Hello and welcome to Boomer Banter, where we have real talk about aging well. My name is Wendy Green and I am your host. And with over 15 years experience with aging well and plenty more to come, I'm here to tackle all the uncomfortable, unexpected, and hopefully life affirming questions you've been pondering to help make the journey a little less rocky and a lot more fun. So if you want to age well, you are in the right place. My guest today, Heather Evanson Brooks, is a certified aging in place specialist and she has earned two National association of Realtor Certifications. As the founder of how to age your way, Heather focuses on connecting aging communities with support and education for safe, independent living. Additionally, she co founded step up housing with her sister, creating affordable housing for older adults. Heather is an active volunteer with the National Aging and Place Council and serves as the chapter chair in Southeast Florida and AARP Speakers Bureau.

Heather is a third generation Los Angeles native turned Fort Lauderdale resident with nearly three decades in real estate and a background in education. I am really looking forward to learning a lot from Heather. I'm at that point in my life where I'm trying to decide what my best living option will be for the next 20 plus years. And my son has also been asking me about what my plans are, and I don't really have a good answer for him. As many of you know, I am aging solo. So that adds another layer of complexity to aging in place. Things like how much will I need to modify my home to prepare for a time when I may not be as mobile as I feel right now? And what about long term care for myself? And should I need it? What if I can no longer drive? How will I get around? So weighing the pros and cons of aging in place and possibly downsizing or moving into a senior living facility are all options that I need to consider. And I'm sure a lot of you need to consider these options as well.

So in today's episode, we are going to focus primarily on aging in place, the modifications that may need to be made, and some of the exciting innovations that are currently available and others that are coming soon. So join me in welcoming Heather Brooks to Boomer Banter.

I know, Wendy, how are you?

I am terrific, Heather, and I'm so glad I found you and that you're here today.

I love that you were having me on the show because I love this subject, as you know, and listening to your questions. It's really who, what, where, when, how, and all of that stuff in our communities that's why I got involved, because people are missing that complaint.

Yeah. So let's start out by kind of telling me what it means to be a certified aging in place specialist.

So, you know, everybody has their own way of the way that they work. With their designation. You've got Ot's and pts that will go in and actually modify homes. I look at the, my cap certification as looking at everything aging in place as a whole and everything that surrounds it. You gotta start from curb to get into the house when you're aging in place, because it's not just about in the house, but how are you gonna get out of the house? There's a lot that goes into so aging a place. It's a large, it's a large subject.

Cap certification when you certified aging in place?

Yes. Through Nam. We go in and we really look at a home and how we can make the home more livable, whether it be using universal design, whether it be using modifications or integrating technology into helping you age.

So what do you mean by universal sign?

Universal design?

It's a design.

Yeah, it's a type of design that we look at with aging in place, it's an open concept. Most of our buildings and communities are being designed or designed in a universal design. So it's open concept to anybody. Visibility and livability. Anybody can live there and anybody can visit. Whether you're in a stroller, you could barely walk or crawling. Wheelchair, walker. So that's.

It's open to anybody and inviting.

Okay, so you heard me start out with. I'm trying to decide what's the right thing for me. So what do you tell somebody about the pros and cons of aging in place?

So I love the fact, here's the best part of it. The fact that you're even talking about it now and spearheading it before something happens is the best pro anybody can ever talk about. The con is if you are that one in four that takes the slip and a falling cheer after the age of 65. And most of those slip and falls happen in your home. So if you can take that, you know, those ideas of let's do something now about how we're living, the house we're living in, what are we, should we be living here? Where could we be living? What are our options? This fact that what's going to work for us, it's right sizing your life. I know a lot of people say downsizing. I like to call it right sizing. We bought our homes.

Yeah, that would be a problem.

Yeah. Yeah, we would get.

Okay, so you said you started the curb. All right, so is there a scenario that you can kind of walk me through? So we're starting at the curb of my house and you look at the house and you're like, okay, now what?

Well, am I looking at a house that's in a rural area or am I looking at a house that's, you know, in the city? Because that's going to be vastly different when you're in a rural area. You also have to think of are you going to put technology in their home for services to come? Because if you remember, take that slip or a fall in your home, how's somebody going to find you? You know, if you have a neighbor constantly checking on you that's right next to you where the maybe can hear you scream or they can, you know, I'm just saying it's important to think of those things. So when you are talking about something that's rural, you know, let's look at right from the curb, how with the access to get into the home. Do you have steps getting into the home? Do you have, you know, get, you know, in the garage on the side? You have to have a zero step entry to get into that home. So it's getting out of a car, not having to step up a curve. Yeah. Those are the things that you really have to think and then be able to get right into the home. I can tell you that 90% of the homes that we have here in our infrastructure do not allow for us to live there safely without a modification.

So that means most of them either have steps. These are the three factors that we really look at is does it have steps getting in and out of that home? Because if emergency services, you got to get in and out. The second thing is, do you have a full bathroom on the first floor? Remember I talked about do you have to schlep up the stairs to go to the bathroom? That's so fun. Mm hmm. And then do you have a bedroom on the first floor?

Right.

That is key to being able to age and place in that home safely. But at less than 10% of our homes actually can accommodate somebody with a mobility issue. So if you end up that flipper fall coming home with a lock or a wheelchair. Chances are if you didn't make the modification beforehand and prepped, you are going to be able to make that modification fast enough.

So you're saying that even though I am completely mobile now, I need to think about maybe a ramp in my.

Garage will not necessarily grant. Do you have a step free entries? Is it easy access into your house with a zero step? If you do, then you don't have to put that ramp in a garage.

But if there's a step, is it a ramp or just a railing or.

I prefer to put a type of a slip. That way you don't have to worry. Yes, I'd love a railing. However, I would like a sliding plan. Just. It makes it easier to come up and down railing for one or two stairs. Ideal. You got more than that.

I would think about putting some type of a nice ease going up into the house. Typically, you know, there's easier access into it. Front would be nicer. You know, it really would. And that's. We've got stuff out there that just is beautiful. That when it just right from the curb it just flows so nice. Bringing jet bring right up to the door.

Oh, so you're saying I can take this step away?

Yes.

What? Some nice sloping curve so it doesn't look like a handicap ramp, which is. I mean, I don't mean to be ableist, but.

No, I mean, as that time went on and you needed a railing down there, you put a really nice railing down. But think about things ahead of time. So that nice look going up to the front door is already in place and only have to put the railings in when you really need it. But that's nothing. It really doesn't have a choice. So have access into the home.

Okay, that's a nice idea. Okay, so you know, and I've mentioned this to you before, the other thing that concerns me is the bathroom. I mean, a lot of the slips and falls happen there, right? But you also don't want your bathroom to look like a hospital room, you know, with grab bars and all. So help me with that, Heather.

I love this. I tell people look like your granny scrap bars anymore. There are some amazing companies out there. Ponte Giulio. It's an italian line. They do have a factory here in the US. It is fabulous. It's gorgeous.

They do all types of accessibility products for the bathroom. And it's really nice. Ada compliant. I always tell people walk, like to think about walking into a five star resort into their spa. Their spa is Ada compliance. It's gorgeous. You never know that things were meant for handicap. You know, the showers, the way they're designed, the way they, as you walk through things.

I did a shower. That's, that I, that was very difficult for people to grasp, yet a lot of people are starting to dig the technology. So I did a hey, Alexa shower for a client and the shower automatically turns on, depending on which one's talking, it will automatically go to that temperature.

Seriously, I could tell Alexa to turn on my shower and it will know how warm I want mine run. Oh, my gosh. That's pretty cool.

There's a lot of age tent. If people aren't familiar with age tuck lift enough. It's coming, you're going to see so much future stuff coming our way. But when youre looking at like bathroom stuff and everything. Age tech is, aging is technology for the aging sector and its driven by the aging sector testing it, getting involved with the way that its working apps, youve got everything for help apps and people dont realize that like or Apple watches, it's a health app that was really designed for older adults. So you got stuff that's futuristic coming into the back room sector. But right now doesn't have to look like your granny's grab bars. It's really beautiful designs, there's great textures out there, floating sinks that accommodate wheelchair accessibility.

And you've shared a bunch of links with me that I will share in the show notes about some of this. So, and I just see that Tambay Ada renovations shared a link as well in the, in the chat. So great, thank you. Yeah.

So share with things.

So let me ask you about budgets for modifying our homes. Like, you know, you recommend starting now. So what kind of budget do I need to think about?

You know, it's, it's tricky because here's, here's the catch on that, and it's a double edged sword. If you are a homeowner then has deferred maintenance, it's going to be a lot more than it would be somebody that has, you know, hat that's continuously updated and kept up the home. And what do I mean by this? If you look statistically, our homeownership of those over 55, we have the largest homeownership demographics and most those over the age of 70, they own their homes outright because we've lived in them for so long. It's just as the length of time and of how long we've had it and we paid our mortgage down and everything else. But the point is that when you look at our nation's housing infrastructure not being able to accommodate it, then you look at people not really doing plumbing. We bought our homes, think about it. We bought them 40, 50 years. Our homes right now in our nation's housing infrastructure, the average age is 44 years and much older.

So did you do your plumbing? Because I can tell you if I have to go in to do a modification in your home in a shower and I open up that shower, we have to update plumbing and bring it up to d and to code. Right. You know, and when it is out, same with electrical. And here in Florida we got a lot of homes that have cloth wiring in them.

Cloth wiring, yes.

It's got to be over off to the side. So there are a lot of things out there that don't have to per se the bathroom. There's a lot of great stuff in the kitchen that's happening.

Yeah, I know. Yeah. So, but the main, the minimum would be to make your bathroom safe and access into the house.

Yeah. It's not even first it's access into the house. How are you going to get in and out of the house?

Right.

And the second thing is, is, yes. It's going to be your bathroom because that's, you know, you've got to take, it's your, your activities of daily living. You've got to be able to go to the bathroom or have access to kitchen and a bedroom.

Yes. Yes. So I'm curious, you know, with all of us, so many of us aging and the population getting older, is there any kind of federal support for some of these modifications like there used to be for solar energy?

So it's very hard to find things. Your cities and counties at your area on aging might have programs. However, again, you got to look at that threshold of where you would financially, which is why we are doing the church on 676. So we'll start push next year for it. I'm not going to let it go, I promise you.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's a, it seems like it makes a lot of sense. You know, so many of us want to stay in our homes and are going to have to make modifications and they're, you know, they're not cheap.

Yeah. And the other thing that we're trying to push is a purple tag. A lot of people don't know what products to buy that are going to be aged, you know, aging, place friendly. You've got grab bars and you just suck she cup on. Don't do that. You know, I just moisture thing that flips off the wall. Please don't do that. If you're going to do it, you need to do it the right way.

You have to put blocking in the wall. We get cluttered grabbering. You can't just stick around. So, you know, again, even if you didn't have 30,000 and the 500, the make sure that the scrappers are in the correctly.

Yeah.

Important.

So important because otherwise you're going to end up with bigger bills when you end up in the hospital and you're.

Yeah, again, purple. This purple tag, we know energy efficient has yellow.

Purple.

We know a grab bar was safe if we were trying to also see if we can get people that already have the certifications to be able to have a stamp. So we know that that would be, it's a tax incentive that we're trying to do so you'd be able to claim it through your taxes. It's really not much money from the government. It's just kind of offsetting.

So where would we find this? Or is it.

You can go. It's called the 767. Dixon, I believe I sent you a link, so I'll just drop it in the show notes.

But the purple.

So I'm curious, you know, you're a real estate agent.

Yeah.

What is the impact of some of these modifications on resale? I mean, say we're selling to a younger family and not another person our age.

Okay. It's going to go right back to where are you living? What? Then again, what type of house are you living in? So we know most of our homes can't accommodate somebody with mobility with you. However, if you have a home that's great for multi generational living, that is, you could do these modifications in a great way that would incorporate, you know, age tech and all the stuff. And people love age tech. The younger generation loves age tech. And if you incorporate it, we know that we can get a higher resale value. We also know that with the sandwich generation and what's happening with sand generation, we're now having more multi generational living going on. So if you're again rural versus state, and then you need to look at, again, livability, that's another important part is where is your neighborhood? Is it located to everything? Is it a prime area? You've got it.

You know, you've got a certain, you've got a lot more people to pull from, you know, buyers. They're going to want that. They may have their parents and they're also raising their kids. They now are all wanting to live under one roof. You've already done the step free entry. You've already done on the first floor, the bathroom and the bedroom. So the parents are great and everybody's upstairs.

And so you, and so you've done the bathroom so that you're using the nice technology and the newest and greatest grab bars that really look pretty rather than institutional.

Right. But you're using technology throughout the house because remember, this technology, we're talking agent place in age or not age, but like technology in general. A lot of people have a problem when we're getting out of bed at night, going to the bathroom. That's something we want to think about. So when you're aging in place, I told you it doesn't just, it's a very loaded question. It doesn't start at the curb. So if you're walking through the house, it's getting through the door. It's now transitioning from one room to another.

Do you have a little lip that goes from one room to another that you have to get over? What about carpet versus what flooring? So how wide are the doorways?

Knuckles, you know, and what about lighting?

So. And that's a big thing. Most of us over the age of 50 need a lot more light than we needed at 20. So having task lighting is important. Kicktoe lighting's great auction.

What is that?

Kingdom? Lighting is the lighting that's below, you know, below the cabinets, on the flooring. So it just lights up the flooring and it's not so bright in your face. It's great when, if you're getting out of bed and you're needing to go to the back room, you want lights that are going to light the path up so you can kind of see, but without waking every, you know, everybody up in the room or yourself. But it's bright enough for you not to trip over anything.

Yeah.

So, like, and what is all technology? If you really think about it? You could do it from an eyeball.

Oh, really?

Yes.

And, you know, I know the younger generation, my son and daughter love lighting. You know, sets the mood and the ambiance and whatever. So even if you put it in for safety reasons, it still is. Lovely addition.

So that's what I tell people. Like, it's not your granny strawberries. And it doesn't have to look like the way that our great grandparents or grandparents. It doesn't. It doesn't have to look sterile and yucky and the colors and it being drawn. We have so many patterns, especially for people that have a hard time seeing. There's some great patterned, you know, pieces that you can put to help them. There's great textures you can use for people that have, you know, that have issues with Iceland as well, without having to make it look, you know, you can still make it look aesthetically pleasing.

So who would I talk to, Heather? Would I call someone like you, a certified aging in place specialist, to kind of get started with the plan?

You. Yes, you would find somebody with their area of expertise. All of us with gaps have our areas that we work. Some just do home modifications. Some do the universal design, which incorporates all that home modification. You've got interior designers that use it for. For the color palettes and for the textures. So it's kind of a collective thing.

That's why I joined the national antique and Place council, because when we talk about aging, it's a community of people or not all. You know, we don't have every single aspect of it. Not all of it. Not like, if you. If you have an OT or PT that comes in and just installs the grab horse and stuff for you, but maybe they don't have the design side of it, like, thinking, you know, Alexa, turn on the shower.

Right, right.

So it's kind of. It's no different than finding, you know, a builder that does just your basic work and then the builder that does this kind of work. You have cats also.

Okay. So I will talk to a certified aging in place specialist, walk them through the house, and get some ideas.

Look up under national association of Home Builders. If we have a certification under there, you can find somebody in your area, very easy, and simply just type in, I believe, your zip code, and all the people will come up, and it'll kind of describe what they do and services they have.

Okay, cool. Now, let's talk about the kitchen, because you told me about some cool innovations in the kitchen. So, you know, we worry about as we get older, and some people don't even like to cook anymore, but those of us who do, I mean, talk to me about the kitchen, making it safe.

Okay. I love to cook. I know, like, my mom loves to cook, however, and it's not just my mother or myself, but we all forget leaving our show on. And most, if you looked about five something years ago, eight years ago, we were starting to get into the stove technology. Refrigerate. You know, all that technology really is start ramping up. You know, you had to buy the whole stove or you had to replace an appliance, and now they're really getting integrated with things. So, um, is the first universal stove knob that was ever invented.

And girl who invented it had it. Has an amazing story. Her mother, uh, left the. Had, you know, left the, um, I think it was gas range on and had no idea and almost burned the house down. Even if you have little kids, you leave the stove on where it happens. This knob doesn't matter if it's gas or if it's electric. Typically, our stoves have these, like, two prongs that are go into it, and this knob just sticks on that prong, and it can automatically turn on or off the stove. But what's even cooler is that you can set it to tell you is your mom's cooked that day, or you can monitor it.

So if you are worried about a parent having memory issues, you can kind of be like, oh, my God, did they leave the stove on today? Or did they even cook something? Today we're getting that type of technology it's in. It really is. So oo is one crate.

Oh, Miss Oddheaddeh. O m e. O m e. Okay. And that'll be in the show notes too. Yeah.

You weren't sucked with this product. I just decided to just not, not take it and locked away.

Oh, wow.

Fascinating. Yeah. She got great story. She's doing wonderful.

Wow. I mean, I thought that was the coolest thing.

I'm only going to tell you more because I hope you have aroma future show. You have all in one apps that actually use, it's called Smart HQ and they take all your kitchen appliances. It could be a Samsung with, you know, quesadinar with, you know, all, all different ones. And you can actually use it all in one app. So you're able to turn it on, turn it off. I know, right?

Yeah.

And if you were talking about resale value of a home and you're integrating all this really cool stuff and we're doing it for aging in place, but you want to, you end up wanting to sell it. The younger generation is going to want this or what say, whether it them living there long term with, you know, be sandwiched and multi generous living or raising their kids in a really cool house that has all those features already.

Yeah. Well, the other thing I think you would think about in the kitchen is the, is the height of the shelves, you know. Cause they make everything so high and then you need a stepladder and you don't wanna be getting on a step ladder at this point.

I actually, I did a whole series on this with, they have some great cabinetry that's outd, that pulls it out rather than digging back into a cabinet. It's expensive. So again, when you talk about how much you want to spend versus down here, you can be spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on just cabinetry alone in a kitchen to make it easier access. I will tell you if the best investment is just those pull out shelves. Get as many pull out tubs as you can without redoing everything. Doesn't have to be fancy. They've got this great, you know, a lot of us want to use our blenders.

Uh huh.

But they have shelves now that actually, you take the blender. The blender just actually comes up, you know, on either a lift or with like a spring. And it just comes right up to, you know, countertop level. You take the bowl out and then you just push it right back in and it hides right back. It's like a cabinet that just comes up again. Do you want to spend on some shoes?

Right, right. Yeah. All of it has a cost to it, but you want to think about how you're going to arrange your kitchen, too, so that you, things that you use all the time.

But it goes back to the beginning of our conversation when you were talking to the audience in your introduction and saying, you know, where am I? Am I going to move? Am I going to stay? And so when I talk to people, you got to remember I'm coming from a caps certification side, not a real estate side. And I got my cap certification because so many of my clients don't want to move from their house.

Right.

They all want to leave. So I would want to help them stay there. But I know that if they aren't within what we call the, we call it livability, the floors of livability. Housing is your first pillar in livability. If you don't have safe housing as you age, meaning a set free entry, a full bathroom on the first floor and a bedroom, it's going to be very difficult for you to access all the rest of the stuff you've got. What about your neighborhood? Where is your neighborhood? Are you in a really, how's that transportation looking if you take the keys away? Or environment? What kind of environment you are, what's the engagement? Do they have activities? Do they have social involvement? Or what about how close are you to help that fall happens? No. How close is it for an emergency service to get to your house again? What kind of services are you going to put in your house if you're in the rural area versus the city area, you know, so much to think about. And then you have, you know, your opportunities.

What are your possibilities for seniors if you can't, you know, do things? Housing is your first pillar. And, you know, I tell people, I feel like we're missing a big component as we're aging. And that's like, what the heck are we doing? What are we doing? What do we do? Where do we go? What do we ask? Who do we see? So those questions are valid questions we all have. And I think that livability and having to do it is huge. Living in that two story home you bought it 40 years ago to put a family in and your housing memories there.

Mm hmm. Yeah. Hard to walk away.

It is. But the upkeep is, its a huge expense, and things are still going up around you, the prices and everything else, getting access to things are getting harder to find. Thats another big component to it. You know, how to age your way. We're doing a tv show on all of this on our pillars of aging through the National Hygiene Police Council. And I'm hosting the show, bringing in all this because where do you go that's hard?

These are all hard questions, and I would like you to tell us a little bit about your website, how to age your way and what we would find there.

Yes. So how do you enjoy, it's a website where you can find resources, education, and connections. So I'm a huge believer in people to people connections. I believe it's so important to raise our hands up and help each other out as we're aging, rather than putting your hand out, you know, trying to, you know, ask for someone's, you know, money or whatever it is. We do know that the largest demographics that's being scammed is over 65. And so where do you go to get vetted? Resources? I'm studying national aging place council. But when you want to find something, a guide or something that's at Hattage, Ray, all of those resources you can kind of find there. If not, ask me, I'm happy to help you find something.

And then you have the businesses, and the businesses have to understand how to network and connect with our aging population. We have to go and in. And it's, I think when we first spoke, I talked like, kind of, it was like a PTA.

Yeah, you did.

You know, when we bought our homes and we went into a neighborhood, we went with somebody, like a real estate agent that knew the person that you took your kid to when something happened or if you needed something, they were like, oh, that's the market. Or there's your soccer coach, or there's your tutor, and you had a resource. And then when you got involved in the elementary school, you even had more resources and more people to help you. Now we're aging. We've been there 40, 50 years, and nobody's telling us the resources. So the national aging police council is your resource. All of our chapters are forward facing with education. You also could look up art.

I do a lot of speaking with them. Arp, we have speaking events in all of our communities on, you know, on aging, on how to, you know, how to do things, where to find things, the questions to ask. So you do have that. I highly suggest that everybody download, and you can find it at Hatage your way. But that Arp home fit safety guide in all languages. But that is going to kind of give you a really good key to what you should be doing in your home right now it is. It's really extensive. I think it's 18 pages.

Well, really goes through what you should be looking for, the lighting, you know, take out carpeting, you know, things on foot. Chlorine, because I said it. And talk about aging place. It's a big component.

It's a big component. And so, I mean, I don't even know if this is possible to kind of give us like three, two or three takeaways. Like, here's what you should do first. If you want to think about aging in place, here's the research or the steps or whatever.

I'm going to tell you. Look at where you're living. You want to age in place, you need to age in place somewhere that's safe. So look at your surroundings. Can you afford to make those modifications? Because if you can't, then rate size to something that's got different loans out there. They've got so many things, but you can rate size and you don't have to feel like you're losing everything. I would say that is the key to number two. It.

The second thing is start those modifications now before something happened. Do it now.

Do it now.

And the third thing is, don't be afraid of age tech. Don't be afraid of the technology. Embrace it because it's going to help us. There's a lot of futuristic things that are coming out, like a smart mirror that's going to be able to tell you you're in the bathroom. If your eyes, you know, if you've got, if you're got issues going on with.

So your mirror is looking at your eyes to see if they're glassy or if you're dehydrated. Dehydrated.

If you're right, they have a toilet. Toto is working on a toilet that's able to tell you what's wrong with your stool or your urine. I tell you, the future of all of this is really coming. Oh, my gosh. Really? I want you to embrace. So those are the three takeaways that I'm going to tell you. Look at your livability index. Look and make sure that you're living safely.

And then if you are, make that house safe before it happens.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know, really, that's the key to it.

Heather, you are terrific. I mean, there's so much knowledge in your head and that you have shared with us and I so, so appreciate it and, yeah, lots to do to get started. So Heather's website and the way you can follow up with her if you have other questions. Is the how to the number two. Howtoageyourway.com. so check that out. Let Heather know what you thought about all that you learned today.

Wendy, do you have any questions for me? I know you were asking me those three questions, but really, like, out of all of this, what did you find interesting?

Oh, my gosh.

Look away.

I feel so much. Right. The age tech just blows my mind. Blows my mind. And actually, my boyfriend is putting in a new bathroom, and he's looking at some of those pretty grab bars from Pointa.

Ponte Giulio.

Ponta Giulio. Yes, they are. They're lovely. They're lovely.

Do you think they're cabinetry? They have grab bars, but they don't look grabbars.

I saw that. I know. Very cool.

So much.

So much beautiful stuff. Yeah. So, no, I need to. I need to have somebody come in and start an assessment, see what's possible.

Is your home a step free entry?

No, it has a step or two.

Okay.

Not bad.

Not bad. And how about your bathroom? Is it on the first floor?

It is on the first floor, and so is my bedroom. So that's a good thing. Yes.

Yeah.

We're in good shape there. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, then I would say that's the steps and then the bathroom.

Okay. All right. Let me invite people to join Boomer Banter. And you can join that by going to Heyboomer biz, which is our website, and click on Connect with us. And then you will know about all these amazing guests like Heather, as they are coming onto the show. You will also be involved in getting the newsletter, which always has some really insightful and useful information in it. So go to Heyboomer biz and click on Connect with us. And the other thing, please.

If you listen on the podcast, rate and review, it helps people find us. It helps us know what you like, what you would like to hear differently, better, whatever. So please be sure to rate and review. So let me tell you about my guest for next week. You know, this month is all about health and safety. So next week, my guest is Mary White. And Mary is a retired epidemiologist with the federal government, and she's an adjunct professor at Emory University in the department of Environmental health. I read an article that Mary wrote, and it inspired me to reach out to her.

So we're going to talk about the complexity of health screenings for colon cancer and specific women's health screenings. The guidelines make assumptions based on the general population average risk, but there are times when stopping screenings based on our age, which is kind of what the guidelines say is not always advised. So we're going to talk about that. We're also going to talk about the importance of focusing on health rather than just focusing on disease. I love that. So I'm sure there's going to be a lot to learn from Maryland. And as you know, each episode of Boomer Banter is an invitation to listen, learn, and apply the wisdom gained to your own life. We're a supportive community, so reach out and join the community.

The Boomer Banter podcast is produced by me, Wendy Green, and the music came from Purple Planet Music. Heather, you are delightful, wonderful. I have so enjoyed this, and I'm sure we're going to stay in touch.

Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Thank you for being here. Bye