Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Life Happens Radio, featuring the attorneys from pierro'
connor and Strauss. Tune in every Saturday morning at nine
am for the most in depth discussions that help you
navigate the legal, financial, and health related challenges we all face.
Life Happens.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Are you prepared, You'll have a lasting summer. You can
see it fading back. Good morning, everyone, Welcome to Life
Happens Radio. I'm Lou Piro, your host for this morning.
And here we are on another bright Sunday set. No
(00:44):
wait that we're in Alving 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 segue to Noah's Ark and building the arc for
(01:05):
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. Because the show talks about
(01:29):
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 Vandy in to talk about life insurance and long
(01:49):
term care insurance. But today we're gonna 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 talk about how to plan,
(02:12):
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 eighties nineties. I have my
(02:33):
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 more people who have disabilities,
(02:56):
chronic illnesses. We are not a terrible healthy society in America,
and it results in extremely high health care costs. And
when you talk about healthcare, you're looking at hospitals and doctors,
and that system is broken. But when you look at
long term care, the care that you need, which is
(03:18):
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 today. 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
(03:38):
an independent setting, most of 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 security hopefully, we have maybe
(04:04):
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 to your doctor and
you've been a little bit forgetful. But the doctor says, well,
(04:26):
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 have MS, or you have als.
(04:48):
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 that we work with because they're
(05:11):
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 a plan. So today we're very
(05:33):
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 Loo. And we also have with us one
(05:55):
of the care coordinators extraordinary from ever Home, Nina chrissand
a good morning.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Good morning, how are you.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I am doing well. And Everholme 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
(06:23):
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
(06:46):
you pull these problems apart and kind of put solutions
back together for them?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
So I have a very very wide variety of experience
through my years as a treating occupational therapists. So I've
worked with individuals with disabilities. I've worked in skilled nursing
and rehab facilities. I managed a residential site of an
(07:16):
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 Everhome
(07:36):
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 2 (07:51):
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
(08:15):
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, and that's.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
A great question.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
So if the question 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 figuring out and educating on what
(09:03):
level of care is most appropriate if it's assisted living,
enhanced memory care, skilled nursing, and all of the places
in between. Enriched 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 2 (09:24):
And we have a caller right out the gate, Leonard
from SCO Harry, Good morning, Leonard, Welcome to life happening.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I kind of take care of my mother in law
and we're running into a problem and maybe you have
a suggestion. The since we started PPL, it's been really
hard to find a source to find aids.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
Now.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
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. Hate to
just run ads in the paper because you never know
what's going to show up.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Boy, did you open up a can?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Is there any platforms or anything like that where she
can get AIDS without going through an agency where they're
assigned tour you are you're talking.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
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 Program and that's cd PAP is it's nickname. And
(10:41):
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, and we've had them
(11:04):
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 they wanted to have
(11:27):
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
and on January first, they all had to start going
through this new enrollment process with PPL. They had to
(11:47):
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 with families through
(12:09):
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 CDPAP, the Consumer Directed Program
(12:30):
and the state of play right now in helping families
like Leonards find care and coordinate with that fiscal intermediary.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Oh yeah, So I've had quite my time 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
(12:58):
to do. Recently, so one of my clients lost his
hours from one hundred and twelve to thirty two.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
We had to fix that.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
He lost four months of his authorization date.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
We had to fix that.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
He then now most recently lost one of his caregivers,
so now he only has two garag givers for one
hundred and twelve hours a week. PPL said, oh, you
need a new authorization for this. Vn I said, no,
you don't, just cover the hours, and luckily VNS was right.
So my friend gets to enjoy the people that he
(13:35):
has hired, that he is close with, and gets to
continue receiving their care.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So Leonard, where are you in the process right now?
Speaker 5 (13:45):
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 2 (14:06):
So that this is the question of the day, and
it's like finding the unior.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
She is enrolled in PPL, so she's got her hours approved.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It's just a matter of now finding the aid to
fill the outs.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Yeah, she's got the aids. She's had 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 2 (14:30):
That's right, and that's 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 5 (14:39):
For this she has Medicaid yes for.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
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 that 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 license physical therapist, what are some of the
(15:02):
resources that you can bring to bear and what does
everhome do to help families through this crisis.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
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 5 (15:21):
And I've actually I've actually sent feedback to Craigslist that
they ought to do a platform for patients and aide
where they can post things and connect to each other.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
There are some of those resources out there that Diane
is familiar with.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
Absolutely, there are different resources and I don't want to
start naming.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Lists here, but if you go on the internet.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
But the question is it's the internet, right, We're all
cautioned and not just blindly search for people. But we
get into a situation we're kind of desperate because we
need these hours filled, and many of our clients, you know,
get into this position what we do, and we're here
(16:09):
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
we have connected with. We have found private aids for
other people. We know about registries, which is where aids
(16:30):
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
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 oh, here,
(16:51):
call this number and you'll you'll find someone.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
You're in Schohari County, correct.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
Now, she's in connect.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
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 2 (17:09):
So and your officers are right in Sconnector.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
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
(17:34):
kind of work.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
But the key is to be able to have.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
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 2 (17:50):
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,
(18:13):
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
Wguy Stay with us. Welcome back. I'm Luperrol live in
(18:38):
studio with two very special guests, Diane micklel Gottabiewski of
ever Home Care Advisors, along with her care coordinator, Nina Cressanda.
We're talking about how to find care, coordinate care, make
the family's 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 Alzheimer's and many
(19:00):
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, they just
(19:20):
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 went and
(19:42):
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,
(20:03):
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
(20:24):
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 now all
over the place, has put a chill in this whole market.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Sure, Leonard.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
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,
(21:11):
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
(21:32):
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,
(21:54):
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,
(22:15):
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.
(22:37):
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
(23:00):
and 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 2 (23:12):
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
(23:33):
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 gon so
with us Leonard Leonard might have left, but why don't
(23:58):
you give your contact information? Now?
Speaker 5 (24:00):
I'm here?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
There you are, okay? Thanks?
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Diane said, she is Medicaid and low income and I
don't think she can pay for it.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Okay, does she have a pool trust? Is any of
her income over the one and twenty a month?
Speaker 5 (24:17):
No?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
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 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
(24:39):
about that. You're listening to Life Happens Radio every Saturday
morning on talk radio wgy be right back after the news.
All right, So I hope you have that arc built.
(25:02):
We have flood warnings. It's coming. Noah was right, No,
just kidding. It'll the rain will stop and the sun
will come up someday, maybe today later this afternoon. Looks
like the sun may 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
(25:25):
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. 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
(25:46):
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 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
(26:07):
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 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
(26:28):
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 through that chaos, and I
know that some people on Medicaid have absolutely no resources.
(26:48):
When we do some planning, we have something called a
pool trust, and if your income exceeds the level, which
is one eight hundred and twenty dollars, you can actually
use that pool trust to hire professionals to help you
through the care process. So we help as attorneys marshall
resources and Nina. What would be the first entry step
(27:10):
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 (27:21):
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
(27:43):
call and we might do a one hour care consultation
at that moment. But we'll talk briefly about the situation,
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 and what is feasible.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So that's a professional consultation on what the care options are.
And usually you schedule that for an hour.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Usually it's an hour, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And what does something like that cost to get a
professional consultation, So a one.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
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
my boss's looking.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
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 cons for people that want to get legal questions answered.
(29:04):
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 you're thinking way ahead and
saying I just want to talk to someone about my choices.
(29:27):
What are my housing choices? And there are a lot
of them. It's not just your own.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
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. So we could say they 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
(29:52):
we have to do an assessment and see if they're
a right fit for that place.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I have more and more clients coming in and saying
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, eighteen hundred
(30:18):
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 4 (30:39):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I mean I worked personally at the Beverwick, an independent
living facility and at Avela as an occupational therapist. I
want to throw out that that there is Wesley and Saratoga,
not to you know.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
In Kingsway and some others. There's lots of choices and
that's the point. You don't know about them. You may
have heard one from a friend or a relative, but
there are many 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,
(31:14):
where do we want to be? Question number two is
who's going to take care of me when I need care?
And 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
(31:34):
that are necessary for people to have legal authority to
do things when that time arises. But then the family
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,
(31:57):
and I'm sure Diane and Nina can back me up
on this. Cash is king. When you have the ability
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
(32:20):
Capital region. Medicaid is one portal. Medicare used to be
a portal for home health care. It is not anymore.
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 Medicaid, right.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
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.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
And how much care do you need.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
We have clients that say I was told that my
loved one needs twenty four to seven care, Well, what
does that really mean? 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
(33:22):
three to four hours of care once a day or
twice a day. And 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
(33:43):
how do you get someone in the home. You can't
just call someone who's ten miles away and say I
have to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Now.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
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 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
things that we need to consider. How you're paying for.
(34:11):
It is important, and there are some long term care
policies out there that do have some benefits. We can
help you engage those as well. 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 2 (34:30):
Yeah, accessing benefits under a long term care contract, because
they're contracts. Sorry, these are legal questions.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
That's the lawyer.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
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
(34:59):
you also so I 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
(35:21):
just talk about some of the issues in the home
and what people should be looking for and thinking about
to prepare themselves.
Speaker 6 (35:28):
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, that'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
(35:48):
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, back room, 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
(36:08):
do this assessment. Nina, why don't you talk about that
a little bit?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
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
(36:34):
of these are baseline predictive scores that doctors like to
know and keep track of. They could be done repetitively.
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?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
The first store? What is it? Where's the handle?
Speaker 3 (36:59):
How exactly do you step in?
Speaker 4 (37:01):
What do you pull on?
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Are you using a piece of equipment that was recommended
for you? Maybe it's time for a walk, or if
it's time for a walker, now we're talking about rugs.
We're having an emergency alert.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
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
(37:38):
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
(37:59):
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
(38:22):
allow you to monitor, track and adjust course as you
go and those have been life savers literally for many people.
Speaker 6 (38:34):
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 O, 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
(38:55):
to what particularly I've used in my parents' home, and
I know a loo Is 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
(39:17):
inch touchscreen tablet 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
(39:38):
sure you're okay.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
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 6 (39:53):
One touch, one touch, touch the person's picture, you're connected
to them. And know I've dealt with an iPhone with
with individuals don't remember the access code, get the screen crooked,
say off, it's showing them instead of the person they're
talking to. This is a static device that you check
in on, and that's and you know I'm going to
(40:15):
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 4 (40:27):
But there's more, and we could go on and on.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
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 4 (40:40):
You can reach out to people.
Speaker 6 (40:45):
You can enter it manually and tell me what you
were pointing to their Nina.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
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 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 if you
(41:12):
go to the doctor.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
It's lovely.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
So we have to take one more short break. We're
gonna 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 the bank,
(41:38):
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 is of
(42:00):
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
(42:20):
not going to solve the world's problems Need 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
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 6 (42:39):
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
(43:02):
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 Forever Home or Viva links during that
phone call.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
So Everhomecare dot Com and that number, that'll get you
to Nina.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Yes, it'll get it'll get me, It'll get pretty much
anybody that's in the office. We will say. 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.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
You will reach.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Us, and certainly feel free to also call the one
eight hundred number because we do get those phone messages
on the website.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
All right, So what's your new address.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
It is two fifty one State Street, Schenectady, Suite two
hundred to two hundred and six.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
There you go, all right. So Ever, home Care Advisors
worked on a pilot program that I was 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 still have
(44:16):
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, Lesha were
a tremendous team, and we actually had Lesia on this
show two or three years ago talking about her experience
(44:37):
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. I
(44:59):
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
(45:22):
was able to use the vivil links technology very successfully.
Speaker 6 (45:26):
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 Lisia 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
(45:50):
and using this technology. And Kitty really couldn't use a
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
and her family at multiple times of the day. And
(46:13):
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 through these video chats. And he made
(46:34):
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.
Licia was able to travel. She could be in touch
(46:55):
with Kitty whenever she needed. She would know what she
was doing. We had chairs sensors and door sensors knowing
when doors were open 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.
(47:17):
Is everything okay? It seems to be.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
There are no alerts.
Speaker 6 (47:22):
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 2 (47:35):
She really loved that 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 managerr schedule manager appointments all
through the app on her iPhone from Italy, which is
pretty remarkable. And it gave her the security of knowing
(47:57):
that she had 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 have about one minute left.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
I mean, I think I'm being led 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
(48:32):
day a week, for four hours so you can take
care of yourself. Please do that.
Speaker 4 (48:38):
You deserve it.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
Your your caregiver, your career loved one. They deserve that
because then you get to be your natural role with
that person.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
All right, We're gonna let that be the last word.
Diane Michel Gotta Biowski, and Nick Risanda 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 and we hope that
you enjoy it. We hope that you can join us
(49:10):
every Saturday here on Life Happens. See you next week.
Welcome to Life Happens Radio, featuring the attorneys from pierro'
connor and Strauss. Tune in every Saturday morning at nine
am for the most in depth discussions that help you
navigate the legal, financial, and health related challenges we all face.
Life Happens.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Are you prepared, You'll have a lasting summer. You can
see it fading back. Good morning, everyone, Welcome to Life
Happens Radio. I'm Lou Piro, your host for this morning.
And here we are on another bright Sunday set. No
(00:44):
wait that we're in Alving 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 segue to Noah's Ark and building the arc for
(01:05):
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. Because the show talks about
(01:29):
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 Vandy in to talk about life insurance and long
(01:49):
term care insurance. But today we're gonna 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 talk about how to plan,
(02:12):
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 eighties nineties. I have my
(02:33):
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 more people who have disabilities,
(02:56):
chronic illnesses. We are not a terrible healthy society in America,
and it results in extremely high health care costs. And
when you talk about healthcare, you're looking at hospitals and doctors,
and that system is broken. But when you look at
long term care, the care that you need, which is
(03:18):
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 today. 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
(03:38):
an independent setting, most of 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 security hopefully, we have maybe
(04:04):
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 to your doctor and
you've been a little bit forgetful. But the doctor says, well,
(04:26):
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 have MS, or you have als.
(04:48):
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 that we work with because they're
(05:11):
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 a plan. So today we're very
(05:33):
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 Loo. And we also have with us one
(05:55):
of the care coordinators extraordinary from ever Home, Nina chrissand
a good morning.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Good morning, how are you.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
I am doing well. And Everholme 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
(06:23):
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
(06:46):
you pull these problems apart and kind of put solutions
back together for them?
Speaker 3 (06:52):
So I have a very very wide variety of experience
through my years as a treating occupational therapists. So I've
worked with individuals with disabilities. I've worked in skilled nursing
and rehab facilities. I managed a residential site of an
(07:16):
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 Everhome
(07:36):
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 2 (07:51):
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
(08:15):
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, and that's.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
A great question.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
So if the question 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 figuring out and educating on what
(09:03):
level of care is most appropriate if it's assisted living,
enhanced memory care, skilled nursing, and all of the places
in between. Enriched 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 2 (09:24):
And we have a caller right out the gate, Leonard
from SCO Harry, Good morning, Leonard, Welcome to life happening.
Speaker 5 (09:31):
I kind of take care of my mother in law
and we're running into a problem and maybe you have
a suggestion. The since we started PPL, it's been really
hard to find a source to find aids.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
Now.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
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. Hate to
just run ads in the paper because you never know
what's going to show up.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Boy, did you open up a can?
Speaker 5 (10:08):
Is there any platforms or anything like that where she
can get AIDS without going through an agency where they're
assigned tour you are you're talking.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
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 Program and that's cd PAP is it's nickname. And
(10:41):
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, and we've had them
(11:04):
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 they wanted to have
(11:27):
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
and on January first, they all had to start going
through this new enrollment process with PPL. They had to
(11:47):
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 with families through
(12:09):
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 CDPAP, the Consumer Directed Program
(12:30):
and the state of play right now in helping families
like Leonards find care and coordinate with that fiscal intermediary.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Oh yeah, So I've had quite my time 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
(12:58):
to do. Recently, so one of my clients lost his
hours from one hundred and twelve to thirty two.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
We had to fix that.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
He lost four months of his authorization date.
Speaker 4 (13:10):
We had to fix that.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
He then now most recently lost one of his caregivers,
so now he only has two garag givers for one
hundred and twelve hours a week. PPL said, oh, you
need a new authorization for this. Vn I said, no,
you don't, just cover the hours, and luckily VNS was right.
So my friend gets to enjoy the people that he
(13:35):
has hired, that he is close with, and gets to
continue receiving their care.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
So Leonard, where are you in the process right now?
Speaker 5 (13:45):
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 2 (14:06):
So that this is the question of the day, and
it's like finding the unior.
Speaker 5 (14:10):
She is enrolled in PPL, so she's got her hours approved.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
It's just a matter of now finding the aid to
fill the outs.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Yeah, she's got the aids. She's had 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 2 (14:30):
That's right, and that's 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 5 (14:39):
For this she has Medicaid yes for.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
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 that 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 license physical therapist, what are some of the
(15:02):
resources that you can bring to bear and what does
everhome do to help families through this crisis.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
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 5 (15:21):
And I've actually I've actually sent feedback to Craigslist that
they ought to do a platform for patients and aide
where they can post things and connect to each other.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
There are some of those resources out there that Diane
is familiar with.
Speaker 6 (15:39):
Absolutely, there are different resources and I don't want to
start naming.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Lists here, but if you go on the internet.
Speaker 6 (15:48):
But the question is it's the internet, right, We're all
cautioned and not just blindly search for people. But we
get into a situation we're kind of desperate because we
need these hours filled, and many of our clients, you know,
get into this position what we do, and we're here
(16:09):
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
we have connected with. We have found private aids for
other people. We know about registries, which is where aids
(16:30):
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
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 oh, here,
(16:51):
call this number and you'll you'll find someone.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
You're in Schohari County, correct.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
Now, she's in connect.
Speaker 6 (16:58):
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 2 (17:09):
So and your officers are right in Sconnector.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
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
(17:34):
kind of work.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
But the key is to be able to have.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
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 2 (17:50):
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,
(18:13):
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
Wguy Stay with us. Welcome back. I'm Luperrol live in
(18:38):
studio with two very special guests, Diane micklel Gottabiewski of
ever Home Care Advisors, along with her care coordinator, Nina Cressanda.
We're talking about how to find care, coordinate care, make
the family's 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 Alzheimer's and many
(19:00):
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, they just
(19:20):
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 went and
(19:42):
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,
(20:03):
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
(20:24):
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 now all
over the place, has put a chill in this whole market.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
Sure, Leonard.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
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,
(21:11):
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
(21:32):
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,
(21:54):
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,
(22:15):
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.
(22:37):
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
(23:00):
and 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 2 (23:12):
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
(23:33):
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 gon so
with us Leonard Leonard might have left, but why don't
(23:58):
you give your contact information? Now?
Speaker 5 (24:00):
I'm here?
Speaker 2 (24:00):
There you are, okay? Thanks?
Speaker 5 (24:03):
Diane said, she is Medicaid and low income and I
don't think she can pay for it.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Okay, does she have a pool trust? Is any of
her income over the one and twenty a month?
Speaker 5 (24:17):
No?
Speaker 2 (24:18):
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 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
(24:39):
about that. You're listening to Life Happens Radio every Saturday
morning on talk radio wgy be right back after the news.
All right, So I hope you have that arc built.
(25:02):
We have flood warnings. It's coming. Noah was right, No,
just kidding. It'll the rain will stop and the sun
will come up someday, maybe today later this afternoon. Looks
like the sun may 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
(25:25):
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. 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
(25:46):
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 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
(26:07):
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 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
(26:28):
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 through that chaos, and I
know that some people on Medicaid have absolutely no resources.
(26:48):
When we do some planning, we have something called a
pool trust, and if your income exceeds the level, which
is one eight hundred and twenty dollars, you can actually
use that pool trust to hire professionals to help you
through the care process. So we help as attorneys marshall
resources and Nina. What would be the first entry step
(27:10):
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 (27:21):
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
(27:43):
call and we might do a one hour care consultation
at that moment. But we'll talk briefly about the situation,
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 and what is feasible.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
So that's a professional consultation on what the care options are.
And usually you schedule that for an hour.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Usually it's an hour, yes, okay.
Speaker 2 (28:16):
And what does something like that cost to get a
professional consultation, So a one.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
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
my boss's looking.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
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 cons for people that want to get legal questions answered.
(29:04):
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 you're thinking way ahead and
saying I just want to talk to someone about my choices.
(29:27):
What are my housing choices? And there are a lot
of them. It's not just your own.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
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. So we could say they 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
(29:52):
we have to do an assessment and see if they're
a right fit for that place.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
I have more and more clients coming in and saying
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, eighteen hundred
(30:18):
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 4 (30:39):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (30:39):
I mean I worked personally at the Beverwick, an independent
living facility and at Avela as an occupational therapist. I
want to throw out that that there is Wesley and Saratoga,
not to you know.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
In Kingsway and some others. There's lots of choices and
that's the point. You don't know about them. You may
have heard one from a friend or a relative, but
there are many 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,
(31:14):
where do we want to be? Question number two is
who's going to take care of me when I need care?
And 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
(31:34):
that are necessary for people to have legal authority to
do things when that time arises. But then the family
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,
(31:57):
and I'm sure Diane and Nina can back me up
on this. Cash is king. When you have the ability
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
(32:20):
Capital region. Medicaid is one portal. Medicare used to be
a portal for home health care. It is not anymore.
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 Medicaid, right.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
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.
Speaker 4 (32:57):
And how much care do you need.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
We have clients that say I was told that my
loved one needs twenty four to seven care, Well, what
does that really mean? 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
(33:22):
three to four hours of care once a day or
twice a day. And 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
(33:43):
how do you get someone in the home. You can't
just call someone who's ten miles away and say I
have to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
Now.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
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 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
things that we need to consider. How you're paying for.
(34:11):
It is important, and there are some long term care
policies out there that do have some benefits. We can
help you engage those as well. 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 2 (34:30):
Yeah, accessing benefits under a long term care contract, because
they're contracts. Sorry, these are legal questions.
Speaker 4 (34:36):
That's the lawyer.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
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
(34:59):
you also so I 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
(35:21):
just talk about some of the issues in the home
and what people should be looking for and thinking about
to prepare themselves.
Speaker 6 (35:28):
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, that'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
(35:48):
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, back room, 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
(36:08):
do this assessment. Nina, why don't you talk about that
a little bit?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
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
(36:34):
of these are baseline predictive scores that doctors like to
know and keep track of. They could be done repetitively.
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?
Speaker 4 (36:56):
The first store? What is it? Where's the handle?
Speaker 3 (36:59):
How exactly do you step in?
Speaker 4 (37:01):
What do you pull on?
Speaker 3 (37:02):
Are you using a piece of equipment that was recommended
for you? Maybe it's time for a walk, or if
it's time for a walker, now we're talking about rugs.
We're having an emergency alert.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
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
(37:38):
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
(37:59):
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
(38:22):
allow you to monitor, track and adjust course as you
go and those have been life savers literally for many people.
Speaker 6 (38:34):
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 O, 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
(38:55):
to what particularly I've used in my parents' home, and
I know a loo Is 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
(39:17):
inch touchscreen tablet 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
(39:38):
sure you're okay.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
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 6 (39:53):
One touch, one touch, touch the person's picture, you're connected
to them. And know I've dealt with an iPhone with
with individuals don't remember the access code, get the screen crooked,
say off, it's showing them instead of the person they're
talking to. This is a static device that you check
in on, and that's and you know I'm going to
(40:15):
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 4 (40:27):
But there's more, and we could go on and on.
Speaker 6 (40:29):
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 4 (40:40):
You can reach out to people.
Speaker 6 (40:45):
You can enter it manually and tell me what you
were pointing to their Nina.
Speaker 3 (40:51):
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 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 if you
(41:12):
go to the doctor.
Speaker 4 (41:13):
It's lovely.
Speaker 2 (41:14):
So we have to take one more short break. We're
gonna 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 the bank,
(41:38):
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 is of
(42:00):
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
(42:20):
not going to solve the world's problems Need 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
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 6 (42:39):
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
(43:02):
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 Forever Home or Viva links during that
phone call.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
So Everhomecare dot Com and that number, that'll get you
to Nina.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Yes, it'll get it'll get me, It'll get pretty much
anybody that's in the office. We will say. 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.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
You will reach.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
Us, and certainly feel free to also call the one
eight hundred number because we do get those phone messages
on the website.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
All right, So what's your new address.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
It is two fifty one State Street, Schenectady, Suite two
hundred to two hundred and six.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
There you go, all right. So Ever, home Care Advisors
worked on a pilot program that I was 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 still have
(44:16):
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, Lesha were
a tremendous team, and we actually had Lesia on this
show two or three years ago talking about her experience
(44:37):
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. I
(44:59):
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
(45:22):
was able to use the vivil links technology very successfully.
Speaker 6 (45:26):
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 Lisia 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
(45:50):
and using this technology. And Kitty really couldn't use a
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
and her family at multiple times of the day. And
(46:13):
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 through these video chats. And he made
(46:34):
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.
Licia was able to travel. She could be in touch
(46:55):
with Kitty whenever she needed. She would know what she
was doing. We had chairs sensors and door sensors knowing
when doors were open 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.
(47:17):
Is everything okay? It seems to be.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
There are no alerts.
Speaker 6 (47:22):
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 2 (47:35):
She really loved that 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 managerr schedule manager appointments all
through the app on her iPhone from Italy, which is
pretty remarkable. And it gave her the security of knowing
(47:57):
that she had 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 have about one minute left.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
I mean, I think I'm being led 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
(48:32):
day a week, for four hours so you can take
care of yourself. Please do that.
Speaker 4 (48:38):
You deserve it.
Speaker 3 (48:39):
Your your caregiver, your career loved one. They deserve that
because then you get to be your natural role with
that person.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
All right, We're gonna let that be the last word.
Diane Michel Gotta Biowski, and Nick Risanda 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 and we hope that
you enjoy it. We hope that you can join us
(49:10):
every Saturday here on Life Happens. See you next week.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.