ELDER CARE

You trust.

And dude, we got our friends in from elder care today.

How are we doing, young'uns doing?

Hell?

Yes, I love that, Jennifer, and it's and Michael Koh laugh.

I'll say that because I got a little special card in the mail the other day that signifies that I've hit some sort of age.

But you guys aren't. We're close to that.

But elder Care is there when I need you and when anybody really absolutely everybody.

Have a good holiday, wonderful holiday, Happy New Year. Can you believe it's twenty twenty five already?

Like we're twenty four.

Go yeah, it's twenty twenty five yesterday, We're still not able to transport and I'm just waiting on that.

I've thought back in the eighties by now, I'm.

Still waiting from a flying car.

Yeah, well, I think you're gonna have to wait just a little.

Bit longer I drive it might fly an older care.

Oh well, we're just I kind of feel like we took a big breath for the holidays. We were so thrilled, you know, we had a great end of the year with you know, our blitzen Binga was just.

A couple of weeks ago. It feels like months ago, but it was it was last year.

Last year. Yes, No, that was like a month ago.

About fantastic little fundraiser that we did in conjunction with the radio Barcel Radio here, had a lot of fun with that, and then really from a development fundraising side, we had a fantastic December.

We had.

The community step up and just show why Bartlesoe was so wonderful and they really took care of us in a wonderful way to kind of kickstart us into twenty twenty five with a lot of new things that we want to do and really need to do for our community.

Yeah, so we're you know, I would, I would say, in twenty five looking at some really great initiatives that are coming through. You know, we don't want to talk about it. I know Tom's got that look on to say said there where he's like telling me more.

Tell me more. I've always got that look.

Tell me more. And we're we're not quite ready to share all of those things.

Yeah, bet we are excited because what we did in twenty four is spend time kind of looking at a strategic plan, looking at how aging has changed in the world, how aging is changing in our community, how the programs that we have are really well serving our community, and what can we do to enhance those or what other programs can we add to to to make it better. And we spent twenty four talking to our community, talking to people who had ideas, kind of figuring out where

Got to change a little bit.

The population is getting bigger, but it's also getting older, and it's changing the way we want to age, the way we want to do things is changing, and we want to make sure that we are aligned with what our community needs. So twenty five is going to be exciting year.

Yeah, I would add to that, if you want to know more. Jennifer said, come to us. We'd love you to come to the elder Care building and we'll give you a tour. But if you have a church with a Sunday school class, or a small group or a lunch, or you have a civic organization and you want us to come to you, we'll come to you. And I would love to come and share.

Yeah, and I would say business too.

So we've come to many businesses, and maybe we just talk about, you know what a couple of things you may need to know about turning sixty five, or maybe we just discussed.

By the way you guys were life shavers that I'm not kidding you, or maybe you want us to come talk about the caregiving support that we offer.

So right now, being a caregiver, you could be twenty five, you can be forty five, you can be sixty five. I mean, caregiving starts at a different time of your life. It depends on your own family and your makeup. And if you have a lot of employees and you just want us to come talk about the things we do and how that might serve you or your family.

It's not just limited to one section of people.

So we'd love to come chat with you in twenty five or have you come to our building. We have a great meeting room and you can bring your employees to us and we'll do it there.

People get thrust into caregiving, I think unexpectedly, way too often, always change one and that and there. And we just went through the holidays, which can be taxing for anyone, but then add caregiver on top of that during the holiday season, and we have a caregiver support group.

We do it needs the first Thursday of every month, so the next one would be January seventh at ten am, and so once.

A month we have a caregiving support group. It's great to know about.

You'll get resources, you'll find other people who are caregivers and learn from them, lean upon each other. It's really wonderful and we want people to understand that Eldercare is there to help you as a caregiver, to give you some of that respite from the caregiving, to find those resources, to find others that you have something in common with.

Can be well.

And I always look at it as sometimes you don't know what solutions are out there. I know, any solutions or options that you have, Yeah, and so you don't know what those are.

You don't even know where to start. And so I think that's what's really scary about when you.

Kind of become a caregiver at first. There's so many questions you have. How do I advocate for my loved one?

What do I do?

How do I how do I have that hard conversation? What if this is just more out of my scope than I thought? Like, maybe maybe I need a little more help than what I can just do.

And so what options do I have?

What does what does an independent assist an independent living assistant living? What is a nurse? What do all those terms actually mean? What does respite an adult day help mean? So one of the things I would say is if you are new to your caregiving role or maybe your years and to your caregiming role, and you're ready to maybe re explore some options and just say, am I really still are me and my family still getting the

Yeah, well, I got to tell you it's a great resource we have with Eldercare. And for the folks who might be new to the community, Eldercare is not a residential facility. In fact, it's quite the opposite. We're there to make sure that you can live independently, age in place as the term goes, for as long as you would like. If you're a stubborn person like me, that's a real good thing.

And it's how you like it.

You know, some people will look at their options and say this, their path is way better, and so that's what we want. We want everyone and their families to feel like whatever choices they have, they do it with you know, the way they want it, and they feel respected and they have that dignity to make those choices. And so we want to be your resource and your advocate for you and your family and for our community.

That's right.

We do aging well as a community that we you know, we come around each other because sometimes it's that emotional connection that makes a difference.

You know, well some of those connections if you're caring for one who is.

Aging in place, but sometimes they need.

A little bit more care, but not a whole lot more. Got that fabulous Daybreak.

It's like it's like the clubhouse, really it is.

It's it is sort of cool kids, hay.

And so if you don't know what Daybreak is, it's a kind of an activity center you can come to Monday through Friday, seven thirty to five thirty.

Those who come to.

Us, they have all kinds of different physical and cognitive ability and so some are just coming for social They're like.

I'm tired of my four walls. I've seen them. I'm done with them. I need to go out. Some maybe need.

A little extra assistance just being watched walking to the restaurant because a fall could be a risk or concern for you, and so just having those extra eyes just makes you and your family feel more comfortable. And so on top of all of that, there's delicious food.

They get breakfast, lunch, afternoons.

Yeah.

Wow, there's activities that are throughout the day. We have a lot of groups that come in. We just had sixty kids from one of the elementary schools in December come and do Christmas Girls. So it's very it was very full, but it was really fun to you know, have the community come in and we have local you know, musicians or even some pastors that come into a Bible study. And so there's all different kinds of ways to engaged while you're there.

Very good, and you also have different ways of making sure that you can stay independent with Foundation Therapy.

Oh absolutely, that's what you know.

I was having a conversation in the last month or so with someone who runs a nonprofit in Tulsa, but they are a former barsh and they said, Tulsa does not even have.

An elder care like Bartlesville.

Like, they do not have something that has adult daycare with daybreak, they don't have Foundation physical therapy, they don't have the medical clinic that we.

Have that's a fabulous clinic.

What we have under the umbrella of Eldercare is really unprecedented and it is the leader in northeast Oklahoma because it's not even offered in the Tulsa area. So there's a lot that can help anyone who is aging. As we have said, age at home in place with dignity, and between therapy, between the clinic, between the daybreak, adult daycare care management or case management, and then in home services.

We have a lot that we offer our community.

It's a lot going up, it is.

And we have more to come.

But I know well And the other thing that we have I love to talk about is sometimes as we get older, we're always looking to meet new people. We're it's not all like elementary school or high school where you kind of go. And so we have a Senior Kennect program where you can come and do educational classes or exercise classes or dinners, and so we encourage those who are kind of looking to meet new people or

Done.

This salary will teach you how to do this.

Yeah.

But with that we'll have some refreshments and we will have some snacks and so it would be a really kind of laid back time to try your hand painting, reconnect with friends. So if you're interested in something like that, give us a call at nine one eight three three six eight five zero zero and you can sign up for a sip and paint class.

It's fifty five dollars and.

It includes everything, includes your snacks, your drinks, your your canvas, all of everything you would need. You just show up and we'll take care of you.

Well, how do you like that? Yeah, that is just awesome. It's all right there in the big green roof.

That is exactly it is.

That's a big green roofing.

I noticed on there was not the party, not the expanse of green space of round which is lushes.

Yeah, but it's like may that's a big room.

It's a big it's a big building.

Thirty six thousand square feet is a big building, and it's beautiful. If you've not been inside it is. We may have been there for a little over twenty years now, but it still looks brand new.

And you still has to walk me around there.

I still have to walk a lot of people around here.

I've gotten lost trump, I've got there. I promise you.

Maybe my GPS when I walked in and she's like, here.

We go, here we go.

I love walking people wrap, but can take a tour with us. We'd love to kind of show off our beautiful facility that we have.

For sure.

I have one question to ask, and I'm not asking you to really tip your hand too much, but are we going to go We're going to do barbecue this year?

Oh yeah, absolutely, all right.

It's May eleven?

Is it ten?

I want to say it's it's Anoursday.

Week, Saturday, So I think whatever I think.

That that, I think it's May ten. We have a kick off meeting on January ten, January tenth.

The Barbie Committee and not a kickoff. We've had a few meetings already, but we're kicking in the high gear a week from tomorrow with the Barbecue Committee.

So it's coming quickly and so it's another great way that you can support us. It's our largest annual fundraiser. It's been going on for a long long time, longer than I've been involved, very long time. And it's over at the huge ranch and we we have a good time.

Yeah, that is for sure.

Oh yeah, you got that lovely pud.

You got the great grounds out there, you know, the long end winding road. You have had a beautiful home out there and all the outbuildings. It's a beautiful it's that's something it.

Is and it's so casual. I think that's what I love.

And I know that sounds weird when you say about a fundraiser, but you just get to put on your your outdoor close because it's an outdoor vet and it's like a really big barbecue like.

It is it is.

I know, it's like it's that's the name. But uh, it's always a really just fun kind of laid back time to come out reconnect with eight hundred years friends.

Absolutely we could probably hold more, but then again, you know the Hues would have to buy more ground, but you know, we don't want to do that.

Good problem. We'll figure that out. I mean, let's get to nine this year.

But it's a great way to come out, have a good time and also support all of these programs we're talking about, all the things, the initiatives that we want to see kind of come to life here soon. So if you don't know about the barbecue, or you do and you're like, I was a sponsor one year, I want to be a sponsor. Now it's the time to get in. So give Michael call. I'm going to say, give Michael call.

We're going to send out sponsor letters in a week, just a little over a week, and if you were not a sponsor, I would like to be.

Call me. I'll probably be calling some of you anyway.

And if the barbecue is not, you know, if you don't want to be a sponsor or, your busy Mother's Day weekend that happens. Sometimes there's lots of ways for you to partner with us. And so financially that is always, you know, something we talk about as a large nonprofit that serves a lot of people, it is the support of our community that really helps us achieve.

Those goals and to expand.

But there's also being an advocate for us talking about what we do with your friends and families so that they have resources and is also helpful.

I want to thank you both for being here, Jennifer and Michael from elderd Care and Happy New Year, Happy New Year,