Dana Serrano: Good afternoon. I’m here with Candy Con. She is one of our fantastic senior adviserss from Oasis Senior Advisor. Welcome, Candy. How are you today?

Candy Cohn: Thank you. It’s nice to be here. I’m doing great.

Dana Serrano: Fantastic. I wanted to take the opportunity today to highlight what you do. Um our a lot of our patients and families have a lot of inquiries about what happens as we age in place in the home. What happens when our loved ones, ourselves included, might be ready for the next step to go into either independent living, assisted living and memory care, there’s a lot of fear regarding how that might look. There’s sometimes a lot of guilt and and there’s always that feeling of how much is this going to cost. So, if you can just give us a little bit of a rundown of what this looks like, and I think we’ll go from there.

Candy Cohn: Okay. So, it’s often hard to figure out what when is the right time to look into senior living, assisted living, memory care. I think sooner that rather than later is is the best answer because it’s best to be informed so that if things start to progress more rapidly than you anticipate, you’ll be ready. You know, I I always advise people don’t wait for the crisis to do the research. So, the first step is to call me and my services are free. You know, I like to tell people I’m kind of like a cross between a social worker and a realtor. I’m I’m not either one. I am a certified senior advisor, but the analogy, you know, the social work piece, I meet with the family. I find out what’s going on with their loved one, what their needs are for care, what their budget is. I try to even get to know the person a little bit. You know, I like to meet them in their home if they’re at home so I can see how they live and learn a little bit about their history, what they like to do and all of that. And then I kind of put on the realtor hat and I give send them information or show them information if I’m with them in person about different assisted living communities that might fit their needs. And then I schedule tours. I discuss with them. I, you know, I’ll give them maybe like eight places to look at the websites and the information. And then we narrow it down to about three. And I go with them on the tours. I’m their advocate throughout the process. And then I get paid like a realtor. I get paid a commission by the assisted living when I move someone in. So it doesn’t cost the client anything to work with me. And I give them a lot of my time and really hold their hand throughout the process.

Dana Serrano: Fantastic. That’s great to know. So if if we have patients, families, clients that are interested in inquiring and really taking the next step, what is the geography that you serve?

Candy Cohn: Well, I own a franchise. I own the South Florida territory of Oasis Senior Adviserss and that is comprised of Broward County, which is Fort Lauderdale in that area, and then Palm Beach County, and I go up as far north as Palm Beach Gardens. And then there is another Oasis franchise owner who owns uh Jupiter to Vero Beach and I can always transfer to other Oasis people too. So we can really cover anyone anywhere in the country.

Dana Serrano: Okay. Fantastic. And are you familiar with situations where perhaps one spouse needs to go to a memory care and another may be independent or assisted living and how does that typically work for you? How do you navigate that?

Candy Cohn: So I’m very familiar with that. Um, in fact, I got into this business because I had to move my own parents to assisted living 15 years ago. My mother was totally independent. My father needed assistance at that point. So, I was able to move them together to assisted living and he could get the care that he needed, but they could still be together, go to meals together, activities.
And so, that’s with assisted living. Now, let’s say there’s a couple like that and one of them needs memory care. Then they would need to be separated, but they could be in the same community. So, there are lots of senior living communities where on the same campus there’s independent living, assisted living, and then memory care. Memory care is always a separate secure building so that the person with dementia can’t wander off. And that’s one of the big reasons, one of the differentiators where someone can live in assisted living with, you know, a decent amount of dementia, they would just be a higher level of care. But if they get to the point where they’re wandering off, then they they must be in the secure unit. So they’re not in a danger to themselves or anyone else. Um, but the other things are, you know, if someone wakes up totally confused and has no idea about anything, then they’re going to need to be in memory care as well. Uh and and in memory care, they are usually in a studio. Uh you know, it’s a studio apartment, but it’s it’s kind of small, limited. It might have a little kitchenet area and a separate bathroom. And then the idea is not to have them stay in their apartment all day. So the caregivers come in, they get them dressed, bathe, bring them out to breakfast, and then they’re out in a common area doing activities that are designed to stimulate their brain specifically for people with dementia. And the caregivers are all very well trained in working with people with dementia. And then so that would be the spouse that has dementia. And then the other spouse would live in the other section of the building that would be independent or assisted. And then they can they would have their own apartment and they would have a bigger kitchenet usually and certainly you know more independence as far as coming and going whenever they want and they can come visit and even eat meals with their loved one in memory care. So they can really be together. They’re just not going to live in the same apartment. It’s not healthy for someone who does not have dementia to live in memory care. You know people ask me that a lot and I I tell them no you don’t want to do that. you know that that would be bad.

Dana Serrano: Understood. Okay. Fantastic. So that initial consultation that you provide, what sort of criteria are you looking at to make sure that before you start, you know, whittling it down to the aid and then the three facilities that would make sure that it’s a it’s a good fit. What what are you really what sort of information are you gathering from the family to to make that decision as to the next step?

Candy Cohn: So first thing I ask is what prompted you to call me? Um certainly if they were referred by a professional then I usually have a little information as to why that referral was made. Um I want to know what are they looking for and envisioning in a community. If it’s assisted living, you know, if it’s memory care, it’s a little different. They’re not usually envisioning much. They don’t know what it even is all about. And I just want to clarify, these are not nursing homes. These are not and we don’t even call them facilities. We call them communities. They’re assisted living. assisted living or assisted living memory care that’s still part of under the assisted living lensure and so you know one of the main things I need to find out is what kind of care do they need and what is their mobility like so they don’t need to be able to be to walk completely on their own or anything but let’s say they’re in a wheelchair and they need to be transferred from the wheelchair to the bed or to a chair they have to be able to put their feet on the ground with one or two caregivers helping them to transfer and they have to be able to put their feet on the ground, stand up with the caregivers helping them and then pivot to get from the chair to the bed. If they require a hoyer lift to move them, their legs are totally dead weight, then they must be in a skilled nursing facility in Florida. So the regulations are different in every state, but in Florida that you cannot use a Hoyer lift in any assisted living, but you can get a twoperson assist in um assisted living communities that have a higher level of lensure. So again, this is a state thing. So in Florida, there’s standard license, limited nursing service license, and extended congregate care license. So the limited nursing service and extended congregate care can sometimes do the higher levels of care such as a twoperson assist catheter managing a catheter giving injections but a standard licensed community can’t do that. So that’s you know I need to understand what kind of care they need so I can start to find the right the place that can provide that care.

Dana Serrano: Okay. No, that’s that’s great. And actually you made a great point that these are not facilities. These are communities and it’s it’s interesting because you know 10 15 years ago that is what just kind of rolls off your tongue. That’s what we call them. But I I’ve worked in these communities as as a physical therapist and our staff does go into these communities to transition with the families to make sure that the staff there is aware of what their needs are as well. And they are really communities. They they feel a lot of them feel like resort living. Some of them feel like you’re on a cruise ship. There’s happy hour. So this this construct in our mind of what’s coming, this institutionalized sort of living, it really is a thing of the past. So I I love that you pointed that out and I’m I’m actually going to be much more conscientious now going forward to think about the language I’m using because it it truly is it it truly is a community. It’s really changed. It’s only it’s only getting better. It’s only improving. And I I love that we know the difference between the two. So I know you have your criteria and then I would assume that once you have a few places perhaps that you whittle down that would be these communities themselves that would do their own assessment of of the patient and family. Would that be the next step once that happens?

Candy Cohn: Right. So the next step would be that I would take the family member on a tour and you know sometimes it’s just the adult child, sometimes we bring the loved one or you know might be a spouse of the person that needs to move. Um, so anyway, we go on the tours, I go with them or my partner Jack goes with them, and then once they pick a community, the nurse, the director of nursing at that community will do an assessment on the person who’s moving in. And then they determine first of all, can they be in assisted living or do they need memory care? And then what the level of care will be. And there’s usually a set a separate price for room and board which includes three meals a day, weekly housekeeping, laundry, uh check they check in on people that’s included, you know, automatically in assisted living. But then on top of that, there’s the level of care. So that would be a separate price depending on how much care they need. Do they need help dressing, bathing? If they’re in memory care, they’re definitely going to need medication management. If they’re in assisted, they might need that. or maybe they can manage their own. So those are like the first kinds of things that happen for level of care. Then someone might need help actually getting to the meals or they might just need prompting. They might need someone to knock on the door and say, “Hey, it’s time for dinner.” You know, and sometimes they only need that in the beginning or to take them to an activity or things like that. So that’s those are the things that are assessed and determined before the person moves in and then they get reassessed, you know, after 30 days because they might get better, they might get worse, you know, it all changes and and people with dementia often get worse at first. You know, they’re going to be disoriented, but then sometimes they settle in. And I’ve even had one person move from memory care over to assisted living because after a while she started improving so much.

Dana Serrano: Wow. So yeah. Oh, no. That’s a great point. I I think that the initial couple of weeks is always the hardest. So, I think it’s great. I actually did not know they did a reassessment after a month. That’s fantastic. There is definitely uh a lot to be examined, especially if somebody was living at home for a long time and maybe shouldn’t have. And there is that improvement sometimes after that initial letting the dust settle. So, I really do hear that there are more benefits than than anything else. And if we have a lot of patients, which we do, that are in that gray area, we come in, we really are coming in as crisis preventtors. We we don’t want to wait until there’s a crisis management situation where things have gotten to a point where there’s no other option. And and I do find that a lot of patients and family, the family members, the caregivers really almost feel better to wait until there’s a crisis because then they’ll say, you see, I have no choice and I I can kind of live without guilt and this is this we had to do this. However, I I always recommend and and you know, correct me if I’m wrong, that to have that consultation with you, even if we’re in that gray area, there’s no crisis, but there’s a lot of things brewing is is going to bring some clarity. And then even if they’re not quite ready to go forward at that moment, 3 months, 3 years, whatever the case is down the line, you know, you’ve been doing this a long time, Candy, and and I think that, you know, having that connection with you and knowing, okay, we’re going to call Candy and see what the next step might be at this time. Um, I think that’s

Candy Cohn: I really really emphasize don’t wait for the crisis. You know, it’s not the way to do it. And sometimes you have to get on a wait list. So I have a client right now who is in that position. and it’s she’s the spouse and um she feels really guilty moving her husband to memory care, but she’s also getting burnt out. I mean, she’s really really struggling with this, but she had to get on a wait list cuz the two commu two communities I took her to that she liked, they both have a weight list, so it could take a couple months. And um you know, and I tell people most, you know, the average person is not trained to care for someone with dementia. you know, even if you take a class or go to a support group, I and I highly recommend they do that. But still, the the people in the memory care or in even in the assisted living, they’re trained to deal with these issues. And you want to come in as the loved one. You don’t want to be changing the diaper. You don’t want to be doing that. You want to still be the loved one.

Dana Serrano: Absolutely. No, that’s that’s so well said. If there’s one message you can give people who are considering the idea of exploring this opportunity next in their life or for their loved one, what would you advise them?

Candy Cohn: Again, don’t wait for the crisis. You know, call me or call someone, you know, in the profession who can give you guidance. Even go see a place. Then you’ll you’ll feel a little better because I think you’ll be surprised how nice some of these places are and to see the care that people can get. And it’s important to use a professional because what you read on the websites and what the salespeople tell you is not everything. You know, I know I know the ins and outs of these places and how the owners might have changed, the administrators might have changed and I and I get feedback from my clients so I know what it’s like.

Dana Serrano: Absolutely. Candy, thank you so much. I think this really sheds a lot of light on the opportunity to take the next steps with families and really mitigate some of that fear that people have. So, thank you so much for everything that you do. Thank you for clarifying today and I hope you have a wonderful day.

Candy Cohn: Thank you. Thanks for having me.