Welcome back to the Light Keepers podcast, an
exclusive production of A Guiding Light, our
nonprofit charity dedicated to the idea that
knowledge is power and good information leads
to a better life. I'm Clayton Vandiver, your
Light Keeper, with my co -host as always, Charlene,
our very own licensed clinical social worker
certified in the state of Florida. This show
is dedicated to everyone who wants to get the
most quality out of life that they can. Join
us for the conversation this week about what
are we talking about this week? What do you do
when you have nobody? Oh, what do you do when
you have nobody? And so much more on this edition
of the Light Keepers podcast. Please leave your
questions or comments below and join our conversation.
Questions are answered during our next show online
every Wednesday evening at 7 p .m. Eastern. The
Light Keepers podcast is an exclusive production
of Guiding Light Incorporated. And over the last
couple of weeks, we've been talking about when
couples or when people have conversations about
their wishes and they may not agree, what do
you do when you have nobody? Are you not agreeing
with yourself? Well, just to be clear, we're
talking about medical wishes, what you would
want for medical treatment if you were to become
seriously ill and not able to make your own decisions.
It's important to have someone that you trust
that can make those decisions for you, someone
that you know is going to carry out what you
would want for yourself. maybe doesn't agree
with your wishes and therefore you don't trust
that they're going to carry them out. Or maybe
they would rather you go in a different path
with your treatment. Maybe you want treatment
and they don't think it's a good idea. Maybe
you don't want treatment and they don't want
you to give up. Or maybe you just don't have
anybody. It's not uncommon. It can happen. As
we age, some people are the last survivors in
their family. They don't have friends. Maybe
they never had children. Who do these people
use as medical decision makers? Yeah, that's
a serious question. Obviously, we've never had
any disagreement in our ability to communicate
because, you see, we both put on burgundy shirts
for this episode and neither one of us planned
that. Nope. Never thought about it. It just happened
that way. But it is important to know that there
are folks out there who don't have anyone. And
it's even more tragic when you know that you
have a pet and that pet might... outlive you
and that you don't have anyone who's going to
be looking out for that animal. So that's another
thought that I wanted us to join in the conversation
this week about because we've run into a lot
of people over the years who they're not that
worried about themselves. They wind up being
really concerned. Their biggest stress in their
life is what's going to happen to my pet. Exactly.
And talking about pets for a moment before we
get into the people aspect. If you live alone
and you have pets, it's always a good idea to
keep a card or something in your wallet or where
you keep your ID, where you keep your insurance
card that says, I have a pet at home. Here's
their vet. provide the vet information, provide
an emergency contact that can be notified, because
it's very sad, but I have seen situations where
by the time someone got out of the hospital because
they didn't have anyone to go check on Fido,
they went home to a deceased pet because there
was no water, there was no food. So when you
don't have someone else, there are a lot of other
dynamic things that you need to be thinking about
or that need to be taken care of. And that's
a situation where if you went into a coma, a
brief coma, for instance, was in the hospital
for a while, and they didn't know you had a pet
when they retrieved you from your home, then
unless that was written down somewhere, no one
would have known to look for your animal and
to care for it. And that's such a tragedy. And
the thing is, there are so many misconceptions
in society about what would happen. For example,
I've had people tell me, you know, well, I don't
have to worry about it because the police will
go by and check on them, right? No, no. No, they
don't do that. I have, I, now keep in mind that.
I have law enforcement in my family. I'm a big
supporter of our family in blue. Absolutely.
But there are some police officers who do not
feel it is their responsibility to have to do
anything like that. And I have literally been
standing in the middle of the trauma department
and had an 18 -year -old. deceased in the trauma
room, and I asked the officer, are you going
to contact the family to let them know, the parents?
And the response I got was, he's over 18, I'm
not obligated. So if they feel that way about
an 18 -year -old individual, how are they going
to feel about taking care of somebody's dog?
That's an absolute thing that needs to be...
And you don't think of those things. No, you
don't, because you always think that there's
going to be a safety net in society that surely
no one would let something like that happen.
Well, most of us go through life thinking pretty
much life is going to be the way it is right
now all the time. It's not going to change. In
another episode that's coming up very, very soon,
we're going to talk about hurricane season. We're
doing this show out of the state of Florida,
where hurricanes are very important, and up the
eastern seaboard. The rest of the country, many
of our listeners are going to think, oh, hurricanes,
that's nice, that's sort of a novelty. We hear
about that on the news when it gets real bad
over there, where we would never live. Well,
I lived in Los Angeles for 10 years, and I still
talk about earthquakes, too. We'll talk about
earthquakes at some point in the future, but
it is hurricane season, and we wanted to do a
little bit of hurricane prep. That's coming up.
That's a little teaser preview for an upcoming
show. Next episode. But it is something to consider
that just as you would prepare for a major storm
like that, you should also prepare for those
unexpected health storms that may come along,
like you may have to go to the hospital, and
there may not be anyone there to take care of
your animal. Now, I've got to switch from the
animals at heart side of the mug to the guiding
light side of the mug. Let's talk about people
a little bit more. So if you have an individual
who doesn't have someone that they trust to make
medical decisions for them, a lot of people,
another one of those common misconceptions in
society, the doctors will decide what's best
for me. Doctors can't do that. Really? A doctor
cannot give permission for a procedure unless
it is life -threatening and can be ruled as an
emergency, but they have to show due diligence
that they tried to contact someone to get consent.
Consent is a big deal in the medical world. Now,
there's an important question there. Is the consent
generally something that they would look to the
social worker to execute for them, or does the
doctor go about calling for that consent? No.
Well, the doctors make sure that the consent
is done before they do the procedure. Okay. It's
everyone's responsibility to make sure consent
is in place. Because when you have a hospital
setting especially, there are so many different
layers that have to be passed through before
you get to the doctor. You have the nurse. You
have the case manager. You have the admissions
person. You have the billing person who's trying
to get insurance information. You have all of
these different layers of people who have that
opportunity. to put someone's name in the chart
that can be contacted for decisions. But who
actually does the contacting once that name is
determined and is in the chart? So normally that
would be done by either the case manager or the
nurse or even the physician if it's something
really pressing and nobody's been able to be
contacted. I have seen doctors get on the phone
to try to track somebody down. Well, and I know
that you're particularly adept at tracking people
down. There were times when you would come home
from work and say, you know, someone came in,
no one could identify them. The police were standing
there. They couldn't identify them. They turned
to me and I walked around the corner, came back
a minute later and told them who the person was.
That's amazing, those skills. But that's what
a good social worker can do. Little tidbit, just
not to get off topic, but if you go out to do
any type of sporting activity, if you're just
even mowing the grass in your yard, make sure
you have some form of ID on you. Most of my John
and Jane does that came into the trauma department
were people that were out exercising and got
injured. I had a very dear friend, a colleague,
co -worker, who was an avid runner. And he collapsed
one day in the middle of a run. And genuinely,
generally, yes, he's a professional broadcaster.
He can talk. Generally, when you're exercising,
especially when you're running and concerned
about weight, you don't carry a wallet with you.
When you're working out at a gym, you're not
going to have a lot of ID on you. And it is.
Oftentimes, when you least expect it is when
that's going to happen. Correct. And exercising,
mowing the grass, working in the yard. Now, if
you're at your home, it's relatively easy to
track down who you are. But if you're out on
a run, out on a bike ride, you fall off the bike,
even with a helmet on, hit your head on the curb,
and the next thing you know, some time may have
passed and they may not know who you are. You're
waking up in the hospital under the last name
Doe. Yeah. Yeah. And when you least expect it,
that can happen. And as we say so often in this
conversation, that can happen at any age, in
any physical condition. Men, women, children,
anyone can wind up in a situation where your
ID is needed. Correct. And it's important to
have something on you with your name. and a phone
number for an emergency contact. And while we're
on the topic of emergency contacts, I just want
to throw out one of my biggest pet peeves. I
understand the need for it, but oh my goodness.
So I cannot tell you how many times I talked
to people who said, well, I have an emergency
contact on the face screen of my phone. And I
would pick up their phone, and it's locked. I
can't get to that information. Yeah. And something
that's so intuitive to us. We think, well, anybody
can look at my face screen. No, they can't. And
it's not fun when you have someone laying on
a gurney in pain and you have the case manager
saying, hold on that pain medication until I
can get their security code. Right. Because you
don't know what someone's allergic to. You don't
know what... Their wishes are, what their next
of kin might say. I have no information about
them if I can't get into that phone. So if you
are not able to know, to figure out how to put
your emergency contact information on the lock
screen itself, it can be done. I have it on mine.
Find someone who can help you put it there, please,
for your own sake. That is something you want
done. You need to help me do that later. You
don't have it on yours? No. Oh, my goodness.
But if you're going out without your phone, it's
important to have your name and a phone number.
There's that light again. We need to fix the
motion sensor light. We need to fix that. Keeps
us on our toes. But, yes, it's important. Otherwise,
people don't know who you are. They don't know
who to contact. Yeah, that's fine if you have
somebody to contact. But talking about people
who don't have anybody, that can create a real
dilemma. So what do you do? So what would happen?
Well, what would you do as the professional needing
that information, needing some contact? And what
would you suggest that our viewers and our listeners
do? So hypothetically, if someone went into the
hospital who had no... decision maker then what
the hospital case manager would do is reach out
to a guardian ad litem okay or a lot of hospitals
will have an attorney on file that is someone
trusted to be a decision maker and they are basically
acting as a health care surrogate So without
having a health care surrogate or a, what's the
other word for that, a health care attorney,
well, I can't exactly think of the word for it.
I had one. I actually served in that capacity
for my mom, but it was so long ago, and I've
tried to blank out so much of that experience.
So those are actually advocates. A proxy. A proxy,
that's the word I was trying to think of. So
those proxies then serve as their decision makers.
Correct. Now, what a lot of people don't know
is if you are someone who does not have a decision
maker, you can set up a proxy or a surrogate
for yourself. You can actually, if you have an
attorney, you can actually assign your attorney
as your proxy. Okay. or you can have it set up
with the courts. What I would recommend to anyone
who does not have a medical decision maker that
might need one at some point in the future, go
see an elder law attorney and talk to them about
getting a surrogate set up. Okay. That's great
advice. And there is another term for it, and
I'm trying to think of it. Yeah, well, we'll
put it in the comments later, of course. And
we actually want to have an elder law attorney
as a guest on the show in one of our upcoming
episodes because their expertise far exceeds
ours in so many of these nuanced situations where
legal advice is needed. And again, this is a
highly personal choice. And no conversation that
we have on the Light Keepers podcast should ever
take the place of your own medical care team
or other professional advisor like a health care
surrogate or an attorney. or even a financial
advisor like an accountant who knows your specific
needs and your unique situation and should be
consulted on those needs because the conversation
that we have here on the Light Keepers podcast
is just to get your thinking. It's just to get
the topics out there and make you think, hey,
maybe I need to talk to my doctor about that.
We all need good information to help make the
most informed decisions to live life on our own
terms. The conversation is to start you thinking
because most people are not prepared at all.
Some are very well prepared indeed because they
join us right here on the Light Keepers podcast
every Wednesday evening at 7 p .m. Eastern. The
Light Keepers Podcast is an exclusive production
of Vanimation Studios and The Guiding Light and
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on YouTube. Yes, you are. This is our little
foster kitten that is with us from the Jacksonville
Humane Society. This is Nugget. And Nugget will
be available for adoption soon. Right now he
is waiting until he's big enough to... to be
neutered, and so he is staying with us temporarily,
and we have thoroughly enjoyed having him here.
He's such a sweetheart. And for all of you who
are listening on the audio feed, this is a tiny
little, barely bigger than a handful kitten.
That was just fairly newborn when he came to
us. And, yep, there he is. He is mostly white,
a little bit of yellow tabby. He's an orange
tabby torty. Yeah, an orange tabby torty. And
very, very cute and bright and steals the show
any time he gets in front of the camera. So,
speaking of stealing the show. If you would like
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light keeper. We'll see you next time.