Ep. 15: Nature, Nurture, Create – Resources for Caregivers and Care Managers

Abby Rose Esposito, Growth Marketing Manager:

Hello and welcome back to the MediSked podcast. I am your host Abby Rose Esposito, and I am pleased to welcome Brenda Harvey and Jackie Cochrane to the podcast today. Brenda is MediSked’s Director of Software Quality and Jackie is a product analyst here. They’re going to discuss their unique connection with the home and community based service industry and how MediSked’s mission hits home for each of them. Brenda, do you wanna start by telling us about how you and Jackie met?

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

Sure. some of you may know already that maybe from other podcasts or blogs that you heard off our website. That I took care of my dad for almost two years in my home and he was a 24 7 2 person assist. So when I chose my managed care organization, Jackie was assigned as the care manager for my dad. We talked at least monthly and she was always readily giving me some like great resources I could use to help me understand more about like dementia and strokes. And that helped me deal with my dad. And sometimes she would say, I have some new assessment questions for you. And sure enough, within a week or so, you know, I would see the development requirements for our own software that were adding these same questions. So that was pretty neat, you know, and, and the joke ended up being was Thanks Jackie giving me a preview of what’s coming down the plate for us. You know? But her knowledge of our industry was really bad and really helpful and she cared about the individuals she supported and I could tell that. So she really seemed like a good fit for MediSked.

Abby Rose Esposito, Growth Marketing Manager:

That’s awesome.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

And like Brenda said, when I called her every month she was, she and I just really hit it off and I liked her style and she talked to me about how MediSked was such a great company to work for with a work-life balance. We just connected and that’s how I ended up becoming a product analyst here. Yeah. She loved like that. I was doing spreadsheets on, you know, everything the care manager had to know, like, did they have any files, did they have any this, and I had a spreadsheet on all this stuff. And she goes, I love it. This is exactly what we need here, you know, and what a, you know, great fit of her understanding the needs and the practices that we go through to make everything even like audit compliance in that within our software. Like I was doing it for my dad and she was like, I have to do it here too.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

So it was a, it was a really neat, neat fit. So, so yeah. So I, you know, I just say thank you. Well, so I got to experience like Jackie, how you worked through my dance case, you know, what did you do to set yourself up and make sure that you were an a successful care manager? You mean care management in general? I think just in, in general, if you come from a place of respect or compassion and you can develop a rapport and build trust with anyone regardless of their culture background or whatever their illness is. Well, I mean I, I found that a lot of them are in that position because they really are genuine, genuinely very kind people to begin with, right. And they wanna help others and it seemed like you totally did, you know? And so I noticed, cause you had mentioned this to me before, that, you know, one of the risks that was associated was like taking on others’ burdens as their own.

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

So I know, I’m sure it’s stuff you bring home and, and you have to watch out for. Well I know, you know, building up rapport, you did that totally with me. But I really like that app you know, that approach. Like what did you do tangibly, like what actions as that care manager did you actually go through, you know, when you start off? Well, a lot of it I think is similar. Like you probably had to go through taking care of your dad. I have to go through as the care manager and you’re the direct caregiver. But as the care manager, the tasks and the tools are very similar. So first of all, you have to build your team and for you, it would be for your dad, you have to build your dad’s team. For me, it was my individual, whatever I was working with, you would be part of his team in that case.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

What, you know, and just for the listeners so they know what, you know, you may call it individual, we may call it a member when you’re working for the insurance companies, it might be a patient or client. So all of those words, you know, if we use them here, they’re interchangeable. But you start with the individual’s team and you develop them, their support, their family, their friends and therapists, doctors, whatever other professionals that they may have or specialists. And you make important details like what pharmacy do they go to or even as specific for their plan of care, like where they get their haircut. Those are things that somebody who’s new to take care of that person or the next care manager that comes in, or if you’re a sibling or someone has to care cover for you while you’re away, they may not know those things that you know off the top of your head.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

So developing their team and keep track of that. Gotcha. One thing I really like about the MediSked is regardless of what platform you’re in, there’s a way to build both the individuals team and the professional team within the software. And at first I w I was trying to understand why we had to enter the demographics and then assign a role. But I realize like as you know, that just because you know you’re an individual’s parent or loved one, your role doesn’t stop there. You may also work in the healthcare field and many times in the small communities you may be calling someone that’s a loved one of one of your individuals and then you may be calling them the next day for another individual because you have to schedule an appointment or something like that. Right? I mean that makes sense. Like, I mean, I know softball is useful for documenting all that information and you make a good point.

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

I mean, you said like someone might be listed as your client’s, let’s say your mother on one of your health records, right? And then they might be part of your care management team. I’ve actually heard some people call it being like, yeah, I have a child who does this. So they’re the mom, but they’re also on a care management team for other people. And then, then there were some that, you know, you were calling a doctor’s office and there’s so many times when I’m at the doctor’s office and they’re like, Hey, what do you do? And you explain, they’re like, oh, I have a, you know, child in this, you know, position and I love that you guys, you know, do this. So here you’re calling a doctor’s office to schedule an appointment for, you know, another client. And yet there you have that individual who’s within our software, you know, helping you with your appointment.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So yeah, so people don’t just wear one hat, right? Right. So you have to develop the individual’s team and your team too. It could be your coworkers and relationships you build, like you just described, where even though I’ve left my previous job and I’m now here, those are still contacts and people that I know, you know, that I could reach out to if I needed to for something. Know their strengths, know to who, to who to call. And that’s both for me as a care manager and as an individual. You know, we all have like friends that we call, like, you know who to call if you wanna just vent and cry on their shoulder. And then you might have someone else, if you, you call that if you want motivation and you know, to go exercise or whatever. So you have to know your resources.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

And like for an example, as a care manager, there’s some care managers that are social workers, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I, my background is in nursing, but if there’s a social worker and you need to know who, where the nearest food pantry is for your client, you may know that she’s the person that you call cuz she has ’em all memorized, you know, that sort of thing. Or if I was a social worker and I needed to know if my patient that was having shortness of breath, if that was their normal chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, shortness of breath, or if this was something new and acute. And if as a social worker, I didn’t know that I’d have to, you know, how who do we triage? Who do we call for that triage? You know, just know your resources. Personal circle too. Yeah. Great. So yeah, your personal circle, right?

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

So what happens, like when my dad’s caregiver couldn’t come in, like who was my backup, right? Who could help me out because listen, I, meca was great. My dad has joined a couple meca meetings because my caregiver couldn’t get there and my poor boss would be like, yeah, dad’s in the background today. You know, I don’t have a, I don’t have a caregiver. So, you know, but knowing who I can call, you know, in that instance and that instance, I wasn’t prepared. So yeah, I know I gotta have all those tools in my bag. Right. You know well, so I mean, you have your circle who support, so you just, how about that? But so what happens when you have to reach out, you know, besides that circle of support, cause I built that up, but I know there were times in jams that I got stuck.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

Right. Well you’re, there’s so many things that interconnect. You’re familiar with the social determinants of health, right?

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

I am. But it’s kinda vast, you know, cause I know there’s all those different areas, whatever. Can you like review all of them with me, please admittedly, please. <Laugh>.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

Well, I always say that it is like the, the social determinants of health are the tangible or intangible things that affect a client’s ability or individual’s ability to stay healthy other than those d diseases that are listed or illnesses that are listed on their medical history page. So things like housing, finance, food or finances for food what else? Utilities and access to transportation or getting to their appointments. So you’re saying like, things that you have to stay healthy with, right? Right, right. Like for example, like say you were just diagnosed with diabetes, okay, you may have the best intentions of wanting to, you know, exercise and take your new medication, but if you’re worried that you don’t have money to pay rent, then you’re not gonna go out and buy your new medication if you’re gonna be evicted next week cuz you can’t afford food and gross rent.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

Right? So those sorts of things. So you just have to have a way to track those resources. Like I said, with a social worker, you know, you have to have a, a system or a process in place that you can know who to call and those emergencies and you know, you take care of those needs first for your clients. All right, so that’s a big list. But, so when we think back to the tools for the cam manager and you’re building your teams out if you didn’t have our software, cuz now you have our software, ha ha you know, <laugh>, right? Like, you know, so how, how, how are you doing that? How are you keeping track of your resources, right? So if you know you have a, have to have a good software utilizing your internet or technology tools like right online, like those browser bookmarks or you know, like you already mentioned at the very beginning, our good old fashioned spreadsheets, you know, pen and papers you know, whatever your health record is.

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

Well, the listeners who may not realize that within MediSked, all of our suites of products, like there is a link to your corporate shared drive. Like you can go in and next to your username at the top of the screen. Like you can upload resources such as like that community bus schedules or even the open covered food pantries by like the counties that they have. Yeah. So there are some great ways to manage that, that you can share within all the other care managers in your agency. Right, right, right. In the software. I love that. Well, all right, so you’ve taken me through like the care manager’s resources, right? And, and being a caregiver myself, how about giving me some tips on how to reduce stress? I mean, I know you can easily get burnt out. I know it. And so <laugh>, what are ways to, to manage it and like how do you separate your work from your personal life?

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

I do know you had a lot of stress and now that I’m in a similar role with my mother-in-law, I so admire what, how well you handled it. So first of all, I just try to remind myself or others to come back to the present, take a deep breath. And I know it sounds so cliche, but it really works. And I could tell you multiple stories about, you know, how even when I worked in the emergency room, no matter what they came into the ER for, whether it was a traumatic injury or the death of a loved one that, you know, there was somebody, you know, having C P R being brought in and you were dealing with stress and anxiety, grief high blood pressure, everything comes back to slow deep breath bring you back to the present moment. And that’s the first thing I tell people, if you’re in a crisis mode break then and there, you know, and I just heard a new one the other day that <laugh> has been very kind of funny to work add in is take a slow deep breath and ask yourself, where are your feet?

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

Like literally, where are your feet? And it takes you out of that panic mode crisis and makes you think about, okay, they’re in my car, they’re on the ground or whatever, I’ve got shoes on. It just takes you back to the present moment. So that’s a silly little stress reduction thing that I found helpful. Oh, I like that. I have to remind myself sometimes <laugh> take a breath, you know? Right. Well, what else do you got for me? The, the old standbys, the exercise, it’s stress reducer. Even if you have physical ailments and you can’t like run a marathon, you can at least, you know, do a little chair yoga or go for a little walk around the block or something to increase your endorphins and again, give you that little break that you may need. Caregiver fatigue is a real, compassion, fatigue is a real thing.

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

And it just gives you a little break both mentally and physically. I think that I personally use time as an excuse not to exercise <laugh>, but I dunno, other people do that too, but I know I idea of it. But I did find like doing small things with my dad in interested in him. Like we got a ball so he could try and kick the ball with his one leg, you know? And so we’d roll it to him and so like, you’re doing something then you’re like, you know, have a couple of weights to pull or he would laugh as I try and do jumping jacks front or something like that, you know? But I, I do know it helps too, like when you’re one on one-on-one with that person, like he would try and raise his arm then, you know, what he could.

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

And so I bought him a little one pound weight so he could, you know, do a little, do as little. So, you know, and I think you’re doing something and it makes them interested to do something and it makes your work not so hard. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. That’s a perfect example. Yeah. There’s not, you know, it changes your whole mental attitude to it. It takes away that burnout if you’re having fun, you know? Right, right. Another example I tell, even if you’re a caregiver sitting by someone’s bedside in the hospital and you feel like you can’t get away and you can’t leave that person, or whatever the situation may be, your home, whatever change the environment however you can. I think you s I think you were the one that told me you used to open the window just for a breeze. Yeah, it was actually like, I, I didn’t think much about it, but you know, Deb was in one of those very repetitive times, and you could tell he was really stressing out.

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

And actually one of the caregivers was like, I’m gonna open the window, and she opened the window and all of a sudden you could hear the birds. There was like a little bit of a warmth, and it did, it altered that situation in a positive way, and that’s something I wouldn’t have thought of. So I really had appreciated that, you know, she thought of that to do right. To do that and, and other things that you, you know, may not be able to open the window if you’re in a hospital room or something like that, but you can put music on. Some people have diffusers that they can diffuse lavender, both be known for calming, you know, that sort of thing. Yes. We got, we got, so my other caregiver was like, Hey, she noticed I had little oils and she’s like, Hey, do you have a diffuser?

Brenda Harvey, Director of Quality:

And I’m like, yeah, there’s one, you know, one. So we brought it out and he really liked, we figured he liked lavender and he liked vanilla, and we would turn that on. But I was thinking myself, Hey, you know, you’re tuning out for him. But I was thinking, you know, as I even entered the room, I’m like, you know, you take a, like a little breath and it’s like, oh, that smells good. It kind of gives you a little positive attitude, you know, walking in there, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So changing the environment, deep breathing exercise ano, you know, just the basic health things, like making sure you’re getting plenty of fluids too. So those are all the health ones, like eight, eight ounce glasses of water a day helps your body function better. Which, you know, like if you’ve got a headache and you think it’s stress mm-hmm.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

<Affirmative>, it could just be you’re dehydrated. So start, you know, start with water first and then try the other things. Go for sleep, right? So we can take care of our patients, our members better when we feel well. So same with sleep. Like you could get grumpy and intolerant of others if you’re tired, and if you make it a priority to try and go to bed on time and stay away from your phone or other technology before you go to sleep, then you’ll be better prepared to start the same thing over again the next day. Yeah. I’m, I’m making my list now. <Laugh>, you know, to have those basic, you know, those healthy habits, you know. All right. So like you said, you gave us exercise, water, sleep. I have a lot to work on. I figured <laugh>. But is there anything, anything else you got?

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

I always say this is my little mental mantra, nature, nurture, create. So that was just like my personal thing. So I love this philosophy that spend time in nature every day, spend time nurturing yourself or the others that you’re caring for every day and create every day something that you love. And some people that might be cooking or other people might be music or art, or, you know, for me, I’m a fiber, I like to perche, fiber arts that sort of thing. So I just know if I’m feeling stressed a few minutes outside, like it’s a, you said you didn’t have time to exercise mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. So I know for me it’s like a seven minute loop around my property if I take the short loop, 11 minutes, if I take the long loop and I have time for even that much on my lunch break, and it makes such a big difference.

Jackie Cochrane, Product Analyst:

So nature, nurture, create, that’s my philosophy. Oh, those are all good thoughts and I’m gonna keep them in mind. But no, thanks for taking us through that. Cause I always wondered how you got through all the stuff you had to do and, and you too and you know, yeah, yeah. On that time crunch and, you know, when I watched people like get really stressed, you know, just watching my dad as the caregiver, you know, and then, you know, as the care managers, the ones I, you know, I worked with also the VA care managers as well, and, and it was very stressful. Their workloads were really heavy. So it’s great to you, the hard little resources, you know how to get through it. Thank you.

Abby Rose Esposito, Growth Marketing Manager:

Awesome. Thank you guys. And thank you listeners for joining us again on the MediSked Podcast. For more information, visit medisked.com.