Comfort Keepers Davie
Comfort Keeper’s in Davie, Florida is a family-owned and operated franchise serving families and their loved-ones since 2017. The family’s first location opened in 2017, after experiencing, first-hand the need for in-home services for their loved one. This defining moment sparked their desire to provide the same peace of mind and services to families who are overwhelmed and in need of care for their loved ones.
We launched the podcast with the aim of educating the public about various aspects of in-home care. Our objective is to offer a valuable resource that empowers individuals to make well-informed decisions regarding the well-being of their loved ones.
For more information visit:
https://www.comfortkeepers.com/offices/florida/davie/
or call: 954-947-7954
Comfort Keepers Davie
EP #15: Embracing Aging Gracefully in Familiar Spaces
What if you could bring the warmth of Thanksgiving to those who might otherwise go without? Join me, Kristi Gurule, on the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast as I recount our heartwarming tradition of delivering nearly 200 Thanksgiving meals to our community. This episode is all about gratitude and connection, reflecting on the smiles and heartfelt thanks from those who received the meals. With the help of local partners, we manage to spread joy far and wide, showing that the spirit of Thanksgiving isn't just about family gatherings—it's about reaching out and making a difference.
Switching gears, we explore the concept of "aging in place," a movement that's reshaping the way we think about growing older. Imagine the comfort of staying in your own home, surrounded by cherished memories, as opposed to moving to a facility. We discuss how this approach can enhance one's mental and emotional health, drawing parallels to the simple joy of returning to your own bed after a holiday visit. Listen in to understand why more people are choosing to age in their own homes and how this can lead to a more fulfilling life. Whether you're considering options for yourself or a loved one, this episode offers insights into creating a comfortable and supportive environment where age is just a number, and home is the ultimate sanctuary.
Please visit our website for more information: https://www.comfortkeepers.com/offices/florida/davie/
Welcome to the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast, where we elevate the human spirit. Here's your host, christy Groulet. Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Comfort Keepers Davy podcast. Christy, I must say we are coming off the heels of Thanksgiving and I am feeling incredibly grateful today. What about you?
Speaker 2:You should. It's what it's all about. I'm feeling very grateful myself and thankful to still be with family, even right now and really coming down probably from a sugar high. That was way too much. It's that time of year when you can get all that good food in.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and I know you've been really busy, as you often are, but you are always doing some. You're always up to good things in the community. What did you do? Talk a little bit about your Thanksgiving and what you did for your local community.
Speaker 2:We look forward to it every single year, but we realize that not everybody has the opportunity to be around family, or they may not have the means to have a nice fulfilling Thanksgiving dinner or lunch or whatever it might be. So we actually put together meals ourselves and we deliver them to clients, sometimes outwards, an hour and a half from where our office is located, but it is absolutely worth it being able to hand them over a dinner that they can warm up the next day or same day, and they just I can't even tell you hearing somebody say you thought about me, you wanted to bring this all the way out here for me, and it, yes, we do so. You're a part of our family. Family is all about thanksgiving, and so here let us bless you with this food and please let it just bring joy to your day, and that's's what it's all about.
Speaker 2:So close to 200 meals are all delivered, yeah, and again, absolutely worth the driving, just everything, all the logistics that go behind it. My team and I we absolutely thrive and love doing this every single year.
Speaker 1:So you said putting together, did you actually? You didn't actually cook all the stuff too, did you?
Speaker 2:We did cook some of the stuff, not all of it. I will not take credit for everything.
Speaker 1:You don't take all the credit there.
Speaker 2:I will not. I will give credit where it is due, but we've partnered with some local resources that have helped get us half of the meal, and then we did like the side portions. We are much easier at being able to put together the sides, but it was a full meal and that's really what matters.
Speaker 1:Good stuff, good stuff. So topic for today is something that we have talked about before, and it's this idea of aging in place. Now, yes, yes, the name implies what it is, but why don't you start there, talk a little bit about this concept, this idea of aging in place?
Speaker 2:really the aging in place, I would say movement really has become really popular within the last decade and the whole idea is that as you age, stay put. You stay where you're at. You stay in the home, surrounded by the things that you love, things that bring you memories, joy, of times past. And that is aging in place where resources come to you versus you going to a place where resources are already there, and most people will compare this to staying at home versus going into an assisted living facility or a nursing home. And really there's been a lot of studies around all of this aging in place that somebody will have a more fulfilling life being in their home Again. The comfort level.
Speaker 2:I compare it to okay, think about Thanksgiving, right? So if you traveled and you went and you stayed with a relative, even just for that whole day, not even spending the night Okay, you went to your relative's home to have a great meal and you got there and you're comfortable, right. But at the end of the day you want to kick off your shoes, you want to put on comfortable clothes and you want to lounge and watch whatever you want on TV, like it's, you can't do that because it's not your place. And I think that's just the easiest way to compare this to is that when you're comfortable in your space, then you can live in your space comfortably with resources coming in, versus you needing to leave, and it's just better. Peace of mind, mentally, you feel better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, From a mental health standpoint, it just seems like obviously dealing with challenges when you're younger and change is a lot easier, I'd imagine, than dealing with it as you get older. And the older you get, the less you want to put your body through these types of stresses and changes, and I could just see how staying at home would be incredibly beneficial. But with that there must come some challenges right. What are some of the obstacles and challenges that you've seen that you've faced with clients as they get older, staying in the home longer?
Speaker 2:So let's just talk about the size of somebody's home.
Speaker 2:A lot of times that becomes. One of the biggest, trickiest things to overcome is that you have a house that had, at one point, many other people in it and now it does not, and even if you are still living with a spouse or a significant other, it's still a lot of extra square footage that is not being used. So most of the time, you're still wanting to make sure that every square inch of your home is clean and properly just in its place, everything in its place, and that becomes burdensome because it's so much larger than really what you're needing. So that's, that seems like a very simple thing, but that is definitely something that we come across often. Another thing is, say, somebody lives in a home that has stairs, and now they're at a point where stairs are trickier, they're harder for them to navigate up or down, and so there are accommodations that can be made to one staircase so that they can be safe. But still these are real things in somebody's living, their home, that can pose, that can pose problems for them staying there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like something that should be on your radar before you get, so like when your kids go away you don't need as much space. Maybe start looking at downsizing your home a little earlier so that when you do get older you don't have to worry about that having too much space, right?
Speaker 2:And there'll still be people, jeremy, that want to be in their home, regardless, because they're planning for the future. Maybe kids will come back and there'll be a place for them to stay and I love all that because it's a wonderful thing to be able to stay. Then that's where we select ourselves. Comfort keepers come in and listen to you, so it's not such a big burden on you to take care of your home.
Speaker 1:Hold on a second. You're glitching out here. I don't know if it's here and Can you hear me?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can hear you just fine.
Speaker 1:Okay, all right. Hopefully the recording picked it up. If not, we apologize for that. These things happen from time to time, right, they sure do yeah. From time to time, right, they sure do yeah. So, from your perspective as the owner of Comfort Keepers, this is really what you do with your clients is help them be comfortable at home. How do you support?
Speaker 2:So, similar to what I just said, we can come into your home and we can do a full home assessment to see what it is that you need help with, and then we can go from there fully customizable. So we want them to be able to stay in their home. We've even helped people move their bedroom suite from upstairs to their downstairs suite so that they can again have more accommodation just being able to get to their bedroom easily. We want to do everything that we can, no matter the skill level, whatever stage of life someone's in, to be able to stay in their home Anything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, very important. What are some? Let's go down. You've been doing this a while. You're an expert in this field. What are some tips that you can give to listeners? Maybe they haven't yet reached out to a company like yours, or they're in this position with their parents where they're thinking about maybe transitioning them to assisted living, or they're thinking about maybe getting some folks to come help them in home. What are some tips and ideas you can give them as they broach that subject?
Speaker 2:help them in home. What are some tips and ideas you can give them as they broach that subject? It really comes down to having conversations very lightly and as often as possible. It's been it's all thrown that it's overwhelming for both sides family members, caregivers and for the loved one that you're concerned about. So the sooner that the conversation can take place, the better, and really it could start something as simple as mom, you need somebody to help you once a week to go get groceries.
Speaker 2:Let's look for that person, let's look for that company, and that's where we can step in and say great, yeah, let us come in and help you go get groceries, put groceries away, cause, let's be real, that's a whole day thing at times and it can be very exhausting. So now we're helping with that. That can transition into let us help you meal prep for the whole week. How much less stress would you have if we were able to help you meal prep so that you have things ready to throw into a crock pot or into the microwave or into the oven and it's ready to go. It's just like, little by little is really the best advice that I have for all families when you start to see that your loved one does need extra help and you may not have the ability to do that, and that is okay.
Speaker 1:That's what we're here for to be an extension of your family, in whatever capacity that might be see that being home longer can be in many ways easier now with all the latest technological advances, things like smart home devices, health monitoring tools. How do you at Comfort Keepers, or how are you preparing to meet the future needs of aging adults?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that you're even mentioning that, because it's always ever evolving Telehealth doctor's appointments that take place today.
Speaker 2:It's very overwhelming for somebody to do that for the first time.
Speaker 2:So, being able to help somebody get logged in, get set up on their computer or whatever, and then stepping out of the room for that privacy, that's something that we can help with.
Speaker 2:One of the biggest technological things that we have is a personal emergency response system very easily known as the PERS and what that is that detects any falls and it detects where they have fallen, and that is a huge thing. So, whether somebody wants somebody in our, if somebody doesn't want our services in their home, one of the best things that we can recommend is that, because that is, we've said in other episodes, one of the leading causes of there being no chance for you to stay at home once you have fallen, and now you need to go to the hospital and then you're going to rehab and then you're going into an assisted living facility. That is not the route we want people to go. So the PERS unit will notify us immediately of a fall and then we can respond, and then also the company that does all of the technology behind this will notify the EMS. That is what needs to be done, or the must notifies, which are usually your first round of family members.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it seems crazy to not have something like that implemented with an elderly loved one that's living by themselves. This recently happened to my brother's wife's father. He had a stroke or some kind of episode and he was on the floor, I think, for at least a day, maybe even two days, before they found him. And all of that could have been avoided if he had some kind of monitoring system like you were just talking about.
Speaker 2:And everybody says I've got my phone. I'll have my phone on you.
Speaker 1:Honestly. Well, what if you?
Speaker 2:can't yeah what if it falls? How?
Speaker 1:many times yeah.
Speaker 2:And you don't have your phone on you and you can't get to your phone, like you just can't guarantee oh, I've got a smartwatch, that's fantastic. I love and support all of that. But in the moment of crisis where you can or cannot respond like that is what you need to, not doom and gloom, but that's really what you need to be prepared for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. What else you got, christy? What did I miss?
Speaker 2:No, I feel like we just went right all around aging in place and again it's a buzzword. It's what people are really looking when they're looking for care for their families, and I really think the first thing is just talking about it and then understanding that aligns exactly with why we are in. The business that we are in is to keep people in their homes safely and happily for as long as humanly possible.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it really, like you said, just comes down to starting these conversations and having it on the radar early enough so that it's not a dramatic experience or a stressful experience when you have to deal with it. Yeah, All right, good stuff. Stressful experience when you have to deal with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right, good stuff, christy. Always a pleasure, thank you. It's always a pleasure myself as well, and our listeners to be a part of this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thank you everybody for tuning in. If you, as always, if you have any suggestions, topics that you'd like to discuss, any questions, drop them in below in the comments and we'll pick it up on another episode. Everyone, take care and have a wonderful day.
Speaker 2:Have a good one, bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Comfort Keepers Davey podcast. For more information, visit comfortkeeperscom or call 954-947-7954.