Download or listen to this episode here: https://sites.libsyn.com/459327 

Hello and welcome to the Senior Care Show. This is the show where we discussed the latest news, tips and resources for elder and senior care services. Now, in each episode, we'll be talking with industry experts and caregivers to bring you valuable information and insights to help you navigate this complex world of senior care.

Now, whether you're looking for information on assisted living facilities in-home care, or other, , we've got you covered. So join us as we explore the world of senior care and help you make informed decisions for yourself or your loved ones. Of course, if you like the senior care show, you can like and subscribe to our podcast.

It's available widely and we think there's some great information for you. Michael Watkins is the principal of the Tampa Bay Advisory. This is his kind of dream, his, his dream team concept, his idea for helping those as we age. And Michael, I'm gonna let you discuss a little bit about how you came up with the idea and how you brought this panel of experts.

Yeah, so it's, it has a lot to do with networking in the industry years of experience that type of thing. And so in my space, what I do is I help people prepare for successful retirement. and there's probably, you know, the most people think, oh, taxes or a stock market crash mm-hmm. and, and things that are, are really, you know, tied to their money.

Correct. Could derail their retirement. But, but I would disagree with that because long-term healthcare, I believe is going to just, just morph into an epidemic that this country's never seen before with their baby boomer generation. Getting older and older and the need for, for healthcare. And, and I have a little story about that.

So my first experience with nursing home care, and I'm gonna say institutional care, right, was when I was 15 years old. A friend of mine said, Hey, I can get you on at, at this nursing home down here. And I said, well, great, you know, A dollar 65 an hour, by the way. So I'm dating myself, , and I said, great.

And so I went in, I filled out the application and they, they asked me to come in for my first day for, for an orientation, and I will never, ever forget that day. The sights and the smells that I experienced terrified me. . One of the reasons why I'm a big proponent of living in your home as long as you can and having in-home healthcare, and there's a couple other stories too, and my mother and my mother-in-law this, and, and by the way, in full disclosure, this was many years before I got into the financial services industry, and so the difference between the two women, My wife's brother had the wherewithal to get a long-term care policy for his mom, and we didn't.

For my mom, our plan was she was just gonna stay with my sister in their big home, and that my sister would take care of her. But no one counted on my mother having a, a minor stroke, a heart attack, and just being, I see my sister not being able to move. And so the difference between the two women are this, my mother died in a nursing home by herself with no one around, and my mother-in-law died peacefully in her home with her loved ones around.

Wow. So that is why, another reason why I'm so you know, so I'm such a big proponent of long-term care. In, in more importantly in-home, he.

to that end, you can imagine what it does to caregivers, family members, people that have to see a loved one decline. That's very difficult. The idea that it's in an institution and you may not be able to get to it, or in Michael's case, his mother died by herself.

Mm-hmm. That's not the kind of thing you want to think about, and it's something you have to be proactive about. As we talked previous shows, Dr. David Bernstein mentioned about the need for proactivity and when it comes to this kind of thing, there are things you can do. Introduce our guest today. I want to get into this with

our.

Yeah. So Dr. Bernstein is joining us and Dr. Bernstein is a retired physician but has 40 years in geriatric care. And then Joe Wicker who is the franchise owner of the Tampa Home Health home helpers.

Now, Joe, we talked a little bit before the show. I'm trying to get an idea of how, how you fill fit into this.

But man, that story from Michael about the mom dying at an institution that's gotta touch a lot of people out.

Yeah. You know, James, when polled roughly 95% of seniors say that they would like to age in place in, in their home. And while there are some circumstances where someone may need to reside in a memory care unit or a skilled nursing facility, for the most part if the proper planning is done and the care is in place, seniors can age in their home and maintain a great deal of their I.

Now you

can imagine what that does for the patient. Have familiarity with the people, the environment. Doctor, we talked about that, that need for that idea of keeping the mind active and going, oh,

sure. It's incredibly important and, and toward Joe's point is it takes preparation and planning. and my wife and I joke that we have a 10 year plan and we review it every 10 years, but that's not true, Joe.

We review it every six months and we look around our house and make sure it's safe. And, and this is the environment and, and we've already fixed up a lot of things to make it as, as user friendly as possible and that we can stay there. My wife's an occupational therapist, so as a team we get ourselves together so, We can do that.

And as a geriatrician, I saw the impact of the catastrophes that happened when there was no preparation and, and there wasn't enough funds to do what would be the most comfortable. So planning is important and and the, the desire to age in place is really strong, like you said. And the other component to this, we need to consider.

When we don't do that, the burden and we, and the stress that we put on family members Yes. To, to do these jobs. And you said a statistic, I have one too. That there are 50 million Americans who provide care as caregivers every day to a population that's growing. And those are unpaid caregivers. They need to take time off from, right.

From work and, and make adjustments to their. because of lack of planning. So the planning is a really important part. And then knowing that there are organizations like yours that do this home healthcare that's incredibly important.

I agree. Joe, talk a little bit about some of the experiences you've seen and with folks out there that thought they were gonna have to go to an institution that were given the.

Peace of mind that they get to stay home.

Yeah. I, I think it, it is one of those situations that we probably don't like to think about, right? A lot of us don't want to think about getting older, but it's gonna happen to virtually all of us if we're fortunate, I guess you could say. And also like the doctor was mentioning there ends up.

Becoming an inverse relationship where the children start behaving like the parents and the parents start behaving a little bit like the children, you know, not wanting to do certain things. Mm-hmm. . And so when that plan is in place, what you you can do is you can avoid some of the, the negative outcomes the.

The ability to remain independent in your home does require a little bit of forethought because otherwise, and unfortunately, the way a lot of people come to these decisions as to what they're gonna do, the financial aspect of it, the living arrangements. That who's gonna provide care, who's gonna help manage things like the healthcare, the doctor's appointments, the finances.

A lot of those decisions are forced upon people because of an emergency, because a a a senior citizen fell, went to the hospital, gets discharged, and then people are saying, well, what do we do now? Right? Mom can't stay alone at home stay at home alone. So unfortunately, a lot of times we're forced into making these decisions, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Wow. You can imagine. Burden you feel as a, as a, as a child of a, of elderly parent having to make this decision in an emergency situation, you certainly want to consider all the alternatives and have plenty of time to make the right decision considering all aspects of this. That idea that a sudden event doctor he mentioned a fall or something, that's the way this happens most of the time, isn't, it's not a gradual thing that you see coming, that you actually can be so easily target down the.

I, yes, it's true. I, I'm there, there is an event that that moves the, the program way ahead of schedule. And I, I think some of this is generational because a prior generation lived to be 70 and died. and without the medical technology that we have now. That was the reality. But the reality today is you can retire at 65 and become disabled and live to 85.

Wow. And, and that's part of the thing that I talk about in terms of. Preparation and taking care of yourself, but then there's also the preparation of a plan. Mm-hmm. , like, how are you gonna maintain your health so that you, you avoid or delay the need for care, and then you have a really good plan in place for that care when you need it.

and that it's all part of the discussion you have with family to let them know way ahead of time, I want to age in place. Here's what I'm doing, here are the finances, here are the lack of finances and what I might call upon you to help me out with. I don't want to be a burden, but I'm gonna have a plan.

I mean, a lot of times people don't want to be a burden and don't have a plan, and that's the catastrophic event. And you're talking about then they fall, break their hip, have a heart attack, have a stroke and. , everything is shot to pieces and they end up in long-term care. And then they expend huge sums of money in that.

Yeah, and

Michael can probably speak more to the financial aspect of it, but the, the fact that seniors are living longer. We have a client that's 103. I mean, it's just amazing. And she's still living in her home and you know, relatively independent with some caregivers in the home to assist. But the, the challenge to living longer, man, that's a wonderful thing to live a long life, you know?

Is that you? outlive your resources, right? And so when most senior citizens own their home, but when you sell the home and end up spending that money on rent at a facility you know, at some point in time you just might run out of funds. And so being able to remain as healthy as possible and as independent as possible in your own home a lot of times it's going to help you from a financial standpoint.

And be able to extend your resources so that you don't have to reduce your, your level of, of comfort and care throughout you know, the rest of your life. I know, I know Michael sees some of that and, and can speak to more of that in detail, but, but we see some of our clients that do actually run out of resources and it's, it's a tough thing to.

I could

imagine, Michael, talk a little, you're so interested in, in making sure folks are prepared. You talk about this all the time, you gotta be ready for these kind of things.

Absolutely. And you know, there's an old saying it's too early to plan. until it's too late. And just what Joe had touched on, people are sometimes they, they haven't planned in advance.

And just like my mother's example, right? We didn't plan in advance. We never thought in a million years my mom was as healthy as she could be. And then one day, bam, she's not. And it was almost a three year. trudge that we went through. And and so, you know, most people have the resources. They don't think that they do, but there are a lot of things sitting around assets that we can pool together, right.

And, and give them resources so that they can , you know, afford this. And a new exciting thing has just happened in the last couple weeks. There's some insurance, well, there is a insurance provider out there right now that is going to issue guaranteed policies, guaranteed issue policies. So even if your loved one finds themself in a facility, In really bad shape has some preexisting conditions, they cannot be denied coverage.

And that's new. You say it's brand

new? Yeah. Wow. So, so something positive that we'd looked at, Joe. When you give your example there, of the 103 year old lady, I could imagine if she did run out of resources and was told, Hey, now it's time. You've gotta get up and get outta here. at 103 years old.

That's, that's a traumatic event to have to get somebody

up and out. Yeah, and like I said, there are circumstances where, where people need to go to another level of care outside of their home, specifically, like in, in some severe memory care circumstances. But Yes. Seniors can remain actually healthier by being in their home because it's familiar surroundings.

Somebody that might have a hearing deficit or a vision deficit. It's, it's safer really for them to be in familiar surroundings. Because when you go to something like an assisted living or a skilled nursing, I mean it, there, it's a big change. Mm-hmm. . So when you're at that point, when you're, when you're like, for instance, the client you were mentioning 103 you know, It would probably be more disruptive for her to, to go somewhere else at this point.

Absolutely. Even if, you know, they were gonna wait on her hand and foot, I mean, it would be more disruptive to her at this point. She's getting around the best she can. She knows her home. Right. And that's the, the most important thing is she's comfortable. She knows what, what her surroundings are. And so by augmenting her remaining in home, by having some caregivers go in four hours a day, eight hours a.

Different shifts, just making sure that those activities of daily living are happening. Happening. The bathing, the dressing, the, the medications have been taken, that nutrition is happening, you know hydration, preventing urinary tract infections that are common amongst the senior population. Just doing those basic things is what's helping people like that remain independent in their home and not have to tap into all of their resources to be able to afford really high rents, right?

That can occur in some places

now, luckily here on the show we've had. Michael Parker, who talked a little bit about that kind of thing earlier we talked about on another show. So really take advantage of the senior care show here. You can check it out@seniorcareshow.net, and we wanna make sure that this information is available for you.

Dr. David Bernstein, power Five Life and Joe Wicker and everyone that we bring on is really trying to do you a service and give this information to you because we want you to be proactive. We talk so much about planning and you hear some of these nightmare scenarios that can occur if you. Prepared or you're not ready for what's coming.

And unfortunately this is coming for everybody. This is something we've all gotta get prepared for. Michael, just talk a little bit about the dream team and how much this show can really help folks.

Yeah, so as I mentioned before people have never retired before. It's something new to them. It's aren't uncharted territory and I really think that in some ways Google.

Has really paralyzed people. Hmm. From, from making dec their decision. When you think about it, if you Google search the word investments, you come up with 350 billion results in half of a second. So you can just imagine it, right. It, it's problematic for people. And so, yeah. So they really need individualized help.

Everybody's situation is different. Their financial resources are different. You know, my goal is, is to help people find a way to to, to navigate these waters. But to your question, The senior care show. We want to make this a place, a safe space that people can come to and get that information just like from, right?

These two experts here today. And they can hear from other people other than, you know myself talking about the importance of it. No. They need to hear from other industry. professionals and, and, and glean from, you know, what they're saying like Dr. Bernstein had mentioned, you know, no suites. Mm-hmm.

That's you know, who would've thought that suites has an effect on your cognitive ability moving forward, right? Mm-hmm. . So it

all ties together, and that's the idea. We wanna be kind of a holistic here on the senior care show. Yeah. Come up with as many ways to help you as possible and make sure that you have resources.

You're not alone out. Come on, check out the show, senior care show.net. We, in addition to the expert contributors on our panel here, we'll have lots of other information and places for you to go. We wanna be a resource for you as you approach this delicate issue and, and look forward to be proactive and kind of make sure that you're prepared for whatever might come.

You wanna close with for us. David.

Sure. And thanks so much. I, I want to say one more thing about what Joe was talking about and, and it has to do with the environment. Is it, not only is it being home in your environment, but it's having a continuity of staff. Yeah. And a limited number of people so that you know everybody after a period of time.

Because in Facilit. There's a lot of turnover, there's a lot of different shifts, and you might not necessarily be seeing the same people all the time, but if you can develop a rapport with your caregiver and vice versa the care plan works so much better. Yeah, and I love being on this show and sharing my thoughts with you.

I I'm, I'm available to, to tell people that my website is power of. life.com and my books are available on Amazon and I love to talk about them, but I love to share what I know with audiences so that even if they glean a little piece of what I talk about, it can make a difference in their lives. And it, I also talk about it being proactive.

that it needs to have a plan. Right? And it's never too early to start either your lifestyle changes or putting a, a plan together for your finances, Michael, to, to deal with stuff that, that, that you're talking about and even know about the as you age or as a family member ages, know about the home agencies that are in town so that you could make a decision quickly and say, yes, I interviewed the people from this organization.

Mm-hmm. , I know they're good and that's who I want to use. Right. Right. Failing to plan is planning to fail. That's

right. Joe Wicker, tell us a little bit final thoughts from you.

Yeah. You know, if, like people have been saying, you know, it's never too early to plan if you, you know yourself or a loved one.

You, you expect that you're getting to those years that you might start needing some help. Start networking. Find out who you know that knows someone in the senior space, whether it's a financial planner, medical professionals, home care providers. Go ahead and start having some of those conversations now.

And if you or your loved one have a chronic illness that you've been struggling with I, I know that that can be frustrating. Something like C O P D or chf, congestive heart failure, things like that. The positive side is that it's something you've been dealing with. You know what's coming. You can kind of plan a little bit.

It's chronic. It's something that you can see out a little bit of ways. So go ahead and start making those plans now. Figure it out. Get with a financial professional, get with your healthcare providers and find out what that next level of care is gonna be for you and how you can set those services up.

When the time. and you know, you can reach out to us at home helpers home care.com and and, and, and reach out to, like I said, your friends and and neighbors because we're all gonna go through this at some point in time or we know someone who does. So there's help out there.

That's right. Joe Wicker again, home helpers home care.com.

We. Dr. David Bernstein, power five life.com and of course, Michael Watkins put it all together. This is the senior care show, and check us out and make sure you like and subscribe to this. Thank you so much.

Download this episode here:  https://sites.libsyn.com/459327

Hello and welcome into the Senior Care Show where're to discuss the latest tips and resources for elder and senior care services. Now, each episode of the show will be talking with industry experts and caregivers to bring you some valuable information and insights helping you navigate the complex world of senior care.

Whether you're looking for information on assisted living facilities, in-home care, or other options, we've got you covered. So join us as we explore the sen, the world of senior care, and help you make informed. For yourself and your loved ones. One of our principal members here on the senior care show is Michael Watkins.

Michael is an author, and of course someone who's worked in this field for a while protecting your assets with tax-free long-term care as his book. Tell us a little bit about your book and how you decided to come up with this idea for the senior care show. Michael.

Yeah. So I work in the long-term care space and more importantly, just a, a total retirement planning picture.

Gotcha. But I wanted to write the book to let people know there are different resources that they can tap into, whether they're a veteran. There's ways to move your assets around to, you know, protect yourself against this thing. Right now, we don't know whether or not we're gonna. . Right. Okay. My hope is I die in my sleep next to my wife, , but guess what?

I don't get to choose. Right. So with that being said protecting yourself from with long-term care insurance is a good idea. However, there's so many things in life, you know? Yeah. We can't control and one of. Happens to be our cognitive abilities as we age. And so I've run into a lot of people in the industry and I've invited two guests to join us today that are going to talk to us specifically about cognitive impairment.

Okay.

Are the senior care show. Tell us about these guests that you've brought on.

Well, Dr. Bernstein, Dr. David Bernstein and Michael Parker. There they are, and Dr. Bernstein is a, a retired physician, and Michael Parker has a new, I, I would just call it a Netflix for. , all types of cognitive. This

is really cool what you guys hear about this.

Yeah. Dr. Bernstein, tell us a little bit about your your experience

here. I practiced internal medicine at Geriatrics for 40 years, and then in the final 15 years of that, I started expressing myself through writing and as it relates to retirement and cognitive impairment. There's a lot of things I observed and I, and I talk about and wrote.

and, and so it's exciting for me to be able to share all this stuff all the time. So given this opportunity, I, I would say that, It, it's one of the things that people fear the most in life, that they'll lose some of their cognitive abilities. And, and so I explored that and I came up with five ways in which we can do things to help ourselves and prevent that.

And, and I think it's really important to talk about and, and really the things that are. Common as causes of illness or heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive impairment, and, and there are things we can do about it. So I'll just take right off and tell you that sugar and sweets are really hazardous for us.

So I, I tell people to avoid sweets and adjust their eating lifestyle. . A second is I tell people that stress contributes to ch chemical changes in our body. Absolutely. And there are things we can do to reduce our stress. It may require changing jobs or changing employers, but it also requires finding time to meditate or do things that we really enjoy and take our minds off of.

right? Things we don't enjoy. That's an absolute skill for sure. And, and then the third one is get more sweat. Exercise. 30 to 60 minutes a day, five days a week, has been shown to reduce the risk of cognitive decline. And it's also one of the key features that people would benefit from if they're receiving chemotherapy for cancer prevention.

And then their sleep. And in the final years in my practice, I discovered an immense number of patients who had sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea. And the, the lack of sleep and the lack of rest during that sleep period also contributed to cognitive decline. And lastly, since if anybody's noticed, every one of my items that I've mentioned so far begins with letter S.

So the final one is sex. Now I put sex in my power of five because sex sells. And our generation was brought up that sex cells. So it's there, but it's really about socialization. It's about connections. It's about. And, and I write about it because intimacy or the, the opposite of intimacy is loneliness.

And that's a health hazard. And older adults, as they, they move toward retirement, they lose some of their connections. People die and they find themselves stranded on an island, and that's as hazardous as smoking 15 cigarettes a day or being obese. . So combining those five letters, the five S's in my Power of Five Formula, puts together a structure that people can incorporate into their lives that will contribute to a reduction in the risk for cognitive decline.

And, and I make it re a couple of statements. Number one it's never too early to start this, and it's also never too late. The, the second is that, , you can do a little bit at a time, but it requires intention because it's not gonna knock on your door and show up and say, here I am. I'm here to reduce your risk for dementia or decline.

And the other thing that I really stress is that we're This reduces our risk, but doesn't prevent, right. Nothing's been shown to prevent. I, I will say that I've learned recently that scientists are really exploring the features of what people can do to re in the future. Right? That there'll be some pills or, or some substances that can.

Reset and go back a year. But that's about 10 or 15 years off maybe. So we need to take it into our own hands to reduce our risk. And that's a really important factor of all of this. Dr. David

Bernstein, power Five Life. You can get power five life.com. Also some more information. So that's something that most people fear.

That idea that I'm gonna wake up and maybe I, I I start to realize some, some decline in me. You're saying be proactive

about it. Don't. Exactly, and it's the same thing that Michael talked about, about doing your finances. And, and, and that's probably why this show is gonna be so important because it's a team effort and we have to take our own responsibility for this.

Our healthcare system is not doing as an effective job as we think it should be. We, we spend a lot of money but don't get as much in return. And so it's a disease care. And the healthcare system is dependent upon us and what we can do for ourselves. And so I stress that a lot. It, it's, it's up to ourselves that it, nobody's gonna do it for

us.

We can seek that information again@powerfivelife.com. But the whole idea that you're educating yourself, Michael talks a lot about it as well. This is information that doesn't. Come to most folks through ed, their standard education. This is something you've gotta set out to learn on your own. And it's, it's much like educating yourself about finances, educating yourself about your health.

It's just not readily available from a trusted advisor that you can find out. You gotta put some effort into learning this information.

Exactly. E Exactly. And, and, and then incorporate it into your life and make it what I call lifestyle. Mm-hmm. , because it's it, and it may deviate from what everybody else in your family is doing, but you know it's your life and you wanna be able to enjoy it until the last moment.

And then die in your sleep. Well, I think it and, and that's what good healthcare would, good disease management or having a great health span is all about. That's

great. I think if I just told somebody that had a weight issue that, hey, a diet would be healthy for you, that would be some inspiration for them.

But I, if I said that your cognitive health may depend on your being physically healthy, I think that would inspire them quite a bit more.

I would agree. And it's important for all of us to incorporate that in messages no matter where we. What

other information can folks find@powerfivelife.com?

There's a great deal of stuff I have on my website. Since my wife is an occupational therapist and certified chef, she publishes healthy recipes. Twice a month I write blogs that encourage people to do just what we talked about. I, I'll stress sweat one month and. Give people some ideas about how they can do it or how they can keep track of what they're doing, because keeping a journal is important or, or keeping track of what you're eating and what your exercise is and how much your sleep is.

And, and I sh highlight the books that I've written and what's coming out next. So there's a wealth of information that I'm happy to have people visit us and. , take part in this process and learn more and more about it and incorporate it into lives. Cause you only get one, right?

You can empower yourself here instead of waiting for something to happen.

You've gotta take it, take it on yourself and learn as much as you can and take advantage of these resources that are provided for you. This, this whole concept that Michael's put together, a kind of like a, a dream team here. Talk a little bit about it, Michael.

Yeah. So just what you said you know, it's not gonna come to you.

You have to seek. and so we felt that, you know, creating the senior care. would it, it is just a great vehicle to bring awareness to people and to help to educate them. And so, you know, just like our guests today you know, in the future we're just gonna have so many thoughtful people that have been there, done that, and understand some of the.

Pitfalls that retirees could be facing. What a great idea. Okay.

This is the senior care show. We've got another guest say, don't we Michael, who's you got? Who's you got over there? Yeah.

Michael Parker is here. And Michael is the, I guess the inventor, or the creator of Throwback Network. And when Michael came to my office and shared this with me, I was absolutely.

Blown away. I mean, it just, it, it's so needed in so many settings. And I'll just let Michael tell us a about his

project, please. Yep. Oh, thank you very much. Throwback again is it's a stream stream independent streaming network that is designed specifically for various levels of cognitive ability.

You're taking a, a platform with now, which now has become very familiar to everybody, which is a streaming platform, whether it be a Netflix or a Hulu, it doesn't matter. That format is taking over the industry. So we thought that the del, the delivery platform for throwback network would be this be the same.

And all the games and exercises that, and entertainment that we've designed is specifically. for that environment. It's conducive to to a digestive pace, I guess you could say, of consumption for them. That is, that is specifically designed for those that can't accept modern media at the pace that it's delivered to us.

You and I, we can all absorb certain television programs at the rate that they're produced now. Right. And they can. Let's just simply put, I love

this concept. It's, it takes, it, it doesn't feel like homework at all. It feels like you're having fun

and that's it. We're taking your past, we're repackaging it.

We're giving you things that build, that take your confidence level for, for people afflicted with dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's it goes away over time because you can't do what you used to. Right? Right. So if we re-deliver them things that they. and things that can help build confidence every day.

So little games, little steps that they can say, Hey, I can do this again. And they can participate in a world where they, some they feel left behind. It's

amazing how music videos, certain things jar your memory and spark kind of a uh, an emotion. You said you've seen it in some of the patients immediately pick up, wake up, all of a sudden they're alive.

They feel like, I I I recall that. And that kind of opens the door to them.

Correct. And the primary example was in 2017, the last time I saw my mother she passed away in 2020 from complications due to. But in 2017, I had a week that I could see her and every day I would go see her and she didn't know who I was.

And it took about a 20 minute dance for her to figure out who I was. And then when that was done, she had a specific inventory of things that she would speak about with me, and she had a readily available list of things to talk about. So the fourth day, I showed up with a collection of DVDs from the Carol Burnett.

and she looked at me no differently than every other day and said, I don't know who you are, right? And I said, well, why don't we watch these? She goes, I don't know who that is. And I said, well, let's just watch. Anyway, so we sat down and sh, we played the DVD and within 45 seconds or so, she put her hand on my shoulder and she said, we watched that when you were little

and it almost took it's like a, it's like a barrel of beer. There's all the grains and everything are at the bottom, and it gets stirred up. And so it stirred the sediment. It created a whole new pathway of conversations. It woke up a completely different set of memories that were just in a different com.

somewhere.

One domino hits the other. Yeah. And then off we go.

And so amazing, that idea laid dormant in me. You know, she passed and I didn't really think much of it. And then my significant other, we were taking a drive and she basically told me, well, wait a minute. You've got something here. Mm-hmm.

let's turn this into something. And January of last year is when we started. conceptualization of this right network and we just kept moving forward and kept plowing through it. And we've developed a list of programming that we think can cover varying degrees of cognitive ability and do so in an environment that's not overwhelming or, and it puts a residence or patients in a position where they can feel accomplishment.

And like you said, just like the Netflix model or a lot of these streaming services. , this is something they can navigate to go through on their own. You, you, a caregiver can do this, even a patient probably. And

when Dr. David Bernstein and I met, one of the emphasis levels that he had was also employee wellness.

Ah, wasn't just the resident. Yeah. Right. Talk a little bit about that. Yeah. And he, again, as, as the medical field becomes more and. Challenging I guess from, because again, we're dealing with a society that's going to double in 20 years. Wow. And the concentration in that age group is gonna cause the requirement for twice as many facilities, for twice as many employees as there are twice as many people that are gonna go into them.

So this whole thing's gonna double and you're going to have to have resources as an owner of a business like. In order to fill the day's, hours with activities, but then where's the employee availability come from, right. Gonna come from? And where's the quality of employee gonna come from? More importantly, and where are, what are we going to do to take care of them, give them tools that they can enjoy along with the resident.

We make happier people that way. Great idea.

So tell us about putting this in ac you, you came up with the idea and you started, what's the first thing you have to do? How do you take on

something like that? Well, and thankfully Dr. Bernstein provided a a very much appreciated recommendation as far as the service and, and, and what it's for.

And his endorsement for our purpose is, is very crucial in people under. that there is a real need for this in that market. So right now we're testing and we're testing in several facilities, and they're assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing. So it's varied. And we're in the stage now where we're seeking funding and we have a representation firm that's helping us get out there so that we can acquire not only the, the finances necessary, but the right finance.

You know, and our intention is to build staffing, build content depth, and do so, so that we can launch in the fourth quarter of this year and be fully available to Florida first. And when we launch in Florida and we make sure that everything is satisfied based on our base platform, we'll go national after that.

Wow. So exciting, exciting developments. You talked a little about caregivers. It's something many of us don't. , well, it can be hard on the whole family, hard on the people around the patient, hard on those giving 'em care. The idea that you could see some progress or some, you know, them light up a little bit, be very rewarding for a caregiver or a doctor.

I can imagine. It was wonderful. There was a facility in Clearwater that we have it in, and there is a a prominent cardiothoracic surgeon that is unfortunately now in memory care. And I won't divulge his name out of privacy for him, but, They, he resides in that facility and they pay for additional assistance to be with him every day.

So there's another person that basically follows him everywhere. He goes every step of the way. And the day we installed it, his wife happened to be there. And I have a game called name the actress, and I give 10 actresses, and you have to guess who they are based on the clips that I play. . Well, he was sitting next to me when we played it and he got the first one correct and then his confidence started to grow.

he got the second one correct. His confidence grew even more to where he was verbalizing. His answers louder and louder as time went on and we were done and Charlotte and I were leaving. And his wife, who did not know who we were in respect to what they were watching, she didn't know we made it. She looked at Charlotte and said, thank you.

You had fun today. How about that? And that's how, again, we talk about the reward of course, for the patient, the caregivers out there, the what a heart on these people, you know, to, to see that kind of thing. It's gotta be heartwarming for them and give them some encouragement to keep

pushing. Correct. Same facility, different game called name the band and their, their staff is dancing with the residents to the songs that are playing.

Yeah. And that's what we. Because in order for this segment of the market to withstand that pressure that's gonna come in the next 20 years, we really need to do exactly what Michael says, exactly what Dr. David Bernstein says, and hopefully a tool like Charlotte and I have developed. Is going to be helpful in that accomplishment.

Dr. Burstein, you've seen that idea of a positive impact lifting up other patients or maybe other caregivers or that kind of thing. It creates a, a ground swell.

Absolutely. I mean, it's so important to do this and find activities that our senior patients with cognitive decline have, because right now we don't have any.

And, and I wanna make a couple additional points. There is science that backs up what Michael was just talking about it. And then there's Dr. Bernstein's personal experience this, this past month with my 98 year old mother-in-law. And I knew to play her music. I knew that she used to sing. And I took my, my, my mobile phone and put it up next to her here and she sang along with Broadway Show Tune.

And she loved it. And I could see her lips. And she did try to sing and she did sing . And, and then I was being a smarty pants with her. And, and I pulled up a, a song, a music piece of music called Saber Dance. And it's orchestral piece. Okay. And I said, do you know this one? And sure enough, she was able to use her tongue and, and, and make the sounds of a.

There was a, in that song and she knew it. I didn't give her any clues. And so the science that shows where that data is stored and Michael's program figures out a way to access that information and, and allow the patient to utilize it. . And so the same science that that has demonstrated, that has been the same science that I used in my formula.

And we relying on science re relying on technological advances such as what Michael came up with, is really an exciting melding of that, those ideas and that

distribution method. Michael, I think that's critical the way you've kind of seen the streaming services become the model that that makes it even a wider availability.

Yes. That's gonna be able to put this pretty much anywhere people. , that's awesome. And that's what's gonna be important. And with certain medical coverages it'll be not only accessible, but in many cases very affordable. Boy, that

is great news. So if you're somebody out there who has a family member this is something you want to get in touch with as soon as possible.

We wanna be proactive, just like Dr. Bernstein said just part of your health, you know, in terms of nutrition and exercise and doing the right thing. Now we've got all these other tools thanks to these guys up here. We're starting to make chip away a little bit. And then put some new information and some new techniques out there for folks that you could use as tools in this fight.

Michael Watkins, tell us a little bit more your dream team. I love this concept. What else can we look forward to here? We're gonna learn a bunch of things, aren't we?

Oh yeah. We're gonna learn about in-home healthcare how to successfully prepare yourself for this. And yeah, we, we have a lot of, of really cool guests lined up.

We're looking forward to more episodes. I wanna make sure I give

everybody an opportunity to, to make some more points in case I've neglected Dr. Bernstein. Anything you want to in summary talk about today? Well,

it's five things are easy to remember. They all begin with the letter S avoid sweets, avoid stress, get more sleep, sweat and sex.

That it's never too early. So if you're the parents of people who are making these decisions, start early. If you're someone who has dementia in your. start early and be aggressive and learn as much as you can. There's a lot of good research, right. And stuff written. And, and the whole point I think we're talking about today is being proactive and taking the opportunity before things, before the horses out of the barn.

Right. And, and I certainly in my career, tr treated a a lot of people who the horse was out of the barn and there was nothing we could do to get it back. And the contrary was I saw also, I saw people who took great care of themselves and in, in all likelihood, they delayed the onset of their cognitive impairment just by doing that.

So I think that those are important concepts to remember. We could all do something to make ourselves better.

That's right. Michael Parker you've got a lot going on. You've talked a little bit about the timetable for this. Tell us about the future, where we're going. Yeah.

So right now we're in the mode of.

Building content depth as much as possible so that we can expand the network and create as many varied programs either on an entertainment or activity level as well as a therapy level so we can give tools back to the facility that can interact with their residents and patients with. And do so medically appropriate?

Correct. So we're working with speech therapists now to develop content so that they can utilize it in their practice. And then of course our goal is to be streaming live in the fourth quarter of this year. So, exciting. Everything we can do, we're doing.

Michael, anything else? I forgot. Tell me.

Yeah, so I think the listeners can. can gather the importance of being prepared. Right? These are two gentlemen just ha ha have brought to the surface things that I, I don't think the norm, the average person is absolutely is thinking of, and, and I'll, I'll just say this. One of the sweetest love letters that you could write to a spouse or a l loved one is through long-term care.

and it really says, I care as much about you, potential caretakers as I do for myself. So it really takes a, a large burden emotionally and physically and financially right off of your loved ones.

Yeah. Well, I, I tell you what, the senior care show, I can't wait to watch the rest of these episodes. I'm excited to be the host here of the Senior Care Show.

Michael, I wanna thank you for putting this together and I wanna let you close.

Okay. Well thank you so much for watching us and you can go to the website and look at all the show guests there and you'll be able to get in touch with them directly.

It's the senior care show and we're available on the Worldwide Web Senior Care show.net.