Senior Living Virtual Tours During COVID, 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 everyone to answers for elders radio. And we are here again with Daphne Davis and we’re talking about this time of covid nineteen. How do we deal with all the tension and the straws and the overwhelm now and we’re here with our wonderful Daphne Davis and Daffy, you’ve given us a really wonderful foundation of where families are out and just kind of what goes through the mindset of is this the right thing to do to provide care, you know, higher level care at this time, and I want to kind of move into for families right now. How do we do that and how can we best support our loved one in making that process so? Daffy, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Well, you’re welcoming. You know, this is my passion of twenty years working in the senior care industry and Housing and having kinnacles for the last six years and having our team of people be able to help our families is really an honor and a gift and I appreciate everyone who calls and asks us for information that I am discovering right now to all of our listeners, as if people are being real proactive. And so it’s not something that’s going to happen right now in terms of making a change in potential care or even housing, but it’s something that they’re gathering information and each story is different, and so what I help families with is knowing how do we put together the pubble pieces of their unique story and come up with some solutions or ideas for moving forward, and everyone’s is different. There are many, many families that I say, I think you can wait, let’s just wait righte and in our time now see where the virus goes. And because you’re you’re not in a critical situation, hang on to my number. Can I call you in two months, very gentle and then other people I say, Oh my goodness, thank you for calling. Let’s let’s see if we can get a plan together, you know, in the next two or three weeks. Are you are with that? And so we actually, you know, walk through whatever their story is and guide people through this whole process. So the big things right now are, how do people even know what’s what’s available in housing. How do we get to see them? Nobody can go into a communities. How does this happen? How does my mom and dad get to know the feel of the building? And so right, have gotten creative, and I will tell you much to everyone in my life laughter. If anybody knows me, they know I am not a technology grou but I do know to do a lot of new things. Yes, you do to zoom. I know how to teach people how to do it. I know how to do state. I mean, I have learned so much and I love, Love, Love Teaching Sixty, seventy, eighty year old how to do the same thing. And so we make mistakes along the line or it takes extra time to get online, but we all do it together and we all have grace for each other. So don’t be afraid of the technology. Don’t be afraid of going and on Youtube and seeing a video that someone’s put together of a community. They’ll walk you through. I don’t have a youtube account, you don’t need going here. This is how we do it. Any question that you have about technology, don’t let that stop you. We are all here to help everyone be able to have information access. I will say also, there have been three times now since the middle of March that I have met with an elder couples is what it’s been consistently, because they don’t have computers or they don’t have children in the area or, you know, power of attorney that can support them. And so I get my Ppe on and I go to someone’s home and we actually look on my computer, on my laptop at things. So again, don’t let technology stop you. We can do out how to make things happen. When you’re saying that, we’re seeing a lot of retirement communities say they offer virtual tours and I know you talked a little bit about that in a previous segment, but I’m interested. I think it would be important because it is kind of getting I’m even seeing it now on reader boards outside, virtual tours or things like that. How what I know that they kind of take you through the building, but what does that really mean overall? Can a family do the actual property? No, they’re not going to be physically on the property. So you are going to be on some kind of video platforms and the most common one is zoom right now, and so somebody will actually sometimes it’s a prerecorded video for the common areas building that are in the marketing department will send that to you and then another thing that can happen is they can use their phone in live time and take you to the apartment that’s available. They can walk, I’m you know, the dining room and show you, you know, this is where some day we’re going to have our dining room up and again, but right now we’re doing distance activities. Communities are but they actually turn their their camera around on their phone and you’re walking with them in the building. You are in live Gr’d there because you’re on your your computer or phone yourself and walking, or virtually. So that’s what a virtual tour means. I will say, as of this week and as of yesterday, can change tomorrow, that there are buildings that say we will walk you in one person, one person, will walk you into the building directly to the apartment that you’ve chosen and let you see that. So and, of course, with PPE and all of that kind of stuff, that there are some communities that are doing that. Not everyone, but some communities are starting to say, okay, we’re going to figure out how to do this, because it’s a big decision. You know, where am I going? To worry right of moving forward. So don’t feel like, Oh, I’m going to have, you know, side on the scene by something. Well, don’t. Don’t assume that a hundred percent. So that’s sort of virtual word on. The other thing that’s happening is, as we’ve talked in the past, certainly not in this segment in the past, there’s assessments and there’s information that needs to be, you know, shared. Someone like me knows exactly how to have that all happen, either virtually or in person or via the things that canning and emailing or, dare I say, even facts. I mean, we can make things happen. So don’t let me stop you just because it’s a hard ship or don’t you don’t know exactly how that’s going to come together. So we do that as well. We touched on this just briefly, but I want to kind of accentuate it. Now more than ever, I think it’s important to pay attention to the estate of a family and to make sure that you are maximizing the buying power of someone’s estate. Many times people want to do kind of a stepping stone, kind of you know on at my house. Now I’m going to go to independent living, that I’m going to go to assist a living. Now I’m in an adult fambling home. I think it is probably more critical than ever to really look at and talk about as a family, what is the best buying power of those dollars? Fact you’re in in quality of life, highest values, personal desires. I’m not saying you eliminate those, because it’s not just about money, but money needs to be a part of how you’re going to finance care and with our isolation, that I’m finding is a higher level of cares needed sooner. Even though mom and dad are still in their home, they need a higher level of care in those first steps sometimes have to be skipped, and this isn’t anything of anyone’s fault. It’s primarily simplistically said because we’re isolated, we’re not social life right, we’re in our own thoughts, we’re not eating properly, we don’t get up and get some more water. Nobody’s coming to visit us, and I offer water to everybody at the table. If we’re saying wow, we’re sitting too long, you know what you did, and we’re not getting you know, getting up to circulate, you know, and things like that. I think that that’s important as well. Yes, it is. All of those things. We’re not getting, you know, the walk to the mailbox every day or, you know, we’re not getting together with our girlfriend that I you know, go and look at the gardens on the back part of my rye or whatever it is. It’s not happening, and that’s one of the ripple effects of our covid time right, right, right. And it’s all so about new perspectives, I think, Daphne, because I think we all get stuck in this in the you know, the groove of the record, that we think a certain way, and a lot of the things you’re talking about right now is really opening up our mind to see it from a New Light, whether it’s, you know, for example, you know, we may not have had very much interest in, you know, having a garden in our home, but this is a great opportunity for us to do those things, to get yourself out, to do something physical, to do something where you’re getting some vitamin D in the sunshine, or maybe it’s to do, you know, little things like walk around the block or, you know, find those ways in which we can start to, you know, turn ourselves around into a new perspective, and I think those two things that we have to look at to yeah, you’re exactly right. I know my mom was with me now and I caught her the other day and making phone calls different friends, and what I heard or say was, you know, I thought about you a million times and I never call you, and now I’m going to call you. Something as simple as an acting about the physical part, but now that’s an emotional part, you know, our mental health part. Actually sit down and die as a phone, phone number, and you’ll be surprised an hour later you’re laughing, as you know, exactly exactly exactly. And so you know, obviously we have about one minute left and I just first of all I want to say thank you for your insights, because I think we’re all struggling to a certain degree of trying to do the right thing for our loved ones and for our family members, and certainly it comes back to ultimately, first and foremost, taking care of ourselves. And so in our last segment I would really like to talk about, you know, how do we come together as a community? How can we help honor our loved ones but also honor ourselves and adapted before we go how do we reach you? You reach me at eight hundred fifty five, seven, three four, one fifteen hundred. That’s my phone number, at eight hundred and fifty five, seven, three four one fifteen hundred, or certainly go to our website at pinnacles senior Placementscom and dafinite will be right back right after this. 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.