Elizabeth Moss Discusses Changes in Home Care Services

Looking for that perfect Christmas gift for the family? Why not a chicken? Stick a bow on top, put the chicken under the tree, and who knows, you may even have a couple eggs to fry up for breakfast Christmas morning.

Give the gift that keeps on clucking. A chicken. Okay, maybe it's not the perfect gift for your family, but it is the perfect gift for a poor family in Asia. A chicken can break the cycle of poverty for a poor family. Yes, a chicken.

A chicken's eggs provide food and nourishment for a family, and they can sell those eggs at the market for income. When you donate a chicken or any other animal through Gospel for Asia, 100% of what you give goes to the field. And the best gift of all, when Gospel for Asia gives a poor family an animal, it opens the door to the love of Jesus. So give the perfect gift for a family in Asia this Christmas. Give them a chicken.

Call 866-WINASIA or to see chickens and other animals to donate, go to crittercampaign.org. Hey, this is Larry the Cable Guy, and you are listening to Hope for the Caregiver with Peter Rosenberg. And if you're not listening to it, you're a communist, Peter. Welcome to Hope for the Caregiver. I am Peter Rosenberg, and this is the nation's number one show for you as a family caregiver. How are you feeling? How are you doing?

How are you holding up? This show is exclusively for those who are up late at night, doing lots of laundry, back and forth to doctor's offices, rehab centers, pushing a wheelchair, all the things involved in being a caregiver. And we are glad that you are with us. You want to be a part of the show, 877-655-6755. We have a lot of great guests today, a busy, busy program scheduled. But first, I must introduce him, the man whose picture dawns many a house at this time of year. He is the Baron of the Board, the Sultan of Sound, the Earl of Engineering, the man who needs no medication. He is John Butler, the Count of Mighty Disco, everyone. We have an intro done by you. They are delightful and I know sincere, and if anything, underrated. And underappreciated.

The man who needs no medication. All right, John. That's up for grabs. You remember our dear friend Elizabeth Moss from Caregivers by Whole Care?

I do, I do. I heard her on the little pre-show roll. She got to hear how the sausage is made with our show. Elizabeth is going to really be impressed about how much time we spend on show prep. Actually, I spend a lot of time, but I just don't clue John in to the last minute because John is so nimble on his feet. You wouldn't imagine somebody to be as tall as John is to be as nimble as he is. I should be rather awkward, you know.

No, he's not. Well, Elizabeth's with us. And one of the things I love about Caregivers by Whole Care, and Elizabeth particularly as she has led this company for many, many years. They took care of Gracie when we lived in Nashville for years, is that she doesn't follow a formula. She is constantly trying to build a better mousetrap and there's such innovation. So I'm glad that she is with us.

She was supposed to be on last week, but then she got sick and then she was supposed to be on a couple of weeks ago and then the power went out here. So it was just like, finally we got it all going here. And so Elizabeth, you're with us. How are you feeling? I'm doing wonderful and I'm glad we finally got it together. Thank you, Peter. Well, I don't know how much together we have it, but we are here. Well, we're here together. That's it.

That's it. Well, tell me what's, first off, tell a little bit about Caregivers by Whole Care for those who are just now hearing about you for the first time. And then tell me what's new and some things going into the Christmas season.

Great. Caregivers by Whole Care was founded in 1997 by me. I am a nurse and I realized that there was an improved quality of care that could be provided to people one on one.

We are multifaceted beings. And so I was raised in a holistic home setting, being cared for body, mind and spirit. And I felt like the elderly people deserved the same quality of care. So that's the premise on which Caregivers by Whole Care was developed. We still provide whole care today as the name insinuates. And so our care plans really do address body, mind and spirit and emotional needs.

And even people want we're able to ask simple questions about how people want to be cared for and make that happen for them. And as far as what's new, we've been what's new is that the whole world is talking about telehealth now. Telehealth has actually been in place for some time. However, people really weren't early adopters with it.

No, I got on board with it a while back and I saw the value in it a long time ago, but I was amazed how many people were kind of late to the party. Yeah, well, now everybody's being forced, whether it's your insurance company. Yeah, because of COVID, everybody's being forced to use telehealth. Well, that's not a bad thing because it just kicks everybody into gear. It saves money, saves time, decreases risk of illness, decreases risk of car accidents because you don't even have to get out in the car. Well, for us, it was a fall risk. Yes, fall risk.

Absolutely. And think about the time you don't miss from work, you know, that kind of stuff. You have to take off work to go get somebody, then take them to the doctor. I mean, it's a whole day, that kind of thing and sitting in a waiting room and all that kind of stuff. So I saw the implications of that with that for Gracie years ago to make her life a little easier. The problem is, is some things she has to do in person, but if it's like a sinus infection or things such as that, this is a no brainer.

Right. Even last weekend when I was sick, I called, I got on my insurance website and I got an appointment. They called me 15 minutes later and within 30 minutes I had a prescription ordered and could go pick it up in the afternoon. So, I mean, I didn't have to get out. I didn't have to go sit in an office.

I didn't have to then travel anywhere else. All of that. And I'm capable of doing all that myself. The people who aren't capable, like you're talking about Gracie, you know, there is that risk of, you know, a fall.

Getting out. So this is just a no brainer for people to sign up, get used to and acclimated on the system. The system that we actually have partnered with is called electronic caregiver. There are three or four different levels of service within this system. One is it can be just the emergency response system.

So if somebody lives alone or doesn't live alone, it's, you know, the help I've fallen, I can't get up emergency backup. So you have a button to push. It alerts the call center. They call and ask you a question. If they cannot hear you, they immediately call EMS and activate the 911 system. If you think you can hear them and you can answer some questions, then they sort of triage the situation to see if you need 911 to be activated.

Let me jump in for just a second. Elizabeth, do you have your caregivers? Because a lot of the people you're treating may not be very technologically savvy.

So can the caregivers that you all employ that you send to their homes, are they able to help these people get on these devices and so forth? Are they trained to do that or is that something that I'm just throwing that out? We, Elizabeth, we don't, you know, by now, Elizabeth, I mean, you've been doing this for years with us. We never plan in advance what we're going to ask. So that's good.

It's really good. So no, the caregivers don't really help them get that set up. The office does.

We do. And working with either the client directly or the family, we can get these systems set up. And the client themselves, depending, you know, so I am considering setting myself up on one of these levels of service. And that level of service is there is a watch. You can either get a pendant or a watch. Most people like the watch because they, there is some, you can wear the watch in the shower.

You can wear the pendant in the shower, too. Anyway, all that is to say, there are a couple of different levels, whether you're on the go or not on the go and homebound. So it's a great emergency.

I live alone. So what if something happens to me, nobody would ever know it. So I am going to sign up with this system. There's a family care app so you can have all your families on this app. This is all about health. And so they would know your vital signs, so to speak. There is a PocketMD. There is ProHealth devices. So they're all Bluetooth devices.

This is a homebound package that I'm getting ready to talk about with all the Bluetooth devices. And so there are oximeters, glucometers, thermometers, blood pressure monitor and weight scales. And all of those devices through Bluetooth connections communicate those results in real time data to your physician. So then that physician knows exactly what your situation is and can monitor whether the medications need to be changed or whether you do actually need to come to the office and be seen or it's just status quo.

It's collecting all that data for good decision making. Well, John wanted to know if you guys are using a tricorder from Star Trek. And by the way, Gracie's checking her own INR now for her blood.

She has to deal with coagulation issues and she can check her own INR and do and do it all response to this kind of stuff. And where we are, of course, we're very remote, very remote. But it really saves time because it's 17 miles down the mountain to get to the place where she normally has it done. And that's just 10 miles to the paved road. So this this kind of thing really does help.

And they came and they trained her and so forth. So it's wonderful. These these things are huge helps to families.

Yes, they are. Yeah, that's huge. And it creates independence. You know that Gracie's able to do that for herself, gives all of any of us whatever we can do for ourselves.

It creates a higher level of independence and self-reliance. For Gracie and for me. Yes.

For personally, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, for both of you. It really does. And because rushing to get down the mountain to go get your INR, your lab work done, you have to have a certain time, you know, that kind of stuff with her. Yeah. And out here, we could have we got 18 inches of snow two weeks ago.

So, you know, yeah, the dog sled just wasn't going to go that fast. So that becomes an impossibility at some point. And then she doesn't feel well.

And then that could create a hospitalization. So all of this is, you know, helpful to maintain people's maximum health level and decrease cost. What is what is the response for the lot of the clients and patients that you guys help care for? Are they are they embracing this pretty, pretty well now? I mean, is there fear or trembling or is there excitement in seeing the possibilities or all of the above? I think so.

Our client population is probably late 80s. And so, no, they're not excited. They're not jumping on this. But their families, you know, they don't even like you said, what is this Star Trek?

You know, this is like over the top of people's heads for comprehension. As far as our clients are concerned, some of them do have a cell phone and some of them do text. And like my aunt, who's 84, she checks.

She's on Facebook, but she could not figure this system out. She would not consistently go in there every morning and push a button to check in with them. They just want to know that you're OK. Yeah. So or they're going to they're going to call me or they're going to call you. They're going to call my cousins, which they did often because she just wouldn't remember to go push that little button. And so that had nothing to do with all the devices that are Bluetooth.

But that was the very simplest of the level of offering. So I think it's dependent and I think it will come over time as a result of this year. I think people will have to adapt and sign on over time because their doctors require it.

The insurance company requires it. Everybody will be requiring it. And so everybody will have to jump on board.

They won't have a choice. Well, yeah. And the nature of technological progress is such that, you know, it's when hopefully when when when I get to be that age that that, you know, I might be able to pick up on some tech stuff a lot easier, but there's hopefully going to be something that is just as baffling to me, but is just as amazing, you know. Well, eventually all the horse and buggies had to get off the interstate, you know, eventually. You know, we were required to go 40 miles an hour instead of 10. Tell me this.

We got about another minute and a half or so. What's what's looking forward on these things? And of course, a lot of people are not necessarily in your coverage of where you cover. But in the last 35, 40 seconds here, what are some thoughts you would say to people going into Christmas as far as hiring services and so forth? It's hard hiring services.

Don't wait. Be proactive. Talk with your family members. This is a great time to talk with family members and come up with a plan for when they need help. Because while you have the luxury of time, it's a real gift to your loved ones to be able to know what to do if something happens.

Excellent words. Elizabeth Moss caregivers by Whole Care caregiversbywholecare.com 615-298-9201. How's that for knowing your number off the top of my head, Elizabeth? That's pretty amazing, Peter. I love having you on the show. I will have you on more because you're our go to person for this, but we got to go to the break.

We'll see. We'll be right back to trust God when lousy things happen to you. I'm Gracie Rosenberger. And in 1983, I experienced a horrific car accident leading to 80 surgeries and both legs amputated. I questioned why God allowed something so brutal to happen to me.

But over time, my questions changed and I discovered courage to trust God. That understanding, along with an appreciation for quality prosthetic limbs, led me to establish standing with hope for more than a dozen years. We've been working with the government of Ghana and West Africa, equipping and training local workers to build and maintain quality prosthetic limbs for their own people. On a regular basis, we purchase and ship equipment and supplies.

And with the help of inmates in a Tennessee prison, we also recycle parts from donated limbs. All of this is to point others to Christ, the source of my hope and strength. Please visit standingwithhope.com to learn more and participate in lifting others up. That's standingwithhope.com. I'm Gracie, and I am standing with hope.