Season 3 Episode 1 (20): Do You Care?
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Season 3 Episode 1: Do You Care?
Episode Summary
In this episode of the Treat Us Right podcast, the host, David S. Williams III, discusses the importance of caring for oneself and others within a difficult American healthcare system. He shares his personal experiences of caring for his mother and his son with autism, emphasizing the need for individuals to take action and make changes to improve their health. Williams highlights three actions of caring: adjusting attitude, living the lifestyle, and paying for persistence. He also introduces Care3, a platform that helps individuals and their caregivers coordinate care and stay on track with their health goals. The episode concludes with an exclusive offer for Treat Us Right listeners to become Care3 Premium members at a discounted rate.
Transcript
Host: David S. Williams III - Preview (00:03):
Do you care? This episode might get you a little bit in your feelings, but we have to answer this foundational fundamental question.
Host: David S. Williams III (00:21):
Happy 2024 everyone and welcome back to the Treat Us Right podcast. I'm your host, David S. Williams III three time Digital Health entrepreneur and CEO of Care3. Three. We are coming to you from Los Angeles, but I tell you, with so much going on in 2023, we had to take a break from Treat us right? But now we're back stronger and ready for more in 2024,
(00:57):
But before we get into this episode, do you care? And we're going to answer that question. Let's revisit what the Treat us Right podcast is all about, especially for you. New listeners treat us right, helps people who care for themselves and others to use their experiences to make better health decisions at home and get better, more personalized treatment from doctors and the overall healthcare system. In short, we are here to make healthcare work for you so you and your loved ones get treated, right? So here are some things to address before we get deep. Who am I and why am I talking about caring? Self-care, family caregiving. I've had three different ventures, all of which have been successful, but they're focused on consumers, you, me, people using hidden health information to get treated right. That's why the podcast is called Treat Us, right? I've helped more than 2 million people use their hidden power to make better health decisions for themselves and their loved ones, but also to make sure that the healthcare system treats them right, and I've been in this game a long time myself.
(02:49):
I took care of my mom for 10 years prior to her passing and she had multiple conditions. It was complex and that was a lifelong thing because she almost died having me. I also have a special needs son with severe autism. He's nonverbal, 19 years old, but he's an amazing, amazing boy and he's done so much better over the years because we've applied a lot of these things that we're going to talk about and treat us right to help him live his best because remember, that's what the Treat Us Right podcast is all about. Now let's be clear. I'm not a doctor, but I have worked in and around healthcare for my entire career. I have learned two major truths. One, the American healthcare system purposely does not treat everyone right, and those divisions are along the same lines as the justice system, the employment market, real estate education and other institutions said another way healthcare is really an equal rights issue.
(04:21):
And number two, we can live our best if we treat ourselves right regardless of the fact that the American healthcare system does not treat everyone right. If we do the things that we should do, if we make the changes, we should make information and motivation in combination can overcome the challenges of an unequal healthcare system. I'm going to say that one more time. Information and motivation in combination can overcome the challenges of an unequal healthcare system. We can do this. You can do this. We are passionate about fairness, about solutions to your health equity at an individual level, but we don't want to stop at equal care. We want you to be treated right with extraordinary personalized care for you and your loved ones, and we are convinced that information, especially hidden information, that if unlocked and unleashed can deliver on all of these promises, better health, better life, better living even when and especially when facing health and care challenges.
(06:09):
Ultimately, the Treat Us right podcast is about knowing yourself. It's about helping yourself, being your best, living your best, and doing all of these things for yourself and loved ones you care for. All of this is focused through a lens of health and care, of family, of longevity and of legacy. Let's talk about the question. Do you care? This episode might get you a little bit in your feelings, but we have to answer this foundational fundamental question. We talked in a previous episode called Moment about that moment when you learn that you or someone you love has a chronic condition and how it defines a new stage of your life, managing health becomes a lifestyle. Behaviors need to change in order for you or your loved one to live your best.
(07:36):
Do you care enough to make those changes? Do you care enough to make those changes for yourself, for your loved one, for both of you? If that's your situation, do you care enough to make those changes? What are those changes? First attitude, you have to get out of fantasy and into focus and talk about that. Number two, you have to change your lifestyle. You have to go from things and behaviors that are harmful to those that are helpful. And third, persistence. You cannot revert to the behaviors that led to the chronic condition. You have to repeat behaviors that help you that are helpful in this new lifestyle, attitude, lifestyle and persistence. Caring is not about feelings. You can feel sorry for yourself, for someone you love who's got a condition you can feel angry, resentful, but then do nothing to improve the situation. Do nothing to live better. Caring is about doing what needs to be done. Caring is about action. To answer this question of the episode, do you care? The only way the answer is yes is if you take action to make life better given your situation. We're going to take a moment to hear from our sponsor Care3 and we'll be back on the other side to talk more about the action of caring.
Care3 (Sponsor Narrator) (10:03):
It has been said to air is human. We believe to care is human care. Care3 applies the power of secure messaging to healthcare to help coordinate care when patients are outside of hospitals, how we call it the Care3 way have a team. Caregiving is a team sport. Family, friends and professional caregivers help you by sharing the responsibility, the burden, and the privilege of being there for someone else. This is your care team. Make a plan. You have to know what to do and when to do it. Use our Starter Care plan feature to choose common tasks for your care team to complete. If you're using Care3 with your healthcare provider, they can create the care plan for you, tap Start, plan, and it's time to take action. Accept the tasks that you will complete by tapping the red accept button from within the care conversation, the whole team gets notified and can visually see who will get things done, where to step up. You can even say a quick thank you to others for promising to take action. When you get it done, tell everyone tap done and go on about your day. Every time your team takes action, whether it's just you and your family or your working with your doctor and professional care Team Care3 helps you get everything done
Host: David S. Williams III (11:33):
And we're back. Let's talk about the three actions of caring. You answered yes to the question, do you care? You're willing to take action, but now whether you're in the beginning of your personal care journey for yourself or a loved one or both, or you've already been caring for a condition you have or for a loved one, you have to take on the behaviors that lead to living your best. We call this the three actions of caring. The first one is adjust your attitude. Fall away from fantasies. Focus on the new reality. Focus on what will work best and set your attitude to receive all of the benefits that will come your way. When you adjust your attitude, think about abundance, think about all of the things that are going to be going well for you even with these health challenges. Think about if you make these changes in yourself, in your attitude, how much easier it will be to do all the things that you need to do.
(13:08):
You want to fall away from fantasies. What does that mean? Falling away from the fantasy means I'm not going to do anything and I'm going to wish it goes away. You see a lot of people do this. They get diagnosed with a condition and it has some lifestyle changes that have to come with it, but they think, you know what? That's not going to be me. I'm going to be fine. That's a fantasy. When you have and live in those fantasies, your health spirals downward, your quality of life declines. We want to take our attitude into focus, be ready to take on number two, which is live the lifestyle. Live the lifestyle. Understand what is needed to get the best results and embrace them.
(14:14):
Find the positives in the new routine. Don't do harmful, do helpful. Don't do harmful, do helpful. We all know somebody who has diabetes and when people are told that they have diabetes, they realize they have to change their lifestyle. There is a lifestyle change that comes with diabetes. There's certain things you just shouldn't eat anymore. You want to exercise a little bit more. You want to embrace this lifestyle, but if people don't do number one, which is adjust their attitude and they live in fantasy land, they the negative outcomes that can occur won't happen to them. They won't have problems walking and vision problems that will occur with uncontrolled diabetes. Those things won't happen to me. I won't lose a limb. I won't have to have a foot or leg amputated. I can tell you it happens all the time. It's happened in my family and the reason why is those people did not live the lifestyle. They did not embrace what could happen. What really is a positive lifestyle change. Exercising and eating right, there's actually positive. There are things that you can do.
(15:34):
There are actually new experiences that are great, but there are also things that you can't do anymore. You have to find replacements for that pleasure, right? That's living the lifestyle. That's embracing the new. If you don't, then you're doing harmful, not helpful. So number one, adjust your attitude. Number two, live the lifestyle. What's number three? This is something you probably have never heard before. Number three is pay for persistence. Pay for persistence. What does that mean? Here's the reality. And in our diabetes example, this is a hundred percent true. It's hard not to revert to known behaviors to your previous lifestyle. It's hard not to revert, so you should pay for the support that makes you persistent. That's worth paying for. Why?
(16:42):
There is an economic burden that will befall you if you do not embrace the lifestyle. If you don't live the lifestyle, there is an economic burden, more visits to the doctor, more visits to the hospital, more dollars spent to try to maintain a level and quality of life. So you want to pay for persistence because the more persistent you are with living the lifestyle, the better the health outcomes will be. The better your health, the less you pay for extra healthcare. There is an economic advantage to living the lifestyle. It's cheaper, so you want to pay for things that will help you persistent. It's in your life interest and your financial interest. To repeat the most beneficial behaviors, pay for persistence at Care3, we are here to make healthcare work for everyone. We, especially you and your family. Let's walk through an example. Meet June and Erin. June is a premium member of Care3. She uses Care3 to implement the three actions of caring for her son, Erin. Aaron is 10, has autism, cystic fibrosis, and is blind. June has five part-time caregivers who help Erin each day. June decided to become a Care3 Premium member because she first adjusted her attitude. She resisted fantasies and focused on reality, and that reality is that Aaron needs persistent help each day to live the lifestyle that brings him the best life possible.
(19:06):
So what did she do? She worked with us to create Erin's personalized action plan. We planned out all foreseeable activities for Erin over six months, including daily care activities like medication schedule, bathing, grooming, meals and housekeeping tasks asks. We added repetitive appointments like weekly therapy and swimming. We included clinically relevant symptoms to track and metrics to take like fluid intake and bowel movements.
(19:44):
The Care3 app then sequences all activities into daily to-do lists so everyone can see what actions need to be completed. June then invited her caregivers to the app so they could all collaborate to ensure all actions are completed each day. June recognized the need for persistence. She and her caregivers had to execute on Erin's action plan each day to be effective Care3 premium features make that easy. If an action is not completed, June gets an alert and the red dot appears on the calendar date that the action wasn't completed. June then reminds the caregiver to complete the action so nothing falls through the cracks. Furthermore, June is able to measure that persistence over time. I Care3 provides June with Activity and Insights Trend reports. Each month we work together to find ways to improve persistence if necessary and update the action plan based on Erin's evolving lifestyle requirements. June is prepared for every doctor appointment because she can show the doctor exactly what has been happening between visits. Her doctors can then personalize treatment plans to address any specific needs. That's the hidden data that people just don't have when they're talking to their doctors so they don't get
(21:30):
The best care. June recognized the value of paying for persistence since becoming a Care3 Premium member June has said that Erin has had only two urgent care visits and zero emergency visits and hospitalizations over the last year. That is way down from previous years. Think about that. Not only has Erin's life improved over the past year, and we love that, but June has saved thousands of dollars by reducing her interactions with the healthcare system. She didn't have to pay up to her deductible, she didn't have increased number of doctor visits, she didn't have multiple emergency or urgent care visits. All of those cost money and she hasn't had to spend that over the past year. Persistence pays off, which is why you should be willing to pay for persistence. Erin and June are just one example of the impact that being a Care3 Premium member can have on your life and that of your loved ones because Care3 helps you excel at the three actions of caring and you and your loved ones live better.
(23:07):
And here is what we want to do for you. We have an exclusive offer for Treat Us right listeners. We are offering our Care3 Premium membership at 33% off. It's $99 per year. That's it, only $99 a year. And what will you get? You will get a personal health information coach. Your coach helps you get the most out of the app and your data helps you create your personalized action plan. We give you monthly activity reports to ensure everything's getting done, and then we give you monthly insights reports to reveal those hidden trends and we help you prepare for those doctor's visits. Why? Because this will ensure that you get treated right?
(24:07):
So you get all of those things as a Care3 Premium member. You get the Personal Health Information Coach, you get the personalized action plans, you get monthly activity reports and insights reports, and you get preparation for doctor's visits. All of this is to ensure you get treated right. So how do you get this limited time offer? You're probably screaming, how do I get this offer? Go to www.care3.co/premium. This offer is exclusive but for a limited time only. So go to that website, sign up, your coach will be in contact with you within hours and you will be in a position to get treated right. In summary, if you are caring through action, you have embraced those three behaviors. You've adjusted your attitude, you live the lifestyle and you pay for persistence. Now, maybe you've listened to this episode and you say, that's already me. I'm already doing those things. Great. Good for you. Share this episode with someone else because maybe they need to hear this and for yourself, use it as a reminder and a motivator to continue the behaviors because sometimes we falter and I have.
(26:08):
So that's what we should take away from this rebirth Renaissance episode of the Treat Us Right podcast. Take care everyone.