The Truman Charities Podcast
Truman Charities is the only podcast that donates $250 to each of our guests' charity of choice.
Jamie Truman, connects with individuals who are making a significant impact in their communities. From New York Times bestselling authors to innovative farmers, we share the untold stories of those who are shaping the world around us. We feature trailblazers, influencers, and innovators who are driving positive change, such as the lawyer who fought Dupont for two decades to protect our water and the vital work of an organization dedicated to supporting women who have been trafficked within the United States.
Jamie Truman is the co-founder of Truman Charities, an entirely volunteer-run organization. Since its inception in 2010, Truman Charities has successfully raised over $2 million for a variety of charitable causes.
In addition to her work with Truman Charities, Jamie is also the author of the bestselling book "Vanishing Fathers: The Ripple Effect on Tomorrow's Generation." This book has generated over $80,000 for charities supporting at-risk youth, as 100% of the book's proceeds are donated to these vital organizations.
The Truman Charities Podcast
When Your Parent Needs Care, Here's What Medicare Won't Tell You | Assisting Hands Home Care Ep. 149
Most people aren't prepared to care for aging family members. From finding quality caregivers to navigating insurance, deciding on the best care for loved ones is overwhelming, confusing, and often lonely.
Steve Lorberbaum learned the hard way just how difficult those challenges are and now works to help families approach senior care with more support and less stress. His agency, Assisting Hands Home Care, guides families through every step of arranging in-home care so seniors can age comfortably at home.
In this episode, Steve explains what Medicare actually covers, how hospice works, and the pros and cons of private caregivers versus agencies. He also addresses common misconceptions about in-home care and what you can do to plan for the unexpected.
Tune in for insights, real stories, and advice to deal with the challenges of aging parents!
Learn how Potomac Community Village connects seniors with the support they need to stay independent: https://www.potomaccommunityvillage.org
Connect with Assisting Hands Home Care:
Phone: (301) 363-2580
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Email: info@trumancharities.com
This episode was post produced by Podcast Boutique https://podcastboutique.com/
Welcome to the Truman Charities Podcast. I'm Jamie Truman, your host. Today's episode is one every family should hear, whether you're currently caring for an aging loved one or just be better prepared for what life might bring. What would you do if your parent was discharged from the hospital today and you suddenly had to figure out how to get them care at home with zero preparation? This happens to families every single day.
Speaker 1:Today's guest, Steve Lorbebaum, is not only someone that understands that reality, but built a business to help families through it. Steve is the owner of Assisting Hands Home Care. Steve shares how his own family's challenges inspired him to help others navigate senior care with more support and less stress. We cover common mistakes how to hire the right caregiver, what Medicare really covers and what questions you should be asking before a crisis hits. Before we talk to Steve, please take a moment to rate and review this podcast. Trimitarity is a 100% volunteer-based organization and the reviews are essential to growing our podcast. So please take a moment, scroll down, hit the five stars and rate the short review on why you enjoy this podcast. Also, don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you don't miss any future episodes. All right, now let's welcome Steve to Truman Charities. All right, thanks, Steve, for coming on. I'm excited to talk to you today. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:This is great.
Speaker 1:I know. So I learned about assisting hands, home care, from my husband, jerry, and he said you got to talk to this guy, steve. He's doing some great stuff in the community. Steve, before we talk exactly about the people that you're able to serve, how you're able to help the community, I want to hear a little bit about yourself. So why are you dedicating, why did you create this business and you're kind of dedicating your life to helping seniors and their families?
Speaker 2:You know, my background is I'm a lawyer. I practiced law for about 25 years, mostly in commercial and corporate real estate. Years ago, both my parents, at separate times, had cancer and my brothers and I are not medical people and we learned a lot almost exclusively the hard way. We hired bad companies. We hired good companies. We hired bad caregivers and good ones. We didn't know about resources that would have made our lives and my parents' lives a lot easier. My father-in-law has had dementia in Florida for the last 17 years. Same thing. My wife and I learned it mostly the hard way with her and her sisters. So about 11, 12 years ago I was at a crossroads in my career and I decided to retire from the practice of law and start this company, really with a goal towards educating others, so they didn't make the same mistakes we made.
Speaker 1:So tell me a little bit about some of those mistakes that you make, because I'm kind of interested to hear about. You say there's, you know there's bad companies and we have bad caregivers, and tell us a little bit about that experience that you had.
Speaker 2:Well, I would say, the biggest one was not understanding how hospice works.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, I don't, and I don't think a lot of people do so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, explain that Both my parents had cancers, which meant their doctors were oncologists. And oncologists are the warriors of medicine. Right, they're battling, they're fighting cancer, and giving up to them is just not part of their credo. That much, or at least wasn't back then, and so they've always got that next treatment or that next experimental thing. So both my parents died in the hospital, plugged into machines, and maybe that's not what they would have chosen. Maybe they would have chosen a less invasive path, which is hospice, where you know, yes, you're not trying to cure the disease, but you are trying to make someone comfortable. And I don't know what my parents would have picked. Maybe they would have picked the fight till the end. But my dad in particular suffered greatly from some experimental treatments that maybe he would have been better served and had a better quality of life had he not done them and just accepted the inevitable, but managed pain, managed discomfort, but was able to engage with families at home rather than being in a hospital, and so that really stuck with us. And so it's things like that and things like when you're in a hospital and it's ready for discharge and they tell you you need to go to a rehab Well, many hospitals will give you a list, and it could be a list of 50 different rehab communities.
Speaker 2:Well, how do you know which one? And so you don't have any knowledge about this. So to me, those are the kind of things. And then when you have caregivers, do you hire a private caregiver, which lots of people do, or do you hire an agency like mine? And what's the difference and what's the benefit of one versus the other? And people just don't know those things and they're confronted with making those decisions always in crisis time, because mom or dad has fallen or their spouse has fallen or significantly deteriorated. And all of a sudden now you're making decisions without a lot of knowledge or information.
Speaker 2:They're making them quick because people are discharging from a hospital tomorrow and they don't know what to do. And that's where we come in. We know what to do. We've been through this. Now we may not know what's right for you and your family, but we can give you ideas and thoughts so that you have some knowledge and information to make a more informed decision about what you need next.
Speaker 1:Okay, so tell me a little bit about those type of questions that people should have and be asking you, and what type of information that we should know, sure, so if we're talking about home care, what we do just so that people understand is private duty home care it's called.
Speaker 2:We work with families to care for their loved ones wherever home is at the moment. So we have served people in hospitals, in hotels, in assisted living communities, in private residences, in apartments, wherever someone is at the moment, and that can be short-term or long-term. So what we do is not covered by Medicare. So that's the first thing. People already don't have an understanding about that. This is mostly private pay or long-term care insurance or there are some grants or VA benefits that will cover the cost of what we do. So it's out of pocket, unless it's the VA or grant program. And so what we do is what's called non-medical care. So we're not assisting with wound care. It's not PT, so it's.
Speaker 2:Can you help somebody have their best life at home with assistance with bathing, with dressing, with walking from place to place without falling down, with meal prep, with driving to errands? So the first couple of questions are always what do you think you need, right? So what's going to make a person have their best life? Right? That's what we're focused on, recognizing that no one wants a stranger coming into their home. So part of the conversation people have to have is around getting that person to feel comfortable with having, at least initially, a stranger in their home, comfortable with having, at least initially, a stranger in their home. So, asking people to think about what would a good schedule look like to help you through your day, right, what do you need help with? And it's hard to be honest, right, because people don't want to feel like they're not on their A game. Right, no one ever wants to admit they've lost a step, but that's what we're for. It's for when people have lost a step, whether it's because of a physical or emotional or mental health issue. So it's the questions around what do you think you need? And then you might come to a company like mine and talk to us and what we would do is tell you what things are possible versus not possible.
Speaker 2:So many people want someone to come in for an hour a day. Hey, can you come in for an hour and check on my mom, make sure she took her meds, had lunch? It's very hard in a home to do that because caregivers don't live next door to your mom, so they're driving. It could be a half an hour to come to your mom's house. They don't want to stay for an hour. Could we find somebody that would do it? Sure, but they're not going to keep coming back over and over and over again. They're not going to focus on continuity of care, they're just going to do it until something else better comes along. So it's knowing what is reasonable to ask for in terms of what care is possible and what's not possible. Some of it depends on where you live and do you live in Clarksburg, where you live out on a farm? Well, caregivers don't live anywhere near there. They're not going to be as inclined to want to go to your beautiful Clarksburg residence Silver Spring a different story. Lots of caregivers live near there, so they're more likely to pick up a shorter shift case.
Speaker 2:So those are kind of the things I could talk more about, like discharging from a hospital and how you think about that, if you think that would be helpful. Yeah, I think so, sure. So in fact, I do a talk, and that's part of one of the things that we do at Assisting Hands is we have sort of an education program where we provide talks in the communities. It's not part of what we do. What we do and how we make our living is providing aids in people's homes, but how we fulfill our mission is educating people to make the right decisions.
Speaker 2:So I do a whole talk on discharges planned and unplanned discharges from the hospital and so that might involve, you know, you had a fall or maybe you had pneumonia and so now you didn't plan on being in the hospital. But now you come home and now you realize, okay, let's say you live with your spouse, but your husband, who is 90, isn't really going to be capable or feel comfortable with helping you in and out of the shower. Right now you come home. You haven't been home for a week. You're feeling congested, maybe you are under anesthesia, so you have a level of confusion. While you process anesthesia out of your well, you're going to need a little extra help.
Speaker 2:So you know making sure that when you talk to a discharge planner in the hospital, you know what they're saying, because they might say to you we think that you should go to an inpatient rehab. A lot of people don't want to do that. You don't have to do that, but there are benefits to going to in-placement rehab versus coming home with rehab. So, understanding that you do have choices and you do have choices on which rehab would be best suited to you. So, for example, if you live in Silver Spring, you really don't want to go to rehab in Gaithersburg if your family wants to come visit you because maybe you want to find one that's closer to your home in Silver Spring. So it's those kinds of questions and to know that when you're in a hospital you are entitled to have a care plan meeting. You will have a social worker who's a discharge planner or a discharge guide, a transition guide Every hospital calls them something different to help you plan how to come home safely.
Speaker 2:They will help by ordering durable medical equipment. So if you're going to come home and you can't get up to your bedroom on the top floor and you're going to have to put a hospital bed in your living room, they will arrange for the hospital bed. They will arrange for things like a bedside commode or a wheelchair hospital bed. They will arrange for things like a bedside commode or a wheelchair. So part of leaving is them helping you make sure you can live in your environment when you get home so that you have a safe discharge. So knowing what to ask for and how to ask for a meeting is very helpful and important.
Speaker 1:So I saw on your website and you're talking about the different types of care that you provide. It's kind of all over the map. You help with a dementia care and Parkinson's care, stroke care, post-hospital care that we've talked about, and then underneath you have quite a lot of testimonials about how Assisting Hands has provided some incredible care for family members. Now do you have any stories that kind of come to mind about some of these families that you guys have been able to provide service to? That it's really helped.
Speaker 2:Sure, I mean we have one client in particular client. He's a younger guy in his 60s. He has a wife with early onset dementia in his 60s, he has a wife with early onset dementia. That's a very challenging disease because you are physically fit but mentally not so much. So finding the right caregiver for that person takes a lot of effort because you need somebody that can engage with that client and be active with that client, because that person, who's in their 60s, doesn't want to sit home all day, doesn't need help getting dressed. What they need is engagement. They need someone that can drive them to an errand or go out with them for a walk or go to see a movie and then take them and when they're home, engage with them by maybe going through some photo albums and recalling memories, which is a different skill set than someone who is bedbound and needs someone who is excellent at a bed bath. So really understanding the person and understanding their needs is sort of critical to providing the best caregiving experience.
Speaker 2:And in that particular case we worked hard with that husband to find some programs for the client to go to. So we helped him find an art program for his wife and we helped find a taekwondo or a tai chi, rather, program to help get his spouse out and engaged, so she wasn't sitting at home all day long. That's one particular one. We have another client who is very religious, so she goes to synagogue on the weekend. Well, she walks because she doesn't drive on the weekend. We provide aids throughout the week, but on the weekend we provide an aide who pushes her a mile in a wheelchair so that she can continue to go to synagogue for those important holidays. So our caregiver pushes her to the synagogue.
Speaker 2:She waits with her and then comes back home, and so, again, it's allowing this person to continue to live their best life by providing some supplemental support that they wouldn't be able to get alone.
Speaker 1:Now, you had mentioned earlier, when you're first speaking about caregivers, you know that do a great job and then some that are not. How are you able to find great caregivers to assist these individuals that you're working with?
Speaker 2:So first, I mean to assist these individuals that you're working with. So first, I mean, caregivers are amazing people, right. I mean they are taking care of our loved ones as if they are their own loved ones. So it truly is a gift that someone has for the gift of caring of others. And so, for us, all of our caregivers are certified nurse aides. They're all licensed with the Maryland Board of Nursing. That means they all went to school, they got skills and training. They're the same people that work in hospitals and rehabs and assisted living communities. They choose to work in a home environment. So we have a pretty rigorous process of interviewing them. They meet with our HR team. Then they come in for training. They meet with one of our nurses for about three hours to go through a skills review to make sure they have the technical competence. They meet with several other members of the team, including me, our director of operations, our director of human resources.
Speaker 2:We're all looking for different things. So our nurse is looking for technical competence. I'm looking for their personalities, right, because you could have two kinds of caregivers and everyone in between, and if you need someone to engage you you want a chatty, cathy well, we have to find that person. We have to talk to that person right To know they're a chatty Cathy. Now there are other people that say I do not want a chatty Cathy in my house and then we have to find a caregiver who's more introspective, more introverted, so that they are not going to be talking your head off or engaging you. They're going to be leaving you alone, right.
Speaker 2:We have other caregivers that are energizer bunnies. They're looking through all over our house to look for things to fix, to clean. We have others that won't touch a thing unless they're told to do it, because we have clients that fall along that spectrum. So part of what we do is get to know our caregivers, get to know their personalities and as part of our onboarding process, we talk to our clients so we can try to get a good match and we're pretty good About 85% of the time. We get it right the first time, but that means 15% of the time we don't and we get a bad caregiver match. We will keep replacing caregivers until we get a good match and look, we're going to hire caregivers that are duds. It's going to happen, right. No matter how hard you try and the screening you do, you're going to get somebody that really wasn't a good fit. But we work hard to understand who those folks are and if they can't be retrained and educated then we work quickly to ask them to go find a job some other company.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't even think about it that way. It's kind of a matchmaking process. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. Are you serving just in Potomac or where are you serving?
Speaker 2:No, we serve all over Montgomery County and the northern part of PG County. So we work from kind of Route 50 up Palo Alto and then east towards Annapolis and then all in Montgomery County.
Speaker 1:If I'm listening to this and I have a mother or father and I think that they are going to need some type of in-home care shortly, how do I go about it? What is the process like?
Speaker 2:So if they want to just talk to somebody, they can call us. They can call our office number. It's 301-363-2580. They can call me directly. My number is 240-332-9149. They can log on to our website, which is assistinghandspotomaccom, and there's a little chat bot in there that says I want help and someone from our office will give them a call.
Speaker 2:And so part of the first process is a conversation, just understanding what do you need Now? Look, sometimes it's very fast, but we'll get a call today that says I need a caregiver at my house tonight because mom's discharging this afternoon and I didn't realize that she can't be left alone. Now we can do that. Is that our preferred way? No, because that means we haven't really found a good match. We found a person, but not the best person. So normally what people do? Give us a couple of days, call us two or three days in advance and say here's what we need, and we continue to talk and gather some information and then we send out some agreements. So we're regulated by the state of Maryland. So we have a bunch of documents that need to get signed. Mostly they're a HIPAA release and advanced directives and notification of coordinated care. We have a simple service agreement which is pretty benign. It basically says you can cancel on 24 hours notice and we invoice you weekly in arrears and if you don't like us, call and cancel and you don't get billed until we actually did something. And then we would have a nurse come out, and typically we would like to have the nurse come out prior to the start of care. But we can start care and have someone come out within the first 24 to 48 hours, and so that's kind of what we do to gather more information Once we get started. We will then assign a caregiver to a set schedule. So we always ask people pick a schedule. It doesn't have to be the right one, it has to be the starting one Because, especially if someone's just getting out of the hospital, you don't know what they need yet.
Speaker 2:Especially if you're the one who's helping mom or dad, chances are if you're the daughter or son you haven't lived in your parents' house in 30 years. You don't really know what their life is like. You don't know whether they shower in the morning or they shower at night. You don't know if they get up at eight o'clock in the morning or 10 o'clock Sometimes. They're not particularly good reporters about their own world.
Speaker 2:So you may guess, okay, we're going to have a caregiver who's going to come in and work from, let's say, eight in the morning until six o'clock at night, and we're going to do that every day. And then you find out, you know what Mom gets up in the middle of the night and she's a fall risk. But we need to scrap that and we need a nighttime caregiver who comes in to help make dinner and is there through the morning to make sure mom doesn't get up and fall or my husband doesn't get up and fall or whatever. So that's really kind of it's an exploratory process where sometimes you may start with 24 hours a day For a few days.
Speaker 2:You get a baseline, you understand what's happening in the home at night, what's happening in the home during the day, and then we will report that to the family and then they'll say, ok, we think we can change the hours and then we'll reduce care to the level we think is needed and as time goes on it may get better. Look, part of sometimes we do is post-surgical recovery or post-hospital stay recovery our job, to work ourselves out of a job and so we're going to be helping reduce hours until you don't need us anymore. Other times it may be someone is declining in their health and they need more. So we may have started out with four hours, three days a week, and now we're seven days a week, eight hours a day. So again, it's very flexible and it very much depends on what the need is. So it's not so important to get it right, it's more important to get it started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems like which is really nice about what you provide is that it's very flexible. So, like you said, you may not know how much care that you need, and it may start out with just a couple hours and you actually may notice that you need full day or something like that, so that's really great. Is there any misconceptions that people have about home care that you'd like to kind of clear up?
Speaker 2:So a couple of things. Number one is, first we understand that most people don't want us there, right, and that's okay. We understand that, and a lot of times families will come to us and say I need help getting my mom to understand, or my dad or my uncle or my friend, why they need help. And so some of the things we talk through is really one of the examples I use all the time is I'll ask somebody do you have auto insurance? Yes, I do. And how long have you had it? 70 years. And when was the last time you had an accident?
Speaker 2:I've never had an accident, but you paid for insurance for 70 years and you never used it because it's insurance. That's a little bit. What home care is? We're there when you need us. You just may not need us all the time. So suggesting that you could get by with an hour a day may not be realistic because, yes, you may only need help getting up, but we're also there if you need more. So that's a misconception about yes, you know people don't want us. We get it, but there are reasons to be there and some of it's not because we're sitting there. People hate to see humans at rest when they're paying for them. They want them moving around. But again, they have to understand that part of it is we're there when you need us, but you may not always need us. So that's a misconception.
Speaker 2:Another one is that it's covered by Medicare or your private insurance and it's not. That's the biggest misconception we see. All the time you know their doctor will say oh yeah, your insurance will cover home care and it won't. Now, sometimes it has I think probably three times since we've been in business over 11 years, someone's private health insurance has covered a short period stay, so mostly it's you have to pay for it yourself. You have to have long-term care insurance, you have to be a veteran. That qualifies for VA services, and we are an approved VA vendor so we can work with them. Or there are some county programs that will offer some benefits for respite care. That's sort of a big one.
Speaker 2:The other one is the difference between home health and home care. They're not the same. So home health is occupational therapy, physical therapy, wound care, infusion therapy, wound care. All of those are covered by Medicare up to a point, and they're not what we do. What we do is all the other stuff the assistance with bathing and dressing and toileting, driving to doctor's appointments, making meals all of those things which are typically, as I said, covered through a private pay or long-term care insurance. That's probably the biggest misconception, I guess.
Speaker 2:The final one is you know, people are always afraid that caregivers are going to steal things from the home and look, in 11 years we've had it happen three times. By and large, that's not what's going to happen. These people, this is their career, it's what they're choosing to do and they're not thinking about how they're going to enrich themselves at your expense. They're there because they honestly believe in making a difference in your life. So, yeah, it happens, but it doesn't happen as often as you think, especially when you're working with a company that has layers of supervision and quality controls and criminal background checking and other things. I also tell people don't make it easy, right? So don't leave your favorite jewelry that you never wear laying around the house. Don't leave large wads of cash laying around the house. Right, you don't need to encourage it, but it isn't really likely to happen.
Speaker 1:So, Steve, is there anything that we haven't covered that you think someone should know?
Speaker 2:So the one thing I would say that just that people know is the difference between working with a private caregiver or working with a company, because there are differences and we're not right for everyone. There's many, many home care companies throughout Montgomery County. We all have different things we do in different ways, in different ways we approach our business. But the biggest difference is lots of people can go out and get a private caregiver and you can get one from a friend or your housekeeper who says I got a friend who can help you out, and those can all be fine options. The benefit of that is they're typically less expensive and we haven't talked about rates and I don't know if you want to cover that I'm certainly happy to.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, that's sort of static. It's only good for now, not in six months from now, because rates may change. But generally speaking, private caregivers are going to be $7 to $8 an hour less expensive. But you're hiring them privately and you're either paying them as a 1099 contractor or you're withholding for them. That's up to you. My view is, if someone's showing up in your house seven days a week or five days a week for eight hours a day, chances are they're not an independent contractor. They're probably your employee. But I'm not practicing law to say that Someone's got to figure that out on their own. But you're responsible for hiring that person. You're responsible for vetting that person.
Speaker 2:They're not covered by workers' comp unless they have their own, and you should always ask because if a person is working in your home, you should ensure they have workers' compensation coverage. They're not covered by general liability insurance in case they damage something in your home and if they call out sick there's no one but you to find the replacement. But they're less expensive. That's really their best advantage is they're less money. When you work with a company like Assisting Hands, we're taking all of that burden from you. All those caregivers are our employees. They're W-2. They're covered by our workers' comp. In case they get injured in the home, they're covered by our workers' comp. In case they get injured in the home, they're covered by our general liability policy in case something gets broken or stolen or whatever.
Speaker 2:We do a nurse assessment. There's a supervisor. So if you have an issue, you call us. We send out people that can help train a caregiver, help evaluate what's going on in the home, to provide advice to that caregiver. They're not on their own. You don't like that caregiver, you call us. They magically disappear. You're not worried about firing them. We take care of that. We take care of finding them and making sure they're vetted. Make sure they're all licensed, certified nurse aides so that they have a level of skill and training that they should and and certified nurse aides so that they have a level of skill and training that they should. And, as I said, we're supervising them and you can turn us on and off, but we're more expensive, right? So we're going to be that extra seven or $8 an hour more money. So people have to evaluate what's more important that basket of services that we're providing or the less expensive option, and I can't say what's best. Someone has to decide what's best for them.
Speaker 2:I think this is what's best, because this is why I do it for a living, and we tried it with my parents and we found that working for a company worked better for us. So I am biased, but that's only because that's what I've chosen to do for a living.
Speaker 1:No, I mean talking to you and the services you provide and how thorough you guys are. It just seems like such less of a headache and you're already dealing with so much as a family that a lot of these issues I would love for someone else to have to deal with, because you're already dealing with so much. So you are providing a lot of peace of mind for people. There really is peace of mind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what we often say. We're providing peace of mind for families by being there when they can't be there.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:You don't have to worry about it. We got it, we've been through it, so we know what's going on. Now can I say we've never seen that before. Yes, it happens every week.
Speaker 1:Some crazy thing happens that we've never seen before, but we've seen a lot. So, okay, I will make sure that I have all of your information and everything in the show notes so people can get in touch with you, steve and your assisting hands, home care, and so. Is there anything else that we haven't covered?
Speaker 2:The only thing, if you want to go into it briefly if we have time, is sort of assisted living communities versus staying at home. Okay, so up to you, because that's a topic in and of itself, but I can make it brief.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'd love to hear Okay.
Speaker 2:So, look, there's a lot of assisted living communities that run the gamut of small group homes to multi-family housing communities, apartments, you know, with a couple of hundred people living in them, and they offer a variety and range of services and supplemental services. And again, there's no right answer as to whether or not being at home is better than moving to a community with some caveats. So to me, there are a lot of great ones around. What I would tell people is go visit them, but don't be wowed by how amazing they are, because what happens is a lot of times people who are maybe in their 60s or 50s the kids will go visit one. Oh my God, my mom would love this. There's a bar, there's a gourmet chef, there's 500 classes a day. Who wouldn't love this? Right, everyone will want to go there.
Speaker 2:But the reality is know your mom, because if your mom's an introvert and she eats chicken every meal, so she doesn't care about food, she's not going to a bar, she's not social, maybe she's an introvert and that's not the right place for her. Maybe being at home is a better option for her. If she has a level of vision loss or cognitive impairment, maybe being at home is a better place for her. So again, it's trying to understand her perspective of what would she take advantage of to determine if one of the communities is the right fit for her and go visit a couple and if you can include mom in or dad in or your loved one or whoever it is, make sure you include them so that they feel like they're part of the process of saying yes.
Speaker 2:Many people want to stay at home. Economically, the crossover point and it varies a bit is probably about eight to 10 hours a day of home care equates to the cost of an assisted living community on a monthly basis. Now that varies wildly because they can be very high end with lots of services and you can have high needs to smaller, lesser expensive communities with not a lot. So it really kind of depends. But really think twice before you just decide mom's not safe or dad's not safe or my husband's not safe at home anymore, because they can be up until a point and it may be you want to wait before you make that decision. So home care becomes the bridge to an ultimate decision at a later transition point.
Speaker 1:Interesting. You know you brought up a lot of points that I've never thought of, so that is really interesting. There is a lot to think about there. But yeah, I mean definitely, if their personality is they eat the same thing and they're not very social, then that would not be a good fit for them.
Speaker 2:No, you put stress on them. Yeah, Now they're like I don't want to leave my room because there's a hundred people in the hallway all want to say hello to me. I really don't want to talk to any of them, right, right.
Speaker 1:So it might like it might backfire, yeah, and have, yeah, negative effect. All right, so what I want to touch on really quickly is that we like to make a donation on our guests' behalf, just as a thank you for everything that you're doing for the community and how many families that you are helping, and so you picked because you are actually on the board of directors of Potomac Community Village for your donation to go towards. So can you just give us a little brief overview of what exactly is Potomac Community Village and why you're so invested in this charity?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You know I love what they do. So the village movement is a nationwide movement of seniors helping seniors and it started in Massachusetts maybe 15 years ago I don't know exactly when and so there are a number of local nonprofits, neighbors helping neighbor communities that have been set up. Montgomery County is a big proponent of these villages and you can type in Montgomery County Villages and we'll pop a county website and you can put your zip code in and it will tell you if there's a village in your area. And what villages do is different depending on the village, and what people often say is if you know one village, you know one village, which is unfortunate, but that's the way it works Because it's designed by the people who are the founders.
Speaker 2:Now I'm on the board. I was not a founder, but I've been on the board of Potomac Community Village seven or eight years, maybe a little longer, and what we do is we provide ways for people to get together. We have a lot of social programs for our members. So we do talks, some educational, and I've done talks there on how to get the most out of your doctor visit. We've done talks on people who are talking about chocolate, the Mediterranean diet, estate planning, so a variety of different topics. And then we have groups. We have a walking group, we have a singles group, we have a woman's group woman's group. So, and it's all about providing an opportunity for people to get together and we will drive people to our meetings and we also do things where we'll drive people to doctor's appointments or drive them to the grocery store.
Speaker 2:Someone needs the light bulb change. We can send over a volunteer to change a light bulb or to help somebody hook up their new printer. So you know you pay a membership fee. It's, I think, ours, I forget exactly maybe it's $150 to $175 a year. So it's not a huge investment, but it gives you access to a lot of programs and a lot of potentially like-minded people that are also at home that might love to just get together and talk at a program. We do lunches and things like that. So there are villages all over the county and each one is different. Some are much more robust in things that they do in terms of. You know, one of them has a medical note-taking service where you can have a medical note-taker go to a doctor appointment with you to take notes.
Speaker 1:Oh smart.
Speaker 2:We don't do that because there's a lot of training involved and we don't charge very much for our membership, so it's just not a service we can provide. So to me, I love it because we're really helping the community. We're helping people reduce social isolation, which is a significant barrier to wellness as people age in place and, as I said, most people want to age at home and this gives them an opportunity to engage with others and get out of the house and or at least do some Zoom. If they don't want to, they can do some Zoom calls. We can have somebody come over and show you how to do Zoom. I just love what we do because it makes a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it definitely makes a difference. There's so many different organizations that I've spoken to that are involved with seniors in one way or another and they say that the isolation factor as you age has such a negative impact on your brain health and physical health and everything. So really fantastic stuff that you guys are doing. We'll make sure to have that in the show notes so people can get involved in our donate and, of course, I'll have all of your information as well. I know when I spoke with Jerry, he was really excited when he talked to you and he learned about everything that Assisting Hands Home Care is doing. He thinks it's going to be very helpful for a lot of his clients and friends and family as their parents age. So I want to thank you again, steve, for coming on and just all the incredible work that you're doing for so many people in the area. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, and thank you for your donation on behalf of Potomac Community Village. It means a lot, you know. It's every bit of thing we do goes back to helping others in the community, and thanks for having me on. Look, this is, if nothing else and people just call and ask questions, it's a win for us because that's we're helping educate people, and even if they don't pick us, that's okay, I'm not offended. It's about helping people make the right decisions so they can be successful aging in their own home or in their community that they choose to move to.
Speaker 1:No, you've done so much. You know you've educated me a lot, a lot of stuff that I was unaware of, so I know that this is going to be super helpful for so many people. So you know, thank you, and I want to thank everybody for tuning in to another episode of the Truman Charities podcast. I thought that was a very informative conversation with Steve and I hope you thought so too. If you like this episode again, please rate and review it. The reviews really do make a huge difference and I read every single one of them. If you'd like to follow us, you could follow us on Instagram at Jamie underscore, truman Charities. Facebook at Truman Charities. You can follow me on LinkedIn at Jamie Truman, and so you don't miss any of our future Truman Charity charity events and our Bethesda's Best Happy Hour. Go on to trumancharitiescom and sign up for our newsletter there. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Truman Charities podcast. Until next time you.
