Transcripts For KBCW Bay Area Focus With Susan Sikora 20140105

Oh morning, michael. Major events, the wardrobe budgeting stuff, you know . Would it help you if you had no payments. For five months . Thats right. Were putting the payments on ice. Take advantage of no payments until this summer. Thats great. Welcome to the bay area focus. Its a fact were living longer. But longevity is not without challenges, especially when the physical decline of aging makes living alone difficult or unsafe. Help is needed. If you have an aging parent or grandparent, then your family could be confronting this issue now. If not, it is probably only a matter of time before you do and then where do you begin . What do you look for and what does it cost . For answers we welcome back david. Since 1993, david has worked in the field of aging. He served as a board member of the senior services, worked with the Senior Living resources and currently a part of the Management Team at drake terrace, a community of both independent and assisted living. Welcome back and good to have you here. Nice to be here. Are you seeing a critical mess now because we have aging baby boomers who are not ready for anything like that yet. And at the same time, they are caring for parents in their 80s and 90s who are living a lot longer. And the whole world, you know, in terms of the field of aging is just expanding because of the longevity factor that is going on now. Absolutely. You get the adult child. Actually they are coming in a little bit older now because of what you said. Maybe their kids are now in college and high school and maybe 10 years ago the kids are much younger its our average age and it will be similar throughout the country. They are now 87 and the average age. And again, it is destroying the middle look of what we look like. They are still doing well. They might need a little bit of help. But they want to have fun and they still have their brain cells. Yeah, okay. Lets talk about when it will start to look like maybe mom or dad or grandma will need help and they can no longer do things on his or her own. What are the signs . Because it is not some life threatening illness. Usually its in the hospital and goodbye. Right. And i think that the one thing were all concerned about, you know, if you look at any poll, what are they concerned about . They are concerned about alzheimers or dementia. Set that aside for just a minute and with a moment and the idea of judgment. Is your parent a judgment and what it needs to be . And that is the first part. The second part in our society, unless youre living in San Francisco or another city that has really good public transportation, the car, the car is such an important factor in our lives. You dont drive, then you are isolated. So we have talked about it before. When were raising our family in the house, the house, you know, they are rolling up and they have been to insulate us from the evils of the world. To keep us safe. And once we dont drive anymore or once we dont drive at night anymore or once we start thinking, you know, i dont want to cross the bridge to go to my granddaughters baptism. Then it is kind of like the house has gone from insulating to isolating. And we are social creatures, you know, its a part of our time on the planet is interacting with other people. Are there other things though, david . There are people that live in the old fashion neighborhood, many of them. And so you know they have their little circle of people there. I have an aunt in new jersey that gets together with her friends from her church. She doesnt drive, but there is always somebody in the group to drive and get them in and they go to a certain place for breakfast every sunday. She is getting out. So would it be harder for maybe her son to see things happening with her . Right. I think it is a good test for him to sometimes sit down with those friends and say well what is my mom saying . Because sometimes it is the friends that will find things out. And then of course, you know t is great to get out and that is really keeping her spirits going. But at the same time, people, they dont like to be a burden to other people. They dont want to always rely on others and of course, you know, no one wants to dwell on it, the 3 00 in the morning fall on to the way of the bathroom. Yeah. Then you are by yourself. Thats the challenge for any family and it is like, you know, wearing a seat belt. Its like do you put the seat belt on after you have the accident . Or do you put it on before the accident . Right. Lets assume that the family decides that the older person in the family, a mother or grandmother, they will need to be some place where there is help and people, they get this confused all the time. Assisted living, Nursing Homes. And the care. Differentiate those for us. Absolutely. The very basic where no services will be included at all. The Senior Community as you can see whether or not it is a collection of the mobile home park. Whether it is a Community Like a manure type place. Basically the only thing that people have in common is that they are over the age of 85. Correct. Because there are no services and meals are not provided. Basically you are just at least living around the other people. But again over 55, its the big difference in generations, almost three generations these days. And thats the very basic. Then you would step up to something that will be independent or meals are included and transportation is included. But still no help. And then assisted living, it means in the state of california, it means that it is licensed by the state of california to provide the, it is having someone help you do things, not doing it for you. Thats the biggest difference between assisted living and a nursing home. And in a 00ing home, people do things for you. In assisted living, someone could help you take a shower. Okay. And maybe be there and you can kind of get that job done yourself. But in a nursing home, they would actually shower you . Right. They would shower you and bring you medication if you are a diabetic. They will do the injections for you. So basically you have gone from being a partner in your own care to being someone who is receiving care. Thats a nursing home. Some people, they need it for a brief amount of time. Maybe they fell, fractured a hip. Then they need to go back home to the community, whatever. And some people who stay in Nursing Homes longer. Okay, were going to take a break. When we come back, we will find out how you address this with an older person. Theres a lot of folks who feel like im going to die in my house. We have all heard that. And it is not always possible. How do you afford this . And what do you look for in a good place so your loved one doesnt become a victim of abuse and neglect when we return. Welcome back. We were talking with david who is a part of the Management Team at drake terrace, which is both independent and assisted. In other words someone that could do things for themselves could be there and someone that needs more help would be there and i assume the cost would be different . Correct. All right, lets talk about cost for a minute because a lot of it has to be afforded by maybe the last generation of people who are now in their 80s and 90s and the last generation to own a home and have paid for it completely. And they dont always want to leave and it is hard to convince mom what you need to do to be some place else because i cannot be here im not next door. If you fall in the middle of the night what happens, even with the yellow alert. How do you start the conversation, what do you say . We get mixed messages from the parent as they say that i dont want to be a burden to my child. However i dont want to leave my house and it is just the big conflict and the cost of care giver to the average child is 300,000 in lost wages, lost Social Security benefits. Lost private pension benefits and lost in healthcare benefit. Thats the average price tag that the adult child is surrendering by taking time off from work if they could get time off from work or drop whatever they are doing in order to take care of a parent. Those are statistics in 2009. The conversation has to start by, well, as planned. Everyone likes to be included in a plan. No one would like to say mom this is what im doing. And the conversation, they kind of have to start with just a feeling out process. You know susan to be honest you have couples that move together and sometimes it is widows or widowers. Sometimes they will say im not leaving this house, ive been here for 55 years. The response to that, mom, how long have you lived with other people . When you are with your parents, your friends. So again, trying to appeal to the social side is one aspect of it. And i also think that, you know, what is it that this person still wants to cheat in life . Again as you started in your opening comments, its like were living longer and better. Okay, lets talk a little bit here. And if im looking for a place, should i just drop in or make an appointment to see it . One is to call first and dropping in is great when you are further down the process to make sure that your hunches and feels, they are what you thought they were. And in the beginning you will have a lot of questions and you will want the person at that community who knows the most answers to be there to answer them for you as there is no reason that you should go spring out these questions on somebody that may not know the answer and also some folks out there that do a great job of bringing you to places. You know, they wont charge you necessarily. They charge maybe the community. Is it like a place for mom . Yes. Just the different agencies that could help and some of these people know their stuff. Should you be talking about in terms of staff . How many people per resident and the ratio of the staff to residents . Those are good questions. What is it that youre looking for . If you need memory care, well, that will be one more for the questions. If your parent is more independent, then you might have cared if the staff gets that there. They do regulate that stuff, but only kind of in general terms, basically the staff, the state is asking the community to make sure that they would have sufficient staff available per shift. A lot of us feel like once they get to the 80s that it will be awful because i would assume it would cost even more. Whats the average cost right now . Is there a way to target it . I assume county by county and it is different in San Francisco than the east bay. Yes, if you are looking at the further you go into the east bay, more likely that the price will drop. The average in San Francisco, possibly the south bay. I mean youre really going to be staying, if you are independent and you just want the services provided, then you are probably looking at starting about 3,000 a month. And if you need a lot of help, if youre assisted, then your cost could be 6,000 to 7,000 a month. There are a lot of people that bought the longterm care insurance. And that covers a lot of it . That covers a lot of it. Some people are veterans so theres a certain benefit to call their attendance. And you look into them. Isnt there in some homes with some consideration for people that are on fixed income and they dont have a lot of money so they will give you a reduced rent . Yes, those are deals when the construction of the property was built, they made a partnership with the county in order to get some kind of tax subsidy that they were willing to offer certain amounts of the units at below market rate. Below market rate, they may raise a little eyebrows. One of the resistance moments if you will in a lot of families is also that mom has the house paid for. When she dies it is going to pass on to us. And so we will then have some property to divide up and sell and what have you. So that tends to be a problem as well. Lets keep her in the house and we will bring somebody in. Whats the cost of that . And is that ever a good option . It is a good option in a shortterm basis. Because certainly it is a longer and longer shift. Sometimes it works when you have people coming in three times a week with the shopping and the cleaning. If that person is not having issues where they are falling down or getting anxiety, then that will be a good solution, but you should expect to pay about 20 to 30 for a license fingerprinted bonded person and i would always suggest going to an agency. There are some outstanding individual care givers that are out there in the world. But the reality is if you are relying on the care giver to come, you dont want to know about a car that will be broken down. Okay, one last question. Recently there are some incidents in the state of california with a front line piece that was done a couple months ago. I think it was on the place of the sacramento area where there was abuse or neglect. And no one wants to put his or her loved one in a place where they will be, you know, left for needing care and needing a shower and not getting it, and needing help or being abused. How do you make sure thathappens once you walk out the door . The state of california makes the occasional mistake. But they are one of the best for older adults. We have great licensing programs, also the company themselves have to do a lot of police auditing. However all the records are available. They call it either the art, the Community Care Licensing Division or your local view. But you can also work with, instead of those placement agencies with great case managers and care managers that work on the per feed basis to help sort through all the records. But that is the information that will be available and it is really just one phone call that your taxes are already paying for those answers. Okay, we will leave it there. David, thank you for being here. He is with drake terrace. And you can get in touch with him at life draketerrace. Com or 4191935. Thats 4191935. Stay with us, more ahead. Okay, welcome back. An awardwinning dietitian is back. And he was raised in peru with a masters degree and good science from san jose state university. Manuel has practice in San Francisco. In his new book, peruvian power foods, he reveals the foods eaten in his homeland and they find Health Benefits Like Fighting inflammation, boosting brainpower, and suppressing cancer causing agents. What are these foods and how do we get them and how do we use them in our own kitchen. Lets ask manuel. Welcome, good to have you here. And some people, i mean, i would try everything. And it will be quite familiar. Where do we find these things . Do i need to find a peruvian grocery . No, a lot sell in super markets, like the peach. Yes. Thats over here. That comes from peru. And it is such a super fruit that actually it has a chemical thats good. Its been proven to help with cancer cells and anti inflammatory. And alts berry, it is potent and also the berry is potent because it has vitamin d. Vitamin d is rare in foods. If you eat three and a half ounces of fruit, youll get 3. 5 of vitamin d. Well go through some of the others. And you can get the book for that, obviously. But my question is the peruvians, you went back to your homeland to do the studying on this and to really look into this. How is their health . And it will be like any western country. And the foods there too. But if you go to the amazon and andys, people are super healthy there, living for a long time. Less diabetes, less cardio problems. And it is because they are eating this food. And that is what their diet could show you. And some of them we know already, they are familiar. And cry lantro and sweet pro they cilantro and Sweet Potatoes. I always tell people, you know, make sure that your body works on averages. So in a week, make sure that you can choose whole grains and beans and quinoa. And that is the healthy potato. What is wrong with the Sweet Potatoes . Well, color provides different vitamins. And they provide different Health Benefits. You want to make sure that you eat all different colors. Now the purple provides antivitamins, great for anti aging as well. And so we want to make sure to eat different colors. It will take away wrinkles if i eat the purple ones . Thats a good one. When i talk about antiaging im talking about inside out. Oh, inside out. And you also have smoothies in there. You brought one here. Well take a look at it. Is it still over there . Okay, yes, my husband looks at the color and say forget about it. What am i drinking . What youre drinking here, you are drinking the blueberry smoothie. Yes, cacao. And thats all thats in there . And milk of choice. You can use almond, or regular milk or soy. Do you eat like this . Yes, every day. Did you always eat like this or did you switch from an americanized diet to this . I would always eat this. I normally concentrate on whole foods. Lately though since i have been researching on this power fruits, im not including them in my diet and not eating the other foods like blueberry and broccoli and cal cauliflower. I will tell you that i look to do this. I bought myself a neutral bowl and im blending things in it. I love it. But i dont have time to sit at home. And i put it in a drink and i get that kind of thing. But is it an acquired taste . Because people would look at this and say i dont want that. It takes some time. Definitely try one food at a time and make it a different way. And thats why i have a cookbook here to teach people how to make it and include it in your everyday diet. Like here i roast the vegetables, i added purple potatoes. So now you are adding the purple into your everyday roasting vegetables that you do. And the smoothies, you know, and that way you can get the benefit from those two. But instead of making banana bread, make a different kind. If youre going to start with one super food, especially if you are cooking for a family and they are not used to this and they want the chips. The question is what do you start that is easiest . For me it would be avocado. Picu berries, we have seen the children love them. The whole idea of peeling the berry and tasting it, they cant stop eating it. You can add it to their cereal, they can make fruit salad with it. Okay, certainly an easy way to try. Let it rip. Okay for more information and power foods, you can check out his website at mdnutrition. Com and also peruvianpowerfoods. Com. We will leave you now with scenes from the beach blanket and the San Francisco musical hit that runs ongoing in its 40th year. Thank you for watching. [ music ] im phil matier. Im mark kelly. There s a to talk about in our next this is kpix 5 news on kbcw. Good morning. I it is 8 30 on sunday, the 5th of january. Thank you for joining us. Im anne makovec. Im phil matier. I know a lot of you have been following the case of jahi mcmath. Shes the 13yearold on a ventilator and been declared brain dead. A lot of people are asking why is she still on a ventilator. We are going to be talking for the lawyer with the family. Thats right