Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights with Maggie Ratnayake & Maddie Hagerty

In this captivating episode of Taking Healthcare by Storm, delve into the world of expert insights as Quality Insights Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm engages in a thought-provoking and informative discussion with Maggie Ratnayake, Executive Director, and Maddie Hagerty, Chapter Manager, at Lori's Hands.

Maggie and Maddie discuss the nonprofit’s mission to support individuals with chronic illnesses while providing hands-on learning for healthcare students. They highlight its grassroots origins, expansion into multiple cities, and initiatives like the Charm City Scholars Initiative, which promotes equitable aging and empowers underrepresented groups in healthcare.

If you have any topics or guests you'd like to see on future episodes, reach out to us on our website. 

Publication number QI-50-020725-GK

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Welcome to "Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights," the podcast that delves into the captivating intersection of innovation, science, compassion, and care. 

In each episode, Quality Insights’ Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm will have the privilege of engaging with leading experts across diverse fields, including dieticians, pharmacists, and brave patients navigating their own healthcare journeys. 

Our mission is to bring you the best healthcare insights, drawing from the expertise of professionals across West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the nation.

Subscribe now, and together, we can take healthcare by storm.

 Hello everyone, and welcome to this episode of Taking Healthcare by Storm. I am Dr. Jean Storm, the Medical Director of Quality Insights, and today I am excited to be joined by two incredible guests. From Lori's Hands. It's an organization that's making a meaningful difference in the lives of both students and individuals living with chronic disease.

Maggie Retneika, the program director and Maddie Hagerty, the chapter manager for Baltimore, Maryland are here to share insights into Lori's Hands. It's a mission and it's unique approach to community health will also be discussing the Lori's hands charm city scholars initiative, a new project that is empowering black indigenous and people of color low income and first generation college students pursuing careers in healthcare.

And we are talking about that today because that is thanks to a grant awarded in celebration of quality insights 50th anniversary. So I am very excited to get started. Welcome Maggie and Maddie. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. Thank you so much for having us. Great. So we'll jump in. Um, I mentioned before we started recording that I've been listening to your podcast episodes, and I would highly recommend anyone interested in learning about Maggie in Lori's hands to go ahead and listen to those podcast episodes.

But can you start by telling us about the inspiration behind the creation of Lori's hands and the legacy of Lori LaFave and how was her memory shaped the mission of your organization? Yeah, absolutely. So we had a very grassroots beginning. We were inspired by personal experience with chronic illness.

So Sarah Lefebvre was one of our founders. She was an undergraduate nursing student at the University of Delaware when she started Laurie's Hands. And she started it in memory of her mom, whose name was Laurie. Laurie had lived with breast cancer. Throughout much of Sarah's childhood and died when Sarah started high school.

So she had developed a deeply personal understanding of how chronic illness affects a person's life. She understood cancer beyond a medical diagnosis and a doctor's office. She knew what it was like to live with cancer. Many of her peers though she saw didn't have the same appreciation because they hadn't lived it.

They hadn't been a caregiver and a family member of someone with cancer. And so, uh, she started Lori's Hands as a way to address some of the gaps that she had seen in their family's life, uh, that were filled maybe by some of their support system, but she is, uh, anticipated that many folks in the community who didn't have such a strong support system experienced, uh, challenges meeting some of those, those needs.

And then she also started Lori's Hands with the goal of, um, trying to shape future healthcare professions understanding of chronic illness, um, giving them a personal experience, one that Sarah had had had herself to try to better understand what people were going through, develop empathy, um, so they could be more informed providers when they enter the workforce.

And so today Laurie's hand strives to fill in the gaps for people, uh, many of whom have really limited support systems as they're managing chronic illness through small and consistent actions. And Sarah, as she remembers her mom, remembers Lori as someone who was always there to offer a helping hand.

And that's what we really try to do today with Lori's hands. I love that. So, building empathy. So, Glory's Hands was founded as a way to help those living with chronic illness while also providing volunteer opportunities for college students. How do you balance these two goals in your day to day operations?

Yeah, of course. So our mission really focuses on the mutual benefit of the relationships that we create, um, not only with community members with chronic illnesses, but also with our college student volunteers and interns. Um, that mutual benefit is woven into every aspect of our work in that, um, our students are going out into the community and providing.

This, um, instrumental support to our clients and offering assistance in the home, um, while also being expected to engage with our students and offer insight into, um, aging and healthcare services and, and managing a chronic illness. Um, so not only do we place that emphasis on, um, just improving community members ability to safely age in place, but also, um, we really emphasize students learning throughout this as well.

And we, um, Take pride and maybe pushing them outside of their comfort zone or giving them new experiences that will ultimately, um, make them better professionals in whichever field or career they choose to go into. Um, and so when we're enrolling clients in our program, one of the questions that we, we do screen them for is just their willingness to invest in our students learning and engage with, with them.

We would never expect students to just go and and work in a client's home for hours, um, without getting that that benefit from them and having conversation and learning about their life experiences and what they're going through. Um, and then additionally, we, we do, um, work to partner with different colleges and universities and faculty, um, throughout the city to create these really unique, um, experiential learning opportunities.

For our students so that there is that mutual benefit, um, not only for community members, but also for our students that are doing this, um, to just gain experiences and grow as, as professionals. I love that idea of aging in place. And I, I don't think maybe we all realize the importance of that, um, as a society and, uh, you know, in communities.

So could you explain the core mission of Lori's Hands and how it's evolved since its founding? And what impact has that? Organization hat on both students and clients. Yeah, it's a great question. So I would say our mission has remained really consistent from when we started as a student organization. So we want to support the independence and well being of people with chronic illness by providing tangible and social support to them as they age independently in their homes.

And we also want to improve students understanding of chronic illness and healthcare so they can become more informed professionals. And we really do emphasize the benefit to both our students and clients, as Maddie was saying. Um, And so with that, evaluation is really important to us. We want to understand how our clients are benefiting from our program, and we want to understand how students are growing and gaining from participation.

We conduct pre and post surveys with our clients and our students. Um, with our clients, we're seeing that Our services are helping to reduce social isolation and loneliness, uh, something that's really critical. We see more and more of the negative effects of loneliness, particularly among aging adults, particularly among people who are aging in place in the community.

So we really do emphasize to our students the value they can play and, and providing connection and community to our clients. Through our services, we're also improving food access. We are improving the safety and cleanliness of a client's home environment, making it a place that's suitable for them to continue to age well.

Um, We are helping to improve physical activity, whether that's getting someone simply up to answer the door during the day and walk around the house to show the students around their home or going out for a walk and actually engaging, engaging in some physical exercise, we're hoping to help people be more physically active and then improving access to community resources.

So that may be Helping a client who has a hard time hearing on the phone, call their provider, leave a message for them to get an appointment scheduled or get a prescription refilled. It may be helping a client to research services, get signed up for Meals on Wheels or a paratransit service. Um, so wanting them to be as connected as possible to the community and resources that could help them age independently.

And then for our students, we are wanting to advance them professionally, academically, so they can be more equipped to enter the workforce. Through our program, we're seeing students are improving their communication skills, improving professional readiness, and also just understanding themselves and understanding the career fields that they may be interested in.

This is a really great hands on learning for students and it's exposing them to careers they maybe had a general sense of or had no idea about and helping them narrow in on what they really want to focus on in their careers. Um, and then we're also helping students to feel better connected to their communities, giving them an opportunity to, to give back and, um, just generally advancing their understanding of life with chronic illness.

I can imagine that there's a lot of individuals who want to get in the program. So how does Laurie's Hands connect with clients and what kinds of individuals or families are typically referred to your program? What makes a good fit for the services you offer? So we accept referrals from a variety of different sources.

Um, typically they're coming from healthcare providers, community agencies, um, senior buildings, but they can also come from individuals in the community. So if your neighbor or a parent or, or someone, you know, is in need of the services, um, you're able to make that referral for them. And a good fit for our program is, um, obviously someone living with a chronic illness in one of our service areas.

So at this time, um, Baltimore, Maryland, Newark, Delaware, and Metro Detroit, Michigan, um, an individual that has unmet social or, social or, um, instrumental needs. So someone that may need some additional support in the home, whether it be just general companionship or with some of those, um, more tangible tasks like Maggie mentioned.

Um, and then the big one is just willing to invest and engage with our students. So making sure that it's someone that, um, we'll be talking to the students and opening up to them and sharing with them so that our students can, can learn and grow through the process as well. So in terms of the volunteers, the student volunteers, what does a typical week look like for, for one of these student volunteers and how does students gain hands on experience and chronic illness care and community health through your program?

So we really emphasize experiential learning through service, and to this end, we think it's really helpful for our students to build a long term relationship with a client. We want our students to see clients on their good days, on their bad days, have a relationship with them where they, um, become more acquainted with the client.

their life and their experiences. So, um, we pair students together. We think that that can really help the dynamics. So two students are always visiting a client together, um, also just promoting safety of all of our participants. And we ask students to make a commitment of at least one semester. And during that semester, they visit the same client every week as a way to foster a relationship.

They're not seeing someone just one time. in a clinic and then having no idea what happens to them, they are becoming part of their life. And it's through that, that relationship that students really gain a deeper understanding of the lived experience. So when students make a weekly visit, it's usually on a set schedule.

Usually their visit lasts an hour to two hours. And the visit is client centered. The client sets their goals, they identify what needs they have, and ask the students to help with whatever those unmet needs may be. The students may help with some light cleaning, some meal preparation, maybe picking up some groceries or doing laundry.

Um, but always are providing companionship. They are getting to know their clients, sharing about their lives, building that relationship. And so it's through living life alongside their clients that they really develop a deeper understanding of what it's like to manage a chronic illness. Again, they're seeing them on their good days and their bad days.

They're seeing them and talking to them after they've had conversations with their health care providers or their insurance company. And they're seeing how a diagnosis truly affects a person physically, mentally, emotionally. And then they're also seeing how a person's daily life needs to be adjusted to manage a chronic illness.

And so it's this, these personal relationships that are really reframing their understanding of aging and chronic illness. They're not seeing. someone just in a clinic and not understanding how their diagnosis is affecting them in the real world, but because they're walking alongside of them in their home environments, they're getting a much more holistic perspective on life with a chronic illness.

Yeah, and I will say I mentioned in the beginning of when we first got started that I've been listening to your podcast, which is just share some wonderful stories of, uh, from clients involved in the program. So can you share some examples or stories that highlight the positive outcomes your volunteers and clients experience through their weekly visits?

Yeah, absolutely. And like Maggie mentioned, since it is, um, all of the visits are so client directed and, and unique, um, every visit might look a little different. And over the years, there've been some, some stories that have really stood out. Um, particularly one group of nursing students began visiting their clients, um, and within one or two visits, um, notice that the client had.

an oxygen tank that she was dragging around her, her basement apartment with a long cord that she was constantly tripping over or getting stuck on things. And the students recognized that as an immediate safety hazard. Um, so they spent their semester, um, talking with the client and advocating with her, um, insurance company, um, to get her a cordless oxygen tank.

And so not only were those students, um, Drastically improving her in home safety, but also they were learning about kind of the challenges with, um, advocating with a health care insurance company and serving as a patient advocate and seeing how that's really difficult for them. Um, young tech savvy students that are perfectly capable of doing that.

And that could be, um, they just developed a better understanding of how that might be really challenging for an older adult who doesn't have that same experience or understanding as them. Um, along those those same lines, we've had students offer, um, assistance with we've had students that have gone to medical appointments with their clients and sat there in the doctor's office and, um, kind of served as that liaison between the provider and the client to not only make them a little bit more comfortable, but also maybe help them to better understand what they're being told.

Um, And then kind of opposite that health care piece, we've had students that have gone and visited their clients, um, and learned different meditation practices and done tai chi and, and just practice new ways to manage their stress and relax, um, which is great for our clients, but also really helpful for our students that are studying things like nursing and medicine, um, And other disciplines that can be just stressful, especially as they approach, um, final season and prepare for graduation.

Um, and then just, just another, um, pleasant story is we had a group of students, um, last fall that went and visited their client and every week they would all create vision boards together. Um, and not only was this a great experience for the students who got to sit down and think about, um, Um, what their future would look like and, and what their goals would be.

Um, but it also kind of gave them a new perspective on, um, just life experiences and goal setting and how, um, Even as we age, it's great to, to think about the future and what we want and how we, um, plan to go about our lives. So a really wide range of activities that are coming, um, out of this. And like I mentioned, um, really unique experiences across the board for all of our clients based on their needs and what they want to work on that week.

I love all those stories. Those are great. So your organization serves communities you mentioned in Newark, Delaware, Baltimore, Maryland and Metro Detroit, Michigan. How do the needs of clients differ in those locations and what unique challenges do you face as you expand your reach? Yeah, you know, even we, even though we are serving different locations, we see that the needs, um, across these locations don't change dramatically, uh, there are really consistent gaps in care for people across the country.

While they may have excellent health care, their health care alone doesn't keep them healthy and independent in the community. Um, so they may need access to food, a clean and safe home, clean laundry, physical exercise, access to local resources. They need to feel connected. All of those things are really important parts of a person maintaining their health and their independence.

And what we see is families are more dispersed, more people are aging alone, and the costs of home care are continuing to rise. So this is creating gaps that have to be filled for people to be able to age in place. So we have seen consistently across our chapters that the need for our services is only continuing to grow.

Um, and so truly our biggest challenge is capacity and reaching everyone who needs support, depending on where an individual lives. Um, in some of our chapters, we may find that students have a more difficult time getting to their home. And so we have to be creative about, uh, transportation and access to, To their homes.

But now we really see the needs being pretty consistent. So let's shift and talk about charm city scholars initiative. So this is the project that was funded by the 50th anniversary grant that you received. So can you describe the goals and vision behind behind this initiative, particularly in terms of addressing health care disparities?

Yeah, so we really wanted to focus on, um, improving and understanding just the well being of older adults with chronic illness in Baltimore, um, while also supporting the development of a diverse, um, healthcare workforce, um, that's really equipped to treat a growing geriatric population. Um, in recent years, we've seen that, um, the majority of older adults living in the United States.

have at least one chronic illness. Um, so things like cancer, diabetes, um, and other conditions that can really impact their quality of life and make it really challenging to, um, complete daily household tasks that allow them to safely age in place. Um, We couple that with just a growing, um, struggle with feelings of social isolation and loneliness.

Um, I think in 2018, we, um, it was reported that adults over the age of 45, about one in three of them, um, report feelings of social isolation and loneliness. And this has really only worsened coming out of the COVID 19 pandemic. So put those two together and there's just a need for that unique in home support, um, and companionship and assistance with household tasks.

To allow for older adults to safely age in place on the other side of things. We're also seeing, um, a critical shortage of geriatric healthcare workers. And this is due to a variety of different things. Um, and Laurie's hands is in such a unique space to connect with students preparing for careers in the healthcare field, um, that we have the opportunity to expose them and provide them with these service learning opportunities.

Um, to ideally, um, create. Opportunities for students that might go into that geriatric, um, health care workforce. Um, Additionally, we are seeing that, um, while our health care workforce has grown more diverse in recent years, the majority of people of color are still concentrated and lower paying positions and entry level positions.

Um, so we created the Charm City Scholars Program to really focus on, um, These underrepresented populations in healthcare professions in the United States. And so we know that, um, service learning opportunities can, um, just improve understanding of communities, um, of public health and community based needs while also allowing students to develop their softer skills, um, feelings of empathy and listening and things like that.

Um, So coupling all of these things together, we created the Charm City Scholars Program to provide students with the opportunity to engage in the community, while also working on different projects focused on expanding our services in Baltimore and reaching more underserved populations, while also improving feelings of confidence in their professional abilities, communication skills, project management, and so forth.

Um, and what we've seen is an increase of students and clients in our Baltimore chapter. Um, and hopefully that'll continue to grow as, um, these new things have been put into place. I'll say as a nursing home doctor, I'm so happy to see, you know, you encouraging individuals to get involved in the geriatric healthcare workforce.

So very important. So so why do you feel it's so important to focus on black indigenous people of color loan income? Thank you. And first generation college students in the charm city scholars initiative and, um, how did these groups benefit specifically from the internship opportunities provided? Yeah, so equitable access to care and learning is really important to us at Laurie's Hands.

Um, we knew that many of these students face unique barriers to participating, um, not only in Laurie's Hands, but also just in, um, service learning experiences, volunteerism, and internships in general. Um, so if we consider students who need to work, maybe to help pay for college and living expenses, um, or maybe have less free time and availability to participate in extracurricular activities, um, we wanted to.

think of a way to be able to provide them with the support they needed to, um, engage with our work. And so we chose to, um, create this Charm City Scholars Program and offer these stipended tailored internships to ideally reduce financial pressures on these students to, um, open up different professional opportunities that they may not have had otherwise.

So, um, We're doing our best to support them so that they are able to commit more time to, um, developing professionally, um, gaining experience, building their networks and so forth. So this, this stipend, um, how will the stipend internship, I guess you explained that these, um, internships for the students are going to enhance their understanding of healthcare, chronic illness, community health.

So what kind of impact do you hope to have on their career paths? Do you think it's, you know, you're just kind of, And maybe encouraging them to pursue a health care career path or other other, um, career paths you see possible through these internships. So all of the students that we've engaged with to date, um, have, um, not only, um, worked with our clients and been out in the community, but they've also led a special project of their own that's been related to our work, um, and helped them.

Help us to expand our reach in the community. So these students are out in the community and practicing those community health and public health skills, where they're engaging with community members, living with different chronic health conditions, um, but also working on different outreach and recruitment efforts to grow our work in Baltimore.

So we're seeing that students are, um, enhancing their leadership skills, their communication skills, um, their project management skills, and so forth, while also, um, developing strong relationships in the community and the Lord's Hands clients and staff. Um, and then on the other side, with their, um, client work, they are just growing those soft skills.

So things like patience and empathy, um, and just improving their overall experience. Understanding of the human experience that you really can't learn in the classroom. Um, we had one student recently who shared that she learned or came to better understand that, um, while so many people have chronic illnesses, everyone's experience with those chronic illnesses is different.

Um, so everyone that's diagnosed with diabetes manages their diabetes differently. Um, And that was just a really important takeaway for our clients, especially those that are for our students, especially those that want to go into the health care space or the community health space. Um, and so far, all of our students have had, um, at least some interest in going into health care or public health, whether it be, um, More from a medical standpoint or community health health space.

Um, so getting them out in the community, having them lead projects and do community outreach has been really, um, instrumental for them. And they're, they're gaining experience experiences that they wouldn't have in the classroom and developing real world perspectives that they can then take with them into their careers in the future.

I love that you're, you're expanding awareness of the human experience. I think that is just societal improvement as a whole, which I think we can all use. So how does the initiative aim to create a more equitable aging experience for Baltimore residents and how do students play a role in advancing this goal?

Yeah, this is a really important question. So one of the things we didn't mention is that our services are offered free of charge. Our clients don't have to pay to participate. Um, Their payment, if you will, is the willingness that they have to invest in our students learning and growth. So, um, as you know, as probably most of the listeners know, aging and home care services are really expensive.

And we are trying to help people stay independent when that's their priority. What we tend to see is people who are very low income often qualify for at least two things. Some subsidized support services, um, on the other side, people who have many more financial resources available to them often are able to pay for services out of pocket.

And so what remains is a group that can't afford all of the care that they need, but also doesn't qualify. for free and subsidized services. So people, um, you know, beyond financial resources, people who have really large support systems have folks who can step in to fill in some of the gaps in their day to day life, but people with smaller or no support systems Have these day to day needs that go unmet.

And so Lori's Hands is providing a really unique service. It's not health care. It's not home care, but it is essential activities to aging in place. So if you are trying to manage a complex chronic disease, you may need, um, really good nutrition. You may need access to, to groceries on a regular basis. Um, and if you don't have transportation, you, that you may find that to be a barrier.

Um, you may need medications picked up from the pharmacy. You may need Some, you know, general housework to be done, some laundry to be done. Those services are not provided through most healthcare providers, um, through most insurance providers and, um, can be expensive to, to have some of those odds and ends addressed.

And so that's where Lori's Hands is really trying to step in and to say for folks who maybe have some, um, of their healthcare needs met really well and they have a home, um, but. These gaps still exist and are really a threat to their independence and well being. That's where we're going to step in and try to make aging in place more accessible to everyone, regardless of their financial status, regardless of the support systems that they have in their, in their lives.

And so, um, through this work, through the project, um, In Baltimore, supported by Quality Insights, we are trying to reach more diverse student populations, as well as more diverse client populations, and really reducing barriers for folks that they may face to participating in Laurier exams. I love that idea that I don't think many people think about that aging in place.

Um, you know, making it equitable for everyone because everyone might not have the ability to age in place. You know, we always think about, oh, you know, some individuals don't have the ability to go into a nursing facility or rehab facility, but maybe individuals who don't have The access to age in place and they want to.

So this is just, I mean, I'm, I'm really excited about what you're doing. So looking forward, how do you see Lori's hands evolving in the future? Are there any new projects or goals on the horizon that you're Yeah, you know, I think one of the things that I love about working with Laurie's Hands is we always have a lot of, uh, really exciting ideas and ways that we want to see our program continue to evolve and grow, to remain relevant, as well as to serve as many people as possible.

So. We are in Baltimore, as well as in our other chapters, working to continue to scale. So engaging more students, more academic partners, so that we can provide services and support to more clients. Um, again, reaching a broader diversity of participants. We are looking to try to engage students from non healthcare related majors more so that we're finding ways that our program is really relevant to their professional advancement to their education, and then able to serve more folks in the community.

Um, also looking at some neat collaborations with healthcare and community providers, trying to offer more stipended internships. So yeah, there's a lot in the works that we're excited about. That's great. I'm really happy to hear it. So last question, how, if someone wants to learn about Lori's hands, how can they learn out, learn, um, find out more information?

Yeah, you can head to our website. It's lorishands. org. L O R I S H A N D S. org. There you can find information about our history, about our work. You can find some of the research that we're doing into better understanding the impact of our program. You can also find, uh, out ways to get involved, whether as a student, or a community volunteer, or as a client or participant yourself.

Excellent. I encourage everyone, if you are interested, to go to the website, find their podcast on Apple, uh, or any of the Spotify, any of the platforms and listen to the wonderful stories. Maggie and Maddie, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for having us. And we're so grateful for Quality Insights support of our work.

Thank you for tuning in to Taking Healthcare by Storm: Industry Insights with Quality Insights Medical Director Dr. Jean Storm. We hope that you enjoyed this episode. If you found value in what you heard, please consider subscribing to our podcast on your favorite platform.

If you have any topics or guests you'd like to see on future episodes, you can reach out to us on our website. We would love to hear from you.

So, until next time, stay curious, stay compassionate, and keep taking healthcare by storm.