Episode 11: Wait, What? This Is Hospice?

[00:00:06] Speaker A: Fly me to the moon and let me stay among. [00:00:14] Speaker A: Let me see what spring is like On Jupiter and Mars in other words. [00:00:26] Speaker B: Hold my hand. [00:00:32] Speaker C: In. [00:00:32] Speaker D: Other words. [00:00:35] Speaker A: Darling, kiss me. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Fill my heart with songs and let me sing forever. [00:00:47] Speaker E: I guess we're on. [00:00:49] Speaker D: I'm assuming we're on. It says we're recording. Do you notice that we haven't had any recording glitches since our very first episode 11 episodes ago? [00:01:01] Speaker E: I have noticed that because we've gotten pretty good at it. [00:01:06] Speaker C: And. [00:01:09] Speaker E: Do you hear any. Speaking of that, do you hear any echo when I'm speaking? Any echo at all? [00:01:14] Speaker D: I don't, but if you do, then we can start over. I distinct. [00:01:20] Speaker E: I think it's just because we just said that a ghost appeared and said not so fast. And now I think. [00:01:30] Speaker E: I think it's gone. I think we're good to go. [00:01:32] Speaker D: All right, let's do it. Let's go. Episode 11. This means that we've gotten past 10. It's very exciting. Hey, are you loving doing this pod? [00:01:41] Speaker E: It's great. I really like it. I think we're in a groove. [00:01:44] Speaker C: It's good. [00:01:45] Speaker E: The interesting thing about it so far is that we really haven't had much problem coming up with topics. [00:01:53] Speaker D: Oh. [00:01:53] Speaker E: I mean, we haven't really been starving for things we need to talk about that are just low hanging fruit of stuff that we've dealt with and great people that we know in our network to share and experience and talk through some of these things. There's a lot of stuff. [00:02:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:10] Speaker D: Well, because if it's not one thing, it's. Joanna, there's a little bit. I know, nice. But also I think that it's indicative of how caring for a loved one with dementia is really a never ending stream of questions, concerns, issues in pieces that we need to focus on, and they're coming at us all the time. So, yeah, I'm not at all surprised that we haven't run out of content. I have. I mean, between you and I, we both have so much more that we've just scratched the surface of or haven't even begun to scratch the surface of yet. [00:02:45] Speaker E: Very true, Very true. Okay, well, welcome back everyone, to the pod. And today we're going to start another mini series here. And this one's about resources to support senior dementia care, especially some resources that you may not really know about that may be a little bit underutilized. And we have just found they've been incredible for us and we think that you guys should know about them. [00:03:10] Speaker D: I'm gonna stop you First. [00:03:11] Speaker E: Oh, yeah, sorry. No, we're not starting. This is the second one. [00:03:14] Speaker D: This is the second one. [00:03:15] Speaker E: All right, let me start over. Maybe you can edit that out. [00:03:17] Speaker D: Yes, I can, because you're so. [00:03:20] Speaker E: Meanwhile, I have to figure out the cord of the. Our new wonderful headphones is very long. You have to figure out where to. [00:03:27] Speaker D: Get out of the way next to my chair and then have to kind of move my arm around. [00:03:32] Speaker E: But yeah, anyway. [00:03:34] Speaker C: Okay. [00:03:34] Speaker E: Three, two. [00:03:38] Speaker E: Welcome back, everyone. Continuing our miniseries here about resources that may be a little bit not widely known or underutilized that can also support senior dementia care. Last episode, we heard from Sherilyn, doing incredible work at the Brown center, that adult daycare, I like to say day camp, but I'm nowhere. Maybe not supposed to say that. It feels like a camp for seniors with dementia. And thank you again, Sherilyn. [00:04:06] Speaker D: Could you imagine a camp for seniors with dementia? That's a great idea. [00:04:12] Speaker E: Well, I feel like that's what that is. [00:04:15] Speaker D: I'm talking, I mean, I guess overnight, like three weeks, like Kumbaya, meeting at the flagpole in the morning. [00:04:22] Speaker E: Well, I feel like the goal is for the assisted living facilities and memory care facilities to be camp. [00:04:29] Speaker D: That's fair. [00:04:29] Speaker E: And they're trying to their best to make it like camp, but it might be a stretch to actually refer to it as camp. But that's the goal. The goal is camp. I think we've established that. [00:04:40] Speaker E: And so continuing in this wonderful series today, we are going to hear from Leslie Katz, who is with the Jewish Hospice Chaplaincy Network, or jhcn. And we thought this was an important episode to have, mainly because of what we discovered with mom, which is that the word hospice doesn't mean your end of days. Of course, I wanted to say something like, you're not dead in a few days, but Karen thought that was a. [00:05:10] Speaker C: Little heavy and harsh. [00:05:11] Speaker D: It's terrible. [00:05:12] Speaker E: I didn't say that. [00:05:13] Speaker D: But I do think it's important to note. I'm just going to interject here that for most people, when they hear the word hospice, they think, oh, my gosh, no, we're not there yet. We're not ready. I mean, we even had that issue with dad when it was time to call hospice and mom wasn't ready. But it's an important factor to note that this. There's a wide range of hospice care that we're going to discuss with you. But the idea that when you hear the word hospice, it gives you this scary end of life feeling. And while, yes, that is certainly a piece of It. That's not all of it. [00:05:53] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, it's very interesting what we discovered. And we're gonna, you know, next on the next episode, we're gonna deal with the medical side because we also discovered that hospice is kind of. It can be divided into a couple different sets of services. There's medical hospice, which is doing the physical care management. And then there's also supportive service hospice, or at least that's what I call it, because that's what we're getting, which is what Leslie's group focuses on. She'll do a better job explaining it with when we have her on in a few minutes. But suffice to say, there are wonderful people coming into our house entertaining mom for free. We have Ike, the gentle giant Alaskan malamute rescue dog, who is absolutely adorable and hangs out with mom every week. We got Dan the music man, who comes over and plays tunes and sings along with Mom. And we got Molly the manicurist, who comes and makes sure mom has the prettiest nails around. There's even massage options, which we actually don't even take advantage of because mom has masseuse that she absolutely loves. There's also a rabbi that can come in and just have a chat or just regular people companions can also just come and have a chat and occupy some time and just hang out. Suffice to say, it's an incredible organization that we really lean on and we just pinch ourselves every day that these resources are available. And of course, we wanted to make sure people understood that this is out there because we really had no idea. [00:07:20] Speaker D: Yeah. Leslie Katz came into our lives several years ago, interestingly, while mom was still living at home. And I wouldn't say fully self sufficient, but she was doing pretty well. But we still were looking for solutions for how to fill her days, how to keep her busy, how to keep her active. At that point, we weren't at all ready to have a conversation about moving her. And so she provided some advice for us at that point. And then when mom was in senior care, we were continuing with the services that we'd already put in place. They actually were coming to visit mom at the senior care facility. And then when we talked about possibly moving mom back home, Leslie was one of our first calls because she really knows her way around. [00:08:10] Speaker D: Some of the best ways to care for elderly people, not just in the dementia realm, but, you know, just in general, who are starting to lose a lot of their independence. And we've found from her incredible advice about all of these resources that really have been an integral part of Mom. Do you say integral or do you say integral? [00:08:34] Speaker E: I say integral. [00:08:35] Speaker D: I do too, but some people would say integral. Anyway, they have been a key factor in mom's care and we use these services as supplemental care. Obviously, these are not skilled caregivers coming to the home. We already have those delightful women, but they're extra services that are vital for keeping her busy, active, engaged, happy. And mom really thrives on these visits. We feel so lucky that she. She has this as part of her regular weekly process. [00:09:08] Speaker E: Yeah, she looks forward to all of these. And we can't wait to get into it with Leslie. So why don't we take a break? [00:09:17] Speaker D: Ooh, hold on. Before we take a break, I wanna make note of something. You may have noticed when you heard the opening song for mom that it was a duet. We have recorded mom singing with Jake, who originally was mom's song person, and now Dan. And so all of the recordings that you hear in today's podcast are mom singing with Jake or Dan as they play piano with her or play guitar with her. So you'll notice a little bit of a difference in today's dulcet tones, as. [00:09:50] Speaker C: You say, special tunes today. [00:09:53] Speaker E: Enjoy them and we'll be right back. [00:09:59] Speaker A: You must remember this. [00:10:04] Speaker A: A kiss is still a kiss. [00:10:09] Speaker A: A sigh is just a sign. [00:10:19] Speaker A: The fun. [00:10:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:10:26] Speaker A: As time goes by. [00:10:37] Speaker A: And when two lovers wrap her and still sweet together. [00:10:47] Speaker A: On that you can. [00:10:57] Speaker A: No matter what. [00:11:05] Speaker C: Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. [00:11:09] Speaker C: We have a wonderful guest today to talk about an issue that really we didn't know much about until we got into it. And it was very surprising to hear the depth and breadth of what hospice is and what it can be for aging loved ones, especially someone suffering from dementia. And so we have today Leslie Katz from the Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network. JHCN and Leslie, thank you so much for joining us. First of all, we just want to say thank you for your specific involvement in our mom's care. You've been invaluable from the get go, guiding us into places that we didn't really know about and have been so valuable and beneficial for mom. Can you maybe first just tell us like, what your role is with JHCN and what you do there? [00:12:01] Speaker B: Absolutely. Thank you both Andrew and Karen, for asking me to be a part of this. I am the director of patient services with Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network, so I help to oversee all of our patient care. We see about 200 individuals regularly, about 500 a year. So there's a lot that we can do for them. [00:12:30] Speaker C: Amazing. And you know, we have also wondered what the division of roles are between. Because what we see come into our home is a combination of actually physical care by a nurse that comes in and all these other wonderful emotionally supportive services that you guys have. Can you talk us through a little bit about the difference in roles between like what JHCN actually does and then how you partner with the medical side? [00:12:57] Speaker B: Absolutely, thank you for asking. It does get confusing. So we at JHCN provide support to anyone in the community who self identifies as Jewish and is living with a life limiting illness. We provide a number of services including care, navigation, social work support, spiritual support, life enrichment services which consist of one on one music visits, salon services, massage. We have a slew that I can tell you about later. And we really focus on those one to one engagements that are non medical. [00:13:41] Speaker B: While we don't provide the medical aspect, we have partners in the community who provide the hospice care whether it's palliative, private duty, in home skilled. So we are doing education with different agencies in the community on how to care for Jewish individuals at end of life. So they are going into your loved ones homes equipped with education. And we have what we call cell phone relations with these partners so we can call them at 3 in the morning, at 10 at night, whenever it is. We work very closely together. [00:14:22] Speaker D: So just to clarify, I mean our mom has been receiving amazing social type of services from you for. [00:14:31] Speaker D: I feel like for a couple years possibly. But we didn't actually have her identified as a hospice patient until I believe it was last March. [00:14:41] Speaker E: So. [00:14:41] Speaker D: So what I'm understanding and please clarify this is that you do not have to be a hospice patient in order to receive these services. [00:14:50] Speaker B: Right. As long as someone is living with a life limiting illness. We provide services to people who are already enrolled in hospice or would like to be, who are enrolled in palliative or would like to be or where your mom started with us in our support supportive program where she was living at home and she really wasn't ready for any additional medical support but she was craving the one to one engagement. So I know we started music and she enjoyed participating with her piano and then we went to dogs because of her love of pets. So it's kind of like a slow transition and the longer we are able to establish a relationship with an individual in the family the then we really have that open dialogue and we can say, you know what, it looks like your mom might be declining a little bit. She might benefit from a b And C. And if you know me and you know what JHCN can provide, you're more likely to come to us for supporting questions and help. [00:15:56] Speaker D: That makes sense, because I believe that we reached out to you when we were ready to bring hospice services on board. And you recommended the organization that we ended up using for her medical hospice care. [00:16:10] Speaker B: Yes, so we would. And the benefit of really knowing someone and their family is it helps us to be able to recommend a specific agency. A slew of. I usually like to give about three agencies, and then it's patient family preference. But if I know that a family is Shomer Shabbos and or having hydration is very important, there are different agencies that I would recommend because of what we know about them and our relationship. [00:16:45] Speaker D: That makes much more sense. So you aren't involved in determining whether someone is eligible for hospice, et cetera. That's somewhere else. You are really more focused on what we've been trying to figure out for our mom, which is how do we keep people busy, active, engaged, social media under these circumstances? [00:17:06] Speaker B: Absolutely. It's the medical hospice that has to look at Medicare criteria to see if someone is eligible for hospice and if they can continue to be recertified for hospice. But we are there to ensure that no Jew dies alone. And so that's where we come in. Providing our specialists, our volunteers, social work support, spiritual support. Everything we do is no charge. So we were trying to really enhance quality of life and dignity. [00:17:39] Speaker C: So that's interesting because there was that period of time where medically our mom hadn't been diagnosed as a hospice patient, but she was receiving JHCM spiritual support, so to speak. And how many of your. [00:17:59] Speaker C: 200 or patients, whatever, that you were dealing with, how many of them have also a medical hospice diagnosis versus. [00:18:07] Speaker B: So it used to be that the majority of patients we followed were hospice patients and much less were supportive or palliative. But since probably Covid that number has changed and people are coming to us a lot sooner, which we think is great, because then we can establish those relationships and really help navigate during this. [00:18:35] Speaker B: Comprehensive, challenging journey that everyone experiences. So now probably 65, 70% of our patients are supportive or palliative, whereas less are hospice. [00:18:49] Speaker D: See, and I think that's where this misconception comes from. Because when I tell people, oh, my mom has her dog visit today, or she has a lovely woman named Molly coming to give her a manicure, or Dan, who comes and sings songs with her on Sunday, I have so many friends who will say, oh, that sounds great, my mom isn't in hospice or my dad isn't in hospice, so we can't use those services. And I'm thinking that isn't the case for us. We have been involved with you for quite a long time. [00:19:21] Speaker D: Do you find that that's a common misconception? [00:19:24] Speaker B: I do. And I think that the word hospice is really scary. So. So if someone isn't ready to accept that their loved one could benefit from additional services, it's not something that we push. We don't advertise or market. We are like the community's best kept secret. People don't know about us until they need us. [00:19:50] Speaker C: Sorry to be publishing this podcast, by the way. Your secret is going to be out soon. [00:19:57] Speaker B: So while we stay in our lane and we really do only provide services to people who are living with a terminal diagnosis, a life limiting illness, I mean, dementia is such an umbrella, but there's no cure. So if someone who is living with dementia but is still totally independent and going out, not housebound, they would not be ready for our services yet. But someone who's living with dementia, who is homebound, living alone, doesn't have a lot of visitors, very isolated, starting to decline. You know, we would go out and we would do the evaluation and then we would see if they were an individual who we could support and I would hope that they would be. [00:20:42] Speaker D: Incredible. And we feel beyond grateful for these services. We feel like they have been so enriching for our mom. And also we're grateful for the time that you've spent getting to know her, to figure out what would be best, adding pieces in, not including certain pieces that aren't right for her. Why don't we dig into some of the services that you supply so that people can be aware of what might be offered to them. [00:21:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. So we'll start with care navigation. There are two social workers. We work together to see all of our 200 plus patients. So sometimes, you know, there's a huge crisis and you're really focused on, you know, a specific person for, you know, several hours, days. Our focus is to be as proactive as possible so we're not reacting in a crisis. So the care navigation that we provide, we're working with families, we're having family meetings. Every family has dynamics. They may think that, you know, they're the craziest family, but every family is dealing with this. And when you're trying to process an illness and you're experiencing anticipatory grief, which is something that we talk about a lot, I mean, it's very heavy and it takes a while. [00:22:07] Speaker D: Can you explain what that term means? [00:22:10] Speaker B: Anticipatory grief? Yes. So, you know, somebody may be living with dementia and you're grieving who they used to be, who some of the things that you're not going to be able to do with them in the future, things they might miss. So intellectually, you know that this person is not going to be around forever and you're starting to miss certain things, but emotionally, it's so much harder. You cannot wrap your heart or your mind around what's really happening. So. [00:22:49] Speaker B: A lot of people are grieving the disease, future experiences, mitzvahs that someone may not be able to go to. So that's a lot of what we're working with. [00:23:02] Speaker C: So that's for the family members who are observing the decline of the patient more so than the patient themselves, dealing with their own awareness of. [00:23:12] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. You know, a lot of patients. [00:23:17] Speaker B: They'Re experiencing it also. They just don't know what it is. The loss of control, the anxiety, the fear, the need to depend on others now when they didn't, you know, used to be dependent on anyone. So it's a huge shift that they go through also. And when you're living with dementia or any type of cognitive impairment, it's just that much more difficult to understand so and retain the information. [00:23:47] Speaker B: So we're doing a lot of resource. [00:23:50] Speaker B: You know, finding and collaborating with community partners. Then we have our spiritual support. We have several different rabbis, male, female, different sects of Judaism. So if an individual has their own rabbi who they have a relationship with, we support that. That's wonderful. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they don't want a rabbi at all. Because if you think of a rabbi, you think, I'm dying. So that's why starting with the volunteers and with the enrichment services is a great way for us to kind of initiate services. And then once the individual feels more comfortable with us, they'll say, you know what? I do. I have a few questions. I think having a rabbi would be really helpful. So that's where spiritual support comes in. And then we have life Enrichment services. So we have individuals who will come and do music sessions one on one. They'll bring their guitar, keyboard, and whatever kind of music your loved one likes. That is our goal. We aim to make sure that they're enjoying the moment. They may not be able to tell you about it that evening at dinner, but they are having a blast in that moment. So we have that. [00:25:15] Speaker D: It is one of the joys of her week. And yet, if I like, for instance, this past Sunday, I missed the session because our timing was different from when I came to my mom's. And I said, did Dan come and play music with you today? And she said, no, not yet. And I thought, oh, great, I'll get to see Dan, because I'm with her for the next few hours. And then I realized, no, he had already been there. But in the moment when they are together, it's just pure joy for her. What a lovely, lovely service. In addition to all of what you supply well. [00:25:46] Speaker C: And the point that you make about helping the families as well. I mean, honestly, that's something we haven't tapped into yet. Maybe like the social services to help us with the coping that we think is going okay, but you never know. And I just also on Sunday, you know, when Dan comes, normally, it's between the 12 to 2 caregiver shift that we have, which is my technical kind of time off that I don't have to be eyes on or nearby Mom. And so I'm upstairs and the music is going on downstairs. It's not a huge house. And on Sunday, I was like watching a football game. And then I kind of heard it going on. I'm like, wait a second. I turned off the sound of the football game. I opened my my door and I could hear very clearly the music. It was very relaxing. Like, it's very beneficial for me to be hearing the music concert going on. It was fantastic. [00:26:37] Speaker D: And he knows the song she likes that. She sort of remembers some of the words to. She sort of makes up her own now. But there's this sweetness to that visit that all three of my sister, my brother and I are all very excited about. We love all of them, just so you know. But Dan just feels like a big highlight in our week. [00:26:56] Speaker C: I wonder if you're like, if you guys are. And I. Now I'm remembering when mom was in. [00:27:02] Speaker C: Anthology, the assisted living home, she was already receiving some of these. I remember the chat, the rabbi coming to talk to her a few times, which is also very beneficial, especially for dementia patients, because one of the things that started to evolve with mom is that she's not really comfortable in group settings, like at the lunch table or with a bunch of people in a conversation. She's not quite able to jump in and participate in that conversation as much as she used to. But one on one, she's okay. You know, like when she's talking to someone and they're asking direct questions, she can give direct responses. It's a much more comfortable setting. And so that particular, that one on one with that, with any rabbi, great. But anybody who has that consciousness and that sensitivity to that social interaction is fantastic. I also wonder, considering that now the majority of the people that you service haven't had that medical hospice diagnosis. And it seems to be slowly, the secrets also getting out in the medical area, that it's a much more broad potential. [00:28:06] Speaker C: Service that someone can get to be medically in hospice like mom is now doing. And since you're on the front lines with that, are you involved in, like, observing patients and then just making recommendations to the medical group or to the families, saying, hey, you might not be aware of this, but you know, medical hospice is a more broad category. Now we've been observing your mom or dad through all the services we offer, and we're thinking maybe that's something you should look into. Do you guys get involved in that at all? [00:28:33] Speaker B: Absolutely. That's why we love to get involved earlier. So we can see the patient and family through palliative and then hospice and then bereavement, which is another service that we offer. But absolutely. [00:28:49] Speaker D: Can you tell me about the bereavement services? [00:28:52] Speaker C: Sure. [00:28:52] Speaker B: We have Rabbi Rachel Scher, who leads our bereavement support group, and I work with her. We have some groups and we do individual sessions. And we're a great bridge from death to several months after moving on, because we can't just take care of someone, whether it was for two days or for two years, and then just cold turkey cut off. You know, there's a connection, and that's where we want to help bridge that gap before we provide community resources for other bereavement support. [00:29:35] Speaker D: That's incredible. And I did. I feel badly I cut you off while you were in the middle of talking about all the social services. So I apologize. I just got caught up. But if you want to continue telling us a little bit about those again, I'm really worried that we're releasing this secret out because now you have more about calling you. We'll talk about that in a minute as well. [00:29:56] Speaker B: So, yeah, we've got music, we've got art, we've got salon services. Sometimes it's really hard to get mom or dad out to a salon to get their hair cut, nails done, especially in the winter. So it's a really beautiful service that we offer. Coming to the house, we have massage and reflexology. We have pet visits. Dogs are just so special. There's a beautiful connection because even if somebody can't Articulate their needs or their wants. When a dog shows up, it's just unconditional love. We've got gentle exercise, which is done by licensed physical therapists. So if you're on hospice, then Medicare Part A is covering that benefit. Medicare Part A also covers skilled home pt, so you can't have them both at once. So if someone is enrolled in hospice, but they also want to focus on range of motion, one of their end of life goals is to be able to move from bed to chair. That's where our therapists come in. They're not coming in to provide a robust therapy. We call it gentle exercise. And they will do an evaluation and then do exercises. We have movement on the mind, which was created by our speech language pathologist. And it's really focused, you know about it. [00:31:32] Speaker C: No, I'm saying we need that. I'm like taking notes about all these things we're not using. First of all, you can continue in a second. But is there a limit to how many services we can use? Because now there's a couple more that I think we want. [00:31:47] Speaker D: Sorry. [00:31:48] Speaker B: Yeah, so care, navigation, spiritual support, everyone. In terms of our enrichment services, because of the number of people we're serving, we try to stick to about two, but if you want to change something up, you know, happy to rotate it out. It's just that because we don't charge anyone, but we do pay our specialists, we have to be fiscally responsible. [00:32:17] Speaker D: That was my question. These are paid professionals. How do you pay for this? Because you're. I mean, I know we make a donation a couple times a year, but I can't imagine that covers the costs of all these people who are coming in and working with you. [00:32:31] Speaker B: Right. So it's. That's a struggle. So we were created about 25 years ago on the goodwill model. So we are funded almost a $3 million budget, solely by community donations. We don't receive any money from federation, we don't receive any money from any insurance reimbursement. There are a few grants, but primarily we are funded by the community. And it's really beautiful. [00:33:06] Speaker D: I don't even notice that there's an attack. I agree, it is incredible. I don't even feel. And maybe I'm just missing it because you're kind of on our radar of donations that we make every year. But I don't really even notice a ton of fundraising. I mean, how do you get the word out that this is something that really needs to be funded through donation? [00:33:28] Speaker B: We have a mailing that goes out every September and then a follow up one about this time of year. But we have. [00:33:40] Speaker B: A few different. [00:33:43] Speaker B: You know, like, groups. We have something called Grand Circle of Women. And so Rabbi Rachel Scher does, I think, monthly education with them. And then there's a donation that goes along with that. But we're not in patient care. I'm not focused on fundraising. So we do have a financial team, but we don't really market. It's not what our goal is, what our mission is. [00:34:13] Speaker D: It's incredible. I mean, I really, I. I applaud you for providing. I know for us, something that really just feels like it has made our lives better and easier. It makes our mother so happy. And. [00:34:29] Speaker D: To be doing all of this through full donations has got to really be an incredible feat. We cannot even express our gratitude for what you've done for us. I know you have over 200 plus people. I can't even imagine the management of that, let alone the fiscal responsibility for handling all of that. It's really heartwarming. [00:34:54] Speaker B: Thank you. It's an honor to be able to be in this position. [00:35:01] Speaker C: All right, Leslie, let's get you out of here on this. It seems like you guys, since you guys are really on the front lines of helping to get care to seniors who are starting to diminish and starting to lose their independence, is there any advice that you give to families on, like, what are those signs? When is it time to call you to see if you might start to help with some of your services? [00:35:23] Speaker B: Absolutely. It is never too soon to call us. Whether or not you just have a question, you don't know where to turn, call us and we'll help you and we'll help you determine whether or not it's time to start some of our services or if we're going to give you some community services and say, the good news is, is that your loved one is not in a position to receive our care yet. But people keep our phone numbers for five, 10 years and they'll call us back. [00:35:56] Speaker B: So never too soon to call us. [00:35:59] Speaker D: Incredible. [00:36:01] Speaker C: That's great. Well, we are going to share. [00:36:04] Speaker C: All your information to our listeners so they can call you and bother you with more patients. Unfortunately, you probably have to take care of. But thank you so much for joining us. Again, I echo Karen's sentiments. It's been one of the wonderful beneficial aspects of mom's existence these past couple years and hopefully will continue to be. [00:36:30] Speaker B: I'm sorry, I just got disconnected, so I missed a little bit. I'm sorry. [00:36:34] Speaker C: I was praising you and everything you do and telling you how wonderful it is that your organization has helped mom so much in the past couple years. So thank you so much again. [00:36:44] Speaker B: Thank you. I know we started to support her at home and then she moved. And then she moved back home. And it seems like it's been a great move. [00:36:54] Speaker D: It's been a great move. And I will tell you that we talked with you every step of the way through each of these moves, and it really helped to clarify the decisions we were making, which, by the way, all of those decisions have been the right decisions. And we really needed that support because you often really feel like you're kind of out there on your own. And to have a professional say, yes, I think this could be beneficial. Here's what we can do to help. Here are some other services that you might want to look into. It's a really good guiding force when you're sort of in this abyss of I have no idea what I'm doing right now, but I'm going to have to figure this out quickly. All of these decisions all have to be made so quickly. And to have a supportive ear is really, it's made a difference for us. So thank you. [00:37:45] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:37:48] Speaker C: All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for listening. We will be right back. In the meantime, enjoy the dulcet tones of Joanna. [00:38:15] Speaker A: Grab your coat, get your hat Leave you worry of some love doorstep. [00:38:25] Speaker A: Just direct your feet on the sun side of the street can't you hear that pitter pat and that happy tune is your step. [00:38:42] Speaker A: Life can be so sweet on the sunny sun of the street I used to walk in the shade with my blues on parade. [00:38:59] Speaker A: But I. [00:39:05] Speaker D: Crossed over and we're back. What an interesting conversation with Leslie Katz and how incredible it is that all of these resources are readily available to people in the community. [00:39:23] Speaker E: Well, also, you know, one of my biggest takeaways, I got a couple One is one of the big challenges in aging in place. Whether you're rare like us, where mom was in a home and then moved her back to her home. [00:39:40] Speaker C: Or you're. [00:39:41] Speaker E: Just gradually going through the normal trajectory where you're living at home, but you're starting to need help. And you might need some separate care, but you really need to fill those days. You really need help with people coming in and keeping someone active. And this resource is just incredible for that. And so this is one of those steps you take on the way to ultimately having some more serious things that have to be decided. But this is a wonderful resource. And I also my second takeaway is how interesting it was that she said that considering there's this service hospice and then there's the medical hospice, if we can term it like that. And she was saying that most of her clients are not yet medically hospice diagnosed. So I find that very interesting that she's really on those front lines of getting to know some of these seniors when they're not quite there yet, but they may be there soon, or most importantly, they may be there now where they can qualify for medical hospice, and they don't know that they can. And that opens them up to even more healthcare, medical treatment, resources that are really important. I know we're going to get into in our next episode, but that's really important work that she's doing on the front lines and getting to know these families and communicating to them additional resources that are out there that they may not have. So it's just. It's great work that she's doing. [00:41:07] Speaker D: Yeah, I agree. And I feel like these are such confusing times for families. I mean, we can say we've been through this already with our dad, we're going through this with our mom. I feel like people sometimes just feel like they're in an abyss of I don't even know what kinds of questions to ask. I don't know who to call. I don't know where we are in the spectrum of caring for our loved one and to have resources like this, people like Leslie and all of the other people in this organization who really take the time to get to know families, to get to know the participants, and to really understand where they are in this process for us. I don't know how I would have done this without them. I don't know if we would have known what questions to ask. And I feel so fortunate that we had this resource at our disposal that I would have never known about. [00:42:08] Speaker E: I also thank her for reminding us that there is a little bit of a limit on how many services you can activate, because I think we would do 17 of them if we really could. But I think we're making the most of it. I don't mind as much now that Mom's not using the massage because we are using a few already, which I think is probably over the limit. [00:42:29] Speaker D: And I do want to just say on that note that we do make a donation every year, actually do donations twice a year to this organization. We're going to put all of this information on our Facebook and Instagram account so that if you're interested in making donations or even if you just want to reach out to Leslie or someone in the organization who might have some answers to questions that you might be struggling with. As we were. Our goal here is to provide these resources and we feel like this is one that everybody should be utilizing in one way or another. [00:43:10] Speaker E: Indeed. [00:43:11] Speaker D: Indeed. [00:43:12] Speaker E: And as always, if you guys have any comments, questions, issues, topics that you want us to cover on the podcast, please be in touch. We'd love to hear from you. Our email once again is ifitsnot1mail.com and we hope you have a wonderful day. In the meantime, here's mom to play us out. [00:43:38] Speaker A: I see trees of blue. [00:43:43] Speaker A: Red rises too I see them blow for me and you and I say to myself. [00:43:59] Speaker A: What a wonderful world Good. [00:44:06] Speaker A: Skies of blue I see skies of blue Clouds of white and clouds of white the bright sunny day moons and dark sacred nights and I say to myself. [00:44:31] Speaker A: What a wonderful world.