Caregiver Appreciation with Marlene Diaz

*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 hospitality home care and answers for elders radio. And Welcome back to answers for elders radio. I am here with a brand new guest, Marlene Diaz from hospitality home care. I’m Marlene. Welcome to the program thank you for having me. You know, hospitality home care is based in south end of King County. Is that correct? You guys are down in that area? Yes, we’re located in C tech. Yes, but you serve kind of a larger area and you work with families. We do. We serve King County and Pierce County. That’s wonderful. That’s wonderful and you know, we’re so excited to have you your company as a brand new partner. And one of the things I’m excited that we’re going to talk about today is, as we’re doing this theme of senior housing, one of the things that I think goes on is that the family caregiver oftentimes has had a huge burden on them, and so one of the things that, Marlene, I’m so excited that you want to share with us is ways in which families can actually show their appreciation to the people that they that they have taken care of their loved one and I think sometimes the caregiver is the one that really gets overlooked in the picture, and so we’re very encouraging of how we can do that. And so, you know, how do you guys help and in acknowledging and making a good caregiver? Well, we make sure we ask the family and ask them, you know, how the caregiver is going, how services are going. We do this periodically, almost on a weekly basis, of not monthly, just depending on the client and the situation. And we also talk to the caregiver how she feels things are going in the home and if there’s anything that needs to be addressed well. And that’s good because obviously, you know, with a caregiver, you know they’re sometimes they don’t even know where to begin. They don’t know what a baseline is, they don’t know you know, they are pretty much overwhelmed and so you know, you guys can come in and really kind of help ease that burden. Is that correct? Yes, it is, and one of the things that we do is we make sure that we introduce that caregiver and where there in the first introduction, so that we go over things with them while the family is there, just in case we do forget something, the family can address that. And then you know, your background is kind of been in the whole caregiving world. Is that correct? Yes, I’ve been in this business for twenty years now. Well, you know, it’s amazing, isn’t it? Kind of it is in your in your blood. And then you so tell me about some ways in which you know you can, you can share with us about appreciation. I think that one of the things that as an agency or for other agencies, they lack is a caregiver appreciation, not so much from the family but from the agency itself, because that’s who has hired them on and the family has hired us on. I think it’s very important to tell the caregivers how much they are appreciated and those little emails that we sent requesting caregivers for shifts that we address that you know, we do appreciate you guys. We do provide month, monthly bonuses for them and we also send out like birthday cards with, you know, a little gift for them to go out and do something special for themselves and, you know, having that kind of feeling of you know that they’re appreciated is so important. It’s not just a job all of a sudden. There is that that acknowledgement, that recognition that they’ve made a difference. Yes, it is. And you know, if starts from the caregiver. If you have a happy caregiver, you’re going to have a happy client and this is how your caregivers are going to stay in your agency longer. Right. Right. And so you guys obviously work with a lot of different families. How have you found your process to be different or unique in the industry? Well, like I said, we are very involved. We’re very involved. We check in periodically. We’re not just sending random people to your home. We are, you know, having one caregiver. If we talk to a care of an ask her to take on a shift, she’s going to take on that shift on going. We don’t want to send a bunch of caregivers into a home and not have a manageable home. It’s very important to us. Yeah, I can imagine. And then how have you found that that works in the long run with the client? It works out great. We have happy cut clients and we have happy caregivers. That’s awesome. And then, and of course, your clients. You know, tell me about really when is a good time to call your company, like what kind of things can you guys help with? We help with that. Just about anything. If somebody needs assistance handling their bills, where there to go out and help? All go out and help and address whatever issue. Sometimes it’s the caregiver who calls and says, you know, Patty isn’t paying her bill, she’s getting disconnection notices. Then I go around and figure out what we need to do. If Grocery shopping, if the the you know, you notice that your client is not going out going to get the groceries who used to be getting the caregiver will call me and say there’s issues and you know will address those issues. And you know, I always ask the families if what’s the best way to pay for these things right, and you know, I always offer different types of options for them. That’s awesome. And then, you know, obviously to have that flexibility to be able to do things and you’re not having to rely on your children for things, you know, your adult children. That can be overwhelming. Yes, it can, and that’s one of the things we want to take that burden away from the family so that they can be that family member and not the caregiver. And you know that’s so, so important. It is very and you know I always talk about in my book. I always saying you never want a parent, your parent, then you know that relationship, in my opinion, is sacral saint. Always you should be the daughter or the Sun, and mom or dad always needs to be the mom or the Dad. And to put yourself in a position where you’re taking over sometimes can be a difficult situation with a with a you know, parental situation and and you know, it doesn’t really yield well to making transitions easily either. When those things happen, there’s a lot of trust that has to be built and to bring somebody in from the house outside, like you guys are, that allows son and daughter to be son and daughter and, you know, go in and spend the time with mom and dad to just reminisce or have that time rather than running errands or doing the things that you know that you guys can actually do for them. Yes, and that’s one of the things that I do address with the family. I you know, I talked about what how can we make life easier for you and the type of things that we provide. Even if we’re providing companionship, I always let the families know everything else is included, not just companionship. Right, right, and and you know that includes what we call help with ADLS. Yes, and I can go into that in a second, but I want to reintroduce you. This is we are talking to Marlene Diaz and Marlene, you are with hospitalityhomecarecom and tell me about what areas that hospitality home care serves. We servers king and Pierce County, okay, and and you. Basically, if if somebody needs we’re going to go back to the whole thing of ADLs. What is that? It’s what we call activities of daily living, and I think there’s seven of them, aren’t there? That they that they look out or thing. Yes, so one of them is companionship. Companionship is is a must. I always let my caregivers note that. That’s a big thing. A lot of these seniors are are lonely. They don’t have the family coming around a lot, you know, most of their friends have passed on. So they need companionship, lighthouse keeping, meal PRI preparation toileting, assistance, bathing, going to the doctors and doing some errands. And you know, it goes right back to that caregiver. Obviously, to recognize that caregiver, to understand, to learn to just dial into your loved one, that they understand, you know what help is needed and sometimes they’re going to recognize things that the family may not recognize. Yes, often times, isn’t it so? How obviously this is a big deal in in you know you’ve got you invest your time so much specifically with a loved one. But tell me a little bit, Marlene, about you know, we hear the phrase a lot burnout with caregivers. How do you recommend that to permit that burnout? I know that a lot of families become really attached to a certain caregiver, but allowing that person to take on a significant amount of breaks. As far as you know, Somebody’s doing a twenty four hour shift. My I need to have that caregiver there three or four days, allow somebody else to step in and cover another three or four days, just depending on what the caregiver can do. That’s how we’re going to prevent burnout, you know, letting the caregiver have that specific time off. And obviously, you know learning. You know, I’m going to take it one step further and it’s go to the family caregiver, the the daughter maybe, or the sun that is doing, you know, taking time on their own to take care of their loved one. You know, it’s really easy to get burned out and in one of the ways in which you know, caregivers themselves can learn to set healthy boundaries. You know, family caregivers, they can set healthy boundaries with their own family members and understand that you’re not the it all the time. It’s not up to you, that you need help, but it’s not. You know, it’s not a one person job to take care of somebody, that’s for sure. No, it’s not. So tell me a little bit about hospitality, Home Care. What sets you guys apart? Well, one of the biggest things I I started with this agency as a caregiver and became office manager shortly after started with them, and I wanted to make sure that I did think things differently than other agencies I had previously worked with. One of my biggest things was, of course, caregivers, making sure that I was going to be able to hire caregivers who stuck around with the agency for a long period of time and I I believe that I’ve done great in that field and the caregivers really like me and respect me. Of course, I try to make sure that I know and understand each and one of them, each one of them well, and you’ve been in their shoes, which, yes, it is incredible and and I know that that means everything in the world that they can understand that process for sure. Yeah. So, in closing, tell us a little bit about how we reach you and a little bit more about what you know. What kind of issues can you help with really quickly? Well, we’re able to assist with just about anything. The only thing the agency is not, and we’re working on this later on this year, with be home health. Okay, but we do anything from meal preparation, Lighthouse keeping, medication assistants, bathing assistance, hospice care and, of course, being able to keep that family comfortable and safe in the home. And how do we reach you? Early you can reach me at hospitalityhomecare.com. My phone number is to zero six, nine thousand nine hundred and sixty six ninezero. Well, I have still filled you round the program today and welcome to our provider network. Thank you so much for having me. The preceding podcast was provided by hospitality home care and answer for elders radio. To contact hospitality home care, go to hospitalityhomecare.com.