Able. That's eight five five nine zero Bible eight five five ninety Bible.
Good funny coome Morney, Good morning and welcome, welcome, welcome me.
He is that time now for our community connection right here on K one,
the one that you stand, we are rethinking with our friends from Elder Care.
First of all, we have Christina bishop A doing get title. Yeah,
thank good, and we would call your beerless leader and I'm not sure
how that goes. But also you brought along a good friend to both of
ours. Senator john Ford, how you guys doing? Hello, Tom,
how are you? Well, I'm above ground and that's always a good thing.
Well, it depends on who you ask. Christina, what's going on
today? Well, we just come to visit with you and kind of share
some information about our programs and what we're doing, and so we wanted the
opportunity to kind of get out here and talk to the community. Well,
first of all, congratulations, you've got a new position. It's chief operating
Officer and officer in charge. That means you got a lot of things to
do, a lot of things to do a lot did they give you a
bigger plate? Well, you know, I'm thankful that I have wonderful people
like John Ford here and our board that really help with transitions like this and
are just there to support us. God, what got you interested in being
a board member? By the way, time, I've been on the board
six years and one of the things living in this community and I'm seventy seven
now, so six years ago i was seventy one, and you start looking
at both friends and family and the services that Eldercare provides is so important for
our community. Some of ours are extremely unique for Bartlesville. No one else
offers it. You know, our mission is to help help mature adults live
a happy, healthy, independent life, and that's through educating not only the
potential client, but also their family let them know what services are available.
Because as you go through life from a teenager to working to retirement, every
segment of your life you have different needs, you move into different things,
and we want to be a resource. We want to be an education center.
If it's for the patient, if it's for the parent, if it's
for the children, so that as things happen in their life, they have
a central resource that they can come to and at least get information. A
lot of services we don't provide, but we know in most cases where those
services are and who they might reach out to. Christina, we have core
programs if really are vital to people for whom we serve absolutely, and you
know, I would just echo John said, We're here to serve, and
that means meeting families where they're at. So our Adult day Health program is
one of those core programs that we like to talk about, you know,
that offers families a resource during the day that if they need to go to
work or they have just need some respite, caregivers can come and bring their
loved one. We have people that come to Daybreak who drive themselves. So
it's a pretty amazing activity center with supports for medical, medication management and activities,
cognitive therapies. We do lots of fun stuff. We have a lot
of parties at daybreak, and we just help families reach their goals and be
able to live independently at home for as long as they possibly can. You
know, my mom is in her eighties and her biggest fear is that she
would have to leave home. Absolutely, she's fiercely independent. It's been that
way since, according to my grandfather, the day she started walking and talking
and she says, Nope, nope, nope, nobody's gonna nobody's gonna put
reins on me. And you know that's so she's been all of her life.
I've been get the feeling that's the way she's going to stay. And
having a resource like Eldercare is really ideal for a lot of independently folks and
anybody in particular who's aging. Absolutely, and we are so blessed in this
community to have a resource like Eldercare and Daybreak And if you haven't had an
opportunity to come out to Eldercare and see our facilities, see Daybreak in action,
I would just invite anyone and everyone to come out. So we're there
and we want to talk to people. We want to find families and see
what they're going through, help them make some plans and get the services that
they need so that they can reach their goals. So you know, if
their goal is to stay home and independent, we're going to help them do
that. And we also have some other things say oh my goodness, go
right into the home, don't we we do. We have our in home
program and that's a grant program. It is one of our we are partnered
with United Way and Grand Gateway Area Agency on Aging and that program can go
in at no charge and help with daily tasks like laundry, house keeping,
some errands, a little meal prep. And then we have our advantage case
Management and that program is run through state and a little bit of federal and
the families on that need advocacy to help make sure that all of their services
are in place. And this is great, John, this is what you
said. You know, we don't have it, we'll find it. And
sometimes it's they find us, like grants and everything that make it all work
well well. And it's just part of being a resource and knowing what's available
in the community and knowing what's not and just trying to help people as their
situation changes. Oh well, that's great. Now I understand that we have.
One thing I've noticed here as of a last few years is that we
have all of these different engaging talks or presentations. It seems like we have
at once or twice a month out of eldercare out there at twelve twenty three
one drive. He can't miss it. If you do, you need glasses.
It's on the west side. Is that we've got something really special and
it's been kind of hitting home for a lot of families in our area.
A person who's no stranger to elder care is a Mary Lou Pork. She's
got a presentation coming up. She certainly does. And we love Mary Lou.
She's been you know, she's one of our founders and she continues to
just be an inspiration. But she's coming on August twenty fourth at six pm
and she's going to discuss the book Learning to Speak Alzheimer's and some of those
key points and how they relate to families and what they can mean for us.
If you haven't heard Mary Lou speak, please come. If you're struggling
with Alzheimer's or you know someone who is, invite them because I can guarantee
you you will walk away feeling like you have been refreshed and you have some
tools in your toolbox. Wow, that is going to be cool. And
it's not only Alzheimer's, it's dementia, it's any other related areas like that
that this is very beneficial for absolutely and it is a very crucial because this
is one of these things kind of sneaks up on people. It's not something
that happens overnight. It happens over a period of years, and the signs
aren't always there until they're there. And this is going to be very informative
and very helpful, and I think everybody's going to get a nice little lesson
in patience too. Oh. Absolutely, we all need a lesson in patience
down I do. We do. And you know, when something happens to
a family member or someone we love, we're never really prepared. It's not
something that you just automatically are planning for. You're living your life, you're
moving along and something happened. And so we want to be that resource.
We want to be there for you if something's going on, give us a
call, let us help you work through it. Well, we got some
warm weather after all this rain passes, and of course this rain can stick
around for a little longer. We hope. So we hope, so we
do. But we're also talking about the Cool Room project. Tell us about
that. Absolutely. Cool Room is one of those programs that we have had
forever and it is so important. We know that our seniors are more susceptible
to heat related illness, you know, exhaustion, and oftentimes they don't have
the means to cool a room in their home. Well, Elder Care will
provide an air conditioner that can cool at least, you know, they're one
room, so that they have a safe place in their own home that they
can be in and kind of beat the heat and make sure that they're safe.
And we want to reach as many people as we possibly can. We've
had one wonderful community support for this program and we are in a position to
be able to lend these air conditioners out and that's what we want to do.
John, This is really something you and I kind of share a little
bit of a time period where air conditioning in our lifetimes wasn't always available.
You had to be kind of well off to have that in your home.
Some business has had it, and we know how miserable that could be.
Just imagine if it's somebody who's you know, in their eighties or nineties deepening
without without air conditioning in their home. It's got to be awful. Well,
it's very dangerous, it really is. So this is a wonderful program.
Yeah, it is, and it's it's great that we have these programs.
Of course, being on the board, you've seen a lot of things
come and go a lot of things change and a lot of cool programs start
to kind of you know, take root. Well I have, and as
I say, I've been there six years. And the interesting thing is during
that period we had COVID, Yeah, cod change the world everybody. We
were not able as quality as we had in the past to be able to
be in some of the homes. We were not able for a period to
have people into our building and provide our services there. So consequently, you
go through this for a year or two and people kind of forget that you're
there, what services we offer. And that's the other reason we're trying to
get out and just make sure people know who we are what we do.
So, yes, it has changed a lot. I have thoroughly enjoyed my
time on the board. I've been on several boards, but this is different
than any other board. We are a real business. We offer some real
services, in many cases services that no one else offers. Speaking of services,
you got a clinic to head a little bit of an upgrade here recently
we did. Doctor Gerald still there right, absolutely, he is, and
we are very excited about this partnership with HC. They are bringing a wealth
of knowledge to the table and it is amazing, great people, great philosophy.
You know, they have a mission, they're a nonprofit and we are
just excited about this growth and partnership Scott and nice seeing some new faces around.
It's always nice seeing new faces. We want as many people coming in
as we can possibly have, and of course so with the Foundation being out
there too, we're seeing a lot of folks take advantage of that. You
know, Foundation Physical Therapy are specialists. They do an incredible job there.
Josh Lymbloom is our director. He is amazing, a friendly, fun loving
guy who knows his stuff. Oh yeah, you know, he's amazing,
and they just have an amazing team and they get patients in from Tulsa and
everywhere. So we are very proud of them in the work they do.
And they are busy. They are busy folks, but you are in time.
One of the other things in our physical therapy that we offer is the
therapist and the client are together one on one. A lot of places you'll
have one therapist working with a couple of clients at one time. They'll get
started on one exercise and they'll work with the other. But we believe that
especially with our clientele. It's important that the therapist is with the client one
hundred percent of the time of that exercise. Wonderful. And of course we
have speech therapy too, absolutely so folks who might be overcoming an illness or
a situation such as a stroll strove, they get their ability to communicate back
I again, they do, they do. Abbey is amazing and we are
just blessed to have the therapist that we do. We have Susan who's also
a certified hand specialist, and so you know, we really have the means
to treat what's going on. And we hope that people look at us and
know that, you know, we're serving all ages, mature adults, you
know, but all ages in our physical therapy department and clinic, and we
want them to contact us. You know, in the state of Oklahoma,
they don't have to get a referral for the first thirty days. They can
self refer. So if you have something going on and you want to just
kind of check it out and see if you know what it is, give
us a call, get in touch with our therapists. They're going to take
care of you and get you directed in the right way. Now Eldercare is
not a residential place. I want to make that clear. Nobody lives there.
It's quite the opposite. We want you to be able to live at
a home as long as you want to and as long as you feel good
comfortable doing it. So so folks if you drive by there, they say,
well, where do all the people they live in their own home?
That's right right now. We want to make sure that that's made very very
clear. But we're also working with the help of a lot of community partners
and a lot of donations. John, is there anything against the law about
right and a check to the Eldercare to help support them in their mission and
keep their programs going absolute lutely not, because that's what allows us to provide
a lot of our services. Some are fee based, like therapy and some
of the others, but so many of the things that we offer we only
do it because of the generosity and and things like the Good, Bad and
barbecue, the Mother's Day weekend annual event that we have. That was a
wonderful event. It was, but no, it is so critically important and
as I mentioned, not only Eldercare but all nonprofits. COVID was also very
tough on them. So we appreciate those that support us in any way they
can both financially. We have a lot of volunteers that come in and help
us. And where can we find you not only physically, but on the
worldwide web about eldercare dot org org you better do better do org. Yeah,
you've got to go something you don't want to go? No, And
where can we find your online? I mean I physically physically twelve twenty three
Swan drive and our phone number is nine one eight three three six eight five
zero zero. And if you've heard about elder care and you want to know
more, first of all, go to the website if you can. If
you're not familiar with the computer, you just kind of like me, you'd
rather not just call and set an appointment. They'll show you around beautifully.
Call, come by we're there and ask questions, because Christina, you guys
have a lot of qualified people who can answer just about any question out of
the sun. We do. And we want to hear your story. We
want to make sure that we're getting you the help you need and want.
We want to help you address your goals, all right, Eldercare, that's
where you want to start to taking a look at things as you're starting to
age in place where if you have loved ones who were kind of in that
situation too, find out what resources are available. It's a treasure trope.
Christina, Bishop john Ford, thank you for being with us. To Tom,
thank you, thank the radio station, thank the Potter family for making
this time available. It's very good for our community and we appreciate it.
And you've been listening to Community Connection