People worth Caring About with Peter Murphy Lewis and Erin Hart - Episode 84

💙 This week, host Diane Carbo dives into the heart of a transformative docuseries that’s reshaping how we see caregiving in America. 🎬

Joining us are:

• Peter Murphy Lewis – CNA, global storyteller, and TV host
• Erin Hart – Healthcare strategist with the Ohio Healthcare Association

Together, they discuss People Worth Caring About, an unscripted docuseries that's turning everyday caregiving into a national movement. 💪🏽🏥

🗂️ Episode Highlights:

✨ The emotional power of real stories from nursing homes and group homes
🎥 How storytelling is being used to recruit caregivers and influence policy
❤️ Meaningful, unscripted moments that show the deep connection between caregivers and residents
👵🏽 Why long-term care deserves respect – and how it's changing lives every day
📣 Insightful reflections on aging, dignity, and advocacy

If you’ve ever cared for a loved one or work in senior care, this episode is for YOU. 💬 It will move you, inspire you, and remind you why your work matters.

🔗 Watch the series on YouTube: People Worth Caring About – Ohio

🙌 Support the movement:
✅ Listen
✅ Share with someone under 25
✅ Visit a local facility
✅ Be the change in elder care

💬 Have a caregiving story or challenge? Reach out at caregiverrelief.com – your journey could support someone else.

🧡 Because caregivers are people worth caring about, too.

Podcast Episode Transcript

Diane: Welcome to the Caregiver Relief Podcast, where we bring real world stories, expert voices, and meaningful conversations to help caregivers thrive. I'm Diane Carbo, registered nurse your host, and today I'm excited to highlight a powerful new docu series that is transforming how we seek caregivers and long-term care in America.

People worth caring about is more than a documentary. It is a movement, one that shines a light on the everyday heroes working in nursing homes, group homes, and skilled care facilities. What started in Nebraska is now spreading across the country with the most recent state, Ohio being just premiered.

Joining me today are two remarkable guests, Peter Murphy Lewis, a CNA, a world traveler, and a storyteller, powerhouse and TV host who brings his media experience to the front lines of elder care. And with him is his partner in crime. Erin Hart, a passionate healthcare strategist and director at the Ohio Healthcare Association, who is changing the narrative around long-term care from the inside out.

Here's some key takeaways from this. Podcast, the Power of Real Stories. Why This Unscripted Docuseries is touching hearts and changing perceptions about caregivers and nursing homes. We're gonna learn about recruitment through storytelling, how this film is being used to inspire future caregivers and educate policy makers.

We're going to discuss caregiving with dignity moving moments from behind the scenes that show how deeply caregivers connect with those that they serve. If you're a caregiver or work in senior care, this episode will remind you why your work matters, and how storytelling can inspire systemic change.

And remember, I really wanna hear from you. If you'd like us to cover a topic that matters to you, or you're faced a caregiving challenge and found a way through it, reach out to me@caregiverrelief.com You're experience could help someone else feel less alone. If you feel this episode was helpful, please like, share, and subscribe.

It helps us reach more caregivers just like you because no one should walk this journey alone.

Now let's dive into this extraordinary conversation with Peter Murphy Lewis and Erin Hart.

Erin: Thank you for having us.

Peter: Likewise.

Diane: Peter, I see that you were a CNA and I just love that I got a giggle because as I watched the trailer, that you provided me, which we will be putting on our site as well, I see how at home and comfortable you were around the residents, it looked like you guys were really having a good time. They definitely were.

Peter: Yeah, my story, it started off from a, I wanna say more of a business, less human. Erin is a real, caregiver. I started off to become a CNA, so I could understand it as a marketer because I was working for an electronic healthcare records company and then fell in love with the industry and Erin fell in love with the industry for the right reasons. None of that matters when it comes together on screen because Erin found some amazing partners in Ohio to, portray what's special about their care caregivers. And I just went in kind of like a curious old man trying to figure out what I want to do and I get older.

Diane: Well, I'm 72 and I still don't want know what I wanna be when I grow up. So what inspired the creation of people work worth caring about? for both of you, I want you to answer this. How did this collaboration between media frontline caregiving and advocacy begin?

Peter: I'll let Erin share her story, on, because she reached out to me and it was really beautiful and I think it was only two phone calls and she put, the second season together, so I'll let her share hers.

Erin: I heard about the story from Nebraska. I'm part of a larger national association, and one of our sister seats had done this docuseries with Peter. and I watched it. I watched the first episode and then I watched all of the other episodes and once sitting, and I was really moved by the hospice episode because I have a background in hospice as well.

But we knew Peter, he had come to our conference a couple of years earlier and done a podcast during a very difficult time in our lives, during COVID, really highlighting the long-term care heroes that I think it was LTC Heroes, that is the name of the podcast. And we knew immediately that we wanted to do this in Ohio.

We have over 600 nursing facility members in our association. And a lot of the organizations that are in Ohio are still family owned and operated. so we knew that we had, because of our awards program, we get about 125 nominations a year on the awesome caregivers that we have in our state. And I knew, like I have this huge treasure trove of stories that I would love to tell other people and to help people see the other side.

Of long-term care that's not portrayed as much in the media. So I reached out to Peter and I said, we're really interested. I would love to work on this with you. And he told me how it would work and we kinda took it from there.

Peter: We were filming four months later. I think it we , agreed On November 1st and February 12th, I think we were in Columbus and meeting Erin the very next day.

Diane: Oh, that's fascinating. I lived in Medina, Ohio, and I worked at, Akron General, and then I worked as an agency nurse in many different nursing homes. So I was real excited when you did this because, it's an under, reported, they're ignored, that the caregivers are ignored.

Erin: They're, and they are completely the backbone of what we do.

Diane: absolutely

Erin: they do like, most of the work.

Diane: So honey, I will tell. Pardon me. Forgive me for saying honey, but they do all of the work. I can attest to that. Peter, you're such a global storytelling. You have such a global storytelling background. What drew you specifically to the world of healthcare in long-term care in the US.

Peter: Initially it's 'cause I got recruited. Into the marketing role, but within about six months, I started to connect with kind of some emotional guilt that I had around moving to South America when I was 23 years old. about six months after I moved my grandparents into a nursing home. And those grandparents were very important to me and they had a great care, unfortunately by a nursing home that has now. no longer in existence, and my father was an amazing caregiver who visited them every single day, and I think it was through that process.

I've always been a vulnerable. Maybe not self-aware, but on the journey of becoming self-aware. and that process made me realize that I wanted to pay back, the people who'd taken care of my grandparents. And the only way I could really do it at a bigger level was taking my experience from media and tv, and turning that into something that's more evergreen, that someone outside of long-term care would see and maybe impact their lives.

I always tell Aaron and my friends, I always say I made this docuseries with people like, Ohio caregivers so that we can steal young teenagers who are thinking about working at Walmart and have them come in and take care of America seniors, and it's a win win relationship. I don't think most people realize that when you go to work it might be hard, but it's very, very rewarding. I don't think most people say that when they go to retail. And so we might as well give those teenagers a chance if we're not telling them, we're missing out on the opportunity to make their life more fulfilled.

Diane: Well, and we also have a public health crisis in this country. We have more seniors than youth. We have no one really to care for our seniors, and it's falling a lot on the family caregivers, which we'll talk about later as well. But Erin, you're someone with deep roots in healthcare operations and policy. Why was it important to you to tell caregiver stories in this way?

Erin: A couple of reasons. I don't think anybody who works in this industry specifically long-term care wasn't horribly traumatically impacted by COVID. In one of our buildings, we lost 35 residents in one building, and it was devastating and we had to start changing the narrative that people had about us because not only could we not care for the people that we had with the staff that we had, we couldn't bring new people in because they have this perception of people, dying in nursing homes from this horrible COVID pandemic, which frankly was completely out of our control.

Yes. It just seemed like such a good opportunity and a good time for us to start highlighting. Not only that we have very rewarding careers, as Peter said it is. I, also have a little side story, a little segue on this, that I came into long-term care, not thinking that I was going to stay like most people.

But when you go home every day feeling good about what you do, it keeps you in your truck. And then you become passionate, and then in my case, you become an advocate for it. Yes. So like I not only really care about, the people that I serve and our members and our residents, but about the profession. It's an honorable profession and a pro a service that we provide. So just being able to tell that story and to reframe this story that's been told about us so that we can get these people into our billings to take care of our seniors because frankly.

We do not have enough people for one on one care in someone's home. Like for, as for as little staff we have in long-term care facilities, it would take 4, 5, 6 times as many people to care for you in your home. And unfortunately, not everybody has family that can care for them, not to mention the impacts of social isolation. so we just really needed to help people understand that it's not a scary place, it's not a bad place, it's not a bad job. And to get people into our buildings and working in our industry.

Diane: Assisted living is taking the money that used to go into the nursing homes. And I can tell people, and I tell this all the time, assisted living is one of the most dangerous of the, medical delivery systems, and it's not for any other reason that it's based on a social model, not a medical model.

The clients, the patients, the residents, whatever you wanna call them, are supposed to be able to direct their care and it's a miscommunication between the families and the facilities. The families believe the facilities are gonna do what they did in nurse do in nursing homes. They're gonna see things, take care of things, address things, and in assisted living.

That's not the case. They're not medical professionals to the degree that you would have, like the CNAs are certified. They have knowledge. So I really love the idea that you're putting a focus on the long-term care nursing homes because there's a lot of good people that work in them and, they're ignored. I'm gonna ask you both what makes this docuseries different from the typical healthcare workforce campaigns or recruitment videos you see out there

Peter: You go first, Erin.

Erin: I would say the biggest difference is that it's a hundred percent real. Is there actual people who live every day working in this industry and have worked some of them 35 years in this industry, and some of them, are 24 years old and have worked there for two years. But it's real stories. It's real residents and it's real reactions. There was no scripting, there was no prep work really. We just came, we showed up and we followed them around. And I think that reality that we captured is very, very moving. the other thing is that we didn't just capture one type of story.

They're all very diverse residents in the, sense of actual diversity and ethnicity, but also with diverse in the population. I'll give an example. One of the places that we filmed was a literally a home. For people with developmental disabilities, which looks totally different from our, 200 bed facility that was built 10 years ago. it shows like not only real stories, but a huge array of what can be offered in the field.

Diane: I love that. Because people may not want to deal with somebody of the elderly, but here you're giving them an experience to deal with a younger population that they can help and maybe help benefit, their lives in some way. Both of them, the caregiver and the resident of the home. I really like that. so how did you choose which caregivers and stories to feature?

Erin: That was so hard. as I mentioned, we had like 125 stories, I have to mention Valentina, who was the director of the docuseries and really did a phenomenal job just coordinating everything. She is amazing, but the divvying down. So first I had to go through the stories and just really find that resident connection that really showcased.

Not just that we have a good caregiver and they come to work and they help cover shifts and they're nice to everyone, but that they love their residents. That's really the story that we wanna showcase. And we narrowed it down to 20 and then after having interviews with each of the people to see how comfortable they were being filmed, we don't wanna make someone un unhappy by showcasing their story. And from there we kept narrowing it down more and more until we got to our final eight. We had one as a backup that we ended up having to use because of an outbreak at one of our facilities. But, yeah, it was a lengthy, that was the longest part of the process.

Diane: I'm sure some of the caregivers were hesitant not because of the way they were gonna be treated, but how the patients or the residents may re react and respond. It could be quite funny actually. Some, seniors are quite, interactive and love the attention, so I can see.

Erin: Oh yeah. One of our residents really took a liking to Peter and,

Peter: I did get a kiss.

Erin: You did get a kiss.

Peter: A sloppy kiss. She was 90.

Diane: That's awesome. Now, what was the experience like for the caregivers being filmed?

Erin: it's, hard to say I, I wasn't one of the caregivers, but they seemed, and especially at the premier, when we showcased our film for everyone, invited everyone to come in and see, and we had a big theater downtown in Columbus. They seemed to be so honored and proud of what they do. And I think we picked people who would feel really proud about it, to showcase for this event.

I think there was a lot of nerves at first too. people were nervous, Peter is, I don't wanna speak free, but he's so like approachable and nice and he put people at ease. So that kind of went away pretty quickly.

Diane: I saw that interaction on the trailer and I thought, oh, he's a natural. And I thought you'd probably been doing a CNA for years. so you really are a people person.

Peter: I think just being curious and asking the questions, makes it easy for others. I always, when people always ask, what's the secret? I say, it's not a secret in the us especially amongst men. But I would say that this is, unrelated to gender. As we get older, we believe that asking questions makes you look dumb because knowledge is something that we aspire to have more of. And asking questions is a reflection of not having knowledge, but that's bad for television. it only looks good for people for about an hour, and then they realize there's a lot of things you don't know. So we might as well be honest from the beginning to ask lots and lots and lots of questions and that will make it interesting to viewers outside of our niche and our healthcare space.

Diane: I've been a nurse for over 50 years, and I can tell you that, seniors, if you show an interest in them, just wanna share their life stories, their experiences. And I love that because, and I see so many. The aides in the nursing homes, they really get to know those patients and they know what they're about. And I had one aide in a facility in Philadelphia. They had a big, huge tub that you could lift. A person that was unable, that was bedridden into the tub and nobody wants to use that. this little aide would get this little lady in her, In the bathtub with, she brought her own bubble bath for her and the lotion for her, she put, it was just so precious how she took care of this lady. The lady was non-communicative, but this, they bonded and it was so sweet to see, and I've seen this so many times over the years. Aids coming in, bringing in special food. Like I had this one little cute, black patient. She was from the south, living up north, and one of the aides would bring her in greens, colored greens and stuff when they would make 'em. And that's just, touching. That they have that much care. 'cause they don't make a lot of money, but they really care about what they do. Peter, I'm gonna ask you, were there any moments during filming that especially moved you or shifted your own perspective on caregiving?

Peter: There's many, probably mini per episode. I'll drop in a couple. There's one that I've repeated. I would say more than a hundred times at this point to, people inside of our industry and outside of our industry that had an impact on me. It's two girls that I met. On the outskirts of Cincinnati, it was at a facility that we weren't supposed to film in. We had a last minute change because of a COVID outbreak. So Erin and the leadership team at Ohio, started going through the list of people who were finalists and asked them if they could, receive us the very next day and start filming without any prep. come in on their days off, and they introduced me to two young sisters. Katie and Mary, both of them under the age of 26 or 27 years old. And two years ago they were working at Subway. They were, passing out 12 inch hoagie sandwiches. And someone smart inside of this organization at Covenant Village said, Hey, this sister has a knack for listening and paying attention and briefly, slowly brought one in and they brought the second one in. And these two girls said, when I asked them where, how much longer are they gonna work in long-term care? they have 30 years ahead of them professionally to do whatever they want. And they said as long as they can, as until somebody fires them. And then they make jokes about that they've already picked out their bed. Anyone who's worked in nursing home understands that everyone picks their bed, when you're an employee. but these girls were doing it. In a world where we don't think young people should be, it should be fun. They should be on TikTok, they should be trying to do all these things that the three of us know don't matter.

And these girls figured out 20 years before I did, to do something that matters. So that's beautiful and I think goes to show that, our goal here is to recruit people away from. Subway and Walmart. These two girls are gonna tell the story better than I can. They actually did it. That was a big one that had an impact on me. I would say another one would be the facility that Erin talked about that has, young adults from 18 all the way up to, I think 70 years old. This was the intermediate care facility and there was some gentlemen in there that were just. Amazingly beautiful at telling how special the caregivers are in their life. Caregivers often are too humble to, toot their own horn. And so sometimes we have to lean on residents to do it, and these residents did it and they came to the premier, and you could hear them reacting to seeing themselves on screen and hear them. You could hear them say things like. I love you. And they were talking about their caregivers out loud in between the breaks.

And the gentleman, in front of me during the premier, is an important decision maker in the healthcare space. And he was shaking like this back and forth in the premier, leaning forward from doubling over, laughing from here, there action. And when he would lean up, I could. See the light of the big screen on his eyes, and he was crying and laughing at the exact same time. And I said, that reminds me of, a famous documentarian in the United States. Everyone who likes kind of slow quality con conversational, no, Ken Burns. Ken Burns was on a podcast two weeks ago with Joe Rogan and he said, documentaries are the only place where you can present. Complexities, contradictions, and juxtapose these stories and change someone's opinion. And I think that it's stories like Echoing Hills, glass Peaks, covenant Village, where you could go in saying, I have a negative perception of long-term care. Then you see these caregivers that you can see that they're not perfect. They don't speak on front of a stage. They're not movie stars. they don't look like models, but you hear how great their story is and it can change your opinion on what you think and you'll, you better quit talking about nursing homes and the way that we used to, because these are people's homes and these are people's jobs. And I always say, I would never. If I picked up my son from, one of his friend's house and his friend lives in a trailer home, which is true story, so my friend has, my son has a friend who lives a mile away from me. He lives in a trailer home, pretty, pretty sad place after eight o'clock at night. I would never, ever talk about negative about those people's homes or their negative or their neighborhood. And so why would I ever do that? About a residence home or, where Mary and Katie work?

Diane: Yeah. and you know what? Nursing homes really do get a bad rap, but I have to tell you that they're more regulated than NASA. there's so many things going on that to ensure safety that, I really appreciated your approach to this series. Erin, how is this series currently being used for recruitment training and policy advocacy? And can you share some examples of the impact it's had so far.

Erin: so to our premier, we invited, the Ombudsman office, our Department of Health, our Department of Developmental Disabilities, and they all came, which is really important to give them like a front stage view of what it is that we do, not involving a complaint situation, because that's the only time that they're in the building. Are these really tense Exactly. Difficult problems. we've also just been using it as. Right now we're in the state budget and we're trying to help our legislators understand how their decisions impact our workforce. And so we have all these wonderful social media clips that Peter and his team provided for us that we've been sending out to the legislators as we talk to them about policy.

And then the last thing that we're working on right now, actually, we have a work group on our workforce committee, working on some fine tuning of some handbooks that are. HR departments will use as they talk to new employees and orient them and they can use these videos. But, and also I think the biggest case use that we have for these is going out and speaking to high school students and middle school students about what it's like to work in long-term care as an active recruitment tool. And then they will bring the episode with them and use the workbook to talk through with them as we get these like career engagement opportunities with young people.

Diane: One of the things that hospitals used to do, 'cause I did it, I was a candy striper and I was a volunteer and I'd go after school a couple times a week for a few hours. I got a awards with other girls because we did over a thousand hours over a peer, over a year of volunteering and that. Led me to nursing. 'cause I was always gonna be a teacher until then. So I think that I wish that hospitals would get back into that because it just, or, if not hospitals, nursing homes, because it gives an exposure.

Erin: yeah, we really wish we could. But as you mentioned, we are the most regulated environment and we can't permit minors to. Give hands-on direct care in most instances in a nursing facility.

Diane: I'll tell you what though. In a Mennonite facility in one of the fac, one of the, in Pennsylvania that I was in, they had people just pass water pass. That kind of thing or transport, Lord knows all, everybody can use somebody to take somebody somewhere. so I think there, it doesn't have to be hands on. I would just go pick up something at the pharmacy and take it up. Now they have ways, other ways to do that, but there's so many things that can be done that would actually help the staff because what's missed? People don't get water passed like they did in the hospitals. I'm talking about not the nursing homes, but those types of things. And Lord knows activity directors could help, have some help during the day in the nursing homes to give the, The residents, some, somebody else to interact with other than themselves. it's just great. So I've gotta ask you, Erin, how have employers healthcare associations, which you belong to and poli policymakers, are they, have they responded to this series?

Erin: Yeah. I know many of our members who are a part of our association have been sharing it with anyone and everyone that they can. And I think, the initial feedback that we received from, for example, the state ombudsman office, which is a really important partner. Yes. but also someone who may not have a very positive view of facilities due to their focus on resident rights, understandably. it was all extremely positive and they were, just over overwhelmed with how much it touched them. How much, they really felt moved by some of the relationships that we were talking about and showcasing. And so it's been really impactful. We've had a lot of folks kinda latch onto it and wanna spread it around and, we're excited for all the more people who get to reach it.

Diane: Seeing a mindset shift like that around the workforce challenges is really imperative at this time in our lives because we do have a silver tsunami coming. It's here and it's just going to continue to get worse. So what's next ,

Peter: I'd like to share something about that impact that the Ohio season has had. Maybe beyond what Erin knows is in. I was invited just last week to present to a board of directors of a large, national association, for CEOs in Chicago, and they specifically wanted me to talk about how people worth caring about can have an impact on going beyond short storytelling, but rather changing the narrative. Because a story has a beginning and an end, and it's a real story. it's a full loop. It's a real human being. But if we put those stories together strategically, we can create a narrative that's accurate, that's complex, and that we can change the perception and. That's the direction that we think that this can go and it's stories, from Ohio and from the other states that they see that PO potential.

And I started off the conversation with the presentation. I said, alright, how many people in here are optimistic that we can change the perception of long-term care 10 years from now? On a scale of one to 10, and almost everybody was somewhere between kind of a four and a six, 10 being very optimistic and one being very pessimistic. Everyone is between four and a six. And I said, actually, let's go through some changes in perception in the last 20 years. I said, do you all remember where we were in 2000 with HIV and aids? Things have changed. Do you know where we were in 2010 with marijuana? Things changed, right? Yeah. Do you know where we were with abortion 15 years ago? Yeah, things are changing and it can be done. No one could imagine in 2005 that, marijuana would be acceptable as it is, especially for pain and the stigma that it was around it. We were sending people to jail for their lifetime 30 years ago, and I said, in long-term care we can do this, and we have the assets. We just have to get organized. And on July 3rd, I'm gonna be asked to present the exact same concept. To a large association of educators. So state universities in the United States wanna know how storytelling can help them also control the narrative. So this is going, not just staying in long-term care, it's getting bigger thanks to Erin and her members who tell their story in this way.

Diane: That's beautiful. So what's next for people worth caring about? How do you envision the project growing in other states or care settings?

Peter: So we have been booked for a fourth season. That it, we filmed in Kentucky in March of next year or February of 2026. The third season, New Mexico will be premiered on August 22nd. So you can do the math. Diane, we have. Seven episodes per season over four different states so far. That's more than 28 episodes. And there's three caregivers that are the face of each episode. So 28 times three we're already getting up high. yes. and we'll be there, we'll be there soon. That is where I think that it's going. My conversation with American Healthcare Association is, my dream is for us to cover all 50 states and the states that are smaller, we create some type of scholarship, to help them fund this and get their stories out. I would like in, two or three years. Erin and I can go back to, doing what our day job is and that other states will take this on and make it bigger and we can change the perception so Erin doesn't have to lobby for staffing. Rather, we have a whole bunch of people flocking to become CNA. So I'm a big dreamer.

Diane: I love it, and it's people like you that affect change, so I love that. So how can family caregivers, my listeners, and professional caregivers in our audience help amplify this project or get involved?

Peter: I'll take a swing first. if you don't mind, Erin. Google it. Go to YouTube right now and just put in people worth caring about Ohio right away. And you're gonna see, the seven episodes there. You're gonna see Nebraska in a couple months. You'll see New Mexico Watch 10 minutes. Each episode is 10 to 15 minutes, and I guarantee that you will be moved. You'll laugh, you might cry, and you, all I ask is you share it. Somebody under the age of 25 who you know has a big heart and was looking to make a difference in the bigger world, just start by watching and sharing it with one person. I think that can turn into a domino effect.

Diane: Pay attention listeners out there, get on YouTube, look for it, and I'll put a link to your YouTube channel. On my page that we create as well.

Erin: So the other thing that I would add to that is, most of the people that I know who work in long-term care are caregivers in their homes as well. I would encourage people that even if you are a caregiver, actively, or, and more so if you were a caregiver, if perhaps the person that you cared for is no longer under your care for one reason or another, that you take that skill and that passion that you have and apply it to all the people who could use your love. go to a local facility and even if it's just to volunteer for a day, see what it's like. It might not be what you think it is. And, family caregivers are, like I said, the huge source of people who end up becoming long-term caregivers in the industry as well.

Diane: Okay. Now for each of you what is one key message or insight you hope viewers take away from watching this series?

Erin: I'll go first. I just hope people see that there's another side to our story, that it's not all what you hear in the news that's sensationalized from the media about unfortunate either accidents or situations, that most people who work in long-term care and most long-term care settings are really wonderful places and are really wonderful, wonderful people. I have never met anybody who works in long-term care, who doesn't love what they do, like love it a lot. so I hope that people can give it a second chance. and a lot of folks have never even stepped foot in a nursing facility. They only know what they have heard. so I encourage people, to watch this, to keep an open mind and to maybe go visit a resident. go see what it's actually like.

Peter: Yeah, I'll piggyback off Erin's message that, you can make a difference. There's very few industries that every single day you can make a difference in somebody's life. Long-term care is one of those unique places. Not only do you get to build a relationship, but you improve the quality of their life every single day, and I will guarantee that'll affect yours. So walk into a nursing home. Volunteer three hours and we in the United States, because of COVID, we've missing out on two to four years of generations of middle schoolers who didn't have that. Because of COVID. And that means that we're gonna continue to have fewer and fewer volunteers, but we can write that and we can correct that. And so I guess the message here is exactly that, America's seniors need you and there's faces on this program who doing the work that maybe I can't do or don't have the time, or haven't made the time and they're doing it. And you can start as well.

Diane: Now finally, what advice would you give leaders and policymakers about better supporting the caregiver workforce today?

Erin: Oh, so much advice. really it's, the primary message is this, cutting away, the support and services for our elders is not going to make the problem go away. people who receive care and long-term care facilities and were funded by federal programs are there because they've lived a long, enriching life and they maybe were policemen and doctors and veterans, and we cannot, as a country and as a state, abandon those folks. We need to care for them as long as, you know they need it. so I really encourage our policy makers to examine the priorities of who it is that we need to be taken care of and ensure that those folks are taken care of. And that, funding for Medicaid is. While not adequate is how we pay, it's not sustainable for people to work in long-term care.

Diane: I'll be this one to say it's not sustainable. I worked for two of the largest nursing home national chains in the country. And, a lot of them were Medicaid and it's just not sustainable. And our policy makers have got to provide more funds for providing care for our elderly. I'm all on board with that. Peter, you wanna

Peter: Chime in? My last message around it, and this is a little bit more psychological, sociological, but I think that if there's a policymaker, listen to it, they're smart enough to understand. I believe that one of the reasons that we have a negative perception of long-term care in the United States is because Americans in general, as a society, are afraid of aging.

We're afraid of dementia and we're afraid of death. Look at the amount of money that we spend on supplements and hair loss and wrinkles and weight loss, and all of the things we do to avoid aging. And one of the rea, one of the ways that we handle that is also we put our parents and our grandparents in long-term care situations. Sometimes because we can't face it, sometimes they need to go there even earlier than we do, but many times. And so that allows for us to put a stigma on that industry because of our own internal fears. And that also allows politicians to ignore the industry because as long as we're not paying attention to it, they don't have to fund it. We've done it with homelessness, we've done it with drug addiction, we've done it with jails, we've done it with immigrants. We do it with everything. But you don't have to deal with all of those because not everybody has someone homeless in their family, or not every, has someone in jail in their family. We all have a parent or a grandparent who's going to need this. So you don't have to wait around for the American public opinion to catch up. Think about what you would want for yourself and for your parents. Exactly. And your grandparents.

Diane: Exactly. Beautifully said. To my family caregivers out there, you are the most important part of the caregiving equation. Without you, it all falls apart. So please learn to be gentle with yourself. Practice self-care every day because you are worth it.