Connecting with Care Providers During COVID, with Daphne Davis

*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.

Time to get back to Sou’sad and more answers for elders. So welcome everyone back to answers for elders radio with Daphne Davis the Pinnacle Senior Placement and definitely you’ve given us some really good wisdom on if seniors are in senior living and now if they’re living alone, in some ways in which you know we can keep you know, keep the momentum of the spirits up by kind of reaching outside the box. What have been some of your experiences and how that that’s all come about? Just curious. You know, I get a multiple phone calls every single day of and I’m going to say this kind of this might be a little bit of a Downer, but people are in crisis and people really need help. Families need help and our whole health care system and how we care for our elders is a very complicated, can be confusing system of how do I make good decisions? How do I know what The way vision is for my loved one and for their story? Because we are all unique, we all are have different value systems, we all have a great way of living life, and so what I do is I help people every single solitary day work through and right now, I have to say it’s primarily crisis and so as you’re listening to this, please don’t feel like you only have to call me when over the crisis. We can be proactive, but it’s human nature to do for we have yes, yes, but I’m having a lot of people not even know how to you know, my mom fell and she broke a hip and simple fracture. You no big deal, but nonetheless she needs to go through a rehab situation, getting into a rehab how do I choose a Rehab community? What do I need to be prepared for? How do I communicate with people? How do I make sure that they’re, you know, understanding who my mom is, because sometimes she just loses her words or sometimes she doesn’t advocate for herself. I want to be there for her and can’t right. That’s a big piece that I’m helping with families right now is how do I communicate with social workers and physical therapists and the doctor and the nursing staff, even at a hospital or at a nursing home or a rehab community, because it is very different, and I think that is right. Big is hurdle that people are adding right now because we’re not facetoface and you can’t go into the building and give them a tip. How do I give them the tip about my mom? I’m working with a family that the situation is truly that broke a broke a leg the steamer and went to the hospital. Is Stuck in the hospital because we can’t find a rehab community to accept the patient. And there they’re. Definitely is a breakdown and it’s frightening and it’s I want everyone to hear me. No one is doing anything wrong. It is just very stressful right now and labor intensive because of the absence of facetoface, communication and the nuances that we get through body language is missing, and so I’m advocating and educating the family on how do we get this patient into a rehab I want to paint a little bit of a picture. So, so bear with me here. She’s in the hospital, has been there for over two weeks, which is unheard of it. have some issues coming out of of anesthesia. She did have, yeah, cognitive challenges. Does have cognitive challenges, but she doesn’t have her family with her with one, one person per day, you know, squeezing that in and making that work, but not being able to be there when the physical therapist is there because we can’t spend the whole day right, right. So now she’s been pigeonholed into this place that she’s and I’m going to use some terminology that we have. She’s not redirectable. You know, she’s excessively confused, which is not the case today, because she’s been there so long. The chart notes are speaking for her instead of a voice, and so that’s one of the things that we can do for you at pinnacle is helped learn how to navigate the systems so that we can help you have a voice, not just a piece of paper. I have said many, many times, yes, I’ll write down all kinds of notes and and get to know your loved one over the phone or video or something, but it’s more important for me to lay eyes and have a conversation, because that that is a whole person and that’s the piece that pinnacle can bring. We want to care for the whole person. Way In the hospital, when in a Rehab please remember the people’s hearts are right and they’re good, but they’re overworked and we don’t have enough caregivers right now and yes, covid makes this more difficult, but the bottom line is we have to figure out ways to communicate and that’s where I can help you probably the most. We are going to find a rehab place for this woman. The story. I mean, I’m really onto everyone should be able to make use of the benefits that they have coming to them through their Medicare, through va, whatever it may be. I want you to get your services that you are entitled to, and sometimes you have to just know how to talk the language. We’re here to talk the language for you. We’re here to make sure that you don’t get pigeon holed, because life is hard right now. I mean we’re gadging constantly in the environments of hospitals and Rehabs, and so we may need an extra person. I encourage you all to call me. I mean I have a team of people in Pinnacle that we can help you. We can, you know, might be just giving you a few tips. It might be explaining how your Medicare benefits actually work. It might be explaining, you know, what it means to not have no toe touch. You know, somebody says are only to touch or only fifty percent weight on a leg. We have some of that knowledge. We’re not doctors and nurses and you know all of that, but we’ve got twenty years of experience to be able to help you, because this is our language. It’s not your language. But you know, families are overwhelmed, and so I that is one area that we can really help you is navigating our healthcare system. It is very challenging right now and I’m finding families and the word that I’ve been using is we’re decompensating and feeling overwhelmed and just not knowing which way to turn. I have a lot of people that are in tears on the phone with me and by the end of the phone call more than not I hear okay, I have a sense of hope again, or I know what direction I can go, or, Daphne, I want your health right. That’s one one big area that we’re helping right now with families, and you know, continue continue to hear my heart. No one is doing anything wrong. You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re doing the best that you can with the information that you have. Now your job is you heard about pinnacle. Give us a clost because because now we can help you. You know that the hobbies and nothing. You know, and I think too, we’ve got families right now that are in huge transitions. Many cases people of lost jobs. They’re working from home now, where before they used to go into an office. There’s just different shifts. Everybody sitting at home and they’re going a little bit crazy because they’re looking at the same four walls every day and and so obviously tensions are higher and and being able to I know I had it just even for myself. I know that my fews is shorter. I have to remember, you know, take care of me first, and part of that is sometimes is having that conversation with somebody like you that you could pick up the phone and say, you know, I’m I’m at my wits end, I don’t know how to help my loved one, I’m really confused. I just need I need a base to start from, and having that called the pinnacled to call you. You can help them get on track of what are the priorities? What what do we need to do here, and how can we help? You know, and that’s, I thinks, right, really important thing, you know, is really getting that that piece there, that that grounding point where definitely you could be such a grounding point for families today. Yeah, and that is a lot of what my job is right now and I love being able to help them because really, families do know what they want, they just don’t know how to give it shape. So, Susan, I really thought you saying that reach out to our listeners. There is no situation that can’t have a solution. I promise that every situation can have a solution and it’s just reaching out to the professionals and the people who are in a given different worlds that we need to get you connected with. And by all means you can get on the Internet, you can do some research, you can, you know, Google this, that or the other thing, but I am offering to you to share the information that Pinnacle has gleaned over the twenty years. We want to share that with you. We are an information post. We do want it to be simpler. I have phone calls all the time with families right now that are about family dynamics. You know my datitude and I over my mom is yeah, and so that’s another piece that we can help you with. You know that third party person is really powerful in hearing words that are difficult to hear and when we find the right advisor in the right Placement Company referral agency. That can happen passion and empathy and hear your story and properly communicate to someone who’s not quite on board with the reality of a situation. We can then move forward and make sure people continue to be safe and well cared forward without disrupting the family unit. It well and it’s complicated. It is so definitely in the next segment. I would love to have you share more stories in it before we go. How do people reach you? The best way to reach us directly is eight hundred and fifty five, seven, thirty four, one five hundred and we will always get back to you at eight hundred and fifty five, seven, three four, one thousand five hundred. And then you can cruse all over my website at Pinnacle Senior Placementscom and you can even listen to past podcasts that we have there. They’re all on our website. Absolutely can find out more about our employees, you can find out more about our services there and certainly give us a call or even just write a little notes on how to contact us. We Will Not Badger you, we are not selling any information, we’re just here to connect. We just want to connect with our families well, and that’s great, and so definitely will be right back right after this