Care Partners’ Process Part 2, with Kelley Smith
In the second part of this conversation, Kelley Smith at CarePartners Senior Living defines the various types of assisted living services and the CarePartners process.
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*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
The following podcast is provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio and welcome back everyone. We are in the final fifteen minutes of our wonderful hour with Kelly smiths from care partners living on answers for elders radio. And Kelly, I haven’t so enjoyed talking to you about all the things that we get to look forward to for this year that finally I’m starting to see an end to this horrible covid nineteen and all the things that we’ve been through. But probably nobody has gone through more stress than our seniors, and certainly in in you know that are living in communities, that can’t see their families and all those things. And you know, first and foremost, before we finish up our hour, I just want to give a call out to all of our health care providers and our senior providers. I know I’m speaking for our listeners as well, that you guys have truly been our American heroes in this last year for doing whatever you can. I know there’s so many things that I follow your facebook page and I do different things and I hear stories and things like that, and I don’t think our are listeners and people you know know a tent of what all you do for, you know, yours residence and people out there to keep them, you know, occupied in to avoid depression and all those things, Kelly, and so thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you guys have done this last year. It’s been above and beyond and, like you said, you don’t do it for the money, you do it because no love and it’s really, really shows. So thank you again. I want to talk a little bit this out of this last minute. We talked and our last segment talking about, you know, the cottages and the different types of things, but I really would like to just go back and talk about, you know, what is it? That is? It’s a family calls and they you know, they’re interested. What happens in the phone call and what kind of a minute he’s does a senior living provides for them? Well, in the phone call. A lot of times there’s people will call him to have questions and I don’t normally just start rattling things off. I mostly important to me is I assume people have been doing the research. So for me to just start rattling off amenities, but whoop, I always to my interest. Sounds really stupid, but I turn my internal radio to win FM. Right. What’s in it for them? Because, yes, probably don’t care when we have to say. They want to know they’re talking about their mom or themselves. They don’t care what I think. They want to they have their ways of the questions, a lot of questions. What I hear as first of all, do you have the first questions I’m hearing right now is what your pandemic protocol? You know can and and see my mom. What guarantee? If you’ve called five places before me, you’re not going to get a different answer here. And the reason is is because we are all under the same governor edicts. Right now he’s saying you can’t come visit. I’m not going to change the rules here. I’d love to, but I can’t. Now, can I sneak you through the side door and up around a corner so you can peek around the corner make sure I’m not beating up on your mom? Yeah, I can do that. However, you know there’s certain things that you know. I still can’t let you in the building and let you go downstairs and go help your mom around a corner. I can’t do that. That’s still they’re still rules. However, can I send you videos of your mom? Can We send you pictures? We actually built this thing. Jake bumps and go at my mount like tears. Building came up with this since brilliant his team. They took up full size television. They can’t. I’ll send you pictures if you want. But basically they came up with this rolling cart where families can actually see their loved one. Not a phone, not a kindle, but I realized ATU. But it’s it’s it’s not still not a perfect fix, but it’s better than trying to see your mom on a on a small course. You know, it’s no device or a phone, it’s a television. She’s dam she’s right there. But they have this at the clean every une between residents and they rolling around and people can actually sit and visit with mom and they feel like they’re a little bit closer and they can hear her. It’s got a great big stare of Stereo kind of system on it and it can as a couple bucks, but they did it and they’re happy. So we’re always looking at can we do better? What can we how can we fix this? We can’t. We can’t fix the pandemic. That’s the number one question. So the next reason is what would the move in process look like, because I don’t want just anyone putting my mom’s room together. Well, the good news is you can come put mom’s room again. You can do that. We will allow that. You can come make her room pretty, put her put all of her stuff together and you can even be here that they have moved in. There are some now, if MOM’s also critical? What if MOM’s on hospice? Can I come see her? The answers yes, there are a number of loopholes. The governors has put in place for critical patients and things like that. They’re not going to let my mom your mom guy alone. There are some things that have been in place. But again, we’re going to ask a number of questions as well. They also want to know about assessment. Can you actually see my mom? Well, there’s also what’s where is she? If she’s at home, yes, we can come to do the assessment. If she did another community that that community may have rules about US visiting, so then we have to do do a zoom call. These are the kind of questions people ask. The other questions about affordability, affordability. CAN WE AFFORD IT? And that’s where I come in because a lot of times when we’re talking to families, people also have to understand that sometimes a nurse will turn down an assessment. I don’t always get the reasons why. Sometimes it takes me a long time to reconnect with that nurse to find out why did they turn and somebody down. Times the answers sorry, something a family wants to hear. You know, sometimes it’s not good news right. It’s not always great. UN Times it’s a reason I don’t really want to talk to a family about, you know, and your mom’s a handful. Always good reasons. However, we try to be as fair as we can. We’re always looking for the answer. Yes, we want to help families, but there’s a way it has to go. It’s not our ruling, it’s Washington state rule that our nurses have to assess everyone that comes in the building. We have to have to. So it has to be an assessment process. And then, of course, you know, families can can appeal that assessment if they want to. They can’t appeal it with me. They have to appeal it with a nurse and I’m happy to shut that up for them if they’d like to, but there’s just they have to the number one question I’m hearing right now is, first of all, what are your pandemic protocol what are you doing keep your resident safe? And what we’re doing is daily checks, daily, daily. So far, so good, but it’s staff checks, the president checks and we’re doing everything everyone else is doing. I’d love to say we’re doing more than everyone else, and that’s a lie because we’re not. Everyone’s doing the same thing. So I don’t know how else they answer that, but I think everybody’s doing that. They can try to keep their residents and staff safe, but that kind of thing that I think and and like we go back to the original thing that we talked about. Every single family situation is different. Every single seniors situation, whether it’s a care plan or a financial plan or anywhere, that is different and it certainly has a lot to do with you know how you do, your very boss who care for our loved ones in the best way that you know how, and it’s also a learning process and it’s also a progression of the care needs of your loved one as well. That are part of this and I know that. On the other hand, a lot of it has to do with communication. I know when I was a caregiver for my mother, I learned, you know, that I had a right to call a care conference and ask how you know mom or dad or doing. I had a right to ask certain questions as her power of attorney. But make sure that you have a power of attorney to be able to have these kind of dialog with your with your loved one, and so on. The on the family side, to you guys, are restricted by certain rules, especially that kids, hippo laws and things like that that you have to follow. And so again, it’s a collaboration and I think it’s a partnership that is working all in the you know, the positive direction for your loved one to make sure that they’re in the best situation possible for them. Wouldn’t you agree with that, Kel, the hundred percent. But I also want families to know that, yes, there’s hippolaws. There are, and to me and all honesty, most of those hippolaws are ridiculous. But you didn’t hear me say that out loud on the radio. But what I’m kidding at is there they are. The rules. Yes, you know the rules and they are there for protection. I understand that, but if I know you, okay, I know you. I’m the one that helped you move your mom in and you’re stressed out because you can’t come and see her all the time and you’re worried about how she’s doing. And you think I’m not going to go in the in the dining room and say, hey, your daughter called and she’s worried about you, honey. Can we do a quick video call with her right now on my phone? You think that mother has asked? Yes, we’ll do them and I’m going to come lastly, right now and I’m going to say here’s a couple minutes. Hey, you want to know how your mom’s do it. I got her right here. Can we just talk for a minute? But I might go by my nurse night and say del’t hey, del’t just you know, Rachel called. She wants to know how her mom’s doing. Could you call her? You know she’s going to call her. Yeah, and you can tell how her daughters do it, how our mom’s doing, and the reason she’s going to do it is because we also nurture the families, because we know what they’re going through. I can’t. Let me rephrase. That’s pretty presumptous to say. I know how you feel, I know how I would feel. So yeah, I think what we’re trying to do is be as human as we can inside the realm of doing what we supposed to do by the law. So I’m not I will say I will email pictures, I will send a video and I will. I will, and Kelly, I think my looseness what you go ahead. Sorry, I was just bore. My nurses will take your phone call and they will tell you exactly how your loved ones do, because they know this has got to be hell for you too. You can’t see them every day. You liked you, but you still want to know. Is My mom eating? Is She doing okay? How is she right? Yeah, yeah, you’re paying us to take care of her. I think the least we can do is tell you she’s all right. Yeah, do that. Can and they wan. Yes, and the main thing, obviously, is that you guys are there for our families and for our seniors to to improve whatever you can for the quality of your life, of their lives and and for the family as well. It’s a heart it’s a hard time, but it’s also a good time to start. You know, if you feel concerned about your loved one and want to reach out the care partners just to have a dialog. You’re not sure. You guys can kind of explain to them on a one on one basis. Can’t you about about determining if it’s a good fit? Of course. What people don’t understand we’re not so greedy and so horrible that I’m going to take everyone, whether I can care for them or not. Not Those people if I honestly talk to my nurse and she says No. What people don’t understand is it sometimes know isn’t about me and not about my company. It’s about what’s been for your mom. Maybe the trace this building in this community is not what’s best for your loved one. Maybe we honestly think an adult family home would be better. Having home, can you come in, would be better for your mom, and I’m not going to take a loved one just because I have an opening. That’s the wrong reason to do business right. You want me the building is right fit for them and us, but more importantly, for them. We can adjust. That’s what we’re known for. Adjusting that loved one is not hilly to adjust if it’s not right. That’s awesome. So how do we reach you one last time? The best place to get us in all honesties, just to check out the website, because then you can see the pictures, testimonials, check out the virtual tours and see if it’s really for you and then you can contact us. So it’s W ww care partners livingcom Kelly, I’m so glad you were with us on the show today and for each and every one of you. Have a wonderful week ahead as we embrace all kinds of new things, and I am looking forward to being back on the air with you next week. The preceding podcast was provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio. To contact care partners living, go to care partners livingcom
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Originally published January 17, 2021