Prepare to Care with Lindsay Friedman

Most women don’t plan to become caregivers… it just happens. 

One phone call. One fall. One moment where everything changes—and suddenly, you’re expected to know what to do next.  

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Lindsay Friedman, a professional caregiver who’s seen this reality from every angle—first as a nursing assistant in memory care, hospice, and assisted living… and then as a family caregiver herself.  What she discovered is something so many women quietly face: it’s not just the caregiving that’s overwhelming… it’s the lack of a plan.  That realization led Lindsay to create tools and resources through her platforms—designed to help families understand the care journey ahead, navigate the financial side, and build the right support system before a crisis hits. 

In our conversation, we talk about the real-life impact of unprepared caregiving—from financial strain to family stress—and how simple, proactive steps can protect your independence, your assets, and your peace of mind. You’ll also hear about her free resources, including a care trajectory tool and ebook, plus a special gift for listeners to help you take that first step with confidence. 

This episode is about more than planning… It's about preserving dignity, choice, and a sense of calm in moments that can otherwise feel anything but.  So let’s call in Lindsay… and let’s Call IT in With Dar. 

Transcript

Most women don’t plan to become caregivers… it just happens. 

One phone call. One fall. One moment where everything changes—and suddenly, you’re expected to know what to do next.  In today’s episode, I’m joined by Lindsay Friedman, a professional caregiver who’s seen this reality from every angle—first as a nursing assistant in memory care, hospice, and assisted living… and then as a family caregiver herself.  What she discovered is something so many women quietly face: it’s not just the caregiving that’s overwhelming… it’s the lack of a plan.  That realization led Lindsay to create tools and resources through her platforms—designed to help families understand the care journey ahead, navigate the financial side, and build the right support system before a crisis hits. In our conversation, we talk about the real-life impact of unprepared caregiving—from financial strain to family stress—and how simple, proactive steps can protect your independence, your assets, and your peace of mind. You’ll also hear about her free resources, including a care trajectory tool and ebook, plus a special gift for listeners to help you take that first step with confidence. This episode is about more than planning… it’s about preserving dignity, choice, and a sense of calm in moments that can otherwise feel anything but.  So let’s call in Lindsay… and let’s Call IT in With Dar.  

Speaker Dar 

Linda, welcome in, Lindsay. I've been looking forward to this conversation, but before we begin, would you please tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this work of being prepared to care 

Speaker Lindsay   

Well, first, thank you so much for having me on your show today. I was really looking forward to meeting you and chatting with you. So my journey actually started right out of high school. I became a professional caregiver and the senior care space and I I deeply loved elders and everything that that meant, and really was intrigued by the aging process and how I could be part of their story, caring for them in the most vulnerable part of times, and just kind of make that part of their life better. And I kind of stuck with that, and it was always really who I was as a caregiver, and years later, I became my fam, a family caregiver to my grandma, and I saw even a different side of it, the the challenges families face, and the complexities, not just of caregiving and the exhaustion and but also the financial piece of it and the logistical piece, there's so many moving parts when you really talk about being a caregiver, and that experience led me to create care bloom, which is my one company, and it's a caregiver support tool. And then more times working with that company, I learned even more the complexities of what families were facing, and that is why I created LT care now. 

Speaker Dar 

Wow, beautiful, and your love of elders, and then seeing it from the other side of the coin with having to caregiver yourself. So I would love to move into some stories, because I'm sure you have plenty of them. 

Speaker Lindsay  

Yes, I do. And when we're really focusing on preparing to care, it's about what does that look like to prepare for caregiving to prepare for long term care, and that's what we really focus on at LT care. Nav and I remember one of the earliest stories I saw about someone who hadn't prepared, and unfortunately, it was my aunt's parents, so my dad's brothers, like my aunt on the other her parents were on the other side. And I remember I was pretty young. I was in my a teenager, and they needed to move the wife to a nursing home, and I they had no preparation, nothing in place, and they couldn't figure out how to financially get her into a nursing home without having so her husband would lose everything because they were younger at the time, and he really had a longer life expectancy than her. And the only solution, it was like, really last minute, to get them on Medicaid. She is on Medicaid. They got divorced, and I remember being young and watching how devastating that was for them, but that was the financial solution that they could come up with that made sure that the community spouse was really going to be okay. And I remember thinking that this is not how our system should work. And unfortunately, at that time, it was the only option. And I never want to see my family have to hit that place. And another story which I actually was older and already doing this kind of stuff. It was a good friend of mine. Their father and mother were diagnosed with Alzheimer's, and we went in and we talked to the father years ago about, what do we do to get things in place? Let's get your house in trust. Let's do all the things that really need to happen, because at some point she's going to probably need memory care. And we walked him through everything, and he said he'd handle it, and he also said, I'm never putting her in memory care. And for a while, this past year, they've been struggling pretty severely with the daughter stepping in, and what this has looked like, because they they knew that to keep her in memory care, that they were going to have to get her onto Medicaid, and there'd be spend down, and their house wasn't in a trust, which, as a community spouse, you can stay in some states, but that means there's usually repayment of the house. And. A dad was really not about that idea, because, you know, he worked hard. He wanted his daughters to have the house. And unfortunately, just a couple weeks ago, there was no choice, and we had to get her to memory care and and it is, it's like now that house that he really wants will most likely be taken in the end, and these are what happen when you don't start to think about, what am I going to do? Who's going to care for me? How much is that care going to cost once my family is no longer able to and how am I going to pay for it? And these are big questions that we help you understand and answer and find solutions for at LT care. 

Speaker Dar 

That's what I was going to ask you about, because you definitely illustrated some of the problems. And you know, I have heard that there in my community, I have heard of at least two couples that divorced because one of them had to go into long term care. And I've also heard of people's houses having to be taken to support the person who has gone into long term care. So let's dive a little deeper into some of the solutions that you provide. 

Speaker Lindsay  

Yeah, so LT cares. NAV is free for families. It was really important that we found a way to make sure that we provided a tool that has no cost, because the truth is, long term care is expensive, and there are a lot of people you're going to have to pay on your journey. And I didn't want to be one of them. And just so when people say, Well, how do you make money? Because we're not selling your data. We are not spamming you. We are allowing the providers who we bring onto the site to subsidize what it takes for us to run the site, and we can dive more into that. But on the site, what we do is we help you understand what kind of care you're going to need, Given your age, your comorbidities, where you fall today, and we compare that, we run it through against public health data, and we really create a beautiful care trajectory for you of what it may possibly look like. And from there, we break it down to now that we understand this, what is it going to cost if you had to pay out of pocket? Now, if you have people to help you, we help you facilitate those conversations, but in your head to say, Well, my daughter will do it and not to have the conversation with your daughter. It might not fit into her lifestyle. So really kind of navigating what care is going to look like, what it's going to cost, and then we try to help you realize that it is expensive, but when you plan ahead, there are a lot of tools out there to protect your assets, to secure what you have, and to get safely to Medicaid. That's one option. Or if you're in a position to kind of utilize some of the really great financial tools out there, we show you what that looks like, and we show you what that kind of does to your financial preparedness of using these tools. And lastly, from there, we make you the introductions to make sure your plan is actionable, because most of these things are above the ability of at most, the average person, and even people who are skilled on Medicaid or even on caregiving, if you don't have it's a lot that goes on. There's a lot of coordination and pieces. So what we do is we make an introduction for you. Now I want to clarify. We are not lead generation, like a place for mom. We are not one of those major platforms where you're going to give us your info. US your information and all of a sudden, you're going to be spammed. That is not what we do. We make an introduction, just as if you came to me as a senior, as if I were your senior care advisor, and you needed somebody, and we looked at what you would need, I would make a recommendation to someone who I've trusted. And that's what we're doing nationally is we really evaluate what your needs are, and we make you a recommendation, be it an elder care attorney or placement or a home care and we make a one-on-one introduction, and we say like, Hi family, Meet Jane. She can help you with home care, and we let you take it from there. So it is. It's a really beautiful thing to be able to have everyone you need at your fingertips and not to try to panic at a moment of crisis of who's going to help you. 

Speaker Dar 

Beautiful all those tools, tools to protect your assets and financial preparedness. And I am. Really impressed by the system of making the needed introductions that you can find those people. Because I know from my own experience, the only person I really knew to reach out to was like the hospital social worker or getting a social worker assigned to the person and, and that's the beginning and end of my resource knowledge 

Speaker Lindsay 

A lot of people end up at the social worker at their hospital or through their doctor's office. And we are actually working with a lot of social workers because they are so bombarded, and they're busy. And as most people know, it takes a while for them to get back to you, and it's not because they're lackadaisical or they don't want to. Their patient population is so huge compared to the numbers that are there, and so we're really trying to lighten the load for them, and working with social workers to be kind of a one stop shop for them as well. So when a family comes to them, they can say, trial to care and Ave because they'll have everybody you need. And we keep out all of our providers up to date. We vet them in a more robust way. And if that provider no longer provides services, we just give you a new one. So ours is like a living breathing plan and a living breathing Rolodex. 

Speaker Dar  

Awesome. So let's look at that. How, how can our listeners? Where can they find it? How can they get some help from you, or take the next steps? Do you want to cover that? 

Speaker Lindsay 

Yeah, I would love to. So you can go to our site at LT care, nav.com, and you can start with our little six question quiz. We make it really light and easy so you don't feel like we're trying. We know you take time to get comfortable with sharing data, and so we make it really light and easy for you to do that. And if you have any questions, we are there. We have the ability to ask questions right on the site, or you can reach out to us. We are also offering listeners a free ebook. And I run another company called care bloom, which is a caregiver support tool, which we mentioned earlier. And we're also giving 25% off a month to listeners, and that will be located at ltcarenav.com,/podcasts. 

Speaker Dar 

beautiful, beautiful offerings. So what else do you want our audience to be aware of or to know when it comes to being prepared to care? 

Speaker Lindsay 

So being prepared is what's going to make your journey as an elder and as a family caregiver so much easier. And the earlier you prepare, the more options that you have. And for those who are older listening, who think, Oh no, it's okay, I'm not going to get old, you know, it happens to all of us, and by preparing and planning ahead and sharing that with your family, you're keeping autonomy, you're keeping control, and you are protecting your family. 

Speaker Dar 

Yes, and so many people talk about leaving a legacy? Well, this definitely is a practical legacy, absolutely. 

Speaker Lindsay 

And if you really do want to leave a legacy, as in an inheritance, this is the way that you're going to have to do it, because, you know, even a million dollars in the bank if you get dementia, and you're looking at $150,000 a year out of pocket for memory care without being prepared, you know you won't be leaving what you had hoped. 

Speaker Dar 

Oh, thank you for that tangible example, and thank you for being with us today. Lindsey, I so appreciate all this knowledge you've given us, because now we can take those steps to prepare for our families, or, you know, those of us in this other generation, we can start preparing for helping our family when we go through this. So thank you so much. 

Speaker Lindsay 

 Thank you so much for having me.  

Transcribed by https://otter.ai