The Benefits of In-Home Care for the Older Adult Population

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Greetings to everyone today joining us for our podcast. You're listening to the Living to 100 Club, and I'm your host, Joseph Casciani. You can find this conversation and all past 120 recordings on our website, livingto100.club. In addition to my podcasting, I'm a public speaker, and I present to community organizations and senior groups on topics related to aging well and managing setbacks. I also offer a free 30-minute healthy lifestyle audit that looks at current lifestyle practices and uncovers age-related challenges that you or a family member may be facing. With the findings from the audit, we can decide if individual coaching would help. If interested, set up a free call from that option on my website. I also provide consulting and training on clinical topics like depression and dementia. Now on to our podcast. Where we discuss successful aging, staying positive, and making more informed decisions. In today's podcast, we explore the world of in-home care, a service that allows older adults to remain in their own homes as long as possible. Our guest is Russ Knopp, the owner of Comfort Keepers Home Care in Traverse City, Michigan. We discuss how to know when in-home assistance is needed, what services are available, and the types of individuals who benefit the most from having care brought into their home. First, a little background. When Russ was 13 years old, his grandmother fell and became a paraplegic. Her doctors told the family that she would need to go to a nursing home and that she had about 6 months to live. Russ's mother and her siblings, who lived in Toledo, Ohio, made the decision to bring Grandma back to her own home instead, where the family cared for her for the next 9 years. Among all the children, their spouses, and grandchildren, the family provided total care around the clock. When he was big enough, Russ started helping, and through college he often worked the night shift. His grandmother was able to participate in family events. To see her grandchildren grow up and overall enjoy a great quality of life in her elder years. Having seen firsthand what is possible with in-home senior care, Russ related to the mission from the moment he heard about it. Russ, welcome to our podcast today.

Thanks, Joe. Glad to be here.

Great.

Exciting and reminiscing of hearing that about my grandmother just put a little smile on my face.

Yeah, yeah, that's, uh, that's an important story. Yeah, because you see firsthand how you can make a difference. Yeah.

Yeah. And you know, that's what we find out with the caregivers that we hire. You know, we call them Comfort Keepers. And we find out— we ask everyone when we hire them, why do you want to do this career? Because there's easier jobs that pay more. And you know, it's because they have experienced this sometime in their lifetime. Either they've watched their parent take care of somebody, they watched a neighbor, or they They've taken care of somebody themselves, so they've already got a passion for this caregiving thing.

Yeah. So they have a personal story of their own and that connects them to this kind of work and they want to take it on for themselves. So tell me about your work as the director, the owner of Comfort Keepers there in Traverse City. How did you get to that position?

So I actually had a colleague that opened up from a previous career that opened up a Comfort Keepers office in the southern part of the state. And I talked to her and I learned a little bit about it. And after reflecting on the story you just shared, this was a no-brainer for my wife and I to pursue this. And that's, that was 17 years ago that we opened our office. And it's been an incredibly rewarding career to watch the families and give peace of mind to families and their loved ones. So it's been a great joy.

17 years, that's a long time. Yeah, that's a, that's a good record. And with the demographics, of course, you're seeing a growth, I'm sure, in your, your clientele and being able to meet the needs of people living in your area. So tell us about a typical workday for you— administration, troubleshooting, Putting out fires.

Administration, troubleshooting, putting out fires, all the above. Yeah. Um, I'm pretty much the face of the company in the community. I interact and serve on local community boards and do those kinds of things to make sure that people understand what Comfort Keepers does out there and the good we can do. But it's also just like you said, it's managing everything day to day because things change, um, in individuals' lives every day with our clients and with our caregivers. Caregivers are getting their getting the kids ready for school and somebody slips and sprains their wrist and the caregiver has to go take that kid to the emergency room. So we're trying to figure out who's the next best caregiver to go to that client's home. So stuff like that happens all the time, but we employ a lot of Comfort Keepers who are incredibly flexible. They understand these things, that there's change in everybody's lives. And when you're dealing with hundreds of people's lives between the caregivers and the clients, Things happen. So we're dealing with that on a regular basis. I'm also the bookkeeper for our business most of the time, but we are all about, at this point, making sure that our Comfort Keepers, when they go into our clients' homes, are joyful. You know, we've got clients that have all different kinds of needs. They have different levels of skill needs that they need to be, have to be taken care of in their homes, different amounts of care that they need. But one thing that they all have in common is a human spirit, you know? And if we can elevate their human spirit every visit that we go to their house, what a wonderful thing. It does so much. You know, there's studies that show laughter can do all kinds of wonders for people. And I challenge the Comfort Keepers when they go into the home to say, see if you can make every client laugh at least once before you leave every day.

Yeah.

So it, it's a fun thing to talk about and, uh, it sure helps clients and their families get past some of these challenges that they're worrying about and stressing about.

Yeah, I could see that. Put a smile on your face. There are other things going on that may be kind of rocky for you, but let's see if we can put a smile on your face. That's great. So in general, tell us about home care. What is— how is that different from home health agencies?

Well, home care really is the stuff that's focusing on the challenges that are in front of somebody to stay in their home. And it's not just medical type stuff, but it's, It's all kinds of things, making sure that they have proper nutrition, making sure that they're following their doctor's advice, making sure that they're getting to their appointments, making sure that any of their medical needs that might need some assistance to get done, like their exercises and those kind of things. Those are all things that our caregivers do when they work with our clients. And including managing some of their personal things, like making sure that all their appointments are scheduled and they're, I got 'em on the calendar and they're ready to go. Go. And sometimes we do things to help them manage their own lifestyle, is making sure that the— here in Northern Michigan, making sure that the driveway gets plowed and things like that. So, you know, a physician said to me one time when I was talking to him about Comfort Keepers, he said, so you guys are basically assisted living at home, right? Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Sure, providing all the necessary pieces, any gaps that you try to fill. So that allows the person to stay at home, or maybe a couple, an older couple. But I can see that. And home health agencies, uh, they're focusing exclusively on nursing care or rehab or whatever medical needs the person has. That's the distinction.

Exactly. That's the distinction. And we often partner with those companies because they're coming in to take care of that medical thing that's happened, maybe because of just being discharged from the hospital or those type of things. But there's these other needs, the nutrition and making sure making sure that you're doing your exercises and making sure that you have the right spirit as you go forward. But oftentimes, you know, we want to help those people avoid readmits to the hospital. So we want to make sure that they're doing the right things so that they can get healthy and move on.

Yeah. Yeah, that's important. I know hospitals are looking at those readmissions and I remember a lot of emphasis on the nursing home, long-term care, and making sure that the people didn't get readmitted to the acute care too often. Otherwise there was a, like, I think of some penalty that the nursing homes had to pay with those re— constant readmissions. Yeah.

Yeah. Hospitals are trying really hard to, you know, they've got challenged with resources anyways, but, um, you're right. Uh, they do get penalized if those people are readmitted in a certain amount of time. I can't remember what that is, but yeah, it, it does. So yeah, we, we are partnership with hospitals lots of times for those kinds of reasons because they They understand that we can help those people from becoming readmitted.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's an important resource. I can see that because you can provide a lot of that help, you know, without it, the person might feel like he or she needs to get to the emergency room or, or, you know, increasing medical attention. So you can take care of it. You can do a lot of that prevention work in the home.

Absolutely.

Yeah. So how, how much territory does your, your, your particular company or your office cover?

We have our main office in Traverse City, Michigan, and then a satellite office in Petoskey, Michigan. And, you know, in, in Northern Michigan, we don't describe things by miles. We describe it by how long it takes you to drive there. So it's about, it's about a 4-hour drive from the southernmost part of our territory to the northernmost part. So we basically have our Comfort Keepers spread out all over that area. The main area is that main city of Traverse City.

So pretty big geographic areas at like 200 miles, 200 miles, correct? Yeah. Okay, that's a lot of, that's a lot of territory. And I know it's not all metropolitan, there's probably a lot of rural area there too, but you probably have a good mix between various—

and it's mostly rural area. There's small metropolitan areas, but they're, they're small. Um, and, uh, it's It creates a challenge sometimes for our caregivers to get to the client's homes. And currently, as we're talking about gas prices, it's really affecting them as they're trying to get to their client's homes and spread that joy.

That's gotta be a big concern, another hurdle to provide the care that you need. Yeah. Well, that's the cost of doing business and, you know, you kind of work with it as best you can, right? Yeah, exactly. How many, how many caregivers do you have on your employment?

We've got 180 right now.

And they're full-time and part-time?

There's a mix. There's people that want to work full-time and there's people that really want to work part-time. So we can really— that's the beauty of our industry, you know, is that we can pretty much accommodate anybody who wants to do this kind of work because we need somebody 24/7 someplace. And sometimes they're, you know, short visits with the client, and sometimes they're 24/7. So we need all different kinds of people and those are all different kinds of skill sets too.

So, um, can you give us, uh, like a menu of options that your company offers? And you touched on them earlier, but what are the different services that you provide? Sure.

So I like to think about it as the level of skills that you need. So we have some clients that don't really need skilled care of any type. They just need someone to make sure they get to their appointments, get their— make sure they're taking their medications, make sure that they're eating their meals. And we call those caregivers companions. You know, they're just making sure that these things are getting done. Then, you know, there's the certified nurse's aide that is the next level of care, and that's getting into some of the medical stuff. And then we have LPNs and registered nurses. So it really, when it comes to that, you're do— we're doing all kinds of things as such as wound care if we need to with some clients at those higher levels of skill that is needed. But really no two clients get the same plan. We call it the plan of care and no two clients get the same one. It really depends on what their physical needs are, what their mental needs are, and what other kinds resources they have. If their family's nearby, it's, you know, easy for us to partner with that family and say, you know, we need you here during the day while we're working, we can take care of mom at night. But also when there's the, the family is, you know, lives 2,000 miles away, we can be there and make sure that they're getting those right kind of services so that they can stay in their home and stay independent.

So you do an initial assessment and you see what resources are available and you can And you look at what are the gaps here? What can we complement to the existing program? How can we fill in the gaps that are needed?

That's a great way to think of it. We think about what is the right set of solutions for this person. You know, sometimes, you know, the family's worried about them overnight and we've got a technology solution. You know, it's not always a caregiver staying with that client 24/7. You know, there's the the famous "I've fallen and I can't get up" button that people have. And Silicon Valley has caught on to this, Joe, and we are seeing new products all the time that are helping people stay safe, being able to be monitored in their home without a human being there. So it really can, you know, it can get quite expensive if somebody needs to be in their home for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and pay a caregiver to be there, or multiple caregivers to be there. So some of this technology technology that's hitting the marketplace now is pretty interesting stuff. One that we just are experimenting with, with, I think we did it with 6 clients last week, is a device that listens to everything that goes on in the client's home. And then the algorithms decipher that into things that we should be paying attention to, or the family needs to, like they heard things in the house that makes it sound like this could be a fall risk. So let's get in there and see what the things are. Are there rugs laying around? Are there pets in, in the way that people could trip over? And so some of this technology was really going to help people even make it more affordable for people to be able to stay in their homes and stay independent because of these technologies that are coming out.

Sure. Yeah. So it can detect, uh, changes like That's an unusual sound that we, we just picked up, and then maybe it triggers some other response.

Yeah, exactly. One, one invention was using algorithms and using motion detectors. So you would put motion detectors basically in the living area, the bed, the chair, and in the kitchen, and, and then it knew when somebody got up out of bed. If it turned right, it was 7 to 12 seconds for Grandma to get to the bathroom, and if If it fell out of that range, you know, something went wrong.

Right.

So these technologies are really gonna be a, a game changer for lots of families in the future.

Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. I, I was just speaking with someone earlier today about a service he offers here in San Diego, and they'll make a phone call to his clients. And if the client picks up and hits 1 on the keypad, it means everything is okay. And if they don't pick up, they'll call back in a minute or two and then And then if there's still no pickup, they alert the neighbor or whoever their contact person is. I guess that's pretty, pretty commonplace, that kind of service now, right?

It's, that's getting pretty commonplace. The other thing that is really important in technology, you know, if there's two things that seniors I have seen over the years really struggle with, it's nutrition and making sure they're taking their meds correctly. You know, you know, that piece of toast, that was fine. That's all I need. I'm not that hungry. And then that medication, my father would say, "Marty, did I give you that medication already today? I think I did." And so then he would play pharmacist with her. So, but those are the two things. And nutrition, there's so many options now to get nutrition into people's homes, home-delivered meals of all different types. You know, you see all the advertisements, but also there's machines that can, be very good about delivering the medications in their homes. So it gets loaded by a nurse, and at the right time, it dispenses the pill, makes a sound, and dispenses the pill in a little container. And the senior needs to take it out and take the medication and put it back and hit the button. And if they don't do that, then the person from the call center actually comes through the machine and says, "Betty, you did not take your medication. It's time to take it." So, you know, whatever we can do, and, you know, Amazon's getting into different programs of how to dispense medications in a better way. So I think that one is something that we can overcome in the long term for the medication mix-ups.

Yeah, yeah, those are great breakthroughs. I mean, they're certainly bringing our technological advances into practical use. That's great. Absolutely. Yeah. So your services, Russ, really are very customized, very individualized. You don't go in assuming that people are going to buy a certain package. You have to find out what their needs are. And like we said, what's missing and how can you fit in? How can you complement the whole program? How about meals? Do you do meal preparation? Do you do hygiene, showering, shaving, all that?

We do all of that. We call that personal care. And yes, whatever the client needs. And you're so right, Joe, that there's no, there's no template for this. If people all get their own solution that's customized for them. And I always say, you know, that for some clients, that might just be 5 hours a week. And then you've got clients all the way to 24/7 that need it. So you're absolutely right. It is a customized thing. And the other thing is, when you talk about that personal care, it's always an issue for people. They might be uncomfortable. And it's a wonderful thing that we have clients that say, you know, I I only want a guy to give me a shower, okay? Or, or I only want a woman to give me a shower. So it's a wonderful thing that we're able to do that and accommodate those wishes.

Sure. So we think of the typical client as being maybe elderly, maybe 70s or 80s, and having some difficulty with staying independent or having these needs for ADLs. Who are your— I guess when you and I talk, there's really a wide range of clientele. I mean, there's not just the typical clients. You have a lot of atypical clients. Can you give us some picture of that?

We've had a lot of interesting clients over the years. Um, did I share the airplane story with you?

You did, but tell our audience again.

Oh gosh. Oh, I will, because it makes me smile every time, even though it's a podcast and you can't see me smiling. Maybe you can hear me, but yeah, we had a wonderful, uh, comfort keeper was taking care of a client at his home, and he had a model airplane up on the shelf. And she asked him, what's, what's with that model airplane? And he said, well, that was a model of a plane that I flew in the war, and we were a special division, and we were a small group. And she said, wow, that was cool. And so he told her the whole story and where he had been And 6 months later, the same caregiver is in another client's home, and she spots the model airplane on his shelf, and she's like, wait, what? And she came back to the office, and well, she asked him about it, and he told her all about it and told him basically the same story that the other client had shared. And she came back to the office so excited, she wanted to get these people together so they could meet because they actually were friends in the war.

Wow.

And, you know, because of HIPAA, we had to get a hold of both the daughters to make sure it was okay to get these guys together. But yeah, they only lived 45 minutes apart and had no clue, and we got to bring them together. So those are kind of things. And I, I've met some very cool people, inventors. You know, we're, we're the— in Michigan, you know, we're the home of the automobile. So I've met a lot of inventors that have invented all kinds of things that we use every day in our cars. And we, you know, enjoy those luxuries and those safety things that they've done for for us. So yeah, it's been a wonderful thing to meet all the different people from the Greatest Generation. And, uh, and now we're starting to take care of some baby boomers and, uh, it's kind of a little bit easier for me to relate to as a 63-year-old myself. So yeah, it's a, it's a wonderful life. You get to meet a lot of cool people.

Yeah, I can imagine. How about younger adults? Uh, maybe accident victims? Do you get We take care of all kinds of people.

People that have been in car accidents and need care to stay at home. People that have had strokes, you know, people with early onset Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. You know, that happens to young people too. And so they need help to stay in their house. And, you know, it's working with a lot of those families. It's been really rewarding to see with how the families rally for those younger people that have these afflictions and really, really want to do the right thing. And, and they get innovative too of how they're going to take care of this loved one after this accident or after this stroke. So yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The unexpected, of course, those sharp turns that nobody wants. And when they happen, we, we need to take care of them, of course, but to have resources like yourself and your company that can really help make the best type of adjustment, I can see the real value in that. What about, I'm sure there must be some instances where families say, oh, my mom is living alone, my dad died, and mom doesn't want anybody coming in. Mom resists these outsiders. Does that happen ever, or?

Yeah, that happens a lot.

A lot.

So, you know, my advice to families, if they're thinking that there's going to be a chance that mom's gonna need home care is You've got to start talking about it way ahead of time. Start preparing her for that idea of a stranger in her house. My mother was very resistant to caregivers coming into her house. I think it was a privacy thing for her more than anything else, but also that, that generation really was a frugal generation and really didn't want to spend money on themselves. So it's really important for people to start start thinking about that. And there's other ways to do it. We call them safety check phone calls. That's sort of what you were describing earlier that we can, you know, just we'll call mom every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and make sure that everything's okay. We have a meal delivery service that we do here in Traverse City and in Petoskey. And it's a wonderful thing because our drivers that are delivering the meals go into the homes with the food. If it's mealtime, it's fresh, it's not frozen. So we want to plate the food and have them eat it there and have a little bit of conversation. If not, we're putting it in the refrigerator and looking to see if they ate yesterday's or the day before's portion and just putting eyes on them. And they don't feel like anybody's getting into their space, but they're getting used to somebody coming in and they're getting used to the brand of our business so that when there is more need there, then they're ready to do it. But it's— you got to best start early and start talking about the concept.

Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm glad you brought that up. That's such an important concept that we need to start preparing in advance as we look ahead, you know, should we make some structural changes to the house? Should we have a conversation with potential home care individuals? Whatever it is, it, it has to, it has to kind of allow that communication. And provide the opportunity to talk about it because mom or dad may be very resistant, as you know better than I. The more conversation that we can have, we can start to hear some of the resistances and, you know, learn what they're, what they're opposed to and all of that. And that, that's so important for the adult children. I can see that.

Absolutely. And you know, it's Sometimes it's just the way that you have that conversation. You know, the taking of the keys away from the car, you know, that's always a big issue. But if you can frame that, you know, Mom, you've driven everywhere your whole life, let somebody else drive you around and let somebody else make your meals for you. And those are ways that you can start to, you know, make an entrance into, you know, The other thing that people, they all have their own perception of what this home care is going to be. You know, my mother, even though her son owns a Comfort Keepers, thought, well, I don't want somebody in my house all day long. Well, they're not going to be. You only need them there in the morning to get you going, help you with your shower, get dressed, eat your breakfast, and they'll be gone. That's all you need. So that's the other thing. Why, if you start that conversation, you can start to talk about, you know, it's not this commitment to somebody in your house all day all day long, every day, unless you need it, right?

Right. Yeah. So explore their ideas because they may be preconceived ideas that could be off track. And let's, let's really take some time to look at the facts. And here's what really it could be, Mom. Yeah, that's important. How about COVID How did that affect your, your services? I'm sure that your staff and, and the clients must have reluctant to have any kind of social engagement?

We had all kinds of reaction, as you could imagine. We're just a slice of humanity like the rest of the world. And we had people that were— our caregivers were very scared. And we had many of them that decided that they were already in their retirement age or had already retired from another position and came to work with us. And they just said, I'm old. I might be in that group. I don't want to take this chance. So we lost some people to that. Some of them are coming back though. It's a good thing to report. But also, you know, there were just challenges with keeping track with the protocols. And, you know, we're going into people's homes, so we can only control the environment in those folks' homes while we're there. And we don't know who else is coming in when we're not there, the family, the neighbors. So we had to work really hard and use all the resources we had to make sure that we kept as many people healthy as possible.

Sure. Did you lose any clients?

We did not lose any clients to death. It was a wonderful thing, but we did have a few that were very, very ill.

Okay. Yeah, but none canceled their contracts because of this fear?

Oh, some did.

Okay.

They, they didn't really cancel, they just put it on hold and then came back. You know, they, they understood that they needed those resources and Also, what they really needed is that human contact. Yeah, yeah, you know, people were becoming really isolated really quick.

So yeah, well, it's tough. It was really tough for everyone. We're getting through that now. We can see that, and there's still some, some bumps. They don't call them waves anymore, they're bumps with some of the new variations. But I think we're, we're through it. So when you and I talked, we also discussed respite care. That you offer. Can you describe that for our audience?

Oh, sure, sure. You know, we've got lots of folks that are really dutiful spouses and are taking care of their loved ones come hell or high water. You know, this is the promise that they made. And but it, it can be incredibly hard on them and tiring and can really wear them down, especially at their age. So, you know, if we can provide a little bit of respite a couple of times a week so that that spouse can get out and get away. We had a client that he was just the greatest guy, and his wife had dementia, and he was dutiful taking care of her all the time. And he called and said, you know, if I could get someone to take care of her so I could go play golf with my buddies again, just a half a day, one day a week, it would be great. And it ended up he started playing golf a couple days a week. His whole life changed. Golf season ended, you know, short season up here, and golf season ended. And he said, you know, I used to play cards with these guys in the wintertime. Can I do that too? Yeah, of course you can. So, you know, it just makes such a difference in that family caregiver's life that they need a break from that because they're in that house 24/7 with that person with all that responsibility. Yeah. And if we can offer them a break so that they can go play golf or play cards or, you know, just wander around. We had one client, he said, I'll just be at the Home Depot walking around looking at the stuff. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's that, it's that little, those little fixes, right? I mean, those little pieces that can make all the difference in a person's kind of satisfaction with aging or whatever is going on. It's just this, I have this little, little piece that needs, and maybe my Comfort Keepers office can take care of it for me. I, I think that's That's just beautiful, Russ. I mean, that you can, you can really tailor your offerings to whatever is going on.

And then, and then we reassess as time goes on, um, what's going on, you know, the constant, constant communication with the Comfort Keeper that's in that client's home. And anything changing here? Is there anything that we need to be aware of? And then, you know, talking to the daughters and, you know, I'm a little bit worried about mom because She's not doing the laundry. She always did the laundry. So can we check on that? So it's just kind of a constant check-in.

Yeah. Yeah. I can see that where the needs will change, of course, and it's not going to be a constant month after month. I can see that. So the big question is cost. How does insurance pay for any of this? Medical insurance, long-term care insurance?

First of all, I'm happy to report that the VA pays for a lot of this for our veterans who have served this country so well. So we have many clients who are veterans and are supported by the VA. Um, yes, many people have long-term care policies that they're using now. Some people, like those auto accident victims, are getting reimbursed from the auto company, but the majority of our people are using their savings. This is a private pay thing for the majority of the folks.

Yeah, sure. Okay. Okay. And then life care coordination. I made a note I wanted to ask you about that. What is that?

Life care coordination is the stuff I talked a little bit about earlier is, you know, the things that need to be done to make sure that mom can stay in that house if the family isn't around to help. So, you know, this time of year here, it's time to get the screens in the windows because it's springtime and it's time to make sure that there's somebody that's gonna take care of the lawn and somebody that's gonna take care of all those other things that, you know, usually we take care of when we live in a house. And, you know, as they get a little bit older, they can't take care of those things. So we're more than happy to help them schedule those things, work with the families to see who wants to do that, if it's going to be us or the family, and really make sure that, you know, there's no anxiety about staying in that home, whether it's that kind of stuff or the medical stuff or the lifestyle stuff or the nutrition and all that.

Yeah, really comprehensive. I mean, the whole picture Now, I know Comfort Keepers is a national organization. Are these programs consistent or do they vary from one location to another in terms of what you offer? Would you say an hospice in South Carolina offers the same or in Massachusetts?

They're pretty darn similar in most locations. Regular— regulations and regulatory climate changes. Some states have licensing that changes the model of how that's done. On. So every, every client has to be visited by a nurse in some states on a regular basis. But for the most part, the services are all the same. Some, um, some owners branch out and try some of these new things to innovation with meal deliveries or some of the technology and those kind of things. But for the most part, you're going to get a consistent thing wherever you call Comfort Keepers across the Yeah.

Well, that's good to know. So there's some basic programs and there might be some variations on the theme, so to speak.

The important thing to know is if you're hiring a Comfort Keepers office, you know, that those are professional caregivers that have gone through, um, a prescriptive orientation and training before they're out there taking care of people. So we do call these people professionals and we want them to think of themselves as professionals.

Great. Well, it sounds like you're doing a great job there. And providing a very vital service to your clients. So let me ask you, I always like to ask our guests, what would you like our listeners to take away from our conversation? What's the main takeaway?

Geez, I would say the main takeaway is you can really help out any senior that you know in your family by elevating that human spirit. Make them laugh, make them, tell them a joke, you know, some of these jokes, they're old jokes, they'd love to hear them. So for me, that's the most important thing is it's all about embracing that aging and having fun with it. And, you know, it does help you look past some of those hurdles that are in your way.

Yeah. Yeah. So whoever is telling the jokes, it doesn't matter who's telling them, but everyone can take on that role to lift someone's spirit. Yeah. And you're right, the jokes are good. They're still funny. They may be old, but they're still funny. Right.

I agree.

I agree. Well, Russ, it looks like we're out of time for today, but before I wrap up, I just want to remind our listeners about a co-sponsor for our program, A Mighty Good Time. Are you looking for ways to engage and stay active? Check out amightygoodtime.com. It's a one-stop shop for events and activities for those 15 and over. It's free to search, and it's free to post, amightygoodtime.com. And be sure to visit the Living to 100 Club website to sign up for our weekly podcast announcements and monthly newsletters. And while you're there, be sure to download a free copy of my 9 Tips for Living Longer. Lastly, pick up a copy of my book, Living Longer Is the New Normal, all about maintaining a positive mindset in all we do. It's available on Amazon as an ebook or in hard copy. We've been talking today with Russ Knopp. Russ, for those who might want to contact you, what's the best way to do that?

They can contact me at RussKnopp@comfortkeepers.com.

Knopp is K-N-O-P-P?

K-N-O-P-P as in puppy. Correct.

Okay. RussKnopp@comfortkeepers.com. Well, thanks very much for being on our program. It was a delight to have you and I learned much more about about home care services. So thanks again.

It was a delight being here. Thanks so much, Joe. I had a great time.

Great, great. You're welcome. And thanks to all of our listeners. Hope to see you next time.

Hi, this is Suzanne Newman, host of the Answers for Elders podcast and radio show. We are the North Star that guides you through the complicated journey of senior care with trusted experts in money, law, living solutions, and more. So join us on this station, your favorite podcast channel, or just go to answersforelders.com. Meet the wayshowers who will help your journey go a lot easier.