Sadie Simpson, MSW
Sadie was born and raised between the Bay Area (CA) and a rural town in Nevada. She moved to Oklahoma to attend Oral Roberts University and earn a degree in social work. She remained in Tulsa Ok and would later obtain her master’s in social work from the University of Oklahoma. Her master’s concentration was administrative community practice, where she gained skills in mobilization efforts, program evaluation, political advocacy, and more.
Founder & Executive Director
When Sadie was in elementary school, she lived with her grandparents for a short time. Her grandmother was the primary caregiver to her grandfather who had Alzheimer’s. Sadie watched the deterioration of her grandfather and the toll it would take on her grandfather. He had nurses coming in on occasion. She would later learn this was hospice care. As a young adult, her father had suffered a traumatic brain injury from a car accident. He slowly turned into a vegetable and had very little quality of life. He had to go to a nursing home which was paid for by Medicaid, another program she didn’t understand. Her father’s guardian would be her ex-stepmother and that’s when she learned the disadvantages of not petitioning for guardianship. She felt she was too young to care for him and due to family dynamics, wasn’t sure if she wanted to.
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Around the time of his accident, Sadie had moved to Tulsa to attend Oral Roberts University (ORU). She believed that her schooling would be paid for in full but was unsure how. Her mother thought she was crazy. Sadie recalls her mother saying, “Money doesn’t fall from trees and social workers don’t make much money.” However, Sadie would graduate from ORU a few with thousands of dollars in debt and no career path. It was not long after graduation that she received the call that her father had passed away. This was also the same month her student loans were due. Unbeknownst to her, her grandmother had set aside assets in a “Trust” for Sadie. This was Sadie’s first experience with a Trust and how they worked. The money left in the Trust was the same amount as all of her student loan debts. It was then that she realized, “I couldn’t be there for my dad when he passed but now he has made a way for me to be there for the multiple. His death was not in vain.”
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She began working in a nursing home/skilled nursing facility as a Social Service Director. This is where she soaked up all the knowledge relating to aging services. This is where she learned the politics and policies of nursing homes, the family dynamics and preconceived opinions of staff and residents. She made hospice and home health referrals, and the barriers people faced as they were discharged from skilled nursing. From there she worked as an Outreach Worker doing home visits in different counties. She assessed the need for services based on an individual's activities of daily living and made appropriate referrals. She learned how services varied from country, state, and federal. She would then work in home health and hospice doing advanced directives, preplanning, and final arrangements.
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She completed her master’s and learned about harm reduction. She has since incorporated harm reduction principles into her aging services. “All of my jobs had similarities relating to aging and I don’t think it was by accident. Unbeknownst to me, I think my purpose in caring for the aging population started when I was little. Now I have a better understanding of the interconnectedness of services and the disconnectedness. I can’t just sit on it, I have to share it with others so they can be informed and make informed decisions about their health and future.” - Sadie
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OSHO has done great work but needs major improvements. Having a solid Board is a huge blessing.
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"OSHO has a lot of potential. We have community support, we have a great Board of Directors, we have a variety of knowledge, and we have a great mission to serve people from a place of unconditional love." - Sadie