Holidays and Safety, with Kelley Smith

*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 to answers for elders radio and we are here with Care Partners Kelly Smith and Kelly, we’re so glad you’re back with all the things that have been happening over the last year and you kind of had to take a little bit of break for a while, but we’re so glad to have you back. And one of the things I think that’s really important is we’re heading into the holiday season and a lot of our loved ones, our seniors and a lot of our how are we going to be safe in the independent stage? There’s a lot of families right now that have seniors at home or that are independent, we living, and we might, you know, be around them and start to see some signs of you know, maybe now maybe a time to make a change or you’ve been thinking about making a change and there’s going to be some small group interaction and before we even get into you know what care partners offers to our loved ones, I would love to have you touched on how do we keep our loved ones is safe as possible during this time? I mean besides wearing masks. There’s other things we can do, isn’t there? The of course there is. You know, there’s lots of things we can do. But I’ve been too. It’s also understanding that necessarily keeping not necessarily keeping them home, is always the safest it’s not always the safest thing. I think you mean to look at them as weld is that always this the safest thing? And I don’t know the answer to you know your loved one better than I do. But is moving them home, isolated if you’re in a place? It’s also taking those those covid precautions. Is it really? You know, are you really doing your research or you just look kind of living out of fear? And you want to take a look at that as well well. And I think one of the things that that I know I have a dear friend that’s in her S. I talk to her all the time and I call her frequently because I you know, I love her dearly and you know I think about no and I always ask you, how are you doing? And you know her answer often times and board well, that concerns me. It concerns me a great deal that, you know, there’s only so much netflix that can watch. There’re so only so much TV they can watch. You know, they get to a point where looking at the same four walls is not good for their mental health and they may have some mobility issues, they may have some concerns. Maybe they could drive. They can still drive. But that’s the beauty every time that living, isn’t it? It’s having the ability to adapt to where they are and it’s certainly I think a lot of people don’t think about. Well, if I put my mom in assist a living, they she does you know, she’s not to that point yet. Well, that’s the beauty. Assistant living is different, based on every single senior and what their needs are, and certainly thought of something. But I think to start let’s talk a little bit about if you’re going to be around your loved one over the holiday season, with it, with the pandemic in place, besides wearing a mask, what are some things that you can do to keep your loved one, you know, while you’re evaluating them, besides wearing a mask, you know, still in a little bit of the blanks of how can we still see our loved one while they’re still there and do what we can to keep them safe. Okay, like, like, like, where are you going with this? Give me an idea, like not talking about I guess. Okay, my question is is that, let’s say mom is still living at home by yourself. Right, obviously you may go and bring groceries to mom and maybe drop them off at the porch or maybe hand them to her, but she’s probably still at home and you want to keep them safe. But there’s some things that you could do right now, today, and you if you’re going to see her over the holidays. I mean, the first thing that I think about is, you know, making sure that there’s plenty of food, there’s plenty of things that she can have. But I think there’s other opportunities. They’re like, you know, coming for a visit and maybe being out on the patio or, you know coming, you know, wearing a mask or making sure that you’re disinfecting the area or things like that, where you’re at one and again. One, can’t you wear gloves? Because your plastic gloves? Yeah, because you’re taking mom the things. And when? Why can’t you? Just because you are a symptomatic doesn’t mean that you are not a carrier. Right and again, I was talking to a dear friend, dear friend last night whose parents are older, quite a bit older, and they live in Arizona, and she had some cousins is going to be driving through and well, can we just stop buy and see your parents? And she’s like no, no, you can’t lie through and see my parents and she was actually offended. And the reason she was offended wasn’t because her cousin’s wanted to come see her mom and dad. It’s because they’ve been traveling and her first thought was great, please go see my mom and dad, because I don’t know where you’ve been and you want to stop in just get a quick hug and keep driving. Well, good for you, and I’m your help me. But what about the compromised immune systems of my aging parents? And all she thought was with when you guys keep driving and guess who gets to go see them or not get to see them on a ventilator? If you wind up getting sick, you don’t know the repercussion. So that being said, I think the main thing is if they are your parents and you’re going to have a holiday with them or you want to go and see them, remember just because you feel good doesn’t mean you’re not a carrier. You still need to maintain you still need to maintain your distance, you still need to wear your face mask. There’s nothing wrong with gloves. There’s nothing wrong with keeping that distance through a screen taking them. You know, why can’t you take them? Fun Things? Not Everything’s got to be so stink and serious. You know, right, still have a distance with people and still make it enjoyable. It doesn’t happen to meeting. You know, I think the other thing that’s happened with this covid thing, this you’re see saying, is that people have gotten so serious. Don’t you think they have? We’ve got so serious there’s no fun anymore. When’s the last time you set six feet on the porch with your mom and just said, you know what, mom, there’s some alcohol in that drink. You know, yeah, where, why are as everything so was? I realized we’re scared and we don’t want to make our loved one sick on purpose. But, you know, are we doing things that are actually adding some joy? Have you gotten you know, why can’t we do six feet apart in the backyard and throw that throw that movie up on the UP, on the up on the back wall? You know, what are we are we getting some blankets and and and just not on that fools and are we writing letters again? Well, what are we get there for the holidays is make sure that you’re quarantining. You know yourself. So if you’re going to be around somebody, make sure that you’ve you know, if you can as much as possible, be mindful about what you do. It’s like for me, I’m in my mid S, so I have to be careful and certainly I’m lucky I don’t have any real underlying health issues, but I still am careful. But I do not go in to grocery stores. I have I do my groceries online and I go to the parking lot and they put him in my back hatch and I have no contact. I make sure that I order things online on Amazon. I don’t walk into stores, I don’t go into malls, I don’t go into things like that that could be jeopardizing not only me but the people that I’m around, and I am mindful of my surroundings and what I’m doing. If I see my neighbor, I still could talk to them, I can still say hello, but I can keep my social distance. Do it outside side or you know, make sure that I have, you know, I’m under my porch or whatever, I can shout across the you know, the yard, things like that. But that’s being, you know, shindful, and I think some of us we just need to plan a little bit better. We need to be more cautious of, you know, how are we doing the things that are most important? And there’s the good news is we have all different types of resources. I think the other thing. Great way is set, you know, schedule a zoom call with your family. One of the things that I was really excited but when we were doing the Thanksgiving time, so many families scheduled their dinners to do zoom while they’re having Thanksgiving dinner, and I thought that was so cool that people set up their laptop on their table, you know, tape a table for two or whatever, and then they had mom or whatever, they brought over a laptop and they got her set up on a on a zoom call so that she could be a part. But she doesn’t, you know, she had a plate of food from the family and things like that, and that’s exciting. That’s ways in which you can come together in an easy way. But again, why, why are people just waiting for holiday time. Why can’t you have amen? Why can’t you have deliver dinner delivered to grandma or mom right now and and and say, you know, a grandma at seven o’clock or dinner was just delivered to your house? And then with that there’s a code and hey, then it’s your grandma and plug in this code and I’m going to be eating my dinner and I’m waiting for you right now and let’s do a zoom dinner. That I know, but I’m just saying we don’t. I don’t think we do a knot of you know, it’s hard. It’s hard. I get it’s hard. It’s really hard right now because, let’s be honest, you know the person that I missed the most. If you think I wouldn’t give anything right now to jump on their head and hug their neck, you know, of course you want to, but you can’t. So we’ve got to think of other things to do. And that heat. So why can’t we just send grandma some really great, great and it doesn’t have to be elaborrint have to spend a hundred bucks on door to have dinner. You can also, you know, seven a little send over, a hot dog and a doughnut. It doesn’t have to be elaborate, right and I think the other thing is is just think about what brings joy to your loved one and you know, things like you know what is a hobby that they tend to do? What is you know? I certainly know that there’s ways in which you can all come together and just being unique and get creative with families, but keep your social distance and you know, care partners, I know you guys are always there to answer questions. If you’re going to be visiting or seeing your loved one. What are some signs, and I kind of want to talk about in the next segment a little bit about now, if you’re having it, you know thinking about your loved one and it’s it’s time to make a change. You know what are the processes right now, especially with the new vaccine coming out, and how can you help families make that transition easier for your loved one? So for everyone now, Kelly, how do we reach you? Well, first of all, the best way to reach us so be to check us out online. Just go to care partners livingcom, because then you can see pictures, you can read honest testimonials and then you can also be one. To the admissions page. Check out my beautiful salespeople. I’m so proud of those guys. But you can also see kind of what we’re about. Check out check out the picture, but they’re putons. LIVINGCOM is probably the best way to see who we really are. Care Partners Living. That’s the best way to check us out. That’s perfect and everyone. Kelly will be right back right on to this. The preceding podcast was provided by care partners living and answers for elders radio. To contact care partners living, go to care partners livingcom