Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars

Practical wisdom and best practices for Home Care and Day Service professionals who keep older and disabled people living at home. This podcast is for agency and center owners and managers focused on success, and the main topics are growth and caregiver retention. We consider members of this industry to be our heroes.

Episodes

December 2, 2025 39 mins

You're all worried about the skyrocketing demand for home care. Here's a solution: add an adult day center where you can meet the needs of 50 clients with just 8 staff.

In this episode, Ken Accardi interviews Tia Sauceda, the newly appointed Executive Director of the National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA). With over 25 years of hands-on experience running day centers and integrated care programs, Tia reveals why n...

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In this episode, we’re joined by Kristianna Moralls, founder of the Self-Determination Institute and parent of a young adult with disabilities. She shares the real-world impact of self-determination, sometimes called self-direction or consumer-directed services, a model that lets individuals and families make their own decisions about who provides their care and how.

Kristianna explains how her son’s transition out of school reveale...

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Artificial intelligence is everywhere right now—but what does it really mean for home care and day services?

On this episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars, host Ken Accardi welcomes back Nick Bonitatibus for his third appearance. This time, the conversation zeroes in on AI—how it can truly help agencies, and where it often goes wrong.

Why AI Isn’t Magic (But Feels Like It Sometimes)

Nick shares the story of a home care own...

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In the final episode of a three-part series on “Doing It Right in Home Care,” industry icon Ginny Kenyon joins Ken Accardi on the Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars podcast to focus on a critical pillar of home care success: creating a strong, values-driven culture that drives hiring and retention. With decades of leadership and consulting experience, Ginny shares actionable insights and heartfelt stories that show how the righ...

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AI for Home Care: What Leaders Should Know

On this episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars, host Ken Accardi takes a turn in the interview seat to answer an important question: What should home care and adult day care leaders know about artificial intelligence (AI)? With help from his colleague Sowpha Umashankar, Ken explores AI's current role, practical applications, and future in home care. Whether you're new t...

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Doing It Right with Leadership

In the second part of her “Doing It Right” series on the Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars podcast, industry veteran Ginny Kenyon returns to talk about leadership — not as a title, but as a responsibility. Ginny, who Ken Accardi describes as worthy of the “Home Care Hall of Fame,” shares her hard-earned wisdom on what it truly means to lead a successful and compassionate home care organization.

Gin...

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This episode is a little different and I hope you like it. I was interviewed on another podcast called "The Millennium Spotlight" by heralded radio announcer and podcast host, Jordan Rich.  I greatly appreciate you listening to Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars and if you'd like to know a little bit more about me then please give this episode a listen.

Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars is produced and sponso...

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In this episode of the Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars podcast, host Ken Accardi sits down with Ginny Kenyon—a veteran home care consultant who grew her agency from the ground up and has since helped launch hundreds of agencies. The conversation, titled "How to Make Your Home Care Customers Happy - Forever!", dives into Ginny’s journey and reveals the secrets behind client-centered care that truly makes a differenc...

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The home care industry is on the verge of a major transformation. With the aging population rapidly growing and workforce shortages intensifying, innovative solutions are needed now more than ever. In this episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars, host Ken Accardi speaks with Bob Roth, an industry veteran and leader at Cypress Home Care, about the future of home care and how technology, collaboration, and new models of car...

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This episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars features Melody Ray, Executive Director of ReSOARces, a nonprofit in Kentucky.  Melody discusses self-direction programs for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. These programs enable participants to direct their care and lead more fulfilling lives.

The episode begins with host Ken Accardi providing a historical perspective on disability servic...

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This episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars features Jen Waldron from Augusta Software, addressing the prevalent issue of caregiver job applicants ghosting employers. Jen identifies key challenges in the hiring process and offers insights into optimizing caregiver recruitment.

The episode begins with a discussion of a common question: "Where are the good caregivers?" Jen dispels the myth of hidden talent pools, ...

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Let’s face it, every person reading this synopsis (and hopefully listening to the accompanying podcast episode) would benefit by increased employee retention in their organization.  I’m sure that you’ve lamented the loss of caregivers, direct service workers or staff that you had hoped would stick with you longer and tried to think of what causes these losses.  I’m sure that burnout is one of the leading causes that comes to mind.

O...

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In this episode of the podcast, we were honored to meet with the United States Deputy Assistant Secretary for Aging, Kari Benson. Her entire career has been focused on the promotion of Home and Community Based Services for older and disabled individuals.

I asked the secretary what the most important message was that she needed to share in this podcast episode and without hesitation, her answer was to say thanks to our indu...

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79 year old Sam Simon could tell that his memory was fading and finally was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.  Faced with this, Sam has dedicated himself to awareness of what Alzheimer's is, how it makes you feel, and how you could and should embrace people experiencing this incurable disease.

Sam started his career in Washington, DC as a lawyer for Ralph Nader’s first advocacy group. He then spent ...

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Home care is amazing! Older folks overwhelmingly fear loss of independence and institutionalization more than death.  Home Care can save the day for folks when they lose their ability to perform Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) independently.  Caregivers help with hygiene, nutrition, safety, cleanliness and so much more, all while allowing a person to stay in their home and the surroundings that they cherish.

Adult Day Ca...

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I was skeptical about whether "Virtual Care" would be a good service for home care agencies, but I was proven wrong.  In summary, this is a great way to differentiate your agency and to add a high-margin service. 

Our guest is Stephan Habermeyer who is the CEO at Calico.Care

Here are some highlights of what we learned:

  • Virtual Care provides a way to monitor the well-being of home care clients throu...
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When Bill Zagorski took over his family's elder care services agency, they were mostly doing non-medical home care. Now they're mostly providing Adult Day health Services and their revenue per caregiver has more than doubled.

As a research PHD,  the leader of 3 adult day health centers, chairman of the Tennessee state association and board chairman on the National Adult Day Services Association (NADSA), Bill is p...

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Carla Titus is an experienced Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with a strong passion for home care and day services based on her experience attaining the best possible care for her aging father-in-law.  One of her specialties with home care entrepreneurs is making sure that they are personally successful.

Some of the key topics covered in the episode are as follows:

  • The importance of bookkeeping
  • How to read your statements ...
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The safety of healthcare workers is a large issue and a large concern.  Home Care workers including Direct Service Professionals (DSPs) who provide supportive services for individuals experiencing intellectual and developmental disabilities are especially vulnerable.

This episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars takes on the issue of caregiver safety with our guest Ali Al Jabry, founder and CEO of kwema.co.  Ali s...

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April 6, 2024 34 mins

This episode of Home Care Heroes and Day Service Stars welcomes Joe Kraus and Linda Donev, a brother and sister team who have had a long and positive impact on the Home Care industry. Joe and Linda created the home care software that eventually became the Resmed / MatrixCare solution.  They're back for an encore performance with a new offering called Perks4Care

The episode starts with some fun brother / sister bante...

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