EPISODE 16- Caregiver Registry vs Agency

EPISODE 16 – Registry vs. Agency: What Families Need to Know About In-Home Care

Not all caregiving is created equal. In this episode, Jamie Callahan is joined by Stephanie Parsons, founder of Caregiver Group, to explain the critical differences between home care registries and traditional caregiving agencies—and why it matters for families navigating aging and care at home.

They cover:

• What a caregiving registry is, and how it compares to an agency
• The benefits of flexibility, cost savings, and personalized matches
• How registry caregivers are often more loyal, qualified, and fairly paid
• Misconceptions around Medicaid, insurance, and backup care
• What questions to ask before hiring a caregiver—and red flags to watch for

This episode is packed with real-world insight, transparency, and heart—from two people who’ve made it their mission to advocate for seniors and caregivers alike.

📞 Questions? Call Team Senior at (541) 295-8230.

Transcript

 Hi, this is Jamie Callahan with the Team Senior Podcast. Our goal is to simplify aging society, grooms us to plan for retirement, but what about life beyond retirement, where the rubber meets the road? Perhaps you've had a stroke or you've been diagnosed with cancer, or maybe you're forgetting things and now you have dementia.

That's our area of expertise and we are here to share our insight. And now the Team Senior podcast. Hello everyone. This is Jamie Callahan and we are in the studio today. Stephanie Parsons. Stephanie owns the caregiver group, so I'm gonna let her introduce herself. Tell you a little bit about the caregiver group and her background in the in-home care industry.

Hi I am Stephanie Parsons and I am with Caregiver Group, which is a licensed caregiver registry here in Oregon. And I actually have been in the home care space pretty much off and on since I was 19. I love what I do. It's my passion. I, wake up and I, it doesn't feel like I'm going to work.

So that's how, it's your passion, I love serving families. I love giving back to the community. It's, it, I'm not only helping seniors, but I'm also providing income and job opportunities for caregivers and it's it providing. Income for them to do better and be better.

And, everybody across the board has been super grateful. So this is like a, an area where I have always loved the services that you provide because you are not just a caregiving registry or you're not just an owner of a company that provides services in southern Oregon, Stephanie is truly vested in the wellbeing of every single family that she serves.

She is the company owner where. When your family is struggling and they end up at the hospital at 11 o'clock at night, she probably hate me for telling you this, but she will show up there and make sure that you get everything that you deserve. And I love that about her. She's not just a business owner.

She, when she says that she truly loves what she does there is probably no true truer statement. I wanna take a deep dive with her into the differences between a registry and an agency how her caregivers work and the. Crazy line that she forces all of them to tow. She has extremely high standards.

And she makes sure that every single person that works for her honors those high standards. So talk to us a little bit about why is it important for families in Oregon to understand the difference between a registry and an agency? Of course, we're a registry, so I want you to know that we're.

Better, of course, but the business model of a registry, it allows families to have a lot more flexibility. I will say there is a time when an agency is necessary. I think, the, those are when if you're on Medicaid and you need services right away sometimes an agent's. C, they can get in and provide services a lot faster than a private caregiver that maybe has their provider number.

And that's specific to Medicaid, right? You can get there some same day if it's a private pay request. Yes. A hundred percent. A hundred percent, yeah. Private pay. We are, I've gotten calls from the hospital and we have gotten people discharged within an hour and a half. That's amazing, and we get 'em set up.

We do a, usually go to their house and check their home for safety issues. Make sure they have all the durable equipment that they need, gloves, briefs, check pads for, caring for them, whatever they need. I love that. And I also love that you described a care your caregiving registry as being the best every business owner says that.

Yes. Every business owner says that, and I absolutely love that. There are some radical differences between being a registry and a caregiving agency, and I'm at a very high level going to who help navigate what that looks like. How does an agency. Typically operate in the state of Oregon. So an agency, they directly hire their caregivers.

They, work for the caregivers. They have workers' comp for the caregivers. They tell the caregivers what to do. They tell the caregivers when to come to work, who they're gonna work for. And the caregiver is an employee of the agency, correct? The caregiving agency? Yes. So the agency has payroll for the caregivers.

They collect, the agency, collects the payment from the client, and then they then pay the caregiver the agencies. You don't have, a client doesn't have the choice of what caregiver comes to their home. Most of the time I would say that's largely true. I think if you're with an agency, it's possible that you could identify a favorite caregiver, and maybe that's the caregiver that comes most often, but yeah.

But most of the time, if you are with an agency, the agency is gonna send a caregiver to you. And if that agent, or if that caregiver calls in sick, they're gonna send another backup caregiver sometimes. Five, 10, maybe 20 in a month. It's not to say that agencies aren't great. They serve a purpose. I have plenty of agencies that I work with and I love them also.

What one major difference with the registry is that the caregiver doesn't work for the agency. The caregiver works for the family. And yes, and I don't mean to make it. Either or I don't mean to say that agencies are bad 'cause I, like I said, they have a place and I'm just advocating for registries 'cause we're a registry and I love them.

And it, but yes, the main difference is, registry is essentially more of a map. Maker. We come in, a care coordinator or myself will come in and we meet with your family or you who you know the client, and we get to know your personality a little bit and then your care needs.

And then we take a look at our collection of caregivers, private caregivers, and then. We decide who would be the best fit personality wise, care level wise if they live close by you. All of those things. And, the great thing about the registry is, we're, we do all of the same priests.

Screening that an agency does. And we're also licensed by the state in the same way an agency is. And, for like the background check, the verifying that they have the qualifications to provide the services that they're wanting to provide the checking references, all of the things and so it's a more personalized.

I feel and then we don't tell you who have as a caregiver. You get to interview them and decide if you want them or not. And then also the caregiver gets to decide if they wanna take you on as a client as well. And so it's a. It's a win-win kind of situation, and it's between the client and the caregiver also to discuss payment.

So they, have a range usually of where they're at price wise, but it's always between them. They get to, say, okay, this is where I am at and then this is where I'm at. And they, they meet somewhere in the middle and if they can't come to a number, then we move on to the next.

Caregiver. So the registry is essentially a pool of people then where the registry meets with the family or the client to begin with. They do an initial assessment to garner, what do they need in terms of caregiving, in terms of personality, in terms of somebody that loves dogs, all the things. And then Stephanie, who owns the caregiver group, would go back to the drawing board, or one of her care coordinators who also goes into the field to do assessments.

They would essentially. Look at their database of what is now over 100 caregivers that could potentially be matched to a family, but they're not telling the caregiver you are going on this job. They're telling the caregiver based on what the family identified as things that are valuable to them in the form of a caregiver.

They're now going to send caregivers into the family's home for the family to interview. The family gets to decide, do they want to hire this caregiver or do they not want to hire this caregiver? And when they decide they wanna hire them, then the caregiver and the family, they negotiate what the pay rate's gonna be because the family does not pay the caregiver group.

For the caregiving services themselves, there is a management fee that is paid eventually to the registry. But still falls way underneath what agencies are receiving in compensation. We've talked about this a little bit in the past on previous podcasts where pre COVID caregiving was costing 25 to $45 an hour, 45 being the highest acuity of care post COVID boy, we rolled right out of that pandemic into rates for caregiving around 40 to $45 an hour as the starting rate.

Now when we look at those families that have a higher acuity of care, we're looking at 65 to $75 an hour. Imagine what that looks like for a family that needs 24 hour care. We're looking at probably 50 to $60,000 a month at a rate of $60 an hour times 24 times 30. That is a. Excruciatingly expensive for anybody to pay.

So if you can hire someone from the registry, biggest benefits here are that you get to interview the caregiver, and guess what? The caregiver is gonna be 10,000 times more loyal to that family because they're making a livable wage. Yep. When you pay an agency, the agency. The money. They pay all their bills with that liability insurance, all the things, and then they pay the caregiver somewhere between 17 to maybe $20 an hour to provide caregiving services in your home.

Yep. Under the registries business model, it's completely different. You get to pay the caregiver directly, a living wage of whatever you identify that to be and agree upon with the caregiver that you've hired. And maybe it's 20 or 25 or $30 an hour depending on the acuity of care, but certainly not $65 an hour.

So what are some of the most common misunderstandings people have about these two options? So a lot of times I think people are concerned about a registry and that they won't have, if like their caregiver can't come in or they're sick, then they won't have anybody. And that's not true with caregiver group.

We, always have somebody for backup, whether, 24 7 that comes with the weekly fee that caregiver group charges. And you have access to a caregiver 24 7. So that's like an on-call person. Exactly. And so that is beneficial for a lot of the seniors in our area in southern Oregon that moved here to retire.

And they don't have any family here that, more times than not caregiving situations, they don't have any family here. And so that's why I threw this in there is because if they get sick or don't feel good, they, it's really hard for a senior already to get the energy to drive to the store, and then they get sick with a cold or something and they can't go get themself chicken soup or they can't go get themself coldness.

And so they, for things like that. They can call us and, we'll make it happen. We'll go, we'll drive them to urgent care. We will, what, whatever they need, we're not trying to come and, scratch their back, but it's really a great thing and it really is a great thing for family members.

That live out of state because they will call us and say, Hey, I haven't heard from my mom in a couple days. And instead of them calling the cops and getting a wellness check, we'll go over and pop in on 'em. Or we'll say, Hey, yeah, no, we just talked to 'em or we saw 'em and they're fine. Or, and so it's.

It's a great thing. And that's for folks that are like subscribing to services through the registry. Yes. Yeah. And I think that's a really important thing to note. So if somebody calls Stephanie and wants to have caregiving two days a week for three hours each of those days, but it's a day that they're not supposed to have caregiving.

Or it's hours that they're not supposed to have caregiving. This just happened recently. Where the family didn't expect the caregiver to show up until two 30, but some things have gone sideways earlier in their day and they are seeking caregiving services earlier. So they're wanting to know if someone's on call.

So walk us through what that would look like if somebody is receiving services through the registry, but they need something on a day that you're not scheduled to provide service. What would they do? How do they execute that? They would call their care coordinator if they can't get ahold of their care coordinator, that would, call would come to me.

And we, whoever you know, is on call that day or whoever is available, would go and take care of them. I love that. I love that. And Stephanie built that in. So as I said before, she really prides herself on being a solution seeker or problem solver. That's how Team Senior essentially got rooted in the community to the degree that we are, is that we have established a rapport with all of Southern Oregon that recognizes that you don't have to call us because you wanna move into assisted living.

There's a very common misconception out there that is what Team Senior does. Team Senior, essentially. Helps you solve problems no matter what that problem looks like. And Stephanie has based her business around that exact same business model, and I absolutely love the caregiver group because of that.

We sent them all kinds of crazy, wild things and requests in the past. They, somebody needs transportation or somebody doesn't need caregiving, but. They don't like what they're getting delivered from Meals on Wheels and they want somebody to come in and cook for them. Her, she has a robust staff of people that can do, I do essentially anything I do.

Yeah. And I actually have one of my caregivers who is, she just has a love for seniors and she loves cooking and she has invested in these. Little loaf pans that are silicone and they're almost, they're, our seniors don't eat very much at a time. And she makes these little pre, prepped meals for the seniors in these little loaf pans.

Little casseroles in the loaf pans. So they're individual meals. For the size that they can, and they can freeze 'em and pull 'em out. It's not like a bunch of food that it goes wasted. And I've connected her with a bunch of our seniors and that's, I really love that. So yeah.

That's amazing. And that's one big benefit of bringing caregiving into your home, right? So we hear this all the time. We have seniors that, aren't cooking as much or maybe they used to love to cook, but now they're just not capable of standing in the kitchen that long and while they're not really signing up for caregiving, there are all kinds of things that.

A caregiver working in your home can circumvent in terms of the legalities around meal preparation. Like we know that you have to have a food handlers and all these things if you're gonna cook meals in your kitchen and take it into somebody else's house. But if the caregiver is in your own kitchen and they are preparing meals there, it's completely okay for them to do that.

And I love that. That some of Stephanie's caregivers can get folks set up in their own home to have meals in the refrigerator or the freezer. And it also allows the senior that is being cooked for, to contribute to what foods do you love and what are some foods from your, past culturally or just, that your mom used to make for you that, we can make together here today.

And maybe all you're doing is observing but I'm here to do all the labor for you. Yeah we always. Try to get them to participate in it. And even if they're, if they're not able to walk anymore, get them in their wheelchair or, whatever, bring a chair into the kitchen and have them say, oh no, don't stir it that way.

Or, Hey, that pot's spoiling over, or, so at least they're participating still. Yeah, I absolutely love that. So we've already established, what model is more affordable. Agencies we know charge, 45, let's say $40 to $65 an hour. The agencies are paying their caregivers 60 to $20 an hour, and the registry again, that 16, 16 to $20 an hour.

Okay. Okay. So in the registry scenario, you get to pay the caregiver directly, which means the caregiver's now earning a livable wage at 20 to maybe 30, $35 an hour, depending on the acuity of care. Still, way less expensive than an agency. Are there any things that people should know though, Stephanie, about, does the registry come with greater risks or responsibilities for the family?

So there's not a greater risk. Generally the, the caregivers have their own liability insurance. Your homeowner's insurance also is a protection that everybody, already has. You can check with your insurance agents and see, what it covers, but it's a similar coverage that you would have if you have a gardener or a housekeeper that comes into your home.

It's a similar, situation. And that is something that. Day one that you know, you can discuss with your care coordinator and with your caregiver and all of them are more than happy to show you, their insurance policies or, whatever it is that you're wanting to take a look at.

And those are definitely things that families should be asking if that's something that's really important to a family when they are doing their initial. Assessment of a caregiver, you have the ability to ask that caregiver, are you bonded? Are you licensed? What kind of training do you have?

Do you have liability insurance? All those things. And if that's something that brings you comfort, then we just have to get you matched to a caregiver that has all of those things. Yep. All the deal breakers. And, that's why we, that initial meeting with the care coordinator is so important.

'cause we go over all those things. What are, what's important to you? What? What is a must have from your caregiver and so that we can match them with all the things. Absolutely. So I wanna talk through a little bit of times when the caregiver registry might not be the most appropriate fit for a family.

And in my opinion, there's really only two. Maybe three reasons why, and then I'll let you, elaborate on that. If a family has long-term care through, say, Genworth or any other, insurance provider that provides long-term care insurance most often those insurance. Agencies want to pay a caregiver agency.

They don't wanna pay an individual, not even if they're on the registry. There are some workarounds, but it's not easy and it's certainly not quick. The other time is when it's haha hours through the va. So the va when, I don't know why they named it the HAHA program. I say that all the time. I don't know why they chose that name, but the HAHA program is ours that are given to a service connected veteran.

In their home, and it's usually a three by three program. So it's three hours a day times three days a week. I've seen it go up to 12 hours, very rarely. But in that scenario, that is a referral that is made from your doctor to the va, from the VA to caregiving agency. They will not hire an individual or anyone on the regions registry, and then the agency sends a caregiver into your home for those three hours a day.

For three days a week. Another program is Medicaid. If you receive Medicaid long-term care benefits and you need a caregiver Stephanie has plenty of people that are on the registry that carry the Medicaid provider. License through the Department of Human Services. But if you need a caregiver really fast and you'll receive Medicaid long-term care, it could be much quicker for you to put someone in place through an agency.

But I do wanna pause here and just say that Stephanie has lots of people on the registry that carry their Medicaid provider license. So if you have the provider number Yeah. Yeah. The provider number and the most beautiful thing is that now you get to hire that caregiver who works for you directly, who is paid for through Medicaid.

And there are lots of caregivers that want to do this. I just got a call the other day. I get random calls about all kinds of things all the time, and somebody called me and said. Hey, I, my patient or my client recently passed away. I'm looking to get connected. The Department of Human Services told me to reach out to you because you have clients that you could refer me to.

And I immediately started to connect her with Stephanie, with the caregiver group. And she said I'm not looking to get paid privately. I really wanna work under my own personal Medicaid provider number. And the reason why she wanted to do that is because she gets health insurance through this.

Date? Yeah. So it's they, I think it's 40 hours a month and they get full benefits. And the benefits are great, vision and dental, I've heard. And I encourage all of my caregivers to go and get their provider number. Just because all of, I'm very picky about who I use as my caregivers and.

The Medicaid program, they need better caregivers. Not that the caregivers that are all bad, I'm not saying that I'm just, they need more caregivers and that's also, a way for them to get benefits. So it's a win-win, and when we take on Medicaid clients. Caregiver group doesn't make money.

We do that for the benefit of our caregivers so that they have a way to better Medicaid folks as well as possibly get benefits. We have quite a few of our caregivers that are, have their provider number and when I have people call that. Need, help with that. I fill up our hours and then, sometimes I will connect them with agencies if, I don't have a Medicaid caregiver available.

Sure. Yeah. And it's one thing to note is that there are not very many agencies that, and some of them too, they even carry the Medicaid contract and they can provide a caregiver under the Medicaid contract, the reimbursement rate for the agency to provide the service to. The family under the Medicaid contract is just not a profitable scenario for the agency.

And so when you can hire a private caregiver through Medicaid, for somebody that has their Medicaid provider license, and these are all things that we can help you with, I don't feel overwhelmed by what we're discussing right now, but it is important for you to know that there are.

Caregivers that have their provider number through the Department of Human Services that want to provide caregiving in your home where you're not hiring an agency, you're essentially reaching out to the Department of Human Services or me or Stephanie. And we're able to help you get connected with caregivers that can provide care under the Medicaid provider number.

And like I said, they want to do that. They really want to do that for you because they only have to work something like 40 hours a month and then they get full health insurance benefits. That's huge. Health insurance is excruciatingly expensive. When we look at, providing it for employees and stuff, or even buying it for ourselves.

If you are not ready for Medicare health insurance, good health insurance with medical, dental, everything is like a thousand to $1,200 a month. It's outrageous. So that's a huge win for somebody that can, get paid for their time and also get. Health insurance for their time, and it's not 40 hours a week.

Again, it's 40 hours a month. Tell me what are some benefits that we haven't talked about so far in terms of working with the caregiver registry? So I think that one, one thing that I really want people to know about. The registry is that once you are placed with a caregiver, that's your caregiver.

We try really hard. To not bounce caregivers in and out. So once a caregiver is your caregiver, they're yours. You don't I know I've heard stories of, clients that have had in a month, they've had, 18 different caregivers, which is. Nobody wants 18 people in their home, in a month.

That's ridiculous. Also with the registry, our registry, you get support, you get wraparound support. I. Have talked in depth with my care coordinators. It's part of orientation with every caregiver. We let them know about all of the support services that we are connected with, other in the community that we work with.

And we identify things that they may need, whether it's, hey, they're really not safe to live in their home anymore. They would benefit from moving into maybe an assisted living or maybe a memory care. Or they would really benefit from home health. Agency having a nurse or physical therapy coming in.

So it's wraparound care. We, we can, we have a lot of resources of getting durable equipment for them. We, medication wise, that's one of the first things that I, we do when we go in and start services is we set up med management if they need often they're, the, our little seniors are taking double blood pressure medications and that's why they had their fall in the first place. So it's those are the things. It's more personalized. You have a person, you have a face that's yours.

We, we stay connected. It's. It's not just a, a corporation or a business it's homegrown, homegrown with a quality that I honestly have not seen exist elsewhere. And I will also say, just quickly, 'cause we're gonna jump to the next question, which talks about, what do you need to consider when you're hiring folks?

But while none of these caregivers are employees as. Stephanie's, they're just a part of the registry and she allows them the opportunity to come into the home by making those matches, right? It's matchmaking seniors to caregivers, and then the senior or the family gets to interview the caregiver to say yay or nay.

What I will say though about Stephanie is that she has extremely high standards, and if that caregiver calls in sick once. That's probably okay. Everybody gets sick, right? If that caregiver calls in sick multiple times, or God forbid, they are a no show, I can tell you right now they're probably not gonna have a job.

Again, with the caregiver group, she has a zero tolerance policy. Her objective is to overserve the family with that lifeline where you can call in for an emergency at any time to Stephanie or anybody on her team. She does that very well. And the great thing with. The registry is that the caregivers are getting paid what they are deserve.

They get truth, respect, the, they get all the support that they need from, other caregivers, the care coordinators myself. And so they love their jobs. I don't have a problem with caregivers calling in sick. That's, I know that's a huge issue with most caregiving agencies. Sure.

It's really, I've been asked that question what are you doing different? I support them and they get paid more. Sure. That's, those are the main things. Then that's what it comes down to essentially, so when we look at this from the family's perspective what are the most important questions of families should ask?

Before hiring a caregiver, regardless of the model. Okay. I would make sure to ask about experience personality fit 'cause you can have a good personality, but if you don't know what you're doing, you're just gonna have a good time. You're not gonna get the job done.

Talking about how they would handle a situation if there's an emergency. If somebody is, a full code. If they fall on the floor and you have a caregiver in there that's gonna panic and not provide CPR or whatnot, like that's important. So you wanna make sure if say you need somebody that's gonna need.

Incontinence care or a feeding tube. Like obviously you want to ask those questions, before they're on board and make sure that they have experience in doing that. That's in the care coordinating part. We go through a big, long checklist of all the things. Do you need help with this?

Do you need help with this? Because some people, that's a deal breaker and so we don't want to, connect you with somebody and you get. Excited because you're like, oh, I really like that person. And then come to find out. They're not willing to, provide feeding tube service or so. Sure.

And I'm sure it could be as simple as, you are a fabulous caregiver and you really jive with the family, but you get dropped off to work there every day and that senior wants you to help them go to the grocery store. And you don't have the ability to do that. So it's really important to ask all those questions.

In terms of red flags with caregivers, what I will say, and I witnessed. This with the caregiver group in several different scenarios. And it's really just encouraging families to have that open line of communication. If at any time any caregiver with any organization is in your home and they make you feel uncomfortable for any reason, something Stephanie has done very well is removing.

Folks from that scenario. So an example of that would be, that happened, I don't know, probably six, eight months ago. And it was probably innocent, but it made the com the family uncomfortable. And so Stephanie just put another caregiver in there for them to interview. And then they went.

They went down the path with that individual. But essentially what was happening is that this person was walking around the property, asking about values of cars and values of various things that were sitting, just around. And it made the family feel like maybe this person's intentions were not wholesome, and as I said, could have been completely innocent.

But Stephanie's job with those wraparound services is to hear you. Really listen to what your concerns are and intercept anything that is making you uncomfortable or unhappy or the caregiver isn't doing what your expectations are of them. She's either gonna try to coach the caregiver or she's gonna help you interview somebody else for that.

Can you wanna elaborate on that a little bit? Yeah. Red flags, warning signs, at the end of the day, the number one thing I can say is, trust your gut. That's, if something fills off, it probably is, that's what I do. If they come in and, they're, you're not given any options as far as price.

Given give or take on, negotiating the price of what you're gonna pay them, that's a red flag because, they're supposed to, they go into it knowing that, hey, we're, we need to come to an agreement here. We can't have that concrete thinking. We need to, be flexible.

'cause not every, client is gonna have the same ability to pay as. The next transparency is, very important. I, yeah, trust your gut. That's my main advice. Can you speak at all to how Oregon enforces consumer protections in this space as far as protecting families against caregivers that may have alterior motives?

I, I think that there needs to be, a lot more protection. And I, I don't think that there's near enough, honestly. I think that, there needs to be more regulation on the allowing people to just have full access to our seniors and, it's it.

There's no regulation, really and that's part of why, starting a registry and kind of regulating that a little bit having a, an eyes on and having, a license with the state and stuff and it. Encourages these caregivers that are just out there on their own, not having any rules and not having any, guidance or accountability, it encourages them to come, okay, come over here and let's have some, let's have some rules.

And being on the registry they are able to have more consistent work and, and so it's. I am not saying that they, they're out there doing bad things or whatever, but it's, it's just, if you don't have any accountability, you know who, you go and if you don't decide you don't wanna go to work that day, you maybe just don't show up.

It's and I feel like this is, really, a chance to, show another area where I've seen you shine in the past, Stephanie. When she has caregivers that are working with families, and sometimes maybe it's not the caregiver that has done anything questionable, but the caregiver recognizes that other people are coming into the home.

And maybe something has transpired that didn't look right or feel right or sound right. I can think of instances where professionals have been in the home and Stephanie has just as a very simple example would be she had a gentleman who moved out of his home because he had some property damage and there was a contractor that came in.

And was supposed to do all of these things. And he was very upset. The senior was very upset that some of those things hadn't happened, and he was supposed to be meeting the contractor to collect, to pay his final check to the contractor. And Stephanie actually met the contractor there on behalf of the family and walked them around to point out all the things that were expected to be completed before she was going to encourage this gentleman, her senior client, to write that final check.

There were some things that were very. Profoundly obvious that had not yet been done. And that's just, one of, right now I literally, I could probably give you 50 examples of ways that I have seen her step way outside the box of what is just regulating or holding her caregivers to a standard, but also just, largely holding our entire community to a standard and being a true advocate for seniors and their families.

Yeah, it goes back, I really. It goes back to if you see something, do something. And if we can, we should, if we can do something, even if it's a little thing to help a senior or vulnerable pop population, whether it's a kid a battered woman or a senior, that's, that that's what we should be doing, and it's not, it's it's a no brainer to me. And, I get thanked all the time. She's gonna cry. No, I'm not. I'm not crying. You're crying. I get picked all the time for doing things that you know, we should already be doing. Yeah, I know. And I can't, I'm gonna stop you so you don't full on cry, but I just wanna say like her heart is in this for the right reasons.

If you want to be working with. An organization that is going to go to bat for you as the absolute most profound advocate. She's it, she's definitely it. So quickly I wanna ask you to share with everybody if somebody that's listening today wants to get connected with the caregiver group, how do they get in touch with you?

So you can call us, you can email us. I my number is 5 4 1 7 6 1 6 3 8 7. Email address is stephanie@caregivergroup.org or info@caregivergroup.org. Anytime I, that's, I, my phone number is open yeah. And she, if you need help, call me. She means that like I said, she has there's.

Too many times when I've talked to her on the fourth or fifth day when she's worked 12, 14, 16 hour shift because her heart is in it. And I love her for that. As we always close telling you the same thing, we went over a lot of information today. You don't have to remember everything. The only thing that you need to remember is how to reach out to Team Senior.

We're gonna help you get connected with all the resources we bring to the table through this podcast and every other venue that you, where you see us or hear us. You know how to get us again, this is Jamie Callahan. Thank you Stephanie, so much for coming today. Yes, thank you. And goodbye everybody.