we bringit? So they went without it.
In three days that this individual didnot have the tablet. There was an
engagement decline, there was an interactiondecline. She looked for it, she
was missing it. We got thephone call, can we bring the tablet?
Of course, and just to fastforward, the staff at the Assistance
(33:00):
a Living they put the activities onthe tablet the video calls happen, she
plays her games. It's engagement andnow she really the daughter said, she
was starting to decline very rapidly.Wow. And when the family uses it
because they have the app on theirphone, so they're seeing what's going on,
the sensor data is and if thereare issues that occur, if you
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know, if mom's not out ofbed by ten am or whatever time you
prescribe. Because this is all individuallycustomized, it's going to get an alert
and you're going to intervene and makea phone call or a video chat.
You're going to turn on the cameras. You're going to see what's going on
in the home. So you haveeyes into the home and you have an
ability to have live communication of avideo chat at a moment's notice. And
(33:47):
then you can bring in other resourcesif there are issues day in and how
does that work in the system.So the communication from the tablet and the
app, we determine that more isneeded or you want eyes in. We
use security. What would people wouldnormally see a security equipment, which would
(34:08):
be sensors and monitors in the home. An assessment determines where they might be
needed. So as Lou said youcould access this, and that's a security
company that you contract. We contractwith a security company, so alarm alarm
dot com equipment. Some people maybe familiar with that. There's a camera
that can be accessed. It's notlive streaming people. You know that those
(34:30):
are the barriers, like I don'twant to be like live streamed on the
internet. And there are motion sensors, there are chair sensors, bed sensors.
You know, one use case,the individual likes to sleep later,
the spouse is up earlier, he'sstill there, can just get a text
(34:52):
message when the bed sensor is vacated. You start to staff, you start
to provide care when it's needed,as opposed to across the board twenty four
to seven. Care does not meanyou're touching someone twenty four to seven.
It means you have eyes on oryou're there twenty four to seven. And
technology can help bridge that gap.So the physical need is not twenty four
(35:15):
to seven, but the monitoring isthere twenty four to seven. And a
lot of people fear that their personalinformation, their health information is going to
be on the Internet and it's goingto be public and then Mom's going to
start getting hacked emails and solicitations.How does the technology work from the perspective
(35:35):
of is it open or is ita closed network? It's a completely closed
network. Your neighbor can't contact youon your tablet even if they wanted to.
The person in the next room cannotcontact you unless they're given access.
We access the Internet and then anintronnet, which makes it a safe closed
system. People have to be signedon, given permission, and given special
(35:59):
access, so it is not anopen system. It is completely hippo compliant.
We have gone through all the rigorousstandards for hippo compliancy. Yeah,
and hippa is a major issue forpeople with disabilities as well as others,
and you have to maintain the privacyof those individuals absolutely, absolutely so,
which was one of the reasons whywe can do it is that and the
(36:20):
in the group Hope setting. There'salso rights regulations that we have to work
around, so like when we getto the point of where we're going to
be putting in sensors and stuff likethat, we'll have to go through that
process to make sure that it's becausethis is not meant to be, it's
not invasive. It's really about promotingactually expanding people's rights and not necessarily restricting
(36:43):
them. But that whole process hasto kind of get work through and everything
like that, and it's and it'sreally going to be exciting for people who
are also in independent settings because alot of times the ones that we are
targeting, many of them are aging, and quite typically what happens when somebody
with an intellectual development to disability isaging, they end up in a group
home eventually, and what we're lookingto do is delay that so that as
(37:07):
they're using this technology, if theydevelop a need for sensors, that we
can build those in there to allowthem to live longer in their apartments or
wherever they are before they have togo into a higher level of yeah can.
It's funny because we talk about planningfor children with disabilities all the time,
and when a parent who has achild with a disability creates a will
(37:30):
or a trust, they're going tocreate a special needs trust for that child.
But what's happened over the last twentyyears or so is the children with
disabilities are now sixty five, theparents are eighty five ninety, and so
you have just a very very differentdynamic and the parents wanting to make sure
(37:52):
they take care of their children andspecial needs trusts is a phenomenal tool the
way you have to do it tomake sure that your child gets all the
care and all the things that theyneed. But this aging population, you
now have those people with developmental disabilitiesthat, as you said, have much
higher acuity of care. Yeah,and that's that is a challenge that the
(38:14):
that our state is coming up againstis there are aging parents that have aging
children with disabilities, and what doyou do now. Historically in the past
they go to a group home.That historically group homes, was it that
it was a cookie cut and somevery horrific stories and sometimes yes, sometimes
(38:34):
it would be perfect stories. Butwhat we're working on with technology and the
states even trying to do some policychanges as well, is to create a
richer array of options for people sothat it's not just the group home,
that there's other options for a family, for the individual to live their lives
(38:57):
in less restrictive settings, even withoutthe parent right there. So that's what
we're trying to work towards. Andagain it's about trying to help people live
their most independent lies, whatever thatmeans for that particular person. So and
(39:19):
that's cool for everyone. We're goingto take a short break. When we
come back, we're going to talkabout Viva Links, the technology that's linking
o our home care advisors and livingresources and providing the ability to live where
you want to be independently, totake as much control of your life as
you can, but to have supportsthere when you can't. You're listening to
(39:42):
Life Happens Radio on Talk Radio WGY. We will be right back and we're
back. Welcome to Life Happens Radio. If you're a first time listener,
thanks for joining us. If you'rea repeat listener, thanks for staying with
us. And I just want topoint out some of the things that our
law firm does. Because Pier O'ConnorStrauss sponsors Life Happens, we try to
(40:04):
bring information, ideas education. Wehave two wonderful guests with us here today
and hope you've been listening from thebeginning. But we also do some seminars,
and we have a seminar coming upthat I want to give you an
opportunity to go and attend with us. It is a state planning update,
new rules and more in twenty twentyfour, and this is going to be
(40:25):
on Tuesday, March twelfth, soit's coming right up March twelfth, from
one to two pm at the ColonyTown Library. My partner Aaron Connor and
I will be talking about estate planning, giving you ideas information, how to
build your estate plan, how tostart, how to finish, making sure
you get it right the first time, and we'll be giving you things like
(40:46):
how to use a power of attorney, a living trust, revocable trusts,
irrevocable trusts, wills, health caredecision making. So please join us on
Tuesday, March twelfth, one totwo pm at the Colony Town Library and
you can sign up right now bygoing to our website, which is Pierolaw
dot com. Go to the eventstab at pyrolaw dot com and you can
(41:08):
sign up for the March twelfth seminar. And you can also call us at
any time five point eight four fivenine twenty one hundred or email us at
info at pyrolaw dot com. Andwe're here with Diane Mikkel Gottabiowski and Elizabeth
Martin, Elizabeth with Living Resources andDiane Withe, her home care advisors.
(41:32):
And I want to go back toyou, Diane, because we talked about
introducing this technology to a group ofpeople that you know, you don't know
what you're gonna find until you try, and you had some as you expressed
at AHA moments during that initial session, it was it was really fascinating.
Everybody was a little nervous what toexpect. And my coworker Karen and I
(42:01):
set up and Devin was there too, our tech admin, and we set
everything up and had it ready.As people entered the room. We did
it in a group setting and youknow, looked at it like what is
this foreign thing here? And wejust said, you know, we're going
to give you fifteen minutes. Justtouch it and see what you can do
(42:22):
with it. And I will tellyou that in a half an hour,
there were people showing us things thatour tablet could do. There were things
people showing us and saying, youknow what we could use this for.
It was really quite fascinating. Notevery tablet had the same items on it.
We tried to individualize them a littlebit in advance, and soon they
(42:44):
were comparing notes and they were videochatting across the room and there was just
an explosion of energy that was reallyreally fascinating and I will tell you very
quickly that there were staff there overseeingthis and they started to catch that and
do he has And because honestly itwas staff that were a little more trepidacious
(43:06):
than anyone else, what's this goingto mean? And they start saying,
instead of yelling upstairs, get downhere for dinner, I can video chat
or I could put we could putthat on the tablet. Had an individual
wanted to know if he could puthis work schedule on the tablet. They
were asking us, and that's howyou get engagement is by you know,
people asking us. But there wasone gentleman we had put some prompts on
(43:30):
and we were working on that andthe staff came over and said, he
can't read, and you know hehas he's, you know, not able
to read. And I said,yeah, I don't think so. And
what everybody was watching and he wasreading, he was reading his appointment and
(43:52):
it it just changed the dynamics sotremendously, and he was so proud of
himself. He was so proud ofhimself. So there's pride, there's independ
and it's about the abilities and whatwe can do with this and just with
every individual, what can we addon to this next so for the staff
to say, oh, I couldsee how this is going to help,
(44:14):
and we talk about the autonomy.We talk about you can now control your
schedule and I'll only have to nagyou about this if you don't do it.
So it's been really an incredibly pleasantexperience. It's been a lot of
fun. So empowerment, independence,but also safety, security and wellness,
(44:39):
health and how does that play inand caring for people with developmental disabilities or
we'll come back to day in laterfor people who are aging in place.
Yeah, you know, the environment, the systems environment for people with intellectual
and developmental disabilities tends to take avery protection first approach to things, and
(45:00):
it's understandable as to why it's meantfrom the goodness of our hearts and stuff
like that, but it can bevery restrictive and actually limiting on people with
the tech and as a provider,we are responsible for their safety and their
health and well being and stuff likethat, so it kind of adds to
(45:21):
that. Technology can make it easierto do the health aspect of things and
the protection of things. It isnot about being reckless at all. It
is actually and that's why we goslowly in part, that's why we do
training, That's why we have thesupports, is because we're not trying to
be reckless. Well, one ofthe great things about Viva Links was that
(45:44):
healthcare kind of component to it,and not only can a lot of their
medical stats I don't know if that'sthe right word, but they're vitals and
even diabetes readings and stuff like thatwhen it's set up and alert whoever needs
to know. So if an individualfor themselves struggles with being able to monitor
(46:07):
that they need help with that,you don't have to have a nurse or
a staff person right there doing itfor them. They can do it,
and then it can bluetooth to nursingstaff, to family, to whoever needs
to kind of know in case there'sthings off. And it also keeps the
record of it and stuff like that'sreally really great. And then we're hoping
(46:27):
to really be able to also usethat telehealth component to it as well.
Talk a little bit about that.Yeah, So a lot of times with
individuals they have to physically, youknow, you have to physically go to
an emergency room or in urgent careor a doctor or something like that.
And it takes time, it requiresstaffing resources, it can be a challenge
(46:52):
to do it. Another thing that'sgreat about this technology has it built in
the telehealth component, so if theyneed to see, you know, check
in on a dot with a doctoror something like that, or a medical
person, they can do that throughthe technology. Which it's a wonderful thing
because it's easier on the person whoneeds it. But then it's also dealing
(47:12):
with a short staffing. It's easieras staffing because generally speaking, somebody's going
out to a doctor's appointment, astaff person has to accompany them, which
means you got to find staff tocover everybody else. So it's it's hopefully
going to help with that as well. So telemedicine was taking off a little
bit pre pandemic, but once thepandemic hit, telemedicine just skyrocketed and every
(47:37):
insurance plan, every insurance carrier hassome telemedicine solution. But with this one,
it's diane ingrained right into the system. So how does Vivi Links bring
that into the home. So it'spart of the Viva Link subscription, so
our telemedicine provider is accessible through theapp. Also individuals are given. There's
(48:01):
multiple ways to contact them. Soif someone is having difficulty, you know,
navigating one way and it's simply onlineor by telephone contact and request a
telemedicine appointment. They just say I'ma Viva Links client and that's all it
takes and they're registered with they arewhen we onboard people onto the Viva Links
(48:27):
platform and program. We onboard themand all the proper consens and privacy issues
are in place. We onboard themonto our telemedicine provider so that it is
as there is no insurance involved,no payment required, it is simply this
is I'm you know, Susan Smith, I'm a Viva Links client. Or
(48:51):
if they don't know to say they'rea Viva Links client, they will be
asked for their date of birth,they will get matched that way and then
they will go right into getting avisit. It's incredibly user friendly system and
very very responsive. So you talkedabout Viva Links, we talked about ever
Home. Just tell our listeners alittle bit about those and how they can
(49:12):
contact you. Okay, So EverhomecareAdvisors is what we call the human element.
It's the care coordination element, andwe can be reached at Our website
is ever Homecareadvisors dot com, andour staff can get back with you or
talk with you about what your needsmight be. Viva Links is our technology
(49:36):
arm and that's Viva Links v Iv A L y n X dot com
and we provide the technology, thein home technology, the app for the
caregiver on the go to connect thetwo together and provide you the oversite and
the care and support that you need. Excellent Elizabeth Living recently Living Resources.
(50:00):
We also have a website Living Resourcesdot org and there is a contact page
on there so you can reach usthat way. You can also give us
a call five one eight two oneeight zero zero zero zero. And you're
going to be participating in something thatour law firm sponsors every year, the
twenty ninth annual it's hard to believethat twenty ninth annual Elder Law Forum,
(50:23):
which is taking place on May sixteenth, and we have legislators, Senator,
Senator Ashby, Assemblyman McDonald's, assemblyWoman Poulin who's the chair of the Assembly
Health Committee, and a whole castof people from a variety of different healthcare
disciplines, including Living Resources. SoElizabeth is going to be on a panel,
(50:45):
and we're going to be doing thaton May sixteenth. We're out of
time. Thank you for joining us, Elizabeth Diane, Thank you so much
for making this a joyous and veryeducational hour. Thanks. Hope to see
an next week.