well.

>> Hello once again live from our LIFE Ahead Living Room by Mark Evans, your host for Life Ahead here on PBS Fort Wayne.

Thank you so much for watching and we're going to encourage your interaction as well because we have several ways to do that and I'll explain that just a moment.

But it is a viewer interactive program for adults of all ages and the subject tonight I think is going to hit people of all ages to be honest with you because it's National Family Caregivers Month and we have a lot of family caregivers out there.

>> One point one million Hoosiers are family caregivers and we're going to make you aware of a free screening of a movie The Upside starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.

A lot of duo coming to a theater near you and we have some very special guest here.

In fact, Karen Bartram is an Emmy and our NCCAM at an AARP Indiana volunteer in Fort Wayne .

Nice to have you here.

Thank you.

And you've been on the program before?

Yes, I have.

And next to you is Daniel Smith.

Love the name in the green room prior to the show you said that was a name your father names you and there was a popular song The Year That You Were Born and the dimples was mentioned.

Yes.

And he thought that was cute and he wanted to name you that love song.

Yeah.

You got a love song Got to Love the Lady.

So I was a little girl but you're an AARP Indiana volunteer and presenter in Fort Wayne as well.

>> Welcome to the show.

Thank you and welcome to both of you as always.

We want our viewers to interact with us.

We have several ways to do that where you can call in and have your voice on the air and ask these ladies that question or make your comments or you can simply tell the person on the phone bank that you have a question.

They can transcribe it for you and we'll relay that on the air for you and our newest way of course is texting and it's very convenient if you're on the go don't have time to actually make the call or talk to anybody can always texts and when you do so please give us your first name and the town from which you're texting.

We'd appreciate that.

We'll just do a good old PBS shout out to you.

The numbers are on your screen either calling or texting.

>> I always get that juxtaposed because I'm seeing myself here.

Hello.

Hello.

>> All right.

Anyway, ladies, wonderful to have you on the program because it's a very important thing.

I also discussed in the green room before the show that my sister was a caregiver for my my dear mother for several years before she actually passed away and I don't know what we would have done without her to be honest with you.

And I'm sure my sister's blushing if she's watching the show right now.

But since you did a wonderful job which I really appreciate it so I want to go ahead and get started here.

>> I'd like to get to know each of you a little bit better.

Karen, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your involvement AARP Sure.

>> Sure.

So yes, I've been a nurse for over 30 years and mostly in hospital case management.

So working with the older adult my entire career and just a few years ago I went to the Senior Information Fair and it's held every September at Turnstone and that's where I met the AARP team and interacted with realized how enthusiastic they were and passionate about the work that they were doing for volunteering, educating, participating in community events.

So I pretty much just kind of put my name in that I wanted to be really included in how could I help participate?

So I went through that whole process and I think it's probably just been under two years that I've been a volunteer.

Well, good.

We have a lot of questions for you later on.

>> Oh, and I've got a couple you're an R n registered nurse Watson MSN I have a master's degree in nursing and then a system is I'm a certified case manager.

All right.

And I don't see no FDIC on.

All right.

Well very good and I'm sure you work very hard and I know a little bird told me that you're going to be retiring next year next month but you're still going to stick around for AARP.

>> Yes, that's absolutely the tell us about you.

Well, I have over thirty years of experience in human resources.

The latter part of it was in learning and development just loved being able to talk to people about creating new developing awareness and actually this January it'll be one year that I've been a volunteer for AARP has been a good experience.

>> It's been a wonderful experience.

It has been so I'm so glad you're here to be able to tell us about that.

Let's go ahead and talk about what National Family Caregivers Month is of course being in November and why is family caregiving such an important issue for AARP in Indiana?

Yeah, you know, I would say that because there are so many people that are caregivers and I think they're they're struggling and many times feel invisible because they are they're doing they're not only caregiving for their loved one but they're probably managing their own family life and they're also working and really trying to keep all of that together.

And health care is complicated and many times it's very hard to navigate through health care.

So caregivers even if they're at the same town in the city where their loved one lives, it's difficult but there are caregivers that actually also try and manage their loved one from a distance and that adds additional challenges so caregiving can be hands on caregiving, helping with bathing, dressing.

It could also be managing medications or managing maybe a change in and a clinical medical condition where there's some wandering going on or maybe the driving needs to be addressed.

So caregivers really are trying to keep their loved ones safe and oftentimes that comes with a lot of mental stress for for the caregiver.

So you know, that's where AARP really is trying to provide resources free resources either in events that are happening throughout the city or it could be a respite where it's really just trying to support that caregiver when they have some time to be away from who they're caring for and then all of the resources that are online just you know, lots of things that can be downloaded for free or support groups, those types of things.

>> So and we're going to give some of those resources later on in the show and thank you for bringing slides with you today depos I wanted to go over to you as I mentioned at the top of the show about one point one million Hoosiers are family caregivers.

So what is the value of the care that they provide?

>> OK, so as you look at that they provide over eight hundred and sixty million hours of unpaid caregiving that equate that's worth about six billion and that's just for Indiana.

So if you ever one that's probably watching here today probably either is a caregiver or no know someone who's a caregiver or is familiar with someone nationally family caregivers they spent they provide over one trillion dollars in care and that's usually unpaid.

It's more than what you would see spent in Medicaid and behind each one of those numbers is someone who is wanting to help with home care for one of their loved ones.

And at home is where the majority of the older adults want to be.

If you want to think about it as I think about myself as I age and if I need care I want it done in my home the place that I'm most comfortable and I would actually ask you that question why people would rather stay at home and have family give the care to them than being in a nursing home or even a hospital and have professionals or take care of them but you hit it on the nails head.

I think people actually want to be home well it's people they're familiar with.

>> They know what kind of care they think they're going to get from them when you're outside of your home.

It's just that uncertainty and of course go ahead.

Go ahead.

It's just a comfort and the family caregivers of course are being given a lot of training and pointers from the professional health care people when these people go home.

>> Is that correct?

Aaron ?

Yes.

Yes.

Well, I wanted to go ahead and segue to you, Karen anyway because I want to talk about the caregiving that is actually given what is a family caregiving?

>> What does it actually look like in day to day basis?

Yeah, and I think that varies so broadly because it could be someone who just needs some supervision or you know, once again is more hands on but you know, with the with the caregivers if they're doing it alone, oftentimes they really feel the physical emotional strain themselves and that really puts their health at risk and so then there's the risk to that that a loved one that they're trying to provide care for that if something happens to them then their loved ones also at risk.

So you I think in some of the scenarios that I assisted people with who were just episodically I've been caring for them it could just be reviewing their medications to make sure they're taking their medications correctly or can they even afford the medication?

And just one quick scenario.

I had an aunt who I went to her appointment with her, went home to her home, looked at the whole medication list and it was not what the doctor had discussed with her and I was sitting right there oh my so that's concerning because you think about seniors who might be living at home managing their own care or they've got a family member who doesn't understand maybe what the medication was talked about in the appointment and all of a sudden now you've got this confusion.

It's not lining up.

>> So then what do you do and you know how do you get those answers?

The doctor's office is closed.

So you know, I think day to day every day is different and you know, it could sometimes people are suddenly caregivers because they have a loved one who's had a life event in the hospital and now they can't go back to what their previous living situation was and they need more care.

Right.

And that caregiver is trying to figure everything out.

Sure.

Or you've got somebody that's progressing.

Yeah.

There's a lot to be a caregiver a lot of yes.

And speaking of that, many of the caregivers are also holding down a job, many of them full time jobs.

>> So what challenges do working caregivers face?

Oftentimes they have to look at missing work hours they also have not only are you missing the work hours, you're also concerned about your loved one when you're there.

So that's a challenge also emotionally being worried about what's going on and what's happening with them.

They have out-of-pocket cost costs that aren't that they themselves may have to cover depending on, you know, the financial level who that they are, who they're giving care to.

Also they may be raising children.

So what do you do with your children?

How do you handle that when you're also trying to manage through you know, through caring for a loved one?

If it's a mom, it's a dad , a sister brother.

You know what how do you manage through that?

What they miss oftentimes is being able to go to your H.R.

department and talk to their H.R.

department about what can I do about my hours?

This is what's going on making them aware also there are different leaves and things that are available to them.

>> So as they struggled through those things there are also resources that are available to them.

OK, well I'm glad there are some resources out there.

Karen, I want to ask you from your years of nursing where your families feel most overwhelmed and what can they do?

I would I would say it's what they cannot anticipate.

I would think another overwhelm is just navigating health care and getting to the appointments to get physicians appointments.

Sometimes those are kind of drawn out so the overwhelm is I think the day to day and potentially not the ability to step away and take a break for self care and sometimes that can feel like a hopeless situation like there isn't someone else that can come in and help and you know, so families sometimes live at a distance and they might be like I said, caregivers.

I'm in another state or another city.

Sure.

And really worried about that mom or dad that lives alone and you know how stressful all of that is.

It's there's just no easy answer to the complexity.

>> Hard to imagine.

Well, let's take a break here just a second because we do have a text that actually came in.

It's from Ellen and Ellen is from Fort Wayne and she is I've been a caregiver for my brother for about ten years and there are several groups for caregivers and spouses and children but none for care of siblings and he has several disabilities which makes it difficult to get respite help.

Any thoughts on getting support of my answer would be to reach out to aging in-home services and that is a it's of northeast Indiana.

So there's about nine counties that are included and I know that phone number is two six zero seven four five one two zero zero and you can also go on their website and it's aging.

I h.

>> S dog OK?

And I think we'll be showing that slide later in the program.

>> So they do have a support groups there and they buy just calling and and sharing what the situation is.

They will get you connected with whatever programs they have and the support groups and hopefully that would that will help you get some support being a caregiver for your brother.

Well, Ellen, thank you so much for that text.

That was a very, very good question.

Yeah, we have about ten minutes left ladies and we have a few more questions to ask of course.

But I want to go over to you, Dimples and ask you about the fact we were talking about how caregivers sacrifice a lot of their time have to work around their full time and part time jobs.

>> But what advice do you have for taking care of yourself?

I would say let others help.

I think that the main thing we think we as caregivers we want to do it all on our own and we maybe Beerfest or even fearful of asking others I say reach out for health asks for help.

You can make a list of the things that that would be helpful to you if someone would take care of it maybe doing a grocery list can you give someone a ride to an appointment?

Can you give me a few hours of relief?

I think just asking for help.

>> I think as Kiran mentioned also there's also respect help and there are a number of different adult and other support programs that are out there.

>> I would just recommend just reaching out just asking you know, that's the first step just asking and don't don't be afraid.

Don't be embarrassed.

Do it.

I mean having a community around you and that's what happens when you reach out.

>> You have a community around you that cares and there's so many organizations out there they care and there I'm sure of course a number of other individuals who care also.

>> Oh, I'm sure there are.

Yeah.

Well and I want to remind our viewers you if you can get a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil because this is where Karen's going to actually give you some information about the resources that AARP offers family caregivers and and first of all, do you need to be a member to access them?

>> The answer to that is no and the AARP Web site, it does have a lot of information very easy to navigate around caregiver there we go.

Caregiver programs, documents that you can download for support booklet and also connecting you with support groups and just like Dimples said, you know, that's having that community really helps you kind of just share the load that you might be caring or the load you're carrying around.

What do you do?

How how do you manage that next thing that's going to happen that you didn't anticipate or that change in the medical condition and and other people potentially have already walked through that journey.

So by connecting with them you can learn from them and hopefully get that support that you need.

>> And I said we have our scan code there so our viewers can actually take their phone, take a shot of that and that will lead them to those resources as well.

What a nifty thing.

Thank you for bringing that information.

So let's go ahead and talk about the special event that's coming up.

I teased it at the beginning of the show but it's for Family Caregivers Month and you can tell us about that.

>> OK, well on Wednesday over the eighteenth at the AMC Jefferson Theater they're going there's going to be a free showing of what's called the upside and the upside.

>> You have to come out to see it.

You have to register first though.

>> You have to make sure that you register and yet you are at least on the list to be there.

It's then an uplifting just a joyful movie that talks about basically what we're talking about caregiving in it talks and it shows you about the partnership and the relationship that can develop among someone who can be who's a caregiver.

You have to love the total of their movies for grownups.

Yeah.

Oh yes.

November 18th.

I think that's excellent.

I've heard the story about what this movie is about and it's very it's heart touching number one and but there is comedy and drama.

>> Yes.

Intertwined and it stars Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart and I have never seen the movie but have you yeah.

>> So how would you how would you give it a rating and what would you like to say about that?

>> I'd like to encourage our viewers to go see it.

Let's just say I watch that several times because it was just that it had that type of an impact on me and had my grandkids watch it too so that they could see, you know, what's going on.

>> It's I would give it rating on a scale of one to ten.

I would give it in an eleven oh ,that's the way I feel now that's that's how I I think the message that's in there, the relationship it's in there, the joy that's in there then the there's also there's also the hard and it shows you how how to kind of manage through and get through the hard.

>> It's just a great movie.

It really is yeah.

I'm looking forward to that again that's going to be the AMC Jefferson point eighteen that's out on West Jefferson Boulevard of course one o'clock this 1:00 p.m.

1:00 p.m.

and it's getting ready to mention that and it's free.

Yes, but you got to sign it because there are only so many seats.

Right.

OK, and there's only one showing of that.

Yes.

OK, one o'clock.

>> All right.

Well, very good.

So in our last few minutes here I would really like to get some more information from both of you on what you would like our viewers to remember and take with them after this program Karen.

>> Yeah, I guess my my message would be that AARP sees you as the caregiver.

We want to make sure that you know that we are here for you, that we have many programs in an attempt to support you and we hope that you check us out and find that support that you could be seeking or even just other resources and much like what Daniel said, you know, just to be open to having someone come in and come into your situation and help you because to kind of be out there doing it on your own is just very draining and we wouldn't want that.

>> So yeah, I definitely need the support.

Yeah, dimples I want the same line as what Karen's saying but basically encouraging them to look at the resources that AARP has out there and available.

They have just a just a wide range of resources.

There's like a Facebook support group also that's connected with it.

There's just so much that's what I would do in just seeing thinking about you don't have to do it alone.

>> All right.

How does one become a volunteer with the AARP and doing what you folks do?

I just filled out a card and any of the AARP events usually we do have a card that's available you can fill out and put your name kind of in the queue for the process because there is a process to be vetted out to make sure that really it's a good match for you know what what the volunteer can bring to the organization and you know, I I thought it was a really nice opportunity to connect with AARP people at different levels throughout the state and yeah, it's it's been great.

>> And you're a presenter for AARP.

Exactly what does that mean?

>> It means that there's different awareness programs that they have in what I do is I present I share that information.

>> That's what I do large or small large.

It's it's any size that you can request someone come out and do a presentation to you.

If there's a particular area of interest, something that you're interested in, you can make a request your church could do it.

>> You could if you are in a I'm thinking I presented at a nursing home they do virtual presentations.

There's just so much in I know we're not supposed to talk about it but then also there's that free resource of being attacked so you'd have to reduce the tax rate before there's just so much that AARP does that people I think just aren't aware of and don't know about it and we need volunteers .

>> We need volunteers specifically for one thing just to us just to serve to serve as a tax volunteer, to serve as a presenter to serve as you go out and do some of the activities that they have, the events that they have just being able to serve.

So if you have a heart I would say if you have a heart for serving AARP is the great place because you will have a variety of things that you could get involved in and do very good.

>> Before we wrap up, let's bring up the slide one more time for the resources the website also the phone numbers and so forth.

There we go.

The contact AARP and with the phone number you can also go through online by there's various resources and one more time bring up the slide please about the movie that's coming up and that'll be of course for anyone who would like to go.

But you've got to make sure that you get your seat reserved and we hope to see you there.

I definitely will be planning on it November 18th at 1:00 p.m.

there at the AMC on Jefferson Boulevard Jefferson Point and I think that's about all the time we have.

Thank you so much Dipple Smith and also Karen Bertram.

Thanks for being here on the program.

>> You did a wonderful job.

We appreciate what you do too and we truly appreciate you watching and you can watch this episode as well as other LIFE Ahead episodes on PBS Faught Weinberg as well as you too.

We're always here for you.

We appreciate you and thank you so much for your support until next time.

>> Thanks for watching