Relationship with Placement Advisor, Part 2

*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, and this is part two with Daphnee Davis of Pinnacle Senior Placement’s Daphnie, we have been talking in a previous segment a little bit about what families can expect if they call us placement advisor like Pinnacle, and I think it’s really important that we kind of expand on the initial things that we talked about. So what more can you share about this topic? Well, I’d like to talk a little bit about taking away the mystery if you do call me, yes, and not to be afraid of the other side of that phone call. What’s going to happen? My Personal Style and our company style is to just be an information post for our families. That’s where we start. We are an educator. I do want to throw in that there is no charge at all and any stretch of the imagination, to our families for our service. That’s awesome and that includes the adult children. Yes, yes, there’s no I am I am paid like a real lettort and so I work with every community of care in the state of Washington and I’m going to be totally transparent. Whether I have a contract with them or not, I work with them because it’s in important for us to do the right thing for our families every single time. So I won’t be Labor that, but I do want you to know that that’s a cornerstone of how we do our business and you know it. That’s unique to a lot of companies out there that do a similar service to you is they won’t work with the community because they don’t have a contract, and that’s, to me, morally wrong. It’s important that we do the right thing for a families and I think that’s really where you stand out. There should be no limitation in giving me a call, absolutely none. My motivation is to take away some of the stress of making very big decisions for our loved ones and doing it in a way that will uphold the quality of life for our loved ones as well as keeping them safe. My number one goal as an individual and as a company is that the families that I help their loved one doesn’t have to move again. That’s my number one value. I’m very front with that. So important, but that also, had I known better, in six years of taking care of my mother, I had to move for four times today. That’s just not right. One move was within the same community because we had to downsize from a one bedroom to a studio whence she went on Medicae. It happens and that’s a part of the logistics of our systems. But what’s more important is that you have enough information as a family member for you, as a family, to make the decisions. That says. Is it more invaluable for us to have mom in a situation that she can feel a little more independent, but knowing that she has a disease process that’s going to potentially exactly move in a direction that she won’t get the care that she needs in this building? Or do we want to get to the care community that can provide the care for her down the road and still uphold her quality of life today? That’s the family’s decision. That is not my decision, but you can’t make that decision unless you have information well, and I think the other thing is is to understand, you know, based on every senior, what kind of assets do they have? And and you know the cost of care, long term care, is very expensive and we may think that long term care is going to pay for retirement living or at the full cost of assisted living. It doesn’t. It only pays for a percentage of the care side. So you still have to come up with the rent and with all of those other things. So when you look at a long term picture of I think somebody said the average stay in retirement living is three years. I think I’ve heard that two and a half years. Yeah, so you figure that, let’s say it’s five thousand a month. I’m just throwing it up there. That’s that’s a low end of what you’re going to pay. That’s a lot of money. Yeah, and does somebody have that kind of assets? And so security is not going to cover it. So when you look at that, what is the best solution for your loved one? And those are decisions that I think the average family doesn’t really understand the whole process. And what does you know what things are covered? So you bring up a whole nother subject would be another segment. All right, so, but but it’s part of the expectation. Is Family. It is. So I first of all I want everyone to relax a little bit. If you’re hearing these numbers and feeling like Oh my gosh, we are going to be in a world of hurt. You are not. This is where an advisor can help you right in figuring out and this is what pinnacle does. We want to be fiscally responsible with your family’s estate and I will add on to their having the biggest bang for your bottom huh. Get the most care that you can in your unique situation. Not Everybody. The CARE is not always the most important piece. It could be other things that are more important. Activities, excursions, travel with their friends, bridge parties, peanut parts, all of that. I mean it could be that, but that’s a part of what the advisor has to discover. But in the financial world, in twenty years of me helping families, no one. No one lives under the viaduct right now. One right. So don’t panic. First of all that don’t panic, and I think that’s important for you to say because a lot of people are terrified. Yeah, I just saw a post yesterday where they just took so much, many trillions of dollars out of Medicare and Medicaid to provide tax incentives to the top. Well, you’re bringing up another hole. But let’s get back to then, about financing. So, as an advisor, what you can expect is is that we will help you know what your options are, what are the resources that your family members can tap into, and we can talk about that all day long. But that’s another piece of the logistics that in a good advisor for you should have enough information and have the motivation to be able to maximize the estate of your exactly exactly. That sometimes means that the family has to make hard decisions, but again it’s the family who needs information to make those decisions. What I find most often in people not making a phone call to a company like pinnacle is that they make buying mistakes and they say to me all the time, where were you a year ago, six months ago, three months ago? We could have avoided the last three months of chaos if someone would have just explained to me how this is really going to mat now. I’m not taking away anything from any care community right, but what I will say is when you work with a good advisor, that advisor should be objective to all communities, absolutely not have their favorites in terms of just personal thing right, but know the communities well enough so that they can advise the family, give information of what communities are going to meet the family’s highest values. That’s the piece that gets missed all right the time. So we are talking to Daphne Davis, who is a CEO and founder of pinnacles senior placements, and you guys serve most of western Washington. Tell us about your team and what you do. Well, we have an other people that do exactly what I do. Were called Advisors, and we have people that are doing that. We have office people you would talk to, you know, that might answer the phone call when you call. But but most importantly is that you get to see the whites of our eyes. You will always see us. I want to talk a little bit about and maybe not in the segment but in the future. Just what is a first meeting like? Yeah, what does that sound like? Why am I so afraid of that phone call? Let me take the mystery away. There is no pressure. In past segments says, and you’ve talked about how you were inundated with communities calling you, that you let your name go out on the Internet and all of a sudden you’ve got all these phones called. That is not all happens, and all those things. That’s not going to happen with pinnacle. We are depending upon your desire. We can be that buffer so that we get those phone calls, we get the follow up and that you don’t have to deal with that. You deal with your loved one. You be the daughter, the son, you be the niece with the nephew. Yeah, you, they’d be there to just let mom or dad talk or, you know, just say I’m here to support you and let’s let’s just you know, I’m going to go on this journey with you and you’re going to make the decision. You know, sometimes I get told of by families. Are you for real? Is this true? How can this possibly be? And I’m like you know what, I I get to earn your trust. I know it sounds too good to be true for those who have walked through a very bumpy journey, but we are here to serve you. We are here to help you walk through a very emotional time and a time that can be confusing, because we’re also in flux. There are things that are changing all the time. You brought out, you know, changes in Medicare and Medicaid. That is it’s huge in terms of how our elders are cared for. There are changes in hospitals, there are changes in what you can buy and not buy through your medicare insurance or receive. I should say an advisor should help you with those things absolutely, and advisor should come into your home, into the hospital room, into the nursing home room, and sit down and listen to you hear what is going on. I will say also an advisor should be in in tandem with your social workers. If you are in our medical system, if you’re in the hospital, if you’re in a nursing home or rehab some dealing with the discharge planner or a social work get correct. Those are those are people that US at pinnacle work in tandem together. That’s good and so we’re all on the same page together. Sometimes it’s a little bit easier for me to reach to the discharge planners, just for logistical reasons, right, but we’re all here to serve you together. The difference is is that usually, not all the time, but usually I have a little bit more time myself for my advisors. Have a little bit more time to listen to the nuances to make sure we don’t miss anything and what is the next step for your real loved ones? All right, continue what you find is probably the most common thing that families miss in terms of looking for places. I think they really miss the boat in terms of how does the care continue, and well it can this community of care continue the care that my mom may potential need? Because, you that’s the number one thing now. You have this need. Right now, you’re in chaos. You need to all these things, and then you turn around. It’s okay, they can take her and I can get this off my plate. That’s right. Don’t think about what’s going to happen a year from now. That’s right. That’s probably the biggest thing. The second thing that happens is that in this is so natural. So don’t feel beat up again. You guys are doing great jobs, but when you’re so close to the situation, it’s very hard to be objective. And so when you see your mom and let’s you know this is a pretty dramatic example, but your mom or dad has had a stroke and there’s hope that in that first six months or first year that things are going to get better and we’re always hoping to get back to the baseline. They’ve had a mild struggle. That baseline will never come back. No, it’ll be looking like that a little bit, but that’s where families hang on to the hope, which is I have. So I did hope exactly the same thing and a paper. Took two friends of mine to sit me down because I didn’t have a daphne and said, Suzanne, it’s not going to get any better. Right, and so we have to stay in the reality. Yeah, that is another hiccup that people have sometimes, is staying in the reality. The other one is we can have hope for our families that our family members don’t really want. Dafne, I’m so glad you were on the show today. How do we reach it? We reach me an eight hundred and fifty five, seven, thirty four, one, fifteen hundred or pinnacle senior Placementscom. The preceding podcast was provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. To contact pinnacles senior placements, go to pinnacles senior PLACEMENTSCOM.