Senior Care Academy
Senior Care Academy is a podcast dedicated to providing valuable information and expert advice on navigating the world of senior care for both senior care providers, and families with aging parents. Hosted by industry professionals, each episode covers a wide range of topics including healthcare options, legal considerations, financial planning, and emotional support for caregivers. If you are a healthcare provider, have aging parents, or are a senior adult, this podcast is for you! Tune in to gain valuable insights and resources to help you make informed decisions and provide the best care for your loved ones.
Senior Care Academy
Balancing Childhood and Elder Care: Lynn Smargis Journey to Supporting Families
Balancing the care of both her young children and her cancer-diagnosed parents, all within a single year, Lynn Smargis found herself thrust into the challenging world of senior care. This life-changing experience ignited her passion for helping families navigate the emotional and financial complexities of caregiving. Join us as Lynn shares her incredible journey and the vital support she offers to prevent families from facing financial ruin. Through her heartfelt stories, you'll understand the deep emotional toll of caregiving and the intricacies of Medicaid spend-downs.
How can you be sure a senior living community truly meets high standards? Lynn sheds light on what to look for, from the professionalism of staff and resident engagement to overcoming stigmas attached to assisted living. She emphasizes the necessity of cleanliness, respectful communication, and active director involvement. By addressing these elements, Lynn aims to dispel outdated misconceptions about nursing homes, ensuring a positive and supportive environment for seniors.
Discover the power of podcasting in building long-term relationships in the senior care industry. Lynn discusses how her podcast, "Caring for Your Aging Parents," has become a crucial tool for establishing trust and engaging with clients. We also explore future trends in senior care, emphasizing the importance of a robust B2B network and the emerging role of death doulas. Lynn invites listeners to connect with her, offering invaluable resources for navigating the senior care journey.
This podcast is sponsored by Helperly.
Speaker 1:Helperly has a proven end-to-end growth system for companies that work with seniors, from direct care, staff training and retention to family engagement and full cycle sales and marketing automation. And the best part is that they work based on performance, so if they don't bring you in revenue, then they don't get paid. They work based on performance, so if they don't bring you in revenue, then they don't get paid. If you work with seniors and you want to learn how they have helped companies like yours grow from $250,000 a year to a million dollars a year in less than six months, and to see if your company might be a good fit, click the link in the description and book a call. Today we have Lynn Smarges.
Speaker 1:Lynn liked to care for others since childhood, when she took care of her sick dolls and animals with her medical kit, treating them for illnesses such as colds and tummy aches, and then her professional expertise has expanded a little bit since then. After taking care of her two parents who fell sick with cancer in the same year, lynn went on to become a middle school science and coding teacher, then writer. After writing, lynn wanted to pursue a career that made a positive impact for families. Thinking back to her caregiver experience, she decided to become certified as a senior advisor and specializes in placement services for seniors moving into retirement living. Lynn is an author, podcaster and senior advisor who lives and works in Portland, oregon, with her husband, one child, two cats and two dogs. She's the creator and producer of Caring for your Aging Parents podcast, which can be found on YouTube and all other major podcast players. Well, lynn, thank you so much for jumping on today. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me, Caleb. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Sweet, and so tell us a little bit about the journey. It mentions it in your bio, but getting into the field of senior care and helping seniors, it sounds like you helped your parents, but what other thing decided to motivate you to do that? Because it almost sounds like caring for your parents might've been a little bit hard and maybe traumatic too.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, well, yeah. And when my parents so my mom had breast cancer and then my dad came down with stage four adenocarcinoma small intestinal cancer within the same year, and so at that time my children were young, oh gosh, they were like late elementary school. And so I was taking care of two small children in my late 20s, early 30s, and my parents for six years. I did that and it's definitely exhausting. It's exhausting on all levels. It's emotionally exhausting, physically exhausting. I mean, you name it, and I'm an only child, I have no siblings, so I just literally incorporated the help of all my friends and delegated all sorts of responsibilities to them, and that is the only way I got through it with any level of sanity. And so I know how stressful that is and how hard that is for families, not just the caregiver, but like everyone else. That affects, because it doesn't just affect the one person that's caring for the parents, right, it affects, like your kids, it affects anybody else in the house, right, and it extends outwards, where it's there. It affects your job, like some people end up having to quit their jobs. And yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:I've actually one of my friends who also is in the senior space. She said, she has friends who have literally gone bankrupt for paying for their parents' care, and so I try to keep my families out of that situation. But that's one of the reasons why I decided to move into this career is because I feel like I can really make a difference for families who are going through this, who are going through this. I can't, clearly, I can't take that the whole thing away but I can make it a lot less stressful for them and, you know, really give them resources they need and then do a lot of legwork for them, which they would have had to do in the first place. And I also have the knowledge and expertise and certification, so I know the questions to ask and things like that so.
Speaker 2:I felt like I can make a really big impact for families that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, can you share one of the success stories that you've had where it's just a happy story, where you significantly impacted a family and they didn't know anything and they probably would have ended up almost bankrupt had you not helped them with their aging loved one?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of actually my family's. It wasn't a placement but one of the things people do. So I know your crowd is a lot of people who are in the senior space so you're probably familiar with the spend down. But if you're not familiar with the Medicaid spend down, what it is is you spend your money, your savings, until you are low enough that you can get on Medicaid, which is a really, really low number. And so one of my families I was trying to help with finding a place for her dad for memory care because her dad had dementia and found out that her mom had, two years ago, gifted her and her sister a quarter million dollars. And I said, well, I can tell you right now don't even take the time to do that Medicaid application, because it takes weeks or months to do a Medicaid application.
Speaker 2:I said because I said in Oregon they're very, very strict because they do a five-year look back to see what you spent your money on and if you gift any of it you're pretty much immediately disqualified. And Oregon really has no wiggle room for that. And so I helped her with resources. I gave her ideas because they had their dad at home. So even though I didn't place them, I did help her with that part of it. So that's one of my stories, gosh, what else? One of my more recent ones is I had a um, a adult child, come to me and his mom needed placement and we found her a great place. But then three days before um she was going to move in, she fell and broke her hip and so she had to go into the hospital for a partial hip replacement and she needed a wheelchair for a few weeks when she was recovering and we found out that the residential community where we were going to put her in wouldn't bring her down to breakfast, lunch and dinner in her wheelchair.
Speaker 1:And I'm like you're assisted living.
Speaker 2:What are you doing? Why do you call yourself assisted living, right? So, anyway, I had to go back and we had to relook at places. We found her a great place, which actually she liked better than the other place we found. So, yeah, that was a whole ordeal in and of itself, but we ended up still finding a great place for her, which was actually better than the first place we found, and she was really happy.
Speaker 1:So, as a senior advisor trying to help somebody move into an assisted living, what are you looking for in as you're looking to partner with other providers and facilities? How do you know what's a good one, what's a bad one? I think that that's an important thing that a lot of listeners that operate these facilities can think about. Like, if I want to fill my, fill, my community, I probably should work well with these people.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So one of the things I look for as a senior advisor is like, what does the staff look like, right? Like are they sloppy? Are they not dressed Like? One place I walked through the staff didn't have their badges on. So I'm like, well, how do I know if you're a staff member or you're somebody visiting your grandparents, like I don't know that? And they were all like congregating and laughing and walking around. I mean, and that's not bad that somebody's laughing and walking around, but like they just kind of looked like they were just there to have fun. They didn't look like they were being professional. So that's one thing is just training your staff members. And I asked the director about that. I said why aren't they wearing name tags or identification? And she's like, oh, they were probably bathing somebody and they forgot to put it back on. Well, I'm sorry, that's not like for all five of them in the group to not have it on. I don't think all five of them were bathing the same person. So things like that, like just making sure your staff has their name tag, has ID, so I can identify who's staff who's not. Clearly the cleanliness of the place.
Speaker 2:Right, looking on the floor, I look at the residents, see if they're having a good time. I actually go and talk to the residents. I go early to when I tour communities on my own and I go early and I go early for a purpose. I sit in the lobby and I talk to residents that are there before my tour, so I get a really good understanding of, like, what people like about it, what they don't.
Speaker 2:Another thing that I look for is like, is the director interacting with the residents? Do they know their names? Like, if the director is just walking by and they don't know the names of any of the people in there, that's a red flag for me, because that means that they haven't talked to any of the residents. They don't have relationships with them. Now, if they're a new director, of course that's different, but if there's somebody who's been there for months, I feel like they should know some of the residents' names. So things like that just making sure that you're, I mean, looking nice is great, right, like having a place that physically looks nice and is decorated nice is great. But like I'm looking at level of care, like how the caregivers are interacting with the residents, like, are they being respectful, you know? Are they keeping the residents dignity, like that's really important for me and just basic things like that. Like if you have a care community, just make sure your staff are well-trained, they're well-identified.
Speaker 1:And they're also talking respectfully to the residents, not talking to them like they're a five-year-old child.
Speaker 1:I love that, especially in like a memory care setting or an assisted living setting Like it's.
Speaker 1:Do you need to be able to know, when I see a person that has a badge, I know I can trust them and that they can help me, versus if they're all just goofing off and it kind of does just look like a bunch of young adults shooting the breeze. That's not a great sign. I'm really curious as an advisor rather than an operator, because I've talked to a lot of assisted living operators and there's a lot of stigmas that they still need to overcome to try to fill their communities. Are you running into those same stigmas and how are you cause? You're almost a step before you're trying to. You're doing a lot of the same kind of I don't know if convincing is the right word, but the same educating and getting them through the door as their marketing directors are. So how are you overcoming those stigmas? Are they the same or do they have their barriers are down a little bit when they come to you because you're not trying to sell them on a specific community, or I'm just curious.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the things I know well, I think, a lot of senior adults, because most of the time I'm talking to the adult child, right, but most of the time the senior adults are the ones who have a lot of fears because when they were, like you know, in their 30s and 40s, nursing homes were the place you went to die.
Speaker 2:Like you know, it's like the Lysol and disinfectant smell and that's what they think, because that's their experience and they don't know any different. A lot of times, and so a lot of times, it's just me talking to them and answering their questions to help them overcome their fear. So, like one person thought like oh, if I go into an assisted living, like my family can't visit me anymore, so I had to explain to her Right.
Speaker 2:But there's all these misconceptions people have in their head because they just hear from what other people. Right, it's kind of like social media. You see something on social media and people just believe it, but it's like you can't just believe everything you see on social media, so same thing with the older generation, except they're not getting it from social media, they're getting it from their friends.
Speaker 2:So you have to just really ask them all the questions and find out what it is that their fears are about moving into a community. Now, sometimes that works and I can answer their fears, and sometimes, even though I answer all their questions, they're still fearful of moving into a community. It just depends on the person.
Speaker 2:But a lot of times the reason why an older, a person from an older couple or a senior doesn't want to move in is because they have a misnomer or misconception of what assisted living is like. And so, like one of my gals, she's 92 years old, she was walking around she's like, oh, this is actually really nice. And I'm thinking she's picturing old school nursing home, right yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a hospital, basically.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of it. Yeah, and on the flip side, for the directors, I know one of the issues directors are having are some senior advisors because this can be a really lucrative position will send their clients and not tour with them. So as a community director, I would ask a senior advisor, before you make a contract with them Do you come to every tour with your clients, Like I come to every tour with my clients. The only one I missed was because I was having surgery but, but I called ahead and made the appointment and you know and gave all the information to talk to the director. But, um, I actually physically tour with my clients Every time. I sit there with my clients, ask questions for them, explain things to them, Because sometimes the directors will use terms and because they're in the industry.
Speaker 2:But the clients don't know, right? So I just did that for a client last week. I had explained to them what she was talking about because I could see the look on their face and I knew they didn't understand. And it wasn't like she was trying to talk above them, right?
Speaker 1:It was just that when you're in the industry so long.
Speaker 2:You talk about it every day, right? So I do that too. And another thing that I do that a lot of senior advisors don't do is that, even once I place them, I actually come with them on move day and help them with whatever they need. So sometimes it's sitting with mom at home while they move boxes, sometimes it's helping them actually arrange furniture, so whatever it is they need. And then I actually check in on them a month later to make sure everything's okay, because I want my client to be happy, because when I go through my intake it's a three-page intake, so I do a really thorough intake, find out what they like, what they don't like, because that's also important. But I want my client to be happy and I want it to be like their forever home that they absolutely love and they don't want to move.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that as well because it is. If there's a senior advisor that's just going to send somebody and not go, it's almost. It's not quite as bad, but it's almost the same as like a referral agency, a place for mom type thing, where they're just sending somebody in and it's your job. Versus I like your method where you're sitting down because in an ideal world you've spent the time beforehand. You know all of their fears that they're not going to be comfortable bringing up with the marketing director there because they don't know what they can or can't. Versus you've been in the, you've been on the other side of the marketing director of the community for for however long and had all the conversations, so you can confidently be like what about activities here? What about you know, are you able to take me down to lunch every day? And otherwise they wouldn't ask those questions. So that's awesome, right.
Speaker 2:And everybody's a little different. And the thing is is like when you get referral agencies that just give you people and their numbers, you don't know anything about them, I really. And of course there's always stuff people don't tell you, right? So I don't know everything about everybody. And also, too, once I start talking to them when we're walking through the tour, I find out more about my clients.
Speaker 1:So when I go on my next tour I'm better informed. And then what happens on the other side of the senior advisor, because I know it's like 1% of seniors are actively or going to be living in an assisted living or memory care facility. What do you do when you have that time with them and ultimately they decide that they want to try to age in place? How are you supporting them there? And what do you wish other care advisors were doing to try to help support in the same way?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So one of the things I do so like this is actually I'm glad you brought that up, because this is a really good example. So what I tell people is that if your parents are even thinking about moving into assisted living or independent, whatever it is, or your parents have fallen once like if your parents have fallen once, that's the time to start talking about it. It's not easy, but once you, once you fall in, once you're going to, your chances of falling again are really high. And falls are the one thing, caleb, that will lead a senior down a really negative health path spiral super quick and it really affects your quality of life If you fall and you don't get aid quickly, right? Perfect example one man his son lived 10 minutes from him. He had a stroke but nobody found him for eight hours. And because he had been going through the stroke for eight hours, he now has lost his speech and he's bed bound Like had he been in assisted living or someone would have found him. They would have gotten him the stroke medication. Of course he would have had some side effects, but his quality of life would have been so much different at the end and that's really important.
Speaker 2:So, like another one of my clients. They had their. It was his mom, and his mom really wants to stay at home, and so I was talking to him and he's like I do definitely want to put her. It's called an adult foster home here in Oregon. Basically I call it the senior Brady Bunch house, where it's like you have, it's a little residential home with six bedrooms typically and each senior has their own bedroom. So it's assisted living, but in a smaller, quieter atmosphere, and that's a really great fit for some folks. And so he's like, yeah, well, eventually we want to get there, he goes. But in the meantime I really want 24 seven care for my mom at home.
Speaker 2:And so I found him an agency that had the correct licensing. Because of the level of care that his mom needed, he couldn't just have anybody come in. So I made a few calls and I called him up and I was like, hey, jeff. And he's like, oh, I want to let you know we're not ready for the assisted living yet. I'm like, no, no, no, I found you an in-home care agency. He's like what? And I'm like, yeah, and he's like, oh, I thought you were calling me to place my mom. I'm like, well, I mean eventually down the line need that. I'll totally help you with it. I'm like, but here's this great agency.
Speaker 2:He ended up hiring them. I called him back a week later. He was super happy with the care. So I provide that for clients because I know, like you know, they might not be ready to move when I talk to them, but I do follow up with them and you know, eventually down the line they need placement. Great, if they don't, they might refer me to a friend. Like, I don't have that expectation of always getting a client into assisted or independent living, because if I did, my approach would be much different and I wouldn't be relationship building. And my main goal with all my clients is relationship building and making sure they get the care they need, whether that's me helping them or someone else helping them.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and I think that that's very important. Like a lot of people, where it is a commission-based structure, a lot of people, they can get kind of a commission breath where it's like we didn't want to get everybody moved in and then if we can't move you in, I'm not going to talk to you. I might have like a email campaign that will touch base with you every however long, but I'm not going to try to help you because I can't make money versus actually caring about the well-being of the family and the senior and make such a big difference and, like you said, it's going to, in the long run, pay dividends rather than.
Speaker 2:Okay, let me find the next person that I can actually place right now. Yes, and that's the thing with people who are like like I'm, I'm just not, that I'm not focused on selling people Like I'm very good at selling people, but there is a time and place to do that, and so I'm really focused on the long game and the long game.
Speaker 2:If you want to build your business and keep it for a long time and you want it to be successful and flourish especially if you're a small business owner you really need to build those relationships.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and speaking of building relationships, you have a podcast. I just need to remember the name really fast. You know what it's called. You have a podcast called Caring for your Aging Parents. You know what it's called. You have a podcast called Caring for your Aging Parents, and how has that? What benefits have you seen of, as a care advisor, putting out a podcast answering common questions and misconceptions about caring for aging parents?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, it's really interesting, Caleb, because when I put that I've been in podcasting for years, so for people listening like I've been doing this for six, six years and I've spoken at international podcast conferences, so I am very in the weeds deep in podcasting. So when I started this business, I knew the first thing. I was like, okay, I'm going to make a podcast, and one of the biggest misconceptions about podcasting now because now podcasting is so popular is like oh, you're going to make six figures your first year podcasting which you're not going to do.
Speaker 2:Yes. So if you're thinking about starting a podcast, don't think you're going to make six figures in the first year. But the purpose of me doing a podcast is because, as you know, because you're listening to this podcast right now, you get to know, like and trust the person on the other end. And if you want to be seen as an expert, it's a great idea to do a podcast, because then people know who you are, what your expertise skills are, right and a little bit more about you. And so I literally just put this podcast out, just so I can give it to clients and be like hey, if you want to find out more about me, here's my podcast.
Speaker 2:and like other B2B people, well, I ended up getting nine calls off of the first 17 episodes I put out and only did one season of 17 episodes because I just wanted to try it out and be like okay, is this even worth my time? Well, clearly it is, because I got a very good response to it Definitely better than any type of print ad you could ever do and so I'm really excited about that. And so literally everybody who's called me from my podcast has said the same thing. They said Lynn, I was talking to my parents, I knew I had to make a care decision. I went out to get some air. I was just walking around looking on my phone. I found your podcast. I started listening. I'm like yes, yes, that's exactly what I'm thinking. And you said on every episode if you need a senior advisor in your area to give me a call, so here I am. And it's so funny, caleb, that literally everybody has said the same thing. Like I've never had that happen from any of my other podcasts.
Speaker 1:So that's how you know your branding is on point they know, exactly what to do and why to listen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like leaving instructions on my podcast flyer. Please go out for a walk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, please go out for a walk, think about your aging loved one and then listen to this. It's the perfect time While you're out out nature thinking about life.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that does only work, clearly, if you are a business like myself, where I can refer to other individuals all over the US. But if you are only in an area and you're really bound by that area a podcast, I mean, it's still a good idea. You can give it to your families and stuff, but it's not going to have the same impact as if somebody like me, who I'm a part of the Certified Senior Advisor membership, so I can find a Certified Senior Advisor for someone anywhere in the US.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think if you're going to do a local podcast, you have to have the name of your locality in the podcast. You want to make it very specific and then you won't get any sort of For sure. You won't get any sort of podcast sponsorships or anything like that, because you're only ever going to get the amount of downloads in your local area. But it probably could convert pretty high if you can get people listening.
Speaker 2:But Right, and that's when you put your company as the sponsor of the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's when you put your company as the sponsor of the podcast. Yeah, that's smart. Yeah, I'm trying to think of an example. I'm in Salt Lake, so it could be like Salt Lake.
Speaker 2:Oh, chris Holyfield, I am Salt Lake.
Speaker 1:I am Salt Lake. That's sweet, chris Holyfield. I need to look into that one.
Speaker 2:And he's a realtor. So if you're moving to Salt Lake, call Chris Holyfield, look up his podcast. I Am Salt Lake. I think he's got like over 800 episodes at this point. He's been doing that podcast for like nine years yeah.
Speaker 1:And I bet that has just blown up his real estate Actually it's flipped.
Speaker 2:So he started I Am Salt Lake podcast just to feature a lot of the businesses and stuff. And they started getting a lot of people who are moving to Salt Lake and to find information about it. They would start listening to his podcast. So then he ended up getting his realtor's license because that was his avatar. Yeah, so actually his podcast helped him shape his career move.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. So podcasting is an incredible tool and you've seen it firsthand in 17 episodes, which is crazy. As you are working with clients and their families, what are some of the biggest questions that you get, or the biggest? Like? Every single person you talk to, you know that you can provide this value, because they all have that in common more often than not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think most of the value I provide, especially as a senior advisor, is just knowing. If you are in this circumstance, this is a good person to call. If you were in this. This is and everybody is so different, right, because most people have siblings I didn't.
Speaker 2:I was like the exception to the rule. But like, then there's the whole family issue. So I actually have a mediator that I refer people to that is at no cost to the family, so things like that. So my biggest, my biggest value I offer to my clients is just knowing, like having that extensive B2B network, so like, and people are like, oh, I'm having this issue with my mom's will, I've got an estate planning attorney, like, oh, I, what my mom wants to now make a trust.
Speaker 2:I've got, you know, a state planning attorney, elder care attorney, like notary, like you name it, and I know a person for that and so and that's really hard for people, right, like that's that sucks, that's a big time sink because you have you have to like sit on the computer for hours to find somebody and then cross your fingers, hope they're trustworthy. But, like all these people that I talked to have been in the senior industry for a while, like you know, they've either been referred to me by somebody or I know them personally, and so so I think that's my biggest asset and value as a senior advisor is just knowing who to call and to assist my clients, like my one client I talked about earlier. That broke her hip and we had to place her in a different place. Her son literally said to me it would have taken me two years to do what you helped us do in three months, so that's my biggest value I bring to my clients is just like to basically shortcut them into finding the right care for their parents.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's. I feel like that includes a lot of education. It's the same idea. There's the story of like a factory broke down and it was costing them all this money every day, and so they hire this professional to come in and he looks at the machinery and he twists one bolt and everything's running again and he sends them a $15,000 bill and they're like you were here for five minutes. And he's like yeah, but it took me 30 years to know which screw to turn.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:All of that research and education that you're doing. What role would you say? Educating the family, all the kids, how does that play in your line of work? And then what are you doing to try to keep them educated? I know that there's like blogs and things like that that you can produce, and their podcast is a huge one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I, you know, I tell people like, listen to my podcast, and I have, I have a blogs that go along with the podcast and I have, like my, my company, my company website, which I'm building blogs on, and my podcast website, which I also put blogs on. But my biggest thing is just like I asked people like what, what's the thing you need help with the most? And I've got like a whole stack of PDFs, right, but I of course, don't give them all of them. I try not to overwhelm them with a lot of information.
Speaker 2:But, like dementia, I've had so many clients with dementia lately and one of the things I'm going to be doing is putting together like a dementia package so like I can give them that in addition to like the regular folder that I have for them. So just really giving the clients the information they need to know, like, oh, okay, my mom or dad is doing this, but if that's normal for dementia like that was one of the biggest things that helped me with my parents, like at the end of their life, when the hospice nurse came in and she's like, oh yeah, that's normal for end of life, I'm like, okay, great, like we don't have to call the doctor, yeah, yeah, I think that that it's so.
Speaker 1:it's so interesting because we have so much of that at the beginning of life. So I just had a baby and you know it's like, oh, is this normal?
Speaker 1:Well, now that it's normal, yeah now that we're it's our second baby, we're a little bit more like seasoned, I guess. But the first we're like is this normal, is this normal? We're going in, we're calling constantly and they're always like yeah, normal, normal, normal, you're fine, you're fine. Google, you can find it, but there's not nearly as much on the other end of life. Where is it normal with? With?
Speaker 1:dementia to have this is it normal to do this? Is it normal for you know you overcome you can Google like how do you overcome toddler tantrums and there's so much versus how do you overcome helping your parents? When helping them, when they're losing some of their independence to accept help, there's like not nearly as much, and so it's interesting and I think education is a huge part. A huge key in overcoming stigmas and ultimately helping our loved ones live longer and healthier is by overcoming a lot of these stigmas, so that way they're actually getting the help that they need.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Actually to your point. Absolutely true, because there's a lot of similarities between coming into the world and then leaving the world, and one of the newer senior professionals I'm seeing pop up a lot, which I'm super happy about. They're called death duolas. So just like you have a birth duola or a birth midwife, there's people that help families transition in that last you know stage of life, which I think is fabulous. Like you, you need support at the beginning of life and you need support at the end of life, so I think that's a really important like new senior profession that.
Speaker 1:I need to actually connect with somebody out here in the Portland area yeah. Yeah, I'm going to look that up. I'm curious what they do and how they're able to support. I think that's such a smart thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and because there's a lot of things at the end of life that are different for people, even as adults. Like you don't eat the same right, you don't have the same needs at the end of life, and a lot of people are like, oh, my parents should be eating more. It's like no, no, that's normal when you get older.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's so interesting and I love that that is becoming a thing. I think that's important. We're getting close to time. I have the last few questions. What are some future directions for the senior care and the senior living industry that you see coming and that you're excited about?
Speaker 2:That's a good question. Yeah, death doula, definitely one of them. Another one there's not too many coming that I'm excited about. But one of the things I would love to see is more nonprofit hospices, because a for-profit hospice is run much differently. I would love to see if there'd be more nonprofit hospices. But one of the things I do love is the other thing which I provide and I know another person that provides it is senior concierge services. So I like that because it's not like I think seniors are more open to having a senior concierge service than someone coming in their home to help them. Right, you're doing the same thing, but it's got a different turn on it. So I love the senior concierge service thing. I like the death doula. Also, another thing that's interesting, like end of life. I met somebody who does this in Oregon. I don't know if it's law yet, but apparently they're making it a law where you don't have to take the body out of the home, so you can actually do all of the preparations in home and then keep the body there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's like a whole process of course is going to be regulated, but I I'm really excited about that, because that's what families used to do like 200 years ago and of course it's not going to be appropriate for everybody and you know all the time and there's certain families that aren't going to want to do that, but I love that. It's another, it's going to be a new option, and so any type of new option like that is great. Like one of the options you can do in Oregon is like you can literally bury yourself in your backyard, so that's crazy, that's, wow, so that's actually my plan is I'm going to be.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be buried underneath my favorite tree, where the sun sets like in my in my baby Yoda. T-shirt and pajamas.
Speaker 1:That's so cute. I love that and it's cool. That's an option. That's way cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then, what advice would you give to someone considering a career in senior care, and then specifically as a senior advisor?
Speaker 2:Okay. So the first thing I would say is if you're not a patient person, don't do it. You've got to be patient. That's the truth. The other, the second thing, is you need to be empathetic and understand what the family is going through as much as possible. Like you can't come in here and say like, oh, I know what you should do, you should do this, this and this. Well, you don't know what they should do. Like I always tell people, I never tell people what they should do.
Speaker 2:I said based on my experience my personal, my professional experience this is what I would advise you guys to do. Like you have to go in there with a very open and empathetic mindset, because everybody's different and you don't know the history of all these people. You don't know what's going to bother them and what's not going to bother them. So you have to be really considerate when you're talking to these families and very patient. So if you're not a considerate, patient and empathetic person, I would say don't even get into the senior care industry. You're not doing yourself or any of the families you're serving a favor.
Speaker 2:But if you are a person who loves people and you generally want to care about people and you're empathetic and you're a good listener. That's great. Like I'm a big talker and so for me, like especially when I was started podcasting, I had to learn to be a much better listener. And it's not that I didn't care about people before, but it's just that I'm Italian and I'm from Philadelphia and I like to talk, so it's like a natural for me, so that's one of the things I really had to build a skill set for is just stop talking and doing more listening.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's what I advise people if you're going to get into the senior space.
Speaker 1:Like that Listening is huge and that's where that's where you're going to get people to open up and talk about their real fears and stuff. And just that that 30 second pause. Once they're done talking, just waiting another 30 seconds, then they'll dive deeper and it's like it's all just about listening. So I love that.
Speaker 2:Right, right or asking them, why, like asking people, why is huge, why?
Speaker 1:three or four times. The last question is what kind of people do you want to reach out, whether it's business partners that are listening to this or families. And then, how are people finding Pacific Northwest Senior Care? And, yeah, what's next for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, as I say, if you are interested in reaching out to me, I am on LinkedIn under Lynn Smarges, so you'll find me under there, so definitely connect with me on LinkedIn. If you want to meet up online or on Zoom, you can email me at lynn L-Y-N-N. At seniorcarepnwcom, and also definitely listen to my podcast, caring for your Aging Parents, if you're interested in being a guest on there. I am taking guests for season three not for season two, because my season two is already booked but I would love to network with you. If you are someone who you feel like we would be a good referral partner, you can reach out to me on my website, which is SeniorCarePNWcom.
Speaker 1:I love that. Lynn, thank you so much for coming on today and answering some questions. I think what you're doing out in the Pacific Northwest is awesome.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Caleb. Thanks for having me on as a guest today. I really appreciate it. Yeah, of course.