Hospice tips for family members and caregivers | Surprising benefits + services at Devotion Hospice
Oct 19, 2023Episode 18
Sherri Lund & Devotion Hospice
Join us in Episode 18 as we break down the myths of hospice care and share expert tips for family members and caregivers navigating end-of-life care.
Contact Sherri for all your Probate + Real Estate Needs in Conroe, Texas:WillowWoodSolutions.com
EPISODE SUMMARY: Sherri Lund (WillowWoodSolutions.com) sits down with Shawn Stevens and Tiler Fletcher from Devotion Hospice to explain hospice care and dispel common misconceptions. You’ll learn the advantages of choosing hospice, how it integrates with estate planning, eligibility criteria for insurance coverage, and the essential support it offers to patients and their families. This insightful Q&A sheds light on hospice care and how it can help you avoid probate stress, so don’t miss it!
About SHAWN and TILER
Shawn Stevens, co-founder of Devotion Hospice, brings her wealth of experience in nursing and hospice care to the forefront. With a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Texas Woman’s University and a Master of Science in Nursing from Purdue University Global, Shawn has spent nearly two decades in the hospice industry. She leads the Devotion Hospice team with dedication and compassion. Outside of her professional life, Shawn enjoys quality time with her blended family of seven children and her cherished "Glambabies."
Tiler Fletcher, Shawn's son and the Community Education Coordinator for Devotion Hospice, brings a fresh perspective to the hospice journey. A former collegiate athlete with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice, Tiler discovered his true calling in helping individuals through hospice care. His role at Devotion Hospice reflects his commitment to supporting people during their hospice journey, making a meaningful impact when it matters most.
Disclosure: The information shared on The Probate Podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. We strongly recommend consulting with a professional for advice specific to your situation. If you need help finding a professional, feel free to reach out to us at www.willowwoodsolutions.com/contact.
Please consider kindly rating this show so others can find it!
Join us in Episode 18 as we break down the myths of hospice care and share expert tips for family members and caregivers navigating end-of-life care.
Contact Sherri for all your Probate + Real Estate Needs in Conroe, Texas:WillowWoodSolutions.com
EPISODE SUMMARY: Sherri Lund (WillowWoodSolutions.com) sits down with Shawn Stevens and Tiler Fletcher from Devotion Hospice to explain hospice care and dispel common misconceptions. You’ll learn the advantages of choosing hospice, how it integrates with estate planning, eligibility criteria for insurance coverage, and the essential support it offers to patients and their families. This insightful Q&A sheds light on hospice care and how it can help you avoid probate stress, so don’t miss it!
About SHAWN and TILER
Shawn Stevens, co-founder of Devotion Hospice, brings her wealth of experience in nursing and hospice care to the forefront. With a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Texas Woman’s University and a Master of Science in Nursing from Purdue University Global, Shawn has spent nearly two decades in the hospice industry. She leads the Devotion Hospice team with dedication and compassion. Outside of her professional life, Shawn enjoys quality time with her blended family of seven children and her cherished "Glambabies."
Tiler Fletcher, Shawn's son and the Community Education Coordinator for Devotion Hospice, brings a fresh perspective to the hospice journey. A former collegiate athlete with a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice, Tiler discovered his true calling in helping individuals through hospice care. His role at Devotion Hospice reflects his commitment to supporting people during their hospice journey, making a meaningful impact when it matters most.
Disclosure: The information shared on The Probate Podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. We strongly recommend consulting with a professional for advice specific to your situation. If you need help finding a professional, feel free to reach out to us at www.willowwoodsolutions.com/contact.
Please consider kindly rating this show so others can find it!
Hi there this is Sherri Lund again back with another episode of the probate podcast. I'm so glad you're here and I'm so glad to have my guests with me today, shawn Stevens, one of the founders of Devotion Hospice and her son, Tiler Fletcher. We're going to be talking about what hospice is and what the myths are that are out there so that you can have the best advantage for yourself or your loved one that might be needing the service. My name is Sherri Lund, and this is a resource that's an outreach of Willowood Solutions. Willowood Solutions is a company that I founded to help people that are going through probate and settling an estate. We're going to talk about how hospice and probate and estate settling all go together. Guys, I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you for having us! Let me tell you a little bit about Shawn first. Shawn Stevens, along with her husband Jeffrey, is the founder of Devotion Hospice. She lovingly refers to herself as the devoted leader. Shawn obtained her bachelor of science in nursing from the Texas Women's University and her master of science in nursing from Purdue University global. She spent 19 years of her nursing career in the hospice industry, providing hands on care for patients as well as leading successful hospice programs. Shawn and Jeff have a blended family with 7 children and 2 beautiful glam babies who refer to her as glammy. I think that's precious. 3 of her children work with them at devotion hospice. When she's not working, Shawn enjoys spending time with family and cheering on all the kids in their sporting events. So, in addition to Shawn, I'm going to be talking with Tiler and Tiler is the community education coordinator for Devotion Hospice. He graduated as a collegiate athlete from a couple of schools in Oklahoma, and then he came back to Texas and makes his home here. He has a bachelor of arts in criminal justice. Shortly after graduation, Tiler was recruited to Devotion Hospice and has since found his calling helping people during their journey through hospice. Thank you both for being here. I so appreciate that. I was just thinking on when I chatted with you and Jeffrey, Shawn, at your office a couple weeks ago, we chatted about Tiler too. We talked about how you guys, fit things in together. Y'all have been working in this industry for a long time. And then how Tiler came in and just really picked his place here, and you guys just bragged about him. Tiler. I don't know if you know that, your parents are really proud of you and what you're doing with the company, for the patients. Shawn, tell me a little bit about you. You're the face of the company. You have the vision. You have all this practice. Tell me about you as a person, if we were to meet in the park or one of the baseball fields. Me. I'm a mom. And as you said, I'm a glammy. Two beautiful grandbabies, both little girls. And I enjoy those roles. When we're not spending time working, which we work a lot as a family even in our family time, we spend a lot of time talking work. But I enjoy being a mom and being a glammy. And as you said, cheering them on in their sporting events, every single one of them has played sports. And we spend a lot of time at baseball games and some football now too. I love it. Love it so much. I like it because hospice is a heavy topic. We're going to talk about what hospice is in just a minute. But I love that your family is really entrenched in it. You guys are in sync with hospice and you live, breathe and eat it, but it's not a heavy thing in your house. That's awesome. Tiler, can you clear the air for us and just tell us what hospice is? Yeah, so hospice is a form of palliative care medicine. That means that we're focusing on symptom management. We're focusing on comfort care. The biggest thing is we're focusing on that patient's quality of life and not only the patient's quality of life. But the whole family and friends and anybody who's involved with that patient, their quality of life. And we want to improve that quality of life. And so that's the big focus of hospice is the symptom management and the comfort care. We're not trying to cure the underlining disease. We're just trying to aggressively manage the symptoms that that disease may be bringing. As I was thinking about this conversation that we're having and Putting on my game face or whatever, my parents passed away. My mom 34 years ago before I was 30 and then my dad 18 months later when I was 30. We had hospice come in and I was thinking that experience with hospice for me, I think added to the story. It makes it more comfortable for me to be in this position. It was really important for me to find a hospice service that I can talk about and share on the podcast because it was such a pivotal part for my family and for myself in particular to feel like I had professionals there that have gone through this process a lot more than I have and they could prepare me for what I might see or might hear or whatever, and they just put me at ease. And so what you do is for the patient, but also so much for the family. And I know that y'all do a lot for the family after as part of the end of the process too. We'll get to all of that, but I just want to say for myself, the industry has been helpful for us and played a part in my being here. Shawn, what prompted you to go into this industry? You were a nurse. What was it about that for you? I was an oncology nurse first. I worked in the hospital for two years straight out of nursing school. And way back then patients came into the hospital to get their chemo treatments. It was. eye opening for me, because I would care for a lot of patients who come in thinking they were just getting a chemo treatment, but they came in to get their chemo treatment and then had lots of complications. And they would be telling me, the nurse that was caring for them, I just want to go home and spend these last days because they came in to get their chemo treatment, but they spent 3 months in the hospital because of complications and then they ended up passing in the hospital and they were telling me I just want to be with my family at home. And for me that nurse advocate, I would say" tell your physician! You can do that. You have that option", but ultimately, mostly they would pass in the hospital. I felt like I could be more of an advocate if I was a hospice nurse where I was helping them pass peacefully at home or where they wanted. For me, it's about their end of life journey. If they want to pass in the hospital, that's fine. But if they're telling me I want to pass at home or I want this in my end of life journey, that's what I want to make happen. I want your end of life journey to be exactly what you want it to be. And that was my vision for Devotion, too. I mean, I worked for corporate hospices for a long time. And even though I felt like I was a great nurse. I couldn't give all of the care I wanted to give. I was limited I always told people I felt like I was giving boxed care. We could give certain care the care that is in this box right here to every single patient we went to. And I don't know about you, but I don't fit in a box, and most people don't. I was always telling Jeff about that. I can provide great care, but it's not that end of life journey that every single person wants individualized because a lot of people want outside of the box care. The corporate places, I felt like I was giving boxed care and I wanted to give outside of the box care. I want to listen. I don't want to be that no person. No, I can't make that happen for you because it's outside of the box. That's why Jeff told me, let's do this. Let's start devotion. We can, we can make it happen. That's why we did Devotion. No cookie cutter here. I like it too, because you also allow people to have a voice. It's like you're not in a lab coat telling them what they need to do. You're giving them they still have a presence, they still matter and their voice matters. And so if they want something they can ask and there's no harm in asking and you'll see what you can do to pull it off. So I'm all about that. The other thing that we mentioned in the bio was that, it's in the name. Devotion is in the name. You're a devoted leader. Talk a little bit about your team and what they do. We have a team of about 150 people right now. Jeff and I laugh because when we first started, I thought I knew most people in the hospice industry because it's a small industry, healthcare is small even though it's so big and after working in it for so many years, I thought I knew most people in the hospice industry. And we knew the people that we wanted to start Devotion with us. And we had our hands full. And as we grew, we picked those people that we knew were great clinicians, great social workers, great chaplains, and then because of the great care that was being provided, we started growing really rapidly and we ran out of those. people that we knew that we wanted to join our team and then it got scary because we had to interview and hope that they were great caregivers like we wanted and had the same vision that we wanted to provide great compassionate care with the same hope of providing that end of life journey that our patients wanted. But Jeff and I try to meet with each person that joins our team to make sure that they have the same vision that we have. So Each person that comes in the door, at least I meet with so that we make sure that they know what our vision is and that they have that same heart for hospice and care... and you guys started in, was it 2019? 2019...Yeah, so you've, grown pretty quickly in a short period of time. Yes, ma'am. That says something. Hey, Tiler, tell us how devotion differs from other hospices that are out there. Why would someone want to choose you? I think y'all already touched on a little bit, you know, we're not that big corporate style hospice were locally owned and operated. So all the decisions come from a local level. Usually it's just a text or a phone call to Shawn or maybe our administrator or whomever it may be to get an answer that we need. and hopefully be able to provide whatever that patient is needing to them. We don't take that cookie cutter approach to patient care. And again, we want to make sure their end of life journey is what they want within reason, right? I think that's a big part of it is, we don't take that cookie cutter approach. We're going to look outside the box in the patient care that we can give. But not only that, it's also, I think, some of the team members that we have. Obviously, we have great nurses and social workers and chaplains. that we have that are part of the team that will provide the care and support to the patient and family. But we also have music therapy and we have pet therapy that can go out to visit with patients. And those are huge for multiple of our patients and their families, providing that companionship and stimulation throughout the day. And our music therapist, our true licensed music therapist, they are board certified, they take thousands of hours of internship. So they gather a lot of knowledge in how to provide that music therapy, maybe for dementia patients, or if it's for pain management. So having those other team members, not just your, normal chaplain, social worker, nurse, nurse aid. We have multiple other team members. Like I mentioned, the pet therapy, music therapy that can go out to visit with patients. It's really a holistic thing, isn't it? My daughter is a certified musical therapist and there's a lot of psychology that goes into that, not just the musical part of it, but the psychology of being able to assess the person visually and initiate something that might bring them care or comfort. But you can't always tell if it's pain or if- it can be emotional anxiety. It can be a spiritual anxiety, things like that. So the services that I'm hearing are really holistic. And so if someone has something rather than keeping it inside and letting that anxiety grow, I think you guys are there to provide all kinds of things. And when you talk about chaplains, that's all faiths. Is that correct? That's correct. Awesome. They are a spiritual care coordinator, so they assist with their spiritual care. They meet them where they are, no matter what it is. And I want to say something about the music therapist, because, oh, my goodness, they have so touched the hearts of our patients and families, but also us, they bring us to tears. It's going to bring me to tears now. But some of the things they do. Let me just tell you, one of the projects they do is they have worked with our patients to record their heartbeats. And then even work with the patient to put words together to make a song. And then a lot of times it's once they've passed, they have put their, their words to the heartbeat. The heartbeat is the beat of music. And so it's a song that they put together for their family. And they give it as a gift to the family once the patient has passed and it is just so touching. It has usually brought all of our team to tears and the family. It means so much to them. And it's a true skill that the music therapists have where it also helps the patient, of course to pass this on to their loved one. Yeah. That is something that they work on and it's the heart song project is what they call it. Oh, that is so sweet. What are some things that you feel like hospice allows people to experience or enjoy or have in their final moments, and when I say final moments, I'm not talking about hours. We would like to see them in hospice, so we can cover that in a question here in a little bit. But right now, what I really want to know is. What does hospice provide people? And what does it help them avoid? It definitely helps avoid hospitalizations, keeping them out of the hospital. Or what I tell families is our goal is to provide all of their care, wherever they're calling home. So whether that be assisted living or residential home or an apartment or just wherever it may be, we want to provide them that care right there at home. So bringing the whole team directly to them, whether it be the nursing visits and with hospice were available 24 7.
So even if it is 2:
30 in the morning or saturday or sunday, we bring that team directly to them to provide that care so they don't have to go out to the E. R. To the hospital back and forth to all these doctor's offices. Because for a lot of patients, especially when their hospice appropriate, it's difficult to get out. It's difficult to go to those doctor's offices. They may be weak, there may be in pain or agitated. Maybe they have dementia, so it's hard for them to get into the car or vehicle. So bringing that care directly to them is a big benefit. And it also helps with the comfort care. Hospice brings in that comfort care and symptom management. So maybe a patient who has dementia, Alzheimer's is agitated or anxious, right? We can help with that symptom management and try to get those maybe behaviors or agitation they're having under control with the use of maybe medications or maybe the music therapy or maybe the pet therapy. All those different team members coming in and helping with that. Or maybe they're a cancer patient and they're having pain or maybe nausea, right? Being able to prescribe medications to help with those things. Again, in the comfort of home is big for them because like I mentioned, a lot of our patients, it's hard for them to get out and it's hard for the families to get them out. They're maybe having to call transportation, which unfortunately insurance doesn't normally cover. Or, they're having to take time out of their day. Maybe they still work and they're having to take time off of work to go pick up their loved one and take them to that doctor's office. And it's hard right on everyone. So us being able to provide that care wherever they're calling home is essential and really big for that family. And again, providing that support to the family. And that's what I would underline as a mom with, obviously my mom and dad passed when my children were little. But I know people now that have children that are young or they have a business and they're trying to work... I mean, we have busy lives and we love our parents. We love our spouse. But whoever might be in hospice and trying to juggle that balance. We can feel guilty. We can feel, all of the, all of the things. So for me, the peace of mind, I think is a huge thing just to know that I've got someone that's working with me as a team member. I can have the decisions I can, override, but I don't have to take all of that weight on myself. I don't have to figure it all out on myself. So to have you guys have my back would be a huge thing. Just the peace of mind would be amazing to me. Shawn, when I visited with you and Jeff. We talked about how some people wait until the last minute and they see hospice as let's try everything like hospice is a last resort or something like that. What would you say to that and what does that mean? If someone waits until the last minute. If somebody waits until the last minute, they're still going to get the needed care, but they miss out on so much care that they could have all of the disciplines that Tiler was speaking of the social worker, the chaplain, music therapy, pet therapy.. The more time that somebody has hospice the more care that they're going to have, they're going to see all of our team members, they're going to have better symptom management. So there are actually studies that show the longer they are able to have a hospice team in place, the better outcomes that they have. Families or patients, they always think, oh hospice is, is the end. Hospice is not a long term thing, but I tell families, a loved 1 or, a patient, they can be on service for 3 days, three months, three years. There's not a set timeline that somebody is on service. As long as there's a need to be fulfilled, right? They can remain on service. So me personally, I've seen somebody on hospice for four years until they finally passed. So it's not just end of life. It's not just right there at the end. It could be for that extended period of time. And, that whole time that they're on service, we're again helping with that symptom management and that comfort care and ultimately the better quality of life that they have. And don't you also offer like respite for the families and... yes, respite, relief from caregiving. Maybe they're going on a trip or maybe they're just overwhelmed with care. 5 days at a time, they could go to a facility the loved 1, their loved 1 could go to a facility and they could have relief from care for those 5 days. Yeah, that's just, it's huge. It's just huge. And some of our caregivers have been caring for such a long, long time that they forget about who they are and their own care. So to have that service is again, obviously you're here because I think you need to be here. People need more people need to know about what you're doing. So, This is the probate podcast and obviously my audience is here to talk or to hear about probate and what we have to do. How do our 2 businesses work together? Well, I was going to say, it's never too early to plan. Getting powers of attorney in place, getting wills in place, all of those things. It's always a good idea to have all of that in line but at the same time, it's never too late to plan. So whenever you're faced with having to deal with a will and those types of things we have social workers and those social workers know you and it can get our patients in touch with Willowood and make sure that our families don't have to struggle and deal with all of that probate headache. They can contact you and you could help them through that. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. You know, One of the things again with our family that hospice provided was the time to talk about things that needed to be talked about, to get their input on jewelry or furniture or the house, you know, and you just get the conversation started. It's awkward and some people just absolutely refuse it, but it's 1 way to you know, maybe use the China 1 more time. It can become a beautiful thing as part of the process and then it does make the process easier when you're going through probate or dissemanating the estate and going through the trust process. Can you talk about what qualifies are there benefits that cover hospice and do you need insurance? So hospice to qualify for hospice, somebody has to have a terminal diagnosis. Now, that terminal diagnosis, a lot of times I hear people say, oh, I don't have cancer. And it's not just cancer. It could be a cancer diagnosis. It could be heart failure. It could be a pulmonary disease. It could be dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, A. L. S. There's numerous diagnoses that we can utilize under a hospice diagnosis for somebody to be appropriate. And for somebody to be appropriate, they need to have a decline of health, right? And if their disease were to run its natural course, the physician, whoever is signing off on the order, feels that if that disease continues to run its natural course that they have six months or less to live. But again, as we talked about that six months, we're not the ultimate decision maker, so it could be longer than that or shorter. But once they have that terminal diagnosis and they have an order from a physician then, we can come in and provide that care. And it's all covered. The great thing about hospice is all covered by Medicare at 100%. Most of our patients are going to be 65 or older. And so they have Medicare. And again, it's covered at 100%, whether they have an advantage plan or a supplemental plan. Thank you. traditional red, white and blue Medicare takes over and covers it at 100%. So that being all the team members that we talked about, that being the medical equipment that is needed. So if they need like a hospital bed or a wheelchair or whatever is needed as far as medical equipment goes, we get all those things in place, same with supplies. So this is a big one. A lot of our patients are going to be incontinent at that time. And so all the incontinent briefs and the wipes and the chucks pads, maybe wound care, maybe they have some type of wounds. So the wound care supplies, all of that we cover at 100 percent as well. Not to mention the respite care is covered under it. And also Medicare doesn't give us a set amount of visits that we can provide. We could provide a nurse But it's every day if it comes to that point, or if it's two o'clock in the morning, and I like to use two o'clock because that just seems to be when everything happens. So when it is, it doesn't. Doesn't give us a guideline of how many visits we can make, right? As long as it's appropriate and we need to go out there and make a visit for symptom management or maybe education or whatever it is, we can do that. That's awesome. I didn't realize that it was unlimited amount. I was under the impression, maybe, maybe it was for the service that we used, but we had 20 hours a week or something like that. So we had to figure out. Okay, if we're going to go to the grocery store, and we need somebody here for a couple of hours, then how many hours is that? I had to figure that out. So that's awesome that you guys... I'm kind of like blown out of my mind right now that you guys can offer that kind of care and provide all those supplies. That's just amazing. What about you're not 65? Not 65. Normal insurance. Commercial insurance will also cover the hospice benefit. With that, you have to find somebody that's in network. So let's say somebody has Blue Cross Blue Shield or one of the other commercial insurances. You have to find somebody that is in network with that provider that accepts that insurance. Whereas Medicare, pretty much all hospice providers, accept Medicare. But once we get into that commercial insurance, we have to find somebody who's in that work and that can accept that insurance. But again, it's also 100 percent covered or should be 100 percent covered under their insurance benefits. So all those same services are still covered. You just have to find somebody who's in network. Yeah. Medicaid also covers as well. Okay. What about veterans? Are there VA covers as well? Okay. Yeah insurance. So in your experience, what do you think is the hardest hurdle for people to get over to call hospice? I think the misunderstandings in hospice also creates the hurdles for us. I think some people are given false hope by their physicians. And so maybe the false hope creates a hurdle to them wanting hospice. But then they're also, they think that hospice is giving up. If they choose hospice, then they're giving up. And I always like to tell people that they're not stopping treatment. We're still going to treat them. Our treatment is changing our treatment scope, we're not treating their disease anymore, but we're still treating them. We're treating their pain now, their symptoms. So we're still aggressively treating them. We're just not aggressively treating their disease anymore. So we're not giving up at all. I think those are the things that really stop people. What is something that brings you joy about your work. I really like educating people about hospice. I think that is fun to do in my role. And then I like to be able to help people through their journey of end of life and help patients and families when they thought that this time with their loved one was going to be, maybe, such a horrible time, but we're able to walk alongside them and help them. I get to share with the team, the letters that we get in the mail that tell how wonderful our team was during this time. We've been able to help so many people along the way and reading those letters is such a joy. It warms my heart. Yeah. Yeah. I can see that. Tiler, what about you? I think it's when I get that text message the thank you, or. We love the nurse or the support is amazing. Those are the things where it's okay, that's, this is why I do it. This is what brings me joy. I think really it's the thank yous that I get from families because like Shawn mentioned, when they come on service, they think this is going to be a terrible journey. And when they finally come out on the other side, they're just like, wow, this was.. you know, the support that was given, the care that was given. It was all great, right? And and luckily, my loved one was able to be comfortable through their end of life journey. And it'll just be random. It'll be a random thank you from somebody I met, maybe four months ago or six months ago. I, I had a message once it was like, I didn't even have the number saved. And it was from a year ago, the last time that we talked, but all they put was thank you. Looked up who it was and I saw that their loved one had just passed, but that's all they had to say. Thank you. And to me, that made my day. Yeah. Yeah. You guys are really making a difference in people's lives and you guys are in the trenches with them when they're going through such a tough time. And no judgment, just offering support after support after support. And I know that they appreciate what you do. Can you talk a little bit about what you do after someone passes? What services do you provide after that? We have a bereavement program that we follow, the loved ones of our patients for up to 13 months- longer, should they need it. Starting with a bereavement card and a call to the loved one to assure that they want us to do this, to follow along with them. And then their letters and phone calls along the way through the 13 months to make sure that they're getting back acclimated to life after the loss of their loved one. And should they need counseling or something to that effect, we either have them talk to somebody on our team, or we refer them out to somebody. It's their choice what they feel like they need. Here recently, I actually received a message from a daughter of a patient who had passed away maybe a couple of months ago and she just reached out and said, I would like some more information on your bereavement program. And so I had 1 of our social workers reach out. The social worker followed up with me a couple of days later and told me how the daughter was really struggling after her dad had passed away. Our social worker is actually going to be meeting with her once a week and just providing that extra care and support, I should say. And just listening and help guiding her back into that everyday, routine and what the new routine is. Just being that extra support, even after our patient is gone, being that support to the family is, is really big. Yeah, love that. What's a common question that you get about your work? For me, it's how do you do this every day? That's something that people ask me frequently whenever they find out I'm a hospice nurse. So how do you do this every day? And I don't know if you want the answer I give them, but it's that I'm helping people. And it's not about death and dying and loss. It's about living. It's about helping those that are still with us and helping those that we're helping pass to live through the end. Yeah, so that's the common question I get most frequently. Yeah, that's good. Is there anything you would want to add to that Tiler? Mine is a little different. Mine is I always get asked what got you into this? Because I'm a younger gentleman. Not a lot of people associate the younger generation with hospice, right? So I always get asked, what got you into into hospice? So usually my little story that I give is I used to ride around with my mom when I was about yay big, I would ride along and visit patients with her. I'll go to assisted living facilities and nursing homes with her and visit patients. I remember one memory care actually in particular and there was two ladies there and the two ladies every time I would visit they would always call me beautiful and I would say, no, I'm not beautiful. I'm handsome. I understand they have, they had dementia so they probably didn't quite understand. But so that's what got me into it. Just, riding along with with my mom and watching her do this for pretty much my whole life. She's been in almost every role. I actually remember one of her old work numbers. She no longer has, but she used to always give it out when she was talking to families. And so I still memorize it to this day. So that's how I got into. And that's what I tell, what I tell people when they ask why, why, why hospice? Yeah, it's a big, it's a big deal. What do you, what is the question that you wish people would ask more? How do I come work with you? And where do I sign so you can care for me? Huh. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure. Tiler, this one's for you. If somebody is listening that is thinking, I'm not so sure about hospice. I'm not so sure if we qualify. I'm not sure I'm ready to put mom or dad on hospice. I just. Have all this anxiety about hospice in general, like it's too much for me. What would you want to say to them to encourage them? I would say call, call us, call devotion, call, call someone and ask your questions to somebody who works in a day in and day out, ask your questions. What are your goals of care for your loved one? What is important to you? What's not important to you? What do you need? Maybe what do you not need right now? And just ask those questions and let us know what is important to you and see if it's something that we can help with. A lot of the times I'll hear people say, I didn't even know this was an option. I would have done this weeks ago. So call and ask those questions, call and see what support we can maybe provide. And see if it's, if your loved one is appropriate for it. If it's something that you say, you know what? I want to try. I want to get my loved one on hospice, giving us a call running, like I said, running through your goals of care and what's important to you and what's not important to you. Let us know. And then from there we can take it over as far as getting maybe the referral from the physician or seeing if you are appropriate for hospice, having maybe a nurse evaluation so we can handle all that along the way if it's needed. But I would just say the biggest one, just call, call and don't be afraid to call and ask your questions and let us know what what is important to you and ultimately what are your goals of care. Yeah, and I would add to that and say, even if you don't qualify yet, just to get your questions answered ahead of time because knowledge really is power. And if we have these niggling questions out here, they just make us more anxious. If we can think about get our questions checked off, talk to somebody who really knows not our neighbor who may have had a bad experience or whatever. And there's no harm in calling and you guys aren't going to twist their arm and sign them up that day. So, And you're that out of the box. So, If anybody would have some care to offer them, it would be you guys. Shawn, is there anything that you would add to that? I don't think, we don't have to have a physician order or anything like that to just answer the questions. So we can give information without having all of the clinical information. Calling and asking questions like you said just to get information and educate yourself. It's, it's always good. It's always good. So how can people find you where do they go to find you. We have a website, w www.devotionhospice.com. We're also on Facebook under Devotion Hospice, and we're on LinkedIn. Those are the places. those will best be in the show notes. Uhhuh.. The best way to recognize if you see purple and- yep. You'll know I can attest to that your office there's purple everywhere in your office. Yes. Nice. Okay. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. Both of you. I appreciate your time so much. It's been a pleasure to get to know you and some of your social workers. You guys are doing some great work here and our community in North Houston and, if you have questions for Shawn or for Tiler, you can check out the show notes. We will have if you're listening or on the trail today, you can refer back to those show notes down the road. And you can have access to their website and their phone number is everywhere there. Thank you for joining Willowood solutions and the Probate Podcast today. I'm so glad you're here. I hope you found value and I hope that you can hear that in Tiler and Shawn and myself that we.. We really think that you matter and that your journey here is important. And so we are here to help you make the best of this time. So go and have a good day.