Transcription:
Speaker 1 0:01
Welcome to the Comfort Keepers Evansville podcast where we elevate the human spirit. Here's your host, Kristi Gurule.
Jeremy 0:11
Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode number two of the Comfort Keepers Evansville podcast. I'm your co-host and producer of the show, Jeremy Wolf, and I'm here with none other than your host. We have the one the only Kristi Gurule. Kristi, how are you doing today? Great introduction.
Kristi 0:29
Awesome, awesome introduction there. I don't think I would fit that all on a business card, but I love it.
Jeremy 0:35
So, how's it going today?
Kristi 0:37
It's going really well. It's a nice pretty day. I'm in southern Indiana today, actually. It's nice and hot here. Probably similar to where you're sitting right now.
Jeremy 0:47
I don't know if it can be as hot as it is down here. We've had a crazy heatwave in South Florida. It's been over 100 degrees and humid. So, I don't know how you're doing up there. But it's pretty brutal down here.
Kristi 0:56
Well, it's not quite 100. But it's very, very humid. So, all right. I'll get that.
Jeremy 1:01
Done. I don't know about you. But I am. It's Friday. I am looking forward to a nice relaxing weekend with the family. How about yourself.
Kristi 1:10
On a normal weekend, I'd like to say that it's going to be a relaxing weekend for myself. But in fact, it's going to be a lot of work over the next couple of days. I have some really big things coming up here in my southern Indiana location and just a lot of logistics, but I need to make sure I have everything planned for 3 1:10 this next week. So, no rest.
Jeremy 1:33
I know you're really busy with some stuff. And I want to get into that later with you. But talking about family, I mean, I'm, I'm 43 years old and parents are not spring chickens anymore. They're getting up there in years. I'm wondering, what are some signs that we should be looking for in our elderly loved ones that it might be time to look into maybe getting some help for them?
Kristi 2:09
Yeah, that's such a loaded question and a daunting venture for any family member. And it's a conversation that I have on the phone quite often, actually. So, one of the most telling signs, and you've already described it a little bit is you notice that something is different, right? We know, we know our parents, we know our grandparents really well, especially if we are the primary caretaker. So, once we start to see something start to change, like for instance, let's say that your mom is always the planner of every party of every dinner, have Sunday afternoon dinners, everything, everything is always done the exact same. And all of a sudden mom's starts to forget, she starts to not have things ready on time. She completely, not completely, but you can just see she's moving slower. Right? Yeah, they often start out very subtle. I mean, there are days that I just run slower than others. So, it's over time, but we just start to notice these little things. When it becomes more noticeable. Usually what we're finding is we're So, realizing that parents are missing out doctor's appointments, we ask them, hey, how was that appointment? Monday, they're like, oh, what I forgot. Okay, so now we're missing some other details that's really important for their health and safety. And now we're concerned about are they taking their medication when they should be? Or maybe we have an episode with them. Maybe they're diabetic. And maybe we have, we're starting to see that they're not eating right or well, and we're starting to see that affect their hey mobility, their mental state, everything. When things start to become forgetful, we get concerned, we also start to see maybe mom isn't doing her hair every day. She's always done her hair, always done her hair and makeup and got dressed up to the nines to just be in the home. Right? We start to see things that were normal to us all the time not be there. Maybe they're having a hard time doing those things. They don't know how to ask for help. That's usually the biggest battle that we find when we have this conversation. And it has to be approached each person so differently, but with a lot of empathy, a lot of love coming from the place of I want to make sure you're cared for I'm not here all the time. I want to make sure that you're safe. How can I help? Right? It's usually the very first conversation that starts to happen. And honestly, that's when a lot of the family usually it's the oldest child like I'm the oldest child, they start to do the research, right? It's just like laid on us to start to look, we start researching what are our options, and conversations can go on for months with our loved one who insist that they don't need help. So, it's a very gentle kind of conversation that will evolve over time. And it has to start at some point because when you get to when you get to the stage, where all of the sudden you Now mom is not able to care for herself, it's gone too far. And that's at that time, that's when most families get incredibly stressed with, what are we going to do. And it's reached a level where oftentimes the Home Health is overlooked. And they are then looking at assisted living facilities, or nursing homes, when really the conversation could have started a lot earlier, just to kind of plant those seeds. And we could have been there, we could have been there to start helping much earlier to keep them in their home a lot longer.
Jeremy 5:36
Man, you touched on so much there, I mean, goodness, from, you know, communication is tough with relationships that we have, and talking about opening that up from a place of love and understanding and incrementally introducing that and not waiting until it becomes too much of a problem where your only option at that point is go 2 5:36 straight to the assisted living or nursing home, right, and then they're completely plucked out of their place. And that type of changes is traumatic on somebody. So, to gradually do this process, you know, oftentimes they could stay, I'd imagine they could stay at their home for a lot longer, if not until the end.
Kristi 6:16
And honestly, I've approached it so many different ways with different families, just depending on what the dynamic is, like, are you or the family members actually in town with their loved one? Are they calling me from out of state, and I, we have been very creative and being introduced to a loved one, as a friend of the family. Sometimes that is the best approach versus I'm coming in as an agency to help you. Because usually, the first thing that we run into is a wall, I can do it, they're worried about me, they don't need to worry about me, they don't pay for this, like, it's just we can all hear the conversation, right?
Unknown Speaker 6:51
Especially the elder generations are extra stubborn.
Kristi 6:57
But being able to ease into it with grace, and when we're involved much earlier than it becomes a lot more successful, because it really is, again, all about building relationships. So, we're happy to meet with people in their home, just to be as a friend of the family, how can we help you What is something and oftentimes, when our elderly community hears or has a notion of an agency coming in, in their mind, they're seeing themselves as incapacitated, I'm going to sit in this chair, I'm not going to move, they're going to do everything for me. And that's not what they want. We want them to be independent, we want to help aid in their independence. So being able to have that conversation to say, we're not just here to help you get out of bed and help you get dressed, we're here to do everything else that may pose a risk to you staying in your own home. And my guess is that because you love this beautiful home that you've lived in your entire life, this is where you want to be. And just being honest with our elderly generation to telling them like, let's take this stress off of the people that love you so much. They want you to have extra help. And because they're not here, they're carrying that. So let us come in and help take that away from both of you guys. And just ease into it.
Jeremy 8:16
That makes so much sense. So, let's say you know, I'm in that situation, right? And thankfully, I'm not yet but I'm certainly it's on the radar. And I noticed something with the parents and I start that conversation. And I start doing some research again, before we met my thought process was yeah, they go as long as they can. And then when they can't, if they can't take care of themselves anymore, and you can't take care of them. Yeah, send them to assisted living. So, like where should they go for resources? Like what if What would you say to somebody, maybe they're like, why maybe I don't think I can afford to hire personal care to come and take care of like, what do I do then? Like, what resources are available? How should somebody start that process of kind of looking into this?
Kristi 8:54
Again, we could do like full episodes on just the questions that you've asked me. So, I think depending on again, the needs that a loved one is seeking for their family member, one of the first things that most people would want to talk to is their 3 8:54 primary care physician, right? Talk to talk to the doctor to find out at what medical level your loved one is at because in home health is them divided, right? We've got a skilled side and we've got us who come in and we can't replace a nurse. So, if your loved one is that the them level of care that does require a nurse and that's separate, but that's a conversation that needs to happen with them the doctor. I think that most of our local resources are going to come from our, you know, aged and disabled websites. Gosh, AARP, there's so many other senior related resources to help guide people with the conversations our website, great conversation starters and again, gently talking. Depending on if an individual has served our military, then you have phenomenal reason versus with the VA hospital and being able to talk about what services they cover what they can and cannot even surviving spouses of veterans can receive these benefits. So, there's So, a lot through different insurance networks. Most people are surprised to know that they've also been paying into insurance plans that specifically cover this. But they've been playing paying their employer for years and no idea. And it's almost like a nest egg. It's here and it's to use and if you don't use it, it's just there. So being able to call your insurance agent and say these are the needs that even my parents are looking for. Or if you are the individual seeking services, calling your insurance agent, is this something that my plan could possibly cover? Those are the conversations that are phenomenal. And an often eight again, in further resources, especially when somebody's worried about the overall cost. And again, if you ease into it, you know, people can start out with one day, one day of care a week just to see how much it helps them. And then as time goes on, should that increase, then conversations can still happen? That okay, what So, do we need to continue to do? How can we financially plan for this? So, there's, there's a lot of conversations that can happen with those specific agents.
Jeremy 11:20
Yeah, we definitely touched on a lot of subjects and we could probably talk for hours upon end, but we'll have to, we'll definitely save some of this stuff for sir for future episodes. But I know that you mentioned earlier, you weren't going to have a chance to get that downtime over the weekend. You got a lot going on in your community out in Indiana. And obviously you got your new location here locally in Davie, but share with us I know you're very excited about what's going on. Tell us a little bit about what's on the horizon. With this whole prom situation?
Kristi 11:49
Gosh, seriously, I, I couldn't be more excited about being busy over the weekend for this exact this exact thing that we're working on. We had spoken earlier in another podcast about my community involvement and wanting to have that. And that is exactly the case. So, this is just an example of one of my other locations what we're doing. So, in our southern Indiana location, we are hosting the first ever community wide senior prom. So, this is for all of our patients, all of my field staff, roughly 200 combined, plus Independent Living Center. So again, people that I'm not personally connected with, but we want to include every senior in this area, I have so many people that are coming, we're planning for around 300. So first ever, we want people to come and have fun. We want there to be a sense of community. I have a photographer, a videographer about balloons and what's prom without a DJ and flowers, we the community has come together. And it's just such an incredible thing to see by volunteers from agencies that we partner with regularly. Plus, you know, all of us admin, we're so excited to see patients and our caregivers all dressed up. And truly just make So, an afternoon, next Tuesday, having the first senior prom because I can't even tell you Jeremy, it gives me goosebumps to talk about it because I have so many patients who are calling this week. And they're so excited. And they're like I just went out and I am excited to come out and get dressed up. I've not had a reason other than going to a doctor's appointment. And I am so excited in the middle of a hot July to get dressed up and to come and have fun and Jeremy, have food and dance and pictures. That's what we're all about. Right? Elevating the human spirit. And this is a big way that we're elevating our entire communities experience their spirit and I can't wait to do it. When we have our roots planted even more in Florida just to see how this evolves. So excited.
Jeremy 13:50
I can't wait. I mean, my goodness; the passion is just oozing out, like you're talking about all this and I'm getting all warm and fuzzy inside. Like it's such a wonderful thing that you're doing for the community. And it just sounds like it's I wish you the best. I wish I could come I'm not there. But I know you're going to have an amazing event and I can't wait to see you replicate that down here in my neck of the woods. So awesome. Kristi, it's always a pleasure talking to you and learning about everything that you're doing. It's just fantastic. So, until next time. Thank you everybody for listening. And we'll see on the next episode. Thank you. All right, take care.
Speaker 1 14:33
Thank you for listening to the Comfort Keepers Evansville podcast. For more information, visit comfort keepers.com or call (812) 370-4956
