One in a series of interviews focused on caregiving efforts and needs in Greater Rochester.
Bringing a loved one to the joy of years ago is what Touching Hearts at Home, a Rochester caregiving organization, makes its purpose for care recipients.
Companion care, a form of caregiving that focuses on building a relationship with the care recipient through meaningful outings and socialization, is the method for bringing this joy. This companionship caregiving is individualized, says Giovana Larmino, community outreach manager, and Jaqueline Lambert, Touching Hearts' executive director, in an interview with the Democrat and Chronicle.
Q: What services that your organization offers do you find to be the most utilized by the public?
Lambert: Primarily we offer the services of companion care, so sometimes people refer to those as home labor services.
It's more along the lines of a non-medical service where older adults are able to find themselves capable of remaining at home, avoiding any unnecessary hospitalizations, ensuring that they're having their meals, making sure that they are well hydrated, ensuring that they're taking their medications.
We can also assist with some chores around the home (and) following up with their providers for scheduled appointments so (care partners) could transport them to the doctor's appointments.
Essentially there's this cycle where older adults may find themselves back in the hospitals.
So, by having a companion care aide or care partner ensuring that those needs are being met and just as importantly, sharing that we are combating depression and isolation. Our service has to do with individually knowing who they are, what their special interests are and once we have all of that information in its totality, we create an individualized care plan.
Larmino: My main focus is what we’re doing out in the community...One of our biggest goals when it comes to caring for these individuals is ensuring their quality of life. We go in and complete these tasks while building lifelong relationships. You truly become a part of their family, which makes a very big difference in the way we're able to care for them.
Q: Do you feel like that is a major pull for your organization?
Larmino: I do, personally, yes.
Q: There are some people in the community who are acting as their family or loved one's caregiver but do not know that what they are doing is caregiving. How can embracing that identity empower them to utilize help, such as what your organization does?
Lambert: A lot of times if family members themselves are calling us directly, they're exhausted. They're talking about all of the things that they're doing for mom or dad and sometimes just having that initial recognition and identify it's a lot.
You've been providing a significant amount of care and they realize, yeah, I guess I have. How can we look at that as an opportunity for how can we not just support your loved one, but in doing so we will be supporting you as well?
Larmino: When people are coming to us, they're carrying a lot of guilt Family members will feel well, it's my job to take care of my loved ones, so I should be doing this and here I am failing because I'm so burned out. And now I need to ask for help. And people at the beginning might look at that as a failure, so to speak, which it absolutely is not.
When you're caring for your loved one, it hinders your relationship with them because you go from being their child to essentially almost acting as a parent all of a sudden. And that's not what your loved one wants and that's not what you want or need in your relationship. So, bringing individuals like us in now allows you to go and actually spend quality time with your loved one.
It's not just about making sure mom and dad are safe, but it's about getting their quality of life back and their quality relationship with their loved one back as well.
Q: As your organization continues to adapt to the growing needs of the community, what resources do you see as being the most important for the future of caregiving?
Larmino: One thing that's very important that we do pride ourselves on is the relationships we have out in the community, with individuals in the hospitals and rehabs, the skilled nursing. It's kind of an all-in-it-together vibe, meaning that we're all learning from each other and we are all working together.
So as the needs change, we are able to collaborate with others that can maybe do things that are outside of our scope, or they can educate us on something that they've been doing for years and now we're going to bring on board or vice versa.
Q: Are there any growing societal needs in caregiving, not necessarily just Rochester, that you feel would be impactful to move towards for the future of caregiving?
Larmino: One, is that Baby Boomers are starting to age up and they are not going to want the care that their parents had, that their grandparents had. So the quality-of-life piece that we really, really try to target while caring for these people is ... to speak their language. The Baby Boomers are going to want to still live their life. They are still going to want to be out and active, as active as possible. So that's going to be something that organizations like ours are going to have to continue to keep up with and ensure that you have the staff to keep up with them.
Also, mental health is huge. In the past, it has not really been addressed at the older adult level. Instead of misunderstanding it as something that's coming along with aging, maybe it's a piece that has been part of their life forever, and now we can address it and help.
Lambert: When I talk about an individualized care plan, it's getting a sense of what would bring them joy, even if now they are no longer able to do the things that brought them joy years ago. If they have limitations, we can still bring them to whatever they found meaningful to them. Those are the pieces that I think we tackle right from the very beginning.
I guess the best way to summarize that is celebration. We look for every opportunity we can to celebrate older adults and we want to share that with their families. Sometimes the families seem genuinely, pleasantly surprised.
Q: How much growth has there been in use of your services? With an ever-aging population, how are services going to keep up with the growing needs?
Larmino: We have about 150 care -- we call our caregivers care partners. We are very well equipped to be able to continue helping the community. As the community ages, we're living longer, but people are also staying in their homes longer, which we are seeing meaning that there's even more people who need our help. We have been around for almost 20 years.
Q: Can you give an example of that growth?
Larmino: We measure our growth by hours. As of a couple years ago, we were averaging around 8,000 hours a month and now we are averaging closer to 12,500. A year and a half ago we only had about, I would say 110 caregivers and now we have about 150.
Q: How would you say helping others has impacted you personally or some of the things that you have done in your line of work, in your own personal life what has changed, what are things that you learned about yourself?
Lambert: I can tell you that even when we're meeting with newer employees, we expressed it in to enjoy the time that they have at each session, at each shift, when they're with an older adult and listen and learn from them and you will have a completely different and genuine appreciation for what they've never considered before. Hear their stories. And I think if you take that with you, you will have an overall different perspective on the older adult population.
Larmino: I would say for me, I always joke saying I grew up in senior living and senior care. From a very young age, I had family that lived in a senior living community and starting at the age of four, we visited anywhere from two to three times a week all the way up until I went to college. I could not imagine working in any other industry, not just a matter of the life knowledge that you learn working with these individuals but just realizing that you're making a significant difference in someone's life is priceless.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: D&C caregiving interview | 'It's kind of an all-in-it-together vibe'
