Crisis Mode to Clarity: Navigating Home Healthcare for Aging Parents

Caring for an aging parent is overwhelming — especially when you’re forced to make decisions before you feel ready.

In this episode of For Mature Audiences Only, we sit down with Hannah Berenberg from Bayada Home Health Care to unpack what families are really facing:

• The fear of bringing a “stranger” into the home
• The confusion around Medicare and insurance coverage
• The emotional resistance to hospice
• The tension between siblings making care decisions
• And how to know when it’s finally time to ask for help

If you’re in crisis mode…
 If you’re trying to avoid a nursing home stay…
 If you’re exhausted and unsure what to do next…

This episode is for you.

You don’t have to navigate aging or caregiving alone.

For Mature Audiences Only is a podcast dedicated to real conversations, honest stories, and practical guidance for families navigating caregiving, aging, and senior living.

If this episode resonated with you, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with someone who may need support.

Presented by Archer Law Office https://archerelderlaw.com

Music provided by MIBE https://mibemusic.com/

Transcript

Setting The Stage: Home Care Basics

Shannon 0:02

Welcome back to For Mature Audiences Only, presented by Archer Law Office, the podcast where we have real, honest conversations about aging, health care, and the decisions families are often forced to make before they feel ready. We're your host, I'm Shannon Johnson.

Mary 0:15

And I'm Mary Shapiro. Today's episode is one so many families are searching for answers about. Home health care. What does it actually mean? Who qualifies? What's covered by insurance? And how do you know when it's the right time to bring care into the home?

Shannon 0:32

If you're caring for an aging parent, navigating a new diagnosis, or trying to avoid unnecessary hospital or nursing home stays, this episode is for you.

Mary 0:41

We're joined by Hannah Berenberg from Bayada Home Healthcare, one of the most recognized home care providers in the country. Hannah is here to break down the different types of home care, explain the difference between private pay and skilled nursing, and help families understand how to access services when they need support the most.

Shannon 1:01

We're also diving into insurance coverage, physician referrals, and what HomeBow really means and how patients can continue seeing their own doctors while receiving care at home.

Mary 1:11

This is for mature audiences only, presented by Archer Law Office. Let's get started.

Shannon 1:17

Today we're joined by Hannah Berenberg from Bayada Home Healthcare, an organization many people have heard of but may not fully understand.

Mary 1:25

Hannah, thank you so much for being here. Thank you both for having me. Happy to be here.

Shannon 1:30

All right, let's start from the beginning, Hannah. What type of at-home services does Bayada provide?

Meet The Guest And Services Overview

Hannah 1:35

So we're very lucky to be able to provide a wide continuum of care all over the state of New Jersey. If we're specifically talking about this local area, we're able to provide adult nursing, pediatric nursing. We have hospice services, skilled visit services, which I know we'll talk about with some of the questions today. My office specifically is the personal care side with certified home health aids. And very recently in our Tintin Falls area, we've opened an ABA and autism therapy office as well. Wow. For those types of services at home and also in our headquarters in Pensaucken.

Mary 2:11

There are so many different programs that Payata provides. So what exactly is the service area for New Jersey?

Hannah 2:18

So we can cover the entire state of New Jersey. Wow. So I know we're here in New Jersey today, so specifically talking about it, but we can cover from the top to the bottom of New Jersey. My office specifically is in East Brunswick. So we cover Middlesex and part of Somerset. But for anybody who calls, there's an office to support them, which is really nice.

Mary 2:41

That's great. Cause some of our clients are in New York and Pennsylvania as well as New Jersey. So it's good to know that they could reach a Bayada in a different state.

Hannah 2:50

Yes, we definitely cover, we have a large presence in Pennsylvania. That's actually where we were founded in Philadelphia. So 50 years ago, in 1975, um, we were founded in Philadelphia. That's where our first service office was. So we have a large presence in Pennsylvania and New York too. Nice.

Shannon 3:05

Is there any like part of the state in New Jersey particular where you guys have more cases than others?

Hannah 3:10

I feel like it really depends like on the needs and the types of services. But for personal care, we have a very large presence in Arizona as well, which is pretty cool. Wow, we just opened an office in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. So I think the East Coast is where we have the most types of services. Um, but out west too is um a great presence. So exciting.

Shannon 3:32

Now, when you say personal care, how would you define it in your own words?

Hannah 3:36

So personal care for us is assistants at home with certified home health aids. So they can help with bathing, dressing, um, incontinence care, toileting, safety, and supervision. So they're able to help. They're all licensed caregivers as well. So in the state of New Jersey, they have to hold a certified home health aid license that comes from the Board of Nursing.

Personal Care Defined And Availability

Shannon 3:54

Okay. So, and are you also able to provide hourly care, live-in care?

Hannah 3:58

All of that would go into our personal care. So we have hourly services, we have live-in all throughout the state of New Jersey as well. All of our service offices. So here in East Brunswick, in my office, we have live-in and hourly support. Nice.

Shannon 4:11

People often hear a bunch of different terms about the services that you provide. People hear private pay, skilled home care. Can you talk about the difference between the two?

Hannah 4:19

Yeah. So I think the biggest difference between the two is the payer source. So private pay is uh out of pocket, but that's not the only way that home health aid services can be covered. So for personal care services, long-term care insurance can also cover that type of support. Skilled nursing is strictly through insurance. So whether it's a commercial insurance or Medicare, um, I think the other difference between the two is flexibility in the service. So private pay, you are paying for that yourself. So the schedule you want is basically the schedule you'll get, except for maybe some minimums that our offices have. But skilled nursing, there's a specific amount of visits that are given through your insurance, and every insurance is different.

Shannon 5:01

Really? I did not know that's how it worked. Very interesting.

Mary 5:05

And when it comes to nursing specifically, when someone's receiving at-home nursing services, what is considered skilled?

Hannah 5:13

So there's pieces to that. So I think like the skilled nurse element to it, it could be for wound care. It could be like specifically for a nurse to come out to the home, it could be for catheter care, ostomy care. It could also be for educational purposes. So if a client themselves is unable to perform the care, they will do trainings to a family member or a friend or a neighbor, whoever's supporting them through that as well.

Mary 5:38

Nice. I think a lot of our clients, they don't understand the terms. And even I think the general populace, when you hear skilled versus private pay, people get confused what does skilled mean?

Private Pay vs Skilled Nursing

Hannah 5:50

Yes. And I think something very important to mention is, and it's a call that we get almost every single day in our office, is a lot of um clients that are calling, they think that their insurance is gonna pay for a home health aid. Unfortunately, that is not the case. And it's hard sometimes because they've called their insurance company and they're like, I just spoke with Aetna and they just told me this, and I'm a stranger to them. So for them calling me, I'm like, I know I'm a stranger to you, but I I promise you this is the correct information. And what the insurance companies are saying is home health, not just home health aid services. So through insurance, they could receive physical therapy, occupational therapy, a visiting nurse, sometimes a couple of hours of a home health aid, maybe once or twice a week, but only for bathing purposes. So they'll come in, they'll do a shower, they'll do a sponge bath, they'll do a bed bath, whatever the client needs, but then they're out the door because they got to get to their next client. And that's not guaranteed because insurance doesn't deem home health aids as medically necessary. And we're including Medicare in that. When you say insurance. Exactly. So Medicare, we um in New Jersey, we actually have an office that helps with commercial insurance visits too, which is pretty unique. Um, they can also do private pay visits from a nurse or a therapist. Um, that office actually in Morristown, we were just talking about. So they are able to provide that support. That's where we get a lot of confusion in the calls. And unfortunately, you know, they think insurance is gonna pay. Sure. They will not. They'll pay for those visit services, but they're not gonna pay for strictly a home health aid.

Shannon 7:22

All right, let's take a step back for a second. So let's talk about a family calls in to the office. What's the process like, the intake process?

Hannah 7:29

Yeah. So we'll take a call, we'll kind of gather some information. I always like to ask, you know, what's been going on recently that you're looking for additional services in the home. Um, and they'll kind of start with, you know, hey, this might happen with my mom or my dad. And I kind of listen and I take notes at the same time of what their needs are. Sometimes it branches off to that insurance conversation. Sure. Where then I'm like, all right, let's go through this together and take it one step at a time. Um, we also have an insurance confirmation office. So if somebody calls us and they're like, you know what, I'm really adamant. I really think my insurance covers this. They told me this, I will collect their policy information and I'll have our other office run it for them and call them to go through the details. And sometimes that helps solidify for them. But unfortunately, the home health aid element is not covered. From there, we'll kind of see what they're looking for, if it's for my office or another office of Bayada, and then we get them to the right place. Right.

Shannon 8:24

You started in 2019 or before COVID hit. How have you seen things change before COVID hit versus now that were kind of post-COVID?

Hannah 8:32

Yeah, I think a lot of people in that time frame, I always used to hear when I started, I know there's a shortage. There's a shortage of caregivers. And I always used to say, I'm like, there's not a shortage. You know, there's life circumstances that have happened where maybe they're not able to be um out there to provide this service, but we're constantly hiring, we're constantly able to run, we have a home healthy training class that comes through our office where individuals are coming to learn how to become a caregiver and help them become certified. So I think that has been um, you know, something that came up during that time and the type of care we provide too. So when we have a COVID case, when we have maybe an infection that arises, we're really taking the necessary precautions that come from not only the CDC, but from our Beyata quality and clinical team, um, which really came together during that time.

Mary 9:21

Do patients need a prescription or how do you get a referral? Does it have to be physician-driven? Can anybody call? Yes.

Hannah 9:29

So they definitely can call anytime for the private pay element. So we don't need for personal care support in the home with the E. We don't need a script, we don't need any details or information. If you wanted to have the doctor call and give us a medical history, we definitely can take that. Our nurse will definitely accept that detail. Skilled nursing definitely need a script. I would say a script from a doctor, or if they're discharging from a rehab or a hospital, a script from them. And then sometimes even notes from those their most recent doctor's appointment. Okay, great.

Shannon 10:01

Uh, once services begin, how long will insurance covered home care usually last?

Hannah 10:06

Uh, typically six to eight weeks, from what I understand from my sister office that provides that service. But if somebody needed to extend it, it would be a conversation with their insurance company to approve any additional visits for them.

What Counts As Skilled Care

Shannon 10:18

So at that point, would they have the insurers have to send somebody out to kind of evaluate the person and go over with you guys in order to extend them, like you would with any other insurance?

Hannah 10:25

That I don't know. I don't think they would send somebody out, but I know they would coordinate with our Beyata office. I'm sure that our providers would have to provide notes of where the client is at at that time and then try to see if they're able to provide more or not. Great.

Mary 10:39

I know we touched on it earlier, but let's talk about the patients you see most, you know, who, which diagnoses or what is a typical patient that's either on private pay or is a skilled patient.

Hannah 10:53

Yes. So we, I would say we have a lot of clients that are living with dementia that we support. Parkinson, COBD, uh congestive heart failure. The skilled side, it could be more of, you know, post-surgery, maybe a hip replacement, knee replacement, but we also support with those clients too at home, which is great to combine those services too. So my office can have an aid in the home, and we also have our bay out of therapists that are coming out to support them as well.

Mary 11:19

Great. So if somebody was in a rehab because they had a hip replacement, they can continue their physical therapy at home. Exactly. Yep. Great.

Shannon 11:28

That's definitely a big part of it. Um, especially, you know, that transition, that physical therapy part. I love that you guys have that because our seniors or anybody really on home health, or home health services needs to continue that movement of every day, getting that dose moving your legs, moving your limbs, getting up out of your chair. So I'm I'm love that you guys do that. While we're talking about terms, we hear the term homebound a lot. What does homebound mean? And is that required to qualify for skilled home care services?

Hannah 11:56

Sure. So homebound, I would say maybe the best way to put it is if you need somebody to help take you out of the home to go to an appointment or go somewhere, then you're considered homebound. So if you're not able to get out by yourself somewhere without the support of somebody else, you would be considered homebound. That is a requirement for the skilled element. Um, we can still have with a home healthy private payer through long-term care insurance, you can still be driving and going out and doing your appointments and have our aid maybe in the car with you for just if you need help bringing in groceries or the mail or something, whatever it might be. Um, but definitely for the skilled element, they have to be considered homebound.

Shannon 12:33

With the long-term care insurance that you just touched on, do you guys help with the policies that folks have? Because a lot of folks have a long-term care insurance policy.

Mary 12:41

Yeah, and they don't know what to do in the middle of the year.

Shannon 12:43

Yeah, they have no idea how to activate it, how to use it. Does your company kind of walk them through how to get that kind of active?

Why Insurance Rarely Pays For Aides

Hannah 12:49

Exactly. Yes, we definitely do. So that insurance office I mentioned before that could run like a commercial insurance, they're primarily for our long-term care insurance policies. Um, so when I take an intake, if somebody mentions to me in that original call, I always ask, you know, have you opened a claim yet? That's the first step that somebody wants to have in that process. Have you opened a claim? Have you contacted them? You know, if the client is unable to sign forms for themselves, who is power of attorney? Because the long-term care is gonna want to know and have that documentation in order to sign the paperwork to set up the long-term care. So I'll ask those questions. I might dive a little bit into elimination periods. So that's a period of time they have to pay out of pocket before their insurance kicks in. So I'll go through that with them so that they kind of know what they might be looking for or what might happen in the process. And we're able to either go two ways. We can bill them privately and have them be reimbursed directly from their long-term care, or we can do what we call an assignment of benefits, um, where they're able to sign a form. There's a HIPAA form and an assignment, assignment of benefits form. They have to sign, provide to us. We provide that to our insurance office and they'll set up the assignment of benefits or what we call AOP to be on file so we can build our insurance directly for extra.

Shannon 14:03

So I love that. So Mary and I talk about that a lot because a lot of folks have these long-term care policies but are still required to pay the amount up front. Let's say you're in a place that's that's costing you a skilled or specific that's $14,000 a month. You know, a lot of people don't have that just sitting on hand to be able to pay some money and get reimbursed.

Mary 14:20

Right, that's why they got the long-term care.

Shannon 14:22

Right. That's why you got it in the first place, right? I mean, that's the whole reason that you have the insurance, right? It's support to be able to cover you. And, you know, folks, you run into that issue. You know, we we've seen that before. So the fact that you guys have a system where it goes.

Mary 14:35

It could be either or.

Shannon 14:36

Right. And I've wonderful. Then I was asking Mary, how come they don't just build the long-term care insurance directly? Yeah, kind of doesn't make sense.

Hannah 14:43

We definitely can do that. I mean, there's only like certain circumstances where maybe we would consider not doing that. The only reason why that might be is sometimes a daily maximum. So how much in total the long-term care will pay per day. If it's, you know, much, much lower than the services they're gonna be provided, it might not be worth it to do it that way. Um, even on the client's end, so that they can just get the reimbursement. We have their credit card on file or a bank account. But other than that, we're able to set it up seamlessly for them. And if they don't want to set it up that way, we do a courtesy of sending their care notes, which are required, and also their invoices directly to their long-term care on their behalf. So they don't even have to worry about sending it off, which can be a big burden to a family member or to the line. So we'll do that as a courtesy for them too.

Shannon 15:28

That's great. That's great. You guys are the experts in it and the families a lot of times they're in crisis mode.

Mary 15:32

They kind of don't need your return and they don't know what to send to the insurance company. They could be asking for things that they don't have access to. So it's great that you guys can take that off their plate. Definitely. Yep. And I just wanted to circle back to the physicians. So when someone does come on Bayada, do they keep their own physician? Do you have physicians that they work with? How does that work with their doctor?

Intake, Verification, And Referrals

Hannah 15:57

So they can keep their physician. Definitely recommend if they have a primary care physician to keep it. Um, we don't have any physicians on service with us, but uh having the physician is how you'll need the script in order to obtain the skilled services. But something to think about, and there's like two avenues to go down. If they're having difficulty getting out of the home without the support of somebody, maybe having a visiting doctor might be a better option for them, which I know they might have a relationship with their current doctor, but just so they don't have to worry about if there's an emergency issue, if they can't get out of the home, somebody's coming right to them, or our aides could come into the home and drive them to and from appointments where they're still able to keep that primary clean position.

Shannon 16:40

I'm jumping around. So and I'm curious, is part of what your role is in your in your job constantly educating facilities, community, senior centers, or kind of what you the kind of service that you can provide?

Hannah 16:52

I would say yes. Um, I am the director of our office, so I oversee like the overall operations. We are a seven-person team in my office. So um all of our roles break down to work together to provide to care the care to families. Um, and definitely a lot of it is education, getting out into the community, explaining, you know, our services, but home health care services in general. So people know what they're what they have access to. I think there's, I'm not in our hospice office specifically, but there's a lot of misconceptions about hospice and the services that are able to be provided. We do a lot of education on that, even though my office doesn't necessarily provide hospice directly. We have Bay out of hospice that can, but we want our families to know that there are options for them out there, um, especially it's such a tricky word sometimes. So having that tacked with them. So a lot of education for families.

Shannon 17:40

So you use you segue right into my next question. What are some misconceptions that you hear about there about home care?

Hannah 17:46

Hmm, trying to think. Um, I think there's, you know, fear sometimes of people having a stranger come to their home. So I always get the question of do you do background checks? Are there fingerprinting? You know, what is your process like for hiring? Um, yes. So in order to obtain even a home health aid license, all of our caregivers go through a fingerprinting process to obtain their license. So I always say that to families. I'm like, first step to even having a license, they have to be fingerprinted. Right. Um, and we also do a background check as well as like an extra set of safety. We'd have to do reference checks for them. So I think that sometimes comes up.

Mary 18:21

And I love that families are asking that because it's so important when someone is coming into your home that you don't do what's called the gray market, where you're using, you know, we always use the phrase the church lady down the road, or I know a friend who does this. But, you know, somebody who actually works with a company that background checks and is certified is very different.

Post‑COVID Care And Safety

Hannah 18:46

And I think an element to that too with long-term care, they're gonna be looking for that. Having an agency that has a license, I have to provide our offices license that we apply for every single year. So for long-term care, they're gonna say, Do you have an office license? And I have to fax that to them for them to know it's a like not accredited is the word, but an approved agency license agency that's providing the care to them. So uh that's a great point regarding like private caregiving. There's, you know, parts of that too that could be maybe unsafe in a way. Um, everyone has their own choice of the services they want, and that's okay.

Mary 19:20

Well, in addition to being ill, now you are an employer. Right. Like to, you know, instead of letting someone else be the employer.

Hannah 19:29

Exactly, which I think sometimes can fall um, can be challenging. There can be communication issues. When you have an agency, when we're there to support, we should be that first phone call, we will call the aid. Um, if there's a disagreement, if there's a a challenge, service failures do happen. We know that we've worked through that. Um, but if you have an agency to back you up and support, we will make those calls to that caregiver. We'll work through that. So there's no awkward tension and a trying time.

Shannon 19:54

Have you ever had any situations like where someone was using private duty, it didn't work out, then they had to use a service like yours?

Hannah 20:01

Definitely. Yep, we've had people start services with us, then say, you know what, you know, we got to make a change. We found somebody that's gonna help us, and a couple weeks go by and they give us a call back. Um, and I say, I'm so sorry, um, but I'm I'm grateful that you called us back. We're happy to help you. Uh, I think having even an agency that you have trust in, even if you wanted to try out services for a little bit, maybe do a couple of weeks, you're noticing some changes in your family member and you're like, maybe I need to prepare. It's good to have an agency that has the records on file of your family member. I have a couple of as needed clients right now. So they'll call us when they need us. And they do have, I think it's a private support on the weekends. So the daughter will call and she'll say, Hey, um, you know, my caregiver can't come on these days. Can your agency come? We already have her mom's records on file. Our nurse has been out to see her. So it helps allow other options for clients too. That's great.

Mary 20:56

That keeps the continuity.

Hannah 20:58

Yes, definitely.

Prescriptions, Duration, And Extensions

Shannon 21:00

If someone is listening today or thinks themselves or a loved one needs your services or might benefit from home care, what's the best way to reach out to Bayada?

Hannah 21:07

So I guess if they wanted to Google, we get a lot of Google like Bayada in our area, and then they can see our local service office and give us a call. And then I would say our Bayada website, there's multiple sections. If you go through, it's literally an inquiry form that gets sent right to my office depending on where you live, and it will go to the service office that would best support. So is that Bayada.com? Yes, Bayada.com. Great.

Shannon 21:30

Are families often coming to you guys in crisis mode?

Hannah 21:33

Yes.

Shannon 21:34

What's the first thing that you try and tell that family?

Hannah 21:36

We usually like to say, like, we got this, we're gonna help you and gather as much information as we can, but also we don't want to overwhelm them in that moment too. So even if that means us calling, if they're in a facility, if they're, you know, somewhere else, a hospital calling on their behalf, you know, to try to get that information, um, but just trying to make sure they know that like we got this, we're gonna figure this out for you, like you have a partner in us. In the care.

Shannon 22:01

We've all dealt with those family members that have a lot going on. So how how how do you guys best try and explain to a family that, you know, they're doing the right thing and that your their loved one is going to actually benefit from your services?

Hannah 22:14

I think just being patient with those conversations too. I think even now we have a client that's 24-7 care and we've realized that we might be progressing towards a hospice conversation, which we just learned one of the family members is open to it, but the other family member is like, absolutely not. This is so upsetting. This is, you know, thinking it's the end when it's not. It's just for supportive resources. So I think picking and choosing the right times to have those conversations and listening in, we do a lot of like emotional intelligence work too, and like guiding through how they're feeling and uh kind of learning a little bit about the background of the client, their family dynamics to try to see how we can best support them too. If there's, you know, disagreements between the daughters, if there's a disagreement between the mom and the daughter, how can we jump into that without overstepping? Sometimes we have to be very mindful with that.

Typical Diagnoses And Combining Services

Mary 23:06

And then we always like to hear more personal stories. We always like to kind of end our podcast with a fun graduation story, so to speak, or somewhere where you really saw an impact with one of your clients.

Hannah 23:19

Yeah. So in our private pay realm, oftentimes our services are a long term. So we might be supporting somebody through several phases of life and in aging. Um, but if I had to think of a graduation story, we had a client a couple months ago. Um, she had, I want to say it was a compression fracture in her spine and she was in rehab. And I took the call from the daughter. She was looking for services at home. The facility was mentioning 24-7 care in order to discharge her. And so we set up the day, the time, we had 24-7 care in place. Um, we checked in, how are things going? A couple weeks go by. Uh, they said things were going well, and they decided after a couple weeks of services that they were going to remove the overnight care. And they wanted to see how mom would do overnight. We check in, things are going well. She's, you know, improving, she's kind of regaining that independence, which is what we're always looking for for our clients and supporting them through that independence. They decided to cut down days and then eventually cut down our services overall. And all through that, you know, knowing that we were there to kind of ebb and flow with the changes that might happen. If they needed to add overnights again, we're right there to support them. If we wanted to cut back again, we could do that too. Um, just so that the client felt like there's some safety there, but she's also still regaining, you know, where she was before. Um, the family had said, you know, if anything else happens in the future, which we always say, we hope nothing happens in the future, but if it does, you can always give us a call. We'd be happy to help you. Nice.

Shannon 24:47

That's great. This is a very, very particular industry that we work in. Um, there's a lot of different moving parts, a lot of different services, a lot of different companies. What's your why as to why you got into the industry?

Homebound Status Explained

Hannah 25:00

That's a really great question. I love that question. I started as an intern at Bayada in 2019. I had no idea what Bay Ata was. I didn't know what home health care was. I knew my grandma had an aid, but I did not know the full realm of it. I wake up every morning, honestly, to know that our clients are depending on us and it's for the clients and their families and our aides. Our aides, without them, we can't do the work that we do. They are the ones going out to the home and caring for our clients and their family members because sometimes we are emotional support, as we were just kind of mentioning, to family members too. It's not just for our clients. So my why is for them. It's also I have, you know, unfortunately, a personal family member that was recently diagnosed with dementia. So being able to support my family member through that process from all the knowledge that I have in this industry pushes me too. Um, but it's really for our clients, our employees, and everything in between. So we're very, very lucky to help people and be in their homes.

Mary 25:57

So and I think one of the great things about Bayada is you have so many different programs to helping people from children to aging seniors, uh, from like you said, the private pay to skilled care therapy in the home. So it's a there's a whole lot with one phone call or one click on the internet to get information and how to access the resources. Definitely.

Shannon 26:22

Can you touch on the the part about the children part? Because I've I've actually never heard any home care and GZ talk about being able to help children. Could you touch on that?

Hannah 26:30

Yeah. So we have pediatric nursing services um here uh that are all over the state of New Jersey. So they can be shifts primarily. So, like kind of how we have a home healthy go out for a couple of hours, they'll have nursing shifts as well. Um, we also have a program that's called a nurse residency program that's partnering with colleges and universities in the local area to have more nurses be on board with Bayada, like a pipeline to supporting with Bayada, where they will support with our pediatric or adult nursing clients. The ABA therapy and autism therapy services are new. I don't know 100% how they provide that type of support, but I'd happy to get more information. I could definitely share it with you guys.

Shannon 27:09

Oh, fantastic.

Hannah 27:10

That would be great. That's part two. Yeah.

Shannon 27:11

Yeah, definitely, definitely, definitely is. A lot of powerful stuff that you share with us today.

Mary 27:17

Um A lot of great information.

Activating Long‑Term Care Insurance

Shannon 27:20

A lot of great information. Again, we'll come back for part two and do more. Um I loved all the information that you had. And one more thing that I wanted to touch on is you talked about your hospice services and how you guys transition your clients to their Mary and I are big advocates of that too, because I think you touched on it. A lot of times folks get scared of that word hospice and don't understand that it's it's an added benefit that they can really, really benefit from. So um, we love that you guys are are not only just helping your clients where they are now, but also helping them through whatever process they're in currently.

Mary 27:48

Yeah, seeing what which direction their care is going. I think that's huge. The communication with the team and with the family when you're recognizing.

Hannah 27:58

I think that's something our team does very well. I'm very, very appreciative for everybody that works in my office. We all we sit um in a pit format, which I know you guys came to my office and got to see it a little bit. We are all talking all day long about our clients. And when my nurses go out every month to see them, we're talking about where were they at before, what's happening now, how is your visit? Um, do you think we need to recommend any type of supportive service to them? Um, you know, talking with other community resources to see, you know, how we can make that referral if necessary. So we're constantly having those conversations to help guide families through the right direction.

Shannon 28:32

And you almost have to, right? Mary and I are also talking on AA about our clients. You have to communicate, communicate with the families, communicate with your teams. Everybody's on the same page. So when the crisis does come up, if one does, everyone's kind of already on board and kind of knows what's happening.

Hannah 28:46

Exactly. So we're all able to support one another and it's emotional work that we do too. So leading in with one another to support each other through that is really important, having a strong team communication, which I'm very lucky that we have.

Shannon 28:58

So yeah, absolutely.

Mary 29:00

All right, well, thank you again. We had Hannah Berenberg from Bayada Home Health for joining us today on For Mature Audiences Only.

Shannon 29:08

And thank you to our listeners for tuning in. If you found this episode helpful, please be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone that could benefit.

Mary 29:15

Just remember you don't have to navigate aging or caregiving alone.

Shannon 29:19

If today's conversation raised questions about elder law, long-term care, or planning ahead, visit Jerseyelderlaw.com or call 609-842-9200 to find resources and support.

Mary 29:32

This is for mature audiences only, presented by Archer Law Office. Until next time, keep pushing forward and keep the conversation going.