TRANSCRIPT

Derrick Michaud: 

Hello and welcome to The Real Hernando Podcast, a podcast created to highlight Hernando Mississippi’s amazing local community and small businesses. I am your host Derrick, and this episode is brought to you by Shelby Row Productions. Today, I'm talking with Heather McArthur and Jamie Cliett from the Wesley Meadows Retirement Community. Wesley Meadows is located in Hernando, Mississippi. They have independent living apartments as well as assisted living apartments. Their mission is to serve older adults in the spirit of Christian love. Now, first, we're going to be talking with Heather. Heather, you are the Area Sales and Marketing Director, correct? 

Heather McArthur:

Correct. 

Derrick Michaud:

And part of today's episode is we're going to try to introduce you to the community through this podcast and learn more about your story, your background, and what your plan is to help Wesley Meadows move into the future. 

Heather McArthur:

Okay. 

Derrick Michaud:

And then we're also joined by Jamie Cliett. Am I saying that right? 

Jamie Cliett:

That's correct. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you are the Executive Director of Wesley Meadows, and you're going to help give us a deeper knowledge of what Wesley Meadows offers and what it's about and then how you and Heather are going to start working together and the story behind how Heather came to you in a dream. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yes. 

Derrick Michaud:

Right. We're going to be talking about that and how this whole thing came to be. So thank you for being here. 

Heather McArthur:

Yes, thank you. 

Jamie Cliett:

Happy to be here. 

Derrick Michaud:

All right. So we're going to start with you, Heather. 

Heather McArthur:

Okay. 

Derrick Michaud:

So let's learn more about your back story and a little bit about where you're from. 

Heather McArthur:

Okay. 

Derrick Michaud:

And then kind of what your career path was that eventually led you to Wesley Meadows. 

Heather McArthur:

Okay. 

Derrick Michaud:

So where are you from? 

Heather McArthur:

So I live in Senatobia, Mississippi, and I have been married for 27 years. And we share four beautiful children together. Our stories are a little different. We both became teen parents at a young age and left us being high school dropout. So later in life, we obtained our GED and decided to go to school. Got my degree in social work and spent the last eight years working in mental health. And so that has kind of brought me here to this point where it's a little different. 

Derrick Michaud:

So on the front end, I should have mentioned that you're new. 

Heather McArthur:

Yes.

Derrick Michaud:

Like part of this, again, as I ran through in the intro, but now that we're actually having the conversation, you were brought in as the new sales marketing director to take the place of your position, right, Jamie? 

Jamie Cliett:

That's correct. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you are just now getting going, right? 

Heather McArthur:

Right. 

Derrick Michaud:

So this was brought to me from Jamie about doing this as a way to highlight you and introduce to this community and Hernando as a whole who the new sales marketing director is. And I'm interested to—we get the story on how you ended up in here. But let's talk about your past in the mental health field because that's definitely going to tie into what you guys are trying to do and what you're going to be adding to Wesley Meadows. Let’s talk a little bit about your history in that. 

Heather McArthur:

So I spent the last eight years working for Region 4 Mental Health for a program called PACT, Programs of Assertive Community Treatment. And we provide a service to adults who suffer from a severe mental illness. So there we actually saw the individuals in the community, helped them with housing, food resources, medication management, just an all-around treatment service for them in the community of DeSoto County. 

Derrick Michaud:

So did you go to school for this? 

Heather McArthur:

Yes. So my degree’s in social work, and I knew once I graduated, I knew I either wanted to work with older adults and/or work with mental health. So that's kind of where it's just led me so far. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you went to Ole Miss?

Heather McArthur:

I did. Graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2015. 

Derrick Michaud:

What was that experience like? 

Heather McArthur:

It was very difficult because I was raising four children at the time. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you started young, correct? 

Heather McArthur:

Well, I want to say I was, well, that's 2015. So I was probably in my late 30s.

Derrick Michaud:

As far as your children? 

Heather McArthur:

Oh, yeah. My children are very young. I want to say 13. But my oldest two are probably in their teens. And my younger one, our baby was probably 7, 8. So just kind of a—

Derrick Michaud:

That’s a nice span. 

Heather McArthur:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

That's a vast span of emotions and adolescence. 

Heather McArthur:

Yes. 

Derrick Michaud:

While also going to college full time. 

Heather McArthur:

Yeah. And so, I mean, I stayed up a lot of late nights studying and I would take them to school and I’d come home and study. And I also had a small cleaning business on the side. 

Derrick Michaud:

Let's talk about how this came to be. All right. And now we're going to turn to you, Jamie. There was a story about you having some kind of dream. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

That tied all this together. So let's hear more about that. 

Jamie Cliett:

Well, when I knew that our executive director at the time was retiring, and I actually obtained the promotion, I spent nine years here, and this campus, the people here in this campus have been my passion for nine years. So it was crucially important for me to be able to find somebody that had the same heart and the same drive for our older adults here. And so it was on my mind a lot. So I actually had a dream about Heather. And it's funny because Heather and I met seven years ago, eight years ago. 

Heather McArthur:

Probably little bit less than that. 

Jamie Cliett:

But she had moved a current client in then, and we kind of met and we became friends on Facebook. But we never really talked. We hadn't seen each other in years. And out of the blue one night, I had a dream about Heather that she was interviewing for the job. And I woke up and it was like 3:00 in the morning. I run some crazy hours too, and I'm like, oh, just kept on and on in my mind. I'm like, God, do you really want me to message her? Like it was just so strange. And so I messaged Heather and—

Derrick Michaud:

At 3:00 in the morning? 

Jamie Cliett:

I did. Yes. 

Heather McArthur:

She did. 

Jamie Cliett:

I did. But I'm thinking she's not going to read it 3:00 in the morning. Apparently, she runs the same hours. 

Heather McArthur:

I think I read it at like 6:00.

Jamie Cliett:

Yeah. But I said, please don't think I'm crazy and please just ignore me if you're not interested. But I had a dream about you, and I know this is really weird and kind of told her what was going on. And it's so funny how God works. God really can just place the right people in your lives at the right time. And I think your comment was, I don't think you're crazy. She had been thinking about her, she was a recent empty nester and wanted to challenge herself a little more and work more with older adults. And so it was amazing how that connection came about. And I knew then—she was like, Well, look, I don't do anything with sales. I've never done sales. And I'm like, it's just about the heart I just need somebody with—because you can teach anybody anything. But if you don't have a passion for what you're doing, I can't teach that. And just her background in mental health. It's funny, the more I've talked to her and gotten to know her over these last couple of months, God is so good. I mean, that's going to be so beneficial to our community here and starting to serve more people with dementia and Alzheimer's and mental health issues. And He just always knows best. So it's been a great, great connection. 

Derrick Michaud:

I remember in our pre-interview that was a big, big part of this and filling that gap in Wesley Meadows, having that service where you're focusing more on the mental health. Before we get to that, let's explain to the listeners a little more what Wesley Meadows is, aside from the little snippet I did in the intro. What exactly does it offer and who does it offer to? 

Jamie Cliett:

Okay. So we've been in this community 26 years. This is our 26th year. And it's a senior community that offers independent assisted living and also assisted living with the emphasis on memory support. And our folks have the benefit of being here and having a family home atmosphere and having the freedom to go out and about and do what they want while still having someone just outside their apartment door here. So we offer apartments, individual apartments, one, two bedroom, and studio apartments. But our newest service that we're offering is our Maddocks House Home that we are just about a year and a half in of building. So many community supporters in Hernando donated to that and helped build that. And it is where we have ten older adults with assisted living, but it has a focus of memory support. And most of our folks, they have a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer's. So for years, we've offered just independent and assisted living. But the way the baby boomers are coming up and dementia and Alzheimer's being more prevalent, it’s exactly the direction they were wanting to head to here, is being able to offer social services and someone who has an experience in that background and be able to help with that. 

Derrick Michaud:

So what's the plan as far as how to fill that gap? Is there anything in the works as far as like groups or anything? 

Heather McArthur:

Well, I mean, our big goal for 2023 is to create maybe, and it's still kind of in the early stages of planning, but we're hoping to have at least 2 to 5 meetings throughout 2023 of where it would either be a support group for caregivers or do like maybe a mental health forum, just to open it up to not only our residents here, but also the community. Because I think that's something that we're lacking in DeSoto County is for people to be able to have a place where they can come and talk about things that are bothering them or if they're seeing the changes in their loved ones or just having that connection. 

Derrick Michaud:

You say in the baby boomers. I think what comes with that, too, is a little more rigid way to express their feelings and that stigma towards depression and anxiety. So they might not know how to come forward with some of this stuff, even though they need the help. So that's awesome that you're going to bring in that. Do you think it'll be a little tough to get people to open up because of the sort of the age demographic there? 

Heather McArthur:

Well, and I think so much maybe just if we have a speaker and maybe if that speaker can provide some sort of knowledge or resources that they didn't know that existed in the community or just know that they have a place to come to, to seek help or to seek advice, whether it be for them or their loved one. Because we know older adults are often isolated or experiencing depression or dementia. And either whether it be them or their loved ones may not know what that looks like or understand it because of the stigma. Like yesterday, I think we were talking about it's the unknown that frightens us. So and just being educated. If it's nothing else but just to come there to learn more about resources or learn about the signs and the symptoms of mental health. 

Derrick Michaud:

You know, there's a thing called Al-Anon, which is basically Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous for the parents or the loved ones that need help and need to express their feelings on how to cope with their loved one that's going through the problem. So I think that's just as important. And also, giving the actual patient treatment. Now obviously, like you mentioned, the word dementia comes up a lot, and I'm sure that's a very common thing in a retirement community. What kind of treatment is there for that? We're offering some help to the loved ones as a way for them to open up and get some help on how to cope with their loved one going through that. But do you handle any treatment for the dementia and for the actual patient? 

Jamie Cliett:

Well, in assisted living here, our nurses dispense medication, and we are going to be doing more rigorous care plan meetings with families to help educate with that. Of course, there's tons of research and a lot of progress has been made towards helping treat or eventually cure dementia or Alzheimer's. So with our staff here, when we move an assisted living resident in, our director of nursing is in those meetings on the front end, evaluating medications and behaviors and seeing if something's been missed or something could be added. So that's part of the partnership that we offer here at Wesley Meadows. So for nine years, I’ve preached just let me be a resource for you. Even if you don't move in here, people need to have a place to come to because caregiving is hard work. And if you don't have that, so many people misunderstand that, we have to go to a nursing home now because we have dementia or Alzheimer's. And that's not the case for a lot of people. We can still provide a home atmosphere with the independence that they really do seek with the support there. So we have, I guess, a partnership with our nursing department and our director of nursing on helping educate and kind of walk their hands through that process and throughout the duration of their life. 

Derrick Michaud:

I can see why you became attached to that. When you when you moved up to the executive director role, you still wanted to make sure this was going to be taken care of. 

Jamie Cliett:

Right. 

Derrick Michaud:

Which is where Heather comes in. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

So I know the timeline has kind of been jumbled up here, but I wanted to get as much information out there for the audience, as well as on how this works. Where can they go? I want to get back to Heather’s story. But where can they go real quick to get more information? 

Jamie Cliett:

They can go to our website, our corporate website. This is our 60th celebration year that we've been in partnership with them. And in there, we have 12 locations across the state of Mississippi. And they can look at the Hernando location and pull up that. They can also just call here and ask for Heather or me. If Heather's not here, it's 662-429-2070. 

Derrick Michaud:

Awesome. And we'll repeat all at the end, too. So let's talk about you getting this midnight text or Facebook message. And what was your first thought on taking something like this on? 

Jamie Cliett:

You can be honest. 

Heather McArthur:

Well, I mean, honestly. Yeah. Well, I honestly, I had to double read it because it was so weird for me because I had said over and over, I had been in this job working for the PACT team for eight years. And I had said over and over, God, and I had prayed about it, that once my daughter graduated from high school, that maybe I would reach out and do something a little different because social work is so broad. So when she messaged me, I had to double read, and I was like, Is this for real? I mean, is this—

Jamie Cliett:

[inaudible 00:16:09] the timing.

Heather McArthur:

Yeah. Because the timing was, and I had just graduated the week before. So I was like, God has got plans. 

Derrick Michaud:

[inaudible 00:16:18] a week. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yeah, a week. 

Heather McArthur:

So I was like, You know what? I mean, I immediately texted back, I think, and was like, Oh, Jamie, I have zero sales and marketing experience. My background is in social work. But I'll be happy to come in and interview. I need the interview experience because obviously I didn't have a lot of that. And so that's just kind of where we went from there. I came in and interviewed and was like, I kept telling myself, what do I have to lose? 

Derrick Michaud:

Especially when you have someone championing you like this. She sent you a message at 3:00 in the morning. I think you got the job at that point. 

Heather McArthur:

Well, I mean, I knew it was—I mean, I had social work background, but then I was a little more worried about the sales and marketing because I didn't know what that looked like. And I'm still learning. I've only been into like a month into this. And but it's been great, and I know it will be a huge learning experience to add to my social work background. But yeah, I went in with just an open mind and ended up on a second interview and here I am. 

Derrick Michaud:

Awesome. So clearly, and you mentioned this earlier, it's the social work background that you really loved and looked at and the mental health aspect. And you must've been like, we can teach the sales and marketing side. 

Jamie Cliett:

Exactly. And it was the heart. Because I still remembered years previous working with Heather and seeing her working with a client and how much she loved them and the extra mile that she went. You can teach anybody anything textbook, but you can't teach the heart. We're nonprofit, and this has to be a service heart-led decision. And I knew that if she took that leap, I could teach you anything. I've done sales and marketing my whole life it feels like. I'm like, I got that. I can't teach you heart. So, and she had that. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. There's just some things you just can't teach. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yeah. That’s exactly right. 

Derrick Michaud:

So you look at the natural gift of someone and you can build around that. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yeah. 

Heather McArthur:

Yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

So how's the first month been for you? 

Heather McArthur:

It's been a whirlwind, I'll be honest. But I feel like sitting here today, I've handled things pretty well. There's been things that's been thrown at me, obviously like this podcast. That is a little overwhelming for me. But I'm here and I'm doing it. So I have to give myself a pat on the back for that. I think fear is one of the biggest things that we all have that lies within us? But we have to kind of step over that. We'll never have growth if we don't do that. 

Derrick Michaud:

Me and Jamie met several months ago, and she already had this planned for you before you even got hired. 

Heather McArthur:

I know. I reminded her of that. 

Derrick Michaud:

I mean, at the time, we were talking about wanting to do this to introduce a new sales marketing director, and then it took a while for you to get hired. But I think if you've been here a month, that means two weeks in, we were sitting in your office doing a pre-interview. So like right out of the gate, you're like, I guess I'm on this podcast. 

Heather McArthur:

Yeah, it’s like I don’t have a choice. 

Jamie Cliett:

I've really pushed her boundaries a little bit. And it's great because she's been a great support system to me, too. But she's done so good with it. She doubts herself a lot. But the times that I've seen her struggle, I see more strength than struggle. And she's done a great job. 

Derrick Michaud:

This seems like a very relationship-based opportunity, which you're familiar with. Have you been building relationships with residents? 

Heather McArthur:

Oh, yeah. Which is 100% what social work is about. And I've been able to venture out a couple of times and help some of our residents here with, whether it be mental health or just, hey, I have some things that have come up in my family, like needing a new POA or things like that. And so I think that I'll be a good asset in that situation to be able to help guide them into the community. And I've helped set up appointments. So I'll continue hopefully to have time for that, which is kind of the social work slash case management. 

Derrick Michaud:

At least you fit into that comfortably. 

Heather McArthur:

Yeah, yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

That must make the day a little easier. 

Heather McArthur:

Oh yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

Because you have that aspect to it. 

Heather McArthur:

Yeah. So it kind of makes me feel like I'm still doing a little bit of what I did before. So when things get overwhelming here, I could just kind of step away and… 

Derrick Michaud:

Come hang out in this room. By the way, I should mention that we're recording in someone's apartment. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yeah. 

Heather McArthur:

That I have taken many tours in. Yes. 

Derrick Michaud:

A resident’s that is letting us use the room. I thought it'd cool so people can see what it looks like in here. And the resident’s daughter flew through this door and almost knocked this camera down while we were getting ready. She was like, Oh, okay, you're doing the podcast. 

Jamie Cliett:

Hello. 

Derrick Michaud:

So and it was really nice. It's really quaint and cozy. There was talk when we met about outreach to the community. Is that something you've already been doing or is that the next phase where you really want to focus on more outreach? And either way, what does that outreach look like? 

Jamie Cliett:

Well, I mean, we've always done outreach here. Of course, COVID put a damper on everything, it seems like, for years, really years, but a long time. And so we had a caregiver support group here that we had just kind of built up right before COVID started. And again, that was kind of my part of the passion, was bringing the community in. Don't be scared of this. Let us help you. Let us hold your hand through this. But there's a lot of growth potential here. There's talk of offering physical therapy for our residents here. And so really the outreach is a huge piece of who we are. We want to be a part of this community, and we have been for so long. We've been very blessed with the support here in Hernando. And just raised right enough money to build a greenhouse. That took close to $2 million. And what an amazing thing to say that the people of Hernando helped build that. And it was opened up completely debt free. 

Derrick Michaud:

How long was that process? 

Jamie Cliett:

About four years, I believe. 3 to 4 years. It was a long haul, but it's been amazing. And it finished during COVID. It was the only project across the state that was finished with our company, and that's just strictly due to the hard work and dedication that Hernando has had for Wesley Meadows for many, many years. The majority of our family members come from referrals within the community and doctor's offices and people that have had a family here throughout the years. So and we definitely want to keep that outreach part going. 

Derrick Michaud:

And we definitely consider as we record this post-COVID, so now—

Jamie Cliett:

Post-COVID. Yes.

Derrick Michaud:

So volunteers are welcome again. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yes. 

Derrick Michaud:

It's open doors. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yep. 

Derrick Michaud:

Straight up again, right? 

Jamie Cliett:

Absolutely. Yes. And that's what we want. 

Derrick Michaud:

So how do they get involved? Go back to the website or…? 

Jamie Cliett:

They can go to the website or call here. We have an amazing activities director. I know everybody's seen our bus around all over town and DeSoto County. We're busy-busy. But she has a great activity calendar going and a great pool of volunteers. But certainly you could call the front office and ask for the activities director if you wanted to get involved. 

Derrick Michaud:

Well, we can wrap this up here in a minute. But I'm going to put you on the spot here. 

Heather McArthur:

Okay. 

Derrick Michaud:

What final thing would you like to say? Because hopefully, some residents will be watching or listening to this, even though we met someone in the hallway that was like, a podcast? What's that? So we got to educate them, too. But as a way for you to sort of have a microphone to the residents, what would you like to talk about? Is there anything you'd like to say to them? 

Heather McArthur:

They definitely come first here at Wesley Meadows. And so my place here is to be there for them and to know that I am here and I am a resource to them for whatever, if it's mental health or if it's any daily changes in their life. I'm here to help. I'm not just a sales and marketing director. 

Derrick Michaud:

Yeah. That title can sound very stale and cold.

Heather McArthur:

Very cold. Yeah.

Derrick Michaud:

So we absolutely want everyone to know that there's heart here for sure. 

Heather McArthur:

Yeah, yeah. 

Derrick Michaud:

Well, thanks for doing this. I hope we helped educate other people in this community on what Wesley Meadows is all about. And let's one more time push people to the right locations to get more information. So what was that website again? 

Jamie Cliett:

It's www.MSS.org and it's under Hernando. So they can reach out there. And then of course, you can always just call our main office. We’ll be happy to help any way we can. 

Derrick Michaud:

And you're located up on Byhalia and McIngvale. 

Jamie Cliett:

Byhalia and McIngvale. Yeah. Right beside the Presbyterian Church. 

Derrick Michaud:

All right. Well, now let's challenge our audience, shall we? This is what I always try to do because what's the most important part about all this is how people share this. For this message to get out there the best they can, our audience, as you watch and listen to this, share, share, share, share, please. 

Jamie Cliett:

That's right. 

Derrick Michaud:

That helps Wesley Meadows, it helps Jamie, it helps Heather, and it helps The Real Hernando Podcast, which helps me. It's a win-win for everybody. 

Jamie Cliett:

Win-win. 

Derrick Michaud:

So here's how you do that. First, you can go to our website, TheRealHernando.com. You scroll down the home page, you'll find this episode, and there you'll see a thumbnail with Heather's picture on it. You click on it, and now you can watch it, listen to it, or even read it. It's going to be transcribed as well. Grab that URL link, email to a friend, email it to a family member that might be interested in this place uniquely to this episode, throw it on your Facebook, share it away. We also post video clips of our episodes. So you will find them on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. I don't think many residents here know what TikTok is. 

Jamie Cliett:

We’ve done TikTok. 

Derrick Michaud:

So if you're on those platforms, come follow us, and then you'll see our posts and then share those posts. Comment, like, heart. Anything you could do is greatly appreciated and goes a long way, more than you probably ever realize. You can find our episodes also on all the major platforms: Spotify, Apple, Audible, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Google. And our Instagram and Facebook is at The Real Hernando along with TikTok. If you want to go there directly, go to @TheRealHernando for all three of those social platforms. And that's it. So thanks again, Jamie, Heather.

Heather McArthur:

Thank you. 

Derrick Michaud:

I appreciate you doing this.

Jamie Cliett:

Thank you. 

Derrick Michaud:

I hope this helps. 

Jamie Cliett:

Yes. 

Derrick Michaud:

And it's been a pleasure working with y’all. Thank you. 

Jamie Cliett:

Thank you.