you lol i'm your host tony welcome to seniors at play today on our show we have liz charbonneau of home watch caregivers hi toni how are you well thank you thanks for being on our show today where a very interested in hearing what you have to say can you tell us a little bit about home watch caregivers sure home watch caregivers is an agency that provides in home care services for individuals that want to remain at home and live independently at home  provide a wide range of services for the elderly individuals people with disabilities and physical conditions dementia care so home for elderly dimensioning dementia care and  i think i was reading something that you provided that said also that they're recovering from some form of injury oh yes for someone that is after surgery or post hospital discharge possibly have had surgery and gone to rehab and coming in transitioning back at home we provide the services to make that smooth safe transition working back into their home based on what their needs are ok and is there an age range for that is it all working people or in seniors only you know we care for people of all ages so it really depends on what the need is long as there is an injury you could provide the care yes ok that's great now how long have you been doing this i've been in business in mercer county since two thousand and eleven i'm a part of how much caregivers which is a national franchise organization company and so i independently own and operate mercer county i'll much caregivers a princeton ok and what brought you to do this type of work after spending and working about thirty years in the corporate world i just really re evaluated  what i wanted to do and i felt that there was a need there thought that there was a definite need for senior care services and it was an area that i had had some experience in working with my parents my aging parents and had a real passion for learning more about it and becoming involved in this particular area god now in doing this type of work d h you find you have challenges and if so what are those challenges the biggest challenge would be identifying enough caregivers to meet that in the end of the the need on the part of our client base ok so that's your biggest challenge identifying them and where would you find them or identi well first of all all caregivers that work with seniors and provide what's considered hands on care must be a certified home health aide so they must have a current license through the board of nursing and have that licensure so that's the first group of people that we work with and identifying and then it's outreaching through recruiting efforts within the community and within the geographic area that we serve to outreach and recruit individuals with that license then to interview and work with them to determine if they're good fit for our business gotcha and then when you find the and they're a good fit and they fit the profile that you're looking for the they go into the homes is that the process that you and the employees go into the homes of the senior yes or they're recovering right away but once that once they're identified and once they're hired it is we do require that they complete a n orientation program in their training program prior to placement in a client's home and working with us and during that particular session there are clinical there's clinical training and supervision  there's also a review of different service units that they're required to participate in and then now that they're now say their employee what's the processing did they go into the homes for an hour or two hours what's their normal work look like a typical schedule for working in a home would be at a minimum three hours for a shift and as much as twenty four hours so in terms of a client so  caregiver might work as few as three hours with one client or is it is twelve hours with a client on it given shift and typically it's taking place in their home wherever their home is so somebody might be living in a senior community they might be living in a facility and an independent apartment and we would be working with them in that type of in within their home environment wherever they live or h then the process things if you can just paint a picture for our audience what are some of the things that they do as far as they care go without being too graphic well we provide a range of services in a very broad continuum so it can range from everything from meal preparation laundry linen changes grocery shopping light housekeeping all the way through the continuum is if a client requires assistance with their eighty l's and that would be the activities of daily living that includes bathing dressing ambulation assistance with transfers possibly from bed to a walker to a wheelchair or the type of transferring incontinence care or feeding and i think that's basically the the six eighty yells so that that's the range that we go through that's considered the home care range of services  gotcha and today i wanted to mention our theme i thank you for painting that picture for the audience i theme today is the senior summer safety their summer safety so that's awesome that you wanted to bring that to everyone's intention so that we could be aware of these things in the summer now can you said you there is how many points five points to to discuss right and so one of the really important things as we work into a move into the summer season is an awareness of the types of things that that individuals that seniors need to really pay attention to in terms of summer safety and there's really basically five areas of focus i think are simple and basic but they definitely will keep an individual safe so i think maybe the first thing to mention is that it's really important for anyone but including seniors to remain hydrated typically someone of an elder age will not eat as easily as someone that is younger so it's important to say aware of the fact that you are in taking enough fluids so basically you look at about eight cups of water eight glasses of water or a sports drink that has electrolytes per day ok so i'm just being aware and maybe measuring that out pre measured it into a few water bottles or being aware  that a standard water bottle might be sixteen ounces so i need to drink for those throughout the day will remain high to rated and basically where i mean a lot of times as we all do we get going throughout the day and it's sort of like oh i haven't had enough water fluid  but somebody that becomes dehydrated is as a senior it can lead to medical issues that you know if you're dehydrated confusion and other medical conditions that the arctic yeah ok so what are some of the signs so that you know a caregiver or a family member who has a senior would know to look i think less energy with urge to change of behavior just in terms of example would be if somebody is typically very active and all of a sudden they have no energy and they don't want to participate in the types of activities that they normally would have become a little more thorough chick could even be something as you know fever or whatever posted you're reading them on your computer on line the weather channel whatever take them seriously very important to remain in air conditioning when possible and if you're normally somebody that's participating in outdoor  activities during those heat advisory times it's time to maybe take them indoors so go to the mall go to a museum go to a library but try to stay inside during those heat advisories high heat periods ok and if for some reason they're outside where they're taking a wall going to stroll is there a particular way that they should dress the war absolutely so the appropriate attire is another key point in terms of summer safety so going light color and loose apparel is very important and also natural fabric so things like cotton and linen and fabrics that are made from natural materials and try to stay away from polyester nylons that basically those products just hold heat in so you want products that are to be wearing a tire that's going to breathe and let you know the air in and out versus trapping the the heat inside which polyester and synthetic fabrics will do gotcha and about what should they do of protecting their head their eyes or skin so protecting your eyes is also very important so worrying sunglasses because you be without sun sunglasses or the sun without protection can damage your eyes and you should always when wearing sunglasses look to purchase something with both protection so that's really important in your head wear a hat and not just a baseball hat were a hat with a brim that will protect your eyes that will protect your neck is is important and also to keep and you cool in those hot hot summer day i think it was very interesting and you said i think most people just like ok to put a hat on i'll just go ahead but yeah it makes sense to cover everything yes i mean we all run out with a baseball hat or a little room to hat and it just doesn't protect your neck and and your face well enough for referring to you know hot summer days right right very good and then you have your third point ok well we've covered four of them  number one and then the second one and then the third one all right so basically keeping hydrated remaining cool wearing appropriate attire and i protection and skin protection so ok this one would be to make sure that you're protecting your skin appropriately and you know we we all know of the about the importance of that now and wearing sunscreen but you know using a sunscreen that it's at least thirty or higher is very important and applying it fifteen minutes before you're going out and keep reapplying if you're out for a longer period of time ok and what should that be that typically is is an hour to an hour and a half you should be reapplying your sunscreen ok and then down some of the categories ok a little bit all right and that's that's a great question because one of the areas that that i find that when talking with clients and they surely that there is a misunderstanding or confusion about the difference between home care and home health and typically you don't really need to understand it until you're in that crisis or you're been hospitalized or being discharged home and you're hearing all this terminology from doctors and you know individuals that are surrounding you it's your support network so the difference between home care and home health care ok is pretty much keeping in mind that word health so home care which is  this category of services that we provide at home watch caregivers includes as i mentioned before everything from assistance at home with meal preparation and light housekeeping and linen changes and that type of assistance that allow somebody that needs that in order to remain safe and living in their home through that continuum of existence with activities of daily living so the bathing dressing the personal care category that's where the home care group of services stops ok it the home health care services are those services that are provided and subsist prescribe by a physician so they would include if you're at home and you need a visiting nurse for example would be wound care maybe you have a wound you're being discharged from the hospital or you have it but it needs to be taken care of that must be taken care of by an r ok so that would be something that the physician would say and prescribe that visiting nurse service and those proper those services are only provided by an r n if it's that type of service  physical therapy occupational therapy all of those types of things fall under what's considered home health care and they're provided by again a prescription that's that's written by a physician and then delivered by a skilled home health care agency so i'm trying to see the one of the what if there's more than one the key differences between those because some of the care that you're doing i've seen or heard nurses come in and do those personal care things also so what is that if more than one the key things that differentiate well typically a nurse would not provide the services that we do ok that's those are provided by a certified home health aide and that's certified home healthy it is working under the supervision of a nurse an r n for the agency so our home health aides work under the supervision of our director of nursing for all clients so she is directing he or she is directing that care and and advising what's on the plan of care for that client ok let me think of an example so let's just say mrs smith is being discharged today from the hospital ok and she's coming home and for she needs assistance with bathing and transferring in and out of bed in and out of chairs ok so at this point isn't capable of  walking on her own or has the body strength to transfer from a chair to a wheelchair or bed to a chair ok so those services the bathing and the transferring would be fall under home care that would fall under the category of services that we provide but she's also coming home and she has a wound that isn't healed yet ok but it's ok it's fine for her to be living at home at this point and not in the hospital so in that case she would be discharged with a visiting nurse skilled nurse service ok and that nurse would come and provide all of the wound care ok so they would do the dressing and then the maintenance of the wound care ok mrs smith might also be coming home and needs physical therapy so that also falls under what's considered home health care so the doctor would write a prescription for physical therapy and the appropriate group would come in and provide that service at home the difference too is that under home health care those services are typically paid for through health insurance ok and home care is typically paid for by private pay or an individual that has a long term care insurance policy ok so that's the differentiator and also the level of the license sure that the the service is required to order in terms of performing that sort of this gotcha and i actually find that interesting i didn't i didn't i was unaware of that as probably most people are right that although it's under the care of say the nurse th e home in home care the home health aides a home health aide even though they're certified that it's through the long care insurance or private pay private pay ok and that's one thing that th most individuals and tell they enter into the situation where they need this service understand that right ok so it's the two categories one is basically thinking of home health care is  thinking of your have you know this more skilled health need ok and that's provided that's like paper that's medical so that's taken care of by your medical insurance medicare typically not always but typically another fine nuance between the two is that sometimes when you're discharged from the hospital and if you are sent home with the this sitting nurse to provide care at home that nurse will typically visit once or twice a week and sometimes you will qualify to have a home health aide under their service for about an hour a day for a few days a week for a few weeks if that is part of what you qualify for that is paid for by the insurance ok so then a physical therapist an occupational therapist a very skilled service that can be delivered in the home doesn't have to be delivered in the hospital ok to be delivered at home and it's under the prescription and supervision of the the before in the interim of you for about two years in mom with county ok it's well home watch you got it and you yourself do you had that certification are you a nurse you sound almost like a no no i i'm not a nurse in the business owner ok i am a certified senior advisor and that's a designation that i received through taking that certification course so what is certified senior advisor is someone that has a good understanding and knowledge base of all of the categories and services that a senior would possibly need assistance with and not an expert in any of those areas but having the knowledge base to know have an understanding and then an ability to refer out and know where to take that and refer that particular individual so example would be if i had a client who needed care management through a clinical so licensed clinical social worker then i would recognize that through the conversation and then say well we need to connect you with this individual that can assist you with your need now being that it's like a partnership with the home health care or their medical professionals do you you are do you go to events or work you know store something like that where you both share the same space and write well there's the networking organizations and typically you know just they're working in this particular area there are relationships that you build with individuals of all the different you know services and we all work very well together and refer back and forth depending on specific client me gotcha ok and then tying back in our theme with the summer what would you like for our audience to know as as far  going out to these various events because they'll be all type of the dance going on all throughout the summer and if they are outside is there amount of time that you think they should be outside where you can be a little more specific and then also when should they be you know drinking it while they're outside before they're outside and when they come back in well i think basically to hydrate it should just be taking place throughout the day you know just try to even it all out so that you're not getting to four o'clock in the afternoon and trying to drink a cup of water at one time because that's not really healthy for you either and depending on you i think it's fairly individual in terms of what your ability is in your health situation in terms of how long you can stay outside but having a clear understanding of what that is so i'd hate to just paint something that says everybody of this age bracket can only stay outside for an hour i think it's really making sure that depending on your current medical situation and condition and overall health that you have an understanding of what you can tolerate and not tolerate i mean for example someone with a heart condition you know there depending on the severity of it they're probably not going to be staying outside in the high heat for very long periods of time ok we're someone without that condition might be able to you know sustain it because they're in great shape and they they run you know half marathon serve whatever  know so they had to pay attention to them exactly and if you know if someone the is you know they're struggling with understanding what their limitations are or maybe they have a cognitive impairment in their judgment is necessarily great at that point you know don't hesitate to try to to assist and kind and gentle way to you know work with them to maybe have a you know keep an eye on them and help them right now some of the other things you do we love having you on the show and informing everyone if someone wanted to work with you work for you organisation  you go into the steps that they would need to take ok well the first thing would be to basically give us a call at our office and we'll have a discussion over the phone to determine if the basic qualifications are there example would be that if somebody doesn't have the license sure that we require that's required by the state then we can't hire them so we wouldn't want to take them through an interview process and then say you don't have your license ok so we would have a conversation about making sure the minimum requirements are there and then we would schedule a time for a couple hour period of meet and greet and interview and and within the office with a different staff members and then we would take it from there now got you know if they didn't have the licensure their certification but they had that passion to help and assist then we would want to wanted to have a conversation with them because we can assist them if they have the passion and they would like to participate and move to the next step of getting home healthy licensure we in many cases provide individuals with lists of schools and suggested recommendations based on where they live and you know explain to them how many hours and what the costs are and try to direct them to the resources we also do have some positions that are non licensed requirements so example would be if we have clients that just need transportation or grocery shopping or things that don't require assistance with activities have we live in and it's purely that type of service then we do have employees that do not that are not certified home health aides that provide those services for that unique set of clients ok gotcha and then now for those who are listening and watching and they have parents or a family member or friends that need your services what do they need to do please basically make a phone call to us or visit our website at home watch caregivers dot com princeton and they can submit a request for someone to reach out to them or a phone call and we'll have that initial discussion and typically what we do is have initial phone discussion to determine if you know answer questions many times people are in a very preliminary phase they're not ready for services or they're night the care isn't needed within the next week per se so they're in effect finding mode and we love to talk to anyone in that situation and try to assist them to have a good understanding of what this whole category entails and what you know just as we've talked today about home health versus home care and what this particular services are that are available for individuals that want to remain at home and then we also the next step would be to meet with them in their home and get to know one another because the most important part of working with an agency is that the client and the agency the members of those two groups have a good understanding and can develop a good working relationship because that's the key so we always have that meeting first because that's that's very important part and then if they want to engage in our services the next step is a prior to starting care are nurse meant and create the plan of care for the client and then introduce and supervise the home health aide that will be working with a client ok so you do have a nurse on staff yes all agencies are required to have a highly regulated state and it is it's excellent it's for the protection of the consumer and the employee and so yes everyone sees must have that or licensed must have a registered nurse that supervising all the home health aides in is there information there's a lot of them for doing the show the fifty s and also about the different services the differences between home care and home health  it's a very robust site so what we do encourage anyone to take a look and learn and call us and be happy to assist ok you know and i also encourage individuals to to start really this area not when the need is there but prior to it so that adult children that have parents that are aging you know start to take the time to understand what services are available in terms and based on the need that m arise based on what their aging parents might need down the road it's much easier to do it prior to the need than it is when you're in the crisis of the situation got you ok well this is it for our show today  my name is tony your host thank you very much thank you tony it was a pleasure to be with you but you're having you thank