Speaker 1
So, welcome to your next chapter. We are a production of The Heights at Avery Heights. I’m Siobhan Mattingly, and I’m the Senior Living Specialist. I’m talking to Katie today. Welcome, Katie. Thank you for having me. Katie is from Tuckton Elder Care, which is an awesome, awesome organization. I myself have had the great pleasure of working with you on a pretty challenging client, and you did an amazing job. And so that’s why I wanted to have you here today. And we’re really going to be talking a lot about the importance of asking for help and what better person to ask for help than a senior living specialist like yourself.

Tell me about Tuckton Eldercare. So Tuckton Eldercare is a geriatric care management company.

Speaker 2
It was founded by a woman named Erin Lynch, who is a gerontologist. She’s also a licensed nursing home administrator, and she was living on Nantucket and she was managing the nursing home on the island and realized there was a great need for care management services. So they would be discharging clients home and there wouldn’t be enough services and they would end up back. And it was just a cycle. And she realized that there needed to be more options for people on the So she reached out to her former colleague, Kevin Smith, who owns Best of Care, which is a home care agency in Boston, and asked if he would be interested in partnering with her. And she was able to start Tuckton Eldercare. And we’ve grown, she’s grown the company across Massachusetts.

I’m in Western Mass and in Northern Connecticut helping clients. And they’re still growing throughout New England. So yeah, it’s wonderful. So we’re affiliated with Best of Care as well as Assisted Living Locators, which I also manage, as well as Moving Mentor, which is a transition moving company that helps with downsizing, organizing, and moving for seniors specifically.

Speaker 1
Nice. Very nice. So that’s I love that. I love when things are it’s kind of like us. We’re a CCRC, continuing care retirement community. We’ve got it all under one roof in terms of independent assisted memory care. And then we have our skilled offering as well. And that just makes it easier for people. There’s so many communications and conversations that need to go on. And it sounds like you’ve got a nice streamline of products. And the more. Yeah. And the more you guys are communicating, that’s the key.

So the people, it’s so hard to have to keep telling the story, you know? Exactly. Yeah, that’s great.

That’s great. Tell me about the services. Tell me about the services for anyone.

Sure.

Speaker 2
So it’s kind of hard to explain what care management is and geriatric care management is because it’s kind of a lot of everything. And it’s different for each client. So we usually say, ask us what you need and we’ll tell you if we can do it.

We usually, yeah, we usually figure out if we can’t. We’ll do whatever we can to at least provide the resources to be able to help the client. Our main services that we do offer is care coordination, whether it’s crisis driven, somebody is in the hospital and, you know, they need next steps. They need to know what their options are, what they’re going to do, what their home care plan looks like, if they’re going to transition to a different level of care, those sort of things.

Long and short term, we can help with transportation to appointments, coordinating those things. scheduling things for clients, talking to insurance companies, things like that. Also health and wellness.

So I’m not a nurse, but I’m a gerontologist and I focus more on the social aspect of it, but we do have nurses on staff. So if there is medication reviews, things like that, we can have those done as well. Also safety.

So we do home health safety assessments, making sure homes are safe for the clients. We can recommend durable medical equipment. We can help coordinate installation of those things, all of that.

Again, discharge planning as well as transition management, advocacy and support for clients. So somebody who doesn’t maybe necessarily have a family or friends or a social support system to help them kind of be an advocate for them. And also provide resources because we have trusted community partners such as you guys at Avery Heights and other multiple resources available so we can refer to other agencies as necessary.

And we’re also well informed on social, federal, local programs and resources that people may also qualify for if they’re veterans or if they need to go on Medicaid down the line, things like that.

Speaker 1
Oh, wow. Very nice. Yeah. And that’s, you know, one of the key things you said is that people that don’t have anyone. I mean, that’s really where your services, I think, are invaluable because there is a lot. I mean, you know, you get in your 90s and 100 and so forth. Unfortunately, a lot of people out there have kids.

You know, obviously, you know, sometimes, you know, their sisters and brothers and stuff like that. And you get to a point where there isn’t anyone to help you. As an older adult, you need that.

You need the help. You need the advocacy. I think it’s important.

But also on the flip side, working with families is also important because a lot of times they don’t know what they’re doing. Exactly. You know, it’s unfortunate that we work in, it’s fortunate that we work in an industry that is to help people, to help older adults.

It’s unfortunate that it is, you know, it’s an industry where you could make a substantial amount of money and therefore a lot of people take advantage of that. Exactly. And it can be sad to see.

Unfortunately, we get a lot of folks that come in for tours that have just been through the ringer with many different, you know, everything taking advantage of them and not giving them the real information, especially veterans. I mean, there’s veterans benefits out there. And I don’t know how many people I sit with and they have no idea.

No idea. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2
That’s one of the first questions I ask. Have you spoke with an attorney? Have you have your paperwork in place?

Are you a veteran? First things first, because you want to make sure that they know what they’re entitled to. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1
And that’s very important in the paperwork, too.

Speaker 2
Exactly. And the system is so convoluted and, you know, so confusing. Even to us, more professionals, we do this every day.

You know, sometimes I’m like, I don’t know where to go with this. But, you know, we do our best to learn and find resources that can help explain it to us and to be able to explain it to our clients and things like that. So it can be completely overwhelming, especially, you know, if you have no idea where to start.

Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly. Totally, totally agree. So what I love is, I’m going to read a little bit.

You have a list of questions that if people ask to answer yes to on your website. So, and I read them through and they’re awesome. Who is your ideal client and how can that ideal client benefit from your services?

We touched upon that a little bit, but I think it’s important to talk about.

Speaker 2
Like you said, I think a lot of my clientele are aging, solo agers. So people who don’t have that support system who, you know, just need somebody to be there to help them because they’re not able to help themselves the same way they used to be. But, you know, as you age, things get more difficult to be an oversight, to be an advocate.

A lot of my clients are also the families, the children, the nieces, the nephews that, you know, have realized, oh, mom’s not doing great or auntie’s not doing great. And now where do we go? What are our options? Where do we start? You know, so again, like we said, I said at the beginning, it’s ask us, you know, what you need and we’ll try to help you get there in whatever way we can. So, you know, any really senior who could use a little extra support or security.

Speaker 1
Yeah, I can imagine. It’s funny. We do run into a lot where it’s that nephew niece kind of situation.

And I adore my nephew. Let me just say that. Both my nephews, I adore them, but it’s just got to be so awkward.

I mean, it’s not I love them, you know, but it’s like, you know, and I know them and I’ve known them since they were babies. But to now be like relying on them. Yeah. Care. It’s just, yeah, it’s awkward.

I know a lot of times I always hear, oh, I don’t want to ask them. Oh, I don’t want to bother much. And I can imagine I, you know, I can see myself being the same way.

So an organization like yours where I’m paying you. So I’m going to ask you a ton of things. Yeah, exactly.

A lot, you know, it’s a lot more comfortable. Exactly.

Speaker 2
And we also do, you know, some family mediation to some degree where if not everybody’s on board, I’m happy to sit down with the families and kind of talk about, you know, what their options are and how I’m there to support them in ways like that. Because half the time, you know, maybe one child is on board to make a move or to get services in place and the other child, no, mom’s fine. She’s fine. She’s fine. You know, and so can you come in and talk with us and kind of sit down and explain this, you know, so that happens a lot as well. That’s the hardest as well.

Speaker 1
A lot of times mom or dad should have moved a while ago. And then one person sometimes is the POA or something that someone, the power of attorney, someone who can sign that paperwork. And, you know, then there’s that rush to make it happen. Inevitably, a lot of times that person’s always like, oh, I wish I had done it sooner.

Speaker 2
And there’s guilt behind it. Nobody really wants to necessarily move into an assisted living or a nursing home and things like that. But, you know, once they see the value and, you know, how great it can be, it’s obviously I’m a huge advocate for community living.

And I think it’s so important for socialization and things like that. Yep. But, yeah, you know, it gets the point.

Let’s let’s talk about the benefits and how your life can improve by making these changes and even home adding home care services, somebody to help you with the laundry and run your errands for you. So you’re you’re safe, but you have everything you need. You’re getting nutritious food and you’re clean and you’re safe.

So it really is just a matter of getting everybody on the same page and move forward.

Speaker 1
And there’s always that giving it a try to, you always offer that trial where we first want to work in. And that just always feels better to people. You’re not selling the house right this minute and you know, you’re just going to try it out. And that’s, I think it’s important.

My big thing when I do tours, it’s like, it’s, this is a big decision. rushing anybody through it or towards it. And that way, when the decision is made, it’s a healthy decision. It’s a decision. There’s no, like you said, regrets and things like that. Exactly.

It’s important to slow things down. So what is the process? What is the, take me through when someone signs up for your company and what do you do with them? What’s that onboarding situation?

Speaker 2
So usually it’s a referral from another professional or something, or sometimes the family reaches out directly, but they can go to the website, which is talktoneldercare.com. Um, there’s our contact information for the owner, Aaron, and my emails on there, all of our contact information is on there. Um, and we do an initial consultation.

So it’s typically virtual, sometimes in person, depending on what the situation is, um, to learn a little bit more about the client’s needs and see if it’s something that we think we can help with. Um, then we would send along the paperwork and get them enrolled in our, in our program. We also use a, we’re probably going to be upgrading it, but right now we use a care treatment, care management system, which, you know, doctors can have access to, the families can have access to all of the notes.

It’s a good way to keep in constant communication about clients if they need that. So families can access it at any time as well, and the clients can access it. So it’s a great option.

So the process is easy, and we try to make it, you know, as individualized and streamlined as possible. Because if we can help in any way, we will. And we work with our clients in different ways, however they see fit. And with our billing, we’re very upfront about it and things like that.

If I’m going to be doing time, I’m going to let them know in advance that I’m going to be doing this and the estimated costs and things like that. So we understand that it can be an expensive thing to have a care manager on on board but we don’t over utilize we just do what we have to do

Speaker 1
to help the client and as necessary so so a few things on that um first of all like when you say it’s expensive and here’s the thing I was fortunate enough to had a had a care manager as well for my mom and there was a big difference between what I didn’t and I did and it actually saved me money So it is maybe expensive or an expense, but like we’re talking about having, asking for help, having the right people in place to help you is going to save you money because you end up spending more money. I mean, it took me so long to get my mother in the right place for her. And once she was in the right place, it was easy breezy.

It was smooth. But when she wasn’t, and that was because I was making the decisions. And, you know, I’ve been in this industry for almost 15, 16 years now. So now my decisions are obviously would be more educated. But back then, I didn’t. I was just like everybody else. I had no idea. And I made some bad decisions. In fact, potentially, emotionally, mentally. It was so when you look at the expense, it is worth it. Yes, you. Yeah.

It feels like you’re putting, but it saves you money and time. Exactly. I put my mother in two different places, which were just wrong for her.

Yeah. And that cost me money and moving and mentally for her and me. Exactly.

You know, the whole thing, if I had done it all over again, I would have definitely reached out to a company like yours and said, hey, this is what’s going on. What do I do? You know, like you said, there are different levels that people can work with you.

I’m sure they can call you and ask you that question. Absolutely. That question, you know, the business relationship and that’s it. You don’t necessarily have you hold the person’s hand, which is great. It might just be, hey, what should I do?

Speaker 2
Yeah, exactly. And we try to create a roadmap. Sorry, we try to create a roadmap that the client can utilize without us being involved. So if we do a care plan, I have all the resource available, all the contact information, all that information. You can take this and you can use it. And that’s your tool to use. If you need me, my assistance moving forward, I’m here. So it’s, that’s sort of very valuable.

Speaker 1
Very good. So the other thing on expense, do you take long-term care? And I know that in insurance itself, I think there’s some elements. So talk about that a little bit.

Speaker 2
So there are some ways it’s mostly private pay, but there is some long-term care insurance policies will cover geriatric care management services. We also do long-term care policy reviews as part of our services. So if you have a policy and they’re usually very complicated and confusing and there’s elimination periods and this and that, we can help review those and, you know, help you get the best benefit of it. So occasionally they will reimburse for care management services, but it really all depends on the policy. Otherwise, it’s mainly a private pay situation.

Speaker 1
Yeah. So it’s always that even with the long term care policies, ask questions because a lot of times people don’t utilize those policies.

Speaker 2
exactly no not at all and they’ve been paying for them and they’re expensive and yeah you know to to know when it’s time to put it in force and to start the elimination period and to get the assessment going and and all that stuff it’s you know people wait too long and then they don’t get

Speaker 1
they don’t get the full benefit from it because that’s expensive to pay into yeah exactly use it it’s it’s again very valuable to have when people say they have long-term care policies we actually have balloons and stream. Yeah, it’s true. You know, it’s like, because that’s good. I’m so happy for you because it’s really cover the cost of quality care. Yes. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed.

So you talked a little bit about gerontologists and geriatric care manager. And then I know we’ve talked about, I know it’s like that senior living advocate kind of runs in there. Tell me, Define each one of those if you can.

And then let’s talk about why we’ve talked about why it’s important for an older adult to have an advocate already. But talk about each one of those. Define those roles.

We throw around these words. Yeah, exactly. You’re like, what?

Speaker 2
So a gerontologist is somebody who has studied gerontology, which is the management of aging services. So I have my master’s in gerontology. So basically, I’m a gerontologist now. But it really just means that I understand the management of aging services, whether it be assisted living, independent living, nursing home care, all the different aspects of senior care. So that’s just like a designation.

Speaker 1
I feel like you’re going, whatever, I did that. Yeah, no, I mean, the people that are listening to this don’t have all that.

Speaker 2
Yeah, well, I love it. And then I, you know, as a geriatric care manager, which is also known as an aging life care manager, they’re simultaneous, they can, you know, be interchanged. That is the specific role where we help kind of put all the pieces together.

We do the care management pieces like that. There’s also a senior advisor, which can kind of do the same thing. And that’s sort of my role with assisted living locators, where I help people find different community living options.

And then, yeah, I think. And then as a senior advocate, there are different companies that are there’s a nurse advocate who is a nurse who helps more with the clinical piece, who helps at the hospitals, who helps with all of those sort of things. I don’t do so much of the clinical piece. I’m more of the social model, but I have the clinical understanding to refer that way.

But yeah, so basically I advocate. So even just an example, I had a client who ended up in a hospital in a different part of the state because they were visiting a family member. Their daughter wanted him closer to home to rehab, but the hospital was like, I’m just going to send it to the people I always send it to. And I’m not going to worry about it. And he’s going to rehab two hours away from you for the next couple of weeks. And that’s okay. But she called me and I said, no, no, like they can send these referrals to these places closer and down the road. And now he’s there and hopefully, you know, he does well, but it makes it so much more, but she wasn’t going to be able, she didn’t know to advocate for herself and he had to keep pushing. I sent Email after email, I made a phone call after phone call because this is a quick process.

So kind of to help her get that process. But now he’s there and it’s much more convenient for her. And hopefully we can, you know, continue his care beyond that.

But that’s just an example of how you need an advocate or to advocate for yourself.

Speaker 1
And that’s a great example of an isolated kind of situation where you can come in and help. It doesn’t have to be a full blown thing. And it’s so it floors me as well when people don’t realize that they can, you know, have referrals.

They don’t just have to go to where the hospital says that it’s like if you’re in a place rehab that you don’t like person can move. Yeah. These are all the things that I don’t think people understand.

And you don’t. It’s like jumping through hoops. They make it difficult. So, you know, you don’t always have to use when you have these companies, which is great.

the whole umbrella, you don’t have to use what’s in that umbrella. You can use. Exactly. You have the right to choose.

Yeah. I know that for myself, I was with a, my mom, the place where she was, she ended up going on hospice. And when they put her on hospice, they were like, you know, we’re going to use this company. And I was just like, well, yeah, but that company, you know, it’s like, you know, I was in the industry by then.

So I knew, tell me some information. You know, you can’t just choose a company for me. I have to vet these people out, have conversations.

You know, I don’t have to just go along with the flow. And they can make recommendations

Speaker 2
and I’m sure they have good relationships and things like that.

Speaker 1
It’s easier and things,

Speaker 2
but it might not necessarily always be the right thing. So definitely, I always give options too. And if there are options, I’m giving at least two or three different choices for everything that I refer. You make that decision, but these are the ones that I would recommend

Speaker 1
that you reach out to.

Speaker 2
And I can help them make that decision, but it’s my job to give them those resources to choose themselves.

Speaker 1
Yep, that’s very, very important. So do you have any advice that you can kind of give our caregivers that are out there?

Speaker 2
Yeah, you know, take your time, take your respite, take care of yourself. And there’s so many, especially like with people caring for their loved ones who have memory loss or dementia, that is so taxing on the family members and the caregivers. And it’s a nonstop 24-hour job along with most of them are working, have their own families, they’re in the sandwich generation, all of that stuff.

But to make sure you take the time to care for yourself. And there are resources available. Like you said, you guys offer short-term respite stays for residents.

So if you want to go on vacation, you’re a caregiver, you want to go on vacation, but you can’t leave mom because she’s not going to be okay. There’s options for her, like a community, like Avery Heights where she could stay there for a couple of weeks or a month. And even a lot of insurance companies will help pay for respite options, caregivers to come in the home, contact your local aging service access point, which is like the local senior services, basically.

It’s a mouthful area. Aging service access point. But call them and they have so many resources as well.

And they can help with caregiver support. I actually partner with some local ASAPs, aging service access points and provide caregiver support. So if a client is overwhelmed or taking care of their parents, they’ll call me and I’ll work with the caregiver to say, these are your options.

This is the things you can do to give yourself a break, give you some information and some support.

Speaker 1
that’s the best advice and um i know the alzheimer’s association also has uh some funds for rest if you can’t afford that week or two weeks or that month there are some funds that are available and long-term care policies also funds in there for respite uh so if you’re doing that care at home you can get that that respite as well so exactly there’s all sorts of but you’re right it’s so important i was just talking to a young lady this morning who’s actually getting married in September. Yeah. He’s on Monday. She’s trying to get dads in rehab. Mom is at home by herself. She’s trying to kind of take care of herself. Yeah. Not even looking forward to her birthday. So listen, your birthday comes a year. Yeah. Take a minute. Yeah. Go outside and just take a minute for yourself. Yeah. It’s important. It’s important not to get so caught up in a few different things. I know I did it caught up in being, you know, super woman, you know, I’ve got I’m going to help, you know, the guilt trip, the shame, you know, don’t get caught up in that.

And don’t get caught up in just, you know, trying to do it all yourself. You know, don’t get caught up in that. Like you said, ask for help.

Ask for help. Ask family members too. And it sounds like you can help with that.

A lot of times, you know, this young lady, it’s just her. She’s got siblings, but the siblings aren’t really helping. And it sounds like you can kind of get involved there and kind of say, hey, you know, So yeah, this you do, you know, kind of.

Speaker 2
Yeah. Can you take on this for me? I need I need you to take on this responsibility. Exactly. And, you know, it might not always be the easiest conversation, but you can’t take care of somebody else if you’re not taking care of yourself.

Speaker 1
Exactly. Exactly. So forgive the vacuum in the background.

I can’t hear it. You need to self promote here. We are renovating.

So we’re renovating the whole front of our building. We’ve got quite a few apartments that we’re updating and renovating. So lots of fun here with the vacuums.

Yeah, good. It’s exciting stuff. It’s already a beautiful community.

So September, October, we will have a little bit of a facelift. And it is, it’s so funny. When I tour people, I said, hey, we’re going to be renovating.

They’re like, what are you renovating? It’s already very nice. You know, you keep up, keep up with the times.

So how can we get in touch with you? How can we? Sure.

Speaker 2
Yeah, you can reach me, my phone number, 413-329-6730. You can go to tucked in eldercare.com. My email is Katie K at tucked in eldercare.com as well.

Yeah. I’m, I’m on LinkedIn. We’re on Facebook. So anyway.

Speaker 1
Yeah. Well, we’ll definitely be reaching out. Thank everyone for joining us for the chapter and we’ll see you real soon.

Thank you. Thank you so much. We’ll see you soon.