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EP # 227 The Heart of Aging Safely in Familiar Surroundings
What if aging could be a journey of empowerment and support, not just a phase of life? Join us on the Good Neighbor Podcast as we welcome Morgan Van Dyke and Annie DiCenzo from Assisting Hands Home Care. Inspired by Annie’s heartfelt story of her family’s dedication to her grandmother, we explore how Assisting Hands is transforming the home care landscape. Discover how their services help individuals embrace aging safely at home or in senior communities, and learn why home care isn’t just for those nearing life’s end but is essential for anyone needing a helping hand with daily tasks. Morgan clarifies the often-misunderstood differences between home health care and home care, and we uncover why many prefer to age within familiar surroundings, even as long-term care policies lag behind.
Beyond the realm of home care, this episode salutes the remarkable contributions of local women who enrich our communities. We shine a light on their efforts as good neighbors and urge our listeners to champion these women and the local businesses they support by nominating them for a feature on our podcast. By doing so, we celebrate community spirit and foster an environment where appreciation and engagement thrive. Tune in to understand the vital role of home care services and the importance of acknowledging and supporting our community’s unsung heroes.
Assisting Hands Ft Myers
Annie DiCenzo & Morgan VanDyke
1850 Boy Scout Dr, #103
Fort Myers, FL 33907
(239) 337-4263
License Number 299992935
assistinghands.com
Assisting Senior Citizens in Lee County-Facebook
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome, good Neighbors, to episode number 227 of the Good Neighbor Podcast. Today we have Good Neighbors Morgan Van Dyke and Annie DiCenzo. I almost got it. I got'm so close From Assisting Hands Home Care Welcome.
Speaker 3:Hi, hi, thank you for having us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Pleasure to get to know people within the community and share their stories with our listeners. So, without further ado, why don't we start off by sharing a little bit about what you guys do at Assisting Hands?
Speaker 3:Okay, well, we are a private duty home care that assists people to age safely in their home. So we go wherever the person calls home whether that's actually a house or whether it's in one of the senior communities, and we help them with their normal activities of daily living like bathing, dressing, toileting and ambulating safely. We offer light housekeeping services, meal prep and assistance running errands or getting to appointments.
Speaker 2:Very good. So let's back up our stories here a little bit. How did you guys get involved in this industry?
Speaker 4:Um, so this is Annie. My husband and I purchased Assisting Hands in 2021. And what really led us to this was growing up. My grandmother ended up moving in with my family I think I was about 13 or 14 at the time and you know I watched my mom kind of take her through the continuum of care. So grandma lived with us for a few years. She ended up moving into an independent living, then assisted living, then she ended up in skilled nursing and my mom was just always so stressed all the time, you know, bringing meals to my grandma and taking my grandma to appointments.
Speaker 4:On taking my grandma to appointments, and you know, at the time there really wasn't anything quite like this that you know, I was really aware of. Of course, that was 20 some years ago and so, like when we were presented with the opportunity to purchase assisting hands, it felt like such a natural fit and a way to be able to give back to families and, like you know, especially thinking with my mom in mind, who was sandwiched between a teenage kid that was probably not real helpful at the time and my grandmother that had needs that were growing. You know, a service like this I think would have been. It would have helped my mom quite a bit, right, so that she could maybe unwind and just have a little bit of time to herself instead of always feeling like just jammed up with things to do and I think we're about the same age.
Speaker 2:We kind of grew up in the same era, so I had the same scenario where my grandmother took in my great-grandmother and she was. She lived with them all the time. I think that was the way back then. Right, right, it's just, and it's changed now, thank goodness, for we've got some help out here for people like you, from yourself. So let's talk about challenges, whether personally or professionally, and getting a business like this up and running.
Speaker 4:You know, I think the biggest challenge for me was just learning all the the laws that are in place for licensing, but then also just the nuances and then overcoming perceptions that people have with home care. You know there's a lot of education that's involved with it.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about some of those, because the myths or misconceptions are always big of what people think about the industry. Can we clear some of those up for our listeners?
Speaker 4:Conceptions are always big of what people think about the industry. Can we clear some of those up for our listeners? Yeah, I would say. For me one of the biggest ones is that home care is just for people that are like on their deathbed and that's really far from the truth. We have some clients that, like you know, they're not able to really get out a whole lot. And you know, do things. And we've got one client that just wants to go to the driving range once a week. You know, do things. And we've got one client that just wants to go to the driving range once a week. You know, like, how cool is that? Nothing wrong with that, right? Yeah, they're getting out and being active and that's important.
Speaker 2:That's the important thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and Morgan, from a more medical perspective, I know that she sees a lot of you know misconceptions as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think one of the big ones is that people tend to lump home health care in with home care and while we do work together to kind of keep people safe in their home, there is a big difference between the types of services that we offer. Where home health is more nursing, pt, ot, with short visits to address specific medical issues, and a lot of times it's short term and used after some kind of hospitalization, with short visits to address specific medical issues, and a lot of times it's short-term and used after some kind of hospitalization. Whereas home care is longer periods, anywhere from four to 24 hours, and it's a CNA or a home health assistant that is coming in to help you with those activities of daily living. It's usually more of a long-term thing and a lot of times it is triggered by one of those hospitalizations. But one of our big goals is preventing the hospitalizations or the readmissions.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and that's the important part. So we notice anything changing, evolving trending within the industry lately.
Speaker 4:You know, I would say like lately it seems like there have been maybe fewer people that have chosen to go to more of a skilled environment, like they're wanting to stay at home longer. I think that would be one of the big things that I've noticed definitely.
Speaker 3:I've also noticed that and we're trying to do some education on it as well is that people seem to hesitate to trigger those long-term care policies and a lot of times we get calls from people who could have been using our services for quite some time. Don't know if the hesitation there is. You know that they think they're going to run out of money or what have you, which is very, very rare. That rarely happens. So we try to do a lot of education to let people know that you know as soon as you have that need, go ahead and trigger that policy, and it really is going to make your life a lot easier.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah, there's help available. Make sure you're accessing it. So are both of you guys from Southwest Florida originally.
Speaker 3:No, neither of us are actually. I'm originally from Maryland.
Speaker 2:Okay, and Annie.
Speaker 4:Been kind of all over the place. I've lived in Denver, minneapolis and Atlanta prior to this. Denver, minneapolis and Atlanta prior to this.
Speaker 2:Wow, what brought you guys to Southwest Florida besides the beautiful weather? Well, it's been a little cold lately but still warmer than negative three Right Well for me.
Speaker 3:I originally took a travel nurse contract down here for six months with Cape Coral Hospital just to kind of test the waters and see how we liked Florida and we absolutely loved it. So after my contract was up I took a job with Lee Health and I was floating between all four of the Lee hospitals in the area, just kind of filling in their staffing needs with any of their med surge units.
Speaker 3:And then I actually took some time off to take care of my own family, which has gotten what kind of got me onto the home care side of things and saw the need for you know a strong support system when people are trying to age in place, and so that's what I try to do for my clients is be that support for them and offer them all the different resources you know that are available, cause there are so many but a lot of them just don't know where to find them. They don't know where to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And it's funny how the personal experiences kind of create and evolve into I don't want to say careers, but opportunities for us to help others as well too. So I commend both of you for doing that, so outside of work. I know you guys are time's a little demanding, but when you do get a moment, what do you guys enjoy doing outside of work?
Speaker 3:Go for it. Well, we both have kids, so I'm sure Annie will agree that they keep us very, very busy. But aside from that, I myself am an artist, so I do a lot of painting, really any kind of arts and craft type thing. But that's kind of how I help myself decompress at the end of the week.
Speaker 2:And Annie.
Speaker 4:Spending time outside. Any chance that I can.
Speaker 2:Right. That's why we live down here to be able to enjoy the outdoors Because we can be outside. Absolutely, absolutely. So. Is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about assisting hands?
Speaker 3:that they might not be too familiar with. Well, for me I'd say that assisting hands. Really we strive not just to be your home care but to support you with all of the different challenges that come with aging. And when you become our client you really become like a part of our family and we're going to try to help you navigate all of the amazing local resources that are out there, and we really pride ourselves on kind of going above and beyond to make your experience caring for your loved one as easy and as smooth as possible.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Very good, very good. So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they wanted to learn more or had some questions?
Speaker 4:I would say, give us a call. Our phone number is 239-337-4263.
Speaker 3:We also have a Facebook page called Assisting Senior Citizens in Lee County, and the idea behind that group is that we've tried to create a space that local seniors can come and ask questions and find those resources. A lot of our partner community partners have joined so they're there to help offer insight on anything from you know who can come to my house and cut my hair or who can help me write a will or find a good senior community, so that's a great place to come and ask those questions too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 4:I model it after the moms groups where you're looking for a orthodontist for your kid. We figured that seniors have similar needs.
Speaker 2:That's a great idea. I love that. I love that. I'll have to check that out. Any last words for our listeners today.
Speaker 4:You know if. If there's any doubt that you need care, you know reach out and start the process, whether it's with us or somebody else. But I think a lot of the regrets that people have is not getting help sooner and I think that you can really help your quality of life if you feel that you're starting to need assistance. You don't have to be in terrible shape to need a little bit of extra help.
Speaker 3:And I would echo that. We get a lot of calls from people in kind of crisis mode and you don't have to wait for that crisis to reach out, learn about the services and kind of help. Put a plan in place for when the time does come, when you need it.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good Ladies, it's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for what you do for the community. Thank you for what you do for the community.
Speaker 4:Thank you for being such good neighbors and I hope to see you out in the community soon. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPEstero. com. That's GNPEstero. com, or call 239-296-2621.