What’s Memory Care Like? Senior Care Insights from Mike Houston at Proveer

Join Mike Houston, Director of Sales and Marketing at Proveer Memory Care, as he shares over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry, specializing in memory care, home health, and hospice. He discusses how aging and home health care are evolving in 2024 and the amenities and personalized care offered by Proveer Memory Care. You’ll learn tips for finding a Memory Care facility and adapting to memory care living.

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🌟 What Memory Care Offers That Assisted Living Doesn’t

• Specialized dementia care tailored to individual needs.
• Secure environment with enhanced safety measures.
• Memory-enhancing activities designed for cognitive stimulation.
• Trained staff skilled in managing dementia behaviors.
• Specialized dining options for dietary needs.
• Medical oversight focused on memory care needs.
• Family support programs tailored to dementia challenges.
• Purpose-built environment promoting familiarity, comfort, and dignity.

🤝 Contact Mike Houston, Director of Sales and Marketing at Proveer at North Gate

Phone: (Proveer) (281) 315-1450 

Cell (Mike): (832) 512-4659

Website: https://proveeratnorthgate.com

Address: 2930 Cypress Grove Meadow Dr, Houston, TX 77014

🤝 Contact Sherri:

Sherri invites you to explore her toolbox of resources on the Willow Wood Solutions website and encourages you to reach out to her through the contact form. For direct assistance, call or text Sherri at (832) 640-2997.

No one should navigate life's transitions alone. Let Sherri be your guide through probate, senior transitions, and beyond. Connect with Sherri today.

📍 Website: https://WillowWoodSolutions.com 

📞 Contact: (832) 640-2997

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Transcript

0:21

Hi there, my name is Sherri Lund and you're at the Probate Podcast. My guest today is Mike Houston. He is the, he is at Prevere at Northgate, a memory care community in North Houston. And we're going to be talking today about what it's like when families go to seek out care and what to look for when they visit a community for their loved one. Before I get to that, let me tell you a little bit about the podcast. The podcast was started and is sponsored by Willow Wood Solutions. It's a company that I founded to help families that are going through probate. And it wasn't long before I figured out that really the issues, the challenges that families face start way before probate in the senior transition period and in the lack of planning. And so we talk about estate planning, we talk about senior transitions and downsizing and grief and all kinds of topics related to this end of life season. It's a hard Season and so I want to educate people. I want to demystify the process. I want to start the conversations so that families will start to make plans and have those conversations too. Mike and I agree that, we're here for you. And so we're doing what we can to educate you so that you can make a more informed decision. Grab your pen and paper your favorite beverage because you're going to want to take notes. Mike's going to talk about some really important things and give you some tips that you can use now or in the future, if you need someone like Mike, so Mike Houston, thank you so much for sharing your day with me today. Hello, Sherri. Thank you for having me. What a delight. Yeah, let me tell you a little bit about Mike. Mike is the director of sales and marketing for memory care community in North Houston called Proveer at North Cape for over 20 years. Mike has been in marketing and administrative roles for various health care agencies in the Houston area. In addition to his work with senior living and memory care, Mike's experience includes home health and hospice. Mike's been in the healthcare industry, and he's observed it closely. He's seen a lot of changes. We're going to talk about some of that. He's passionate about meeting the needs of seniors and being a resource to the community. Things like 19, the affordable act, and many hurdles in the healthcare industry and payers are just a few of the obstacles that are facing seniors and their families today. Mike helps families navigate these challenges with his insights and many connections in the community. On a personal note, Mike lives in the Cypress Tombaugh area here in North Houston and he has two sons, Zach and Sam. Mike grew up in Alaska and came to Texas to attend Texas Tech University and ultimately graduated from Hardin Simmons University in Abilene. Before working in healthcare, He was in student ministry and campus ministry college ministry for about 15 years. Mike's been around the block a few times. He loves helping people and he has seen a lot of changes in this industry. Again, Mike, welcome to the podcast. Thank you very much. Yeah Mike, tell me about you not work related just. you as a person. What would you say? What would describe you? Well, I grew up in the one of the greatest times in the history of the world and the greatest country and in the Bible belt. Lived in West Texas, East New Mexico, Kansas, Oklahoma, then fifth grade moved to Alaska. My dad was a part of starting the trans Alaska pipeline. And we went up early and then about a year later. So in Valdez, Alaska, he grew He was a part of that startup and it was just an incredible time to be alive. And the world was in a cold war and going through a lot of problems. And then we had some of the greatest days of our lives and I was able to live through that. And also, growing up in the church, it was a golden age of evangelism and teaching and great movements. And then coming to Texas to go to college, I experienced a desert storm in my life. Where things changed and I really didn't know how to deal with it. And I turned to the Lord and he called me to ministry, kind of pick me up, brush me off. And eventually after about 15 years of ministry, my wife and I, we moved to Houston. She was a nurse and my mom's a nurse and I didn't really know what to do. After at youth ministry, you kind of either become a pastor. Or, you do something else and I, and that wasn't for me. I was able to get into healthcare, doing marketing and administrative roles and been in Houston for over 20 years and just seen a lot of changes, some for good some not so good. And so I'm here with the minister's heart, wanting to help people find resources and solve problems. I see a huge need for that. And there's a lot of questions, a lot of concerns and a lot of people that haven't really thought about it too much. And some incidents happened and all of a sudden now they need answers. And so. that's what I find myself doing. Yeah. Yeah. And that's why I'm so glad to have you here today. So what brought you into the health? Was there a person that pointed you in the direction of health care? You mentioned your wife and your mom. Was it their nursing background or was it something related to senior health in particular? Yeah I didn't really know what to do after ministry. My degree was in applied theology and I thought maybe that was going to be my whole career. And then it became obvious that wasn't where we were headed together. I didn't know what to do. I had a couple of little jobs worked for visible changes for a year or so. And I don't even have hair. So I was like, well, this isn't right probably, but learn some cool things there. And then was able to apply that when one day we went to a Christmas dinner with my wife's home health company and the administrator is like, you should come work for us. And she was real sweet. Her name was Maryland and is Maryland. And I, the rest is history. I learned and I followed some really good people and did really well at first. And so I thought it was me and my wife was the intake coordinator. That made a big difference. And ever since then, I've just been learning the ins and outs of health care and there's some real needs. And people in the baby boomers are entering 65 or older, about 10, 000 people in America a day are turning 65 and older and next for the next five, 10 years. So it's a big pipeline of people and they need healthcare. So in the bio that I read, I mentioned that you've been in this for 20 years and you've seen a lot of changes. Mike, talk a little bit about some of the changes you've seen from your perspective, which covers a lot, hospice, home health, senior memory care, like, I can't imagine what you haven't done. You've got insights into the family and what they need, but also from the inside of the facilities themselves. What are some changes that you have noticed that you think are important to think about? Well, one that is often overlooked is family dynamics. It used to be when I was a kid and before that, the family kind of took care of the grandparents and the great grandparents, and they imparted love and wisdom to the family. And now that we have the husband and the wife both working full time jobs and kids. There, there's a different dynamic and how the elderly age, either at home or at a facility or a community it, it's changed a little bit. So there's less community and a little more. that we're letting someone else do the care, whether it's a caregiver or some kind of facility. There's, that's one of the changes. Another change happened for pretty recently and it was pretty dramatic and that was COVID. Right. COVID hit, it changed our mindset about being around other people and how comfortable we are with our loved one. Do we put them here where they could catch COVID? You know, And so it just made us more afraid of being in groups of people. The government and the finance piece of it changed. There's really a power grab because there's so much money in healthcare and the baby boomers have by and large a lot of money. And so things have been changed, like, what's called accountable care organizations or ACOs. And that's the government and Medicare saying, listen, we really don't know how to fix this. You as a hospital system, as doctors come up with a group of people that you do business with, and y'all show us that you can save money and cut costs and do good care and have good outcomes. All of that put together. just makes things more expensive. It gives the power and the control to the hospitals and to position groups, they have the ability to refer to each other and get compensation for those referrals. Doctors are working twice as hard to make half as much as they used to, and therefore, they have to either become entrepreneurs or find another way to to make the money that they went to school to make. And even though it's not all doctors in all hospitals about money quite a big part of the way things are designed is to make money and to keep money in house. For example, the hospital used to just do er, acute care, and then send them to a, a, Long term, uh, acute care facility or a nursing home that now they are buying those homes and buying those home health and hospice companies and x rays and labs and pharmacies so that they can have all that money for themselves. And so it hurts the little guy that's trying to compete and it also drives up cost. There's been some rules and regulation changes for post acute care companies that have made it harder to do a good job, to pay well, to compete in the market, especially the Houston market- it's very competitive- but there are good people like yourself, Sherri, that are out there that say, you know what, let's solve some of these problems, let's make information easier to get. Let's be a resource to people, even though I don't do something, I know someone who does.. . I belong to a networking group called The Net and it's North Houston healthcare professionals. And we are just a big resource. We refer to one another. We someone ask us a question, we say, no, maybe I don't do that, but I know that a person who does, and we give that information away. Yeah. And, you know, you mentioned COVID 19 and how that's impacted things. Also, it really emphasized how lonely, how much we need people. What can we do to allow us to still interact, especially our seniors and and how much they needed that for their own mental health. I remember seeing those on the news where the kids would be outside the window and they would be waving and holding up signs or touching the glass, and how heartwarming that was and how meaningful it was to that person on the other side. We learned a lot about mental health in through that COVID 19 thing. And I think and I think that's certainly applied to the senior industry. So speaking about mental health, when families come to you, it's got to take a lot of for them to make the decision, okay, I mean, you don't just do it on a whim. You don't just go visit a memory care community on a whim. Right? So something has been leading up to this point. And now they finally decided. Okay. Today's the day. I'm going to go talk to Mike at Proveer. What are some of the family's concerns when they come to see you? What are some questions that you hear a lot? Well, for memory care in general, there's a couple of things. 1 is usually there's some kind of event like a fall or a heart attack or stroke. That's happened. And the family members gone from being just fine at home or just fine as a caregiver for his or her spouse to needing to be in a secured memory care environment. Sometimes, and a lot of times the family's just beside themselves, not knowing what to do, not have thought really much about planning. And then there's the person the family that has slowly seen changes and has prepared themselves somewhat for it. And with Proveer at Northgate, we're a luxury, private pay, memory care assisted living, where we take care of the residents full needs, whatever those are. And not everybody can afford a place like Proveer and there's a lot of places like that. So, What usually happens is they get on the Internet, the sons or the daughters or the spouse. And they're just putting in memory care, North Houston, and trying to figure out who can they trust to walk them through the process. You're one of those people and they're you're really good at what you do. So there are good people out there, but it is hard to find sometimes. And so, when you have that discussion there, you're right. There's this old mindset of the old convalescent homes that, we're just not really well taken care of and almost like a psychiatric ward, but that's, things have changed, there's more personalized care now, whether it's at home or in a community like ours, or even long term care in a skilled nursing facility, there's better care overall people are more trained on specific diagnoses and how to, how to how to, engage in a place for mom or caring dot com. These are aggregators that help listen to the family, what they can afford and what their needs are and give them some choices where they can go and shop. So that's kind of the world that we're living in now. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about the activities and the things that you offer at Proveer for the residents. And that's a big question that people want to hear: what are they going to be doing here? Do they sit on the couch and watch TV? That's a big issue at home. They're all over the place or it's just hard to keep them safe. we have a philosophy, it's called cherish. And it's our owner and CEO he's a nurse, also grew up in the contracting construction business. Put those together. Very caring, good man. That has sought to bring some clarity in the, into assisted living and memory care where you're providing value. With, with memory care, dementia residents, there's a certain environment that they need to engage their mind. Our cherished philosophy includes redirecting when there's aggravation or some kind of acting out. We have to be, we have to teach people how to do that, not to take things personal but how to redirect when a family comes to Proveer, they're given a form, it's called a cherished form, and they fill it out. And it tells. The life paints a picture of the resident and their life story. Some good things that there's some happy moments they like to talk about. A lot of times the old memory is pretty good, but the short term memory is not so good, so you can bring up people in their life or stories, their cousin, their brother, the time they went to Galveston. These kinds of things trigger happy thoughts and you can, you have to learn to redirect. So that's part of our chair's program. Also engaging is you don't stop living. You still need friends. You still need to have your personal opinions heard and your preferences listened to, and in the respect that's there, and we do that through a lot of ways. We, we have a lot of activities. If you see our activity counter or miss Sandra, she does a great job of just a variety of things. We have our own gymnasium with all kinds of games and drums and yoga classes and music. So we're doing that during the day, where arts and crafts are a big deal. That's where your mind is, can still be creative and expressive. And Um, There's. guests that come and bring security dogs or just pets that are a lot of fun. That we have two wolves that come and they're big Husky wolves and there's gentle as they can be And, and our residents love to pet them and feed them little biscuits and stuff. And then we have people who play music. We have people, churches that come and do services. We have sensory areas all over the building where they can go and rock a baby or play with locks or pretend they're at work. I mean, there's all kinds of things that engage the mind and keep that fresh. Plus the friendships that they make when they come to the building, people like them. People that are encouraging them to come to meals and to come to activities. We have a bus that we go to Cracker Barrel or to Mexican food or to the museum or the park. We have a beautiful place in north central Houston. It looks like you're in the country here and there's walks that we can take. There's a little lake that we can walk around, of course, with staff. But we do a lot of things and family events where the family comes and joins us for music and wine and cheese or a guest speaker. All kinds of things. And that really is our philosophy of care. And I know there's other places that have similar things, but for Proveer that's certainly the remedy for families feeling more comfortable about their loved ones being in a secured environment. I've got to say When I visited one of the things, first things that I noticed.. The first time that I was there been several times now, but but it's well off of a busy street. It's in a quiet secluded place. It feels very safe and peaceful back there. And you look out the windows and it looks like you're out in the country somewhere. So you have to remind yourself that this is Houston. It's just where it's located. I think is a really nice place. What do you do to help the residents adapt? You talked about some of the things that they can do, but, those 1st, couple of days, maybe the 1st week or 2 when they might be feeling out of sorts. What kind of things do you do? 1st of all, we have these memory sensory boxes outside each room and the computer screens as families, we encourage them to send us photos of the family and things that may resonate with them and they'll rotate in the screen outside their room. So it's a way to help find your room. When you're new and also to remember your family there's also a kind of a honeymoon period where you're getting a little more attention. You're getting invited to all the activities to the meals where you're getting introduced to other people and it's a little bit of an overload, but. They seem to like the attention most people do. And it's like, Oh, you know, and then the family can relax and they've been the focus of some of the aggression and the acting out for a while. And you, you just think. You know, This person just really hates me now. No, they don't. They're, you're the one person that they can pour the confusion into and some of the frustration into. But when you come and stay with us now, you're a welcome visitor and you can go back to being the spouse or the dad or the son or whatever role you played with that individual. And so, we spend time introducing and it usually takes about two hours on average for a resident to settle down and go, okay, this is okay. And then about two weeks to really start feeling like, okay, this is my home and stop asking, Where's my husband or where's my stuff and to realize that, okay, I'm safe and you see a real settling down and an energy level increase with all the stimulation, all the engaging, all the activities. and then we have the family events where the family's encouraged to come and take your loved one to dinner or to take them home for a few hours or a day, or you're welcome to do that anytime. You're welcome to come and have meals with us. You're welcome as the family member. You're welcome to come and stay as long as you'd like. And just be, you're part of the family too. So it's one of those environments where you just change locations, and then the relationship is enhanced with the family now that they have a safe environment, they're not wandering out and getting lost and if you talk to some of our families, they had some little horror stories, and now that they've come in, they're just so appreciative. Yeah. Where can you talk about some of the things that you do? Certainly people come in with all sorts of needs and diagnoses and dietary restrictions or whatever. What do y'all do to kind of coordinate all of that and meet everybody's needs? That's a good question. We have our own medical directors named Dr. George Valdez. He's one of the best in the business with geriatric patients and patients with dementia. He has a team of nurse practitioners and they round their hair constantly. And we encourage our families to come on board with our physician because they don't have to go out every so often, but they can be safely monitored inside the building. One of the steps we take for a move in is take our nurse health and wellness director or our executive director, who is an RN, Ms. Mary is an RN, and we go to where the resident is and we do an assessment. And we get the clinicals from the doctor in the hospital that the last visits and we, keep track of that we do the pharmacy piece for them with our caregivers and our med techs we monitor things like change in condition or aggravation. We make sure that. They're drinking lots of water or hydrating, so less likely to have a UTI. We help, you know, with incontinence, we help with showering, we do laundry for them. And most people, if they're able to walk with a walker or wheelchair to get around then they qualify to come. Can you talk a little bit about how memory care communities differ from a regular assisted living? Sure. Well, assisted living is just basically a senior apartment complex and sometimes there's younger people as young as 50. They just need a little bit of assist. There will be caregivers and maybe a nurse director that helps make sure they take meds or.. Both memory care and assisted living allow outside agencies like home health or hospice to come in and be that extra hands and feet and eyes for the family and to administer things like wound care, that kind of stuff. But assisted living, you don't have to have any particular diagnosis, you know. It's almost like an apartment building. And then when you move to memory care, there is a diagnosis for some kind of dementia, and there is some kind of a need to have that resident stay in a secure environment so that they're not wandering and getting lost and getting themselves in danger. Right. So that's basically the difference. Right. So the security is the bigger piece for the memory care. That's great. And then and then I think that you guys do your real particular, not particular, maybe is the wrong word, but your. Aware of keeping the memory, the brain active and what you can do that. But also what is sundown? What do you call that? When sundowners syndrome? Yes. Yes. So there's certain things that might agitate someone with memory care that might not be there for an assisted living resident. That's right. And, you know, really with people with dementia, they do better when they have some kind of structure in their life you know, it just helps them stay or feel maybe more secure. I think so. Yeah. That's something we try to provide. And then when there is agitation or when they are getting sick, of course we will take them to the hospital or have the hospital come get them and then bring them back. We have psychiatrists that are involved in some of our patients and some of our patients just really are fairly fairly normal in that they. Have full conversations and it's just, there's certain times where they, their neurons are not firing like they should. And they just need to be taken care of during that time. It takes, that takes a lot of work and it's hard to do at home, especially when you're going to work and having other responsibilities. It's, it can be very taxing. Yes, and I know some of the adult kids that I have talked to and spouses they can feel guilty. Like, they should be the responsible 1 and be able to do this. But yet, they still have to go to soccer practice and still have to attend graduation ceremonies and. That's an important part of life, too. But there's this pull between I need to take care of mom or my spouse, and I need to do this other thing, too. And so I can just imagine the relief that comes over someone when they find a team player that can help them with the responsibilities that is so important to them. What about families that maybe don't live close by or don't have the time to come? Is there a way that they can keep tabs on their family member or stay in communication with you? Yeah, we have the ability to zoom call families in or Give them their cell phone and help, help them make that call or if the family calls in, we we have phones that are mobile that they could have those conversations. Yeah. Can you talk about the facility itself? Like, I've been on a tour tell the listeners about the facility or the rooms, private, semi private can spouses come together talk a little bit about and the greenhouse. That's right. We have a miniature greenhouse. It's just a beautiful feature. I actually have two of them, where residents can come in and work with plants and just feel that atmosphere. That warm sun that's warmed up the room and beautiful plants that are, there's just a different atmosphere in that room. And so it is one of the sensory features that we have and it's a lot of fun. Also, we have three courtyards that are full of plants and birds that come in and the setting areas and stuff that's growing out there that we're keeping track of. That's another exciting thing about our building. Our CEO came to this building, took it over and replaced it. repurposed it for memory care. And so everything about the building is intentional. The carpet the different tiles, the colors the patterns, those are all things that have been researched and proven to help engage the mind and keep it soothed, a soothing spirit here. And then the music going, always have music going, cookies, baking. So the smells, the sounds.. And then our chef she's from, kind of from Louisiana, has that, without being too spicy, just that country flair, fried chicken and mashed potatoes and we have all those things come together to make a quality of life for someone who, you felt like was declining now they're maybe not declining so quickly, or they've even rebound a little bit just because of the environment. Right, How do you I keep hearing words like dignity and independence. How do you promote that? Well, when we ask them for the cherished stories, we want to put that in our computer so that every staff member can look up and learn each resident and maybe some of those key topics or word pictures to paint for them to remind them, Hey, you used to be an engineer. Tell me about some of the favorite things that you created. And we were able to use those stories to remind them of their lives and their loved ones. And so the memory boxes with the pictures and the quality discussions that our caregivers have and then, the friendships that are made when they go on a trip on our bus or a walk around the building some are pushing others in the wheelchair and they're holding hands and it's a just a real sweet time. Yeah, there's some maybe loud noises that come out sometimes or things that are a little concerning, but that's somebody with dementia. So that's part of it. And we don't get upset. We just remind them it's all right. And then we redirect and calm and make people feel safe to be there. Yeah. Can we talk a little bit about the cost? I know that you said that you guys are private pay. What would be included? You don't need to give specific costs because that will vary with whatever's going on, what's available and all of that. But regarding the cost of care, what's included in that? You, You've got the real Everything, Sherri, is in one cost at Proveer. That way, Proveer even though we're one of the nicest luxury environments. for memory care in all of Houston, not just North Houston. Our pricing is on the more affordable end and that's just because we are growing still and that we're still getting the word out. We're fairly new. About four years in Houston, but there's a lot of people that do what we do in this area. And I think, it's really important. And I haven't talked about this yet, but the vetting process of people that you bring onto your team and how you keep them encouraged to do the right thing. And we do a lot of training. We have a training called everybody's a marketer, the power of wow. And we tell wild stories and how it feels to go to the barber or to to get to a restaurant and be wowed and what that looks like and what that feels like. And we give incentives and we help train all of our caregivers at whatever level. Even our maintenance guy gets in there and cooks his mexican dinners and passes them out. And he's quite a guy and our executive director, Mary, she's very, very personal and she's done this a long time. She's an RN. And so she makes things fun and she's just great to work for and it sets the tone for the environment of caring. You can be very talented, but if you don't care, then you're no good to us here. And then we talk about, Hey, what's, what does a caregiver do? Well, it's in the first part of the word we care. And so we have to hire people who care. And if they, they do a good job interviewing and then they don't really follow that up. We make short order of that and maybe help them find another job somewhere else. But here we can't afford to have things fall through the cracks. Right. Can you share one of the wow stories from Proveer? Is there a success story that you can tell us about? There's one that sticks out and I'll be honest. I use it a lot because it really was spectacular how it all happened. There's a young man who came to us over a year ago and man, he had this scour on his face and his heart was heavy and, tears in his eyes at times talking about his mom. And we said, you know what? Let's go to do an assessment. Let's look at her and let's kind of find out if she qualifies for this level of care. He said, great. She lives at this independent living and we went there and we met with her. She brought us out some food and just was lovely to talk to. And she didn't sound like she had dementia at all. Like the opposite. She'd been walking that day and she was cooking for us. I mean, she was just as sharp as she could be. Well, I went back to Dustin. I said, Dustin, I don't know, man. I think that I don't know if she qualifies. She, he goes, Mike, the police found her.. In the helicopter, the hel wandering about three miles that she lives. And I'm I said, well, can't her husband to kind of help take care had talked a lot about her Like, my dad's been dead 8 years and so you sometimes you don't really know what's going on and it could be a subtle change or a slight change but puts the person in danger to be alone and when it's just kind of overwhelming when you figure that out. And he was in that place and he struggled to bring her and he had said, we're going to do it this day. And he's now we're going to wait another week. And he kept doing that. I said, Dustin, if you really feel like this, something needs to happen the sooner, the better. And I promise you, we're going to take care of her. Well, he decided to bring her in and had the whole family come in. And it took a good hour for them to leave after moving her in. And he was just in tears and she kind of had thrown a fit when she first came in and we redirected her. And two hours later, she was laughing and having fun and never looked back. And he comes and he, I had left this company for about a year to do another project. And they'd invited me to come back and I love the building. So I said, sure, I want to come back. Well, he didn't know I was back until he saw me at a family Thanksgiving event a couple of months ago. And he just ran up to me and hugged me. And then we had a a tour the other day and another lady just really heavy hearted and he's coming in and says, if you're looking at this building, you. This is the place to be and he gave me a big hug. I'm about almost 300 pounds and he picked me up and shook me. And it's a feel good story because it works and you have to care. You have to have a community and an environment of caring and of cherishing. And that's what we try to create here. And I'm really, really thankful for my team and our leadership here because they, they make that purposeful and intentional and it works. Yeah, I think it's palatable when you're in the place. Yeah, you really can. If there's someone listening and I hope there is, and they're on the fence about, is this the time? Is this the place? It's what are the next steps? I'm feeling a little apprehensive. Just from your heart to theirs, forget that I'm here, just speak directly to them. What would you say to encourage them about the next step? What might that be for them? Well, it's important to shop. It's important to, to research and familiarize yourself with what's going on in healthcare right now and what the options are. There's so many options. There's visiting physicians, there's visiting. hearing testing, there's visiting phlebotomy. There's people that are doing everything and making it more easy for you to access. But when you're talking about memory care you're talking about a place where you can trust the people that are watching over your loved one. And I would, Love to have you just come and see this place, meet us, meet our staff and see what we're doing. I'm really feel confident if we can get someone to tour here, they're going to give us the first shot because just the things that I've explained and don't be afraid to spend a little time at other places. And um, just go with your gut. The Bible says that if any of you lack wisdom, let them ask God who promises to give all men equally and let him ask with faith and believe that God will do it. And he promises to give you wisdom. And you might be in a situation now where You just really need some wisdom and I encourage you to go to the source because he loves you and he knows the pain that you're in. And he wants to help you find a solution, whatever that might be. And it may not be Proveer but he loves you and he will provide. And I encourage you to give that important person that important decision to him. And that's, that's, that's what I'd say. Yeah, I can. I'm sure that you're not going to strong arm them. You're not going to make them sign anything. It doesn't hurt to call and come visit and ask some questions. And then and then they, take it from there, you don't have to go with the first one, but take it from there. What would be some good? What would be some good questions? Like, how would they know? What? What would you advise them to look for when they're touring different places? What would I would ask? What is your caregiver to resident ratio? What are the activities that you do? How do you vet your employees? What do you look for? Ask how the food is, maybe even come in, bring your loved one to test a lunch or a, because that's a good idea. Yeah, you might ask how much it is to do a respite. And have a little trial with your family member, if that would make you feel better just to give us, give it a try ask them how often your prices will go up, ask what the packages mean and the levels of care are with us, we all, we don't have any of that. But there are people that on a point system will decide how much you pay. Those are all important questions. Meet the executive director, meet the administrator, find out if they're the real deal, if they're just getting a paycheck meet the health and wellness people, meet the activities person and ask the other. Asked to call a couple of the families that have their loved one in that place. And could you just give me somebody that you'd like me to, and then call them and ask them, Hey, is this, what are your, some of your concerns and what have been some frustrations? And what do you like about the place and go around the marketer, but people like me, it's your job to, to sell census and get to who's really doing the caregiving. And Maybe research, look at Google reviews, look at Facebook or LinkedIn and some of the social media things, go to the website. Those are those things that will help your gut tell you if this is a good place or not. And then trust the Lord for wisdom, right? Yes. So you're gathering all this information to be able to make that informed decision because you don't want to move someone twice if you don't have, I mean, if you need to, it's very, it's hard on them. So it's good to make the right choice. The first time if you can. Mike, how can people find you and how can they reach you? Okay. Well, we're on the internet and the name of our company is Proveer P R O V E E R at Northgate. We are located. Here's my address. 2930 Cypress Grove, metal meadows drive, Cypress Grove meadows drive, Houston, Texas. Seven seven oh one four And then our phone number is (281) 315-1450 or my cell is (832) 512-4659. Call me directly, text me. Call our community here and ask for me, Mike Houston. or ask for Mary, our executive director, and we'll be glad to show you around and listen to your story and see what we can do to help. If it's not memory care, I have a whole bunch of resources of people I've met over the last 20 years, and chances are we can help you find some solutions, including you, Mrs. Sherri. Yeah, that's awesome. And so those those numbers and addresses will be in the show notes for those of you that might be on the trail or driving right now. Mike, thank you so much. Is there anything that you feel like needed to have been said that I read, I miss bringing up or you didn't think about at the time. Is there anything else that you feel like is on your heart to say? I really feel like I would just be talking more and nobody needs that. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Mike. Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you, sherri. You do a great job. Thank you. And for those of you that are listening, Mike and I, again, just want to underline you're not alone. You're not the only 1 to be in this situation. Other people have gone before you and Mike and I have prepared ourselves to be available to you because we want to help be a part of that net that safety net that carries you through this difficult season. And I believe that you can be even better on the other side because of the care and community that you feel as you're going through this challenge. Thank you for joining me here on the podcast. I hope you'll come back and listen again. Hit that subscribe button. So you don't miss an episode and know that you matter and we'll see you next time.