Latest / Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk / Oscar Mike Radio - CEO Steve Schwab

Transcript

Oscar Mike Radio - CEO Steve Schwab · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

• 0:53
  We come here and we're going to conquer and we're going to take
• 0:56
  some. Is that understood, Sir?
• 0:58
  That's what we're going to do, sweetheart.
• 0:59
  We are going to go and get some. All right, People on the ready
• 1:04
  line. Are you?
• 1:05
  Yeah, are. You Summer presents unique
• 1:14
  opportunities and challenges for families raising children with
• 1:17
  disabilities. In EP Magazine's annual Summer
• 1:21
  Fun and Travel issue, we revisit some articles from recent years
• 1:24
  that address a variety of situations that parents might
• 1:27
  face during the summer. Sign up and read informative
• 1:30
  articles for free about autism and other disabilities at
• 1:33
  www.epmagazine.com. Monotony.
• 1:40
  It comes in all shapes and sizes.
• 1:42
  Dull, tedious. Just plain.
• 1:46
  Boring. But what is this?
• 1:49
  A contender perhaps? Something UN boring by the looks
• 1:53
  of it. Jabs.
• 1:54
  Write a doll and uppercut the tedium.
• 1:57
  Something that keeps you on your toes, keeps your head on a
• 1:59
  swivel. A knockout punch to your old
• 2:02
  boring workouts. Welcome to fight Camp.
• 2:17
  OM Radio is a proud podcast partner of Wreaths Across
• 2:21
  America Radio, heard every Thursday at 11 AM and Sunday at
• 2:25
  8:00 AM Eastern. They're also big supporters of
• 2:28
  the nonprofit I Got Your 62 Lives at Once.
• 2:32
  And with every wreath you sponsor through OM Radio, $5
• 2:36
  goes back to this great organization dedicated to making
• 2:40
  a difference in the lives of veterans, law enforcement,
• 2:44
  firefighters and 1st responders battling PTA.
• 2:47
  SD-2 Lives at Once pairs these brave men and women together
• 2:51
  with dogs rescued from kill shelters.
• 2:54
  In this way, 2 lives are saved at the same time by saving each
• 2:58
  other. Donate now.
• 3:00
  Go to wreathsacrossamerica.org slash OM radio to help.
• 3:07
  That's wreathsacrossamerica.org slash OM Radio.
• 4:06
  I remember a time when I was in A and, you know, a not so good
• 4:09
  place and these games and these activities and being able to, to
• 4:13
  come in and have the camaraderie that we have here.
• 4:16
  It, it, it makes me feel like, you know, I'm not, I'm not
• 4:20
  alone. There are people here that have
• 4:22
  been through what I, I've been through.
• 4:23
  It makes me feel like I don't like, like I'm I'm part of
• 4:28
  something great. We're back here at the Elizabeth
• 4:57
  Dole Foundation where OM mission flight, the missiles and air,
• 5:02
  and I love bonuses. And I'm sitting there and one of
• 5:06
  the SDI team comes up and says, hey, you want to talk to Steve
• 5:09
  Schwab? That's your name, right?
• 5:13
  That's my name. OK, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:14
  I'm like, wait a minute, Steve Schwab, who's?
• 5:16
  That. Who's that?
• 5:17
  Oh my God, Yes, yes, yes. So I'm sitting there, all my
• 5:22
  stuff's packed up, ready to go. You know, I'm getting ready to
• 5:24
  head back to Boston here in a couple hours.
• 5:26
  And they're like, hey, if you want you talk to the CEO of the
• 5:30
  Elizabeth Dole Foundation. I was like, yes.
• 5:32
  So here we are in the green room on mission with you, Sir.
• 5:37
  And what an amazing event this is.
• 5:39
  Thank. You so much.
• 5:40
  You know, one of the things to ask my videos, I realize is how
• 5:43
  much I don't know. And I know that VA caregiving is
• 5:48
  kind of out there. And there's always this, you
• 5:51
  know, the caregiver's like, hey, I need help. the VA is like, no,
• 5:54
  you don't. And or if you do, you got to
• 5:56
  fill out, you know, an encyclopedia full of
• 5:57
  information. But I really didn't internalize
• 6:01
  like I'd heard of those with old foundation.
• 6:02
  I knew what it did, but didn't know it did to this degree.
• 6:07
  So this has been a real like the last month.
• 6:10
  It's been like a real like fire host of information coming in.
• 6:14
  And you have all these amazing fellows.
• 6:15
  You have these caregiving programs.
• 6:18
  But how do you, in a crowded nonprofit arena, you know, guide
• 6:22
  the ship to keep on mission while supporting people who are
• 6:26
  doing a mission? Yeah.
• 6:26
  Well, thank you for that question.
• 6:28
  And I think what makes us distinct is that and you, you
• 6:31
  talked about it, there's a there's a huge ecosystem in the
• 6:34
  military and veterans space and there's some 10/15/16 thousand
• 6:38
  organizations trying to support veterans and their families.
• 6:42
  There are very few supporting hidden heroes in a dedicated
• 6:47
  way. And so our distinction is the
• 6:49
  fact that we support the population that science says is
• 6:53
  the number one contributor to the health, Wellness and
• 6:57
  recovery of veterans. It's no clearer than that.
• 7:00
  So the investment in the caregiver, improving their
• 7:03
  health, improving their financial economic mobility,
• 7:06
  improving the healthcare ecosystem means downstream we're
• 7:10
  going to have healthier veterans, healthier families,
• 7:13
  lower healthcare costs for the VA, less of a burden on
• 7:16
  taxpayers and happier people. So the down payment means that
• 7:22
  the work is pretty focused, it's deliberative, and it allows us
• 7:26
  as an organization to take a segment of the population that
• 7:30
  is incredibly vulnerable and just focus on it.
• 7:34
  And I think I know that's what makes us distinct and different.
• 7:38
  And we've organized the strategic plan that has very
• 7:41
  clear deliverables across 4 pillars.
• 7:44
  And we're not trying to boil the ocean.
• 7:46
  We know we can't do everything on our own.
• 7:48
  So you see, you know, a few 100 friends here, more than a few
• 7:51
  100 friends here, and they're helping us develop this
• 7:54
  nationwide blueprint for action. So our plan says what we're
• 7:57
  going to do makes us gives us objectives, it gives us
• 8:00
  measurements, it gives us clear goals.
• 8:03
  Now we're creating the blueprint that the rest of America needs
• 8:05
  to follow. And we're going to hold private
• 8:08
  sector CEO's, government officials and policy makers
• 8:11
  accountable to come in alongside us to make sure they're
• 8:14
  delivering as well. Just we'll go back personally
• 8:16
  for a second, Sir. Did you serve the military?
• 8:19
  I didn't. My family did.
• 8:21
  Most of my family did. So this is the interesting
• 8:24
  thing. I'm always interested in people
• 8:26
  who didn't serve the military. Maybe they had family, family,
• 8:28
  maybe they had friends, but they get really passionate about
• 8:33
  serving our nation's heroes, our true heroes.
• 8:35
  That's right. Where does that come from?
• 8:37
  From you personally, Steven. For me, I am from a military
• 8:40
  family, but I am a democracy geek.
• 8:44
  I live in the freest country the world has ever seen, and I've
• 8:50
  never taken for granted the fact that the men and women who serve
• 8:54
  and their families allow me to have that freedom.
• 8:58
  And so much of our nation is disconnected from the military
• 9:02
  because now only less than 1% serve back in, back in the time
• 9:06
  of the world wars was closer to 15, sixty, 70% of the country.
• 9:10
  So you saw much more of a connection between those
• 9:12
  cultures. We've totally lost that, which
• 9:15
  means for someone like me who's a civilian semi connected to the
• 9:19
  military, I can help bridge that divide.
• 9:22
  And caregiving is an issue that touches 1/3 of the country.
• 9:26
  You heard it. Today, 100 million plus
• 9:28
  Americans are acting as caregivers.
• 9:31
  About 15 million of them are military and veteran caregivers.
• 9:35
  How can I not be inspired to take my zest for service?
• 9:40
  This is my form of service, my passion for this population and
• 9:45
  move the needle for them because ultimately it's going to secure
• 9:50
  our nation's freedom and security.
• 9:51
  It's going to strengthen that beacon of democracy and freedom
• 9:54
  around the world that I so deeply believe in.
• 9:57
  And hopefully it'll motivate other people to do more for the
• 10:01
  families, the caregivers and veterans who serve Because, you
• 10:04
  know, there still is a big disconnect.
• 10:07
  There sure is now one of the things that you're not a
• 10:09
  healthcare company, but you are definitely in the healthcare
• 10:13
  space. So as ACEO, you're having to
• 10:17
  deal with changing regulations, AI, insurance conditions,
• 10:22
  regulatory conditions. How do you use ACEO Guide to
• 10:26
  ship through these waters? Because if you make a wrong turn
• 10:30
  or don't adapt quick enough, you could be, you know, way off
• 10:33
  course. Literally.
• 10:34
  Yeah. Well, I would say one of the
• 10:36
  things that we're really well known for is the fact that while
• 10:39
  we're focused on local interventions or programs that
• 10:43
  can change their lives. So mental and emotional health
• 10:46
  interventions, emergency financial funds and economic
• 10:50
  viability assessments, resource navigation, We have a number of
• 10:54
  programs that directly change lives.
• 10:57
  But we do all of that by at the same time, operating inside of
• 11:01
  the healthcare system and transforming the ways that VADOD
• 11:07
  and community healthcare providers engage veterans,
• 11:11
  patients, caregivers, and their families, move them through the
• 11:15
  care continuum in a more systemic way, connect them to
• 11:19
  technology and healthcare records, which is, by the way,
• 11:22
  not happening in any systemic way.
• 11:23
  So, and you know this, it's not happening in VADOD.
• 11:27
  There's a huge project inside VA to transform the healthcare
• 11:30
  record system, which is absolutely essential so that
• 11:32
  caregivers can access the information and communicate with
• 11:36
  the physicians and track the progress of their veterans so
• 11:39
  that they can stay connected at every part of that healthcare
• 11:42
  journey. So as CEO, I have to ensure that
• 11:45
  we're meeting our intervention and programmatic objectives.
• 11:49
  It would be totally irresponsible of me to do that
• 11:52
  and not consider the ecosystem within which all these patients
• 11:55
  navigate. And it's a mess to say at least
• 11:59
  it's not every part of it's a mess.
• 12:01
  And we've got great partners at the VA and DoD.
• 12:05
  And you mentioned that the VA is a pioneer in caregiving.
• 12:08
  They are. And there's a lot we can learn
• 12:11
  about what the VA does in caregiving.
• 12:13
  And frankly, they do more. And I'd, I'd like to say it's
• 12:15
  probably because we've been at this for over a decade and been
• 12:18
  advocating for this population, but the rest of the country
• 12:22
  needs to follow. DoD needs to follow community
• 12:26
  care providers. Roughly 60% of the veteran
• 12:30
  population receive their care because that's how many are
• 12:33
  outside the VA system. They all need to follow.
• 12:35
  So someone said to me earlier, just wait until your work is
• 12:39
  done. And I said my work will never be
• 12:42
  done. 1/3 of this country is engaged in caregiving now.
• 12:44
  15,000,000 military and veteran families.
• 12:49
  We're in this sort of sandwich generation where we have folks
• 12:52
  who are caring for younger and older Americans.
• 12:55
  That's going to continue. Internet intergenerational
• 12:57
  caregiving is going to become the norm such that we hope
• 13:00
  someday when you're talking to your kids about going to college
• 13:04
  and finding a job, the conversation doesn't stop there.
• 13:08
  The third part of it is what are they going to need to do to care
• 13:10
  for themselves, for their families, and for you, their
• 13:14
  parents and loved ones? We need to create a new dynamic
• 13:16
  inside this country and inside families.
• 13:19
  We're caregiving becomes what we're teaching younger
• 13:23
  generations that they're going to inherit.
• 13:25
  A lot of countries around the world are doing that, or not.
• 13:29
  I want to talk about data. One of the things I started
• 13:31
  really learning about those adult foundation and what you
• 13:33
  all do is the RAN report, the first one that came out and now
• 13:37
  10 years later, it's like RAN too, if you like a better term.
• 13:41
  And I'm thinking to myself, you know, that that's a very intent,
• 13:44
  full strategy to use that kind of data and create that kind of,
• 13:50
  you know, qualitative and quantitative research to guide
• 13:52
  what you do. What's been your involvement?
• 13:54
  How's that focus what you're all doing?
• 13:56
  Yeah, well, we're based in Washington, DC Some people call
• 14:00
  it the swamp. And it's called the swamp for a
• 14:03
  lot of reasons, because you can get stuck in the mud and nothing
• 14:07
  gets done. True.
• 14:08
  So to unstick from the mud, you've got to have headlines.
• 14:13
  And so when we started, Elizabeth Dole said nobody knows
• 14:15
  anything about this population. There are any numbers.
• 14:18
  We can't talk about how big it is.
• 14:19
  And frankly, we didn't know how big it was.
• 14:22
  So her 45 years of public service said we need a big,
• 14:24
  fancy, trusted study. And nobody does research in a
• 14:30
  gold standard way better than Rand.
• 14:32
  And we captured the attention of Capitol Hill and we stood
• 14:37
  alongside the Obamas in a bipartisan moment with Elizabeth
• 14:41
  Dole and Michelle Obama in 2014 and said, this nation is in a
• 14:45
  crisis. We didn't know at the time that
• 14:47
  we that our first study under had undercounted the population.
• 14:51
  Yeah, about 5 and a half million was the headline out of that
• 14:53
  first study. But because we went to field
• 14:56
  with a survey that said, hey, Travis, are you a caregiver?
• 15:00
  A lot of folks said I'm a spouse, I'm a friend, I'm a
• 15:02
  sibling, I might be caregiving, but I don't identify as a.
• 15:06
  Caregiver. As a primary caregiver, we
• 15:10
  learned a lot over the last decade.
• 15:12
  We've got a lot under our belt now.
• 15:13
  So ran two. We threw that formula out and we
• 15:17
  said instead of asking people at the outset of your caregiver,
• 15:20
  we're asking them, are you doing the following things?
• 15:23
  And we're beginning to do that in all parts of the
• 15:25
  conversation. You heard us talk a lot about
• 15:27
  that in the conference today. Rather than throwing that word
• 15:30
  at people, it's how do we get folks to identify with the tasks
• 15:35
  they've undertaken? Administering medication?
• 15:38
  Yeah, we measure against the task.
• 15:40
  So this study went out and said to in in the field of research
• 15:43
  that we did. It asked folks, are you
• 15:45
  administering medications? Are you preventing emotional
• 15:47
  episodes? Are you providing
• 15:48
  transportation? Are you arranging for
• 15:51
  appointments? Are you bathing and feeding and
• 15:53
  dressing your loved ones? And then they answer a few of
• 15:56
  those and all of a sudden you're a did you know, you're a
• 15:59
  caregiver, you know, so a lot of people data.
• 16:02
  Points about what actually the care looks.
• 16:04
  Like absolutely. So we we got a lot of data
• 16:06
  around the diversity of the caregiver experience.
• 16:10
  We know a lot more about the fact that so many more
• 16:12
  caregivers are serving as remote caregivers in a day and age
• 16:15
  where folks are living cross state or cross country and
• 16:18
  providing caregiver support. So the numbers are a lot larger.
• 16:22
  We have national partners like AARP and the federal government
• 16:27
  who were absolutely blown away when they saw that headline of a
• 16:29
  100 million caregivers and 1/3 of this country engage in
• 16:33
  caregiving. And that's by the way, why we're
• 16:35
  starting to breakthrough and we're starting to see
• 16:38
  conferences and companies and brands around the world say, uh
• 16:42
  oh, we got to start talking about not just talking.
• 16:46
  We're going to start doing for this population.
• 16:49
  Last couple of questions. You, you have the data now ran
• 16:52
  to, you have this 10th annual conference going on, you have
• 16:56
  massive support. What's the future look like for
• 16:59
  the organization and the veterans and caregivers you're
• 17:01
  trying to serve? Yeah.
• 17:03
  Well, we like to say we're the Canaries in the coal mine.
• 17:06
  And the reason we say that is because we are essentially a
• 17:11
  laboratory of caregiving, which means the work that we're doing
• 17:15
  for the roughly 15,000,000 caregivers in the mill vet
• 17:17
  segment, if we get that right, that's the crystal ball to
• 17:21
  supporting 100 million Americans.
• 17:24
  It's how we think about transforming the healthcare
• 17:27
  system for civilians, not just in this country, but around the
• 17:31
  world, which is why we've gotten so much attention from countries
• 17:34
  like Canada and the UK and Australia and parts of Asia.
• 17:38
  We're paying attention to what we're doing.
• 17:40
  So the focus right now is to get those laboratory programs,
• 17:47
  they're not experiments. These are programs on these
• 17:49
  families, ensure that we're meeting our goals and
• 17:53
  measurements. They're improving their health
• 17:55
  outcomes, improving the strength of their families, improving the
• 17:58
  strength of kids because so many kids, 567 up to 18/19/2021 are
• 18:03
  serving as caregivers. We get that right and then we
• 18:05
  scale. So we've got pilot programs that
• 18:08
  are coming up in places like Texas and Florida and other
• 18:11
  states where we see dense populations.
• 18:13
  And once we hit those milestones that we want to hit, we take
• 18:16
  those programs national and we start to work alongside other
• 18:19
  community providers to spread this out state by state.
• 18:23
  I like to say we turn we're turning a mission into a
• 18:25
  movement. And frankly, some people in my
• 18:29
  field move too far too fast. And a CEO I wanted to be and
• 18:35
  want to continue to be methodical about the way that we
• 18:37
  do this purposeful, you know, focus on these four areas, start
• 18:42
  small scale, bring people into the fold like we're doing in
• 18:46
  this convening, find partners who can actually make a
• 18:49
  difference and then grow this thing.
• 18:52
  Fantastic, fantastic. Last question, I'm a veteran.
• 18:55
  You know, I'm in the VA system and where I live in the Boston
• 18:58
  area, there's a lot of older veterans.
• 19:01
  What can I do to help them when their caregivers run into
• 19:04
  problems? You know what's the first thing
• 19:06
  you'd have me do? First thing I would have you do
• 19:08
  is refer that caregiver at our website and join our peer
• 19:11
  community. The number one thing that we can
• 19:13
  do for a caregiver immediately is to connect them to a peer.
• 19:18
  It changes their life. So many veterans who have a
• 19:21
  caregiver think that they're one of the only people in the world
• 19:26
  dealing with the situation that they're dealing with every
• 19:29
  single day. The fellows who you met today.
• 19:33
  They also the same thing. The support was unbelievable.
• 19:35
  Yeah. So we want to get them into a
• 19:37
  structured environment where they can relate to other people.
• 19:40
  Then we want to make assessments on the areas where they need
• 19:42
  help around economic mobility, mental and emotional health
• 19:45
  support. So they have kids in the home.
• 19:48
  Can we extend care to the family, can make sure that by
• 19:51
  the way, the reason that we're there's a selfish reason we're
• 19:54
  focused on those kids. I mean, everybody wants to help
• 19:56
  kids, right? It's just kind of it speaks to
• 19:59
  your heart. But those kids are the next
• 20:02
  generation of war fighters, too. You know, you're a veteran.
• 20:06
  Kids that grow up in military families want to serve, right?
• 20:09
  So strong, healthy caregiving families mean that we're going
• 20:13
  to have a pipeline into the services.
• 20:16
  At a time in a dangerous and complex world, we need to ensure
• 20:19
  that the next generation of military families want to serve.
• 20:23
  I serve in in a way, in a way through my work.
• 20:26
  You served to protect our freedom and security.
• 20:29
  So I'd say to that caregiver, join our community.
• 20:33
  Be OK with asking for help. That's a hard one.
• 20:36
  It's a hard one. It's a hard one for veterans and
• 20:39
  it's a hard one for the folks that are at their side for
• 20:41
  themselves. And because sometimes veterans
• 20:43
  don't want their spouses or or friends or loved ones to
• 20:46
  acknowledge that. If you say you need help, that
• 20:49
  means that means that you're acknowledging I need help.
• 20:52
  And so it takes a lot of work. We do it an inch at a time, and
• 20:57
  having friends like you helping us get the word out like we are
• 21:00
  today helps a lot. And little by little, we're
• 21:03
  making progress. 10 years in, we feel good.
• 21:07
  Our movement is growing. And we're confident that, you
• 21:11
  know, 10 years from now, we'll be having you.
• 21:13
  And I'll be having this conversation and we'll be
• 21:15
  talking about the milestones that we hit a decade later.
• 21:19
  The needs are going to continue. The urgency will continue.
• 21:23
  We just need the country to respond.
• 21:24
  Absolutely. Mr. Schwab, I want to thank you
• 21:27
  for coming on and talk with me. I know you're just full throttle
• 21:29
  the day with the event going on, but this has been really
• 21:31
  insightful. I've enjoyed talking with the
• 21:33
  fellows and being the the team from, you know, the EDF and how
• 21:37
  you all do business here. And I just think our best is in
• 21:39
  a really good place. Well, we appreciate the work
• 21:41
  that you you do and the the way that you help us get the word
• 21:45
  out to the audience that that that listens.
• 21:47
  Absolutely. Hey, I'm trust Oscar mic radio.
• 21:50
  I'm with Mr. Steven Schwab from the Elizabeth Doyle Foundation.
• 21:52
  He is on to his next thing. I I don't even know what it is,
• 21:55
  but he is very, very busy. Thank you again for mission and
• 21:58
  flight. Thank you so much.
• 21:59
  Absolutely. You are so fun to talk to and
• 22:04
  I've heard so many great things about you by the way.
• 22:06
  Oh, appreciate it. Appreciate it.
• 22:07
  And I'm an avid listener to Oscar Mic Radio.
• 22:10
  Well, thank you very much. It's it's been, I'm going into
• 22:12
  my 10th, 9th year. There's a good story behind it.
• 22:16
  Maybe one day we'll talk about it.
• 22:17
  Yeah, I'd love. To I'd love to.
• 22:19
  Do that getting to come down here and see this in Ashland.
• 22:21
  It's just been like the highlight of my year.
• 22:23
  Just so many wonderful stories and people who like talking to
• 22:26
  Michael Corman, talking to Heidi, talking to Joseph and
• 22:29
  you're right the instant they say I connected, their life got
• 22:35
  better. Totally.
• 22:36
  It's it's. Getting them over that.
• 22:37
  Hump right the minute they reached out and connect with
• 22:40
  somebody from Elizabeth Dole Foundation, life got better and
• 22:43
  I want to really, you know, hammer that way home.
• 22:45
  So thank you very much. Well.
• 22:47
  Next time you see, let's get lunch.
• 22:49
  We'll do. Learn more about.
• 22:50
  What you're doing? Yes Sir.
• 22:54
  The biggest fear? Goldstar families have.
• 22:56
  That their child will be forgotten.
• 22:57
  We need to never forget freedom wasn't.
• 23:01
  The fact that they give us the life we have now, we should
• 23:04
  remember them and like give thanks to them.
• 23:07
  If I can be a part of something today, that's going to make the
• 23:10
  surviving family of any of these veterans, these heroes, feel
• 23:13
  better tomorrow than it's. Worth it?
• 23:14
  That one rate symbolizes one family, one family that was able
• 23:17
  to smile because of DeGeneres donations.
• 23:19
  To sponsor a wreath and honor a veteran, visit
• 23:22
  wreathsacrossamerica.org. Thank you for listening and
• 23:28
  watching OM Radio where our active duty service members and
• 23:32
  veterans are in action and the mission is in flight.
• 23:38
  OM Radio is an oversized load Co since the one production.
• 23:45
  If you are a veteran or you're a veteran who needs help, please
• 23:49
  dial 98 and press one for the veterans prices now.