All Home Care Matters

All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome Alzheimer's advocate and 2022 Maude Award Recipient Mary Crescenzo as a guest to the show.

Mary Crescenzo is a recipient of the 2022 Maude’s Award for Individual Innovation for Dementia Care for her pioneer work in arts engagement with persons with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Her book, The Planet Alzheimer’s Guide: 8 Ways the Arts Can Transform the Life of Your Loved One and Your Own, is a how-to guide for care partners in the use of the arts to enhance connection and communication with persons living with this disease. Mary is also an award-winning author, playwright, and public speaker. In June, 2022, her play Planet A was staged as a fundraiser for the Alzheimer’s Association.

Mary is co-host with Lori La Bey, host of Alzheimer's Speaks "Dementia & Arts Education panel” radio podcast; and creator and facilitator of "Creative Writing for Caregivers" a safe place to find respite, relaxation and revelation. As speaker, workshop facilitator, and consultant for individuals and memory care facilities, her presentations provide comprehensive insight on Care Through the Arts℠ in the use of art to foster creativity, self-expression and joy for both caregiver and persons cared for. She is a member of AlzAuthors, Teaching Artist Guild, Society of International Female Professionals, The Dramatists Guild, and SAG-AFTRA.

Annalee started Care Right Inc, in 2011. Care Right is a nation-wide consultancy serving families across the US in developing customized Aging Plans. Prior, she worked as a social worker, marketing director, and executive director in long term care communities for 18 years and saw a need for families to start discussing the “what ifs” of aging sooner rather than later.

Annalee launched the Care Right Family Caregiver Solutions Facebook group, providing solutions, tips, support, education, and sense of community to family caregivers across the world.

Annalee is also working with two international Accreditation firms to create an academy, (ASCA—Aging Strategist Coaching Academy) allowing her robust Aging Strategist training program to be accredited and certify the coaches who go through the academy.

She trains financial advisors across the US in becoming an Elder Planning Specialist, teaching advisors to better identify AND address the needs of their aging clients or those clients who are adult children/family caregivers and burning out. Annalee also started the Care Crusade, a national campaign to improve the quality of care for our seniors and vulnerable adults.

Annalee is a national speaker and podcast guest on aging planning, aging issues, dementia care, improving family communication throughout the aging process, and many other topics. Annalee’s book, The Invisible Patient: the emotional, financial, and physical toll on family caregivers is available on Amazon.

All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome Misti Freeman Staley as our guest to the show to learn the story behind FreeArm and The Freeman Foundation and how she is helping to change the lives of families.

Misti’s son Freeman Ellis Staley was born in 2015 with heart and lung complications. 3.5 months were spent in the Little Rock Arkansas Children’s Hospital NICU, home for 5 weeks, and then back in the PICU for another 5 months before Freeman sadly lost his battle with pulmonary hypertension at 10 months old. After Freeman’s passing, Misti devoted a full year of her time to Freeman Foundation, raising $250K to build a state-of-the-art, ADA accessible playground in downtown Helena, Arkansas. Freeman Playground, at opening, was the only Arkansas playground within 90 miles of Helena with ramps on the equipment and a poured in place rubber surface for children with special needs. Freeman Playground brings joy to the community while remembering Freeman and many other children who have left this world too soon. Misti continues to manage Freeman Foundation while also working as CEO of Staley House LLC, creator of the FreeArm.

Misti and her husband Will needed an extra hand tube feeding their son Freeman, so they created one- The FreeArm! The FreeArm holds gravity syringe feeds, pump feeds and infusions at the hospital, home and on-the-go, giving mobility and consistency to tube feeding and home infusion. The FreeArm has been on the market since late 2018 and is helping parents, Tubies and caregivers worldwide. The FreeArm is a patent pending, FDA class one medical device and billable for insurance coverage. The FreeArm and Freeman Playground give Freeman’s short life larger meaning. Misti is happy to continue to spread Freeman’s legacy of love.

All Home Care Matters was honored to welcome Katy Plant, GM of Canary Health and Dr. Veronica Yank M.D. of UCSF to the show to discuss the Power of Peers Providing Caregiver Support with Building Better Caregivers with Canary Health.

Katy trained in Public Health and has worked in digital health for over 2 decades. She spent 15 years at Stanford University as a researcher at the School of Medicine where she worked on a variety of studies spanning women’s health, chronic disease prevention, cancer survivors, diabetes self-management, and caregiving. She has considerable experience with developing online programs for people with chronic health conditions and their caregivers and has co-authored numerous research papers. Katy has also spent time working at the National Council on Aging as a Product Director, and continues to have a passion for working with older adults.

Katy is an inventor of the Building Better Caregivers® online program offered Nationally at the VA. Katy is currently the General Manager for a digital therapeutics company, Canary Health. When Katy is not working, you can usually find her on a soccer field somewhere in Northern California.

Dr. Veronica Yank is a primary care physician-investigator. Her research focuses on informal (family/friend) caregivers and on improving care to prevent and manage chronic conditions in primary care, community, and home-based settings, particularly conditions associated with elevated cardiovascular disease risk (e.g., diabetes, chronic kidney disease), older adults, and heavy caregiver burden (e.g., dementia). She does health services research, community-based randomized controlled trials, and implementation studies using mixed methods with LatinX, urban, and rural underserved patients, families, and communities. She is core faculty within the Multiethnic Health Equity Research Center and Co-Director of the National Clinician Scholars Program at UCSF.

All Home Care Matters is honored to welcome a good friend and even more remarkable guest to the show, Carrie Aalberts aka "Dementia Darling. Carrie has devoted herself to supporting and helping caregivers who are caring for loved ones with dementia. Carrie Aalberts aka Dementia Darling has her Master of Science focused in Gerontology and has worked alongside seniors for the last ten years. She specializes in dementia care and engagement with experience in various settings such as adult day care and assisted living. Carrie is a Certified Dementia Practitioner and more recently a Montessori Dementia Care Professional. She is known for her social media persona, Dementia Darling. Carrie created Dementia Darling in fall 2019 to provide a safe space for Dementia Caregivers to find tips, education and support. Dementia Darling's mission is the ensure that no caregiver feels alone.