September 10, 2025 • 50 mins
Summary
In this conversation, Lisa Santiago, a home care consultant with extensive experience in senior care, shares her personal journey and insights into the complexities of caregiving. She discusses the emotional and practical challenges families face when navigating care decisions, the importance of early planning, and the misconceptions surrounding aging in place. Lisa emphasizes the need for proactive steps to ensure safety and independence, while also addressing financial considerations and the risks of elder financial abuse. The discussion highlights the systemic challenges in the senior care industry and the importance of building strong relationships with families to support them through difficult transitions.
Learn More
- Connect with Lisa Santiago on LinkedIn
- Learn more about Caring People
Takeaways
- Personal experience shapes caregiving approaches.
- Families often wait too long to seek help.
- Planning for care should start early.
- Aging in place has financial and physical limitations.
- Medicare does not cover long-term care needs.
- Elder financial abuse is a significant concern.
- Community living offers social benefits.
- Financial planning is crucial for care decisions.
- Education on care options is lacking.
- Building relationships with families is essential.
Chapters
00:00 Welcome to From Leads to Leases - A Senior Living Business Podcast
00:52 Meet Lisa Santiago - Home Care Consultant
03:33 Navigating Care: The Importance of Planning Ahead
05:06 Understanding the Emotional and Practical Aspects of Caregiving
06:33 The Challenges of Aging: Conversations Families Avoid
11:03 The Consequences of Waiting Too Long for Care
13:38 Aging in Place: Misconceptions and Realities
18:25 Balancing Independence and Safety in Care
20:04 The Role of Financial Conversations in Care Planning
23:15 Resources and Strategies for Budget-Constrained Families
29:35 Recognizing Elder Financial Abuse
32:28 When Home Care is No Longer an Option
34:11 Navigating Care Options for Seniors
36:38 Addressing Gaps in Senior Care
39:54 Senior Living Could Help Families Make Decisions Sooner
43:52 Personal Growth Through Caregiving Conversations
Keywords
senior care, caregiving, home care, aging, financial planning, elder abuse, memory care, family dynamics, health risks, proactive planning
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's like having car insurance. Nobody wants to get into a car
accident, but you have to have aplan if God forbid something
happened. Same thing with planning for
future stages and if you do decline in your in your physical
or mental capabilities. What if your greatest caregiving
crisis could have been avoided just by having one hard
(00:21):
conversation a few months earlier?
Today's guest has made her mission to stop families from
walking into the fire unprepared.
Welcome to From Leads to Leases,a CCR growth podcast that helps
senior living providers transform their complex
challenges into opportunities. Listen in for stories from
(00:41):
industry leaders, innovative strategies and insights, and
with our expertise, learn how toincrease occupancy faster,
Guaranteed. All right, today's guest is Lisa
Santiago, a home care consultantwith nearly 15 years of
experience across the continuum of senior care, from independent
living to assisted and memory care and now home care.
(01:04):
Her expertise doesn't come from textbooks.
It's lived. Raised by and around loved ones
with dementia and now the caregiver and power of attorney
for a special needs family member, Lisa understands what it
means to navigate care through love, responsibility, and
exhaustion. With an MBA in finance and a
consultative no pressure approach, she helps families see
(01:26):
what's ahead and plan for beforecrisis hits.
So, Lisa, welcome to the show. Cherry, thank you so much for
having me. That is, that was a great
introduction to me. I think I may need to steal that
for the future. Oh, sure, by all means, go right
ahead. That's awesome.
Glad to hear it. Glad to hear it.
It's always good. Well, welcome to the show.
(01:47):
I want to start talking about the personal why it's this
industry so interesting. Everybody's got a story of how
they got into it or fell in lovewith it or why they stayed.
Your story begins with three grandparents with dementia and
an uncle you now care for. What did that teach you about
caregiving long before you entered the field?
Well thank you for asking about my personal experience.
(02:08):
It's been a journey watching even my great grandmother go
through meeting caregiving services when I was much younger
and then having one grandparent after another who needed needed
assistance and having family members who would step in.
Now that I'm in a home care consultant role, I take, I try
(02:31):
to take that approach and what I've lived through and what
they've lived through to the needs of my clients and their
families and just give them thatoverall resource and support.
Because as a I'm sure you've heard many times on your on your
interviews and other and in yourindustry too people.
Don't always know where to start.
(02:51):
And it's a struggle. Even my uncle who?
Cared for my grandfather at one point I would talk him through
all the different resources. My grandfather was a veteran.
There were resources that he could get through the VA and it
was going back to that old well.I want to stay home.
I want my family member to take care of me.
(03:13):
I don't want assistance, which really drove a lot of that.
That is where my personal journey started in having family
members, but I've also been working with.
Seniors for the last. 15 years as you had mentioned and so I've
seen all different levels of need from very independent all
the way up to memory care. And you're definitely right
(03:34):
about that. Most people when they start this
journey, they've never done it before.
So they don't know where to start.
They don't know what questions to ask.
It's a really, really challenging time.
It's emotional time. So that's very difficult, I
know. And even on the flip side of
what you just said about about your loved one wanting to stay
home and and be looked after there, I had the opposite where
(03:56):
my mom, after my grandmother passed, she wanted to bring my
grandfather home because she felt like she could provide the
best care for him. And then quickly realized about
three to six months later that that wasn't going to be the
optimal situation for him. And then she we ended up finding
an amazing senior living community for him.
But it is interesting how guilt can kind of drive those
(04:16):
conversations. Yeah, and it's unfortunate, but
a lot of people go through thesethings as, you know, in steps
and stages. And sometimes they try to do
things as they've promised to have somebody step in and, and
really be that caregiver. And then sometimes they'll hire
somebody like a home care agencylike ourselves to do maybe a few
(04:37):
hours and then they realize, youknow, there's pieces missing.
And sometimes then they'll take the step to move to a community,
whether independent or assisted living or.
As you know, sometimes. People just wait so long, they
go straight to memory care, which is something I hope people
during this conversation is. It's really my point to to drive
(05:00):
home, not to wait till the inevitable if you know that it's
going in that direction, but to really plan for.
It What have you seen up close, emotionally and practically that
you think others might miss? Well.
I think the biggest thing that I've seen even more recently is
that people who don't have that familial structure around them
(05:20):
locally. So maybe because I'm in Florida
and when I was in New York, I saw a different picture, But
people who may count on somebodywho's not here, maybe an adult
child is in a different state orin a different place or even
across the world. Because as you've seen,
everything's global now. And so people are all scattered
(05:42):
all over and. The the the.
Thought of making that move people don't think about right
because they think well I'm OK now and maybe you know somewhere
down the line I need some services and then they literally
wait until there is a crisis going to the hospital or having
(06:04):
a fall or all these different pieces and they don't have
somebody. So sometimes you see people who
rely on neighbors or I had one recently who counted on her
landscaper who started moving inand doing some things around the
house more of a from that side of thing instead of caregiving.
(06:25):
And they're and they're afraid to even ask for for help or they
don't think that they need it. So there's there's a lot of
different. Pieces to that.
I think 2 the most dangerous time is when nothing's wrong.
And you said most people only plan when they're in crisis.
Why do families avoid those hardconversations until it's too
late? Well.
You and I, prior to this call when we were talking, we're
(06:46):
talking about statistics and I think it all boils down to
people thinking it's not going to happen to me, it happens to
everyone else and just not me. Years ago I took one seminar.
Where with a renowned neuroscientist or he does a lot
with neurology and and dementia up in in Massachusetts.
(07:07):
His name was Doctor Tanzi. We got into the auditorium and
he basically said if you could look left and look right, one of
you is going to end up forming dementia or Alzheimer's and
doing a lot of work. I'm sure just like you with the
Alzheimer's Association, there'sa lot of statistics around that.
(07:27):
And even just memory impairment doesn't doesn't.
Fall on everything because then you also see people with
mobility challenges and things like that that that they don't
even take into consideration. I think a lot of people wait
because they don't think that they'll ever need it.
And then the reality are the average age in this in this
(07:49):
country is 78. And at 85, you are 2/3 more
likely to develop some form of dementia.
That's not again, talking about any mobility challenges.
So I think we've seen a shift, especially after the pandemic
when people were doing a lot less, less exercise, less
socialization and all the thingsthat really the connections that
(08:12):
we need to have in order to continue to, to age gracefully
and safely and really keep the focus on how we can age without
having those, those types of issues.
Things have just shifted. And plus you see all these
wonderful people on the TV and the news who are living to 100
(08:34):
and 102 and 105. And the the hope and the faith
of, of how we are going to age just remains that way that that
we won't need have that need over the long term.
I think a lot of families avoid that conversation too, because
you go from not talking about itat all to opening a fire hose
(08:55):
and all of a sudden wanting to hit somebody with all that
information at the same time. And it's just overwhelming.
You know, the first thing that somebody wants to do is push
back, get defensive, you know, deny that this might be
something that they need or something they might need in the
future. What are some simple steps or
proactive steps families can take today even when everything
seems fine? Well, I think the biggest thing
(09:16):
that people forget is that they should look at.
And research all the different options before it even becomes a
conversation in a crisis. I have a lot of resources myself
and one of the attorneys I work with actually stated that, you
know, it's not like things have years ago where your mom can
(09:38):
step in when you're 18 if something happens and speak to
your physicians and and doctors in the hospitals.
You really need to plan from thetime you become an adult.
And those things can change overtime, but at least.
Have basics like a healthcare surrogacy or healthcare proxy
and a power of attorney as you're aging and you want to
(10:01):
decide what that aging process looks like for you to have that
plan in place so that it doesn'tbecome, you know, you having to
deal with, let's say it's, it's yourself and you're, you're
dealing with something with yourspouse or you're the adult child
and you have to deal with it from your, your parents point of
(10:23):
view. If you can't talk about what
that looks like, then you have to make those hard choices for
that other person, which is where a lot of people get held
up in the process because they don't want to make the decision
for someone else. And so now you have a question
of what does safety really look like?
Because safety is different for,for all different people and how
(10:47):
you can continue to help somebody still remain
independent with the least amount of services, right?
Because that's the goal, to keepsomebody independent as they as
they age, whether it's home or in a community.
And then, you know, what does safety look like for them?
That's when they what happens when a family waits too long?
So unfortunately we get those types of calls a lot.
(11:09):
You can typically will see. Somebody who's living in their
home, usually. This.
I hate to talk in in general terms, but you'll see if
somebody, you know, either losesa spouse and one of them
overcompensated for the other person.
Let's say, you know, Jane was counting on her husband for all
the things that are financial or, you know, paying the bills,
(11:33):
making sure the house is, you know, taken care of.
And I hate saying it only about women because men do that too.
They've counted on their lives for for things as well.
And then all of a sudden they wake up one day and that that
person is not there. Their person is not there.
So they start counting on other people.
Like it could be a family members that could be neighbors.
(11:56):
And now that burden has shifted to I'm going to take care of
myself to now somebody else needs to step in and help me.
And so. It's really tough.
When you're looking at that point where it's shifted and now
all of a sudden mom has a fall and the fall is what is the
(12:16):
catalyst for her ending up in the hospital.
And then you have a hospital stay, which can be very
disorienting for someone. You're up all night.
They're they're poking you, they're prodding you, they're
they're testing you. So you're not sleeping, you're
not in your home. And you can see people
(12:36):
completely change with the hospital psychosis and memory
loss just from going to a hospital visit.
So how, how can you have that conversation to try and avoid
that peace and then the next? Step of that is let's say the
daughter says, OK, well dad fellhe's in the hospital and I don't
(12:59):
think that he's he's doing OK togo home.
So now you're in a crisis of youhave to have a confrontation and
a conversation while you're dealing with it.
And so that really is something that if you have that
conversation ahead of time and you talk about it, all the
different things that can happen.
(13:19):
It's like having car insurance. Nobody wants to get into a car
accident, but you have to have aplan if God forbid something
happens. And it's the same thing with
planning for future stages and how you're, if you do decline in
your in your physical or mental capabilities.
I mean with insurance too, maybeI don't have a plan, but at
(13:40):
least I know that someone has a plan, right?
I know my insurance company has a plan if I get into the
accident, so I think that makes sense.
One of the things I noticed in my community too.
I live in an. I would say it's probably 70% of
the residents here are over the age of 65.
And just about everyone I speak to who owns a home says they're
(14:04):
not leaving their home. No, no one's selling.
Everybody wants to stay at home.Everyone wants to age in place.
And with obviously the number ofseniors in the baby boom
generation just exploding into the senior living space, I think
there's a lot more people who are going to be pushing back in
that sense. But staying home isn't always
(14:24):
the right answer. What misconceptions do people
have about aging in place? Well, I think a lot of times I
hear and I'm sure. You've heard this before, is
they think that Medicare is going to pay for the next level
of care. And that's really not a fact
that, you know, you pay into a system your whole life and then
you think that something's goingto pay back out.
(14:45):
The reality is. Is that Medicare or if you're on
a supplement or an Advantage plan, it's only going to cover.
Short term things or a few hoursa day, it doesn't cover 24 hour
care. And so when you're looking at
people and they, they say OK, I'm going to stay home forever
(15:05):
and if something happens to me, I'm going to bring in care and
it's going to be covered. Well that's really not a
reality. Unfortunately.
If you have financial difficulties, Medicaid will
sometimes pay for for care at home, not typically 24 hour
care. And there's a little limited.
Amount of of communities that take Medicaid and usually it's a
(15:29):
small percentage of the overall community.
So you have 120 apartments, maybe 10 or 15 are covered and
not fully. So Medicaid and and I don't know
if this is in all places, but inFlorida, here they don't pay for
your whole assisted living stay.They pay for the care piece.
You still have to pay for room and board.
(15:51):
So a lot of people when they think.
OK. I'm going to stay home.
I'm going to stay home forever. There's a financial component
that they need to think about interms of that piece and then
also the physical. Component if they can't let's
say get out of bed at night, butthey can't afford 24 hour care,
(16:12):
what does that look like? I mean, I've had recently a few
clients that unfortunately had no family.
They relied on local neighbors to help and a one woman who
actually had a friend up in New York who was trying to do things
from there to here, but really she was immobile and nobody
(16:34):
really. Could understand the gravity of
that of of how she was living onher.
Basically on her bed. She had the front door open.
Uber would get delivered talk. About safety and security, I
mean there's a there's a lot that can happen when you have
somebody like that who. Really doesn't have anybody
available, and so is that something that you're willing to
(16:58):
live through? I guess is the question that I
could ask people. And if not, then how do you plan
to not have that happen so. Which is one of the reasons why
we were talking. About planning today, you know,
I can't stress enough how how important it is to not bury your
head in the sand and kind of look at.
All. Of these different pieces and
(17:18):
especially our age demographic, I mean the baby boomers are
getting older, but then the nextgeneration we may not have
access to the same services because of budget cuts or the
differences in the tax bases. And I can go on and on, but you
can't expect it's going to get better.
It's it's not always available to you.
(17:38):
Medic does Medicaid operate the same way with home care as it
does with a senior living community where there's a whole
spend down process before it would even kick in aside from
funeral expenses? Yeah, there's different limits
to the Medicaid process. With home care, they keep
changing the program all the time.
And I think the last time, because I don't deal with
(18:00):
Medicaid anymore, when I was in communities, we had more of that
conversation. It used to be the five year look
back and then I think with home care, it was 2 years.
But don't quote me on that because that keeps changing.
As I'm sure you know, every timethey rebudget and look at how
they're going to continue to be able to pay for people long
(18:21):
term, I think they have to look at, you know, what that actually
looks like. The safety is an interesting
concern too. I mean, how do you balance
independence with ensuring safety?
You know, it's really about the person in front of you.
So I take like a lot of people in the industry, senior care
space, A consultative approach to to care.
(18:44):
So as a home care consultant, somebody calls me, they ask, you
know, about our services. And nine times out of 10, they
want to get to, you know, what'sit going to cost.
But the reality is we have to see, you know, what are you
capable of doing yourself? What do you need assistance
with? You know, is it just mobility?
A shower to you? Maybe just I need somebody
(19:06):
standing outside my shower just in case because I have histories
of falls, a shower to somebody else, maybe hands on care and
so. It really goes through just
like. Assisted living, we would go
through an assessment process, really see, you know how we can
support somebody in still remaining independent while also
(19:29):
being safe. The.
Biggest challenge we usually seeis I can take my medications and
I'm fine, but the reality is they forget pills or they drop
them on the floor and they don'trealize it.
So it really depends on the person person centered Care is
the, I'm sure you know, like you've had on your your podcast
(19:52):
before. It's the biggest way to help
somebody with that balance of finding independence and safety
at the same time. Yeah, that absolutely looks
different for everyone. So that makes sense.
Your MBA gives you a unique angle in with finance.
I mean, how do financial conversations show up in care
planning processes? It comes up all the time because
(20:14):
people want to know, can I afford this and can I afford
this long term? So sitting down and as we talked
about a consultative approach, Ialways usually start with a
question of well, how did you plan for this stage in your
life? Tell me about you know what what
your assets look like. Tell me about what your long
(20:35):
term goals are. If you're going to stay in your
home with 24 hour care, it's going to be a lot more expensive
than if you're going to do this in an interim basis until you
want to make a transition to, let's say an assisted living or
memory care down the road, down the road.
So really sitting down and making sure that they understand
that this could be temporary. It could be a long term
(20:58):
solution, it could be that. Listen, I just got out of the
hospital. I need, you know, maybe a couple
weeks worth of care and I want to stretch out my finances as
long as possible. So I'm going to do this in
stages. I'm going to do what I need
right now and then when I need it again in the future, I can
start back up again, which is really the nice thing about
(21:18):
having home care as opposed to being in a community.
Is that you have that flexibility.
Not locked into that, yeah. Yeah, to stretch things out and,
you know, in finance you got to do research on a lot of
different things. And it's really boils down to
what the goals are, you know, inyour in your financial goals.
And the same thing would be in your in your home goals, in your
(21:40):
home, home planning, in your care planning goals.
So I really do like like to sit down and really.
Peel back the the layers of the onion and try and figure out
what is the real goal and what is the reality of the situation.
Because I've also talked myself out of a job before where, you
know, somebody says I need, I don't even know where people
(22:02):
come up with these things. They'll call up and they'll say
I need two days a week, 3 hours a day.
And I'm like, well, this is. Not like a McDonald's where
you're ordering something off a menu.
Let's talk about what it really what you're really calling for
and how do we fit this number one in your finances #1 in your
number 2 in your lifestyle. And you know, if somebody really
(22:24):
is alone and immobile and, and needs more hands on care and
they can't afford it, I've actually given them resources,
whether it's a senior placement specialist or if I know they're,
they're close to one of our assisted living partners.
I've referred them over to our partners too, to help them so
(22:45):
that they're not feeling like, OK, well, you're not giving me
home care, so you're just going to leave and walk away.
And that's really not what I'm here to do.
I really want to make sure when I do, you have somebody who's
sitting in front of me and they don't know the next steps that
we've, we've really gone throughas many scenarios and resources
as humanly possible. You would not be surprised how
(23:07):
many people in their 90s who still don't have a healthcare
proxy or power of attorney. It's it's mind boggling to me.
You know, one interesting statistic I forgot to mention
earlier was the fact that I was at the Argentum Public Policy
Institute in March in Washington, DC.
There's one crazy statistic thatsaid 45% of people in this
(23:30):
country are planning to rely on the government to pay for their
care when it comes to retirement. 45% I'm.
A big. Percentage.
My God, Jerry, you know, you think about that.
It's almost 50% of this country thinks that the government's
going to help them. We don't even know if social.
Security is going to be around in 30-40 fifty years, so I don't
(23:54):
know how that's going to be possible.
Yeah, and I don't know how we solve that.
Is that an education piece? Is a something else they're
missing? The education really boils down
to, I mean, if you think about how things have shifted over
time, you know, it used to be that mom used to take care of
grandma used to take care of thekids all under one roof.
(24:16):
My family is a perfect example. My great grandmother lived
upstairs, my aunt lived in the house, my great uncle lived
downstairs, and there was a whole communal.
Piece to it that you just don't see anymore.
The fact that you have. People who don't have children,
I mean, we've been slowly, you know, changing the trajectory of
(24:40):
how many children, what is it 1.2?
Yeah, 1.21.3, something like that.
Yeah, per per household. So if you think of.
It like that you can't really think that the.
Shift of the. Burden of family is going to go
to to the government. And I think it's really, I can
(25:02):
get on a soapbox with all different things when it comes
to educating our children beforethey actually graduate high
school. But finances is one thing that
they don't really talk about. You have math classes and
science classes and art classes.But it would be.
Great if we started people earlyenough because of how things
(25:23):
have shifted in this, you know, in this time frame of.
How much older world? We're living and how we don't
have that support, that familialsupport that we used to have
over time. So I think there's a lot of.
Pieces to that, Jerry, but education is definitely one of
them. And going back to the budget and
planning conversation, if a family has care needs but they
(25:45):
have budget limitations, are there specific tools or
strategies that you typically would use to help?
Yeah. So a lot of times.
They don't realize that there's veterans assistance, so if they
were a veteran or a spouse of a veteran, there's some financial
assistance that they can have towards their either care at
home or going and moving to an assisted living or memory care
(26:08):
community. And then sometimes people don't
realize the benefits that they can get as they're working or
invest in themselves, such as long term care plans as you
purchase. Them earlier in life, it's a lot
less expensive and you can get alittle bit more out of it over
(26:28):
the long term. Unfortunately, I've actually.
Had seniors who told me, you know, they didn't want to pay
for it anymore because the increases that they were getting
and the benefits were contracting and they didn't see
the value for it. And I've had to.
Tell people no, no, no. Don't let that lap that policy
(26:49):
lapse. You know, maybe you just change
the plan a little bit to work within your budget because once
you lose it, you're can't get itback.
As you age or as your health declines, it's so much harder to
get policies. And of course, they're not the
same like they were 40 years agoanyway.
So having those things availableto them.
(27:11):
So and sometimes they don't evenrealize they have.
It so we'll start talking about if somebody else, like if they
were married, somebody else bought the policy for them.
It's not uncommon for me to sit down with somebody like I
recently had a client, she knew she had a policy, her husband
had bought it, but she didn't know what was, you know, what it
was all about. So.
(27:32):
You know, as I'm sure you know if you've ever called an
insurance company. 2 hours on the phone waiting.
We finally got somebody on the phone to talk about what
benefits are in the policy and this woman.
Had like $530 a day with her escalation on cost of living
adjustment in her policy. And she's like, well, what does
(27:55):
that do for me? I'm like, you're never going to
hit that Mac. You know you're going to
continue to it's going to continue to increase cost of
living adjustments. So you you're in good shape, you
can have. Care at home.
Or you can go to a community. Either way you can afford it.
So I've had situations like thatand they've had people who
haven't been able to afford it because they don't have that
(28:19):
plan in place and I've referred them to resources to help.
Them with the Medicaid planning and you know, utilizing those
type of services so that they still don't have you know.
So they still have. Some assistance and also talked
about layering it with things like adult day or you know,
senior centers during the day. We have one locally that does
(28:41):
memory care and it's on a a sliding scale and income base so
it. Doesn't always have to be that
you planned. Planning is better.
It's much better to have that plan, but you can also see
there's resources out there thatcan also help.
And unfortunately sometimes we also have dealt with people who
(29:03):
don't have the means, have memory impairment and have been
financially exploited where we've had to to request
assistance from adult ProtectiveServices where the legal
guardianship process will will. Come into play.
Which is also. Another reason why I feel people
should. Plan, because you don't.
(29:23):
Want somebody taking away your rights because you're not in the
capacity that you were and having that plan in place really
does take take that or can take that out of the equation?
That was actually going to be mynext question.
On the other end of the spectrumabout elder financial abuse,
what are the signs family shouldlook out for?
So there's a lot of different things that you can look for,
(29:47):
people paying too much attentionto someone.
We already talked about one of these my clients who had a
landscaper. I mean, I think it's, it's
probably rampant in his in this one neighborhood where.
He goes to all the seniors and he tries.
To help them out. And then from one thing,
(30:08):
landscaping, he's now infiltrated, you know, the
household now he's doing laundryfor her.
He was doing cleaning up the house, doing different odds and
ends around the house like a handyman.
And you can kind of see where, you know, things shifted from
I'm doing all this work to now doing not a lot of work and
still making money off of it. And leaving the poor woman in
(30:29):
her house without. Anything there you know she had.
She can't get up. She can't.
Get to the bathroom. She can't make her meals.
She just was really looking at that from I don't have anybody
else, so I guess I need to counton him to do these things.
I mean you. I've seen.
I'm trying to think of other situations where even family
(30:52):
members have taken advantage of an exploited with their family
member because they're they knowthat there's finances there.
It's really difficult because when you're looking at people
from a from a distance and you can see these things happening.
But if. You're in the middle.
Of it and you're in you're an older adult and you don't have
(31:12):
any anyone else to turn to the reality is other people step in
and take advantage client who was living in a pseudo somebody
converted a house into an assisted living and.
It wasn't a real assisted livingbecause it wasn't licensed.
She just told her, you know what, live with me.
I'll take care of everything. I'll I'll make your meals.
(31:33):
I'll make sure you have your housekeeping done.
Everything's going to get done and slowly this woman because
she didn't have any siblings, any parents and any children.
The woman ended up being on her bank accounts and finally a
cousin stepped in because she cousin wasn't local.
But she had complained that thiswoman left her with no no food
(31:57):
one day, and Adult Protective Services had to get called for
that because they didn't realizethe extent of her decline.
And how much this woman really infiltrated all the finances.
And it's, it was, it was really extreme because she was paying
like. $5000 a month for. A room and part of that room fee
(32:20):
was to get meals and housekeeping.
And you know, it's, it's very sad to see things like that
happen, but unfortunately, they do happen.
When looking at the entire care spectrum too, where is that line
where the level of care no longer makes sense for in home
and it it makes better sense forthem to be in a community or
some other arrangement? I think there's two pieces to
(32:42):
it. I think if it's financially
unfeasible to stay in the home long term because of the cost,
that's one thing that needs to be looked at.
But also there's a social. Piece that people get when
they're living in a community versus living at home.
And if they're no longer? Able to that clients no longer
(33:04):
able to get out even with assistance and they're starting
to feel more isolated and they're missing that that the
the social piece of, of living. And then I think it's really
much better to live in a in a community because they get
everything literally right there.
So they get their meals prepared, they have their
(33:26):
housekeeping, they have social, they have friends.
They have literally everything by just walking out their front
door and coming either downstairs or down the hall from
instead of having to make that. Tough decision.
One day you wake up, you're saying I want to go to the
Senior Center, or I want to go to the library or I want to go
to the museum. But Oh my God, it's going to
(33:48):
take me 3 hours to get ready andI just don't want to do it
anymore. It's just too much work.
And sometimes you see that shiftin people, somebody who is
really outgoing and craving thatinteraction with people not.
To say that. They're not going to get that
one-on-one through a caregiver with home care.
But. They may be looking for
(34:09):
something a little bit more thanthat.
Talking about the industry as a whole, the senior care and
senior living industry, I mean, you've worked across communities
and now in private home care. What have you seen in the system
that you think might be broken or in deeply need of change?
That's a good question, Jerry. That's a big one.
It is a big one. I I feel like it's a loaded
(34:31):
question in that there's a lowerall of these developers.
Right now and. All of the communities seem to
be gearing a lot of their new developments to a luxury
lifestyle, so not everybody can afford these big, beautiful new
places. I feel like you know that
(34:51):
there's a piece that's missing in that there are a lot of
seniors who need a place to liveover time or want to make a move
over time. But the reality is the income is
it's so diametrically different from what they they want and
need to be able to take that, that transition to a community.
(35:13):
You either have money or you don't have money.
You either can qualify for Medicaid or you can't qualify
for Medicaid. So there's a, there's a gap with
I think the lower to middle income families that just we're
not addressing or even, you know, lower, lower level incomes
that. For instance, like my uncle is
(35:34):
in a nursing home right now. He's.
Only in a. Nursing home because he has
epilepsy and he needs somebody to manage his medications.
He's on Medicaid, and what otheroptions does he have?
So there's no, you know, there'sno in between.
You either have. You can live at home or you can
(35:54):
live in a nursing home with 24 hour care, but even somebody
like him can't live in an assisted living because he
wouldn't be able to qualify for it for the care piece if even if
he found, I'm sorry, the room and board piece, even if he
could find a place that would take him with the Medicaid.
So there's a, there's a, there'sa big.
Disconnect, I think when it comes to what what care is going
(36:18):
to look like over time with all of these seniors aging and
needing a place. I forget the statistic.
But I think you had it last timewe talked.
How many, how many new places need to be open over the next, I
don't know, 1020, thirty years in order to to keep up with the
demand that we have. Yeah.
Even in the development space, the last statistic that I read
(36:41):
was we're roughly at about 33% of where we need to be in terms
of the total number of units we need between now and 2026 that
are currently in development. So we're we're woefully behind.
And then even on the long term care worker side of things, the
data says like I think in 2023 we had about 880,000 long term
(37:03):
care workers and by 2040 we're going to need about 21 million.
So yeah, it's pretty daunting where we're at.
One interesting thing to the talking about the developers is
like my perspective is that they're pushing the narrative to
sell the story. The entire industry wants you to
believe that we're not warehousing older adults, right?
(37:26):
That these are not facilities, that they're communities, that
they're homes. And I think This is why they're
targeting the the luxury lifestyle because it's easier to
sell that narrative when you have a building that has 80,000
amenities and, you know, all these amazing features and bells
and whistles. But when it comes down to it, I
mean, you know, the middle market is where most Americans
(37:49):
are going to fall or below it. And So what are we doing to help
them? That's a great question.
I will say when I started my career in senior living, I
worked in an independent living community.
And it did it. It was not luxury.
It was very, very much in that middle market.
(38:09):
And where we did excel was having activities really
self-contained where it was either resident run or the
activities director did a great job in keeping the calendar very
full of different things. So I, I, I think that's a great
question to be asking when you're looking at the luxury
buildings that they're building.But I think there also is there
(38:31):
are still a lot of the. Senior living communities more
probably more on the independentside because they're more cost
effective. They're not.
They don't have the care models.It's a little easier for them to
to to not worry as much on the staffing side of things.
So I think. That that is probably why I
don't know if you've seen the shift a lot of these management
(38:52):
companies and developers are going into trying to or at least
spreading out into the independent space.
First of all, because a lot of people.
Don't think they need assisted living and they think they're
independent. So there's that mind shift that,
hey, I'm not old, I don't need assisted living and I'm going to
need something. But you know, I'll just move to
independent living and get services.
So, you know, people wait so much longer now.
(39:16):
I When I was started in independent living, we had
people moving in with AIDS because they really weren't
independent, but they. There's this stigma to assisted
living that a lot of people don't want to move directly into
assisted living. So I think it if we can find
ways to help our partners from ahome care perspective in
(39:37):
bridging that gap to when somebody does really truly need
assisted living. I think that's that's the
culmination of where we're goingover the long term to help
offset some of the need for assistance without being in
assisted living. That makes sense.
That does make sense. And I know from my side, I do
see a lot of operators that are now building or developing
(39:59):
campuses that do have more than just one level of care.
It's independent living, assisted living, and then memory
care all in one space because that's ideally what people want.
They want that Peace of Mind to know if I'm going to uproot my
life and move into a community, can I stay here or am I going to
have to move again in five yearsif my level of need changes?
You know, and even I know CCR CShave done that for a long time,
(40:22):
but I think. That whole CCRC model is
becoming a little bit cumbersomejust because the buy insurance
are so high. I mean we've got some
communities that the CCRC for, for like the luxury, the best
unit they have, it's upwards of 1.5 million.
That's an entry fee just to get in, which is astronomical.
(40:43):
And I mean, of course, if someone has the money, more
power to them. But but realistically, that
sales cycle is so long that it'svery, very difficult to drive
more people to want to do that. You know, there's a lot more to
the application process. There's the financial
application, the health application, assessment, all of
those types of things that have to happen.
So for senior living providers, what would you say to them about
(41:06):
how to build a stronger earlier bridge with families before they
reached that crisis moment? So in my local market, I worked
a lot with the independent assisted communities to help in
that. Somebody doesn't think they need
any services, so we'll go. In and help them.
To support the person until they're ready.
(41:26):
So if that quote UN quote ready means I'm waiting for my house
to sell or I don't think I need to make that move right now.
And then we continue to nurture from the home into the
transition. So like for instance, I've had
one person who her husband needed memory care and
(41:48):
unfortunately she didn't think that she needed help in the
house, so she kept. Using the emergency room as her,
I hate to say it, but like a little break for her and quite.
Frankly, she was an older woman.Taking care of her husband who
needed had a lot of needs including memory impairment.
He was a. Fall risk everything you know,
everything you can think of and.So my one of my partners is a
(42:10):
senior placement. Specialist she asked if we could
at least take care of him and sothey could figure out longer
term needs. So she would take the the spouse
out and tour places and do things from that perspective and
we cared for him. I think it was just maybe 5 days
just to help but. Then once we get somebody into a
(42:33):
community too, sometimes we'll help with that.
Transition because I'm sure as you know, it can be really
overwhelming to somebody in a new community when the I don't
know what the average apartment number is for communities
nowadays. But let's say it's a hundred 120
and you're, you've toured before, but you didn't memorize
the building and you don't know all the people and people
(42:56):
already have friends in the community and where do you sit
and what do you do and what are the activities like?
Instead of having that burden onthe staff, we can help with the
transition maybe for a day, 2 days, three days until that
resident gets comfortable and the staff is still there to care
(43:17):
for them. But instead of those 15 minute
bursts that they come in and say, hey, it's time to get
pressed, it's time to take your meds, It's time to do this.
We can at least be with that person and help guide them until
they they feel more confident and comfortable in the community
itself. So there's a lot of different
pieces to this. I really love having my
(43:39):
partnerships in the community because of that.
One way or another, we know thatthat.
That client is being taken care of and there's a nice warm hand
off from us to them because we work so well together.
My last question for you, if youhad to look back to before your
time in this industry to where you're at now, how has this work
changed you personally? I think the biggest thing is I
(44:04):
don't have any problems with having tough conversations with
people. I've had conversations that were
tough before, but it's not on anemotional level.
Prior to my time in senior care,I worked in banking, I worked as
a realtor. It's a it's a tough conversation
(44:26):
to talk about finances, but it'sdefinitely not this tough.
This is a toughness that you have to be able to stick.
You know, of course, you want tobe professional.
And you want to have a a good rapport with your clients.
And sometimes that tough love isnot what they want to hear.
(44:49):
But if they're in the middle of something, that is overwhelming
to them, especially since a lot of times the moves that I've
made have been an adult. Child with a parent helping them
see the big picture and giving them permission.
It's. So.
Powerful because a lot of times they'll have maybe the
(45:10):
healthcare proxy and the power of attorney and the mom says,
no, I'm not moving. And they're like, OK, But then
they realize a little bit in theconversation that maybe they can
help with the with the move and the transition because they're
just not able, their parent justisn't able to a emotionally deal
(45:33):
with it or maybe they're just not able to because of memory
impairment to make the decision to do it so.
I think that this has really given me a hugely different
perspective, especially when it comes to my own family members
like my mom and my dad and. And I have two uncles that have
no, no children. So I try to help them as best as
(45:55):
I can with making decisions. And yes, it's always harder when
you're dealing with your own family then I know you've
mentioned that before too. And then with clients and, and
being that that resource and that expert to really talk
somebody through it. But I think that's the biggest
thing that I've gotten out of how did this is that we're a
(46:17):
very connected. We're very connected in
different ways, whether we're introverted or extroverted, we
need people. And if you don't have.
People how things can so diametrically go in the wrong
direction when people take advantage of you.
And how you need to be able to look at all these different
things that can happen around you and really find somebody
(46:40):
that's going to guide you in theright direction.
And if I can't help them, I'm going to give them some
resources to. To.
Help them because nobody wants to feel alone in this world and
nobody should be taken advantageof.
So that's my personal mission. I think we always talk about
children. We say it takes the village,
right? But I think as you amass people
(47:03):
and loved ones and family and friends and all of these things
throughout your lifetime, I think you you've built your own
village to the point where now it's time when you hit that age
for that village to step in and take care of you.
So I do love that and I hope everybody gets to experience
that later in life. But it's great if they don't
(47:24):
have those resources that there are people like you who can help
point them in the right direction to give them those
resources. So Lisa, thank you so much for
such a great conversation. Where can our audience go to
learn more about caring people or connect with you?
So we are. We're actually in six states.
We're in Florida, NY, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas and
(47:44):
the Boston market. You can very easily find us on
the web at caringpeople.com and my personal cell phone number is
954-9011. 694. They can reach out to me in 24
hours. May not always answer right
away, but I will always call call back, especially if I'm in
(48:05):
my twilight. Thank you SO.
Much this has been fantastic thank you so much I really
appreciated having this conversation I I really try to
make it my personal goal to haveeverybody think about the
future, not wait till you know they can't make they have to
make their decisions and. And really advocate for their
needs, but really know what thatlooks like over time so they
(48:27):
don't have to do it in the middle of a crisis.
I know this this episode will beso valuable for for a lot of our
listeners. So I really appreciate you
taking the time out. So as we wrap up today's
episode, I want to extend a hugethank you to you, Lisa Santiago,
for joining us and offering suchan honest, compassionate, and
strategic look at what real careplanning should be.
(48:49):
Lisa, your unique brand of empathy, lived experience, and
financial acumen make you an invaluable guide to families
facing some of life's hardest moments.
So if you want to connect with Lisa or learn more about her
work with caring people, we've included her LinkedIn profile
and the show notes, as well as her phone number and the link
for caring people. As always, we hope you found
(49:09):
this episode insightful and inspiring.
Don't forget to subscribe to ourpodcast on your favorite
platform and stay tuned for moreepisodes where we continue to
explore the evolving world of senior care, covering everything
from innovative care models and leadership strategies to family
support, technology and the future of aging.
Also remember that From Leads toLeases isn't just an audio
experience. We're also a video podcast.
(49:30):
So if you want to see the video versions of our episodes, make
sure to subscribe to our YouTubeor Spotify channels.
I'm Jerry Vinci, CEO, CCR Growth.
Thank you for joining us on FromLeads to Leases.
Please like, subscribe and sharethis episode with anyone who
might find it useful. I'm truly grateful for your time
and attention. And until next time, lead was
strategy and with heart chat with you again soon.
(49:51):
Thanks, Lisa. Thanks for listening to From
Leads to Lisa's. Are you ready to fill your rooms
faster and increase occupancy? Visit ccrgrowth.com to learn
about our Senior Growth Innovation Suite, a proven
system to generate highly qualified tour ready leads,
accelerate sales and reduce acquisition costs.
Let's connect and turn your challenges into opportunities.
(50:12):
See you next time.
It's like having car insurance. Nobody wants to get into a car
accident, but you have to have aplan if God forbid something
happened. Same thing with planning for
future stages and if you do decline in your in your physical
or mental capabilities. What if your greatest caregiving
crisis could have been avoided just by having one hard
(00:21):
conversation a few months earlier?
Today's guest has made her mission to stop families from
walking into the fire unprepared.
Welcome to From Leads to Leases,a CCR growth podcast that helps
senior living providers transform their complex
challenges into opportunities. Listen in for stories from
(00:41):
industry leaders, innovative strategies and insights, and
with our expertise, learn how toincrease occupancy faster,
Guaranteed. All right, today's guest is Lisa
Santiago, a home care consultantwith nearly 15 years of
experience across the continuum of senior care, from independent
living to assisted and memory care and now home care.
(01:04):
Her expertise doesn't come from textbooks.
It's lived. Raised by and around loved ones
with dementia and now the caregiver and power of attorney
for a special needs family member, Lisa understands what it
means to navigate care through love, responsibility, and
exhaustion. With an MBA in finance and a
consultative no pressure approach, she helps families see
(01:26):
what's ahead and plan for beforecrisis hits.
So, Lisa, welcome to the show. Cherry, thank you so much for
having me. That is, that was a great
introduction to me. I think I may need to steal that
for the future. Oh, sure, by all means, go right
ahead. That's awesome.
Glad to hear it. Glad to hear it.
It's always good. Well, welcome to the show.
(01:47):
I want to start talking about the personal why it's this
industry so interesting. Everybody's got a story of how
they got into it or fell in lovewith it or why they stayed.
Your story begins with three grandparents with dementia and
an uncle you now care for. What did that teach you about
caregiving long before you entered the field?
Well thank you for asking about my personal experience.
(02:08):
It's been a journey watching even my great grandmother go
through meeting caregiving services when I was much younger
and then having one grandparent after another who needed needed
assistance and having family members who would step in.
Now that I'm in a home care consultant role, I take, I try
(02:31):
to take that approach and what I've lived through and what
they've lived through to the needs of my clients and their
families and just give them thatoverall resource and support.
Because as a I'm sure you've heard many times on your on your
interviews and other and in yourindustry too people.
Don't always know where to start.
(02:51):
And it's a struggle. Even my uncle who?
Cared for my grandfather at one point I would talk him through
all the different resources. My grandfather was a veteran.
There were resources that he could get through the VA and it
was going back to that old well.I want to stay home.
I want my family member to take care of me.
(03:13):
I don't want assistance, which really drove a lot of that.
That is where my personal journey started in having family
members, but I've also been working with.
Seniors for the last. 15 years as you had mentioned and so I've
seen all different levels of need from very independent all
the way up to memory care. And you're definitely right
(03:34):
about that. Most people when they start this
journey, they've never done it before.
So they don't know where to start.
They don't know what questions to ask.
It's a really, really challenging time.
It's emotional time. So that's very difficult, I
know. And even on the flip side of
what you just said about about your loved one wanting to stay
home and and be looked after there, I had the opposite where
(03:56):
my mom, after my grandmother passed, she wanted to bring my
grandfather home because she felt like she could provide the
best care for him. And then quickly realized about
three to six months later that that wasn't going to be the
optimal situation for him. And then she we ended up finding
an amazing senior living community for him.
But it is interesting how guilt can kind of drive those
(04:16):
conversations. Yeah, and it's unfortunate, but
a lot of people go through thesethings as, you know, in steps
and stages. And sometimes they try to do
things as they've promised to have somebody step in and, and
really be that caregiver. And then sometimes they'll hire
somebody like a home care agencylike ourselves to do maybe a few
(04:37):
hours and then they realize, youknow, there's pieces missing.
And sometimes then they'll take the step to move to a community,
whether independent or assisted living or.
As you know, sometimes. People just wait so long, they
go straight to memory care, which is something I hope people
during this conversation is. It's really my point to to drive
(05:00):
home, not to wait till the inevitable if you know that it's
going in that direction, but to really plan for.
It What have you seen up close, emotionally and practically that
you think others might miss? Well.
I think the biggest thing that I've seen even more recently is
that people who don't have that familial structure around them
(05:20):
locally. So maybe because I'm in Florida
and when I was in New York, I saw a different picture, But
people who may count on somebodywho's not here, maybe an adult
child is in a different state orin a different place or even
across the world. Because as you've seen,
everything's global now. And so people are all scattered
(05:42):
all over and. The the the.
Thought of making that move people don't think about right
because they think well I'm OK now and maybe you know somewhere
down the line I need some services and then they literally
wait until there is a crisis going to the hospital or having
(06:04):
a fall or all these different pieces and they don't have
somebody. So sometimes you see people who
rely on neighbors or I had one recently who counted on her
landscaper who started moving inand doing some things around the
house more of a from that side of thing instead of caregiving.
(06:25):
And they're and they're afraid to even ask for for help or they
don't think that they need it. So there's there's a lot of
different. Pieces to that.
I think 2 the most dangerous time is when nothing's wrong.
And you said most people only plan when they're in crisis.
Why do families avoid those hardconversations until it's too
late? Well.
You and I, prior to this call when we were talking, we're
(06:46):
talking about statistics and I think it all boils down to
people thinking it's not going to happen to me, it happens to
everyone else and just not me. Years ago I took one seminar.
Where with a renowned neuroscientist or he does a lot
with neurology and and dementia up in in Massachusetts.
(07:07):
His name was Doctor Tanzi. We got into the auditorium and
he basically said if you could look left and look right, one of
you is going to end up forming dementia or Alzheimer's and
doing a lot of work. I'm sure just like you with the
Alzheimer's Association, there'sa lot of statistics around that.
(07:27):
And even just memory impairment doesn't doesn't.
Fall on everything because then you also see people with
mobility challenges and things like that that that they don't
even take into consideration. I think a lot of people wait
because they don't think that they'll ever need it.
And then the reality are the average age in this in this
(07:49):
country is 78. And at 85, you are 2/3 more
likely to develop some form of dementia.
That's not again, talking about any mobility challenges.
So I think we've seen a shift, especially after the pandemic
when people were doing a lot less, less exercise, less
socialization and all the thingsthat really the connections that
(08:12):
we need to have in order to continue to, to age gracefully
and safely and really keep the focus on how we can age without
having those, those types of issues.
Things have just shifted. And plus you see all these
wonderful people on the TV and the news who are living to 100
(08:34):
and 102 and 105. And the the hope and the faith
of, of how we are going to age just remains that way that that
we won't need have that need over the long term.
I think a lot of families avoid that conversation too, because
you go from not talking about itat all to opening a fire hose
(08:55):
and all of a sudden wanting to hit somebody with all that
information at the same time. And it's just overwhelming.
You know, the first thing that somebody wants to do is push
back, get defensive, you know, deny that this might be
something that they need or something they might need in the
future. What are some simple steps or
proactive steps families can take today even when everything
seems fine? Well, I think the biggest thing
(09:16):
that people forget is that they should look at.
And research all the different options before it even becomes a
conversation in a crisis. I have a lot of resources myself
and one of the attorneys I work with actually stated that, you
know, it's not like things have years ago where your mom can
(09:38):
step in when you're 18 if something happens and speak to
your physicians and and doctors in the hospitals.
You really need to plan from thetime you become an adult.
And those things can change overtime, but at least.
Have basics like a healthcare surrogacy or healthcare proxy
and a power of attorney as you're aging and you want to
(10:01):
decide what that aging process looks like for you to have that
plan in place so that it doesn'tbecome, you know, you having to
deal with, let's say it's, it's yourself and you're, you're
dealing with something with yourspouse or you're the adult child
and you have to deal with it from your, your parents point of
(10:23):
view. If you can't talk about what
that looks like, then you have to make those hard choices for
that other person, which is where a lot of people get held
up in the process because they don't want to make the decision
for someone else. And so now you have a question
of what does safety really look like?
Because safety is different for,for all different people and how
(10:47):
you can continue to help somebody still remain
independent with the least amount of services, right?
Because that's the goal, to keepsomebody independent as they as
they age, whether it's home or in a community.
And then, you know, what does safety look like for them?
That's when they what happens when a family waits too long?
So unfortunately we get those types of calls a lot.
(11:09):
You can typically will see. Somebody who's living in their
home, usually. This.
I hate to talk in in general terms, but you'll see if
somebody, you know, either losesa spouse and one of them
overcompensated for the other person.
Let's say, you know, Jane was counting on her husband for all
the things that are financial or, you know, paying the bills,
(11:33):
making sure the house is, you know, taken care of.
And I hate saying it only about women because men do that too.
They've counted on their lives for for things as well.
And then all of a sudden they wake up one day and that that
person is not there. Their person is not there.
So they start counting on other people.
Like it could be a family members that could be neighbors.
(11:56):
And now that burden has shifted to I'm going to take care of
myself to now somebody else needs to step in and help me.
And so. It's really tough.
When you're looking at that point where it's shifted and now
all of a sudden mom has a fall and the fall is what is the
(12:16):
catalyst for her ending up in the hospital.
And then you have a hospital stay, which can be very
disorienting for someone. You're up all night.
They're they're poking you, they're prodding you, they're
they're testing you. So you're not sleeping, you're
not in your home. And you can see people
(12:36):
completely change with the hospital psychosis and memory
loss just from going to a hospital visit.
So how, how can you have that conversation to try and avoid
that peace and then the next? Step of that is let's say the
daughter says, OK, well dad fellhe's in the hospital and I don't
(12:59):
think that he's he's doing OK togo home.
So now you're in a crisis of youhave to have a confrontation and
a conversation while you're dealing with it.
And so that really is something that if you have that
conversation ahead of time and you talk about it, all the
different things that can happen.
(13:19):
It's like having car insurance. Nobody wants to get into a car
accident, but you have to have aplan if God forbid something
happens. And it's the same thing with
planning for future stages and how you're, if you do decline in
your in your physical or mental capabilities.
I mean with insurance too, maybeI don't have a plan, but at
(13:40):
least I know that someone has a plan, right?
I know my insurance company has a plan if I get into the
accident, so I think that makes sense.
One of the things I noticed in my community too.
I live in an. I would say it's probably 70% of
the residents here are over the age of 65.
And just about everyone I speak to who owns a home says they're
(14:04):
not leaving their home. No, no one's selling.
Everybody wants to stay at home.Everyone wants to age in place.
And with obviously the number ofseniors in the baby boom
generation just exploding into the senior living space, I think
there's a lot more people who are going to be pushing back in
that sense. But staying home isn't always
(14:24):
the right answer. What misconceptions do people
have about aging in place? Well, I think a lot of times I
hear and I'm sure. You've heard this before, is
they think that Medicare is going to pay for the next level
of care. And that's really not a fact
that, you know, you pay into a system your whole life and then
you think that something's goingto pay back out.
(14:45):
The reality is. Is that Medicare or if you're on
a supplement or an Advantage plan, it's only going to cover.
Short term things or a few hoursa day, it doesn't cover 24 hour
care. And so when you're looking at
people and they, they say OK, I'm going to stay home forever
(15:05):
and if something happens to me, I'm going to bring in care and
it's going to be covered. Well that's really not a
reality. Unfortunately.
If you have financial difficulties, Medicaid will
sometimes pay for for care at home, not typically 24 hour
care. And there's a little limited.
Amount of of communities that take Medicaid and usually it's a
(15:29):
small percentage of the overall community.
So you have 120 apartments, maybe 10 or 15 are covered and
not fully. So Medicaid and and I don't know
if this is in all places, but inFlorida, here they don't pay for
your whole assisted living stay.They pay for the care piece.
You still have to pay for room and board.
(15:51):
So a lot of people when they think.
OK. I'm going to stay home.
I'm going to stay home forever. There's a financial component
that they need to think about interms of that piece and then
also the physical. Component if they can't let's
say get out of bed at night, butthey can't afford 24 hour care,
(16:12):
what does that look like? I mean, I've had recently a few
clients that unfortunately had no family.
They relied on local neighbors to help and a one woman who
actually had a friend up in New York who was trying to do things
from there to here, but really she was immobile and nobody
(16:34):
really. Could understand the gravity of
that of of how she was living onher.
Basically on her bed. She had the front door open.
Uber would get delivered talk. About safety and security, I
mean there's a there's a lot that can happen when you have
somebody like that who. Really doesn't have anybody
available, and so is that something that you're willing to
(16:58):
live through? I guess is the question that I
could ask people. And if not, then how do you plan
to not have that happen so. Which is one of the reasons why
we were talking. About planning today, you know,
I can't stress enough how how important it is to not bury your
head in the sand and kind of look at.
All. Of these different pieces and
(17:18):
especially our age demographic, I mean the baby boomers are
getting older, but then the nextgeneration we may not have
access to the same services because of budget cuts or the
differences in the tax bases. And I can go on and on, but you
can't expect it's going to get better.
It's it's not always available to you.
(17:38):
Medic does Medicaid operate the same way with home care as it
does with a senior living community where there's a whole
spend down process before it would even kick in aside from
funeral expenses? Yeah, there's different limits
to the Medicaid process. With home care, they keep
changing the program all the time.
And I think the last time, because I don't deal with
(18:00):
Medicaid anymore, when I was in communities, we had more of that
conversation. It used to be the five year look
back and then I think with home care, it was 2 years.
But don't quote me on that because that keeps changing.
As I'm sure you know, every timethey rebudget and look at how
they're going to continue to be able to pay for people long
(18:21):
term, I think they have to look at, you know, what that actually
looks like. The safety is an interesting
concern too. I mean, how do you balance
independence with ensuring safety?
You know, it's really about the person in front of you.
So I take like a lot of people in the industry, senior care
space, A consultative approach to to care.
(18:44):
So as a home care consultant, somebody calls me, they ask, you
know, about our services. And nine times out of 10, they
want to get to, you know, what'sit going to cost.
But the reality is we have to see, you know, what are you
capable of doing yourself? What do you need assistance
with? You know, is it just mobility?
A shower to you? Maybe just I need somebody
(19:06):
standing outside my shower just in case because I have histories
of falls, a shower to somebody else, maybe hands on care and
so. It really goes through just
like. Assisted living, we would go
through an assessment process, really see, you know how we can
support somebody in still remaining independent while also
(19:29):
being safe. The.
Biggest challenge we usually seeis I can take my medications and
I'm fine, but the reality is they forget pills or they drop
them on the floor and they don'trealize it.
So it really depends on the person person centered Care is
the, I'm sure you know, like you've had on your your podcast
(19:52):
before. It's the biggest way to help
somebody with that balance of finding independence and safety
at the same time. Yeah, that absolutely looks
different for everyone. So that makes sense.
Your MBA gives you a unique angle in with finance.
I mean, how do financial conversations show up in care
planning processes? It comes up all the time because
(20:14):
people want to know, can I afford this and can I afford
this long term? So sitting down and as we talked
about a consultative approach, Ialways usually start with a
question of well, how did you plan for this stage in your
life? Tell me about you know what what
your assets look like. Tell me about what your long
(20:35):
term goals are. If you're going to stay in your
home with 24 hour care, it's going to be a lot more expensive
than if you're going to do this in an interim basis until you
want to make a transition to, let's say an assisted living or
memory care down the road, down the road.
So really sitting down and making sure that they understand
that this could be temporary. It could be a long term
(20:58):
solution, it could be that. Listen, I just got out of the
hospital. I need, you know, maybe a couple
weeks worth of care and I want to stretch out my finances as
long as possible. So I'm going to do this in
stages. I'm going to do what I need
right now and then when I need it again in the future, I can
start back up again, which is really the nice thing about
(21:18):
having home care as opposed to being in a community.
Is that you have that flexibility.
Not locked into that, yeah. Yeah, to stretch things out and,
you know, in finance you got to do research on a lot of
different things. And it's really boils down to
what the goals are, you know, inyour in your financial goals.
And the same thing would be in your in your home goals, in your
(21:40):
home, home planning, in your care planning goals.
So I really do like like to sit down and really.
Peel back the the layers of the onion and try and figure out
what is the real goal and what is the reality of the situation.
Because I've also talked myself out of a job before where, you
know, somebody says I need, I don't even know where people
(22:02):
come up with these things. They'll call up and they'll say
I need two days a week, 3 hours a day.
And I'm like, well, this is. Not like a McDonald's where
you're ordering something off a menu.
Let's talk about what it really what you're really calling for
and how do we fit this number one in your finances #1 in your
number 2 in your lifestyle. And you know, if somebody really
(22:24):
is alone and immobile and, and needs more hands on care and
they can't afford it, I've actually given them resources,
whether it's a senior placement specialist or if I know they're,
they're close to one of our assisted living partners.
I've referred them over to our partners too, to help them so
(22:45):
that they're not feeling like, OK, well, you're not giving me
home care, so you're just going to leave and walk away.
And that's really not what I'm here to do.
I really want to make sure when I do, you have somebody who's
sitting in front of me and they don't know the next steps that
we've, we've really gone throughas many scenarios and resources
as humanly possible. You would not be surprised how
(23:07):
many people in their 90s who still don't have a healthcare
proxy or power of attorney. It's it's mind boggling to me.
You know, one interesting statistic I forgot to mention
earlier was the fact that I was at the Argentum Public Policy
Institute in March in Washington, DC.
There's one crazy statistic thatsaid 45% of people in this
(23:30):
country are planning to rely on the government to pay for their
care when it comes to retirement. 45% I'm.
A big. Percentage.
My God, Jerry, you know, you think about that.
It's almost 50% of this country thinks that the government's
going to help them. We don't even know if social.
Security is going to be around in 30-40 fifty years, so I don't
(23:54):
know how that's going to be possible.
Yeah, and I don't know how we solve that.
Is that an education piece? Is a something else they're
missing? The education really boils down
to, I mean, if you think about how things have shifted over
time, you know, it used to be that mom used to take care of
grandma used to take care of thekids all under one roof.
(24:16):
My family is a perfect example. My great grandmother lived
upstairs, my aunt lived in the house, my great uncle lived
downstairs, and there was a whole communal.
Piece to it that you just don't see anymore.
The fact that you have. People who don't have children,
I mean, we've been slowly, you know, changing the trajectory of
(24:40):
how many children, what is it 1.2?
Yeah, 1.21.3, something like that.
Yeah, per per household. So if you think of.
It like that you can't really think that the.
Shift of the. Burden of family is going to go
to to the government. And I think it's really, I can
(25:02):
get on a soapbox with all different things when it comes
to educating our children beforethey actually graduate high
school. But finances is one thing that
they don't really talk about. You have math classes and
science classes and art classes.But it would be.
Great if we started people earlyenough because of how things
(25:23):
have shifted in this, you know, in this time frame of.
How much older world? We're living and how we don't
have that support, that familialsupport that we used to have
over time. So I think there's a lot of.
Pieces to that, Jerry, but education is definitely one of
them. And going back to the budget and
planning conversation, if a family has care needs but they
(25:45):
have budget limitations, are there specific tools or
strategies that you typically would use to help?
Yeah. So a lot of times.
They don't realize that there's veterans assistance, so if they
were a veteran or a spouse of a veteran, there's some financial
assistance that they can have towards their either care at
home or going and moving to an assisted living or memory care
(26:08):
community. And then sometimes people don't
realize the benefits that they can get as they're working or
invest in themselves, such as long term care plans as you
purchase. Them earlier in life, it's a lot
less expensive and you can get alittle bit more out of it over
(26:28):
the long term. Unfortunately, I've actually.
Had seniors who told me, you know, they didn't want to pay
for it anymore because the increases that they were getting
and the benefits were contracting and they didn't see
the value for it. And I've had to.
Tell people no, no, no. Don't let that lap that policy
(26:49):
lapse. You know, maybe you just change
the plan a little bit to work within your budget because once
you lose it, you're can't get itback.
As you age or as your health declines, it's so much harder to
get policies. And of course, they're not the
same like they were 40 years agoanyway.
So having those things availableto them.
(27:11):
So and sometimes they don't evenrealize they have.
It so we'll start talking about if somebody else, like if they
were married, somebody else bought the policy for them.
It's not uncommon for me to sit down with somebody like I
recently had a client, she knew she had a policy, her husband
had bought it, but she didn't know what was, you know, what it
was all about. So.
(27:32):
You know, as I'm sure you know if you've ever called an
insurance company. 2 hours on the phone waiting.
We finally got somebody on the phone to talk about what
benefits are in the policy and this woman.
Had like $530 a day with her escalation on cost of living
adjustment in her policy. And she's like, well, what does
(27:55):
that do for me? I'm like, you're never going to
hit that Mac. You know you're going to
continue to it's going to continue to increase cost of
living adjustments. So you you're in good shape, you
can have. Care at home.
Or you can go to a community. Either way you can afford it.
So I've had situations like thatand they've had people who
haven't been able to afford it because they don't have that
(28:19):
plan in place and I've referred them to resources to help.
Them with the Medicaid planning and you know, utilizing those
type of services so that they still don't have you know.
So they still have. Some assistance and also talked
about layering it with things like adult day or you know,
senior centers during the day. We have one locally that does
(28:41):
memory care and it's on a a sliding scale and income base so
it. Doesn't always have to be that
you planned. Planning is better.
It's much better to have that plan, but you can also see
there's resources out there thatcan also help.
And unfortunately sometimes we also have dealt with people who
(29:03):
don't have the means, have memory impairment and have been
financially exploited where we've had to to request
assistance from adult ProtectiveServices where the legal
guardianship process will will. Come into play.
Which is also. Another reason why I feel people
should. Plan, because you don't.
(29:23):
Want somebody taking away your rights because you're not in the
capacity that you were and having that plan in place really
does take take that or can take that out of the equation?
That was actually going to be mynext question.
On the other end of the spectrumabout elder financial abuse,
what are the signs family shouldlook out for?
So there's a lot of different things that you can look for,
(29:47):
people paying too much attentionto someone.
We already talked about one of these my clients who had a
landscaper. I mean, I think it's, it's
probably rampant in his in this one neighborhood where.
He goes to all the seniors and he tries.
To help them out. And then from one thing,
(30:08):
landscaping, he's now infiltrated, you know, the
household now he's doing laundryfor her.
He was doing cleaning up the house, doing different odds and
ends around the house like a handyman.
And you can kind of see where, you know, things shifted from
I'm doing all this work to now doing not a lot of work and
still making money off of it. And leaving the poor woman in
(30:29):
her house without. Anything there you know she had.
She can't get up. She can't.
Get to the bathroom. She can't make her meals.
She just was really looking at that from I don't have anybody
else, so I guess I need to counton him to do these things.
I mean you. I've seen.
I'm trying to think of other situations where even family
(30:52):
members have taken advantage of an exploited with their family
member because they're they knowthat there's finances there.
It's really difficult because when you're looking at people
from a from a distance and you can see these things happening.
But if. You're in the middle.
Of it and you're in you're an older adult and you don't have
(31:12):
any anyone else to turn to the reality is other people step in
and take advantage client who was living in a pseudo somebody
converted a house into an assisted living and.
It wasn't a real assisted livingbecause it wasn't licensed.
She just told her, you know what, live with me.
I'll take care of everything. I'll I'll make your meals.
(31:33):
I'll make sure you have your housekeeping done.
Everything's going to get done and slowly this woman because
she didn't have any siblings, any parents and any children.
The woman ended up being on her bank accounts and finally a
cousin stepped in because she cousin wasn't local.
But she had complained that thiswoman left her with no no food
(31:57):
one day, and Adult Protective Services had to get called for
that because they didn't realizethe extent of her decline.
And how much this woman really infiltrated all the finances.
And it's, it was, it was really extreme because she was paying
like. $5000 a month for. A room and part of that room fee
(32:20):
was to get meals and housekeeping.
And you know, it's, it's very sad to see things like that
happen, but unfortunately, they do happen.
When looking at the entire care spectrum too, where is that line
where the level of care no longer makes sense for in home
and it it makes better sense forthem to be in a community or
some other arrangement? I think there's two pieces to
(32:42):
it. I think if it's financially
unfeasible to stay in the home long term because of the cost,
that's one thing that needs to be looked at.
But also there's a social. Piece that people get when
they're living in a community versus living at home.
And if they're no longer? Able to that clients no longer
(33:04):
able to get out even with assistance and they're starting
to feel more isolated and they're missing that that the
the social piece of, of living. And then I think it's really
much better to live in a in a community because they get
everything literally right there.
So they get their meals prepared, they have their
(33:26):
housekeeping, they have social, they have friends.
They have literally everything by just walking out their front
door and coming either downstairs or down the hall from
instead of having to make that. Tough decision.
One day you wake up, you're saying I want to go to the
Senior Center, or I want to go to the library or I want to go
to the museum. But Oh my God, it's going to
(33:48):
take me 3 hours to get ready andI just don't want to do it
anymore. It's just too much work.
And sometimes you see that shiftin people, somebody who is
really outgoing and craving thatinteraction with people not.
To say that. They're not going to get that
one-on-one through a caregiver with home care.
But. They may be looking for
(34:09):
something a little bit more thanthat.
Talking about the industry as a whole, the senior care and
senior living industry, I mean, you've worked across communities
and now in private home care. What have you seen in the system
that you think might be broken or in deeply need of change?
That's a good question, Jerry. That's a big one.
It is a big one. I I feel like it's a loaded
(34:31):
question in that there's a lowerall of these developers.
Right now and. All of the communities seem to
be gearing a lot of their new developments to a luxury
lifestyle, so not everybody can afford these big, beautiful new
places. I feel like you know that
(34:51):
there's a piece that's missing in that there are a lot of
seniors who need a place to liveover time or want to make a move
over time. But the reality is the income is
it's so diametrically different from what they they want and
need to be able to take that, that transition to a community.
(35:13):
You either have money or you don't have money.
You either can qualify for Medicaid or you can't qualify
for Medicaid. So there's a, there's a gap with
I think the lower to middle income families that just we're
not addressing or even, you know, lower, lower level incomes
that. For instance, like my uncle is
(35:34):
in a nursing home right now. He's.
Only in a. Nursing home because he has
epilepsy and he needs somebody to manage his medications.
He's on Medicaid, and what otheroptions does he have?
So there's no, you know, there'sno in between.
You either have. You can live at home or you can
(35:54):
live in a nursing home with 24 hour care, but even somebody
like him can't live in an assisted living because he
wouldn't be able to qualify for it for the care piece if even if
he found, I'm sorry, the room and board piece, even if he
could find a place that would take him with the Medicaid.
So there's a, there's a, there'sa big.
Disconnect, I think when it comes to what what care is going
(36:18):
to look like over time with all of these seniors aging and
needing a place. I forget the statistic.
But I think you had it last timewe talked.
How many, how many new places need to be open over the next, I
don't know, 1020, thirty years in order to to keep up with the
demand that we have. Yeah.
Even in the development space, the last statistic that I read
(36:41):
was we're roughly at about 33% of where we need to be in terms
of the total number of units we need between now and 2026 that
are currently in development. So we're we're woefully behind.
And then even on the long term care worker side of things, the
data says like I think in 2023 we had about 880,000 long term
(37:03):
care workers and by 2040 we're going to need about 21 million.
So yeah, it's pretty daunting where we're at.
One interesting thing to the talking about the developers is
like my perspective is that they're pushing the narrative to
sell the story. The entire industry wants you to
believe that we're not warehousing older adults, right?
(37:26):
That these are not facilities, that they're communities, that
they're homes. And I think This is why they're
targeting the the luxury lifestyle because it's easier to
sell that narrative when you have a building that has 80,000
amenities and, you know, all these amazing features and bells
and whistles. But when it comes down to it, I
mean, you know, the middle market is where most Americans
(37:49):
are going to fall or below it. And So what are we doing to help
them? That's a great question.
I will say when I started my career in senior living, I
worked in an independent living community.
And it did it. It was not luxury.
It was very, very much in that middle market.
(38:09):
And where we did excel was having activities really
self-contained where it was either resident run or the
activities director did a great job in keeping the calendar very
full of different things. So I, I, I think that's a great
question to be asking when you're looking at the luxury
buildings that they're building.But I think there also is there
(38:31):
are still a lot of the. Senior living communities more
probably more on the independentside because they're more cost
effective. They're not.
They don't have the care models.It's a little easier for them to
to to not worry as much on the staffing side of things.
So I think. That that is probably why I
don't know if you've seen the shift a lot of these management
(38:52):
companies and developers are going into trying to or at least
spreading out into the independent space.
First of all, because a lot of people.
Don't think they need assisted living and they think they're
independent. So there's that mind shift that,
hey, I'm not old, I don't need assisted living and I'm going to
need something. But you know, I'll just move to
independent living and get services.
So, you know, people wait so much longer now.
(39:16):
I When I was started in independent living, we had
people moving in with AIDS because they really weren't
independent, but they. There's this stigma to assisted
living that a lot of people don't want to move directly into
assisted living. So I think it if we can find
ways to help our partners from ahome care perspective in
(39:37):
bridging that gap to when somebody does really truly need
assisted living. I think that's that's the
culmination of where we're goingover the long term to help
offset some of the need for assistance without being in
assisted living. That makes sense.
That does make sense. And I know from my side, I do
see a lot of operators that are now building or developing
(39:59):
campuses that do have more than just one level of care.
It's independent living, assisted living, and then memory
care all in one space because that's ideally what people want.
They want that Peace of Mind to know if I'm going to uproot my
life and move into a community, can I stay here or am I going to
have to move again in five yearsif my level of need changes?
You know, and even I know CCR CShave done that for a long time,
(40:22):
but I think. That whole CCRC model is
becoming a little bit cumbersomejust because the buy insurance
are so high. I mean we've got some
communities that the CCRC for, for like the luxury, the best
unit they have, it's upwards of 1.5 million.
That's an entry fee just to get in, which is astronomical.
(40:43):
And I mean, of course, if someone has the money, more
power to them. But but realistically, that
sales cycle is so long that it'svery, very difficult to drive
more people to want to do that. You know, there's a lot more to
the application process. There's the financial
application, the health application, assessment, all of
those types of things that have to happen.
So for senior living providers, what would you say to them about
(41:06):
how to build a stronger earlier bridge with families before they
reached that crisis moment? So in my local market, I worked
a lot with the independent assisted communities to help in
that. Somebody doesn't think they need
any services, so we'll go. In and help them.
To support the person until they're ready.
(41:26):
So if that quote UN quote ready means I'm waiting for my house
to sell or I don't think I need to make that move right now.
And then we continue to nurture from the home into the
transition. So like for instance, I've had
one person who her husband needed memory care and
(41:48):
unfortunately she didn't think that she needed help in the
house, so she kept. Using the emergency room as her,
I hate to say it, but like a little break for her and quite.
Frankly, she was an older woman.Taking care of her husband who
needed had a lot of needs including memory impairment.
He was a. Fall risk everything you know,
everything you can think of and.So my one of my partners is a
(42:10):
senior placement. Specialist she asked if we could
at least take care of him and sothey could figure out longer
term needs. So she would take the the spouse
out and tour places and do things from that perspective and
we cared for him. I think it was just maybe 5 days
just to help but. Then once we get somebody into a
(42:33):
community too, sometimes we'll help with that.
Transition because I'm sure as you know, it can be really
overwhelming to somebody in a new community when the I don't
know what the average apartment number is for communities
nowadays. But let's say it's a hundred 120
and you're, you've toured before, but you didn't memorize
the building and you don't know all the people and people
(42:56):
already have friends in the community and where do you sit
and what do you do and what are the activities like?
Instead of having that burden onthe staff, we can help with the
transition maybe for a day, 2 days, three days until that
resident gets comfortable and the staff is still there to care
(43:17):
for them. But instead of those 15 minute
bursts that they come in and say, hey, it's time to get
pressed, it's time to take your meds, It's time to do this.
We can at least be with that person and help guide them until
they they feel more confident and comfortable in the community
itself. So there's a lot of different
pieces to this. I really love having my
(43:39):
partnerships in the community because of that.
One way or another, we know thatthat.
That client is being taken care of and there's a nice warm hand
off from us to them because we work so well together.
My last question for you, if youhad to look back to before your
time in this industry to where you're at now, how has this work
changed you personally? I think the biggest thing is I
(44:04):
don't have any problems with having tough conversations with
people. I've had conversations that were
tough before, but it's not on anemotional level.
Prior to my time in senior care,I worked in banking, I worked as
a realtor. It's a it's a tough conversation
(44:26):
to talk about finances, but it'sdefinitely not this tough.
This is a toughness that you have to be able to stick.
You know, of course, you want tobe professional.
And you want to have a a good rapport with your clients.
And sometimes that tough love isnot what they want to hear.
(44:49):
But if they're in the middle of something, that is overwhelming
to them, especially since a lot of times the moves that I've
made have been an adult. Child with a parent helping them
see the big picture and giving them permission.
It's. So.
Powerful because a lot of times they'll have maybe the
(45:10):
healthcare proxy and the power of attorney and the mom says,
no, I'm not moving. And they're like, OK, But then
they realize a little bit in theconversation that maybe they can
help with the with the move and the transition because they're
just not able, their parent justisn't able to a emotionally deal
(45:33):
with it or maybe they're just not able to because of memory
impairment to make the decision to do it so.
I think that this has really given me a hugely different
perspective, especially when it comes to my own family members
like my mom and my dad and. And I have two uncles that have
no, no children. So I try to help them as best as
(45:55):
I can with making decisions. And yes, it's always harder when
you're dealing with your own family then I know you've
mentioned that before too. And then with clients and, and
being that that resource and that expert to really talk
somebody through it. But I think that's the biggest
thing that I've gotten out of how did this is that we're a
(46:17):
very connected. We're very connected in
different ways, whether we're introverted or extroverted, we
need people. And if you don't have.
People how things can so diametrically go in the wrong
direction when people take advantage of you.
And how you need to be able to look at all these different
things that can happen around you and really find somebody
(46:40):
that's going to guide you in theright direction.
And if I can't help them, I'm going to give them some
resources to. To.
Help them because nobody wants to feel alone in this world and
nobody should be taken advantageof.
So that's my personal mission. I think we always talk about
children. We say it takes the village,
right? But I think as you amass people
(47:03):
and loved ones and family and friends and all of these things
throughout your lifetime, I think you you've built your own
village to the point where now it's time when you hit that age
for that village to step in and take care of you.
So I do love that and I hope everybody gets to experience
that later in life. But it's great if they don't
(47:24):
have those resources that there are people like you who can help
point them in the right direction to give them those
resources. So Lisa, thank you so much for
such a great conversation. Where can our audience go to
learn more about caring people or connect with you?
So we are. We're actually in six states.
We're in Florida, NY, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas and
(47:44):
the Boston market. You can very easily find us on
the web at caringpeople.com and my personal cell phone number is
954-9011. 694. They can reach out to me in 24
hours. May not always answer right
away, but I will always call call back, especially if I'm in
(48:05):
my twilight. Thank you SO.
Much this has been fantastic thank you so much I really
appreciated having this conversation I I really try to
make it my personal goal to haveeverybody think about the
future, not wait till you know they can't make they have to
make their decisions and. And really advocate for their
needs, but really know what thatlooks like over time so they
(48:27):
don't have to do it in the middle of a crisis.
I know this this episode will beso valuable for for a lot of our
listeners. So I really appreciate you
taking the time out. So as we wrap up today's
episode, I want to extend a hugethank you to you, Lisa Santiago,
for joining us and offering suchan honest, compassionate, and
strategic look at what real careplanning should be.
(48:49):
Lisa, your unique brand of empathy, lived experience, and
financial acumen make you an invaluable guide to families
facing some of life's hardest moments.
So if you want to connect with Lisa or learn more about her
work with caring people, we've included her LinkedIn profile
and the show notes, as well as her phone number and the link
for caring people. As always, we hope you found
(49:09):
this episode insightful and inspiring.
Don't forget to subscribe to ourpodcast on your favorite
platform and stay tuned for moreepisodes where we continue to
explore the evolving world of senior care, covering everything
from innovative care models and leadership strategies to family
support, technology and the future of aging.
Also remember that From Leads toLeases isn't just an audio
experience. We're also a video podcast.
(49:30):
So if you want to see the video versions of our episodes, make
sure to subscribe to our YouTubeor Spotify channels.
I'm Jerry Vinci, CEO, CCR Growth.
Thank you for joining us on FromLeads to Leases.
Please like, subscribe and sharethis episode with anyone who
might find it useful. I'm truly grateful for your time
and attention. And until next time, lead was
strategy and with heart chat with you again soon.
(49:51):
Thanks, Lisa. Thanks for listening to From
Leads to Lisa's. Are you ready to fill your rooms
faster and increase occupancy? Visit ccrgrowth.com to learn
about our Senior Growth Innovation Suite, a proven
system to generate highly qualified tour ready leads,
accelerate sales and reduce acquisition costs.
Let's connect and turn your challenges into opportunities.
(50:12):
See you next time.
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