DispatchHealth and the 12 Days of Goodness, with Karrie Austin
DispatchHealth is a Gold Sponsor for the 2019 12 Days of Goodness and its mission to raise awareness for senior loved ones that are without regular visitors. Karrie Austin talks about being able to spend an hour with each person, get to know them and connect them with resources, such activities of daily living, meals on wheels. Sometimes a senior is lonely and needs someone to talk to.
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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 is a podcast from a qualified senior care provider part on the answers for elders radio show. And welcome everyone back to answers for elders radio and I am here with Carrie Austin from dispatch health and I am so thrilled everyone because in this month of celebrating twelve days of goodness, dispatch health is our gold sponsor and you guys are making a huge difference in the lives of our seniors as we go out into the community and it’s all about touching the hearts of our seniors and you guys have a really carry first of all, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me and I’m glad you’re here because you guys have a really unique perspective. Every single day you’re going into seniors homes, obviously, and finding seniors in different situations, I’m sure, and there’s a lot of seniors that made me alone. Tell us a little bit about that experience and and how what you see out there. So one of the benefits of being able to provide healthcare in the home, again, bringing that house call back if you will, is our ability to really kind of assess the social determinance of health and other words, we’re able to spend some, you know, up to an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, with each patient really get to know them as a person, find out what their needs are, and then our providers are able to actually connect them with resources if they need whether it’s, you know, meals on wheels, whether they need some some help in the home just on daily you know, kind of Adals, caregiving type things, right, but really adls activities of daily living. Sorry, we just want to make sure that our listeners know what that is. Yes, I apologize. Yeah, that’s all right, but really our providers are there to just kind of help those next steps. Yeah, as we see that they’re needed, and so really kind of we want to we want to support them. Not only is their provider in the home for further healthcare, but really is is their friend. Right. So what are what are the things that you see, I guess, carry when you go visit a senior? That gives you kind of an indicator that that senior might be lonely. Sometimes you get to the home and you start talking about why they called and what that what that chief complaint was, what brought us to the home and then you realize as they talk that maybe it’s just it’s not so much about the the health care concern for them, it’s really just that they really want some one to one time, someone to talk to, someone to sit there and listen to them, sure, you know, hold their hand and just be present. Really just somebody to be present. So when we identify we have somebody that might might be a little, you know, lonely and need some extra resources, were more than happy to get them connected. Yeah, in an appropriate manner. So we just make sure that we don’t over step our bounds, but we really do absolutely anything we can to so absolutely and you know the statistics out there for our listeners that you understand, twelve days a goodness. Is really all about raising awareness that it’s time to start being more mindful of our senior loved ones. I think there’s multiple studies out there that say sixty percent of seniors are without regular visitors, and those are the ones that are you know that they can document that. It may be in skilled type care or it retirement living or something like that. I would only imagine that seniors that live alone it’s worse and that’s the hard part. This is why? Number One, our local senior centers need to be supported because they provide a social outlet for seniors who are still independent. But I think the other thing that’s really important is that for those of you that are in the in neighborhoods here throughout greater puge sound, I am venturing to guess that there’s a senior somewhere in your vicinity that might need something that you know that you could just go and say hello or build a relationship. You know, find the senior and you know, how many times have I said just pay attention, you will find. You know, it’s like when you buy a car. All of a sudden you never saw the car in the road and then all of a sudden you see cars on the road. Because I’m more in tune to it, I’m running across seniors who are alone all of the time and it just breaks my heart. Yeah, breaks my heart that families just get too busy and they think, you know, they’ll say to me, well, Mam and dad are fine. Well, MOM and Dad may not be fine and mom and dad and may say that they’re fine to you because your son or daughter, but really because they don’t want to be a burden to you. But in actuality there’s some little signs out there that, you know, we as a community can absolutely be more mindful of and I think an organization like dispatch health is you guys are tuned into that much more, I think, than the average person is. Yeah, and what we try to do is be present in the community. It’s great they were able to be invited into people’s homes to provide care, but we spend a lot of time and energy and effort really connecting with the communities were located and participating in events, especially it’s senior living communities, whether it’s a holiday bizarre or a healthfare. And really, and yes, there’s a part of spreading are spreading the message, but more so just making the connection sure residents, and being there. Sure, sure, absolutely. And I think the other thing too, is is that, you know, really per community. Sometimes there’s communities that have less resources, you know, and and sometimes you’d be surprised. Senior loneliness is not for seniors that are just poor. There’s a lot of seniors out there that it. You know, it knows no income class. Right, loneliness is what it is. And I of course, when I went to the seahawks to come to do the program you know, one of the things they said. Well, we just want to focus primarily on low income, you know, community centers, and I’m saying that’s fine, but you know, loneliness is it doesn’t matter. You know what income level you are. So to really pay attention to that piece and understand that what we do is it’s to include all seniors and I know you guys are going to be at several our of our events this year and excited. And so let’s talk about first of all, for our listeners, what is dispatched health to do, because you’ve been here before, but I really want to zero one in on, you know, a brief overview of what is your service? Sure. So we are a mobile acute on demand, if you will, healthcare service that travels out to the patients home. So anytime, and especially with their senior patients that might have some mobility or transportation issues, this is a great adjunct to their PCP where they can access us either by phone or online. Give us a call, we come out same day and we’re able to provide the care in the home, same kind of care you would get an urgent care, even in any are. So so we travel with a midlevel provider, so a PA or understructitioner, along with a tech, and we travel and we’re able to enter the home. We have a cleas certified lab, we have a pharmacy. We can do suit out is so that are you need some, we can, we can pretty we can pretty much do it and we build a we build a seniors insurance so they don’t have any added costs for them and they don’t have any added work. It’s really just a great service and you’d like Medicare advantage everything. This is awesome. Yep, so it’s certainly you have a great program and the fact that you work in conjunction with the primary care physician. That is so important and making sure that you know if a seniors sick with the flu or if they fall and hurt themselves or they need you know, they just have a bad cold or you know they there’s a million things that can happen. You know, maybe they have a bad cut on your your hand or whatever, getting to the emergency room. You know, to me, when I look back at it, when I took care of my mother, how many times did I have to take it half a day off of work to take her to the doctor. Oh Yeah, you know, because she didn’t feel good or she was not you know, not trackn or whatever, and it was like I had to drop everything. And this is the good news, is this. You have a service that can help families and really, you know, to come together to do things like this and to you know, so that you have obviously a great program together and so needed in this area. So you guys are going to be a part of our twelve days a goodness program. You are a gold sponsor, which means thank you so much. You are going to be sponsoring several of our public service announcements that are seahawks legend and huskies legend. Nesby Glasgow is running right now and and so that’s nice. And then the other thing that you know, we have events all over greater puget sounds. So you’ll be a lot of our events right and you know. So please come and meet the staff at dispatch health. I think one of the things that will be really great for you guys is to really understand, you know, the great service that you guys do and what we’re all about and you know just a little bit about you know, you guys tell me a little bit about what you’re what you’re most excited about with twelve days a goodness, really just connecting with the community. HMM, again, again, it’s an it’s a privilege to be invited into someone’s home. It’s a privilege for them to trust us to come in and provide care for them. But really the biggest, most heartwarming thing for us is really being considered part of the community and being able to support the community in in these events and really just supporting seniors. Yes, absolutely, and I think the thing is this is a so many people. I just got an email from another senior center today and she’s saying we just can’t wait, we just can’t wait for twelve days of goodness, and you know this can be for many people it’s the event of the year, quote unquote, and so having the ability to bring seniors together and to celebrate times, you know, is so amazing. You this will be your first year participating, but one of the things you’ll get be able to see is the connections that our legends have with the seniors that used to cheer from that for them in the stands, and that’s the really cool thing, because they’re going to ask you know, we’re going to remember certain plays that happened. They’re going to remember certain games and playoffs and all different types of you know situations. I was at Ballard Senior Center last year and one of the seniors stood up and said it was Steve Rabel and Paul scanzy were both there, and the thing that was so cool is there was a senior that stood up and he goes, I know that we went to the playoffs in Miami because of you, Pulf’s Kanzy, and he told how Dave Craig through a Hail Mary at the very last second and Paul caught it for a winning touchdown. And those are the things. When you talk about that and way they talk about the memories of the kingdom, those are the things. I think that is so cool that they have that kind of connection. So I love it. So. So, Carrie, how do we reach you? And you know I’m no that we’re really excited to work with you. Thank you. You can find us a dispatch healthcom. So if you go online dispatch healthcom, you can call us directly. The number for the Seattle market and it actually can get you in touch with all of our markets. Is Four to five five, five, three, zero, nine, three seven. And then for the technical, technologically savvy, we do have an APP for either iphone or or android. Also easiest way to connect with us as probably by phone. Well, I’m thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to have you as part of our events. Thank you so much again for your sponsorship and for supporting our seniors. I’m so glad you’re part of our part answers for elders radio show with Susan Newman. Hopes you found this podcast useful in your journey of navigating senior care. Check out more podcast like this to help you find qualified senior care experts and areas of financial, legal, health and wellness and living options. Learn about our radio show, receive our monthly newsletter, receive promotional discounts and meet our experts by clicking on the banner to join the Senior Advocate Network at answers for elders RADIOCOM. 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Originally published December 15, 2019