Who is Visionary Care Consultants and how is it that they provide care management differently?
Who is Visionary Care Consultants and how is it that they provide care management differently?
Good afternoon, everyone. This is Sarah Barker, the founder of connector elders. And today I have a repeat guest with us, Tina Buchanan. She's the founder and CEO of visionary care consultants, which is an independent care management firm located in San Diego, California, but also now with a presence in Nashville, Tennessee. So services servicing clients, both in San Diego County, and Nashville and surrounding areas. Today, Tina's with us to share this brand new program that they are rolling out called thoughtful engagement. So Tina, first, I think it'll be important, you know, to define what social connectedness is. And then we'll move into you describing thoughtful engagement and how thoughtful engagement can provide that so so what is social connectedness? Thank you for having me. First of all, I'm so excited to be here to talk about our new program, thoughtful engagement. But social connectedness is the key to this program. And what we have learned during this pandemic is that social connectedness is super important. And one of the researchers that's done a lot of research on isolation. And loneliness has said that this, the key to healthy aging is social connectedness, and that our mind body physical connection all come back to being connected to others, and having close relationships. So that's key first and foremost in understanding why this program is so important to me, and should be to so many people as we are going through this pandemic. Mm hmm. Absolutely. I remember years ago reading an article, and actually, I think there was a TED talk about it to that, you know, at the end of the day, it's the quality, the satisfaction people have with their lives at the end really comes from the quality of the relationships and how connected they feel with those relationships. So just to reiterate the importance of that. So what what is this thoughtful engagement program? Great question. So thoughtful engagement, I had this idea in my head, you know, a year or so ago or longer, that I wanted to create a program that really helped not only our clients, but other aging individuals who were isolated, help them have meaningful engagement, meaning brain health programs and activity programs that were tailored to them, not just the regular Hey, let's play bingo today, right? thoughtful engagement came from looking at these elders and who they are and who is the who they are at their being when they were in their prime. Who, who did they used to be? And how can we replicate that now for them in their aging years, so that what the program speaks to itself is recreating those memories that are enjoyable to them, not to us, the ones facilitating it? Right. But to those who we are engaging with? So what I'm hearing right now, is that this thoughtful engagement program, it is not a cookie cutter program, this is a customizable program specific to each individual elder, that would utilize the program. Exactly. So we go in and we do a full assessment of, you know, what are their interests? What did they used to do for work? What did they talk about, you know, in their lives, they love to travel, we get a really good comprehensive picture of what the person and who they were in their prime so that we could recreate that because not everyone's situation is different. We have one lady who loves to travel, and her favorite plates is Hawaii. So we created that experience for her. We have another client who was the mother of birthday cards, and she would send them out to all of her family. And we recreated that for her by having the engagement director help her make cards and send them out to family members. And then she would get on the back end a phone call from that family member saying hey, Mrs. So and So Grandma, thank you so much for making that birthday card. It really made my day and so they get joy on the front end of the activity and depending on what the activity is on the back end from their loved ones as well and it creates a memory in their mind. Oh my gosh, I haven't done this in so long. I missed this. It feels like this program is you know, incorporating this reminiscence therapy. right because through doing the activities where you know, remembering things from the past that were joyful, and then creating new memories. Memories at the same time. So you would allow them to have a continued sense of purpose and feeling connected. So I already know the answer to this, because obviously you and I collaborate on a lot of things. But let's share with the audience. Why, why did you create this? I really created this out of, like I said, a couple years ago, I knew I wanted to create a program. But when the pandemic hit, that's when I really, you know, had to go outside of myself and just go all in and create this program. And I teamed up with a care manager out of Arizona, who basically has started this program, and we're using her foundation. So, you know, the reason I did this is that more and more people are isolated, there are seniors that have not seen anybody in months. There's also all sorts of data that talk about how I'm just going to give you a couple statistics that are super important. 40, this is pre pandemic, who 43% of elders in the US pre pandemic, already were feeling some sort of loneliness or isolation. Several of them, you have a 50% increase in dementia, when you are isolated, there's a increase in heart disease, there's a increase in physical decline. I mean, it goes all together. So these people who are now isolated, are starting to have behaviors, they're starting to decline physically, mentally, socially. You name it. So that's why I created this as we need to, we need to help these elders that are isolated because they are suffering in a different way, which is from the social isolation. Oh, absolutely. And you and I know that a lot of them were already socially isolated. It's just been compounded, right with the lockdowns and whatnot. A big shout out to one of our viewers right down, Tammy Moses, She's the founder of the hoarding solution. She's always really involved with these podcasts. So Tammy, we appreciate you listening in. For any of you though. Those of you listening if you if you have clients or loved ones that are dealing, you know, with hoarding issues definitely reach out to Tammy, she cares very much about what she's doing, and also the psychology behind why somebody is hurting. So moving on with this thoughtful engagement program. For those listening, how can they be able to identify when someone could benefit from this program? Who exactly is the program for? Great question, and the program really is for anybody at this time, right? Because everyone's isolated, but some red flags and things to look for to know if your loved one may be struggling with this without saying his change in behavior, increased confusion, I had one client reach out to me and say, Well, I'm trying to reach my mom on the phone. And she used to be, you know, answering my calls. And now she's not going to answering the calls. Or vice versa. Let me tell you the flip side, maybe mom is calling you every day, every hour, because she has no one else to call. So there's the flip side of the coin, it depends on how your loved one was before sea change and how they're trying to reach out and connect is different. And maybe you're a mom of two and you have your own family. And you know that mom needs some safe, right? COVID safe interaction one on one, you know that she's being warm, she's warm, dry and fed because she has caregivers in the home. That's one question is what is the difference between care a caregiver and someone doing thoughtful engagement? And so we can speak about that? I think I answered one of the questions you're gonna ask me? No, that's okay. You know, it. So what what is the difference on you know, because, because there is and we know this from the industry, right? families. And the expectation usually is that a caregiver will be doing these types of activities, but the reality of the matter is, they just don't know how I mean, there are the unicorn caregivers that are really good about thinking outside the box, and coming up with these very, you know, focused activities for the clients, but for the most part, they're just not capable, right? Unless they're receiving, you know, a ton of guidance. So So how is this different than caregiving? So it's absolutely different because this is the program is led by a clinician who's a master's level or bachelor level, either in recreational, some sort of recreational therapy, social work. So they are a trained clinician. So they're able to look at the person from the whole perspective. And they're used to designing care plans, right. And then it would be an activity type engagement care plan. And their whole focus is quality of life and well being. And caregivers focus is to feed them, keep them dry, keep them warm, you know, their activities of daily living, they're there for supervision. And a lot of them, like you said, are just not versed in how to do this. And so the great part about this program is we do not take place of those caregivers, we supplement them. And we can teach the staff once we create a schedule of what's great for grandma Susie, we can then work with the caregivers, whether that be family members or paid caregivers and set up a routine, so that the client knows what to expect. And we can teach them what they need to know in order to help implement this program on the ways that we're not there. I am so happy that you brought that up because the fear, you know, I think of specifically, you know, the non medical homecare companies would be wait a minute there, this program is competing with us. And that is not at all the case. If anything, it's super supportive and complimentary to the non medical homecare organizations, because in essence, not only are you providing this very specific engagement to the client, but at the same time you're offering this free training to the caregivers through providing the thoughtful engagement to the client. So you know for any homecare organizations listening in right now, I highly encourage you to reach out and learn more about this program, one for the benefits that it provides to your clients, but to the benefits that is going to provide to your caregiving base. Okay, so we've discussed how it different differs from the caregiving services on let's see, what what areas are you currently covering with this program? What geographic areas? Sure, so we are covering all of San Diego County right now, we have plans to launch this in Nashville, that has not happened yet. But in San Diego County, we are accepting clients, we are marketing this. The good thing about this program is you can have it with visionary care care management, or you can have it without so you get, you know, a skilled trained clinician, looking over your mom's well being. And maybe you have a care manager and a caregiver to you have three support systems. Or maybe you just need this social connection piece that we have added to our menu, you can absolutely get that on its own, you don't have to be a visionary care care management client. And so I think that's important for people to know, too. Because care management, we've talked about, you know, in in another podcast, but care management is a big concept to grasp. And this program is really designed to fight that isolation and keep people healthy with a quality of life and give them feelings of joy and happiness. And everyone can understand that. And what better time to do this right now than during the pandemic? Absolutely. And I think that one of the things, one of the questions we get asked is, well, is it safe for someone to go into my house to do these activities with my mom during a time of COVID and the pandemic, and there is there's a risk to everything. But we are doing our due diligence to make sure that we are COVID free. We are getting tested regularly. We are doing what we need to do to keep people safe. Of course, there's a risk everywhere. But there's also a risk to an increased isolation. Right and lack of connection. You know, I talked to a lot of elders on a daily basis. And, you know, I don't want to get into that topic right now. But right, there's a risk on either side. And so, you know, you visionary care consultants is definitely managing the risk, right? You guys are getting tested regularly. You guys are wearing the proper PP, you know, to ensure the safety of the clients. And I think ensuring that they're connected, right, and that they're engaged as part of their safety and quality of life. Exactly. And I just want to point out something that I learned in my research and doing this. That's super Important for this time is there's biological effects of social isolation and not having that social connectedness. And Dr. Cole, I forget where he's from, I can give you the reference. He has said that social isolation, people who feel lonely and are not socially connected, have weakened immune systems and cannot fight off viruses, as well as other people. So if you think about that in COVID, right, COVID virus, there's biological effects of, of being feeling isolated, and not having connection. So I've seen it time and time again, many people have to, so you know, anything you could do to help engage your loved one safely during this time is great. And the important thing, again, is that it's individualized. So some clients we may see five days a week, some clients, maybe they have family or caregivers that we can train, and we just see them once a week, and we set up the schedule, so we mitigate risk as much as possible. And then, you know, set up a schedule that's feasible for the family's financial situation. level with having people in the home, we coordinate in person visits, with video visits, sometimes with some of the activities virtually, so very creative on how we can implement these programs for clients. Well, thank you. That's good information. I think it's important to point out to, just so people are very clear that this thoughtful engagement program can be used, you know, to reiterate what Tina was saying it can be used as a standalone, somebody doesn't necessarily have to be at the point where they're needing caregivers to help out with activities of daily life, you know, they could still use the thoughtful engagement program. And then you know, as their needs increase, then you could implement caregivers alongside it just the same way with you know, maybe they don't need care management, yet. They can use thoughtful engagement, and then at a later date, maybe they need care management. So but it's the point is, is this as a standalone program, where its focus is to reduce the isolation and to increase the connectedness. And it can work alongside care management, it can work alongside homecare, but it doesn't necessarily have to, I feel like it could be a bridge to either one of those at some point in time, too. Right. And I want to, I want to just reiterate that too, because there's some people that are not ready for caregivers in their home, or come Amiens. And so this is a bridge because we're not coming in there saying, Okay, now it's time to eat, it's time to do this. We're coming in there with a trained eye. And we talk about what's meaningful for you. So we have a different type of relationship. A lot of clients are resistant to homecare and even care management or placement, because they don't want to be told to what to do, and they don't need help, right? going about helping them. This is about what brings joy to your life. And let's create something to reinforce that. And so seniors, really, seniors, olders families really see that differently, right? Because we're not forcing something on you. We're saying, Let's get back to what makes you happy. And it just it's a it's a softer way, right? It's, you know, I always say caregiving, or when I've consulted with families, you know, I'm not here to take your independence away. I'm here to facilitate your independence for as long as possible. But still, there is that sense of Oh, gosh, like, I need caregivers now. Right. There's that sense of, you know, losing independence. But with this thoughtful engagement program, as you're saying, it really is about the companionship and doing activities together. So it has a whole different feel around it. Yeah, it feels like a a two way relationship, right? That is building on that connection. And what's bringing them together is the being of the client, the senior though elder, and so everything they do is surrounded by what that client wants to do. And times in home care, that client doesn't want to take a shower, right? So it's all about engaging them and taking the time to build that up, you know, and they learn to trust the person who's running the program. And the person who's running the program because they have a trained eye can then maybe look for other red flags right. To the daughter, have you thought about homecare Have you thought about care management Have you thought about placement, it opens the door like you said it can be that Rich people still be independent in the meantime. And that's super important as conserving their independence and their sense of dignity as a huge Yes. That's a big one. And you know what, that doesn't really come out or come up as much as you think it would. Right? We talked about independence all the time, sense of purpose. And but yeah, somebody's sense of dignity is clear, you know, to their sense of well being. Absolutely. So before we get off, I want to make sure that we remind the viewers and our supporters about visionary care consultants and the services that veterinary care consultants offer. So if you could just go ahead and remind everybody what visionary care consultants is, sure. visionary care consultants is a is a concierge Care Management Group here in San Diego. And now in Nashville, Tennessee, we provide care coordination, really an advocate role for clients, who are either elderly, disabled, maybe have some sort of psych diagnosis, dual diagnosis, dementia, and we navigate everything for them from medical appointments, doctor's visits, you know, applying for VA benefits, medical, whatever it is to increase their quality of life again, and it goes back to bring dignity to them, but also bring peace of mind to the families. And that's the other part about this thoughtful engagement program within visionary care or standalone is that there is someone in there taking a look at your loved one that can call you and give you peace of mind during the pandemic and say, Hey, your mom's okay. I know she's frazzled on the phone. But hey, we, you know made birthday cards or Christmas cards, holiday cards today. And she's okay. Peace of mind for family members, is why visionary care exists. And the thoughtful engagement program is just another aspect to getting peace of mind for the family members in the family caregivers. Definitely. Well, I am super excited to see this program rolled out and all of the good that it's going to do. So Tina, thank you for being a guest again on the connect our elders podcast. As a reminder, connect our elders is all about empowering the aging process. And we do that through education around elder care resources, through providing the navigation through those resources to figure out what the right options are. And then of course, ongoing advocacy. So thank you for joining us today. And if you want to learn more about thoughtful engagement, please reach out to Tina, where you can reach out to me and we will ensure that you get the information. Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye for having me. You're welcome.