Care Across America
"Care Across America, an Approved Senior Network® Podcast"—your go-to source for engaging conversations and practical insights from home care and senior care experts across the United States. Each episode will spotlight industry professionals, and their referral networks, sharing impactful stories, proven strategies, and innovative solutions in senior care. This podcast is perfect for professionals, adult children of aging parents, and family members struggling with senior care choices and care.
Care Across America
From Client's Family to Company Advocate: Amber Corbin's Journey with Home Care
What happens when your personal and professional worlds collide in the realm of caregiving? Amber Corbin knows this intersection intimately. As Central Nebraska's Business Relationship Development Specialist for AmanaCare, she guides families through the often overwhelming process of arranging home care – but her expertise doesn't just come from professional training.
Six years ago, Amber's husband Dwayne suffered a massive stroke, becoming AmanaCare's first client west of Lincoln. This profound experience transformed her understanding of the caregiver journey from both sides. "There's trepidation because you're looking at trusting a stranger in your home with your loved one," she explains, "and there's the fear of losing independence." This dual perspective allows her to connect authentically with families facing similar circumstances.
Amber shares exciting news about recent changes to Nebraska's Medicaid program that now allows spouses and parents of minor children to receive payment as caregivers through what they call "Legally Responsible Individual" (LRI) services. This groundbreaking shift addresses a critical challenge many Nebraska families face: maintaining financial stability while providing the best possible care for loved ones. As Amber describes it, "Sometimes that makes it hard when you need to keep putting a roof over your head. By Nebraska expanding those services, that's going to allow more families to have some more income coming into their homes while they're still taking care of their loved ones."
The conversation also highlights the importance of caregiver self-care and respite. Drawing from her own experience as both a professional and family caregiver, Amber reminds listeners that "if you're trying to pour from an empty cup, you're going to get burnout." Her message resonates with anyone walking the caregiving journey: you don't have to do it alone.
Have you considered how home care might benefit your family situation? Share your caregiving story or questions with us – we understand the journey because we've walked it too.
View More at HomeCareMarketingNews.com
I'm Amber Corbin. I am the Central Nebraska Business Relationship Development Specialist. I belong to the North Platte office, the Kearney office. I pretty much cover all of Central Nebraska and that is a big territory it is, and I absolutely love what I do. I love getting to be the first person to visit with new referrals, get to learn their story, how we can help them, all of it. It's just the most rewarding and blessed job I have ever had.
Speaker 2:So tell me more about what you do in that role. So someone calls and or they're referred to you or they're thinking about a family, thinking about starting home care. When do you come in and how does that work?
Speaker 1:I. It rings through to my cell phone and I usually get to be the very first one to talk to them about what services we provide, find out a little bit about their loved one, how we can help them. I get to explain our Care360 approach to taking care of clients, as that's taking a look at the whole client, not only taking care of them physically, but also emotionally and spiritually, as well, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So you cover a large territory and two or three offices and you're a very busy lady, but on top of that, you mentioned to me that you're a family caregiver. So tell me how that works.
Speaker 1:I am. So my husband, dwayne, had a massive stroke almost six years ago. He was the very first client of a monocare west of Lincoln. So long before I came to work for a monocare, my husband was a client and I fell in love with their ethics and their integrity. I loved how they treated him as a client. I love how they. I love how they treat his caregivers. I loved how, even though we were off by ourselves in central Nebraska, they never let us feel like we were walking this journey alone. We were always able to have direct contact with a live human, which we were new to needing care in the home. His caregivers were also new to being caregivers, and being able to ask questions and get a live person and get those questions answered made it such a smooth process for us and I. Actually, about two years after he became a client is when I felt my calling to try to help others in similar situations and that's when I came to work for AmanaCare.
Speaker 1:But Duane is still a client of AmanaCare. His caregivers go through us and we are blessed to have a unique family situation at AmanaCare. Duane is the client. I am the marketer or business development relationship specialist for this area marketer or business development relationship specialist for this area. Our youngest son is his paid caregiver during the day while I'm working, and our daughter-in-law, natalie so our son's wife is the care coordinator for this territory also. So we've turned a family-owned business into our family business, if that makes sense.
Speaker 2:It sure does, and I have a couple of thoughts about this. First of all, when you walk into the home of someone who's thinking about care, needing care, or you're talking on the phone with them, you absolutely know what they're going through, you know what's on their mind, you know what's in the back of you know there's so many yes, there's so many feelings and emotions that go into that.
Speaker 1:First off, there's trepidation because you're looking at trusting a stranger in your home with your loved one, hoping that they're going to provide the type of care you want your loved one to have. There's also the fear on the client side of things of losing that independence, and it's easy for me to put myself in their shoes because it wasn't that long ago it seems that I was in that exact same situation and Duane was having the feelings on the client side of things of I'm a strong, independent guy, I don't need assistance. And it allows me to talk through those feelings and emotions with not only the family but the client and emotions with not only the family but the client and sometimes just being told the process of how careful we are when hiring caregivers. I love the fact that our company doesn't just hire anybody to fill a caregiving position. We look for people that truly have a heart for service and want to care for others and with that, when we do hire a good caregiver, it's important to our company that we treat them right and, believe it or not, that can be reassuring because we enjoy one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry in our state, which is amazing, but that's because of all the extra care and benefits that we provide our caregivers.
Speaker 1:So what that means is clients are not getting a continual revolving door of not knowing who their caregiver is going to be from day to day. We try to place one or two caregivers per client. That way, whether we're talking about my husband that has a brain injury or a client that maybe has dementia or Alzheimer's, knowing the same routine day after day of who's coming to take care of you allows so much bonding to take place. The caregivers really get to know their clients. They are our eyes and ears. They're going to be the first ones that notice if a client is having an off day, for example. One of the things I want to know as soon as I'm done working is did Duane drink enough fluids today? Is he hydrated or are we probably going to be in an ER getting some fluids? But by having the same caregivers with the clients, they recognize and catch when they're having an off day, which in a lot of times can stop the need for emergency medical services.
Speaker 2:I think that you're right. If caregivers are treated well number one and they're trained well especially when a new diagnosis comes their way or somebody they haven't really taken care of before having a little extra help or a little extra training for those things, it helps open their eyes to what might change. If somebody with congestive heart failure has really swollen ankles when you walk in the door, that's a time when you need to call somebody and let somebody know. This is a change from yesterday or two days ago when I was here. So those are definitely yeah, they help. Those things help prevent hospitalizations and long emergency room wait times.
Speaker 2:I know everywhere it doesn't matter whether you're in a big city or you're in a rural area hospitals can become overwhelmed very quickly. So being able to recognize that and get something in place to help correct the situation before it gets serious, that's really important. Correct the situation before it gets serious, that's really important. And so you have a family that is involved in caregiving, which is amazing, and you are also out there helping others. I don't think and you don't wish you know challenges on anyone in life, but there's probably not a more perfect person in the world to talk about AmanaCare and to help introduce families to care than someone like you, who's experienced it for many years.
Speaker 1:So that's awesome. I really enjoy it, and sometimes it is such a process of getting care for your loved ones, whether they're a veteran and trying to get benefits to the VA, or if they're trying to navigate whether or not their long-term care insurance will reimburse for care, or even if they're needing to get on the Medicaid Aged and Disabled Waiver. There are a lot of steps to that and I love being able to try to help guide people along that so that they don't feel like they're walking this journey by themselves Sometimes just somebody saying yeah, it's a long process. I know it's been over four weeks, it's okay, we're going to get there. Knowing that you're not walking that journey by yourself really helps. At least it did for me when I was there.
Speaker 2:Sure, and you're a counselor, a therapist and a helper with care, All those things. So let's talk a little bit about how people can pay for care. You're well-versed in this and I know you guys can help with private. Private pay is always an option, Long-term care insurance, VA benefits. And let's talk about Nebraska's Medicaid waiver program yeah, and how family members can be caregivers for families can be caregivers for families.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I am very excited. So Nebraska has made it for quite a few years that family members could get paid to take care of their loved ones, except for in two specific situations, which are parents of children under the age of 19 and spouses. One of the changes to Nebraska Medicaid this year is starting in July. They have added the LRI services, which LRI stands for Legally Responsible Individual. So in some situations spouses can now get paid to take care of their spouse, instead of it being looked at as just their responsibility, and also parents of minor children.
Speaker 1:And to me that is very exciting news because sometimes the best care situation you can have is to have your loved one taking care of you. Sometimes that makes it hard when you need to keep putting a roof over your head and all of that. So by Nebraska expanding those services, that's going to allow more families to actually have some more income coming into their homes while they're still taking care of their loved ones. So I am very excited about that. I've always guided family caregivers on this journey and how to get the caregiver hired on but yet also take care of the client side of things get their loved one ready for us to convert from a referral into a client, and so I just see this helping Nebraskans all the way around. I am a passionate advocate for that. I actually am one of the 17 people that have been chosen to sit on the new Nebraska Medicaid Beneficiary Advisory Board at the state level.
Speaker 2:So thank you, so thank you.
Speaker 1:I am excited about that because that will give me a little bit louder voice to advocate for our Nebraska families at the state level.
Speaker 2:This is amazing. I didn't know this was happening and it is July, so this should be happening now. As a nurse, I've seen many times in the case of small children that are sick. The mother has been trained forever on every IV or G-tube feeding or tracheostomy care. They know better than almost anybody how to take care of their kid and they've been trained over and over again and they know how to troubleshoot and they know all after years and years of. It doesn't even take that long. It doesn't take years, even weeks, of taking care of a disabled child. They're having a bad day, you know, you know all the things. So why not let those mothers or fathers or whoever benefit from that, from being that caregiver?
Speaker 1:And then it's a win all the way around. It brings more income into the household, which takes the stress off. Usually the parents are providing the cures anyway, but they're doing it without getting paid, which then they have the stress of trying to keep a roof over their heads, trying to keep food on the table. And I have been so excited about these changes because I feel it really is going to improve some people's lives.
Speaker 2:Right Now they have the sole income earner outside of the home If there's a mother and father together and the dad's working or the mom's working and the other one is at home. Now they get a little extra income from the person who stays at home and it also lightens the load for the facilities that are probably completely full most of the time anyway. So you don't have, and no one wants to send their person to a facility. It's great that the moms and dads can get a little extra pay for their own child in their home and not have to go somewhere else, and spouses too.
Speaker 1:We live in Nebraska, and Nebraskans are notoriously independent and strong-willed, and there's a lot of situations where your loved one just absolutely does not want a stranger taking care of them. They want their spouse. And then you have the spouse trying to figure out how am I going to take care of my spouse? How am I going to keep a roof over our head? How am I going to keep groceries on the table? How am I going to keep fuel in the car? Hopefully this is going to ease that burden. Nebraska's had it, grandparents could take care of grandchildren and get paid Siblings once they reach the age of 19, aunts, uncles, but by opening it up to the legally responsible individuals, so the parents or the spouses, I really see nothing but good things coming out of this.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and I think every state should follow suit on that, as long as everyone's going through a reputable home care agency who is managing from a distance, managing that care, answering questions, helping the family, making sure everyone's qualified to be a caregiver. As long as those things are put in place, the spouse and the parent are almost the absolute first choice for almost everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we whether they're family caregivers or just caregivers that work for us taking care of other clients our company does pride itself on treating others the way we ourselves want to be treated, and some of the things that we offer, which would be included with this new LRI for family caregivers, is we offer paid indemnity health insurance for caregivers that work over 35 hours a week or I believe it's 25 hours and we have a quarterly performance bonus that is offered to all caregivers that work over 35 hours a week, and that's actually a profit sharing program. So that's our way of thanking the caregivers for literally being the backbone of our company. They're the ones keeping the eyes and the ears on the clients. They're the ones that are catching those early signs we mentioned, and our company feels that by taking care of the caregivers, we're taking stress of life off of their shoulders, which in turn allows them to be even better caregivers. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I appreciate everything that AmanaCare has been able to do and you all have really grown in the last six months to a year. You have really opened up new offices and have people out there everywhere helping folks in Nebraska and that's been a wonderful thing to see you guys do such a good job.
Speaker 1:Thank you. It has been very exciting. I will have been with the company four years in November and just looking back at where we came from and where we are now, it is so exciting to talk to all of these new clients and, like I said, get to know their story and what led them to needing a little extra assistance in the home. And sometimes it's having the conversation of if you would take advantage of some respite and let us bring another caregiver in, your wife could get back to being more of your wife instead of just your caregiver, or your daughter or your son or whatever. You can get back to more of that family relationship rather than just the caregiver client side of things, and it's very rewarding for me to see that relationship be able to stay intact. Yes, I'm excited for the spouses and the parents to be able to be paid caregivers, but I also tell them our company will never force another caregiver on you.
Speaker 1:But let's say, something happens and you yourself get sick by being with our company, you have a team behind you. We can do what we can to send somebody else to take care of your loved ones. So if you have medical needs that you need to take care of. Please don't feel you're in this alone. We are your team, we are your support. We will help cover you. We will help take some of the burden off of you, because if you don't take care of yourself or, as they say, if you're trying to pour from an empty cup, you're going to get burnout an empty cup, you're going to get burnout.
Speaker 2:Very true, absolutely, and every caregiver needs to hear those words and take better care of themselves, because it does become tiring. We have study after study out there about how caregivers sometimes carry themselves into sickness pretty quickly and they don't take breaks. But it's okay. It's okay to take Friday off and go do something fun with your friends or go to a movie or just be alone. Whatever it is you need to do, take care of yourself.
Speaker 1:That's what I'll tell them is there's no wrong or right way to take respite. Whatever you need, if you want to just go in your bedroom and close the door and take a nap, we're here for that. If you want to leave your loved one with us and go get your hair cut, or run errands without having to hurry and make sure that you're back for medication times or to make sure that someone's safe, there is no right or wrong way to take respite, but it is important that you do take it occasionally and just give yourself a chance to just breathe.
Speaker 2:Yep, absolutely. That sounds like a great way and I'm proud of the state of Nebraska for being so forward thinking. I am too, because most states I hope others follow suit very quickly because I'm in Missouri, so we have a large rural community of folks. We have a couple of big towns on either side of us, but we have a lot of rural communities out here and a lot of farmland too, and we are definitely in a place where we need to make some good changes to the Medicaid system.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Amber, for your time, for sharing your wisdom with us and your story. We appreciate it. You're awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you, Valerie.
