When Derrick Stott was unexpectedly hospitalized, he didn't not know who would care for his service dog, Keller.

Thankfully, his counselor showed up in the right place at the right time and was able to help.

"I texted him and I didn't get a reply. I thought that was kind of odd because he's very meticulous about things. He's just really good about letting me know what's going on," said Michelle Hargis-Zuerlein, a mental health counselor with CHI Health Mercy Council Bluffs in Nebraska.

Hargis-Zuerlein says she was coming to pick up Stott, her client, for a support group session when she realized something was wrong.

"I came upstairs to the inside door in the apartments and I can hear his dog, Keller, kind of crying," said Hargis-Zuerlein.

When she went inside, she found Stott on the floor. He had been lying there for seven hours.

"My medical bracelet had cut into my wrist... I'd been laying there so long," Stott said.

Stott was taken to the hospital, where he spent two weeks recovering from a flu-related fever. During that time, Hargis-Zuerlein took in Keller and cared for her with her husband.

She and the dog even made trips to the hospital when Stott started to improve.

"Having her there for that time, snuggling with her, to give her up was really hard," said Hargis-Zuerlein. "But I knew that Derrick loves her and she takes care of him and this is where she needed to be."

Keller is back home now with Stott but got to reunite with her temporary caretaker on Thursday.

Now, the relationship between the two humans is closer than ever, thanks to one very lovable dog.

"You know, she's kind of my girl. And I'm not married, so she's kind of my little honey. I don't know what I'd do without her," Stott said about his dog.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.  — An art museum in Tennessee has partnered with the Alzheimer's Association to provide people living with dementia and their care partners to experience art together.

When health is only getting worse for the people we love most, caregiving can be an overwhelming job. There are places looking to give something to those caring families.

Something Judith Plummer loves to share is that she has a great mom.

"My mom's name is Jane Smith," she smiled. "She worked until age 70 as a child care center director here in Nashville where she did art and especially music. She's always been involved in the creative arts."

In fact, when Judith was a little girl, Jane took her everywhere. There were trips to the old Children's Museum, to the Hermitage, to the state capital.

"I was three years old and got to sit in the governor's chair!" Judith laughed.

"I noticed she was going downhill and having cognitive deficits," Judith continued, referring to her mother. "Then, in the last few years, it's been much more pronounced."

Jane has a form of dementia.

In just the way her great mom took Judith everywhere, Judith is now returning the favor.

The Frist Art Museum is partnered with the Alzheimer's Association to offer people living with dementia and their care partners free tours of an exhibit.

Anne Henderson of the Frist said this happens quarterly throughout the year in what's called the Making Memories program.

"It's about offering stimulation to people who have dementia of some form," she said. "The opportunity to come to the Frist is to have that exposure to go back to what memories people with dementia may have. Works of art can help create those connections. They might remember a sound. They might remember a story or connect with a story."

Included in this are art and music therapy. People make art while listening to music.

"Both the caregiver and the person doing the care can become so isolated, especially when dementia and Alzheimer's are involved," said Judith. "I make sure she gets art enrichment, and music therapy."

To see her mom making art again, to be around others making art, means a lot to Judith.

"She always had these interests all her life, and now they're being presented to her in a way someone with dementia can absorb and appreciate," said Judith.

She said a day like this is another 'thank you' to someone she'll forever know as a great mom.

For more on the Making Memories program, visit here.

Forrest Sanders at WTVF first reported this story.

When everything came to a screeching halt at the beginning of the pandemic, parents had no choice but to start in-home care. Ever since, childcare facilities have been facing many changes and trials trying to get back to pre-pandemic levels of children and staff.

Sunset Academy is one of the hundreds of thousands of childcare facilities across the nation that hit a major roadblock at the start of the pandemic. Director Samantha Emmer says Sunset Academy reopened after two months, but with very few kids and teachers.

"We went from actually being at an enrollment of 120 students, which is full capacity, to 27 when we reopened," Emmer said.

Emily Bustos leads Denver's Early Childhood Council, a nonprofit that is part of a national network called Child Care Aware of America.

"We all work to do systemic change in early childhood, as well as provide governmental grants, funding, coaching and training to early-learning providers," Bustos said. "[The pandemic] has been really rough on childcare providers. We did see some sites closing permanently after the pandemic. And right now, what we're experiencing is more of a workforce shortage crisis, if you will, around having enough qualified teachers to actually open, reopen classrooms or keep them open."

She says the best way to attract teachers is to offer a living wage and career pathways to grow. That's exactly what Emmer says they had to do at Sunset Academy.

"We would provide things like sign-on bonuses," Emmer said. "We provided opportunity for staff to be able to reach their credential of becoming a lead teacher if they reached that credential during a certain time period. We would give them another extra bonus, and so that would help us to retain them and it would give them a solid job as well."

However, paying teachers more means parents must pay more.

"The cost of child care was already unaffordable for many families, especially if they have more than one child," Bustos said. "The pandemic has sort of increased that challenge in that there again are fewer teachers, but really there is a movement to pay them more of a living wage."

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, childcare providers made an average of $12.40 an hour in the year 2021. Bustos says the industry needs more public investment.

"I think, in general, there's a broad need for recognition of early learning services as essential for working parents, and I think we need to engage with the business community," Bustos said.

Bustos says incentive for well-trained educators is especially important due to kids returning with greater social-emotional needs.

"There's a lot more challenging behaviors that we're finding amongst the little ones," Emmer said. "So just being able to teach them and to show them positive ways of interacting with one another now, because they didn't have that, you know, some families had one child, no siblings. That child was at home alone. They didn't learn those social-emotional ways."

Emmer says there were a few benefits to the pandemic. It gave Sunset Academy an opportunity to restructure and now they're working toward becoming an English-Spanish bilingual school. She says it also helped parents to feel more sympathetic toward providers after child care was temporarily taken away.

"It can be emotionally draining sometimes," Emmer said. "Of course, it's very rewarding, but it is a lot. I think that they have a little bit of more appreciation, gratitude and understanding at what early childcare teachers really do."
 

As people enter into a second holiday season in the COVID-19 pandemic, so many are dealing with the loss of a loved one.

Dr. Ruth Benca, a psychiatrist with Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in North Carolina, said she's seen significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, stress-related illnesses and trouble sleeping over the course of the pandemic. Now, she and other mental health professionals are anticipating the holidays will only add to those issues.

"There are probably many layers of guilt, particularly with these losses," Benca said. "They think, 'I shouldn't be having a happy time right now because I'm here.' That's survivor's guilt. So I think it's really important to face that, but not do that to yourself. Not beat yourself up. It's important to be accepting of yourself and also be accepting about what you do feel able to do or not over the holidays."

Benca said self-checks and self-care are critically important over these next few weeks. She recommends prioritizing sleep and taking time for yourself to work out or just get outside to absorb some sunshine.

The doctor also said, when checking in with friends and family, to attempt some kind of face-to-face contact. She said phone calls are helpful, but the most effective way to connect would be over FaceTime or in-person.

The holidays also bring up a lot of traditions with loved ones. For many, COVID-19 meant the sudden loss of that person you had a tradition with or the inability to visit them. Benca said you have two options: either continue doing those traditions in honor and memory of them OR find a new tradition that will bring you joy. She reminds patients they can always come back to those previous traditions in a few years when they feel more manageable.

Benca said if the feelings are overwhelming to a point of a crisis, to see professional help. You can also always call the National Helpline at 1-800-273-8255.

CINCINNATI —

Efforts to protect and care for the most vulnerable during the pandemic expand Monday.

CVS Health will start COVID-19 vaccination efforts at long-term care facilities in 36 more states, as vaccinations have already been underway in Ohio and Kentucky.

At the same time, a man from Hamilton is pushing state lawmakers to allow family members to be essential caregivers in those facilities.

He said it has been an emotional journey he never expected, but one he said many families are faced with right now.

"It was a year this past Christmas that my mother, you know, was able to, to be in my home," Scott Reynolds said.

It was a tough holiday after an emotional year for Reynolds.

He saw his mother, Francene, 75, through the glass at Berkeley Square in Hamilton.

Reynolds said isolation due to COVID-19 restrictions caused his mother to deteriorate in the dementia wing, and that has limited her speech and what she will eat.

He said she recently beat COVID-19, but it has had a lasting impact and hospice care is now by her side.

Reynolds spoke directly to lawmakers in Columbus this month about allowing essential caregivers, such as family members, in long-term care facilities.

"Have you ever had to stand outside watching your mother cry for you and see a total stranger try to hug and console your mother? It was heart-wrenching. This is why House Bill 770 is so important," Reynolds said during a speech at the statehouse.

Reynolds has been granted a few compassionate care visits to see his mother in declining health.

He said she will be getting the COVID-19 vaccine CVS Health is administering in nursing homes.

As those health care workers try to protect residents, Reynolds continues to push for more support.

"It's probably not going to help my situation but I just, you know, I have to look ahead where it could help somebody else's mother," he said.

Reynolds said he will not be finished if House Bill 770 passes.

He said he wants to take on reforming the laws when it comes to elderly care to make those laws better, safer and to make sure everyone is more prepared in case of another pandemic.

Rural hospitals across the country are in a difficult spot right now. COVID-19 is hitting them harder than many metropolitan hospitals as they deal with issues of lower staffing.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, about 20% of our nation’s population lives in rural areas, yet less than 9% of our nation’s physicians practice there.

Add on the fact that according to CDC data, COVID is killing rural Americans at a rate 3.5 times higher than those living in metropolitan areas, and this issue is affecting staff and patient care.

“I’m very worried about rural health care because rural health care is teetering on the brink right now,” said Dr. Kurt Papenfus, an ER doctor at Keefe Memorial Hospital in rural Cheyenne Wells, Colorado. “There’s a darkness in this illness that I can’t say I’ve said about any other illness.

In late October, Dr. Papenfus contracted COVID-19 as he was traveling back from the Northeast to visit his daughter.

“I was very cognizant and was wearing a mask at all times, social distancing, and washing my hands,” Papenfus said. “But I remember having this thought on the train that this is a super-spreader event.”

When he got home, Papenfus got tested and was confirmed positive for COVID-19. The diagnosis put Keefe Memorial in a tailspin as he served as the only ER doctor in the small 25-bed hospital.

“We are a trauma level four hospital so keeping that physician on staff 24/7 is what we are required to do,” said Stella Worley, Keefe Memorial’s CEO. “And it is getting to be more of a challenge to have hired physicians out here in rural [America].”

Within minutes of learning of Dr. Papenfus’ COVID-positive diagnosis, Worley was on the phone with several different hospitals working to find a replacement. Within a few hours, they had settled on a former ER doctor who moved to another hospital in Texas a few months prior.

After she agreed, Keefe Memorial paid the doctor to drive 10 hours from Texas to Colorado and fill in immediately as Papenfus recovered at home for the next two weeks.

“Worst-case scenario is you would have to divert patients if there’s no one in the door to care,” said Worley.

Populations in rural America tend to be older, poorer, and less insured than the nation at large, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Since 2010, hospital closures in rural America have been growing as there have been 118, including 17 last year.

The closures only exacerbate a growing lack of health care coverage in rural America, said Dr. Dan Derksen, a rural health care expert and family physician

“Once a critical access hospital (25 beds with a 24/7 emergency department and at least 35 miles from another facility) closes, they almost never come back,” he said.

LAFAYETTE, Colo. (KMGH) -- A Colorado entrepreneur created a smart water sensor and app with the intention of making sure loved ones are OK.

"Adult children who have an elderly parent that they're worried about who lives alone — that's typically who our customer is," Marlo Vernon said.

Marlo and her father Todd Vernon, a software developer, came together to launch CarePenguin, to detect water usage in the home.

"It's a way to see if someone is up and active, going about their daily routine without being creepy and watching them with like motion sensors or cameras," Vernon said.

The sensor connects to the hot water pipe on the water heater.

"We can detect things like rinsing a mug, washing your hands, washing your face, shower, laundry," Vernon said.

It then connects to an app on a smartphone, so the user can monitor their loved one's activity.

"If there's ever a lack of activity, they'll receive an alert encouraging them to check in and make sure everything's OK," Vernon said.

It's an idea that started from her days at the University of Colorado at Boulder. When she graduated in May 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, many older adults were isolated from their families. So, she saw it as a perfect way to give everyone peace of mind.

"I learned what a huge problem this is," Vernon said. "Like, how worried people are, how they call their loved one every day purely to make sure they're still alive. And that's not a conversation that anyone wants to have."

This story was originally reported by Brian Sanders on TheDenverChannel.com.

NEW ORLEANS —

Residents at an apartment building in New Orleans say they were abandoned after Hurricane Ida knocked out electricity, and the property manager offered little to no assistance to the 40 or so low-income residents. Many are elderly and have acute health conditions that were exacerbated by the oppressive heat after the storm.

Electricity was restored Thursday, but people who suffered through the heat are demanding answers.

"We went through a lot of pain and suffering, couldn't sleep, never got sleep or nothing, man," said Tyrone Webber, a resident at Boyd Manor.

Residents depended on local community volunteers who brought them food, water and ice. Some of the volunteers had been inside the building's apartments and shared videos that showed water on the floor and leaks around window sills.

The volunteers made patchwork repairs, but residents say they have not heard from the property manager about long-term solutions.

"The landlord didn't come here, not one day. We was without lights and everything for 10 days, and she's going to come here today talking about she want rent," resident Yolanda Lewis said.

National Baptist Housing and Economic Development own the property. Its chairman, who is also a local pastor, said he had evacuated from New Orleans for the hurricane and had not been to the residence since the storm.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development financed the property and pays 70% of the rent for tenants, who must qualify as low-income. This means residents did not have the means to evacuate on their own.

However, a representative for the company that manages the building told sister station WDSU that the residents were given information to arrange their evacuation through the city's 311 service. Only one resident chose that option.

The on-site manager has been to the building every day since Hurricane Ida and brought residents food and water, the representative said. Residents dispute that claim, saying volunteers and a council member have been their only sources of aid. One resident said the manager "snuck in through the backdoor."

A community member said conditions were substandard before the hurricane. He, too, said property management has been absent in the storm's aftermath.

Personnel is expected to be sent to complete an assessment of building damage. That process was hindered by the lack of electricity. There was no timeline given for when repairs would be made, but contractors are reportedly expected to be hired if the damages are extensive.

Residents should not be expected to pay their portion of the rent in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, a representative for the company said, adding that she was not aware that the onsite property manager had pressed tenants for payments. She also said she was not aware of residents' claims that problems such as mold, mildew and leaks were present before the storm.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Proving you can be small and mighty, a San Diego child is making days a little brighter for those with no place to call home.

It was on a drive downtown with her parents last year that charted a course for 8-year-old Abby Guth. She sat in the backseat of the family’s SUV peering out at men and women, young and old, living on the street.

She knew she wanted to help. She began saving her allowance and shopping with her mother, Elizabeth, for supplies for the homeless. Together, they put together baggies of supplies, including toiletries, sanitizer, blankets, and beanies. To date, they’ve given out 550 bags.

Abby hopes to one day expand to hot meals and maybe even a shelter. But for now, she’s launched a website, called Project Love to Love, to help support her mission. The project will soon be an official nonprofit organization.

For Abby’s dedication to those in need, she was presented with the ABC 10News Leadership Award for the month of February.

This story was originally published by Kimberly Hunt at KGTV.

The pandemic has brought structural racism in health care to the surface, not just through COVID-19 infections, deaths and access to care, but also within perceptions.

“We were really, really, you know, shocked to see the influence of discrimination on the perception of discrimination and on people's receipt of care,” said Carl V. Hill, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at the Alzheimer's Association.

The annual Alzheimer’s Association report released Tuesday also included a look for the first time at experiences of communities of color and perspectives of the disease and dementia care.

They found two thirds of Black Americans believe it’s harder for them to get excellent care. Native Americans, Hispanic and Asian Americans have similar feelings.

“As people feel like they will be treated unfairly in a health care setting, they're less likely to go and seek care, right, and so we know that delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis is a huge factor for the disparities that we see,” said Hill.

Diverse communities also see bias in dementia research, and many don't trust a future cure would be equal.

“So, working with organizations that represent the well-being of, for example, African Americans and Latinos, so that we can create trust you know, so we can become trustworthy and provide resources as they relate to education and awareness, or care and support, to those communities,” said Hill.

The Alzheimer’s Association is also working to improve cultural competence and diversity within health care.

African Americans and Hispanics were found to be up to twice as likely to have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. More than 6 million seniors are living with the disease.

CINCINNATI —

Three victims of the shooting at Smale Riverfront Park are recovering.

Police said a 17-year-old girl is in critical condition and a 16-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy are healing after they were shot in the arm.

Family members told WLWT the oldest victim is in intensive care.

They said she has organ damage, but also told us she is stable after ending up caught in the crossfire.

We also talked with the mother of a 16-year-old who was shot.

"I was about to get in bed when somebody called and said, 'Ms. Katrina, your daughter's shot'. I'm like, what," Trina said.

It was a phone call that changed everything for Trina.

We are not using anything more than her first name and not identifying her 16-year-old daughter at their request after the shooting at Smale Riverfront Park on Sunday.

Trina said she is a nurse and started considering how badly her daughter could be hurt.

"They said that she was shot in the arm, like, and I don't know what it could've been because, you know, me, I see it all the time. It can go through the arm and go into the chest. So, I didn't really know what was happening," Trina said.

It is unbelievable, yet somehow feels predictable to this mother.

"I didn't want her to go down there. Specifically before, specifically for this reason. It seems like every weekend the kids convene down there and it just be a mess, like, there's all types of fights and stuff like that," she said.

Trina told us her 16-year-old daughter was shot as she went to the park after a movie.

She said the bullet is still inside.

Police said a 15-year-old boy was shot in the arm, too.

Even more concerning, officials said a 17-year-old girl is in critical condition after being shot in the back.

Her loved ones said she is in intensive care.

They also said she lost a kidney and has a damaged liver, but is stable at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

They said she was not part of the fight.

For these families, there is a lot to process, including a shared pain knowing some lives have been changed forever and some have been lost.

"There's nothing that you can say to make a person feel better about their loved one being gone. There's nothing," Trina said.

Family members of the 17-year-old said she only turned 17 in May.

They said she was at the park celebrating the Fourth of July with some friends.

Trina said she feels children are being failed across the board, as she reflected on the shooting.

She said there are issues with parenting, the school system and a lack of jobs and other opportunities to keep kids off the streets.

Manuel Padilla is a foster parent to four teenagers.

“It’s not always hunky-dory, that’s for sure," Padilla said. "It comes with its good and its bad just like anybody else’s family.”

Normally, the four teens would be in the kitchen helping. He says they’re very self-sufficient. However, he says they can’t be on camera.

“It’s a safety thing," Padilla said. "It’s to keep them safe. It’s to make sure that people from their past [don't] get to know where they’re at.”

Padilla says he felt inspired to take on foster kids because he was one himself, in and out of homes since he was 3 years old.

He says he chooses to care for teenagers so he can give them a safe space to be their authentic selves. Two of the teens are in the LGBTQ community, and so is he. He wants to give them the home he never had.

“When I was 16 through 22, I struggled," Padilla recalled. "I struggled the most that I could have ever imagined. I mean, not knowing what credit was, the stability of a job and what it really meant, or you know, to survive in life, and so that’s where I wanted to make the biggest impact.”

When teenagers age out of foster care without a great support system, Minna Castillo Cohen says becoming independent is a struggle. Castillo Cohen is the director of the office of children, youth, and families at the Colorado Department of Human Services.

“If you’ve looked at the statistics nationally, young people who leave our systems without proper transition plans tend to have poor outcomes both in education as well as workforce," Castillo Cohen said. "They also find themselves homeless more than young people who had more intact families that had not been in our systems.”

Castillo Cohen says teens who aged out of the system last year were pushed into a pandemic world where stability was extra difficult to achieve. However, a federal pandemic stimulus bill passed last December made it possible for those young adults to return to the system for help.

“If a young person left during the pandemic, and they were let’s say 18 years of age, and they’ve tried to make it on their own and because of the pandemic were unable to, they would be able to contact the county that they live in and ask for additional services so that they could come back into foster care and reap the benefits of those services," explained Castillo Cohen.

Those services include independent living plans, food benefits, and workforce development. Although this federal help won’t last forever, Castillo Cohen says more and more states are making reentry for foster kids possible.

According to Juvenile Law Center, a non-profit, public interest law firm for children in the U.S., 38 states including D.C. currently allow for reentry.

If enough foster parents are able to establish a strong connection with teens before they age out of the system, Padilla says parents will see the progress their foster kids are able to make toward independence.

“They went from being in trouble--court cases and stuff like that--to being on softball teams, basketball teams, doing great in school,” Padilla said.

He says the experience is very rewarding and so worth it.

“I want to make sure that I can help them and prepare them to go out into the world before the world takes over them,” Padilla said.

Cancer care for older Americans is getting a makeover.

When the elderly learn they have cancer, doctors have often assumed they're too frail for treatment. Or they instead recommend harsh therapies tested only in younger patients. But there's a move afoot to change that with special age-related fitness exams.

New guidelines from cancer specialists recommend the evaluations before making treatment decisions for Americans aged 65 and up.

The exams evaluate physical and mental health and social support. They also take into account the patient's desires for life-prolonging treatment regardless of how much time might be left. The idea is to find ways to help patients tolerate treatment, not rule it out.