Episode Transcript:
David Chandler: My name is David Chandler. I'm the senior director of strategic programs at senior helpers and, uh, very passionate about seniors, caring for seniors, helping our listeners to learn more about some strategies to care for your loved one, uh, how to help them age in place successfully, uh, avoid hospitalizations, keep them safe. Uh, really excited to be part of this podcast. My background, I'm a registered nurse, have had experience in senior living, skilled nursing. and really just excited to more share a clinical side of the podcast, of sharing my experience, of caring for seniors in those environments, seeing it through the eyes of somebody who may be working through that with their loved one. Maybe you're looking at senior living, you're considering options, you have a loved one who's coming out of the hospital and you're wondering what to do. So very excited to share about that. add that viewpoint to our podcast and I'll turn it over to Christina Chartrand so she can introduce herself.
Christina Chartrand: Hi, everyone, Christina Chartrand from Senior Helpers as well. I'm Vice President of Training and Staff Development and so excited to be here. I've been with Senior Helpers for over 17 years. My role has been creating training and programs for our offices that are around the country, but also the 17,000 caregivers that that support our seniors out there, creating programs for them as well. I have a personal experience, I feel like, bringing to the table, not only just with the senior care industry experience, I also am a primary caregiver myself. So my mom is 84 years old, and I am her primary caregiver. So I have been the person who really has helped in supporting her. along the way and trying to navigate the healthcare system sometimes and some of her different physicians that she's dealing with. And you know, the goal, you know, ultimately is to age where she wants to be in. And right now that's her apartment that she has and it's decorated so lovely. And I love to get to go see her. I actually saw her last week, David.
David Chandler: Very nice. Love Mama Chartrand.
Christina Chartrand: Yeah, yeah, it was great. Exactly, Mama Chargerand. Yeah, so I'm really excited. This is gonna be great, David, but we've got a lot of things that we can talk about.
David Chandler: Absolutely. I'm going to be going over some different topics. We'll be looking at special holidays. We've got our podcast that we're going to be doing on relaxation day coming up. We're celebrating that in August. So going to be looking at some strategies to help our seniors relax. We're also going to cover a lot of tools that you can use to help either yourself or your loved one as you're looking at safe aging. Very excited.
Christina Chartrand: Yeah, yeah, we're gonna talk about it also from the primary caregiver's perspective. You know, it's not easy some days and there's a lot of challenges sometimes. Joy, there's a lot of good stuff as well, but there also can be a lot of challenges many times. And so we're gonna have topics that are gonna talk about some of those things. You know, having those tough conversations with your loved one, trying to figure out next steps when you're not sure if they're taking their medication correctly. I'm evaluating safety risks that are in the home and trying to make those changes when maybe they don't want those changes. Talk about the car, car keys. Those situations come up as well. So I think, you know, one of the things that we really wanna do is we wanna hear from you as well. So if there's topics that you would like us to talk about, we are really open to it. There's lots of things out there, lots of topics out there that we really can address.
David Chandler: Yeah, and I think just jumping back to our backgrounds of perspective, so we're excited to have listeners who are all over the spectrum of... listening if you're a caregiver, a senior, if you're somebody who's in the profession, who's looking for tips and strategies on how to better care for seniors, you're going to get all those perspectives from our podcast and we want to hear from all of you.
Christina Chartrand: Yeah, it's going to be really fun as well. So we're excited. This is a new adventure for us. So we hope you stay tuned and listen in and join us. Each time we have a new one, and we'd love to hear your feedback as well.
Thank you for joining us for the first episode of 'LIFE Conversations with Senior Helpers.' We hope the insights shared by David and Christina have enriched your understanding of senior care. Stay tuned for more episodes where we'll continue to delve into the complexities and joys of caregiving, offering practical advice and heartfelt support. We invite your feedback and suggestions for future topics as we continue this important conversation on senior care.