Join Doug Bryant In this episode of Certify It, as he sits down with Dottie Lyvers, director at the CAC Office on Aging, to talk about the impactful work of the Office on Aging and the growing need for resources for aging adults. Dottie highlights the challenges and needs created by a growing senior population, from aging in place to preventing elder abuse.

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Intro

You're listening to Certify It the podcast for advancing your career in care. Powered by the Mason Center for Health Care Education. Hear news, updates, and discussions from thought leaders in health care around advancing your career through continuing education. Now, here's your host, Doug Bryant from the Mason Center.

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00:17 - 00:34

Doug Bryant

Welcome to Certify It the podcast for advancing your career and care. My name is Doug Bryant, and I am here with the Mason Center for Health Care Education and my guest today. I'm super excited about this is Dottie Lyvers, the director of CAC Office on Aging here in Knox County. Thank you so much for being here.

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00:34 - 00:36

Dottie Lyvers

Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.

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00:36 - 01:06

Doug Bryant

So we wanted to talk a little bit about you and get some of your knowledge about the senior population in Knox County and the things that we're seeing in this county, in that age group. And some ways that maybe the Mason Center for Health Care Education might be able to help support that, or ways that we've already been able to help support some of the initiatives. So for our listeners, this may be the first time they've heard about CHC Office on Aging. Tell us a little bit about what you all do, the programs you offer, and what your function is there.

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01:06 - 01:51

Dottie Lyvers

Sure. So at the CAC Office on Aging, our focus area is primarily residents living in Knox County, although we do stretch beyond that for some of our programs. And we have more than 20 programs and services that serve the community, from everything from helping people in the home who might need that type of assistance to people who may be looking for volunteer opportunity, looking for employment as they go through their more mature years of life, and also looking at things like attending and, oh, the O'Connor center for Recreation and Socialization. So it's the gamut of different programs that help, no matter where somebody is along their aging journey.

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01:51 - 02:06

Doug Bryant

Okay, so you probably are seeing the same thing that everyone else is seeing and that work in senior care. Are you all seeing a much higher demand for those services as the population ages? Are you seeing a boom? And in that population here in Knox County?

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02:06 - 03:31

Dottie Lyvers

Definitely. It is growing every day. Nationally, there's 10,000 people turning 65 every day from our baby boomer generation. So we've got, if you think about that here in Knox County specifically, several people are moving that way. We have people retiring here in Tennessee, so that's also helping that to grow. Currently it's probably higher than this now with statistics, but it's around 110,000 individuals 60 and older that live in Knox County, and about 20% of them live alone. So you're looking at a large number of people who may have different needs as they age, may or may not have family or friends nearby to help them through that journey.

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We have definitely seen that, you know, years ago, we called it the Silver Tsunami, where we were going to be here serving older adults, where we've been there, as have you all as well, and just trying to to meet that demand. We have noticed a large increase in the past few years and more complex needs also, and probably over the last 2 to 3 years as well, which I think speaks to people not only aging but living longer and maybe having some increased needs sometimes as a result of that too.

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03:32 - 03:36

Doug Bryant

That living longer is a good thing. It is all the things that come with that can sometimes be.

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03:36 - 03:50

Dottie Lyvers

Possibly. Yes. It's not always a given, right? It's not always a given that just because you age, you have X, Y and Z, need. But certainly sometimes those, those can come in with different challenges.

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03:50 - 04:22

Doug Bryant

So a lot of, some of the buzzwords that we always hear is aging in place, which, you know, with your ALS home care caregiver initiative, that's I'm sure that's one of the the priorities is, is helping people stay as independent as possible in their homes as long as possible. So what are you all seeing on the caregiver front? Is there a high demand for those right now? Is, you know, what is a way that the community could get involved in that aspect? 20% living alone is a lot of people.

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04:22 - 05:44

Dottie Lyvers

Yes, it definitely is. And that may be they're living alone, but it doesn't mean they're alone. Some are isolated. Some individuals have social isolation. Need that interaction that they might get from a caregiver or someone else. I think that what we are seeing a lot is an increased need for that, an increased need for services. And sometimes people don't know that those exist or they think that different insurance will cover those or something like that. And just they're trying to navigate all of those systems. A lot of what we do is people can call us and we help them to kind of navigate what those resources are and connect them to things if they need a caregiver, if they need a local senior center or a local doctor or something, we can help connect them to that, depending on kind of where they are.

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But yes, I think there's an ever increasing need for people taking care of others and quality individuals as well. That's what we hear. And when somebody finds that quality caregiver, they never want to let them go because it's really beneficial, to, to their loved ones or to them as they, as they move through that journey.

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05:44 - 06:05

Doug Bryant

So one of the things that we had been able to help the Office on Aging with not too long ago, when it comes to the education space, was what we like to refer to as the pain project that preventing abuse neglect in the elderly, from helping you all with a grant that you want to actually receive to be able to do that. Talk a little bit about that program and what we were able to do with that.

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06:05 - 07:22

Dottie Lyvers

Yes. And we really appreciate our partnership. over probably a  2 year span, I believe, where we work together to educate on elder abuse, elder abuse prevention specific to those who are caring for individuals either in the home or in a long term care facility. So I think that is something that, you know, people don't talk enough about.

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We talk a lot about child abuse. That's more, I would say well known, unfortunately. But elder abuse, there's for every one case in Knox County that's reported. There's 23 that go unreported. So doing training on that and helping people to understand how to prevent it, how to be aware of it, to also, identify when you are seeing it. And there's different types of abuse. So I know through that opportunity we were able to connect with a number of individuals with you all and partner in teaching them to really know how to identify all the signs physical abuse, sexual abuse, financial abuse. There are several different forms that individuals can be susceptible to and vulnerable individuals.

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07:22 - 07:38

Doug Bryant

Yeah. And even though the grant ended, we were able to take some of those materials that were still left over and we're still continuing to educate that today to our own employees here at Hillcrest so that they can better identify those things.

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Mid-Roll

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08:00 - 08:17

Doug Bryant

So the other aspect that we help with is the caregiving at home. We have a partnership with you all for a group of those people. And I know that lately, the department on, I can't remember all the names for that right now.

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08:17 - 08:20

Dottie Lyvers

It's now the Tennessee Department of Disability and Aging.

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08:20 - 09:35

Doug Bryant

Okay, there we go. Because they just combined two different departments. I’m at least educated enough to know that. There you go. So, that department has recently come out and is allowing some home based caregivers to do medication assistance, which is really different from Medication Aide. Yeah. Training that we do here at the Mason Center. But one of our instructors here, the director Brandi Miller, was actually able to develop a program, sent it to that department for approval. And we were able to actually educate a lot of those home care caregivers on that medication assistance.

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And it looks like after the first of the year, we're going to be able to actually be a provider of that education for other people. And that's something that our partner found out through the partnership with you all, being on some emails and things back and forth and just wanted to thank you all for that so much. It's so important with the aging population that they have places like the CAC Office on Aging, where they can get connected to all these different resources. When I was looking at your website today, I saw all the things you offered and I got exhausted looking at it. I don't even know how you all are. I don't know if we have a peer as the director and manage all of that.

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09:35 - 10:38

Dottie Lyvers

We have a great staff who keeps it all together. We appreciate the partnership with Hillcrest. You know, we partnered with you all, both with our homemaker program, delivering services in the home to those who really just need that extra kind of boost of of keeping their home in order, I'll say, for lack of a better term, so that they can age in place if that's what they're choosing to do. And then also through we have an adult daycare center called Daily Living Center, and you all have been able to help us there as well when we've had planned staff changes or leaves of absences or things like that that we've been able to do. And looking at that and having medication assistance, I know would be a great benefit to in some of those areas, especially, I think, of having somebody with that knowledge at our adult daycare. While we can't necessarily do that on our end, where we're literally giving them medicine, just having that knowledge and being able to do that is really a great benefit for many of our folks there, too.

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10:39 - 11:23

Doug Bryant

One of my favorite days in my entire career at Hillcrest was when me and Lavanya and a group of people went to sing at the Daily Living Center. It was around Christmas time and it really made the entire season for all of us, because just seeing the smiles on their faces, being able to just be there, even for that little bit of time that we were there. And it was the first time I'd ever had the chance to actually go and didn't even know it was over where it was. and just coming away from that is such an awesome service that you all are able to provide for people that, again, need that extra help during the day so they can go work or so that, even just so that those residents or those that you're taking care of aren't as lonely during the day.

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11:23 - 12:05

Dottie Lyvers

Very true. And with that program, we do get some funding through adult protective services, through a social services block grant. So with that program specifically, we are taking those who are very vulnerable, those who come to us from Adult Protective Services, so may be having some different situations in their home life. Or maybe they're alone. And so we have a variety of folks that we're serving, through that program too. So it even makes it in my book a little even more special that we're really, really helping out those that truly need it. It's a small program, you know, in. But I say it's small and mighty. Mighty.

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12:05 - 12:39

Doug Bryant

Well, with with all the statistics that you gave out at the beginning of all the the people that are entering this, the elderly senior population, it is so exciting to be able to have partners like the Office on Aging and you all and everything that you provide and us being able to help support that in any way that that we possibly can. And I just want to thank you so much for investing. You know, a lot of times we talk about, like you said, we talk about investing in the youth of America. We talk about investing in the younger generation. But there's a whole other generation of people out there that we still need to invest in.

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12:39 - 13:25

Dottie Lyvers

I agree, and I think that, many people, I will say not to generalize or anything, but as society, you know, we don't value older individuals like we do younger individuals. And so part of our goal is really trying to make sure that not everyone is the same. Everybody's different. And people have so much to give back. I mean, we have so many volunteers. We have so many people that are working with us to really make these things happen and to help serve the community, too. So I think all the agencies in town are working together to really serve the needs of our growing older adult population and trying to do what we can to even think forward on what the future needs will be, too. That's always a huge challenge as well.

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13:25 - 13:51

Doug Bryant

Well, for anybody that wants more information on the services that you all provide, we're going to be sure to put your link to your website down in the show notes. And I thank you so much for, for coming by and having this conversation with me. Thank you. If we can connect just one person to something that you all are doing, then this is going to be extremely beneficial. For our county. So thank you so much. You've been listening to Certify It the podcast for advancing your career and care. We'll see you next time.

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13:51 - 14:22

Doug Bryant

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Certify It by the Mason Center for Health Care Education. Get connected with us on social media and at themasoncenterknox.com. If you haven't yet, subscribe to this podcast on YouTube and anywhere you get your podcast. And if you're interested in sponsorship or donations to help further our cause of providing affordable, flexible health care certification programs for individuals seeking career mobility in skilled nursing, senior living, and long term care fields visit themasoncenterknox.com.

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