July 14, 2025 • 31 mins
Megan Dooley is an occupational therapist and the founder of Innovative Therapy Solutions & Consulting, a mobile outpatient clinic that brings therapy and support directly to people across North Dakota—especially in rural and underserved areas. She specializes in working with individuals living with Parkinson’s disease, dementia, brain injuries, and other neurological conditions, helping them stay safe, independent, and connected to their communities.
Megan is a proud member of the Bismarck Parkinson’s Support Group Board and collaborates with the Alzheimer’s Association and North Dakota Brain Injury Network to offer education, support, and hands-on therapy to individuals and their care partners. Her passion lies in walking alongside families through life’s hardest transitions—offering both expertise and encouragement when it’s needed most.Whether she’s adapting a home to support aging in place, leading wellness groups, or mentoring other healthcare providers, Megan is rooted in the belief that strong communities start with neighbors looking out for each other.
When she’s not working, Megan enjoys coaching and playing volleyball, boating, camping, and spending time with her family. She’s proud to call Bismarck/Mandan home and to be part of the network of helpers that keep this region strong.
Megan is a proud member of the Bismarck Parkinson’s Support Group Board and collaborates with the Alzheimer’s Association and North Dakota Brain Injury Network to offer education, support, and hands-on therapy to individuals and their care partners. Her passion lies in walking alongside families through life’s hardest transitions—offering both expertise and encouragement when it’s needed most.Whether she’s adapting a home to support aging in place, leading wellness groups, or mentoring other healthcare providers, Megan is rooted in the belief that strong communities start with neighbors looking out for each other.
When she’s not working, Megan enjoys coaching and playing volleyball, boating, camping, and spending time with her family. She’s proud to call Bismarck/Mandan home and to be part of the network of helpers that keep this region strong.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors, a podcast hosted by
the City of Bismarck's Human Relations Committee and produced by
Dakota Media Access. The purpose of the podcast is to
celebrate change makers in Bismarck whose contributions break barriers, build connections,
and redefine what is possible for our community.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors a podcast hosted by
Tia Jurgisen and Sergiana Witski, both members of the City
of Bismarck Human Relations Committee. Thank you for joining us
as we highlight the individuals driving positive change and making
a lasting impact on our community. There are stories inspire
progress and shape the future of our city. Our guest
today is Megan Dooley. She's an occupational therapist and the
(00:46):
founder of Innovative Therapy Solutions and Consulting, a mobile outpatient
clinic that brings therapy and support directly to people across
North Dakota, especially in rural and underserved areas. She specializes
in working with individuals living with Parkinson's disease, dementia, brain injuries,
and other neurological conditions, helping them stay safe, independent, and
(01:08):
connected to their communities. Megan is a proud member of
the Bismarck Parkinson's Support Group Board and collaborates with the
Alzheimer's Association and North Dakota Brain Injury Network to offer education, support,
and hands on therapy to individuals and their care partners.
Her passion lies in walking alongside families through life's hardest transitions,
offering both expertise and encouragement when it's needed most. Whether
(01:31):
she's adapting home to support, aging in place, leading wellness groups,
or mentoring other healthcare providers. Megan is rooted in the
belief that strong communities start with neighbors looking out for
each other. When she's not working, Megan enjoys coaching and
playing volleyball, voting, camping, and spending time with her family.
She's proud to call Bismarck Mandan home and to be
(01:51):
part of the network of helpers that keep this region strong.
Welcome Megan, Thank you for having me today. So I'm
my first question for you, Megan, did innovative therapy Solutions
and consulting start as a mobile outpatient clinic or did
it evolve based on a need that you saw.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
In the idea? It was not meant to be that.
I actually looked at partnering with let me think about this,
about with a contractor general contractor that was looking at
helping people age in place. And to do that, I
had to have a business. So I looked at doing
a home modification type business, and it quickly morphed into
(02:31):
what it is today, which is a mobile outpatient therapy company.
And that just happened. When trying to look for clients
who needed home modifications, what we came upon was more
people that had progressive illnesses that did not want to
leave their home. It also happened to be April twentieth,
twenty twenty when I started my business, so the world
(02:52):
had shut down and a lot of people were not
wanting to have to move to other facilities or even
leave their home for therapy, be for fear of catching COVID.
So that's an interesting time to start a business. It's
probably a perfect time for it was actually uses says
it's a good time to start. You say it, and
it was one month after the world shut down, and
(03:12):
I'm like, hot diggity, let's start a business.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
So then are there a lot of mobile businesses like yours?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Do you know there are not? I would say pediatrics
is where there's more of a hybrid. They might have
a clinic and then they go into people's homes to
see littles, like a lot of kids on early intervention.
There's myself, there's another company here. I'm not sure if
there's any others in the area, but it's not a
widely spread thing. There are a few others throughout the state,
(03:41):
but yeah, it's not a well known thing. I didn't
know about it either before I started.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
We'll tell you just accidentally created one during COVID. So
then when you went into occupational therapy, did you know
that you kind of wanted to work specifically in the
neurological disease area.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I did not for sure. One thing that led me
into occupational therapy, though, was a close individual in my
life at that time suffered a spinal cord injury who
was only a couple of years older than me, and
that is what led me into occupational therapy. I probably
didn't know the neuroside so much until my last rotation
was in an acute care hospital, and I really loved
(04:19):
neural but I also loved kids, so I wasn't sure
if I was going to go into pediatrics or older adults.
But once I picked the neural kind of track, I
just fell into it and I won't be leaving it
anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So then, how does therapy differ from someone that has
a neurological disorder in comparison to someone who doesn't have one.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, that's a great question for anyone. It's kind of
like looking at our doctors. You have a primary care,
you have a cardiologist, you have a nephrologist. You know
all the ologists, and they all differ and specialized. So
for somebody that focuses on the neurological aspect, we really
look at the spinal cord, the brain and how the
nerves impact our muscles movement. If you were an orthopedic
(05:02):
more specializing therapists, you're going to look at some of
those post op surgeries and ligaments and how the muscles
attached to everything and how we can get people moving.
So we really spend a lot of time focusing on
what the brain is telling the body to do and
how the brain is really impacting the body's ability to
do what we're asking it to do or not doing
(05:22):
what we're asking it to do, and help push function
back that direction.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And then Aside from Parkinson's, what are some other well
known neurological disorders.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Multiple sh chlorosis is a progressive one. Als that a
lot of people know about. Those are just sometimes either
faster or slower right als can be pretty terminal quite quickly.
Brain tumors, strokes, let me think, even cervical or spying
tumors are a big one different my light era. Meningitis
(05:57):
is another huge one that people deal with. And there's
a lot of things. We've actually had somebody recently that
I believe had an ear infection that went untreated and
then cause an infection within the brain. So we can
see a lot of things occurring. Also, people that have
had traumatic injuries, like brain injuries and accidents, or repeated
injuries like concussions, those can actually compound and change the
(06:20):
anatomy of the brain, which then can cause other things
later in life.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
I think I'm one concussion away, honestly from But so
I'm trying to kind of wrap my brain around this.
When you say you focus more on like how the brain,
you know, impacts the body the nerves, So like what
how does that differ in the like the work that
(06:46):
you actually do with them than what I'm used to,
you know, like focusing on muscles or whatnot.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So that's a great question. One thing that I like
to discuss with people is, let's say I blew my
knee out or I hurt my shoulder. We're really going
to isolate the muscles in that shoulder, and we're looking
at like building the muscle mass or building that strength
backup and some of that range of motion that comes
with it. So we're looking at the bones and the muscles.
(07:14):
When I look at somebody with Parkinson's, their muscle mass,
their strength might actually be completely fine, and their range
of motion is completely fine, but we're seeing that they
can't do that movement because the brain isn't telling it
to do the right thing. So instead of working on strengthening,
we're working on repetitive movements and making sure that they're
(07:34):
focusing on good quality movement repetition. Also working on Hey,
let's use visuals to tell us where our body is
at in space, and we're going to slowly take those
visuals away. So walking, they're strong enough to walk, but
they trip, they stumble, they don't step big enough. So
we put pieces of tape on the floor and as
(07:54):
they start to feel their body meet the demand of
the environment. Oh, you stepped over that piece of tape.
We can remove the tape and see if we can
keep doing that. So a lot of confusion from therapists
comes or from patients, is well, how are you different
than what I previously had? We kind of work in
all planes, if you want to think of that, where
if I tore my shoulder or hurt my back, they're
(08:16):
going to really look at I need to rebuild the
strength and the range of motion in that muscle mass
and that movement. So I don't know if that helps.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It does a lot, actually, Yeah. And then another thing
that actually I didn't even realize until I had to
go to an occupational therapist was that you're not the
same as a physical therapist. So what are some of
the similarities or differences between the two occupations.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I love this question, and I think society really separated
us from each other. But probably in my company, the
greatest thing I heard from a PT that worked for
us once was I've never worked somewhere where the ots
are so much like PT's and the pts are so
much like OT's because we're working in the home and
so we're working in their natural environment, which is very
(09:00):
OT specific at times. The big difference is not top
body bottom part. A lot of people will try to
segment it into OT's do uppers and ptsdue lowers. It
really truly is not that pts are very well versed
in the mechanics of how the body should move. So
they're very good at looking at if I have a
(09:20):
bad impingement at my back or my shoulder, they really
are good at digging into that and helping get that
movement back. They're good at endurance training and strength training.
OTS do similar things, but our entire focus is how
does that impact an occupation we're trying to do around
getting dressed, bathing, toileting, taking my kids to daycare, carrying groceries,
(09:41):
and so we do actually overlap quite a bit. It's
just what are we focusing on. So the pt might
be focusing on making sure we have the strength to
be able to carry our child. We're also looking at that,
but we might be looking at the mechanics around do
we have to modify how we're going to carry that
kid into daycare? Can we carry them? Do we need
to get a stroll? So we really do in my
(10:02):
company work hand in hand with each other on a
daily basis.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So what are some of the barriers people in rural
areas have in regards to receiving medical care and why
do you think it's important for providers like you to
come to them a.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Lot of things. Number One, a lot of people just
go to not just but they go to their primary
care physician, PA and P in their area. And to
be one hundred percent respectful to all of those individuals,
they have to know a lot about a lot of things.
They're supposed to be. A general practitioner sometimes diagnoses go
and missed, specialty referrals going missed, and oftentimes some of
(10:42):
these people can't get to those services either. So we
might say you should go see a neurologist. While that
person might be in Fargo and that's a three and
a half hour drive. The benefit of going to them
is a lot of these people don't want to pack
up and move two three four hours to a larger area,
or they can't afford it. So the best thing we
can do is go to them, adapt their environment, see
(11:04):
if there's any supports in the area that can help them,
and then start treating what they need to stay where
they're at. So if we need to look at moving
their room downstairs or getting help with meals, we also
can do telehealth. So oftentimes I will go into the
middle of nowhere North Dakota. I will spend a couple hours,
maybe two different times, and really help get things set up,
(11:26):
and then we're able to connect over telehealth and continue
their services, continue their therapy with help from family or
a paid caregiver.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That's awesome, Like I never would have thought telehealth would
work for this occupation, So that's kind of good to know.
Another question I guess I have too, is when you're
talking about referrals to like neurologists and the specialists, are
you seeing also not just the world component, but that
we also have a lack of providers in North Dakota
(11:56):
that maybe specialize in certain things.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
We do something that we talk about at a state level,
at a national level of how can we encourage more
education to our primary care providers. And I will tell you,
in complete support of them, they've said to us, we
can't know everything about everything, but if we could have
a better matrix of how to navigate, they could maybe
help better provide the services that these people need while
(12:21):
they're waiting for like a neuroconsult, which is nine months
out or you know, a year out. I mean my
dermatology appointment was a year out. So when you're looking
at somebody that really needs medication or needs some medical
assistance with things, it's taking a really long time and
it's overrunning our ers now because they're getting a freight
and then heading to the er to get care.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah. I don't know if I missed it. Oh, you
said twenty twenties when you started, So I guess there
probably hasn't been a whole lot of change than in
the field in the last five years. I guess I've
been thinking more not just the field, but medications and advancements.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
They're actually there, actually has been. Dementia just came out
with for Alzheimer's disease, has come out with a trialing
where they get infusions and they're seeing really good results
specifically for Alzheimer's disease. Parkinson's now has I don't know
if that's been in five years, but it's more mainstream
to have a pump for some of your medications, and
(13:21):
that can help with people that start to have memory
impairments and are forgetting when to take their meds. They're
very medication specific for that population. They need their meds
at a certain time. There has been a huge shift
in retirement of people too, so and now with with
the lack of providers, there comes a lack of wanting
(13:43):
or people who are researching medication, so that can be
hard to at times they're overrun with patient care. So,
but meds are definitely progressing. The one for Alzheimer's was just,
I want to say, approved in the last six months
or something. Remember that it's very cool they're getting infusions
and it's really clearing up their brain. But it's specifically
(14:06):
for Alzheimer's disease, not any type of dementia.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
So then they're kind of another thing that I find
a lot of people don't really realize there's a difference
between like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's because there is somewhat of
a memory loss with Parkinson's. Can you just kind of
talk about how they differ.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, absolutely, Parkinson's disease is here's the nerdy side of
it all. It actually lives in the backside of our brain,
in the subconscious area of our brain. So it's not
something we think about. We don't think about sitting up
right in our chairs, where's my hand right now? How
is my head positioned? And that's what makes Parkinson's frustrating
to people and probably a delayed diagnosis, is how would
(14:50):
I know if I don't already know. If I spend
my life not thinking about my posture or how big
I step, And now someone says, gosh, Megan, you're talking
quiet and you're shuffling, it's very hard to notice. The
part of the cognition that comes into play is about
sixty percent of people with Parkinson's will show signs of dementia,
and it is kind of a Parkinson's type dementia. It
(15:13):
can wax and wane, so some days people are very
clear and other days the processing is flower maybe the
memory isn't as clear. But the disease of Parkinson's, that's
a secondary type. The symptom of it is the cognition,
but it does develop initially in the back part of
our brain. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia, so
(15:35):
it falls under the umbrella of dementia, and dementia can
impact the space between our neurons and how everything communicates,
and it can what we say gets junk in there.
So our wiring as we're trying to shoot nerve types
signals to each other, gets run into by all this gunk.
So if the highway is blocked, we can't get information through. Also,
(15:59):
lifestyle choices can create shrinkage of our brain or shrinkage
of the vessels that provide blood there. And so dementia
and Alzheimer's can have all sorts of symptoms related to memory,
but also vision, decision making, executive functioning skills. Kind of
they can look similar, but they are definitely a different diagnosis.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So then with dementia, as you said, Alzheimer's is a
type or a form with let's say it's not Alzheimer's,
but other forms of dementia. They say, you're struggling with it.
Is it possible for people then to improve significantly or
nearly come out of it? Or is that more just
(16:42):
like a general memory loss.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
They keep testing this. I will tell you even in
what I do, if people change their diet, their sleep,
and their exercise habit, there's significant improvements even in people
that have Alzheimer's disease, which Alzheimer's about eighty percent. I
want to say of diagno partially because it does come
with memory that people notice. But other types of dementia
(17:05):
can come with personality changes and poor decision making. But
what we see is if we clean up the systems
of our brain and how things communicate from our gut
to our brain, people can clear more. We had an
individual his wife said I'm not ready for medication. She
put him on a meta training diet just for an example,
(17:27):
and they started walking a couple miles a day and
she said he significantly improved where he was at, which
is pretty cool. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So a lot of times people that may be diagnosed
with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, they have family members that are
their caregivers, so they do a lot for them. Of course,
So what type of support do you provide for caregivers
and how do you encourage them also to take care
of themselves.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, that's a great question. So Skills to Care is
a program that all of my occupational therapists that are
trained in. It's kind of the old standard of dementia care.
It was researched by Jefferson University and they came up
with this great program that actually trains caregivers and how
to help manage behaviors of individuals with dementia because a
(18:16):
lot of providers, a lot of them met world, will say, well,
they can't remember, so we can't teach them new things,
so there's nothing we can do for them. In fact,
we learned if we change their environment, we change the
way we talk to them and the way we interact
as people that do not have dementia as the care partners,
we can significantly change their behaviors and their quality of
(18:36):
life living where they want to be. So that's a
huge one. The other what was the what was your question? Again?
I know I got excited about Skills to Care.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
How do you encourage them to take care of them?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So that's the huge part with Skills to Care is
that it is all caregiver focused. So we meet the
individual at dementia, we get to interact with them, but
we're really teaching that care partner went to decide to
get respite care, when to decide to get nursing in
the home to help out with Parkinson's brain injuries. We
really encourage those people to do inventory in themselves, to
(19:11):
attend support groups and the thing I always say is
we weren't born to carry one role, and oftentimes with
progressive chronic illnesses, we take on this full role of
caregiver and we lose the role of mom, grandma, husband, spouse,
and so we really have to sit down and do
an inventory. And it is okay to say I wasn't
(19:33):
created for this job, but it's not okay to not
get help for that person. So that's the way I
really encourage people to look at it. Just because we
said till death do us partner, we said I will
take care of you, It doesn't mean that you have
to physically be taking care of that person. You just
need to make sure that you're getting the right resources
for them.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
A word that you said there is something I hadn't
heard until I was on the board for the Parkinson
Support Group was care partner. And we'll shout her out here, Sandy.
I think she's the first one that I heard say that,
and I thought it was very interesting. Can you kind
of just let us know why people maybe refer to
it as care partner versus.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Caregiver and Sandy would love the shout out. Her saying was,
at some point we've all had to take care of
each other. So I'm not just giving and not receiving.
We're a partnership in this journey, and she's very good
at reminding us to use that word, and I appreciate that.
So care partner someone who's walking alongside that person, but
(20:30):
that person is still giving back to them, and I
think that's a huge thing to look at too. Just
because someone has a disease or progressive illness doesn't mean
that they aren't able to make us laugh, or love
us back, or provide something to us as well.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
So if we're giving Sandy a shout out, we better
give her of a shout out to you because you
can see it very clearly in their relationship. But speaking
of the Parkinson support group, what are some of the
common misconceptions that people have attending a support group and
why would you encourage someone to just try one out.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, common misconception is when I sit around and talk
about all the negative things. And I do believe that
those support groups do exist, but it's no different than
saying I'm not going to ever go to the doctor
because I had a bad experience with one doctor. I
think that won't do us justice. So it is finding
the right kind of a group. The Parkinson Support Group
is fantastic. I would say a lot of people become
(21:27):
lifelong friends through that group. And it's educational in nature,
and so a lot of support groups are going to
give you education and things you never thought of, but
also the support when you need it. So when things
get really really tough, others do understand what you're going
through and it feels safe to say things like I'm
burning out, or man, I hate this disease and it
(21:48):
really bothers me, or I've stuck my head in the
sand and i haven't wanted to deal with it. Those
people understand more than the general public or even your
family at times. So I think checking out support groups
is huge for your well being.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
And yeah, like I don't know how other support groups work,
but with the Parkinson Support Group, like you said, it's
very educational. We bring in finance people, I did how
to use zoom, and we've just had such a variety
of things. So if you're listening and do have Parkinson's
(22:23):
I would highly recommend checking it out.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah. I think the Alzheimer's Association here in town maybe
has two or three support groups as well that run
at different times in different locations, and that's for care
partners of individuals with dementia.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So with that, what does it mean to you or
what is it like being a board member for the
Bismarck Parkinson Support Group entail What does that all entail?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Well? It initially before as a member, I utilized the
support group for research for my students from the University
of Mary and they were such they're forced to be
reckoned with, and I mean that with so much love.
They are. They advocate for themselves. They're not tied to
any hospital system, so this is them. They created this
board and this support group, and after I started my
(23:12):
own company, they asked me to be on the board
and it has been nothing but rewarding and also built
huge friendships through it. It also has opened my eyes
to learning more about how it can better treat one
on one individuals and family members that are impacted by
Parkinson's because they're giving their feedback to you all the time.
So it's been it's been wonderful. The group is great
(23:35):
in a variety of ages and backgrounds, and I can't
say enough about being a part of it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So was it students that were in a certain going
for a certain degree that started this as like a
project or something.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
No, so this was actually started by individuals who it
was people with Parkinson's and also their care partners that
started it. But my students were doing research on individuals
with Parkinson's in the community. We asked to get participants
from their group, and they welcomed us with open arms.
So I did that while I was teaching for probably
(24:08):
three or four years. We did that, and then we
kind of continued our research in a different way with
that group. But then I also got to be a
part of the board. So now they open their arms
to my employees to help with Christmas parties and other things,
and it's just been very community building. It's great.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
So you've kind of mentioned this, but I've heard you
mention it a lot outside of just in this bubble.
How important is fitness to individuals with neurological disorders.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Probably the top. So whether it's dementia, whether it's a
brain injury, or whether it is Parkinson's, our brain needs fuel,
our body needs to be clean and functioning, and so fitness,
getting our heart rate up is extremely important. People with
Parkinson's exercise and the right type of exercise is actually
the number one treatment out there to help slow the
(25:00):
progression of the disease symptoms, whether that is the cognitive component,
the physical, it is the number one medication we could use.
There is medication for those things. But again, getting up
and moving dementia, even if you don't have it, if
it runs in your family, exercising, increasing your heart rate,
getting good sleep hugely, hugely important in delaying the onset
(25:24):
of the disease or slowing the disease progression. So I
think a lot of people think, once they've been diagnosed,
we should stop some of those things for safety reasons
or I already have the disease. But wellness can come
at any point in our life and any disease stage
that we're in, whether it's cancer, whether it's Parkinson's. If
I choose to start implementing wellness into my life, I'm
(25:47):
going to feel better.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So one of the things that you had mentioned was
different adaptations you made, like moving someone's room to a
different place in the house if someone has Parkinson's or dementia,
any other adaptations you can talk about that you've utilized
as well in people's homes to make them be able
to stay in their home.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, we get to work with a lot of grants,
grant funded programs or nonprofits in the area. We've done
everything from full bathroom remodels to putting in rams to
putting in transfer polls. But what we really specialize in
in our company is we get to work with all
of those companies, but we look at the person and
(26:28):
take that person into account to select the right equipment.
So a lot of times people will go and purchase
what they think they would like and not understanding that
either a they can't use it. So a smartphone is
a great example. They'll go get that for mom or
dad who has dementia, and then they realize they can't
use it. But we have the ability to say, hey,
(26:48):
we can get them a phone, but this is the
type of one they should use, or a medication planner.
They need help opening it, or their hands can't finagle
the little buttons to push it to open it, So
what can we get for them so it automatically opens.
That's kind of where ots specialize them most, just picking
the right equipment to match that person's abilities.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
I don't think many people even realize that those would
be I would have never thought of how we need
to consider opening a pill. So that's that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I mean, so we talked a lot about your work,
but and what you've done in our community. So with
everything else in your schedule, how do you find time
to coach volleyball or how do you prioritize your time TM?
Speaker 3 (27:33):
I know this because I'm up really early. I am scheduled.
I played college sports. I had some tougher degrees in school,
and I learned like schedule, schedule, schedule, and then you
really have to choose between you know, A and B.
Sometimes do I want to go out to eat and
eat a bunch of food that I love, but is
it maybe the best? Or do I want to go
for a walk. And so I just schedule my days
(27:55):
out and I block schedule today a bunch of meetings.
I do have a very rigid schedule. I go to
bed very early, and I get up about four am
and get kind of my personal cares taken care of,
whether it's working out, journaling. I do eat well. As
we talked about earlier, I tried to eat a while
balanced diet, and then there's time for those other things.
(28:19):
And I have a great set of support, whether my
family or my staff that help take on things here
and there so that we can continue to enjoy playing
volleyball or I ref a lot. I also have combined
reffing with reffing in towns that I serve people in,
so I'll go see my patients and then I'll ref
at the end of the day. So it does work.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
So what you're saying is you're someone who actually has
figured out how to balance work in light like work
in life.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Worked in progress to an extent, yes, but it has
been getting better.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
So another thing that I've heard you talk about outside
of this podcast was kind of some of the struggles
that people have with traveling within the area you work with.
How do you help people with that and kind of
where did that idea come from.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's an idea within kind of the group I'm in
for my company, but it exists because it's an occupation.
A lot of people just say they can't travel anymore.
So we've helped a few people figure out what to
do with their loved one, whether to take them or
not to take them. And if they're not taking them,
if they're really providing almost twenty four hour care, how
do we get them care for short term The other
(29:28):
thing we've done is given people we've worked on increasing
their strength, balance, those things to be able to travel,
but then set them up with resources on where to
call and who to talk to about getting the right
things in place, like a wheelchair when we land, finding
a house with grab bars, getting a hotel that's actually
handicap accessible for me. So it's great.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Well, we are already out of time, so we're at
our final question. And the last question that we ask
everyone is how would you encourage others to be a
good neighbor.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, don't turn a blind eye if you see people struggling.
It doesn't mean they're going to automatically end up in
a nursing home or be taken away, but we need
to know so we can get in there sooner than
later to help. If you've noticed they've gotten lost or
they're just struggling with day to day tasks, call call
anyone really and they can help get you connected with
different community resources so we can allow people to age
(30:20):
in place and have the quality of life that they
really want to have.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, well, thank you to everyone for tuning into these
are your neighbors. With our guests Megan Dooley and Thank you,
Megan for being here. Thank you for wanting to get
to know your neighbors as we hold these important and
necessary conversations. If you found this conversation as important as
we do, please make sure to share it with your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Thank you for tuning in to these or your neighbors
a podcast hosted by the City of Bismarck's Human Relations
Committee and produced by Dakota Media Access. We hope you
were inspired by the stories of citizens driving meaningful change
in Bismarck. For more info on the HRC, visit Bismarck
n D dot gov.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
HMM
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors, a podcast hosted by
the City of Bismarck's Human Relations Committee and produced by
Dakota Media Access. The purpose of the podcast is to
celebrate change makers in Bismarck whose contributions break barriers, build connections,
and redefine what is possible for our community.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to These Are Your Neighbors a podcast hosted by
Tia Jurgisen and Sergiana Witski, both members of the City
of Bismarck Human Relations Committee. Thank you for joining us
as we highlight the individuals driving positive change and making
a lasting impact on our community. There are stories inspire
progress and shape the future of our city. Our guest
today is Megan Dooley. She's an occupational therapist and the
(00:46):
founder of Innovative Therapy Solutions and Consulting, a mobile outpatient
clinic that brings therapy and support directly to people across
North Dakota, especially in rural and underserved areas. She specializes
in working with individuals living with Parkinson's disease, dementia, brain injuries,
and other neurological conditions, helping them stay safe, independent, and
(01:08):
connected to their communities. Megan is a proud member of
the Bismarck Parkinson's Support Group Board and collaborates with the
Alzheimer's Association and North Dakota Brain Injury Network to offer education, support,
and hands on therapy to individuals and their care partners.
Her passion lies in walking alongside families through life's hardest transitions,
offering both expertise and encouragement when it's needed most. Whether
(01:31):
she's adapting home to support, aging in place, leading wellness groups,
or mentoring other healthcare providers. Megan is rooted in the
belief that strong communities start with neighbors looking out for
each other. When she's not working, Megan enjoys coaching and
playing volleyball, voting, camping, and spending time with her family.
She's proud to call Bismarck Mandan home and to be
(01:51):
part of the network of helpers that keep this region strong.
Welcome Megan, Thank you for having me today. So I'm
my first question for you, Megan, did innovative therapy Solutions
and consulting start as a mobile outpatient clinic or did
it evolve based on a need that you saw.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
In the idea? It was not meant to be that.
I actually looked at partnering with let me think about this,
about with a contractor general contractor that was looking at
helping people age in place. And to do that, I
had to have a business. So I looked at doing
a home modification type business, and it quickly morphed into
(02:31):
what it is today, which is a mobile outpatient therapy company.
And that just happened. When trying to look for clients
who needed home modifications, what we came upon was more
people that had progressive illnesses that did not want to
leave their home. It also happened to be April twentieth,
twenty twenty when I started my business, so the world
(02:52):
had shut down and a lot of people were not
wanting to have to move to other facilities or even
leave their home for therapy, be for fear of catching COVID.
So that's an interesting time to start a business. It's
probably a perfect time for it was actually uses says
it's a good time to start. You say it, and
it was one month after the world shut down, and
(03:12):
I'm like, hot diggity, let's start a business.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
So then are there a lot of mobile businesses like yours?
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Do you know there are not? I would say pediatrics
is where there's more of a hybrid. They might have
a clinic and then they go into people's homes to
see littles, like a lot of kids on early intervention.
There's myself, there's another company here. I'm not sure if
there's any others in the area, but it's not a
widely spread thing. There are a few others throughout the state,
(03:41):
but yeah, it's not a well known thing. I didn't
know about it either before I started.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
We'll tell you just accidentally created one during COVID. So
then when you went into occupational therapy, did you know
that you kind of wanted to work specifically in the
neurological disease area.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I did not for sure. One thing that led me
into occupational therapy, though, was a close individual in my
life at that time suffered a spinal cord injury who
was only a couple of years older than me, and
that is what led me into occupational therapy. I probably
didn't know the neuroside so much until my last rotation
was in an acute care hospital, and I really loved
(04:19):
neural but I also loved kids, so I wasn't sure
if I was going to go into pediatrics or older adults.
But once I picked the neural kind of track, I
just fell into it and I won't be leaving it
anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So then, how does therapy differ from someone that has
a neurological disorder in comparison to someone who doesn't have one.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, that's a great question for anyone. It's kind of
like looking at our doctors. You have a primary care,
you have a cardiologist, you have a nephrologist. You know
all the ologists, and they all differ and specialized. So
for somebody that focuses on the neurological aspect, we really
look at the spinal cord, the brain and how the
nerves impact our muscles movement. If you were an orthopedic
(05:02):
more specializing therapists, you're going to look at some of
those post op surgeries and ligaments and how the muscles
attached to everything and how we can get people moving.
So we really spend a lot of time focusing on
what the brain is telling the body to do and
how the brain is really impacting the body's ability to
do what we're asking it to do or not doing
(05:22):
what we're asking it to do, and help push function
back that direction.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And then Aside from Parkinson's, what are some other well
known neurological disorders.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Multiple sh chlorosis is a progressive one. Als that a
lot of people know about. Those are just sometimes either
faster or slower right als can be pretty terminal quite quickly.
Brain tumors, strokes, let me think, even cervical or spying
tumors are a big one different my light era. Meningitis
(05:57):
is another huge one that people deal with. And there's
a lot of things. We've actually had somebody recently that
I believe had an ear infection that went untreated and
then cause an infection within the brain. So we can
see a lot of things occurring. Also, people that have
had traumatic injuries, like brain injuries and accidents, or repeated
injuries like concussions, those can actually compound and change the
(06:20):
anatomy of the brain, which then can cause other things
later in life.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
I think I'm one concussion away, honestly from But so
I'm trying to kind of wrap my brain around this.
When you say you focus more on like how the brain,
you know, impacts the body the nerves, So like what
how does that differ in the like the work that
(06:46):
you actually do with them than what I'm used to,
you know, like focusing on muscles or whatnot.
Speaker 3 (06:53):
So that's a great question. One thing that I like
to discuss with people is, let's say I blew my
knee out or I hurt my shoulder. We're really going
to isolate the muscles in that shoulder, and we're looking
at like building the muscle mass or building that strength
backup and some of that range of motion that comes
with it. So we're looking at the bones and the muscles.
(07:14):
When I look at somebody with Parkinson's, their muscle mass,
their strength might actually be completely fine, and their range
of motion is completely fine, but we're seeing that they
can't do that movement because the brain isn't telling it
to do the right thing. So instead of working on strengthening,
we're working on repetitive movements and making sure that they're
(07:34):
focusing on good quality movement repetition. Also working on Hey,
let's use visuals to tell us where our body is
at in space, and we're going to slowly take those
visuals away. So walking, they're strong enough to walk, but
they trip, they stumble, they don't step big enough. So
we put pieces of tape on the floor and as
(07:54):
they start to feel their body meet the demand of
the environment. Oh, you stepped over that piece of tape.
We can remove the tape and see if we can
keep doing that. So a lot of confusion from therapists
comes or from patients, is well, how are you different
than what I previously had? We kind of work in
all planes, if you want to think of that, where
if I tore my shoulder or hurt my back, they're
(08:16):
going to really look at I need to rebuild the
strength and the range of motion in that muscle mass
and that movement. So I don't know if that helps.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
It does a lot, actually, Yeah. And then another thing
that actually I didn't even realize until I had to
go to an occupational therapist was that you're not the
same as a physical therapist. So what are some of
the similarities or differences between the two occupations.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
I love this question, and I think society really separated
us from each other. But probably in my company, the
greatest thing I heard from a PT that worked for
us once was I've never worked somewhere where the ots
are so much like PT's and the pts are so
much like OT's because we're working in the home and
so we're working in their natural environment, which is very
(09:00):
OT specific at times. The big difference is not top
body bottom part. A lot of people will try to
segment it into OT's do uppers and ptsdue lowers. It
really truly is not that pts are very well versed
in the mechanics of how the body should move. So
they're very good at looking at if I have a
(09:20):
bad impingement at my back or my shoulder, they really
are good at digging into that and helping get that
movement back. They're good at endurance training and strength training.
OTS do similar things, but our entire focus is how
does that impact an occupation we're trying to do around
getting dressed, bathing, toileting, taking my kids to daycare, carrying groceries,
(09:41):
and so we do actually overlap quite a bit. It's
just what are we focusing on. So the pt might
be focusing on making sure we have the strength to
be able to carry our child. We're also looking at that,
but we might be looking at the mechanics around do
we have to modify how we're going to carry that
kid into daycare? Can we carry them? Do we need
to get a stroll? So we really do in my
(10:02):
company work hand in hand with each other on a
daily basis.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So what are some of the barriers people in rural
areas have in regards to receiving medical care and why
do you think it's important for providers like you to
come to them a.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Lot of things. Number One, a lot of people just
go to not just but they go to their primary
care physician, PA and P in their area. And to
be one hundred percent respectful to all of those individuals,
they have to know a lot about a lot of things.
They're supposed to be. A general practitioner sometimes diagnoses go
and missed, specialty referrals going missed, and oftentimes some of
(10:42):
these people can't get to those services either. So we
might say you should go see a neurologist. While that
person might be in Fargo and that's a three and
a half hour drive. The benefit of going to them
is a lot of these people don't want to pack
up and move two three four hours to a larger area,
or they can't afford it. So the best thing we
can do is go to them, adapt their environment, see
(11:04):
if there's any supports in the area that can help them,
and then start treating what they need to stay where
they're at. So if we need to look at moving
their room downstairs or getting help with meals, we also
can do telehealth. So oftentimes I will go into the
middle of nowhere North Dakota. I will spend a couple hours,
maybe two different times, and really help get things set up,
(11:26):
and then we're able to connect over telehealth and continue
their services, continue their therapy with help from family or
a paid caregiver.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
That's awesome, Like I never would have thought telehealth would
work for this occupation, So that's kind of good to know.
Another question I guess I have too, is when you're
talking about referrals to like neurologists and the specialists, are
you seeing also not just the world component, but that
we also have a lack of providers in North Dakota
(11:56):
that maybe specialize in certain things.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
We do something that we talk about at a state level,
at a national level of how can we encourage more
education to our primary care providers. And I will tell you,
in complete support of them, they've said to us, we
can't know everything about everything, but if we could have
a better matrix of how to navigate, they could maybe
help better provide the services that these people need while
(12:21):
they're waiting for like a neuroconsult, which is nine months
out or you know, a year out. I mean my
dermatology appointment was a year out. So when you're looking
at somebody that really needs medication or needs some medical
assistance with things, it's taking a really long time and
it's overrunning our ers now because they're getting a freight
and then heading to the er to get care.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
Yeah. I don't know if I missed it. Oh, you
said twenty twenties when you started, So I guess there
probably hasn't been a whole lot of change than in
the field in the last five years. I guess I've
been thinking more not just the field, but medications and advancements.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
They're actually there, actually has been. Dementia just came out
with for Alzheimer's disease, has come out with a trialing
where they get infusions and they're seeing really good results
specifically for Alzheimer's disease. Parkinson's now has I don't know
if that's been in five years, but it's more mainstream
to have a pump for some of your medications, and
(13:21):
that can help with people that start to have memory
impairments and are forgetting when to take their meds. They're
very medication specific for that population. They need their meds
at a certain time. There has been a huge shift
in retirement of people too, so and now with with
the lack of providers, there comes a lack of wanting
(13:43):
or people who are researching medication, so that can be
hard to at times they're overrun with patient care. So,
but meds are definitely progressing. The one for Alzheimer's was just,
I want to say, approved in the last six months
or something. Remember that it's very cool they're getting infusions
and it's really clearing up their brain. But it's specifically
(14:06):
for Alzheimer's disease, not any type of dementia.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
So then they're kind of another thing that I find
a lot of people don't really realize there's a difference
between like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's because there is somewhat of
a memory loss with Parkinson's. Can you just kind of
talk about how they differ.
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, absolutely, Parkinson's disease is here's the nerdy side of
it all. It actually lives in the backside of our brain,
in the subconscious area of our brain. So it's not
something we think about. We don't think about sitting up
right in our chairs, where's my hand right now? How
is my head positioned? And that's what makes Parkinson's frustrating
to people and probably a delayed diagnosis, is how would
(14:50):
I know if I don't already know. If I spend
my life not thinking about my posture or how big
I step, And now someone says, gosh, Megan, you're talking
quiet and you're shuffling, it's very hard to notice. The
part of the cognition that comes into play is about
sixty percent of people with Parkinson's will show signs of dementia,
and it is kind of a Parkinson's type dementia. It
(15:13):
can wax and wane, so some days people are very
clear and other days the processing is flower maybe the
memory isn't as clear. But the disease of Parkinson's, that's
a secondary type. The symptom of it is the cognition,
but it does develop initially in the back part of
our brain. Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia, so
(15:35):
it falls under the umbrella of dementia, and dementia can
impact the space between our neurons and how everything communicates,
and it can what we say gets junk in there.
So our wiring as we're trying to shoot nerve types
signals to each other, gets run into by all this gunk.
So if the highway is blocked, we can't get information through. Also,
(15:59):
lifestyle choices can create shrinkage of our brain or shrinkage
of the vessels that provide blood there. And so dementia
and Alzheimer's can have all sorts of symptoms related to memory,
but also vision, decision making, executive functioning skills. Kind of
they can look similar, but they are definitely a different diagnosis.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
So then with dementia, as you said, Alzheimer's is a
type or a form with let's say it's not Alzheimer's,
but other forms of dementia. They say, you're struggling with it.
Is it possible for people then to improve significantly or
nearly come out of it? Or is that more just
(16:42):
like a general memory loss.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
They keep testing this. I will tell you even in
what I do, if people change their diet, their sleep,
and their exercise habit, there's significant improvements even in people
that have Alzheimer's disease, which Alzheimer's about eighty percent. I
want to say of diagno partially because it does come
with memory that people notice. But other types of dementia
(17:05):
can come with personality changes and poor decision making. But
what we see is if we clean up the systems
of our brain and how things communicate from our gut
to our brain, people can clear more. We had an
individual his wife said I'm not ready for medication. She
put him on a meta training diet just for an example,
(17:27):
and they started walking a couple miles a day and
she said he significantly improved where he was at, which
is pretty cool. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
So a lot of times people that may be diagnosed
with Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, they have family members that are
their caregivers, so they do a lot for them. Of course,
So what type of support do you provide for caregivers
and how do you encourage them also to take care
of themselves.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Yeah, that's a great question. So Skills to Care is
a program that all of my occupational therapists that are
trained in. It's kind of the old standard of dementia care.
It was researched by Jefferson University and they came up
with this great program that actually trains caregivers and how
to help manage behaviors of individuals with dementia because a
(18:16):
lot of providers, a lot of them met world, will say, well,
they can't remember, so we can't teach them new things,
so there's nothing we can do for them. In fact,
we learned if we change their environment, we change the
way we talk to them and the way we interact
as people that do not have dementia as the care partners,
we can significantly change their behaviors and their quality of
(18:36):
life living where they want to be. So that's a
huge one. The other what was the what was your question? Again?
I know I got excited about Skills to Care.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
How do you encourage them to take care of them?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
So that's the huge part with Skills to Care is
that it is all caregiver focused. So we meet the
individual at dementia, we get to interact with them, but
we're really teaching that care partner went to decide to
get respite care, when to decide to get nursing in
the home to help out with Parkinson's brain injuries. We
really encourage those people to do inventory in themselves, to
(19:11):
attend support groups and the thing I always say is
we weren't born to carry one role, and oftentimes with
progressive chronic illnesses, we take on this full role of
caregiver and we lose the role of mom, grandma, husband, spouse,
and so we really have to sit down and do
an inventory. And it is okay to say I wasn't
(19:33):
created for this job, but it's not okay to not
get help for that person. So that's the way I
really encourage people to look at it. Just because we
said till death do us partner, we said I will
take care of you, It doesn't mean that you have
to physically be taking care of that person. You just
need to make sure that you're getting the right resources
for them.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
A word that you said there is something I hadn't
heard until I was on the board for the Parkinson
Support Group was care partner. And we'll shout her out here, Sandy.
I think she's the first one that I heard say that,
and I thought it was very interesting. Can you kind
of just let us know why people maybe refer to
it as care partner versus.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Caregiver and Sandy would love the shout out. Her saying was,
at some point we've all had to take care of
each other. So I'm not just giving and not receiving.
We're a partnership in this journey, and she's very good
at reminding us to use that word, and I appreciate that.
So care partner someone who's walking alongside that person, but
(20:30):
that person is still giving back to them, and I
think that's a huge thing to look at too. Just
because someone has a disease or progressive illness doesn't mean
that they aren't able to make us laugh, or love
us back, or provide something to us as well.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
So if we're giving Sandy a shout out, we better
give her of a shout out to you because you
can see it very clearly in their relationship. But speaking
of the Parkinson support group, what are some of the
common misconceptions that people have attending a support group and
why would you encourage someone to just try one out.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, common misconception is when I sit around and talk
about all the negative things. And I do believe that
those support groups do exist, but it's no different than
saying I'm not going to ever go to the doctor
because I had a bad experience with one doctor. I
think that won't do us justice. So it is finding
the right kind of a group. The Parkinson Support Group
is fantastic. I would say a lot of people become
(21:27):
lifelong friends through that group. And it's educational in nature,
and so a lot of support groups are going to
give you education and things you never thought of, but
also the support when you need it. So when things
get really really tough, others do understand what you're going
through and it feels safe to say things like I'm
burning out, or man, I hate this disease and it
(21:48):
really bothers me, or I've stuck my head in the
sand and i haven't wanted to deal with it. Those
people understand more than the general public or even your
family at times. So I think checking out support groups
is huge for your well being.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
And yeah, like I don't know how other support groups work,
but with the Parkinson Support Group, like you said, it's
very educational. We bring in finance people, I did how
to use zoom, and we've just had such a variety
of things. So if you're listening and do have Parkinson's
(22:23):
I would highly recommend checking it out.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
Yeah. I think the Alzheimer's Association here in town maybe
has two or three support groups as well that run
at different times in different locations, and that's for care
partners of individuals with dementia.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
So with that, what does it mean to you or
what is it like being a board member for the
Bismarck Parkinson Support Group entail What does that all entail?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Well? It initially before as a member, I utilized the
support group for research for my students from the University
of Mary and they were such they're forced to be
reckoned with, and I mean that with so much love.
They are. They advocate for themselves. They're not tied to
any hospital system, so this is them. They created this
board and this support group, and after I started my
(23:12):
own company, they asked me to be on the board
and it has been nothing but rewarding and also built
huge friendships through it. It also has opened my eyes
to learning more about how it can better treat one
on one individuals and family members that are impacted by
Parkinson's because they're giving their feedback to you all the time.
So it's been it's been wonderful. The group is great
(23:35):
in a variety of ages and backgrounds, and I can't
say enough about being a part of it.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
So was it students that were in a certain going
for a certain degree that started this as like a
project or something.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
No, so this was actually started by individuals who it
was people with Parkinson's and also their care partners that
started it. But my students were doing research on individuals
with Parkinson's in the community. We asked to get participants
from their group, and they welcomed us with open arms.
So I did that while I was teaching for probably
(24:08):
three or four years. We did that, and then we
kind of continued our research in a different way with
that group. But then I also got to be a
part of the board. So now they open their arms
to my employees to help with Christmas parties and other things,
and it's just been very community building. It's great.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
So you've kind of mentioned this, but I've heard you
mention it a lot outside of just in this bubble.
How important is fitness to individuals with neurological disorders.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Probably the top. So whether it's dementia, whether it's a
brain injury, or whether it is Parkinson's, our brain needs fuel,
our body needs to be clean and functioning, and so fitness,
getting our heart rate up is extremely important. People with
Parkinson's exercise and the right type of exercise is actually
the number one treatment out there to help slow the
(25:00):
progression of the disease symptoms, whether that is the cognitive component,
the physical, it is the number one medication we could use.
There is medication for those things. But again, getting up
and moving dementia, even if you don't have it, if
it runs in your family, exercising, increasing your heart rate,
getting good sleep hugely, hugely important in delaying the onset
(25:24):
of the disease or slowing the disease progression. So I
think a lot of people think, once they've been diagnosed,
we should stop some of those things for safety reasons
or I already have the disease. But wellness can come
at any point in our life and any disease stage
that we're in, whether it's cancer, whether it's Parkinson's. If
I choose to start implementing wellness into my life, I'm
(25:47):
going to feel better.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So one of the things that you had mentioned was
different adaptations you made, like moving someone's room to a
different place in the house if someone has Parkinson's or dementia,
any other adaptations you can talk about that you've utilized
as well in people's homes to make them be able
to stay in their home.
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Yeah, we get to work with a lot of grants,
grant funded programs or nonprofits in the area. We've done
everything from full bathroom remodels to putting in rams to
putting in transfer polls. But what we really specialize in
in our company is we get to work with all
of those companies, but we look at the person and
(26:28):
take that person into account to select the right equipment.
So a lot of times people will go and purchase
what they think they would like and not understanding that
either a they can't use it. So a smartphone is
a great example. They'll go get that for mom or
dad who has dementia, and then they realize they can't
use it. But we have the ability to say, hey,
(26:48):
we can get them a phone, but this is the
type of one they should use, or a medication planner.
They need help opening it, or their hands can't finagle
the little buttons to push it to open it, So
what can we get for them so it automatically opens.
That's kind of where ots specialize them most, just picking
the right equipment to match that person's abilities.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
I don't think many people even realize that those would
be I would have never thought of how we need
to consider opening a pill. So that's that's awesome.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I mean, so we talked a lot about your work,
but and what you've done in our community. So with
everything else in your schedule, how do you find time
to coach volleyball or how do you prioritize your time TM?
Speaker 3 (27:33):
I know this because I'm up really early. I am scheduled.
I played college sports. I had some tougher degrees in school,
and I learned like schedule, schedule, schedule, and then you
really have to choose between you know, A and B.
Sometimes do I want to go out to eat and
eat a bunch of food that I love, but is
it maybe the best? Or do I want to go
for a walk. And so I just schedule my days
(27:55):
out and I block schedule today a bunch of meetings.
I do have a very rigid schedule. I go to
bed very early, and I get up about four am
and get kind of my personal cares taken care of,
whether it's working out, journaling. I do eat well. As
we talked about earlier, I tried to eat a while
balanced diet, and then there's time for those other things.
(28:19):
And I have a great set of support, whether my
family or my staff that help take on things here
and there so that we can continue to enjoy playing
volleyball or I ref a lot. I also have combined
reffing with reffing in towns that I serve people in,
so I'll go see my patients and then I'll ref
at the end of the day. So it does work.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
So what you're saying is you're someone who actually has
figured out how to balance work in light like work
in life.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
Worked in progress to an extent, yes, but it has
been getting better.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
So another thing that I've heard you talk about outside
of this podcast was kind of some of the struggles
that people have with traveling within the area you work with.
How do you help people with that and kind of
where did that idea come from.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
It's an idea within kind of the group I'm in
for my company, but it exists because it's an occupation.
A lot of people just say they can't travel anymore.
So we've helped a few people figure out what to
do with their loved one, whether to take them or
not to take them. And if they're not taking them,
if they're really providing almost twenty four hour care, how
do we get them care for short term The other
(29:28):
thing we've done is given people we've worked on increasing
their strength, balance, those things to be able to travel,
but then set them up with resources on where to
call and who to talk to about getting the right
things in place, like a wheelchair when we land, finding
a house with grab bars, getting a hotel that's actually
handicap accessible for me. So it's great.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
Well, we are already out of time, so we're at
our final question. And the last question that we ask
everyone is how would you encourage others to be a
good neighbor.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Yeah, don't turn a blind eye if you see people struggling.
It doesn't mean they're going to automatically end up in
a nursing home or be taken away, but we need
to know so we can get in there sooner than
later to help. If you've noticed they've gotten lost or
they're just struggling with day to day tasks, call call
anyone really and they can help get you connected with
different community resources so we can allow people to age
(30:20):
in place and have the quality of life that they
really want to have.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, well, thank you to everyone for tuning into these
are your neighbors. With our guests Megan Dooley and Thank you,
Megan for being here. Thank you for wanting to get
to know your neighbors as we hold these important and
necessary conversations. If you found this conversation as important as
we do, please make sure to share it with your neighbors.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Thank you for tuning in to these or your neighbors
a podcast hosted by the City of Bismarck's Human Relations
Committee and produced by Dakota Media Access. We hope you
were inspired by the stories of citizens driving meaningful change
in Bismarck. For more info on the HRC, visit Bismarck
n D dot gov.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
HMM
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