Geralyn Arango-Deely (00:22):
Hello and welcome to season two of Our Parallel Paths - A Future For My Loved One With a Disability... & For Me! I'm your host Gerry, Dr. Geralyn Arango-Deely, parent, professor, podcaster. Our Parallel Paths is about creating a promising future for our adult family members with an intellectual disability like my son, Nick, and a promising future for ourselves as that role of parent, family member, or caregiver, whoever you are in their lives, evolves alongside them. There is more than one path, more than one future to talk about, and that's why we're here.

(01:04):
This is part two of an episode where we were talking about managing supports and I invited my supports broker, Bradley Beck, to share experiences and some wisdom on managing and supporting staff. A supports broker, if you have not heard that term, is what I would define as an experienced, flexible, creative team member that's hired by say Nick and our family, to help us with hiring and supporting our staff and just generally helping Nick to live the kind of life he wants and that we want for him. And helping somebody live that life varies from family to family because people have different visions for themselves and their loved one. So Bradley's job will differ across family to family and that's what we are continuing the conversation about today. And I am curious about that supporting staff piece from someone's else experience and perspective, and so, a little more from Bradley, our supports broker.

(02:07):
So we were talking about some of these experiences that you have had and continuing the conversation about what you're finding are helpful tips from managing our staff because it's not always easy because some of us, like myself, don't come at this from an experience of managing anything but our own lives and our own families. Not about hiring people into your life, into your home.

Bradley Beck (02:31):
Well, yeah. So we were talking about feedback before.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (02:34):
Yes, we were.

Bradley Beck (02:35):
And I, I hinted at a little bit the idea that you could create a self-assessment form for a worker, maybe six months to a year in, probably six months when they first get hired, you want to... Maybe even three months, really.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (02:50):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (02:51):
Just to get a sense of where they think they're at and then you complete the same form and you can see if you guys are on the same page or if there's a gap. That's not to say that every family would need to do something like that. You were thinking that maybe that could be something that would be good for Nick.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (03:09):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (03:10):
And I think that is a good idea because when we talk about the changes since I've been Nick's supports broker, he lived with you.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (03:21):
Yes.

Bradley Beck (03:21):
Now he lives on his own with a roommate.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (03:24):
Yes, yes.

Bradley Beck (03:24):
And you live a half hour away.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (03:27):
Mm-hmm. 23 minutes to be specific.

Bradley Beck (03:29):
I don't want to disclose exactly where, where you lived to...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (03:32):
Well, we still don't know.

Bradley Beck (03:34):
Right. So 23 minutes away and you're not able to be on top of the workers as you were before, and that means that you are putting more trust in them, you are empowering them more. Everything we were talking about before, and you appreciate it and you want to make sure they're doing their best. You obviously care about NIck's safety, his wellbeing, making sure he thrives the most. And that could be something to help formalize this, to make sure you have, I don't know how many workers he has that are paid. Four or five.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (04:12):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (04:14):
But to make sure you're being fair to everyone. You're putting the same standard for each worker, even though each worker, the workers he has are very different from each other.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (04:24):
They are, which is fine.

Bradley Beck (04:25):
Yes, it's good for Nick that he has all these people in his life that are different.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (04:28):
Yes, I think so.

Bradley Beck (04:29):
From different viewpoints, but they all support him, they all respect him in the same way, and this is a way to track that and to be fair, but it's going to be difficult because you have workers that have known him for years and years and years before they were ever workers.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (04:44):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (04:45):
How do you say to them, "Here, tell me how good you think you're doing?"

Geralyn Arango-Deely (04:51):
I know, I know, and yet the thing that, you know, always sort of empowers me to do all those kind of awful things is, I'm doing this for Nick.

Bradley Beck (04:58):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (04:59):
You know, I could go all momma bear because it's my child, and things I wouldn't do out of respect for myself, I will do because of my son and how vulnerable he is and how much I am trusting you.

Bradley Beck (05:15):
Right, and that's what's so wild about it is that as a parent, you are putting this amount of trust and your son, who's an adult but needs this level of support to be independent. There are plenty of parents who just say okay, it's just going to be our little show for decades and decades, and that's one way to do it and that's fine.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (05:37):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (05:38):
You're doing it a different way. You're putting a lot of trust in people because more likely than not, some of those other parents, they just couldn't put that trust in other people.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (05:47):
Right.

Bradley Beck (05:48):
And with that trust comes that accountability. Even if it's something that for the last couple of years, you or anyone who's listening, maybe if you've had workers for a few years, you haven't been doing it. If you think it's time to start doing it, then it's time to start doing it.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (06:03):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (06:03):
If you don't think it's time to start doing it, that's fine too.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (06:05):
Yeah, because nobody is at the three-month mark at this point.

Bradley Beck (06:08):
No.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (06:09):
That ship sailed.

Bradley Beck (06:09):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (06:10):
But am I going to say, well now, I can't do it because it's too late. No. This is an opportunity and it's going to take all my- you know, I have to put on the big girl panties and say, you know, I may have to say something constructive as well as say something positive. Constructive does not mean negative.

Bradley Beck (06:27):
Right.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (06:27):
But you know, it is an opportunity and it really is all about my son.

Bradley Beck (06:35):
And this is another thing to think about. I don't want to get too far in the weeds, but if you are self-directing workers, you have a pay range you can pay workers at. You can pay them, you know, this amount of money. You can pay them, there's a maximum amount of money, and there are many factors. Depending on your waiver, you might have so much of a budget to pay a worker, but if you can start a little lower, then you could work in raises every year or so until they hit a maximum amount. And if you could tie this feedback back to it, then it can be a nice thing because as much as people don't like giving feedback, of course.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (07:15):
Because you might have to say something that isn't glowy.

Bradley Beck (07:17):
Right.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (07:18):
I'd love to be gushy but I may have to be sub-gushy and that'd have to be okay too.

Bradley Beck (07:22):
Yeah, once again, if you tie it to compensation, it becomes a nice thing. That's my thoughts on that.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (07:29):
Okay. Other pearls of wisdom on this kind of managing support staff. I find it rather challenging and I tend to look and go, am I... What happened there? I don't like to be reactive. I like to kind of feel like I'm a little in front of it as best I can and then the tips that I had offered in the first podcast that I had done on this that were mine that I pulled from the internet and said this sounds like me. Because I came up with 22 tips and there was too many tips so I kind of culled it down to five

(07:58):
And I hear these in what you're saying. Communication which is so important, and delegating where you talked about the idea of people bringing their strengths and their interests and finding the right job for the right person and the right person for the job, are two different and yet overlapping things.

(08:20):
Checking in and that may well be the formal or the informal. The checking in that I try to do, even though I'm not here, I show my face to everyone at least every other week so that someone sees us that we are still here. And you know, lots of texting and the occasional phone call, but that check-in piece especially important because we're not always here. And acknowledging work and also trying to understand. I think I'm hearing pieces of all that in here so I feel validated because it means that I didn't do too badly on my list. But is there anything there that you feel like...

Bradley Beck (08:56):
Well, yeah. I would say like we were talking about before is being flexible and fair. Workers are different and it's a wonderful thing, you know, for someone who has multiple workers to have different types of people in their lives. I very much remember working at a very large provider in the area.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (09:14):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (09:15):
And one of my supervisors, this was a very long time ago, said to me that I'm not as enthusiastic with my praise after doing tasks. We were doing applied behavior analysis. That I should be more enthusiastic. Now, that's fair feedback.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (09:32):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (09:33):
I am a pretty even-tempered. I'm a very like low-key kind of person but I do remember the example, especially when people that were the supervisors at this place would be running goals and giving feedback. It would always be like this, "You've done a great job. I am so proud of you."

Geralyn Arango-Deely (09:51):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (09:52):
Because they chose the triangle instead of the square, or something like that. But anyway, that's not me.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (09:58):
Yeah. Okay, okay.

Bradley Beck (10:00):
I build a relationship with my people. Yes, I will take your feedback into consideration but I'm also, I'm not going to change who I am as a person because I think I have a good relationship with the people I support.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (10:11):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (10:12):
And they like me. So that's what you have to also realize when you're a parent is that you're going to have different kinds of workers. As long as they're doing the right things, as long as the person, your son or daughter likes them, it should be good. There are some workers, and I'm sure you have this with your workers. You have some who take initiative and some who need more guidance.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (10:36):
Yes.

Bradley Beck (10:37):
Now, you might think about that and say, well of course you want the person that takes more initiative. But I've had some workers take...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (10:42):
Strange initiative.

Bradley Beck (10:44):
... Over the years.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (10:44):
Yes.

Bradley Beck (10:45):
And personally, I feel like I'm a worker who doesn't take a lot of initiative as a supports broker.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (10:51):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (10:51):
I want you to tell me exactly what you want and I will do it well.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (10:56):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (10:56):
But I don't want to take things into my own hands.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (10:59):
No.

Bradley Beck (11:00):
Because it's not my son, it's not my daughter.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (11:01):
Okay.

Bradley Beck (11:02):
I think both are valid. You're going to have lots of different types of workers and I definitely have some pairings of workers with parents where these people are complete opposite ends, whether it be their personality, their politics, their...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (11:18):
Uh huh.

Bradley Beck (11:18):
Anything you can think of, and they still make for great teams.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (11:22):
Okay.

Bradley Beck (11:22):
So I think just being open-minded. The person you have in mind when you put the ad might not be the person you end up hiring.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (11:27):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (11:28):
And the results of that might be more wonderful than you could ever imagine.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (11:33):
Yeah, I like that idea of just keeping an open mind.

Bradley Beck (11:36):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (11:36):
And kind of going with your gut on some things because there is something to the gut. That you're sitting there talking to somebody and they may be kind of going in a direction you weren't expecting, or totally going along, and something tells you, "Oh yeah, let me give this person a try. Or hell no, maybe not."

Bradley Beck (11:52):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (11:53):
There's a bit of gut that goes into this. I think about it as an educator and as an advocate, people talking about (a) we are the experts. You know, the family is the expert. The child, the adult, is the expert on themselves, and so don't discount that.

Bradley Beck (12:08):
And there have been times when I have been in an interview with someone, you know, where it's the parent, individual receiving services, myself the interviewer, and sometimes I just want to say, stop the interview. You're hired.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (12:21):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (12:21):
And then there's other times when an interview ends and I've looked at the parent. We've looked at each other and thought two totally different things.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (12:30):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (12:31):
And so well, we talk it out. We say okay, why do you feel this way? Why do I feel this way? And that's a good...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (12:36):
It is.

Bradley Beck (12:36):
It's ultimately the decision of the person receiving the services.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (12:39):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (12:40):
The parent. I'm just there to...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (12:41):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (12:42):
... Give advice, you know.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (12:44):
That's the support of the supports broker piece.

Bradley Beck (12:47):
Yeah. Sometimes I've said, oh I don't think this person should be hired and I was wrong and I was very happy to be wrong. Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (12:54):
Yeah. I want to just double back to something you said that I can't help thinking about as a teacher which is, "great job" is not always instructive.

Bradley Beck (13:04):
Yes.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (13:04):
And one of the things that we kind of help our students with is to be able to say that without using the same verbiage over and over again. Great job, great job, great job.

Bradley Beck (13:15):
There's a list you can print out on the internet.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (13:17):
Well, yeah.

Bradley Beck (13:17):
One hundred ways to say it.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (13:19):
And you know what? Print it out because sometimes that kind of constructive feedback is really saying, instead of saying, "Great job, that was wonderful, amazing." It doesn't really tell me anything. Here's me describing to you what was this thing that worked and being able to just restate it and rephrase it and say that specifically this is what it was. And that I thought you did a great job on ___ and being specific.

Bradley Beck (13:42):
Yes.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (13:43):
Because that helps me to advance what I had in mind as the common employer but also helps people to know what they did do well. Because great job, great job. One time when I was observing a student teacher years ago, I was sitting in the back of the room and this was a bunch of middle school kids. And the young woman was nervous because I was there as the supervisor, but she was doing this and everything that the kids said, she said, "Yes, great job." And it was just an affectation of a new student teacher.

Bradley Beck (14:09):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (14:09):
But the kids in the back where I was sitting were going, "Great job, great job" in the back by themselves. And I said, afterward I said you know what, I recognize that but so did they. You don't have to say great job. You have to say something else that says that I acknowledge...

Bradley Beck (14:24):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (14:24):
... What you're saying or it's correct or whatever but to get creative with that and that's part of maybe what we need to do as well.

Bradley Beck (14:30):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (14:31):
Because great job is not always helpful, and sometimes it's a little beaten to death.

Bradley Beck (14:37):
Yeah, yeah. Well, good job is the, that was the number one when I worked as a support worker just trying to see how long I could go without saying it. But you would say it as a reflex. I worked 15 years as a support worker and yeah, that's part of the dialogue. But I was going to say going back to feedback of the personal story. When I, 20 years ago I got a job in a law office, just part-time. My first time ever working in an office, and a couple of days in, or maybe a week or two in, the boss lawyer there, he says to me, "Brad, the way you answer the phones is unprofessional." And I said, "Oh. How so?" I really didn't know because I had never worked in a...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (15:22):
Yeah, right. That's okay.

Bradley Beck (15:23):
... Professional job before.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (15:24):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (15:25):
So he talked with me about it. He said these are the types of things you would say on the phone. So I wrote them on a post-it note, I put them on my monitor.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (15:33):
Okay.

Bradley Beck (15:33):
So when I would answer the phone, I could see them in front of me.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (15:36):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (15:37):
Which people at the office thought was funny, but it helped me out and when I think of like, you know, there's definitely been times in my life where I've been given feedback, where I've been defensive. I'm not going to pretend that I'm perfect, but that was definitely an example of someone giving me feedback in a great way and it stuck with me.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (15:57):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (15:58):
Because to this day, I have a post-it note in my desk drawer and emails.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:03):
Okay.

Bradley Beck (16:03):
Depending on the situation because I mean how many times do you get an email that's like, best. Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:08):
I like best.

Bradley Beck (16:09):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:10):
All the best, something. But yeah, all those little points that really do make the interaction smoother, make it more sort of civilized has better potential for moving onto better things.

Bradley Beck (16:23):
So one other thing that I have here.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:25):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (16:26):
Not too many more, is support as far as training and resources go.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:30):
Okay.

Bradley Beck (16:30):
So if you self-direct, you will know that the training budget is whatever you are willing to spend on crackers and cheese and soda.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:41):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (16:42):
There's no training budget. You can't pay the workers to be trained in our model, I don't know...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:47):
Right.

Bradley Beck (16:47):
Other people listening might be able to do that, in which case you should.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (16:51):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (16:52):
But training is something you definitely want to think about in terms of giving them support on how to work with your child, whether it's someone might have autism or Angelman syndrome and just helping them learn about it, helping them learn things that are not just specific.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (17:12):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (17:12):
Things that are more general. Also, we've done it I think once or twice with Nick getting the whole team together...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (17:21):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (17:21):
... For a session. That's another difficult thing to do because nobody's getting paid for it.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (17:27):
Right.

Bradley Beck (17:27):
And it's a little different than if, you know, if I had my own business and I asked everyone to come in on their own time and not pay them.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (17:34):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (17:35):
And it's benefiting my business, that's one thing. But it's not like you're getting money because of this.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (17:41):
Yeah, yeah.

Bradley Beck (17:41):
You're not benefiting from it. That's another example of really having the workers being invested and saying, "Yeah, I want to come in for an hour."

Geralyn Arango-Deely (17:51):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (17:52):
On a Tuesday night or whatever. It's a good way to get people together to talk about what's working.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (17:58):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (17:58):
What's not working, obviously with the person at the center of the conversation. They should be there.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (18:04):
Yes.

Bradley Beck (18:05):
Saying you know what they like, what they want to do more of. Yeah, those are two things. I don't really have a good answer for training.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (18:12):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (18:13):
And having the occasional group meeting. But that's something if once again if you are able to build up a team and you're able to put that trust in people, like they will want to come to it. I think, I hope.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (18:28):
And we keep it concise, and we keep it sort of pointed so that we know.

Bradley Beck (18:31):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (18:32):
Your time is valuable and you're giving it free and I will cook... or bake, maybe you know, because if you bake it, they will come. So it's something. That was I think in my podcast episode. That's on my list. I really need to figure that out. It's been such a long time.

Bradley Beck (18:47):
And that's something too where we talk about the feedback with like the official feedback forms. That's one of the things that I waver on because this isn't, you know, insert name of the big provider wherever you live here, where this is a family thing.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (19:05):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (19:05):
This is, you know, an intimate, personal thing and when you're asking people to come in to do training on their own time or to come to a team meeting and it's unpaid time, they have to really buy into it. They have to believe in it.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (19:22):
Yeah, and I do believe that my people that work with Nick, that they really do care and that they really have bought in. It's sometimes a matter of how we keep everybody, myself as the common employer and them as the staff, continually buying in and feeling like part of something and being willing to shift as Nick needs them to shift.

Bradley Beck (19:47):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (19:47):
And me to shift.

Bradley Beck (19:49):
How long did it take to build up that team to the point where you felt like you really had something going with it?

Geralyn Arango-Deely (19:58):
It has started and stopped. It is not a point where I feel right now that I've got it all going.

Bradley Beck (20:04):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (20:05):
So it is close and then you lose somebody that you think the world of, and then you gain people that you are working on getting to that point of again, the respect that you assume and the confidence we assume, and keeping that going. It is all a work in progress and I think if we acknowledge the fact that it is.

Bradley Beck (20:25):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (20:26):
That you may never get to a point that sticks where it's like, oh yeah, it's perfect now. It runs like a well-oiled machine. Because life doesn't run like a well-oiled machine. But if we can sort of put some ideas in place and some sort of beliefs for ourselves in place, we can at least know that we're working on it.

Bradley Beck (20:46):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (20:47):
And I thank you, Brad, for your part in helping us work on La Viva Nick because it is a team effort and your expertise helps me to be the expert that I'm not in that, you know, sort of managerial kind of way and that hopefully what we look at and what our vision is for Nick and with Nick helps you to do your job better too. And your understanding of it and your clarity of it, even though sometimes like it wavers for me. How can I tell you what I'm still working on in my head? But that that helps you to do your job better for Nick.

Bradley Beck (21:24):
Yeah, it makes it easier. The families who I'm either just start working with, it's obviously much more difficult.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (21:30):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (21:30):
Because how can I give that personalized service when I'm just getting to know you? Or if it's a family that keeps me more at like arms length, I can only do so much.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (21:40):
Right.

Bradley Beck (21:41):
What I wanted to say was, I guess my last point is about patience. So I would say to anyone who's listening who is not a parent, someone who's maybe a professional. If you were to say, oh, you know, it might take a couple of years. It might take a year or two to get a good team. You just got to be patient. You have to remember that the parent has been patient for 21 years minimum. From your perspective as a worker or a supports broker, you might say, okay, well it may take a couple of months, but they've been waiting for years and years and years and you have to learn about them. You have to learn about where they've come from so, you know, you can understand if they might want things to go a little faster than you think it's going to go.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (22:23):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (22:24):
The person who I work with who has the 24-7 staff, when one of those workers leaves, that's a huge, uh. A 40-hour week, even a 30-hour week. That is a huge...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (22:36):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (22:36):
That's months and months of despair and are we going to hire anyone?

Geralyn Arango-Deely (22:42):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (22:42):
Like how are we going to make this work? And luckily, with maybe one or two exceptions over the seven years I've been supporting them, the workers, they understand that if they do have to leave, they're going to give like three or four months notice which is wonderful.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (22:58):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (22:58):
Gives us time to look, and we always find people. We always find the right people, but it is something where I think about for the mom who's been self-directing now for I think like six or seven years. It's stressful.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (23:11):
Yes.

Bradley Beck (23:12):
And if at some point in time, she says to me, "You know what, I think I'm going to have a provider take over because I can't keep doing this because it's not sustainable," I would understand. And I wouldn't look at it as a failure because ultimately they were able to self-direct for so long, and they're continuing to. They're not stopping.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (23:31):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (23:31):
Any time soon as far as I know. But they were able to do something wonderful. Self-direction is difficult. It is, you know...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (23:39):
Yes.

Bradley Beck (23:39):
... An unpaid thankless job.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (23:42):
Yes, yes.

Bradley Beck (23:42):
For the parents.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (23:44):
Yes.

Bradley Beck (23:44):
Once again, you have someone like me say, just be patient. So but it takes time to build trust and to create that supportive environment. I understand it's not 100% with Nick. It probably will never be.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (23:56):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (23:58):
But I feel like over the years, we really have built up a wonderful team and it took a long time and there were definitely a lot of bumps...

Geralyn Arango-Deely (24:06):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (24:06):
... In the road.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (24:07):
Yeah.

Bradley Beck (24:08):
But yeah, that would be the last thing that I would say about it, is once again, maintaining that positive attitude which I know can be difficult.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (24:16):
Mm-hmm.

Bradley Beck (24:17):
Because it's a lot of work but the payoff for the families that I work with who self-direct versus people who don't. The level of independence that Nick has. I mean, you know, him working at his job and everything that he's done over the years. It's incredible.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (24:35):
We're working on it. It's a work in progress.

Bradley Beck (24:37):
Yeah.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (24:38):
And we're all, you know, we really are proud of Nick and all that he has stepped up for and defied expectations. But always an eye on the finite nature of life and how does this go when I'm not around anymore. And that's my prime motivation and so all the support, you know, our family is so grateful for all the support, and grateful to you for the type of support that you provide which has been ongoing through all the ups and downs of these last few years of self-directing.

Bradley Beck (25:08):
Yeah. Thank you.

Geralyn Arango-Deely (25:08):
So thanks. Thank you. And hey listeners, thank you for joining me on Our Parallel Paths today with part two with Bradley. I hope that these thoughts on managing your supports people help you on the journey as you manage your supports people. And so, as I'll always ask, please do consider becoming a follower of our podcast because this conversation's ongoing and I really hope that you'll return and you'll come listen and learn from more stories of people like you and me and our loved one with a disability on Our Parallel Paths. So see you next time. Take care.