EP #4: Home Care and Community Partnerships with Special Guest, Marisa Miller

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Home Care pod, your local resource when considering care. Now introducing the Home Care ladies, Laura Gillian and [Audra Bidwell 00:00:09]. At your service.

Laura Gillian:

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Home Care pod. We are your Home Care ladies. I’m Laura.

Audra Bidwell:

And it’s Audra here.

Laura Gillian:

Today, we have a special treat for you. We have our first guest joining the pod. Woo.

Audra Bidwell:

While Laura and I, we know a lot about home care, our guest today is really the authority for all the community resources and connections when it comes to Home Care for Home Instead.

Laura Gillian:

So please join us in welcoming our friend Marisa Miller, Director of Development for Home Instead, here in southwest Florida. Marisa, why don’t you take some time and introduce yourself? Tell us how you got into home care. Tell us a little bit more about you. Anything you want to share with us.

Marisa Miller:

Sure. Well, thanks for having me. I’m happy to be here. My name is Marisa Miller. I am Director of Development for Home Instead Senior Care. I have been with the company for 10 years. And how I got started was kind of interesting. I was home with my little one and looking to get back out there. I saw an ad for a caregiver. I had previously taken care of my grandfather after open heart surgery, so it was just something that interested me. So I went into apply as a caregiver, went through the training. I was quickly pulled into the office and went from there. So I started off just interviewing caregivers, and then I was a staff coordinator and then I was kicked out in the community to do a marketing role and really stuck with that. And then ended up in leadership, leading that department. So for me, it’s just all along, it’s just been such an honor and a privilege to be able to help this generation stay home where they want to be.

I’m just so passionate about that and just like the owners, Sue and Bill Bidwell, I just really felt from the beginning a connection with them, all working towards the same goal to help people age in place at home.

Laura Gillian:

Awesome. So, great.

Audra Bidwell:

That’s awesome.

Laura Gillian:

Thanks for sharing that.

Audra Bidwell:

I know. I’m so glad you responded to that ad, Marisa. That was one of our best ads ever. I appreciate that. So today we’re going to be, in this episode of our Home Care pod, we’re going to be discussing how home care fits in with other community resources for seniors. Marisa, can you explain a little bit about how we all can work together?

Marisa Miller:

Absolutely. So, when you sit down and you meet with a family and you talk about what their goal is and they’re elderly, but they still have goals in mind and the family has a goal for them. And usually it’s a team approach. So not only do I have to listen to what their goals are and come up with a plan about how we can interject and help them do that, we also have to work … There are some things that are out of our scope sometimes. So I have to lean on other community experts that I have a relationship and that I trust that can also help put that whole plan together. That could be hospice. That’s a touchy subject for a lot of families. People are afraid to talk about that, but hospice has come so far in the last couple years and they really do a great job. It’s not just end of life care any longer. So introducing them to someone that can explain that to them.

Also of course, we work with Medicare Home Health companies that work on the skilled side with therapies, again working towards a goal, and communication is key. A lot of times we work with family and neighbors, just making sure that these goals are and the plan is a good one for everyone involved and that we’re all working towards the same goal.

Audra Bidwell:

Yeah. That’s so good, Marissa. You’re so right on. I know we touched on this in a previous episode, but Marisa, if you could just explain to our listeners the difference between home care and Medicare Home Health, because I think that’s one of those things that people are really confused by.

Marisa Miller:

Yeah. It can be really confusing for families because most of them are just starting out and they don’t know the difference. They hear home health and they think, what does that mean? Home Instead is a home care, versus a Medicare Home Health company. So it’s in the name, Medicare Home Health. So that’s covered by Medicare. And what that is is it’s a skill, which means that it requires a doctor’s prescription. Sometimes that’s after an event like a hospital stay or rehab stay. When someone’s out of the home in the hospital and then in rehab, sometimes it’s weeks, sometimes months that they’re out of the home. So to get back into the home and transition, the therapies are then brought into the home after that. That’s covered by Medicare. Now it’s temporary and it’s limited, so people don’t understand that. They think, oh, a therapist is going to come home with me and they’re going to be here for all this time, and they quickly find out that that’s not the reality.

The Medicare Home Health piece is only there for the skill piece. They have a lot of restrictions. They’re only allowed to be there once or twice a week for an hour. Although it’s very important, it’s not enough support most of the time to transition someone home after an event like that. I wanted to mention also, you don’t have to have an event for the Medicare Home Health. Someone could be failing at home physically and a doctor can write a script for that as well. So it doesn’t have to be an event, but then we, Home Instead as the home care piece really surrounds that and can help with all the other support around that, almost as if a family member, for all the things that a family member could help with.

So that Medicare Home Health person there for therapy or wound care or something like that, is not going to cook you a meal. They’re not going to take you to the grocery store. They’re not going to do your laundry. They’re not going to change your bedding. They’re not going to sit there and conversate with you or keep you engaged. So those are all the things that we in conjunction with the home health that we can help with.

Laura Gillian:

Awesome.

Audra Bidwell:

I think of it as we fill in the gaps of care sometimes with Medicare Home Health.

Marisa Miller:

Yeah. That’s exactly right.

Audra Bidwell:

It’s pretty cool.

Laura Gillian:

Yeah, because people, it’s usually like a few hours a week and obviously if someone’s living alone and they’re a fall risk or they don’t drive, that’s not going to be a sufficient amount of care.

Audra Bidwell:

That’s right. Well, being that we’re local here in southwest Florida, Marisa, what are some of the community resources that might be available to a family member who might need some assistance or maybe a support group or some people to help them?

Marisa Miller:

We’re really lucky because the community has so many resources for families. I work a lot with Lee Memory Support. They have physicians there that do the memory screenings, but then they also work with not only the senior or the person that was diagnosed, they also work with the family, and they have really great support groups. They meet weekly. I will say a lot of that is virtual now because of the pandemic, but they’re really meaningful. I’ve been a big part of that. I do offer some education to some of those support groups with Lee. It’s just such a great connection. I mean, people want to hear and talk to families that are walking the same path with them and who are experiencing the same issues. They can share back and forth tips and tricks that have worked for them or maybe learn some new things. So, that’s a really great one.

The Alvin Dubin Center, Alzheimer’s resource center, which is a local Alzheimer’s support group, is really great. We’ve worked with them a long time. They recently received a grant for respite hours and we’ve been helping them provide care for respite, so that the loved one who’s caring for the person can get out and get some time for themselves. They also offer great support groups as well. They have case managers there that really walk with the family members to walk them through the different stages, because that’s what we know too is day to day things can change.

The Healthy Life Center at Coconut Point is another great one. They have cooking classes and exercise classes. They’re fantastic. The Alzheimer’s Association is great for resources and support groups. And also local churches. You’d be surprised. They have some really great programs as well. They work with community experts to bring in education. And same thing, they’re focusing on the caregiver, which is really great. So there’s a lot of support out there.

Laura Gillian:

Maybe we can even link those and share those along with this podcast today. I appreciate you, Marissa, and I thank you so much for joining us. I’m excited to, we’ll have you back definitely in the future. We thank you all for tuning in today to learn a little bit more about Home Care and how we connect with the community. And we’ll talk to you next time. Bye, all.

Audra Bidwell:

Bye.

Speaker 1:

Thanks again for listening to the Home Care pod with Laura and Audra, your Home Care ladies. To learn more about Home Care or a career as a caregiver, please visit our website at www.HomeInsteadSWFL.com, or call us at (239) 226-0007.