On this week’s episode of Money, I’m Home, Lynne is joined by Milestone Senior Services CEO Richard Kline and Consumers’ Vice President of Marketing Betsy Loeks to discuss the organizations deep partnership in support of aging people.

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0:00:06.9 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson, with Consumers Credit Union, from finance to fitness. We have it all. And today, we have such a special show for you, it really focuses on partnership, but also on making sure that people are well in their homes as they grow older. One of my dear friends, Richard Kline is here. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Milestone Senior Services here in the West Michigan market. Thank you so much for joining us.

0:00:37.6 Richard Kline (RK): Thank you, Lynne.

0:00:38.0 LJJ: And we also have Betsy Loeks, I get to work with her every day. She is the Vice President of Marketing here at Consumers Credit Union. And you know something, we have built such an awesome partnership here at Consumers with Milestones, and what has happened and what is transforming in the older adult population is incredible. Now, we know for a fact that Baby Boomers have now become the largest group, and what does that mean? I’m right at the cusp, so I am at the age where I am still considered a Baby Boomer, older adult, and I’ll tell you, life really does change when all of a sudden you start to age. But our organization that we have here in West Michigan is amazing. Richard, tell us about it.

0:01:24.7 RK: Thank you for asking. The first thing we’re very proud of is that we’ve been serving the community for 60 years this year, we started out very humbly from a church parishioner, delivering meals to seniors in her congregation that were isolated, she knew they needed some support and some meals. So, she would deliver meals out to her fellow parishioners, and that’s how we started, and we’ve built it up to over 23 programs, and it’s really… Our mission is designed, these programs are designed to keep people safe in their homes, creating a really high quality of life for them, and most importantly, choice, so they don’t have to choose an institution and not have any other options.

0:02:08.0 LJJ: We’re really going to talk about how houses can be adapted and why you are doing this and how important it is, Betsy I want to ask you though first, a little bit about Consumers’ partnership with Milestone, I know that you are serving as a volunteer, but also our own consumers team members, we volunteer weekly.

0:02:25.4 Betsy Loeks (BL): Yeah, I’m lucky to help Milestones as a board member and volunteer my time there, but as Lynne mentioned, we as a Consumer’s team get to volunteer weekly with the Meals On Wheels program, so we have a person who signs up every week through a coordinator and they get to hop out and actually deliver the meals to the people, which is really fulfilling. Consumers is very mission-oriented in helping the serving the community, we’re also supporting capital campaign, but additionally, that’s different to actually see and greet the people. You’re having the connection with I think is nice.

0:02:58.6 RK: Absolutely.

0:02:58.6 LJJ: What is important is we hear about senior citizens and older adults who really want to stay in their home, they want to age in place. It’s not easy sometimes.

0:03:09.2 RK: Well, we do a variety of things. So, as you age, you lose your friends, sometimes you lose your family, you find yourself isolated, as you mentioned, change, that change is slow, it’s subtle, all of a sudden you’re not getting out to shop, you’re not getting out… You’re not making meals, you’re not getting the nutrition you need, you’re not getting the exercise you need, you’re declining, and what our services do is we come around that and support you in that process. And it’s an inevitable process. Everybody does it a little bit differently, it’s never a one-size-fits-all, but we’re well equipped to assess each individual and what their needs are and help put in place what they need to stay in their homes.

0:03:52.8 LJJ: Now, as someone decides, “Okay, this is what I really need, I need to stay in the place that I feel, A the most comfortable and safe.” when you look at things like, okay, I’m just going to take an example of you wake up in the morning and you’re older and you stand up and… Okay, this does happen to me right now, and all of a sudden something is different, like my leg doesn’t move as fast as it did, or maybe my balance might be off a little bit, that is absolutely normal in aging, but what you’re saying is, look at there are things we can do in the homes that you’re doing right now for older adults.

0:04:33.1 RK: So today, I’d like to focus on our Home Safety modification program, and that is where we can come into a home and assess whatever safety needs are there, it could be a loose floor board or rug that needs to be tacked down or it could be an electrical issue, it could be an accessibility issue with a wheelchair ramp. There’s just a variety of things in your home that could be low-cost or no-cost, that are going to keep people from primarily falling or having any other accidents.

0:05:04.6 LJJ: Falling is really something that needs to be highlighted.

0:05:08.7 RK: It does, and really to make the point, and it’s not my point, these are some statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, and it’s focusing on adults over 65. And from falls alone, there are 36,000 deaths a year. Emergency Departments record three million visits costing $50 billion. And you mentioned the silver tsunami, the aging wave of Boomers, it’s going to double that by 2030 to $101 billion, and if you do the math, that’s only seven years away, so that’s really to double from falls. And the injury from falls is the leading cause of death in folks that are 65 and older.

0:06:00.8 LJJ: It leads into perhaps a hospital stay that then leads into maybe other health issues.

0:06:05.1 RK: That’s correct, we talked about 36 million falls are reported a year, so it’s not hard math to do, and falls aren’t a normal part of the aging process. You can protect yourself, you do the exercise, you get the proper nutrition, and you do the home safety assessments and make sure your environment is safe, it could be lighting, lighting on steps, and sometimes you’ve lived in this home for 40 years, you don’t see those things anymore. So, it’s great to have somebody come in a second set of eyes and look for those things like, “Oh my gosh, how do you get up and down the steps in your garage when the lights burned out and there’s no lighting?”

0:06:49.4 LJJ: Then you don’t think about it. Right? It’s just there.

0:06:51.5 RK: It’s just, well, you’ve done it, when you’re younger it’s no big deal. You can take those steps two at a time. [chuckle] But as you age, it’s just inevitable that that decline is there. That change is there.

0:07:05.2 LJJ: I do like the point that you’re talking though about, there are things not only to have you come in, but also the stretching and balance coordination for older adults is really important too.

0:07:16.7 RK: And I’ll stay on that point for a minute, Lynne. From the CDC, this isn’t from us, but from the CDC talking about falls being preventable, being pro proactive, part of their three-step process, you can find this on their website, is to speak up and talk with your doctor. Call people that can help you. The second thing you can do is stay active from the CDC. That kind of makes a lot of sense. And the third thing is make your home safe. And we just talked about that.

0:07:46.5 LJJ: Betsy, you are on the board and you were talking before we actually started taping about learning things that happened in your own family that you hadn’t thought about.

0:07:55.3 BL: Yeah. My father had a stroke early at 60, but he had to use a cane and eventually a walker before he passed. And it was really eye-opening as a young 20-year-old to see, oh, we have to now make a modified step in our garage for him to put the walker down there had to be grab bars added to the bathroom. And we had friends and family that could help us do that because I wasn’t installing those. My dad did those things and now he’s the one affected by this. But what a great resource to have Milestones here as a resource to call and say, “Hey, we’ve got this going on. How can you step in and assist?” And what a great service for folks who need that.

0:08:33.9 RK: And family is such a blessing for that support. But not everybody has that family or that neighbor who has that eye out. So, I just encourage people to be proactive. Think about that. Give us a call. And, again, these compared to that hundred billion dollars of cost and the cost to your quality of life. If you fall and break a hip, you’re out for three to six months and that’s precious time wasted that, for a $20 grab bar could have easily been avoided or that inexpensive light that you installed.

0:09:11.3 LJJ: Richard, I know that you have just finished a beautiful remodel over at Milestone Senior Services, and you’re offering the programs you had mentioned which are multiple. How can people reach out and ask questions? And perhaps it’s caregivers it could be children of parents.

0:09:30.8 RK: Absolutely. Yeah. I think our website is probably the easiest way to initially look at the variety of services that we offer. But you can particularly look deeper into each program on our website. It’s www.milestoneseniorservices.org.

0:09:51.5 LJJ: Well, I can’t thank you both enough. What a great opportunity to spread awareness about the fact that we really can make a difference, one home at a time.

0:10:01.1 RK: What we’re finding, Lynne, is the community partnerships are making all the difference. And I can’t thank Consumers Credit Union enough for the weekly volunteering, the board volunteering, sharing your time and talent with a lot of your staff who come and help with meal deliveries every week. And really reach out and touch people in the community. And it’s if we just can’t be as effective as we can be as an organization without our community partners and it really gives us a lift.

0:10:31.1 LJJ: Well, and I’ll tell you, there’s not a single team member that doesn’t feel the same way back at you, Richard. So thank you.

0:10:37.3 RK: Thank you.

0:10:38.4 LJJ: Betsy. Thank you so much.

0:10:40.8 BL: Thanks.

0:10:40.9 LJJ: Thank you for watching and listening today. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson. I’d like to thank Jake Esselink for his production skills. And I’ll tell you what, if you have a need in your home or you just have a question, reach out to Milestone Senior Services. It is absolutely a life-changing call that you might make. Thanks so much for listening today.

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