Growth & Grace

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education even better than I was the last time, baby.

Leaha Crawford 0:35
We back and we back and we back and we back and we back. You. Hey, hey, hey. Good morning. Las Vegas, good morning.

Julian Rosado 0:48
Joanne, good morning. How are you? I'm

Leaha Crawford 0:51
recovering. I'm all right.

Julian Rosado 0:53
I told you, didn't I tell you, Well, my words. It doesn't matter, E, H, E, A, G, l, e s, said that. E, A

Leaha Crawford 1:04
G L, E s, but I will say congratulations to the 40 Niners fans. I will be watching the rest of the games. I don't know who I'm rooting for now.

Julian Rosado 1:12
Everybody was hurt. Everybody, all the key players, was hurt. And that's you want. That's amazing.

Leaha Crawford 1:17
So what I can say is I'm not a sword loser. So congratulations to the 40 Niners fans, but I am E, A, G, L, E, S, all day, every day. We'll see y'all in August, we'll see y'all probably with a whole new court. What's that? Offensive coordinator? Offensive coordinator, yeah, you'll probably have a new offensive coordinator, yeah, maybe defensive too. Maybe defensive too. But it's okay though we hate. What I love is our quarter, but it's okay, but our quarterback has class. Jalen Hurts is a class act across the board. And every interview, every time I see even though they say negative things about him, the man walks with class. And you know, he was raised, he wasn't throwing up. He was raised, and I appreciate that, but still gonna watch the Super Bowl. We're gonna see who There we go.

Julian Rosado 2:03
See it's gonna be the Niners, for sure, and but

Leaha Crawford 2:07
they got beat the Seahawks. They didn't do that last time. Yeah, we're gonna see how that worked out this weekend. See how that work out this weekend. But anyway, today we have an amazing guest, but I want to spend a special send, a special shout out to Harriet. Harriet Watson, Harriet, I know you listening. Hey, thank you. Thank you for always listening to the show and then telling me how he sounded and if the information was useful. Thank you for your feedback. But today, we are bringing back a guest that has been on here a couple of times, and I think it's amazing information, because you never know when you may need this, right? So we have Ryan Schmucker from care chest, and he's going to tell us all about care chest, tell us all about the services, and we're going to figure out how to get in contact with them. Because you never know when you may need might not need them today, but you may need them you know a year from now, a couple years from now, or you may know someone that may need these services. So Ryan, welcome to the show.

Ryan Schmucker 3:05
Well, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be here again. And what I'll start with is every time on on the show, one or two people call us and get help from us within the next Monday. So, oh, wow, by Monday. So we love being here. I'm honored to be here. And as you said, I'm Ryan from care chest, and we're just out here trying to help our community as much

Leaha Crawford 3:25
as possible. Okay, so tell us a little bit about care chest. Yeah, so

Ryan Schmucker 3:29
care chest was actually founded in 1990 by three pharmacists who looked around and were like, Why can't this person afford their walk or wheelchair cane? Meanwhile, I know someone who has something stuck, stuffed away in their closet, in their garage, in their attic, what can we do? So these three pharmacists, banded together, started out of a garage, much like Amazon and Microsoft, but we're not a multi billion national Corp. We're just a small nonprofit, your friendly neighborhood nonprofit, right? And we started redistributed gently used durable medical equipment. Okay? In 35 years, our programming has expanded, both geographically and programmatically. So now we're a fully comprehensive program for the people we serve. What that means is beyond durable medical equipment. Now we do one time, use supplies like incontinence supplies wound care. We do diabetic supplies, like your test strips, your blood glucose monitor. We do supplemental medical nutrition. That's your ensure drinks, your net Pro, your premiere protein. We help with Prescription Assistance. We've done some independent living home modifications, helping people be able to live in their home independently. You know, whether that's doing home modifications or buying some sort of assistive technology. And then we have an additional special care loan program to help people buy something for their disability. So we have a lot of stuff that we do just to. Make sure that when somebody comes to us, they have everything they need for medical equipment and supplies.

Leaha Crawford 5:04
I love it. I love it. Now. Are there income requirements?

Ryan Schmucker 5:08
Yeah, so we definitely have some. We have a few qualifications. The first qualification, which I'm sure everybody listening right now will meet, is living in the state of Nevada. Doesn't matter where you live. We serve the entire state, and then our second requirement is we have an income qualification. So our technical qualification is at or below 138% the federal poverty level. Now what that looks like for one person household is right on the nose, $1,799 a month. However, what I will say is the federal poverty level isn't always a good measure for what's going on in your life, and we know that. So when somebody has something going on, needs help, and if you've in my first little speech here, he's like, Hey, that might be a resource for me. Don't disqualify yourself yet.

Leaha Crawford 6:00
Stop Say that again. A lot of times people hear and they disqualify themselves. Ask for what you need and see if

Ryan Schmucker 6:08
they can figure it out. Yeah, yeah, because we do additional qualifications, yeah, we've, we've helped a lot of folks who are just in a hard economic cycle. We realize that sometimes when people call us, they might be having the worst day of their life, and we want them to leave making that day a little bit help, a little bit better, you know, regaining that independence, nurturing hope somebody doesn't need to leave us empty handed. And even if care chest isn't the right resource for you, I bet you our team knows a good resource.

Leaha Crawford 6:37
So, so you have, I had, I had the brochure in front of me. So the number for Las Vegas is 866-206-5242,

Ryan Schmucker 6:48
yep, 866-206-5242, you'll probably talk to Gabriel. If he doesn't pick up, leave a voicemail. He'll get back to you within 24 hours. Please, please, leave a voicemail. We all know everybody's calling everybody nowadays, so if you leave a voicemail, we'll know who you are, and we'll give you a call back.

Leaha Crawford 7:07
Got it? Got it. So it's 866-206-5242, again, 866-206-5242, so let's talk about it. When we talk about the different supplies, because you ran through them so fast. Yeah, no worries, you went through it fast. Okay, so let's talk about the medical equipment and supplies. What medical equipment and supplies are you? Do you offer?

Ryan Schmucker 7:29
Yeah, great. Great question. So because, you know, medical equipment can mean anything, and honestly, in our warehouse, it means a lot of things.

Leaha Crawford 7:36
It means all that, you know, it could mean a lot of things, right, right. Not all the things, but a lot of things.

Ryan Schmucker 7:43
Probably the things people ask for most that we have in back of our warehouse is walkers, wheelchairs, walkers with seats, canes, transport chairs, which is like a wheelchair, but it's lighter, it's easier to push. So if somebody is pushing like a family member around. You might want to transport chair versus a wheelchair. We've we get a lot of hospital beds. Hospital beds are huge, huge, huge for our community. If you are somebody at home right now, we have a large population of our community sleeping on the floor because they can't get into bed, and a hospital bed is that solution to get them off the floor. So if you're sitting there listening like my bed doesn't work for me anymore, call us. We could probably help you with a hospital bed.

Leaha Crawford 8:28
Right, right, contact us, because that hospital bed, wow, I never thought

Ryan Schmucker 8:33
about Yeah, it can drop lower. It can adjust so you can get in and out easier, things like that. We have power wheelchairs and power scooters, okay? Now I will say to get access to those power wheelchairs or scooters. We do ask for a few more steps than we normally do, okay? And for those, we just ask for, one, a doctor's prescription, okay. Two, your doctor will have to fill out our assessment, okay? And three, we ask for an insurance denial letter. And you might ask, why are we asking for that? A lot of the wheelchairs we have were actually redistributing when I first talked about how we started as a DME redistribution Center, which I guess is underselling what we are, but we're redistributing power chairs, power scooters, if you can go through your insurance first and get a new one, you can get a new one that size inspect to you go, okay, that's why we want you to go that route first.

Julian Rosado 9:30
Had no idea. Yeah, that's even a possibility. Yeah, can do that. Yeah.

Leaha Crawford 9:34
You got to think about it. It can't be one size fits all, because if somebody you know, depending on the size, yeah, the weight and the height and yeah, the

Ryan Schmucker 9:42
height, everything. And I will say one big need that this community has, that we help a lot with when it comes to medical equipment, wheelchairs, walkers, canes, is we have a lot of bariatric equipment. So that's 400 plus weight capacity equipment. Yes, a lot of times a. Um, people living with that scenario, they need multiple sets of equipment, like, maybe their insurance will buy them the wheelchair, but it won't buy them the walker, Walker. And the important, how does that make sense? Because they'll buy them one piece of equipment, but not the other. Yeah, it's like, they get to choose, but honestly, they don't get that choice in their life. Because, yes, I need a wheelchair in certain times, yeah. But if I don't walk, I lose my mobility, right? And so

Leaha Crawford 10:26
even though you had the wheelchair, you still may need the walker to walk around. But if it's something that's like, say, if you're going a long distance, you may need to go in the wheelchair because it's a long distance and you can't use the walker. But if there's something short, you can use your walker because you can, you know, yeah. So, yeah.

Ryan Schmucker 10:41
And there's also a lot of people who, you know, they might need that extra, you know, six months while they're waiting for their insurance to approve what they need. You fill a gap

Leaha Crawford 10:51
that's needed, and you just have to have the conversation and be vulnerable and open to getting the feedback and allowing them to help you.

Ryan Schmucker 11:00
Yep, exactly, our bread and butter when it comes to one time use supplies is incontinence supplies, diapers, bed pads, incontinence pads, Dave diapers. They are expensive. They are expensive.

Leaha Crawford 11:14
And, I mean, I remember having a baby and diapers are expensive, yes, yes. Diapers, no. So honestly, so for and this is, this is, this is years ago. So for a pack of 20, you're talking about, about maybe 20 to $25

Julian Rosado 11:29
how much? Okay, how much

Leaha Crawford 11:31
ever last? But it only is one use, one use. I mean, after they use it, it's in the trash. I'll put it back on. No, but if you think about it, so remember, back in the day they used cloth and they would wash the diapers, but now they're disposable, so it's one use, yeah, so after you use it, that's it. And if you think about it, you got a child that's going to the restroom. I mean, they're going to the bathroom four times, four times a day, yeah? And for four to five times a day, right? Think about how many times you go to the restroom a day, yeah? So every time a child goes to the

Julian Rosado 12:11
restroom, even more you got to change the diaper. Yep.

Ryan Schmucker 12:14
Every time you know, yeah, exactly. And honestly, we help a lot of people who you know, unfortunately, Las Vegas recently lost one of their biggest diaper banks in our community. Okay? Babies, bouncy, who's another nonprofit in the community, does a great job providing diapers for toddlers, baby, bouncy, babies, bouncy for five years, five years and below. Okay, so if you're listening and you're looking that kind of gap, however, there are people who are adults who have incontinence, and we help a lot with the adult incontinence supplies, or young teens.

Leaha Crawford 12:49
But think about it now. Now think about that, though. And Julian, I want to break it down for you. Think about it. I am on a walker, right, and I necessarily can't get to the bathroom as fast as I would normally get to the bathroom. And have you? Have you ever had to go to the bathroom? Real bad, right? And you got to, you got to dance to get there? Yeah, right. Think or in the middle of the night, yeah. You know, I don't move as fast, yeah, so I need to put these supplies on so that I don't mess my better. So it's a whole lot of different and it's not nothing to be embarrassed about. Yeah, you know it is, this is what I

Julian Rosado 13:26
have that problem more than you ever think, yeah,

Leaha Crawford 13:30
yeah, yeah. I know when I was actually, when I was, um, I actually used diapers when I was pregnant, because I wasn't able to get up and get to, I mean, I wasn't moving this fast, and I was like, hey, ho, okay, so we got to figure this out.

Ryan Schmucker 13:45
Yeah, yeah. I think the greatest thing is, is that, you know, there's other nonprofits in the community that do a great job providing those supplies. When they have them every month, you can come to care chess and get three packs, got it wipes and gloves every month. You know your your resource, and that helps it so that when you're walking down the aisle of the grocery store, you don't have to make that decision between, am I going to get my in common supplies this month, or my groceries?

Leaha Crawford 14:10
Oh, my gross, yeah, because they're expensive too. Yeah,

Ryan Schmucker 14:13
yeah, a pack of adult in common supplies is somewhere between six to 10 bucks, depending on what you're getting.

Leaha Crawford 14:18
And because I have, I do. I still keep them because, yeah, I still keep my I still have them from years ago, but they don't expire, right? But you're listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford. This is Julian Rosado, and we have Ryan Schmucker in here from care chest, and we just went over the medical equipment and supplies. I know we got to move right along, because we don't have a lot of time left Prescription Assistance.

Ryan Schmucker 14:40
Yeah, so we help with $300 up to $300 a year for the prescription you need. We you use our partner, pharmacy. Okay, instead of normally, when you get a prescription, you go to the pharmacy, they bill your insurance, and then you pay the copay. Basically, the way it works is care chest pays that copay for you to make sure that you you. Have that need. Okay, it's up to $300 a year. If that's something you need help with, just give us a call. We'll help out. We'll figure it out.

Leaha Crawford 15:07
Wow, got it. So with Prescription Assistance, up to $300 a year, and it is, I'm looking at antibiotics, cardiac cycle, Tropic, anti anxiety, anti seizure, respiratory medicines, or any other help. I mean, you just got

Ryan Schmucker 15:22
this, right? There's a pretty particular formulary, so call in and ask if we cover we were we have pharmacist on our board, and they have a pretty large formulary that they approve every year. So make sure your medication is approved before you start the process. The way it works is you work with our partner, pharmacy, okay? And so they have agreed that they, 96 pharmacy has agreed in this community that if somebody is working with care chest, they will deliver that medication to you free of charge, and we can navigate everything for you, because, you know, so

Leaha Crawford 15:55
stop, stop. Say that again. Because again, not only are you when you come when, when you work with care chest, you're getting a wealth of resources, yeah, so you need to be vulnerable and and let them know what you need, yeah, so they can figure out how to help

Ryan Schmucker 16:09
you exactly. And I just want to be clear that 96 will deliver your pharmacy medication. Care chest, unfortunately, we can't deliver right now to everybody. Okay? We serve 8000 southern Nevadans a year we we're not going to be able to deliver, but what I will say is, what we do to meet you where you're at is we do mobile and rural outreach. We're at 14 sites across this community right now in Southern Nevada where we will come out and we'll set up our van, and we'll do like basically, we'll take our warehouse on the road with us so we can meet you where you're at. So we have locations in East Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, Henderson, we have locations in Laughlin, Pahrump, caliente Pioche, we have locations in West ish Las Vegas. So Sahara area, Charleston Alta is the Crossroads nearby, and we're continuing to expand.

Leaha Crawford 17:02
I love it. I love it. And then I see diabetic supplies, diabetic supplies.

Ryan Schmucker 17:06
So this is all supplies that you might need for diabetic care, test strips, glucose monitor, syringes, pen needles, except for the insulin itself. Unfortunately, we can't do insulin because we're not pharmacists, right? But any sort of supplies you need, any supplies around it, yeah, exactly, exactly, diabetic socks,

Leaha Crawford 17:28
yeah, yeah, because the socks there and those are expensive too, yeah, exactly, those are expensive, all right. So how about the supplemental medical nutrition?

Ryan Schmucker 17:35
Yes. So this is also a huge, huge space where we serve the community. We're actually one of the only nonprofits in the community that is again, a consistent supplies of supplemented, supplemental medical nutrition. Excuse me, so that's like insure, PD, assure premier protein, net pro we give a case for a month to those who qualify now for that program. We do need a doctor's prescription and the diabetic supplies. We want to help the people who really need it, and that's why we asked for it, but we can help you work with your doctor to get that prescription. We work with doctors all the time.

Leaha Crawford 18:07
So here, so it sounds to me, I mean, we're at whatever the need is. I mean, how about Okay, so how about the independent living and care loans?

Ryan Schmucker 18:16
Yeah, so the independent living program is a little bit more of a comprehensive program. Normally, when somebody comes to care chest and they need something, as long as we get all their documents, we can help them that day. And documents includes application, proof of residency, proof of income and ID. If you don't have any of these, don't worry. We just need to know we can

Leaha Crawford 18:43
actually assist you in getting those two. Yeah, no, but, and honestly, the thing about it is a lot of times people hear information and disqualify themselves before they even reach out or no. So it is imperative for people to know we get we're putting this information out there, because this is a wealth of resources, a wealth of information. And if you need assistance, you know, yeah, I mean, you gotta reach you gotta reach out.

Ryan Schmucker 19:11
You're never alone. I want to tell this quick story 15 seconds, but one of my favorite ones is we were at a very prominent Senior Center in this community, probably about 6070, people at their lunch for our first time to hand out supplies. And of course, we have incontin supplies, which some people might be a little bit bashful about saying that they need. Well, if you've ever seen a dam break, this is what happened when this one lady who said, I go to care chess all the time, and she held up her packet of incontinence to get these. And out of nowhere, bashfulness went out the window, and the community came up to us and said, This is what I need. If she, you know, she probably

Leaha Crawford 19:51
was cute as a button. I got these. Don't, don't, don't eat, but I love it. I love it.

Ryan Schmucker 19:57
We are here to help. Okay? We want. Want to help, and we are understand that people are sensitive about these issues, and we totally get that are so cool, yeah, exactly. And our staff is really well trained to be like, Hey, you have this issue going on over here. That's okay, that's okay, but I think we can also help with this issue over here. Would you like that help? And they go through that conversation with you, and you know, maybe it's Hey, you have this issue, and we're helping you with this. We see you have this other need. Have you called them? You know, we're here to help whatever roadblock you have. Yeah, we have our resources, the programs I lined up, but care chess wants is a member of this community, to be a member of this community and continue serving even if you might be on the purview of our programming. Let's help you out over here, you know,

Leaha Crawford 20:48
I love it. I love it, so you are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, this is Julian Rosado, and today we gave a wealth of information about care chest, which is a nonprofit agency serving individuals in need by providing medical resources free of charge. So one thing is the mobile care chest. We talking. We talked about that in the rural outreach, yeah, so you're out in the rural areas too, as well. Yeah, statewide,

Ryan Schmucker 21:11
yeah, statewide. We touch every county in the state. So if you are in a rural area, don't think you're disqualified. We'll figure it out. Figure it out, all

Leaha Crawford 21:21
right, so here, let me get that. Let's get that on phone number,

Julian Rosado 21:25
very solution. I mean, right. It

Leaha Crawford 21:28
makes it like, okay, yes, I have all of this going here. You know what? Let me write down a list of all the things so I can make sure that I don't miss anything. All right, the information, 866-206-5242, again. 866-206-5242,

Leaha Crawford 21:49
Ryan, I want to thank you, because every time my office reaches out, you are quick to respond and come on and just share the information with us again. Of course, I'm going to bring you back on again, and I got some other things too that I think I might want you to participate, because this is an amazing, amazing opportunity. Thank you again. We and you, do you have a question you ain't said nothing, the

Julian Rosado 22:14
whole show, man. I'm blown away. Blown away. This is really, really mind blowing. It is amazing that they help out.

Leaha Crawford 22:25
Yep, all right, so, okay, so who you got this weekend? Well, Brian, who you got this weekend?

Ryan Schmucker 22:30
Yeah, I'm hoping, well, I know it's probably going to be the Patriots. Okay, gonna pull their game, even though I want the bills. And then, okay, I think that's who there's playing patriots versus bills, right? Yeah, okay, but on the other side,

Leaha Crawford 22:48
I think the Texans, yeah, you like the Houston,

Julian Rosado 22:52
okay, I like that. Who's you got? I think the Texans are gonna take it all. You think the Texas gonna take it all? Yeah? Okay. Are very rowdy bunch.

Leaha Crawford 23:00
I love it, you know. I you know, you know I like the rap, you know, I like, just bring this rowdy bunch. Yeah, so you got to Texas, all the way Texas, all the way Texans, all the way but you just said the 49 is what you

Julian Rosado 23:11
gonna do. The 40 Niners, because they were playing the Philadelphia Eagles, they didn't, they

Leaha Crawford 23:16
didn't show up. Just honestly, they didn't, they didn't show up. I mean, I just looked. I was like, okay, so you just not gonna catch the ball and become a GM and

Julian Rosado 23:24
just say that. And who

Ryan Schmucker 23:25
are the Rams playing? The Rams?

Leaha Crawford 23:28
Who are they playing? I'm not sure who the rams are. I don't know who the rams are playing. Is it rams versus Green Bay?

Julian Rosado 23:33
Is that the game? No, no. Green Bay is out. Bears, the bears.

Ryan Schmucker 23:37
I think the bears are gonna beat the Rams. Yeah. And I think, I think Seahawks are going to beat the 40 Niners.

Leaha Crawford 23:43
You think the Seahawks are going to beat the 49 Yeah,

Julian Rosado 23:45
we'll see. Yeah. What you think, yeah, as a pretty good parlay bet, right there. That's a good parlay.

Leaha Crawford 23:50
I know. The thing is that I love this time and talking to people about it, especially people that are emotional, because I did watch the Bears game, and that bears game was an amazing comeback. Yeah, that was an amazing game. I mean, all the games over the weekend were good, but E, A, G, L, E, S, I'm stand on that. Stand on it. That's all because I know they're gonna make some some changes. It's okay. There you go. They got to get it together. But I want to say again, Ryan, thank you.

Leaha Crawford 24:17
866-206-5242, again. 866206, 66, 2065242, services again, that are provided, they offer medical equipment and supplies, Prescription Assistance, diabetic supplies, supplemental medical nutrition, independent living and care loans, mobile a mobile care chest and rural outreach. The mission, again, is that they're nonprofit agencies serving individuals in need by providing medical resources free of charge over 35 years in Nevada. This is a resource that is out here that is available because when people talk about people caring you. Know, I think they named it properly. Care chest. We care about you. We care about you. And while you're going through this, just know you don't have to do this alone. That ends our show for today. My name is Leah Crawford. This is Julian Rosado. We are growth and Grace until next week. Oh, special. No, I know it was Founders Day for a lot of organizations this week and to my sororities on Thursday. We celebrated Founders Day. Happy Founders Day, y'all happy Founders Day. Talk to you next week. Oh, and happy MLK Day. We're gonna be at the parade on Sunday. I'll be at the parade on Sunday with my

Julian Rosado 25:35
stuff on it's gonna be good weather too. I'm

Leaha Crawford 25:38
gonna love it. We're gonna have a ball. All right, y'all gonna see me dancing. All right until next week. Have a good one you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai