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