In this episode of ‘The Aging Well Podcast’, Dr. Jeff Armstrong speaks with Sydney Rosbury, a senior neuroscience student at the University of Michigan, about her journey into elder care through CareYaya. They discuss the unique model of CareYaya that connects college students with families needing elder care, the importance of intergenerational relationships, and the challenges faced in the elder care industry. Sydney shares her insights on the sandwich generation, the training caregivers receive, and the future goals of CareYaya. The conversation emphasizes the significance of empathy, communication, and the personal benefits of caregiving for students.
Transcript
[Music]
in this episode of the Aging wall
podcast we're joined by Sydney Rasberry
a Premed senior studying neuroscience at
the University of Michigan and a
passionate advocate for affordable
personalized elder care as a student
caregiver and public health Ambassador
with Kaya Sydney represents a
groundbreaking model that connects
college students in healthcare related
fields with families in need of atome
Elder Care backed by institutions like
the Harvard inovation lab and aarp's AG
Tech collaborative K Yaya addresses the
growing challenges of elder care with
Innovation and compassion whether you're
a part of the sandwich generation
juggling caregiving responsibility or
seeking meaningful companionship for
yourself or a loved one this episode
offers insights into a service
transforming Elder Care well Sydney
welcome to the Aging well podcast can
you share a little bit about yourself
and your journey into neuroscience and
what makes you so passionate about Elder
Care hi so yes I'm Sydney I'm from
Michigan I'm currently a senior at the
University of Michigan studying
Neuroscience um I have a minor in the
sociology of health and medicine so as
I've gotten older I've realized how
important it is to consider the social
determinance of Health especially as a
future healthcare provider because I do
plan to go to medical school after
graduating I'm going to take a gap year
or two but then apply to medical school
um and so I stumbled upon this
incredible organization called Kaya to
it started off as a summer job but I've
continued as a caregiver with them for
about the last year or so and I really
support their model and how they go
about providing affordable elder care to
Americans and we have a lot of locations
throughout the country that we can
provide care around yeah I'm really
interested to kind of hear about what
what's going on around the country and
how students can get involved but what
Drew you to Kaya's Mission and how does
it align with your goals as a Premed
student yeah that's a great question um
so one thing I really liked about Kera
is the model that when patients sign up
to receive care from a k caregiver the
money goes directly from the patient to
the caregiver it's there's no fees there
aren't any the organization itself is
not taking that money it's going
straight from the patient to the
caregiver um which I thought is really
cool and not very common these days and
it just kind of supports the idea that
Kera believes the most like
well-compensated caregivers because
we're not getting any money taken away
from us we're going to provide better
care than maybe an organization where
the caregiver isn't as motivated because
they're not receiving that compensation
yeah so how does their their model
connect college students with families
and those needing you know elder care
and how does that differ from more
traditional caregiving Services other
than what you said you know that most
traditional caregiving services are
going to be taking a cut and paying a
part of that to then the caregiver right
so we have locations actually there's a
pretty long list of schools that we
offer care the rule is that within a
college a 45 minute driving radius is
generally the area that a student is
willing to provide care to drive to
because most care caregivers do have
cars um there could be some exceptions
to that but right now we have there's a
whole list of where is caraya active on
our website um but there's schools in
California Florida Georgia Massachusetts
Michigan North Carolina South Carolina
Texas and Washington DC um where that is
where Kera has expanded so far and we're
looking to expand to include more
schools um generally they pick a pretty
well-known University that has motivated
Premed pre-health pre- Dental population
of students and then we are the students
who end up providing the care because it
helps us get hours for a medical school
or dental school it helps us get patient
care hours that we need later on to
apply to secondary um like either grad
school or professional schools right so
can you share a story or an example of
an intergenerational relationship that
has had kind of a meaning impact on you
and or maybe on a fellow caregiver yeah
for sure so one that stands out to me in
particular is there was a woman I worked
for in the summer who she was just very
very kind one of the kindest most
open-minded people I've met um and it
was kind of cool to compare and contrast
some of her beliefs about the world and
her perspective of the world with other
people I know that are around her age
she was the same age as my grandmother's
um but her and I what she wanted to
focus on was doing things that brought
her joy that she wasn't really able to
do on her own so I would help her garden
I would help her she would she liked to
iron but she couldn't do it um and she
asked me if I knew how to iron I was
like yeah I can I can do that for you so
I ironed all her clothes because
appearance was um something that she
felt like she wasn't up to par with as
she aged she wanted to kind of feel like
have the appearance that she did when
she was younger so I would help her with
that um and it was just a really
fulfilling experience getting to work
for her she was a former professor at
UFM and I got to hear about her academic
career her family career her personal
things in life and her travels and it's
just really inspiring to have other
people to look at and see their life and
be able to decide what aspects of theirs
you might want to emulate in your own
yeah that's I think such a fascinating
aspect of this is that you know one of
the important things that we can do to
really help both your generation and the
older generation is to bring you
together and give you those
opportunities and I think there's a very
missed opportunity to bring college
students and older adults together as
well as you know older adults and even
younger kids like you know having them
involved with kindergartens or you know
elementary schools and reading and
things like that so what are some of the
most significant challenges you've
observed in Elder Care and how does kaya
work to address those yes for sure so I
would say the biggest issue that I've
noticed in Elder Care is just the
discrepancy in the quality of care given
depending on where the patient is
receiving it from um because not all
elder care facilities are created
equally uh there's sometimes people
working minimum wage jobs in those
Industries and they're just not very
motivated to provide the highest quality
level of care that is possible um to
administer to those people so what I
really like about Kaya is I believe it's
only 20% of applicants get accepted to
be caregivers and all these applicants
are college age students some of them
are recently graduated college students
but so it's a bunch of 22 24 25 year
olds who are really eager to get some
work experience that is going to help
them later on in their career um they're
people who are generally pretty educated
about science and medicine and health
and are willing to incorporate like new
information and new Research into their
care that they provide yeah I think if I
had an elder that I needed care for and
I was in close proximity to a university
I would be all over trying to find
college students and that's one thing
I've appreciated in my years as a
professor I teach exercise science and
so you know when my son was born he you
know we needed babysitters and I taught
athletic trainers you know as an
exercise science professor and it's like
who better or pre bun of Premed students
too so these kids that you know had a
compassion and care and were being
trained in how to do these things and so
I think that is a huge benefit to
something like Kaya is that you are not
only bringing energetic college students
to interact with these people but they
have a certain level of expertise that
can can benefit you you know you know
that if something goes wrong that person
at least has some level of training to
care for that rather than you know just
somebody who you hire off the streets
more or less right absolutely I would
hope nobody would hire somebody off take
care of their Elder yes I'm I feel like
that is probably one of the most
important decisions in selecting who is
going to be given cares for your parents
or your grandparents so it's definitely
a a thing that you want the person to be
well vetted um and a good portion of our
students are do they do have EMT
training training or CNA training
personally I did not I just had basic
life support training in like adult
pediatric first aid and CPR um but
there's an option to check what kind of
training you have when you're applying
and I believe when you're matching with
a family too if there's a family who
might prefer a little bit more training
you can it'll say on the caregivers if
whether we're certified in a certain
thing so that's kind of a cool little
aspect of it yeah that it is and and so
kind of that talk about having kids you
know picking somebody to care for your
kids as opposed to somebody to care for
your you know your Elder your your
grandparent your parent or whatever
whoever you're in care for um you've
you've mentioned like the sandwich
generation I think as we communicated
before this interview how do you think
well first of all what is the sandwich
generation and how do you think services
like Kara contribute to alleviating the
caregiving burden for this generation
yeah so the sandwich generation is
essentially
the generation of adults right now that
have both kids and parents that they
need to care for in some capacity so
that could look like young children and
maybe um parents who are having
experiencing some health issues it could
look like someone having more adult
children but they're having um issues
with real like older parents that have
Dementia or Alzheimer's that's kind of
the case with my parents um my brother
and I are both in college now but I see
with their moms um the type of care that
they have to provide and it's a lot of
it's a lot of stress for them and I
would like to help alleviate that stress
for other families as well as my own um
by doing what I can especially having an
interest in a healthcare field okay and
you've kind of alluded to this already a
little bit but how does being a
caregiver benefit college students like
yourself both professionally and
personally honestly it is just such a
good way to have conversations with
people which I feel like can be really
overlooked especially in medicine um and
just even in science communication right
now it's really really fulfilling and I
think it'll be helpful to me in my
future career to understand how people
think how people receive information how
they process the news that they hear
online or they read about In Articles
and I get to have these one-on-one
conversations with them about science
about medicine about a condition they
might have um and get to hear their
perspective on it and maybe some things
that their provider has overlooked so
that in my future studies in career I
can keep that in mind and think about
how are the suggestions I'm giving the
advice I'm giving to my patients is it
being well received by them and what do
I need to do to make that happen that's
a really really good point because I
think a lot of doctors anymore they go
through programs and that's I'm kind of
biased being an exercise science
professor Professor I I tend to think
that all medical students should go
through an exercise science program and
I know you're going through Neuroscience
a little different but you know it's
it's quite often that Premed students go
through these basic science programs and
they don't learn to interact with people
and so patient comes in and they get
that very short 15 minutes with them and
it's all about what's on the chart here
take a prescription and go as opposed to
as we like to address on this podcast we
talk about like for me exercise science
and and Medicine would be in the same
kind of under the same umbrella but we
talk about biomechanical psychosocial
and you know a lot of times medicine is
just
biological and we forget about the
social and the psychological aspects of
that and I think a program like Kaya
really helps to underscore that need for
empathy understanding
communication and building relationship
with your patient so I think it's it
just I think it's an awesome program U
that's why I was so excited when you
reached out about hey you know I saw
your program and I'd like to you know
maybe come out here and you know be my
Ambassador for Kaya and I'm like
absolutely this is an awesome program
why don't we have this at Western Oregon
University where I teach right we need
to expand to the Pacific Northwest a
little bit more as well as other areas
um but yeah thank you I was really
excited to hear about this opportunity
to be a part of like K A and I'm glad
that I came across it um and I do feel
like like you said building trust in
building camaraderie having a good
patient provider relationship is crucial
in the delivery of healthcare because if
you can't bridge that Gap and make sure
that your patient understands why you
have a certain recommendation and where
you're coming from and you're not
hearing them in their needs and what
they're concerned about like that's just
not going to get successful results you
need to have a good relationship so I
think that Kaya really helps develop
those types of skills and kind of um
Clues students into what kind of
questions to ask and to observe and
notice and ask questions about what You
observe and notice so what kind of
training do um or support do the
students receive through Cara yes so
when you are hired initially there are
modules on common things that you might
encounter as a Kara um so you learn
about fall prevention you learn about
there's a pretty sizable um like Memory
Care module about dementia and
Alzheimer's and um basically Kara gives
you a ton of resources to read up on so
that when you're going into someone's
new home for the first time and you may
have read online they State what their
condition might be um that you're
prepared and you know what to expect and
so Kaya has quite an impressive backing
from things like the Harvard Innovation
lab and Arps H Tech collaborative how do
these organizations support and help the
organization grow and evolve um so
that's that's a really good question
it's my CEO o Neil would probably have a
lot more to say about that than I do um
but the I would say that publicizing
Kira and advertising for us having
backing from those trusted organizations
has been really helpful um just because
nowadays it's kind of hard especially
for someone who might be in the older
generation to tell what is a scam and
what is real um but having like all of
these personal there's a lot of good
Google reviews there's the backing from
AARP AG Tech collaborative those are
going to kind of reassure potential
patients and potential clients that yes
we are real we are a reputable
organization yeah just not a bunch of
college scammers that are right scammers
trying to take your money
nope so what are the future goals for K
and expanding their reach and their
impact I know you said you want you want
to see more institutions taking on the
program so yes because essentially we
are a database for caregivers we are not
a Home Care Agency we are a registry so
it would essentially be just creating a
even larger amount of vetted and trusted
caregivers and then that would allow us
to expand based on where those
caregivers go to school and where they
live um so that's one of our goals for
expansion and then another one is our
CEO is working on an AI model um to kind
of help with elder loneliness and some
mental health issues that come with the
social social isolation um of aging and
kind of sometimes um encountering loss
and maybe losing some of the people that
are part of your generation so how can
families then that are interested in
Kaya's Services get started and what
should they expect in terms of the cost
and the whole process of just getting
their their Elder connected with a
college student yeah that's a great
great question um so we go through
kera.org it is a website where you go to
sign up it does not take long to sign up
but right now we don't have a working
phone number um we the website you go
and you can go and click and it says
find care and you click on find care and
depending on your state there's a
minimum wage that the student will
receive in Michigan I believe it's $17
an hour so that is what depending on the
number of hours that the patient wants
to have of care a week sometimes it's a
little bit higher if they only want a
couple hours hours but if it's between 6
and eight or more than that then it'll
be the the minimum required like like
wage requirement so they're paying $17
an hour directly from themselves to the
student which is a rate you cannot beat
with other yeah organizations like
visiting agels for example and I I
understand that you know there's no need
for a phone number anymore I mean who
actually uses phone numbers yeah and and
I think you know it just makes it a much
more streamlined approach I think to be
able to just do it through the internet
and you know just go online and log in
get the information and then get
connected yeah the only downfall I guess
of not having a phone number is that we
have had a few instances where an elder
is trying to receive or sign up for
themselves and they have a little bit of
trouble navigating the
website but which is understandable um
but we do have a pretty small team at
Kera that is in charge of vetting
patients and people to be able to
receive care in the database so those
people are very willing to help and
they're very personable and they can
help you like go through the online
process there's also a chat bot on Kaya
which I don't know how helpful that will
be to everyone trying to use it
especially those in the older generation
but there are ways that we can we just
have to persist a little bit and get you
signed up yeah so what advice do you
would you give to families that are now
navigating some of these challenges of
elder care for the first time yeah so I
would tell them that respit is really
important and your ability to provide
care for your parents or your
grandparents or your spouse whoever it
may be brother or sister is really
dependent on the balance in your life
and making sure you're getting enough
rest you're getting your needs met
because it's really hard to provide care
for someone else when you're constantly
just kind of paraded with the challenges
of life and having to juggle your own
responsibilities with responsibilities
for another person so I would say we
give a really robust opportunity for you
to get some rest bit if you are someone
who is in charge of caring for a loved
one so I get with um somebody who is in
that sandwich generation and they have
maybe both ends of the spectrum that
they need to to care about does kaya do
anything with that where you know you
might be able to provide care for both
the the the say grandparent and uh you
know maybe a young child do they do any
of that so we can do right now as of at
this point in time we can provide care
if there are let's say like a couple
maybe that needs help or um a brother
and sister that live together or
siblings that are part of the older
generation so far we have not expanded
our services to include taking care of
children um because we don't necessar
neily have the training capacities for
that yet for our caregivers so in the
future that could be something we look
to expand is help with both ends of the
lifespan like that um but right now we
are focused more on Elder Care okay now
you are the youngest person I have asked
this question and the youngest person be
a guest on this but we asked this
question of everybody on the podcast but
what are you doing personally to age
well that's that's a really important
thing to think about um I
am really focused on getting enough
sleep and I always have been I've always
been a really big sleeper and as a
neuroscience major I've come to really
appreciate the importance of sleep which
I know gets difficult as you balance
everything that comes at you in life but
I would say sleep research sleeping well
that's something that I try to do to um
age well and then I would also say just
staying up todate with research and um
reading articles about the best things
to do for your health because right now
at this time in the world there's a
wealth of information not all of it is
good some of it is misinformation so
it's important to go to those trusted
sources and look at the things you can
do to possibly preserve your health or
prolong your life a little bit great
you're underscoring one of our pillars
which is you know good sleep hygiene for
aging well so yes it's very important
and it's a challenge and that's one of
the things I'm battling with right now
is trying to figure out how to improve
my sleep quality and I I track it
Monitor and all that and you know
figuring a few things out here and there
but I got a long way to go and I'm sure
it es and flows a lot I'm saying this as
someone who doesn't have kids has way
less responsibilities probably than most
of America so I think as you age and get
older and take on more responsibilities
it's something for me to keep in mind
that sleep is a priority and it should
be a PR priority but it's one of those
habits that we don't build in college so
I'm impressed that probably do the
opposite of build it in college too but
I try to get good sleep good and so how
can our listeners and viewers connect
with Kaya um you've you've mentioned
that there's a web page um is there any
other social media or anything or um and
also how can students who want to
participate how can they get involved
how can they get connected with Kaya
yeah so you can find Kaya at kera.org we
also have a LinkedIn called Kera Health
Technologies um and that has kind of a
mix of healthc care information that our
staff like post and ways to sign up so
you can also go on there if you just
want to stay up to date on what's going
on in the healthcare world and then we
have an Instagram called we are care y
if you are a student who is interested
in joining Kaya you can go to kera.org
FAQ and see if your University is
eligible as one of the ones that has um
Cara student caregivers and then you can
use our website to apply to be a
caregiver there's an I'm a student page
which is where you would go to find more
information okay and how about an
institution you know how can I push like
Western Oregon University to get
connected with K yaa honestly I think
reaching out to our team if you are
someone at a university who has an
interest in in maybe finding a student
population that would be well fit for
Kera then you can reach out either on
any of those platforms honestly that I
mentioned before again our Insider team
is fairly small so we will see it and we
will reply yeah all right well is there
anything we've missed talking about that
we want to make sure that the the
viewers and the listeners get so that
they get connected to Kera and have all
the information they need h anything we
missed I guess just if you are looking
if you are a member of the sandwich
generation and you are looking for a way
to kind of provide have another source
provide care for someone you are
responsible for that we are a very
trusted solution um and we would be
eager to work with your loved one not
only com not just signed up to but happy
to to and eager to and motivated to
provide that care great and some
personal questions so what kind of
medicine are you looking to practice so
I am actually not as sure as time goes
on which is an ironic answer because I
think people usually become more sure um
but I have just found so many different
Specialties that I'm interested in the
more that I get exposed to them
initially I had thought neurology which
is still my top Contender I'm very
interested in neurology um but now
paliative care
could be on the table for me potentially
Immunology I've had some really
interesting Immunology classes so I
would say something in that sphere
either neurology paliative care or
Immunology is probably where I'll end up
but once I get to the rotations in med
school that could change again so right
I'm open to I'm open to different
options and you could probably find
somewhere in between all of that as well
I would think
right alimer care and some of those
types of things there's lots of overlap
that's the cool thing with Neuroscience
I've always been fascinated by memory so
there's big overlap between neuroscience
and paliative Care um neurod deener
degenerative diseases are very
interesting to me so that could be an
area of focus for my research in the
future well you'll have to listen to um
we're recording kind of a a follow-up
episode we we interviewed them last year
I forget what I think it was episode 120
for our podcast we interviewed Emily and
Mitch col kalansky
um she's a um she's a medical doctor
he's a psychologist but they wor they
wrote a book on you know dementia care
and causes of dementia and um they were
just a fabulous um interview last year
and we're interviewing again them again
this weekend and I think their episode
will probably air like one or two
episodes after yours but they're they're
a really really great source for
information about kind of the areas that
you're interested in so I might have to
connect you with them awesome I will
have to give that episode 120 listen and
I'll keep my eyes out for their upcoming
one yeah well this has been a
fascinating fascinating discussion I I
love having a younger person now on this
podcast you know we tend to to get into
the older generation a little too much
so maybe having a young face on here
might open up some of those you know 18
to 30 year olds that we could get listen
listening to the podcast but I hope this
also you know alerts people to the
opportunities that they have either as a
caregiver as a student or as a someone
who is in need of care for their Elder
and so I just appreciate you coming on
today I just thank you and wish you all
the best in your your decisions about
medical school and your continued work
with K AA so you just have a a a great
day and um it's kind of hard to say it
to a young person but you know it's easy
saying that and older but we always end
with keep aging well thank you yes I'm
very grateful for this opportunity to
come on here and talk about caraya and
thank you for being the platform for my
first podcast so I hope there's many
more exciting
opportunity thank you for listening I
hope you benefited from today's podcast
and until next time keep aging well