In-home Support For Aging in Place, 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.

The following podcast is provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. And Welcome back to answers for elders radio everyone, and we are here with Wonderful Daphne Davis from pinnacles senior placements and we’re here in the middle of aging in place in the month of April, and you kind of work with families often times when they are aging in place. Absolutely that’s kind of when you come on to the picture. Yes, so fill me in a little bit about what goes on, Daphne. Well, with pinnacles senior placements we start real earlier. We like to start real early in the process of gathering information and so many families are living in their own home and it’s how do we support our mom and dad in their home? What right things can I help them to be successful in their homes? And a couple of things that I want to highlight for you today is, first of all, whatever county you’re in, to contact the county, and it’s usually aging in disabilities or right department of Health and social services perhaps, but contact them because they’re going to have suggestions in terms of community services through the county that are going to be free to you. That’s awesome, a wealth of information and they’re they’re just waiting to help you. And this isn’t tied to Medicare aid or nothing like that. It’s you, your tax dollars at work and this is one of the services for you. To give me an example of what kind of resources. Well, they do. If they could have things about, you know, handouts and information about how to make your home safe in terms of if you’re going to put in a ramp, and they might have information about what degree of an angle is supposed to be happening. or it might be what’s the best way to install grab bars in the bathrooms and so that you don’t necessarily have to go through a contractor if it’s not your skill, but it’s a way for you to make sure that you’re doing it correctly and they’re anchored solidly and and all of those things. So that’s one example. It might be something in terms of in this is a little bit different in terms of qualifying, but it might be some support nutritionally, yeah, you know, not just meals on wheels that were all familiar with. But it might be how do I have a diet, and this can come from your doctor’s off it’s also but how can I have a diet that’s high in potassium? You know, we need write potassium or or give me this one. I’m low and sodium. Could I please have my potato chips? You know why? Ways of getting sodium? Well, there’s a lot of resources to on the Internet that you can go to that I’m sure they’re going to point to. And I know, and I know that you know, there’s so many different grocery stores and things like that that have meal delivery. You know that grocery delivery services that and also some of them have like specific rates for seniors. Yes, and I think that that is something definitely we shouldn’t overlook. For so as we’re coming off of, you know, supporting family caregivers and now we’re moving into mom and dad are aging in place in their home, part of that support is taking care of yourself too. So you bring up a really good point, Suzanne, about how can we streamline the services that they do need and tapping into delivered groceries or something like that. Other things are how do you keep them stimulated right? You know that could be having a monthly trip that you make as an outing that you go to a library service, if that’s their interest, that they go to a library. You can have large print magazines that you can get. Depending upon your situation, you could have those things delivered. HMM. So that’s that’s one way of doing it. It might be that the senior centers have things going on. You would be surprised how much is going on and senior lots, if you’re seeing have not gone to one in the last six months or a year, go check it out and their look at their activity calendar. Amazing and on top of that, every single thing like you can go have lunch for four dollars, three dollars, and there’s a wonderful resource as far as having the ability to have socialization, which is so important for a loved one not to get isolated. Absolutely, I mean I was just at a senior center this morning and their big focus is different forms of exercise. Love it, balance exercises, Chi t line dancing. I mean, go there, that’s your community, meet some of your neighbors. Absolutely absolutely, Chaut in a different way, and this is not for just the old people. Know, it is the vibrant people who are aging in place and hanging onto their dignity, hanging on to their their pride. But they’re going to do it with activity. They’re not going to shrink away and let their world get smaller. And you know, and you know your you bring up such a valid point because I think a lot of seniors, as they start to feel more vulnerable, you know, in their health and maybe they’ve got some mobility issues, they don’t feel as vital as they used to feel. It’s a real tendency to want to pull in. Yes, and you know, being at home and being isolated is not, is not a good thing. If, if living at home, as long as you have that outlet of you know, things to do, in a sense of purpose, is what’s going to keep your loved one vital and you keep you vital as a senior. That’s right. You know, the worst thing you can do is let mom or dad just a home and watch tv all day, because that’s not a good scenario. That’s is. That isn’t and you know I want to. It’s going to take some energy on your part as the family caregiver or support person or the neighbor or whatever. Go with them. Go you do that. I work to start with and find out, oh, on this day they’re having so and so band coming in and Dad really likes barbershop music or whatever it is. So we’re going to go in and I’m going to have lunch with them and you be the Kunduit that helps them build relationships. Yes, I don’t know what happens, but there is a certain time in our life where we do pull in, we did, and and we don’t extend ourselves, even if we were the most extroverted person. Something just happens, and so we need as seniors, we need to have someone help us build those rights. She that bridge, like you said. I love that and I think the other thing that you know, you that you really bring up with things like that is, you know, for my mom, my mom came from Swedish heritage. So I reached out immediately to the Swedish cultural slater center and there’s all kinds of activities there that we picked and choose, but sometimes my mom had say, oh no, I don’t want to go. Well, I just said kissing mom. I got a surprise. Guess where we’re going today? Yes, and then I took her to the Swedish Culture Center, Swedish Club. We and we had Swedish meat balls on a day. You know, it was so simple and she loved it. You know what Susanna, in our own lives we get into a day’s or Yatterns of life that we say, Oh, too much work to get going. I like that of being proactive and just mom, just humor me. Dad. Come on, let’s go for a little reg surprise. We’re gonna go do something fun today, and that’s something I think that we can all. You know, if if families, I always think if if one member of a family would take one week a month so you’d have some activity one day a week that you could do with a loved one and you just pick it. That’s it. There’s it’s just you know, maybe you share gardening with your mother when you were young, so maybe you’d take a trip to mole back’s or you go to, you know, lows or sky nursery or something like that and just if, even if you have to take a wheelchair and just go smell the flowers. May Be readoms are coming up, yes, spring is come, yes, yes, or you do you know, maybe there’s a play that you used to go to, maybe there’s you could go to the APP theater or you know, something like that, where where it would be something that would be fun, or maybe there’s a church activity that you have in your community. But to find something that you have in common with that loved one and to share it once a month. Yep, and even if it’s a go out to lunch, it’s something that takes them out. That’s exactly and you know, to have a family if you, as a family, could come together and say, I’ll take week two, you know, you take Mary, you take week three, and then you’re not overwhelmed. You only have one day a month that you do something one on one with that loved one and they have something that they can look forward it’s exactly right. And it is nice to get out of the house, but let’s say that’s that’s a hardship to get out of the house. If it is, you know, maybe it’s something that you come in and there’s a box of photos that you haven’t gone through for years and years and years. M I, even if it’s not important to you to know about your family history, there may be a day that you’ll go I wish I would have asked Mama Dad about that. Big Time. I wish I would have, and so it doesn’t have to be overwhelming and side side little chapter there is, you might actually get some downsizing them at the same time. Yes, you might, yes you might. So we are talking to Daphne Davis from pinnacles senior placements and Daphne, tell me a little bit about what pinnacle does and where you serve. Well, we help families navigate information concerning aging in place and then also having to find long term care outside your home or in your home, and so our services are completely free to you, the family, and we function as an information post. We serve people from Olympia to Arlington to Port Angels and the Kitsupp County, the counties here right here, King Pearsons, the homeishum. But what we do is really function as an information post to help you navigate in areas that you may have enough information to know that you don’t know what you’re doing. So we’re going to help you rite to have information that’s pertinent to your life story with your family and really, you know that can come down to if somebody needs home care, Ye, like maybe you just need somebody come in and help mom get started in the day, or maybe you do a shopping trip once a week or whatever, that you can help set those resources together and then move forward in other ways is as the needs progressed. That’s right. So, with my twenty years of experience of working in the Pacific northwest here, I know a lot of people. I’ve been able to vet a lot of services that and I know you the listeners don’t know me from Adam other than just here on answers for elders. But but I’d really encourage you to give us a call and just see how can we help you in your situation and I think that that you know, your services are absolutely free to families and that’s something that I really want to emphasize. So there’s no downside to picking the phone and giving Daphne a call and and really just talking about you know, when they call you it’s like mom or dad are doing fine for the most part at home. They’re aging a place, they’re doing well. But you know, I’m a little concerned because mom had a little bit of a fall all the other day. Or maybe there might be you know, they’re stuff in the refrigerator. This going bad. I’m noticing little signs. And am I crazy? Sometimes you’re questioning yourself. I mean, is that true? Absolutely, and those are signs when, when you aren’t a professional or industry and you are so close to your mom and dad and you see them x amount of times a month, you may miss those little things. But if there’s something that spurs you to even think about that’s a tile make a call. That is that it’s a time, very good time, so definitely to make that call. How did we reach you? Call me at eight hundred and fifty five, seven thirty four, one, one five hundred, or you can go and search out our website, which is Pinnacle Senior Placementscom and, just as an added a little plug there you can catch all of our podcasts that we do here on the radio are there. So if you’ve missed a week, there, there, go, go find what topic you want to learn about. Well it. It’s really good because you can certainly learn a lot from all the things that you share. So thank you again. Definitely it’s so great to have you on the you’re so welcome. The preceding podcast was provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. To contact pinnacles senior placements, go to Pinnacle Senior Placementscom