Have you ever pondered the impact of a simple shower on your well-being or considered the profound effect of cleanliness on the human spirit? Join me, Kristi Gurule, and my co-host Jeremy Wolf, as we unravel the nuanced relationship between bathing and health in the context of home care. With personal tales, like Jeremy's experience with his son's bathing routine, we shed light on the universal significance of hygiene across all ages and lifestyles.
This episode also brings us closer to the harsh realities some face when bathing becomes a challenge due to age or disability. A heartfelt exchange with a prospective client who hadn't showered in two years due to the fear of falling and physical limitations sparks a crucial conversation. We offer heartfelt advice and actionable tips to ensure that the act of bathing remains a safe, comfortable, and dignified part of daily life, highlighting the undeniably crucial role of care and independence in maintaining our quality of life.
Have you ever pondered the impact of a simple shower on your well-being or considered the profound effect of cleanliness on the human spirit? Join me, Kristi Gurule, and my co-host Jeremy Wolf, as we unravel the nuanced relationship between bathing and health in the context of home care. With personal tales, like Jeremy's experience with his son's bathing routine, we shed light on the universal significance of hygiene across all ages and lifestyles.
This episode also brings us closer to the harsh realities some face when bathing becomes a challenge due to age or disability. A heartfelt exchange with a prospective client who hadn't showered in two years due to the fear of falling and physical limitations sparks a crucial conversation. We offer heartfelt advice and actionable tips to ensure that the act of bathing remains a safe, comfortable, and dignified part of daily life, highlighting the undeniably crucial role of care and independence in maintaining our quality of life.
Welcome to the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast, where we elevate the human spirit.
Speaker 2:
Here's your host, christie Grulay. Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast. I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolt, joined by your host, christie Grulay. Christie, how you doing today? Good morning, glorious of Fridays. It seems like we're always meeting on Fridays, doesn't it?
Speaker 1:
It's all right. It's kind of like a great recap of our week and people are excited about the weekend. I mean, I don't know what you do on weekends, but sometimes it is nice to look forward to a weekend.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, Netflix and chill. We take it easy around these parts.
Speaker 1:
As I get older, so speak to each their own.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, speaking of the week, I want to do something a little bit off the cuff, a little bit new today. You had mentioned that sometimes issues just come up, topics just come up throughout the week and seem to be recurring issues, and this week it was all about bathing, Exactly how it pertains to home health care. So please share with us what came up this week and give us some tips, insights, things that we should know about bathing as it pertains to home health care.
Speaker 1:
Okay, awesome. Well, I want to start off by asking you, Jeremy, I want you to think about a time where it doesn't even matter what you were doing, but let's just say, life got in the way kids schedules and you've gone a couple days without a shower, right, but we're virtual, right. So I'm not sitting next to you, I can't smell you, I can't feel your aura. But what I'm saying is how does that make you feel like? How does that, how does that affect your whole self? Right?
Speaker 1:
Yeah shower for a day or two, just first thing.
Speaker 2:
It's huge, right, you feel a little gross.
Speaker 1:
Blah right. That's the best way that I can put it. You feel down, absolutely. You feel down and I think that you know, without it being like busy schedule, this is for every single person. If we're sick, you know, and we're at home and we're off work for a while and we're just, we're laying in bed like even 24 hours, just like laying there. We feel oftentimes much better once we take a shower, once we clean ourselves 100%.
Speaker 2:
Actually, let me interject here my son, who's nine. He would have a hard time for a while taking a shower before going to sleep and he plays virtual realities outside. He's getting he's like disgusting right, he needs to take a shower and he would give us a tantrum and he wouldn't want to go in. And my wife set up a routine with him and now he's to the point where he enjoys going in because he recognizes now that he feels so much fresher laying down to go to sleep before cleaning himself. So it's interesting.
Speaker 1:
So I like to tie it in that this is not just this is not just something that impacts one demographic of our our population, right, it impacts everybody. And this week the topic has been everything around bathing and showering. So I was approached by a client this week, a prospective client, who we had a very, very in depth, private conversation because, I mean, this is a very private part of our daily routine, right and she confided in me and said Christie, I haven't been able to take a shower. This is going to be crazy. It floored me. Jeremy, in two years, why have not been able to?
Speaker 1:
Now my mind starts going through all of the reasons why. Right, I'm jumping to conclusions because I've talked to plenty of people who've experienced a fall, or maybe their their bathtub or shower is not working properly, so I wanted to know more. So tell me more. And she shared with me that she is not, she's not comfortable being able to get in when she has nobody else in her home. She is worried about the potential of a fall. She also further explained that it's harder for her to clean her back to reach and, due to some other physical limitations you know, raising her arms above her head it's just become more difficult. And so she explained to me that, yes, the sink baths are working, you know ish. But she then said that after a certain amount of time she became so depressed that she didn't want to leave her home. She dropped out of clubs that she used to be in I bet Immunities that she had. She's like I stopped going because I was embarrassed. I'm prideful, I don't know who to ask for help, and so she's calling to see if there is a way that I could come in and just help with that. One thing, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
This opened an entire new outlook on how important bathing is. So this conversation started at the beginning of the week you can't even make that up by the end of the week. This conversation has now been happening in our local nursing homes and our assisted living facilities, because what we experience in these settings not in someone's home, but what we experience is an overall shortage of staff. It's very, very hard. You have nurses who are working their butts off and then people get sick. Then you have a nurse who can't help do the bathing in a nursing facility that afternoon. So now you have residents that are not on their routine. So how can comfort keepers come in and still ensure that your loved one is getting their personal care. So this whole week has been centered around bathing, showering Another story, I mean, I'm all about stories.
Speaker 1:
Mom and dad, mom and dad. Dad's helping mom, dad's worried about mom falling, mom's worried about dad falling. Together they're kind of creating their own hazards, right. So dad's doing his best to help wash mom's hair and mom's doing her best to help dad shave. And it is not working out. It's just not the best, right. So stress If you try to put yourself in their shoes, like, how stressful is that?
Speaker 1:
Right, you have your own physical limitations, and so this week we've always, always, always helped people in their homes with showers, with anything that they need. But this week was really an eye-opener of listen. We need to do something specialized, and so we've completely developed this niche within our roster of amazing, skilled, qualified caregivers to be our bathing buddies, right. So dignity in every drop is what I'm calling it Our bathing buddies to come in and help shower, bathe and we'll get out of your hair, but we will make sure that the environment is safe when we leave. Everything is dried, you're dressed and cleaned and ready to go. We're in and out as private. We're professional and I feel so good about that because to hear the relief through a woman's voice over the phone was everything it really really was.
Speaker 2:
I love it. So many great things there. I mean it does seem like a topic that is easily swept under the rug and it just goes unnoticed and it could turn into such an issue like that client that went two years. I mean I can't imagine how much of a weight was lifted when she spoke to you and opened up and found a solution for that. It must have been incredible for her, and I love bathing buddies. That's really wonderful.
Speaker 1:
Listen, I like to have fun with things right, because if that's one thing you can get through all of this is that we're a lively group, we're full of energy and again, we're trying to make it lighter but also professional, and the thing that is sometimes the hardest to ask for help with it's it's a very, very private event, so we are going to be professional about it. But yeah, bathing buddies.
Speaker 2:
That's good stuff. Yeah, I don't know. I just might need to get a bathing buddy involved in my own operation pretty soon. As I said I was telling you before, I put this, this new bath tub, in and it's so high up that it's not an issue for me now. But I could see as I get older and my body starts to ache and I get the comes more and more difficult to do things that were easier earlier on. I could see that being a problem.
Speaker 1:
So it's a video. You made a comment and do a safety assessment. I will for you, Jeremy.
Speaker 2:
I'll be my bathing buddy, oh goodness.
Speaker 1:
I'll be. I'll make the recommendations for the safest restroom bathroom around.
Speaker 2:
You know, I think, god willing, I got another 10, 15 years hopefully 20 before I need to go down that path, but you never know, right. So there's folks that have all sorts of issues that might prohibit them from taking care of that, and it could always be good to get some help and raise awareness for that for sure.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely Well and ultimately, the whole development of this was really to say that, for those who truly just need this one major thing right, that's gonna set the tone for the day. It's gonna impact your mental health, your overall wellness, your whole body health Like, let us come in and just do that and then we'll leave, but we'll do it routinely. On the routine, we'll do a full bathing assessment to be able to bathe or shower you with exactly the products that you use and the steps that you take. So again, so very, very personalized, but to enable someone to continue what they're doing that they're now stepping back from, just out of fear and their mental health due to no bathing.
Speaker 2:
Now of your general client pool. The overwhelming majority of the clients that Comfort Keepers helps is bathing a big part of that in terms of the kind of approach that you take, or is it something that I mean?
Speaker 1:
absolutely so. When we come in and we meet with our prospective clients and their families, we go over everything that we could help them with, and oftentimes we are helping with some aspect of their personal care, of bathing or grooming. So even if it's just setting up the bath or setting up the shower, setting out everything, we're still there as a standby. God forbid there's anything that they may need, we're there to be able to grab it for them. And other times we are very much hands on. We're doing everything from a bed bath to a shower, assist to helping them wash their hair, because, again, they can't reach or scrub All of those things. We personalize it to every single individual that we serve.
Speaker 2:
So yeah, I can see how for some that could be a little uncomfortable, having somebody present with you through that process. How do you typically go about lightening that load, if you will, or easing that uncomfortability that somebody might have about kind of getting undressed in front of somebody and having that help that they need? How do you kind of open that conversation and speak to somebody to get them more comfortable with that process?
Speaker 1:
Absolutely so. It all starts with our assessment, which is done by our RN, Sharon. She's phenomenal and meeting face to face with a family, letting them know what the steps are. We don't just send a stranger in to help you shower Nobody nobody Right getting the bathroom stripped down and getting there.
Speaker 1:
No, we don't at all. So that's our first bridge, our first connection point. The second is a family meet and greet. We want you to meet the person that's going to be coming into your home. That caregiver is fully aware of every single thing that this individual is asking for, how they're asking for it and then what the completion would look like. So from the very beginning to that meet and greet, there's already, you know, a familiarity, a comfort level, and then, at the very first time that we come to do our shift, to be able to be there, we've already met. Right With that very first shift, our nurse is going to also be there. I mean, we're talking about a nurse for over 36 years who is coming alongside an already trained caregiver just to be there as extra support and encouragement, right to make sure that everything runs and goes as smoothly as we are saying. That will, and that right there, just so many extra personalized touches very intentional, very relational helps everybody feel more comfortable.
Speaker 2:
Love it, love it, christy, always doing great work. Thank you Fantastic.
Speaker 1:
For excited about it.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I'm not going to forget that the bathing buddies really stuck would be, and I like a little playful aspect of it to lighten it up for folks. Just appreciate all the great work you're doing in the community. Unless there's anything else you'd like to share, I guess we can wrap this one up.
Speaker 1:
That's right. Yeah, get ready for your weekend.
Speaker 2:
All right. Well, everyone, thanks for tuning in and we will catch you all next time. Everyone, take care. Thank you for listening to the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast For more information visit ComfortKeeperscom or call 954-947-7954.