Island Treasures Mini Podcast: Thinking Ahead with Betsy Haddad

This mini episode visits a few of the key takeaways Betsy Haddad shared with the listeners in the full episode "Thinking Ahead about Alzheimer's and Care Needs with Betsy Haddad".  Since her caregiving experience she has become an activist and wanted to share about:

• Why she became an activist?
• Hybrid Long Term Care Insurance
• Clinical Trials
• Blood Test to Detect Protein related to dementia.

As an activist, Betsy not only talks about dementia, but she is also proud to be part of the science.

Transcript

Thank you for tuning in to the Island Treasures Podcast.

We value the insights shared by our guests and hosts, but it's important to note that their personal experiences are intended to inform and encourage, and not to replace professional, legal, or medical advice.

With that, we are ready for today's exciting episode. Welcome to Island Treasures' mini podcast for caregivers. I'm your host and caregiver consultant, Alison van Schie from beautiful Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

In the full episode called Thinking Ahead about Alzheimer's and Care Needs with Betsy Haddad, Betsy shares important takeaways to help equip others in their caregiving journeys and for their own future health care needs as well.

She has become an activist, and in this clip, she tells us what drove her to activism.

I often tell people what drove me to activism. It's not that he died. You know, we all die of something.

It's that he suffered in a way that I continue to believe could have been mitigated. My father is just one of millions of people that suffer, and so was my mother, his caregiver.

And I'm convinced that there are things we can do to make that journey easier and more dignified for the people that are on it.

As an activist, her desire is to be the change she wants to see.

But I, by virtue of being one layer removed, had, I think, more energy, and also by virtue of the age difference. You know, I was there to see everything. It's up to me to be the change that I want to see.

And this is what Betsy did.

One of the best things I did for myself in the year that my father died after his death, that summer, I went and bought myself a hybrid long-term care insurance policy.

That word hybrid is really important here. My parents had a long-term care insurance policy, but I was shocked to discover, and so were they unfortunately, that it had a lot of limitations on what it would cover.

And what happened in their case is that the insurance policy only paid full benefits if my father would be institutionalized. And this is common. Yeah, this is common with traditional long-term care.

So we did everything we could to keep them at home. But that meant that my mother had to pay out of pocket for most of the services to help him at home.

So of course, folks with that kind of insurance policy are somewhat incentivized to put their person in a facility because that's the only way they can get the full benefit of the policy. It's sort of a use it or lose it situation.

That's interesting. I'm wondering how many of us are aware of the hybrid policy as an option for insurance. Could you share more about the hybrid policy?

It's the hybrid policy that allows you to sort of have that care wherever you want to have it.

It's portable in a way. If you want to have the care in your home, then you get the same benefit paid that you would if you had care in a facility setting.

So that's why I bought it because my big takeaway from my father's care journey was that if that were me, I would never want to go into a facility setting. And if I say that, it's up to me to make it possible to be cared for at home.

It's not up to my sons to figure out how to do that. It's up to me to prepare responsibly, and I certainly can't put that off until such time as I might become incapacitated.

That means I need to take steps now while I'm in good health and of sound mind to say, these are my wishes, and this is how my care can be paid for.

And we all need to be responsible to start making our advanced care plans.

Everybody should plan responsibly because there are no guarantees in this life.

But when is it the best time to purchase hybrid insurance?

I'm in my mid-50s, and that's a good time to buy it. It's not great to wait because once you get later than that, you tend to have more health conditions that could prevent you from qualifying for such a policy.

So I bought it now, and what it means is that I will have a monthly benefit that my sons can draw on if I'm incapacitated and I want to have care in my home, a benefit that will pay for a caregiver in my home.

And if I end up not needing that care, if I don't have dementia, then my sons get a death benefit when I die, like a very generous death benefit that will pay for all my expenses and some extra for them. So that's why they call it a hybrid.

It has several uses. So for me, it's peace of mind.

So that is helpful information about long term care insurance. But Betsy has more to share about peace of mind.

And to that end, I wanted to tell you about something else that I did this past year. It brought me a lot of peace of mind. And it's about the possibility of developing dementia.

Now, right now, of course, there are no guarantees. We can't tell. Family history is an indicator.

You know, lifestyle issues are an indicator, but the science is still in development. You know, how much do these factors count? Can we predict who's going to develop Alzheimer's?

Well, one of the tools that has come onto the horizon here, although it's not widely used yet, it's showing tremendous promise, and it's a very simple blood test that ideally, if approved by the FDA and if rolled out for full use, your PCP could give

They can do.

But a blood test for your primary care provider to screen for developing dementia?

Yeah, so the blood test measures a protein level, which is a strong indicator for Alzheimer's, meaning that if you show that you have that protein level, you're likely to be on the path to developing Alzheimer's.

Again, not a guarantee, but it's certainly a strong indicator. The amazing thing about this test is that it can show that years before you start to have visible symptoms. And that's huge, because it gives you lead time.

It gives you time to make plans.

The opportunity to make plans, that's so important as you can get all your legal documents sorted, and you can figure out who will make decisions for you when the time comes that you may not be able to do this for yourself.

And Betsy, how did you get the test?

I volunteered for a clinical trial specifically to get that test.

Could you tell us more about the clinical trial?

If I took the blood test, if it showed that protein level, that would mean that I had an indicator for developing Alzheimer's and that I would go into an ongoing clinical trial with one of the drugs that is being vetted for use with early onset

Alzheimer's patients. Because the idea, the hope of those drugs is can we catch it early enough that with the use of the drug, we can either prevent it or substantially delay it.

How do folks access the test?

If you go to the Alzheimer's Association website, they have something called Trial Match. It's a fantastic new tool and using your zip code, it's like a locator map that will tell you, hey, here are clinical trials that are happening near you.

If you want to explore some of these, here's the contact information, here's what ones might be appropriate for you. It's fantastic.

Betsy has given us a lot to consider. And for those of you who are in the midst of your own caregiving journey and need some supports, I invite you to tap into alongside caregiverconsulting.ca.

I recognize how precious your time is, especially as caregivers. And so this mini podcast is designed just for you. And when you have more time, I invite you to listen to the full episode for more of Betsy's insights from her caregiving experience.

Thanks for listening and be sure to let your friends and other caregivers know about the podcast. If you have questions or comments, please click the link in the show notes. Take care.