SS SEG 2 Ep 1

Seniors face five major challenges when contemplating moving: physical limitations, emotional stress, financial concerns, access to healthcare, and social isolation. To address these challenges, professionals like organizers and move managers can help seniors with physical tasks and decision-making. Involving family members and creating a written plan can alleviate emotional stress. Financial concerns can be addressed by utilizing assets and seeking assistance from professionals like auctioneers and coin dealers. Aging in place is an option for those who prefer to stay in their homes, with the help of in-home healthcare services. Social isolation can be combated through community support and programs like the "red and green door" system. Complete Senior Transitions is involved in upcoming events and collaborations to provide assistance to seniors in various areas. Welcome back to the Smart Senior Show. This is Pam, and I'm here with Paul, and we are going to get into the meat of the show and talk about the five big challenges we see seniors as they contemplate moving. And we'll talk about some of the ways to overcome some of these challenges. So when we look at the five biggest concerns or five major concerns that seniors have when they contemplate moving, we think about the physical limitations that they have. You know, things like reduced mobility and strength or endurance, packing, lifting heavy items. These are the things that when we think about moving in general, for all of us, regardless of our age, they have to happen, right? But oftentimes, seniors have more difficulty with this process. So can you tell me, Pam, in a nutshell, how do we take care of that for somebody? Well, most of the time, we see a lot of seniors, they may have a walker, or they just aren't as mobile as they used to be. Trying to sort through a room is nearly impossible. Being able to pull things down off of the closet shelves and sort them and bag them and haul those bags downstairs, wherever that may be, physically is just difficult. And they might be able to do a little bit during the day. But it is exhausting, and if they're doing that every day over time, let's say two or three months, that they're really focused on the sound sizing process, they're exhausted. They're literally physically and emotionally exhausted trying to go through this stuff. So one of the things that our team does, we have professional organizers and move managers that come in and help us do the very, that very thing. We'll set them on a bed or in a chair so they can participate. And we just start pulling things out and let them see them and kind of go through the process of sorting and purging and putting it into a keep pile or a donate pile or, you know, is it going in the trash, is it something that we might send to auction? And letting them participate and have a voice in kind of what's going to go on with the things in their house. We generally make it through about a room before they're ready to pack their stuff and move and let us finish the process, because it is so overwhelming that they just know they're not going to be able to sit there day after day after day while we go through a whole house. We don't want them to do that either. We want them to move, to get settled in their new home and make sure that they're meeting people and having fun and taking a breath and relaxing. We do check-ins on a regular basis to let them know where we are and how we're doing. I do a lot of pictures and take and go see them with my phone and just kind of show them where we are, and it makes them feel much more confident. One of the things that I think about recently on the real estate end of things, I had a real estate client that, she's in her 80s, and she was determined, this was prior to us getting a phone call to help her, and she wanted to pack and ultimately she took a fall. She was lifting something that was too heavy for her, took a step, stepped the wrong way, and ended up fracturing her ankle. And these are the types of things that we aim to prevent by getting involved early in the process. Avoiding injury is good. Absolutely, absolutely, because that then complicates everything moving forward. It does, and sometimes we have to stop what we're doing so that they can go get medical care. They may be in the hospital for a couple of weeks, and it sets the whole process back. So, Pam, the next thing I want to talk about is the emotional stress that so oftentimes we see with clients and their families coming into these conversations. So, this is probably one of the biggest challenges I see in this downsizing process is the emotional component. We have sometimes a feeling, an initial feeling of losing independence, losing stuff that they have held onto for so many years and the emotions that come along with that, and then some tension sometimes between family members where, you know, decision making and not having a full perspective of all of the information that's available to them. So, can you touch on that as far as? Yeah, we do, we write up a written plan so that if they have family members, whether they're far away or not, we want to include the families. We want them to know that we're taking good care of mom or dad, or both. We just make sure that they're informed. This is what our plan is. This is what we're doing. If you have some input, that would be great. If they're going to come to town and they want to help, I try and give them a homework list. So, here's some great things that you could do to offset time and cost by helping your mom go through all the photos or, you know, go through and look for family treasures that you'd like to set aside. Maybe there's something that the grandkids would like passed down to them. If you know where those things are, then that's a great thing to do with the families. I really want families to come spend time with their parents or their family member. Instead of, you know, working, let's make it more fun. You deserve to have the time to love on them and spend time with them. So, taking away distress is my job. Enjoying your family is your job. Great, great. So, number three on our list of challenges is the financial concerns and considerations with the process of moving. So, a lot of times we're dealing with some assets, whether it be, you know, real estate or vehicles, antiques, just stocks, bonds, gold coins. We've seen it all in the process of a move. Can you touch on some of the challenges and some of the different participants to the conversation that we bring in to help people make a transition? A lot of seniors stress over the cost of doing this. And though it is not cheap, if they have a home, they can utilize their asset to help offset some of these costs. We want to make sure that it's done properly. And so, we also, you know, count on our auctioneers to come in and do a walkthrough and tell them what they see that they think may be of value, something they could sell. And selling those items, you know, can offset their cost as well. We have people that help us with automobiles. We have, we literally have everything. So, there's really nothing that I can't tackle. I have gold coin, you know, coin dealers that I rely on that are experts in their field. So, no matter what we find, we can make it happen. It's the network. It comes down to the network. All right. Our fourth consideration, our fourth challenge, often is the healthcare, access to healthcare, access to smart planning around what needs people have. One of the services, and I want you to touch on this real quick, is aging in place. So, while a lot of people are focusing on a move, at the same time, we've got clients that come to us that really want to stay in their home. And can you? We do. We get clients that don't want to or really don't think they can afford to move into a community. Or maybe physically they're just not ready yet to go to a community. And I will say two things. One, don't wait until it's too late. Because then all of this has to be done in a hurry. And then it gets to be more costly all at once. When you plan ahead, it, we can stretch that budget out over time. And take a year or so to plan your downsizing and age you in place sort of at the same time. Making sure that the house is safe, decluttering, picking things up, putting in grab bars. Things like that just help a whole lot. Being able to keep them there safely. We're connected to in-home health assistance companies, in-home rehab, in-home nursing. There's just about every service we could possibly need that we have at our fingertips to help our seniors stay there safely. Look at their home. Make sure it's in good maintenance and repair. Do we need to put a little money in it to make it safe? So, aging in place is always an option. It may not be long-term, but we can certainly help them age in place for a while until they put that plan together and where they're going to downsize. Great. And the fifth and final thing we want to talk about here today is the challenge of social isolation, right? So many Americans right now, and I think through COVID as well, just made this issue even more prevalent. Was the idea of people sitting at home, stuck at home without that social network that they so love. I call them elder orphans, and it is a huge problem in our country. I rally my neighbors all the time to take care of the aging neighbors in our community, make sure that their grass is mowed, make sure that their sidewalks are shoveled. But even more important than that, popping in, giving them a hug, making sure, you know, we take them a meal and check on them and see if they're doing okay. Letting them know that someone cares about them. They may not have family. They may not have anybody to check up on them. Going so far as to give them a red construction paper and a green one. If they're having a bad day, put the red one in your door, and someone will come and check on you. If you're having a good day and you're okay, then put the green one in, and we know you're good. But it's a great way to communicate to neighborhoods if we need help from our seniors. And I'd love to implement that program all over the nation, because I think it's a really great idea to help our seniors navigate their day with a little bit of extra help and love. Fantastic. So we've got a lot of things going on, a lot of trainings, upcoming trainings, a lot of events. Pam, can you talk to us about some upcoming events that Complete Senior Transitions is going to be a part of? Sure. One of the things I'm really excited about is meeting new companies and a lot of seniors down in what I call the 81 South Corridor, down towards Franklin County and Adams County. And we participate in a group called Caring Continuum. They have been around for 10 years, and they're getting ready to celebrate their 10th anniversary of senior resources in that neighborhood, that community. And so they're having a senior summer bash, and they're going to hold it at the Waynesboro Main Street Park on July 19th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We are going to have so much fun. There are going to be games, baskets and giveaways and prizes. There will be music. We're going to have food trucks. There will be a ton of senior resource booths so that you can come and pick up information for yourself or your loved one. We're just going to enjoy our day in the beautiful weather. Waynesboro is such an amazing community. They have such a cute little downtown. The Main Street Park is adorable. A lot of brick paved streets. It is the quintessential small town, and I love working down there. So we're super excited to celebrate Caring Continuum's 10th anniversary and kind of bring it in with a bang for summer. And enjoy our seniors at the same time. Families are welcome to come out. I know our seniors, there are 50 what we call swag bags. For the first 50 seniors, 65 and older, will get one of our swag bags with all kinds of goodies in it from a lot of different companies. Great. Great. So as we wrap up today, we at Complete Senior Transitions want you to know that you do not have to face the process of moving by yourself. We have a team of professionals in place to help you plan for and make your move. You can find out more about us and our services by visiting our website at www.completeseniortransitions.com or by calling us at 717-502-2507. Again, that's 717-502-2507. On our next show, I'm going to go over a variety, a very interesting study by Harvard on the trends of senior housing in America, and I'm going to talk about how that impacts us right here in Central Pennsylvania. It's a show that you'll definitely not want to miss. So until next time, you're not just a senior, you're a smart senior.