Aging With Dignity, Guided by AgeWell's Tiffany Mann

Speaker 2 (00:00.098)

Welcome to You Matter Nashville, where we celebrate the people and stories that make our community so special. We believe that everyone has a story to tell, and more importantly, everyone here matters.

We're your host, Jason and Mindy Hoover, and we're passionate about shining a light on individuals who are making a real impact right here in Middle Tennessee. This is about community, connection, and the incredible people who are making a difference.

Let's dive in as we uncover powerful stories and meet remarkable people whose journeys will inspire us all, right here on You Matter Nashville.

Speaker 2 (00:36.994)

Welcome back friends to You Matter Nashville. I'm your host Jason Hoover along with my brilliant and beautiful wife, Mindy Hoover. Today we are honored to welcome Tiffany Mann, who is the elder care coach and community partnerships manager with Age Well Middle Tennessee. Tiffany, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you so much for having me today.

Absolutely. I'm excited to share, get everything started and find more out about you and what you do. But first I want to share a little bit about you here for our listeners. Says you play a key role in connecting older adults, caregivers and professionals with vital resources through programs like the directory of services, elder care coaching, reset financial empowerment and the Sage Awards. She's passionate about making sure families have the tools they need to navigate aging with dignity.

and she believes deeply in the power of integrational connections to enrich our lives.

Well, Tiffany, thank you so much for being on the show and we would love to know more about H12's mission and your role in the company and what all that you do to make it happen. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:47.458)

Well, I'm excited to be here and share with you. So Age Well is actually celebrating 40 years this year of being a local nonprofit here in Nashville. We really came out of an identified need out of the mayor's office at that time that there really needed to be a resource that older adults and eventually we started talking more about caregivers that caregivers could look to to connect with trusted resources and really just be a trusted resource. So.

celebrating 40 years and have really three key roles. One is to be a trusted resource in the community so that an older adult or caregiver can come to us and know that we are not selling anything. We're gonna give them all of the resources available and try to help them make an informed decision about what they're in need of. We also wanna be a catalyst for solutions to unmet needs. And basically that just means that we wanna be eyes and ears.

to listen and look for the needs of older adults and caregivers in our community and not just come up with the solution alone, but bring collaborators together who can help us come up with solutions to those needs. And then lastly, we wanna continue to be an advocate in our local community here in Nashville and Middle Tennessee, but also statewide to help in whatever area the older adults and caregivers might need advocating in. So we get to do those three things every day.

My role as elder care coach manager and over kind of community partnerships, my primary role as the elder care coach manager is to lead that program. So I know we're going to talk more about that, but essentially that is support for caregivers of older adults that they feel like they have a navigator to look to that can help them along their journey. In terms of community partnerships, I help partner and develop relationships with sponsors in our community who can help us produce

our directory of services, which is a resource guide for older adults and caregivers. So I get to do those two things, kind of sharing about Age Well in the community to hopefully gather, garner more sponsors for the directory, but also to ensure that those people that might be working with older adults or caregivers, or that just have friends and family that are in those two groups, know about the resources available.

Speaker 2 (04:08.556)

So explain a little bit about the resource guide.

Yeah, absolutely. I have one actually right here with me just for a visual for anybody watching today. is yeah, this is our book. This is our 2020, I'm sorry 2025-2026 edition. So this book was started even before Age Well started in 1985. It actually started at Fisk University.

by some graduate students, I believe, in the gerontology department. And I believe it was just a local resource guide at that time. Age Well serves 13 counties, so Davidson and Contiguous counties. And so it's developed into a much larger resource guide. But every two years since 1985, we update this resource guide. So it includes 16 chapters of really anything that an older adult or caregiver might need along their journey.

We produce it and publish it through as a nonprofit through partnering with sponsors in the community, businesses that might want an ad in the directory. And so that helps us produce the directory. then, so for 25, 26, we printed over 27,000 copies of the directory. So we keep some so that we can go to outreach events and take them with us. Our sponsors get some.

And then we actually place them at every public library in the 13 counties that we serve. So anyone listening today can go to their public library. They should have a copy. If they don't have any sitting out, ask about the directory of services. But like I said, it includes 16 chapters, everything from help at home to veteran services to where to find, if you're having food insecurity, where to find help with that.

Speaker 1 (05:57.23)

If you're an older adult looking for a job, where to go for that. And most of the chapters, if it is a business, let's say like in-home care, if it's a list of all the in-home care agencies in our community, we are only gonna list those that are licensed. If it's a list of assisted livings, we're only gonna list them if they're licensed. If it's an elder law attorney in our legal section, they're only listed if they are a certified elder law attorney. So people can really kind of...

rest assured that we're not just putting anybody and everybody in here. We're really vetting the resources we put in this guide. And then it also is available online. So anyone can go to agewelltn.org, our main website, and they can search the directory. Everything in this book is all online. So if you have somebody you want to email the resources to, maybe they don't want to flip through a book, they can do that as well. it really, I've been in the senior kind of care

caregiver support industry since 2010. And even back then when I wasn't working at Agewell, it was a resource that everybody knew about. it was, in talking with caregivers on the phone, it was something I wanted beside me so that I could connect them with the resources that they need. it's a really, I mean, it's something, there's no other printed resource guide in our area. And thankfully to...

Because we are the experts with local resources, we know kind of what to look for in other states in terms of, you know, certain resources. And so sometimes we will get calls from caregivers who maybe are here in Nashville, but maybe their loved one is in Florida or Kentucky, and we can direct them to resources in their area as well. Okay, great. Yeah. So it's branched out to other places and other metros as well, kind of for like if they're in Florida or whatever else.

All that's.

Speaker 1 (07:51.18)

The great thing about this is like, you don't know what you don't know. And you you only get old once and you don't know, you know, what resources are out there to help. And also a lot of these people, they never needed some of this help, like food, know, they had a full paycheck coming in and they saved for the retirement, but it just wasn't enough. So knowing that there are programs out there, you know, that are going to help direct them into fill those gaps is just incredible.

Yeah, and it was easy to pull up online because I did it while you were talking and it was just two clicks away and I like how you have all these different categories. So you got activities, education, employment, help at home, legal, transportation, so many different things. This is fantastic.

And they're all vetted because there's so many senior scams, you know, us in real estate. you know, we really work with our elderly clients, you know, on email scams for wire fraud and title fraud. And it's a real thing. So having those vetted people that they can feel like, OK, if I click this link, that's somebody that's been vetted and I don't have to worry about being scammed. So that's really important.

Yeah, and a lot of our material has even our QR code so you can essentially pull up the directory on your phone. So if you're sitting there with a loved one, you can search that way. One other thing I'll mention about Age Well is each month we put out a scam of the month email. whatever. So great. Yeah, we do research. We have some sponsors that help fund that and we research the latest scams that month, whether it's geared towards older adults or caregivers or both, and then we send out an email.

And so people can join our email list to get that, but they can also go to the age well tn.org website and they can read all of the past emails that went out just to educate themselves on scams to be aware of. And we go out in the community. My coworker, Paula, does a lot of our scam education. you know, different groups will have her out to just speak on scams to be aware of. But like you're saying, Mindy, education is our knowledge is power, like we know. And so.

Speaker 1 (10:03.234)

When you don't know, if we've never been along the caregiving journey or the aging journey with someone, you just don't know what you don't know. And that is part of why the directory is so helpful. And then of course our elder care coach program is so helpful to educate caregivers on that journey.

I love the fact that you can use your phone and pull this up and essentially it's free to them. Going back to the scams, you hear all these different types of scams. I'm sorry, when they are targeting the older age- Purposely. Purposely, yes.

purposely.

Speaker 1 (10:50.254)

It's another level of evil. I think it's like a top five of evil crimes that you can do against humanity is going after elderly when they have this limited amount of money. mean, and some even have, yeah. And some have a large amount of money. You know, we've heard of them losing everything because the touch of a button, it goes to one, two, 10, 20, 50, a hundred accounts by the time it's caught, it's offshore. And people don't understand that it's,

that quick that by the end of the day, your savings and everything that for your parents have earned is now overseas somewhere.

And here's my fear with AI coming or already here. You you're starting to hear that, you know, they can emulate voices and can even call them and say, you like it was me calling my mother, you know, so, you know, one of the things that I did see is, you know, if it has to do with money or something like that, have like a, a password so that you know,

That is them. I mean, unfortunately, I think that's where it's going to end up because you won't be able to distinguish.

I had the passcode for my kids. know, like if somebody, one of my dear friends had to pick up my kids unexpectedly, you know, my kids knew the code word and it happened a few times, but they're like, what's the code word? Like my kids were like serious about it. But having those little safety things as silly as they sound in place, you know, if you call grandma from jail and say, grandma, I need bail money. She's gonna be, what's the code word? They're like, I don't remember too bad.

Speaker 2 (12:29.998)

know, grandma's gonna say, well, you're sitting.

sitting there if you can't remember the code word. Well, I do see going to different like networking events and kind of educational opportunities to learn a lot. There's a lot more education just going on for professionals to be aware of scams so they can educate their clients. There's a lot of people talking about kind of what to be aware of. So but yeah, anyone can join our newsletter or go to our website and get up to date kind of info on what scams to be aware of.

or have us out to talk about them. Yeah.

Are there any preventatives or preventative measures other than just being aware of them that you guys recommend?

You know, there's a portion of our website that that shares more about kind of scam education. I would recommend anyone go there. That is not my total wheelhouse at Agedwell. But I do think there's, you know, I've heard different things about, you know, the passwords you create and kind of the the code words. And one thing I heard that really kind of resonated with me and I've remembered is just to encourage those in our lives to just

Speaker 1 (13:44.75)

pause, like don't react right away to what you're being asked to do or the situation that you're in, but pause for a minute and you know, ask yourself, does this make sense? You know, would so-and-so be calling me? Is there a different way? I've heard of scams around, you know, someone getting locked out of Facebook or social media and Googling how to get back in and what pops up first on the Google search is like a 1-800 number to call.

you know, and then they're asking for money. so just pausing to ask yourself to maybe check in with a loved one or a friend, hey, this is what's going on before you react. So I think that pause could be, could really help save some situations from getting out of hand. Yeah. Yeah. I know you said ams too. So I think just pausing and asking. Yeah.

I'll see you

Never seen them in person, never talked to them. And I think that just goes back to probably some of the issues around just isolation and loneliness in our older adult population and a lot of our groups, know, demographics. But so I think pausing is, this could help. Yeah. Now I know that's, like you said, not part of your specific wheelhouse that you're kind of head over. but if you would share a little bit about your background and

I like that pulse.

Speaker 1 (15:06.402)

What kind of led you to work for Age Well? I'd love to hear a little bit about that. Sure. Well, I have my master's in counseling from Western Kentucky University and got that kind of quickly after my bachelor's degree. Knew that I wanted to help people. Didn't really know probably enough about the difference between what a day in the life of a counselor versus like a social worker might look like. And since then, most of my roles have been more on the social work side.

still hearing about people's needs and concerns, but more on the side of helping them connect with resources, educating them, just being a supportive person to listen. So I'm from Kentucky and moved to Nashville in 2010. And actually the first kind of real job I got here was at the Alzheimer's Association. And I worked there for about eight years and really believe in what they do. It's a great organization.

And at that time, it didn't really kind of connect the two, but my grandmother had, my mom's mom had died with Alzheimer's disease back in 2007. And so when I got that job, you know, I just, I don't know that I thought right away, oh wow, grandmother had it. Now I'm helping people who are dealing with it, but I really think it was kind of a meant to be thing and really fell in love. I didn't know right away out of school what demographic.

what population I would enjoy working with most. But I definitely think I enjoy most working with older adults and their caregivers, but probably more the older adults. really enjoy older people. I just think they have so much wisdom to give and there's no, like it's a, well, sometimes it's a judgment free zone and they're just there to connect. And so I really enjoy.

that group. And so I continued after the Alzheimer's Association, I became a care manager. There's a group actually in the directory, what are called geriatric care managers. It's a certified role and you basically walk alongside families very closely in their journey with whatever their loved ones dealing with. So typically it is, there are geriatric care, well, there's care managers for other groups, but geriatric care management would be caring for an older person.

Speaker 1 (17:29.88)

typically was a really helpful resource for a long distance caregiver. So maybe I can't be eyes and ears on my loved one where they live, but I have this geriatric care manager who knows what to look for, who can make recommendations. And so I got to walk really closely with families for about four years in that role. Many of them had a diagnosis of some type of cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimer's. And then,

knew of Age Well all along because of the resources. And then when I left care management, about a year later, I came over to Age Well in 2023. So I just really, yeah, I like helping people. I recognize how tough the caregiving journey can be, especially with someone that might have a type of dementia. And I just think it's an honor to be able to connect people to resources they just, they don't even know about. There's so many resources that

you don't find out about unless you figure it out on your own and I hate that. And so I really, I really like connecting people with things that are gonna help their quality of life and their loved one's quality of life.

You mentioned Alzheimer's and we have two people that we know lost their wives here recently. And, you know, we were talking the other day and I know many has family that has dealt with that. And it's, it's heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking.

So many stages, so many stages the family has to walk through and just like when you finally get used to the normal, another stage is coming, you know. So we know you go through the frustrative stages and the in and out, the in between. so it's, I know it's been a journey for my family and some of our friends that have walked through it.

Speaker 2 (19:21.748)

And it's good to know that there's a, you guys have resources for people that are going through that.

Yeah, think it's good.

No, no, no, please go.

I was just going to say, I do think it's, I try to always say this at presentations I might give on caregiving, just that there can still be quality of life and, you know, positivity, joy, memories made in those situations. I do think one of the keys to those things is to reach out for support early in that journey. And like we're saying, learn the things you don't know about, connect with the resources that are going to be helpful.

find a support group, and I think all of those things can really help that experience be looked more in a positive light.

Speaker 2 (20:12.96)

Elder care coach. Yeah, I am curious to know more about that. Can you share some kind of what that looks like and what what is a typical day look like for for a coach?

Yeah, so Age Well, as I mentioned earlier, one of our key roles is to identify unmet needs. And one of the unmet needs we found is that when caregivers specifically, so our main phone number is our helpline. It's just our, we call it our helpline, but it's our main number. Anyone can call looking for resources, but we found and noticed about five years ago or probably even before that, that when caregivers called our helpline looking for the directory or a resource,

those calls would not be just five or 10 minutes. They would really turn into a 30 plus minute phone call where that caregiver really needed to tell their story. They needed to explain what was going on. They needed someone, like we're saying, to ask them questions to ensure they really knew about all the different pieces and parts of the journey. They needed to connect with resources. They needed emotional support. And really, like,

We call it, we could say elder care coach, but sometimes I'll say, you it's like a navigator. They needed someone to help them create an action plan for going forward so that they knew what to expect. They had a plan, they had priorities after that call of maybe calls they needed to make or decisions they needed to make. And so we developed elder care coach. So elder care coach is just one of the programs that age well.

The heart of it are 30 minute phone calls with a master's level social worker. So these are free. The caregiver schedules the call. They can schedule it on the eldercarecoach.org website, or they can call our main number, our helpline, and Sherry, who's our client services coordinator, will get them scheduled. And then they have that confidential phone call with Rebecca, typically. She's our primary elder care coach. She's a master's level social worker.

Speaker 1 (22:15.574)

And it just, like I said, gives them time to tell what's going on. Rebecca's gonna ask them questions about their journey. Have they thought about this? What are their plans for this? And then she's gonna connect them with resources. And like I said, in that call with hopefully more of a plan for them for going forward. Those are typically one-off calls, although caregivers are welcome to call back at any time to schedule another coaching call.

Typically that's maybe a several months down the road. Maybe they have their plan and as we were, you were saying Mindy, I think things change and then they might call back and schedule another call with a coach just to say, Hey, this is what's going on now. What do you think I should do? We say that elder care coach is not just calling for a resource, but it's also not care management. What I just explained where someone's walking with you regularly day in and day out, but it's kind of in the middle. It's where you can call.

speak with a professional, an expert, a navigator, and get a plan for going forward. Elder Care Coach is kind of three-pronged. It also includes in-person or virtual education on caregiving. And so any group can request that of us, whether it be a church. We also work with employers. I'll talk about that in a minute. But anyone can request that we come out and do a presentation on caregiving or a topic related to caregiving.

And then the third leg of, guess, Elder Care Coach is our website, eldercarecoach.org, where any caregiver can create a login and they can go there and watch webinars on caregiving. They can read tip sheets and different articles on caregiving. And one of the tools I really like is they can take assessments on caregiving. One is, and they're both about five minutes, one is called, it time to get help? And it helps assess.

with the caregiver the best level of care for their loved one? Because a lot of times that's usually one of the biggest questions. How do I know when to make a change in level of care? And so it kind of asks questions based on safety and quality of life. And then it kind of populates a report. And we also are getting ready to add another module called, it dementia? Which is about five minutes, takes about five minutes, but allows, kind of gives the caregiver some insight onto what might be going on with their loved one.

Speaker 1 (24:33.368)

doesn't take the place of a formal assessment, but can help maybe push in that direction. So there's lots of tools that are available to caregivers. As a nonprofit, we developed Eldercare Coach to be a social enterprise, that we would partner with, because we actually, we did research for Eldercare Coach before we ever designed it. And we went to where the average caregivers are today. So the average caregivers, these stats might be a

a little dated, but not too off. The average caregiver today is 49 years old, female, and working. And so we actually surveyed local employers who had caregiving employees, so workers that are not only working for this employer, but juggling caregiving. And we surveyed them to say, hey, what is it that you really need from your employer to feel supported? And they said information, so resources, expert guidance, so that navigator.

emotional support, whether it be a support group or employee resource group or just to talk to somebody. And then they needed to feel like they were in a caregiver friendly workplace. And that really translates anywhere. We want to feel like we're in a caregiver friendly church or, whatever. So that's really how we developed Eldercare Coach. So it is free to the general public, but we are trying to fund it ongoing through partnering with employers to make it a benefit.

for their caregiving employees. So just like they would purchase health insurance, dental, whatever, they would purchase a package of services from Age Well or Elder Care Coach to provide to show that they wanna support caregiving employees. And that's how we would continue funding it as a nonprofit. We also work with churches in this way, but right now we actually have a grant to partner with 15 churches in Middle Tennessee where we will come walk alongside them for a year.

providing the services of elder care coach to help them support their caregiving church members and the older adults in their congregation. So not just caregivers, but also the older adults. So, know, age 12 is a lot of- Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. I was gonna say, is there an area of need like for churches? Because I know you've already established some. So are there like areas you would really like to see churches helping them? Yeah, we have filled about

Speaker 1 (26:57.518)

five or six of those spots of the 15. I would love to get some churches in some of our outlying counties. Many of the churches we partner with so far have been in Davidson. So Williamson, Rutherford, Montgomery, Sumner, some of those bigger counties that surround Nashville, but we would still be open to more Nashville congregations. And it's any faith-based organization. And even with partnering with

several right now in Nashville. We know that people come in from all areas sometimes for their church or wherever they worship. So yeah, looking for more churches, anyone can reach out and I'd be happy to tell them about Elder Care Coach. See if it's a good fit. If it's not a good fit, we still are willing to go out to churches and provide a one-off kind of education program on caregiving or scams. Paul, my coworker, goes out to churches and does that.

and does that and just like little classes. love that. I just think it's really important for the church to step up to help with the elderly community. think that's a commandment for the church. so any way a church can get involved, I think it's just really important. I didn't want to back up and talk about like those tests and those checklists and everything just for personal experience. And everyone has a different opinion in a family. And so to kind of have this measurement of

All right, everyone, this is where grandma is and it's time for us to get an assessment, formal assessment with a doctor or this or that. I know when my grandmother started getting ill, I was the person who did not want an invasive, like grandma needs to go into a facility and she needs like, I may have thrown a fit because I did not want to see how bad grandma was.

I felt that she needed to have a caretaker in the house. She needed to stay. But that's just me protecting grandma. I think I'm the biggest advocate of grandma in our family. And they're like, Mindy, she's a fall hazard now. And I'm like, when you hear that, it's just hard. So seeing all those hardcore things with professionals saying, if you're at this point,

Speaker 1 (29:16.278)

it's time to have, you know, go to a more medium or more heavy intervention for your family member and kind of helps guide, probably helps keep the tension down. But yeah, it's things that people don't think about unless they've gone through it. Having that extra guidance of when, or I mean, people like, it's just grandma being forgetful and just keep on putting it off when it really, you know, I shouldn't just keep on saying grandma, grandpa's can be forgetful too.

Anybody could be your spouse, you know? Yes. we are all aging and yeah, I mean, it can be anyone. can be anyone. Yeah.

look a little funny here. We went to a concert last night. It was one from our childhood days and it was fun to look around and see how many gray hairs were in the audience.

Where'd they come from? I don't know. Just a 90s band.

I fit right in. I'm starting to come along pretty well here. But it was funny because I started imagining, I don't know if you did, I started looking at these ones because they're still just popping their fist and clapping and thinking about back was 31 years.

Speaker 1 (30:32.878)

or something like that. Yeah, we were listening to that band.

But the funny part, the funny part was halfway through the show, you saw all these groups of people sitting down. like, it was showing our age.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was like, it comes faster than you think. And so I'm like, am I going to be like that 80 year old couple that were adjacent to us last night that were just partying and dancing on? like, they were legit like, mean, good for them. They were, I mean, I mean, I was sitting in my chair halfway through. I had a long day, but I was just like, wow, know, ages, I guess.

perspective is different for everyone, it was just neat to see it just happens fast.

It does. When you start realizing, why is everybody older? then it dawns on you, you're one of them. That's not right. Anyway, turn it back here. One thing that I really, really, really wish that this was available when mom was going through this. She was the caregiver of her mother, my grandmother and her aunt. And I mean, she was just doing what she could.

Speaker 1 (31:25.132)

huh.

Speaker 1 (31:42.551)

End. Entering.

Speaker 2 (31:48.558)

And back then, know, it didn't have a whole, you know, the internet was a thing, but it wasn't like it is today. Yeah. And so it was such a challenge. And then she had legal aspects of, you know, the estates and everything. I love, I know this would take off so much stress off of caregivers because it's just like we said earlier, I mean, they don't know. I wouldn't, I wouldn't know.

Yeah, to me, this should be a part of elder care at the doctor's office that they're like, you know, it's just like when my, our daughter got diagnosed with type one diabetes, I mean, they had like a, well, back then JDRF packet, like, they will get in touch with you, please get in touch with them. They're going to help direct you to help you as a resource. And they were, and

But I wish that doctors would be so proactive. You know, it's like you're getting to the stage. You have a lot of questions. Here is a group that could really help facilitate, you know, the gaps and, you know, just the learning curve. And I'm sure you guys are all in that trying to make that happen. But man, it really more, there are more resources.

There are like the Alzheimer's Association did a lot, has over the years stepped up kind of more physician outreach. So trying to educate probably neurologists or geriatricians, groups that might be diagnosing that. There's also some new programs through Medicare called the guide program. I won't get in the weeds of all of it, but it's basically kind of wraparound services for anyone on traditional Medicare that's diagnosed with dementia. And it includes like a navigator, it includes respite care.

which just means a time of rest for the caregiver. And so part of calling Age Well, an elder care coach for a coaching session is that we are going to, if you haven't heard about any of some of these things from your doctor, you're gonna hear about them from us. I think anytime there's a chronic disease, it's so helpful, like you're mentioning, to reach out to kind of that association that's providing education, has research going on, kind of knows the most up-to-date information. So.

Speaker 1 (34:02.766)

One thing I also wanted to say, Mindy, you mentioned kind of, you know, with elder care coach, sometimes we will do coaching calls with multiple siblings involved because everybody kind of has and conference everybody in because everybody, you know, may want to listen and maybe they're not on the same page and they, you know, it'd be helpful for all of them to hear. And so we do do that. And we also educate that, you know, in terms of caregiving, they're, they're obviously do's and don'ts to that role. And

Out of good intentions, a lot of us will promise things, kind of like, will never move you. I will never hire this person to come in your home or whatever it may be. And so we say, we can't always promise those things because we don't know how their disease is going to progress. But we can promise that we will always ensure that you're safe and that you're getting your needs met. And so we try to educate caregivers that.

If you, you know, try your best not to promise those things, because you don't know how this is going to progress and affect you. Your loved one might end up needing 24 seven care. And now you're trying to do that at home alone. But you can promise to your best ability that you will try to ensure they're safe and that they have a good quality of life. But it's tough. It's a tough role. And again, there's good intentions, you know, we want to make our loved ones happy and, and feel help them to feel safe. And so sometimes we do promise those things.

I can also give you an example if you want of kind of a call that we got a while back. If that would help your listeners connect with the coaching. So as I mentioned, we partner with churches and this individual contacted me because her church is one of our partners. And so she reached out and she and her three siblings, so four of them are providing care to their parents here in the middle Tennessee area.

The parents are believe in their 80s. Her father is dealing with forgot what fit what if he's dealing with a chronic disease, but definitely having a lot of mobility needs. The mom has cognitive needs, but they're both wanting to stay at home and live out their lives in their home, which is also needing some physical repairs and just kind of maintenance to do that because they haven't wanted to move. So during that call, she's explaining to me that

Speaker 1 (36:26.176)

Now, one of her, they kind of rotate of the four siblings every single night. One of the siblings is staying the night at the parents' home to make sure they're getting their needs met. They did have a resource that was coming in during the day. think it was through possibly, we know Medicare does not pay for in-home care. I can't remember if it was paid for through a different group or not, but had daytime care. Each of the siblings took a night, but she said, know, they're

We want to go on vacations. We want to sleep in our own beds. And, you know, we aren't really sure how to get mom and dad to the point where they understand that this is just not doable anymore, feasible. And then with cognitive impairment with her mom, you know, is her mom going to understand that and what does her mom understand? And so through that call, we talked about DIM and show, we talked about.

some education available for her siblings because she had one sibling that really didn't buy into what her mom was dealing with and probably was buttonheads with her mom. so talked about, you know, how to get education on dementia and Alzheimer's. What are the resources maybe to have more care in the home financially to pay for that maybe overnight? What are the resources out in the community if they did need a plan B and did maybe that crisis situation came up?

and they needed to move one of the parents or both of them. then also there are some resources in the community that can help with repairs for older adults that they didn't know about, so that are free. that's kind of, know, every call is different, but that's just, that's a pretty good example, I think, of what caregivers are juggling. You know, all of those children, adult children worked. And so, and probably some of them had children themselves. And so we see that many caregivers are

There's an image I use on one of my PowerPoints, but this lady just juggling all these things, work, children, children's sports, know, things that keep them well, working out, going to church, you know, all the things. And so that's what we hope Eldercare Coach will be is that we can hear the story, give you other perspectives, connect you with resources and help you know that there is help out there. Cause I think just like anybody, when you're feeling a little hopeless to know that,

Speaker 1 (38:45.592)

there is a resource I can use. my gosh, that makes me already feel a little bit better. Yeah. What is your biggest ask? Your biggest question that you have? There's a, yeah. there's a lot of questions around just financial resources, respite care, you know, a break, you know, maybe the caregivers like, I'm going to keep doing this. I think I can do this, but I really need a break every once in a while. What are the resources out there?

Yeah, that's huge.

Speaker 1 (39:14.828)

to get that break. So sometimes respite, I notice just a lot of, they may not ask for this, but there's a lot of miseducation or uneducation about dementia. And so sometimes we have to help the caregiver understand how is it gonna progress? What are the needs gonna be in the future? Why is their loved one acting this way or saying these things?

And I think probably, like I mentioned earlier, just how do I know when I need to make a change, you know, in levels of care? We want ElderCare Coach to be a resource, not just if someone's in crisis, but also if the caregiver, maybe they don't even think of themselves as a caregiver yet, but they know they're approaching that role. We want them to call us and schedule a coaching session before they're in the trenches so that they kind of know what to expect. So a lot of education to

is needed on those calls on the levels of care and how do you pay for care? So a lot of misconceptions about, Medicare, my health insurance will pay to get someone in the home, a caregiver to be there while my loved one's there to make sure they're safe or that they have meals prepared or that they're supervised. Medicare does not pay for in-home care. Medicare does not pay if your loved one needs

Let's say your loved one does need to move out of their home into a higher level of care. Most of those higher levels of care, assisted living, memory care, most of, if not all of them are private pay. There's not an insurance unless you have long-term care insurance that might pay. So we have to educate a lot. It's it's very expensive. just heard another podcast I was listening to today was talking about,

I was just a care manager probably back in 2018 for about four years, so through 2022. And in-home care at that time, so when you're having a caregiver come in the home, you're paying them hourly, usually an agency to provide just supervision, support to your loved one. At that time was about probably $22 to $26 an hour on average.

Speaker 1 (41:34.286)

And today I heard a podcast that said, no, it's up now to about 30 to $35 an hour. And many of these agencies that provide in-home care have a four hour minimum. So sometimes we're educating caregivers on, okay, there's in-home care, it's private pay. You also have a service called adult daycare, adult day services, where you can take your loved ones somewhere and they can spend the day there.

do activities and be around other people. And typically that's a daily fee rather than an hourly fee. So maybe this would be more affordable. Maybe this daily fee is less than it would be for four hours of in-home care. So just a lot of education on what's available, what care is available, how do you pay for it, educating about Alzheimer's and dementia, the progression. Cause some people will say, my loved one has dementia, but not Alzheimer's. Well, there's, there's some,

Yeah.

They're not one in the same, but they kind of are. 70 % of the time if someone's diagnosed with dementia, it's due to Alzheimer's. And so we want people to know that so that they can plan for the future. If this is progressive and it's gonna get worse over time, I need to know what's to come. you know, sometimes we have to deliver kind of hard things, but we want people to know.

Yeah, on the, the in-home care, know my mom eventually had to have, like the four hours or it was part-time just to give some relief, because she was the main one. They lived next door. You know, they bought a house next door to my parents at the time and on purpose and both of them lived in it. And so she was a full-time caregiver and it was exhausting. but the good thing for me, just dropped me off at a ballpark. I'm good.

Speaker 1 (43:23.778)

Ballpark just lets you roam around there all day.

Give me a ticket to the ballpark. mean, you know, it's

I think it's helpful to tell. tell my husband now like, if I'm agitated, put me on a treadmill or take me for a walk because if I can't tell you what's wrong, walking is usually the best medicine. Give me a new puppy. That's all you got to do. There you go. Actually some therapy pets like dogs and cats that kind of mimic the real thing that have been really helpful for people with dementia. So.

not another one.

Speaker 2 (43:54.936)

We're dog lovers.

we Now you guys have all, you have different programs. Can you tell me a little bit about reset? Yes. Yeah. Resets one of, so elder care coach and reset are really our two main programs that we're talking about a lot in the community. I'm going to hopefully try to speak to reset as well as I can, but reset is an acronym that stands for raising economic security to enjoy thriving.

And that came out again out of an unmet need where we saw that older adults in middle Tennessee, specifically in Davidson County is where this program is available, are struggling financially, struggling with housing, struggling with having enough money each month to meet their needs. so Reset was developed out. It's a grant that we have. It's with several collaborators, several other nonprofits in the community.

Those are United Way, 50 Forward, Nashville Metro Action Commission, NeedLink, and the Tennessee Justice Center. And so this is a program with those providers that we are implementing. It's right now just for Davidson County residents 50 and older, but it includes several resources that they can get from the RESET program. So,

Those are, they can get a benefit eligibility screening application and renewal assistance. So what we know is that there are older adults in our community that qualify for Medicare savings plans, for food stamps, maybe for emergency utility assistance, but they don't know about it or maybe they didn't realize they qualified. So they can call AgedWell or any of our other

Speaker 1 (45:45.518)

partners in the community to find out what they qualify for. They can also get emergency rent and utility assistance. There are some programs that are doing that. One of the big things they can get is confidential one-on-one financial counseling. And then they can also get referrals to supplemental income opportunities. So if they are struggling, they're an older adult, there's only so many hours if they're receiving social security that they can work.

to keep getting that. We can point them in the direction to maybe supplemental jobs. So we are just one of the groups working on this, but it would be important, I think, for any resident 50 and older in Davidson County, if you are concerned or if you, know, financially are concerned, you're not having enough resources each month, you need some help, you want to see if there's something you qualify for that you didn't know about.

then reach out. And I will mention this because I think it's a really cool tool. If someone is not in Davidson County, I would say probably still 50 and older, our grant is through the National Council on Aging. The National Council on Aging's website has a tool there called a benefits checkup. Anyone, wherever you're at, can go and put in your information and it will tell you based on your demographics if there are possible benefits in your community financially that could help you.

that you might qualify for. So again, just another resource people you're not going to know about unless somebody tells you. so, so many people though, I don't know the exact, maybe on the reset website, but so many people from what I've heard qualify for benefits, but they're not getting them. Sometimes they're not getting them because maybe the stigma or they're embarrassed or they don't want to take something from someone else. But from what I understand, these benefits are available and you know,

if someone qualifies, why not reach out and get some support? I did ask our team who works on reset to share with me any recent kind of stories that they have heard about and that they've worked through with someone. And so I do have a story that I can share with you guys if you're interested.

Speaker 2 (48:02.058)

Yeah, absolutely. Real quick, what was the website again or the name of the services?

So the website to do the benefits checkup is the National Council on Aging. So I think it should be ncoa.org possibly and it's called a benefits checkup.

Okay, we'll add that to the show notes for everybody.

Okay, awesome.

Yeah. So, yeah, I'd to hear what story you have.

Speaker 1 (48:30.154)

Yeah, so this was about a female, I believe in Davidson County, 57 years old. I'm going to just use, I'm going to use a different name just to protect her in confidentiality. I'll just call her Sherry. So it said the kind of information I got from our team was that Sherry is navigating financial challenges while living alone with a disability. She's 57.

She described her experience with reset as transformative saying, allowed me to take a breath to exhale. It made me feel like I wasn't alone in the battle. She expressed deep gratitude for her financial counselor calling her amazing and emphasizing the importance of a judgment free space. She said, I felt financially isolated. She shared like I didn't have the courage to share how challenging it really was.

for the fear of judgment or my dignity taking a hit. Now preparing for her fourth session of financial counseling, Sherry said, having someone I can go to and share my full snapshot of my financial landscape and there being no judgment or condemnation has made a huge difference. Reset, said, has helped her regain a sense of dignity and shift from a surviving mindset to a thriving mindset.

So just kind of one of the examples of how connecting someone, know, even I think, let's see. So she received, to back from need link, which is one of our providers and the committee that we're working with, she received support of $225 for utilities support from need link. She received financial counseling, and then we were able to send her also some opportunities for supplemental income. So.

You know, even, you know, giving that's a lot of money, giving someone back 20 or 200 plus dollars in their bank account each month. So again, it doesn't hurt to call, but Reset is for adults right now, 15 older in Davidson County, but the benefits checkup on the National Council on Aging website is available to anyone.

Speaker 2 (50:42.35)

You know, um, I get the, uh, the, the, the, what, what she said, the, um, she was able to breathe because that anxiety builds up because you don't know what you don't know, but you know, you need help and not being able to reach out and be able to know that somebody's on your side. Somebody that knows what's going on is there to help you. You don't understand the relief until it actually happens. Now, you know, I'm not, I don't know her situation or, the,

you know, what we're talking about today. But I know with our kid, she was just a quick story. She was, gone on a work trip, when we had our son and I kid you not, every time she would leave, he got sick. but this one time he was running such a high fever and we lived in Texas at the time. And to make this as short as possible, it was getting bad. And I was in a whole different city trying to get him some help.

And it was like midnight or something. And you can imagine my anxiety. So I got a very sick kid here and they're saying, well, you need to go here or you need to go there. wasn't your typical ER where we lived. finally somebody came in and, and kind of took over. I'll tell you, I didn't even know I was so

Well, stress and anxiety built as soon as they came in, I just started crying. I mean, just broke down. like finally somebody and I'm not a crier. So that was huge. I'm not saying it's not good to cry. Please do.

Physical expression of the stress you were feeling.

Speaker 2 (52:25.354)

Yeah, it was. really was.

But every time I was gone, every time I was out of town, which is not very often. I was a teacher and I would go do CE credits or whatever. And of course I'm with a group of people. didn't have my own vehicle every time. That's stressful. Well, I think when you're talking about somebody's finances, that's such a, I mean, for most people it's a private thing and there can be shame. just if you don't, if you weren't taught how to manage a budget or you gotten yourself in a situation and you don't

You don't know how to get out of it and your resources to know that, um, United Way has the financial empowerment center. That's where you can get free financial counseling. So to know that you can go to someone and be like, this is just what it is. And they're not going to judge you. They're going to try to help you. I mean, I think, man, that's huge to know you have somebody you return to. Yeah. Yeah. And I know that the increase in taxes the past five years with the elderly population has been a huge burden, gigantic burden. know.

We've had people reach out, you know, having to sell their homes like in Davidson County because their pension and the little bit of money they had coming in, they can't spend another $200 a month on additional taxes. It's, know, I wish that there was an elderly freeze. I know it's a whole nother conversation, but for taxes for elderly, I think when you turn 65, it should not go up another dime because it is

just such a disservice to the people who have worked all these years and their pension is not growing faster, fast enough to keep up with all of these property taxes. Yeah. You'll have to Google though. do think in Davidson County there is a freeze available, but I don't know. It is and you have to apply every 12 months.

Speaker 2 (54:13.386)

Okay. And it's not just Davidson. know Williamson and there's some other ones around. A of people don't know that.

I'm better doing it as well. I don't know. there's a lot of even veterans resources to help with care that if you don't know, no one's told you, you're not going to, you know, you just don't know about them. So the directory can be great for that. almost, when I started, I went through every chapter of the resource guide to just learn kind of what was out there and what I didn't know. Yeah.

What kind of role does Volaterism play?

At Agile? Yes. So we are a small but mighty team. We have seven staff right now, one intern. So we do not, we definitely have a board of directors. Obviously we have ambassadors that are people that were on our board that roll off that still want to be involved because we don't do a lot of direct service and we don't have people kind of in and out of our space each day.

We don't always have a ton of volunteer opportunities available. There are different times throughout the year where we might do a mailing or something like that. But for the most part, most of our staff kind of takes care of kind of all the needs that we have. And definitely we're always looking for new board members and ambassadors and anyone in the community that has an interest in services for.

Speaker 1 (55:35.042)

the older population for those that are aging, for caregivers that wants to advocate, that wants to support us as a nonprofit, always looking for support there. Because as a nonprofit, and I mentioned this to you all kind of before we had today's call, but we only have one fundraiser each year, and that's our Sage Awards. And so we definitely rely on supporters, donors, people like that to help keep Age Well running.

So what does the Sage Awards do? What is it about? us a little bit about that evening. So the Sage Awards was first held, I was told, in 1991. And we have honored over 112 individuals and seven organizations in that time. So these are people that are, or businesses that are making a difference in...

any of our 13 counties that we serve. So older adults who have really lived out a life of service that have made a difference in their community. So every year we host the Sage Awards in the fall and that's where we honor, I believe this year we have four individuals and one business. You can go to our website at agewelltn.org and look at those honorees this year.

But we get sponsors. It's a luncheon where we honor each of those individuals. We share about what they've done in our community. We also honor one volunteer with Age Well who has just given of themselves a lot to our organization. It's called the Elizabeth Jacobs Award and that's named after our founder. And so we honor one volunteer and then those five to six individuals or businesses in our community who have made a difference.

So we're really excited this year. have a great lineup. Even one of our, I pulled it up. Where did it go? One of our honorees is Leland Statham with News Channel 5. And so he's one of our honorees this year. We have several others who have created programs for older adults or who have just been board members for different groups and just really given of themselves to make a difference in the lives of.

Speaker 1 (57:46.954)

older adults and in the lives of their community.

We have such a wonderful community.

It's really neat hearing the stories about these people and all that they have done. So this year's business that is getting the award is Abe's Garden. Abe's Garden is an assisted living, specifically memory care, but has really made it their goal to develop a research-based, kind of evidence-based program in caring for people with Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. So they're our organization this year, but then several other

awardees and anyone can buy a ticket to the Sage Awards and have you know ticket at the table or businesses can purchase a table or sponsor the event. So yeah that's coming up I believe in November. So and we call it the Sage Awards because Sage meaning a wise older person if you didn't know that. So yeah. Sage. Oh yeah. Over 60 I think is what my

Wonderful.

Speaker 2 (58:43.435)

I do not know that.

Look at me.

Speaker 1 (58:50.988)

what my boss calls it, Sage Oversits, know, older adults, 16 and older, who are making a difference still in their community.

That's awesome. love that. love, and that's a whole reason for this podcast is to love on those that are loving on others. Yeah. And, you know, that's great that you do that. So, before we wrap up, how can listeners support your mission? What can they do to help spread the word?

Yeah, well later this, if they choose so to be a financial sponsor, I was just going to mention that our donor later this month is Age Well Giving Day. It's on August 21st, so it's a whole day centered around a goal of fundraising for Age Well. That's one way, but they can also just, I think one of the biggest ways is just to tell people about us. If you have a family member

or friend or coworker or someone that is just needing support as a caregiver, make sure people know that this is a free resource they can reach out to. If you know someone that could use the directory, pick them one up at your local library. If you are interested in volunteering in some way, we definitely will look at opportunities for that. So feel free to reach out. We have an office space over in Green Hills in Nashville at Second Presbyterian Church.

So we have some space we rent from them. So we do have a physical office, but a lot of our staff are usually out in the community as well. But there's ways to help, whether it's financially or just letting people know about the resource. Perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:00:27.884)

Well, Tiffany, this has been an absolute pleasure.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

Absolutely. Thank you for what you do. Thank you for being the person that you are. We love what Agedwell is doing. We see the benefits of it. One way or another, I think it eventually impacts all of us. It's such an important resource. Like I said earlier, I wish my mom had this when she was going through all of it. I know she would have...

been a lot better off of getting the help and knowing and having those resources because it is challenging. but I'm, you know, I am, but we're all fortunate for people like you, people at age well for what you guys do. And, just thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you all. Yes. listeners, if you'd like to know more about the Directory of Services, Eldercare Coaching, Reset, or the Sage Awards, you're going to visit agewelltan.org and want a great resource for not just individuals, but family members that are just trying to navigate this time in life. So yeah, reach out to Age Well for help.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45.846)

Absolutely. Thank you for listening friends. And until next time, always remember that you matter.

Thank you for joining us on this episode of You Matter Nashville. We hope you found inspiration on this episode and are reminded that no matter where you are or what you do, you matter.

If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe, leave us a review, and even share it with your friends and family. Also, stay connected with us on social media and tune in next time for more incredible stories from the heart of our community.

Until then, remember, your story matters, your voice matters, and most of all, you matter.