Life Balance with Ken Farmer

*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.

This is a special presentation of Answers for Elders with Careage. Welcome back to Answers for Elders radio. We are here with Ken Farmer, the CEO of Careage. Can Welcome to the program thank you. I’m glad to be here. We’re glad you’re here because you’re going to talk about what it is to balance health, wellness, etc. What do you mean by that? Well, Susan, I have given a talk in various versions for years to a variety of groups, based upon a scriptural verse out of Mark, Chapter Twelve, verse thirty, where Lord Says You shall love the Lord Your God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength. And I asked the question why did you use those four words? So heart, representing the emotional aspect of us, with all your mind, the mental aspect of a human being, with all your soul, the spiritual dimension, and with all your strength, the physical dimension. So I like think. I thought that those four words were deliberately chosen because they represent for aspects of who we are as human beings, and most of us end up ignoring one or more of those aspects of our lives at various times and you know, every once in a while you need to kind of take stock and say, am I ignoring one or more of those aspects too much? It’s never going to be, you know, exactly balanced. Twenty five percent of our time in each of those know that’s you know, as we’re going through our career, much of our time is in that mental dimension of life, you know, working hard, but if you’re totally ignoring the emotional, the spiritual, the physical dimension, you become a wreck. And the older we become, I believe, the more important it is to have some of that balance in our lives to be fully well and whole. And boy, you know, you so hit the nail on the head. For so many of us out there. I can relate to that piece, especially for those that are taking care of senior loved ones. You know, so many people they they give up their lives because they’re, you know, trying to juggle a job, they’re trying to juggle their family, their immediate family, and, by the way, they’re spending twenty to forty hours a week in the care of a senior loved one. And part of that balance they they don’t they kind of forget themselves in the process. They lose their social life, they lose as themselves, and that’s not healthy not only for the individual, but it’s not healthy for that fan. It affects the entire family member and it also, I believe, affects the loved one that you’re caring for, because you’re not coming from it from a balanced place yourself. Is that? Is that true? Absolutely, I I am a am a runner and I tell a story. One time I was commanding hospital at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and I came into the office one day and my secretary, we called them that then, now executive ad met as system right, said to me, Colonel Farmer, do I need to schedule you for a run? And I said well, Janelle, that would be great, and I walked into my office and I realized she didn’t just ask me a question, she was just telling me something. I walked back out there and I said, Janelle, were you trying to tell me that the rest of you need for me to get my run, and she started laugh and she said you nailed it’s time. And so it’s it’s part of that talents and it’s the the therapy aspect of doing other things. For me it’s getting my run. For some people it might be curling up and reading a good book or and you bring up a good point. It’s great when people who are in your life, whether it’s an executive assistant, whether it’s a spouse, whether it’s a coworker, to give of people that permission to say you know what I think you you’re a little out of balance here, and it’s okay. Do not feel like you’re, you know, like you’re going to be offended by doing so, but please remind me. I know that I am always amazed by sometimes my husband will say something to me about you know, well, don’t you think such and such, and you know, and I respect that some night, I mean and I listen to that, you know, not being threatened by others giving good, constructive feedback exactly. It’s hard, but it’s very important. I know sometimes our earth, but it’s true, and it’s true to also help you get some perspective about your life and understanding. And so as far A as our seniors go, and it’s kind of sometimes more difficult for them to see where they’re off balance and also sometimes hard for us, as non professionals, you know a family members and but you guys, that’s one of the advantages, I think, of being in a community like either Patriots Glen or Patriots Landing or even Mission Healthcare in a rehabilitative state. Tell me a little bit about how that makes a difference in well, yeah, I think you’re exactly right, Suzanne, and it is so easy for person who is maybe now letting alone and and less mobile and they’ve lost many of their friends and it’s easy to become isolated, very easy, and it’s dangerous to become isolated very day. And one of the wonderful things about a senior living community, whether you’re still independent living or whether you’re assisted living or even more skill nursing or memory care, but you become surrounded by a new social group and we offer true and we offer a variety of things that promote that social interaction so that you don’t you aren’t alone anymore and you can’t be alone. You’re taking meals with friends. Yeah, you’ve got a life, Richmond director, that skied activities planned and you’re not going to do to all those activities, but you’re going to do some. And but you know what’s so great about that mom or dad might not feel like doing it, but when they get down there it’s like it changes their legs. That’s like, you know, I know so many times they’d say, come on, Dad, let’s go do this or mom, let’s go do that, and of course we’re just the kid, you know, where the daughter. They’re not going to listen to us. But if somebody else comes up there, like they’re, you know, their nurse or they’re their caregiver, professional caregiver, and come and say, okay, this is the day we go do x, Y Z, they will begrudgingly go because they’re professional, and that’s the beauty of having that kind of environment and that’s one of the reasons that I advise people. Don’t wait until you have to go and to a senior living community. Go before you have to. What I talk about very similar is like it’s your choice while you still have all your faculties. That’s right. You have a choice on where you go, what you do, where you where you live, all of these things. Okay, you don’t have a choice when it’s to wait. Right. So that’s the difference. It’s all about really having the opportunity have having healthy choices for your life and make sure that that’s true. And back to the way we started this interview with the physical, the mental, the emotional and the spiritual dimensions. You know, we offer things that relate to all of those dimensions of our lives. You know, the we’ve talked a little bit about the physical activities and right life enrichment kind of things, but there’s a library and there’s there’s other things that that sort of energize that that mental dimension. Right there are the new friends that are important to that social and emotional dimension. Or, as we’re approaching veterans day, we will have a special memorial kind of service that is important to that emotional dimension and we have, you know, church services for and other things for that spiritual dimension. It’s it’s meeting people’s needs right in a community and it’s, like we always say, finding balance and sometimes it it’s so it’s like you sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees when you’re in it with your family. That’s right, but to have somebody come in like from carriage, from you know, from Patriots landing, to sit down with a care coordinator that can talk about, you know, what are the things you enjoy? You might have enjoyed dance lessons and you know, years ago, and that might be something that you might want to do there, and or maybe your musician. You know, there’s different opportunities, for sure. Absolutely. Yeah. So can how do we reach you? Well, I would say today’s most em and answer to that is go to the website PatriotsLanding.com Patriots, clean mission healthcare or carriage homehealth all are prominent on the websites. We also are in the process of really re energizing our Facebook and other social media. That’s a presence and in those communities and so we look forward to people contacting US and coming and taking a tour. Well, and I and the very last bit about this. This is the month of December and obviously we want to make sure that everyone knows just how important carriage has been for the twelve days of goodness for us. Carriage is really our media sponsor and they are stepping out to really give a message out to not leave your senior loved one behind on this holiday season and to really kind of help highlight, you know, senior loneliness, and I just want to give you a very special thank you for doing that for us and being such an integral part of the twelve days of goodness this year. Well. Thank you, Suzanne and it’s it’s already become an extraordinarily wonderful relationship and partnership of carriage with answers for elders, with a silent media group and now with the twelve days of goodness and our Seahawks alumni. It’s exciting. We’re glad to be a part of it. Thanks so much, can for being on the program thank you. This has been a special presentation of Answers for Elders with Careage. For more information for carriage, go to CareAge.com. That’s Careage.com.