Care Across America
"Care Across America, an Approved Senior Network® Podcast"—your go-to source for engaging conversations and practical insights from home care and senior care experts across the United States. Each episode will spotlight industry professionals, and their referral networks, sharing impactful stories, proven strategies, and innovative solutions in senior care. This podcast is perfect for professionals, adult children of aging parents, and family members struggling with senior care choices and care.
Care Across America
When Business Becomes Personal: The Incredicare Story
When severe health challenges struck Guy Pelullo, owner of Incredicare in Northern Virginia, what began as a business venture transformed into a deeply personal mission. After experiencing falls following cervical fusions and developing debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, Guy found himself in an unexpected position—becoming a client of his own home care service. This eye-opening experience fundamentally shaped Incredicare's approach to caring for seniors and those with mobility challenges throughout Northern Virginia.
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Guy's journey from corporate executive to passionate advocate for quality home care illustrates the profound difference between viewing caregiving as a transaction versus a relationship. "Nobody wants a stranger in their home, nobody wants to lose their independence," Guy explains, highlighting the emotional complexity behind every care decision families make. This understanding permeates Incredicare's service model, which covers Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Alexandria, Manassas, and Stafford County.
At the heart of their operation is Fahima Hernandez, whose dedication to clients goes far beyond basic caregiving. Starting as a care professional known for braving ice storms to reach clients, she now oversees intake and client relations, bringing her background in child psychology to create innovative connections with dementia care. Incredicare's investment in the Dementia Live virtual reality training program—which simulates cognitive decline through sensory limitations—has transformed how their caregivers understand and support clients with memory challenges. "There hasn't been anyone we've put through that training that, when it's over, isn't shook up," Guy shares, underscoring their commitment to empathy-driven care.
Want to experience the difference that comes from a home care provider who truly understands what you're going through? Visit Incredicare's website to read client testimonials, learn about their specialized training programs, and discover how their thorough "living room visit" approach ensures personalized care that addresses your unique needs and concerns. Your loved ones deserve care from people who see this work not just as a job, but as a calling.
View More at HomeCareMarketingNews.com
I'm Guy Palullo, the owner of Incredicare in Northern Virginia, and I have owned the business for nine years. I purchased a previously owned business, so in total the business has been around about 20 years.
Speaker 2:Awesome and tell us about, tell us why you in particular wanted to get into the home care industry, the home care business.
Speaker 1:I got into the home care business like a lot of entrepreneurs probably intended it was. It's a fast growing and it was an opportunity for me to change careers. I'd been in the corporate world for almost 30 years, living all over the world, and the initial purpose was to buy a service business to provide value, create a work environment for employees. That was a lot more embracing than some of the things I had gone through in the corporate world. But shortly thereafter, because of my physical condition, I developed some pretty serious arthritic and muscle problems and it really changed my perspective that it became a mission and really a calling for me to. After understanding some of my challenges, I had a few falls the importance of having the right level of care and respecting the fact that nobody wants a stranger in their house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and you have actually. Your story is part of it is that you use your own services, right?
Speaker 1:Correct. I had a couple of cervical fusions and with a couple of falls, and so I actually had to use people from the company and not all of them work with us anymore, which was really a pretty important and enlightening experience for me. And then I developed a severe rheumatoid arthritic condition that literally had me unable to stand. I think one day in the office I started walking down the hall and started screaming. They sent a caregiver home with me who was there a couple of nights and I. Those things have really shaped how we try to design our services, the level of accountability we place with our care pros and the empathy and the understanding of the client's challenges.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. There's no better way to know about your business than to be using it for yourself or your family, and that does bring a lot of eye-opening experiences in home care their own care and so you know exactly what your clients are feeling and how they're and what nervousness they might have. And you have on staff an amazing young lady. Why don't you tell us a little bit about her and all the things that she does for you?
Speaker 1:So Fahima is Fahima Hernandez and she started with us, I guess 2017.
Speaker 1:So within eight years was a devoted care professional.
Speaker 1:Literally, would drive during ice storms when nobody else would go out to get to a client, had a few clients that she took care of in independent living facilities and won door decorating contests.
Speaker 1:She just is full of energy and she's moved up through the organization. She does all of our intake and I think arguably people would say she runs the business and yet it's her passion for helping people and the ability to multitask and move from one issue to another, the amount of time she spends counseling clients through the challenges of mom doesn't want home care and this brother does and this brother doesn't. And she really, again, because of her experience and just her genuine heart, has the capacity to guide people through that process and we've had a lot of success with taking on some clients that normally I think other companies wouldn't because of the amount of work it takes. But the reality is that all of these take work because nobody wants someone in their home, a stranger, nobody wants to lose their independence and people as they get older, they're balancing their funds and what they're capable of. So you know there's a lot of complexity to what appears to be a rather simple business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh yeah. I would say it's much more complicated than we give a credit for it. We're not the owner. This is definitely has to be a work of heart, for sure. This is definitely has to be a work of heart, for sure. Anybody who's not in it with all of their heart probably isn't going to succeed the way you guys have, and Fahima has done a wonderful job. I know that we have other videos of Fahima on your website. And tell us a little bit about your efforts with dementia and dementia training for your caregivers efforts with dementia and dementia training for your caregivers Very early on in industry-wide.
Speaker 1:You could see everybody would say that they specialize in dementia, but I'm not apt to say something without doing it. So we invested in a training program called Dementia Live, as well as a few other about compassionate caring and how to handle complex situations. And the Dementia Live in particular is and it's put on for a company, educate that has terrific material and it is basically a virtual reality experience where you go through, wear gloves, dark glasses, earplugs and then you're to complete tasks and it simulates the experience that someone with a cognitive decline goes through, and I got to tell you there hasn't been anyone that we've put through that training that, when it's over, isn't shook up. I think that it becomes a real eye opener as to what the person with cognitive decline is going through. And Fahima has embraced that.
Speaker 1:Early on we got her certified as a trainer. She does it for families. She does it for all of our care pros. Obviously she does it for families. She does it for all of our care pros, obviously she does it in facilities and she has embraced and, what's interesting, her background was in child psychology and as she's grown in the business and dealt with the aging process. She connected the dots in a way that I certainly didn't between being a child and being an elderly person with cognitive decline and the similarities, and it really has helped her articulate and help the families the sandwich generation, as we call them now navigate through those challenges.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we talked we talked earlier in this year and telling us about that connection between her experience or education in child care and caring for an aging adult with dementia. It's a lot of good connections there that she can pass on and that dementia live training is really good. I'm so glad If you say you specialize in dementia care, you need to bring it to the table and say here's what we do because we specialize in dementia care. We don't just say it, we actually do it. And I know that a lot of your clients probably either have a cognitive issue dementia, alzheimer's, some form of dementia or they probably have a mobility type issue, maybe have a stroke or have arthritis, and so it's one or the other. And I think those folks, when you say you specialize in dementia, I think that's an amazing thing to be able to also show hey, you guys do that.
Speaker 1:Well, I have seen I joke about it a lot Damn near every company says we specialize in dementia and yet one of the values that Fahima has brought to the table is man. She feels that in her bones. And how she communicates to the clients that have cognitive decline and to the families to help navigate them through, and it comes from inside. It's a caring and, as I've gone through some of my challenges, nobody expects that they're going to be faced with any of this and they're not prepared for it. When I run a home care business and I was not prepared for some of the things that were coming my way, how can you be?
Speaker 2:Some of these things are not they may be chronic, but the onset of a certain disease process, especially when it comes to mobility and getting around that arthritis or whatever having a stroke. That's pretty instant. Those kinds of things just come on so fast. It's hard to be prepared for every eventuality. But I'm so glad that you all are taking care of clients and you serve all of Northern Virginia.
Speaker 1:Yes, let's see Arlington, fairfax, prince William, loudoun, alexandria City, manassas City and Stafford County. So it's a pretty broad area. But I'm from Northern Virginia, was born and raised here. As I got into this, I was pretty committed to provide a service for the area that I grew up in.
Speaker 2:And if people want to learn more, talk to you, talk to Fahima or just start the process. What should they expect? How do you guys do an intake? What happens?
Speaker 1:So the first step is to have a conversation, to have an understanding that we can meet their basic needs, so the location they're in, the severity of the acuity of the patient, what their budget is, so we can work around that. And then we come out and do a physical, what we call living room visit, and the purpose of that is it's multifold. Obviously it's to develop a connection and in fact, in Fahima's case, a lot of times we're going out because the family has called us out, but she spends as much time, if not more, with the soon-to-be client in getting them through the process. Because often people forget and they look at this as a transaction and it's not a transaction business. I think my biggest frustration about home care is people look at it as a commodity and it is not a commodity. It has all the lookings of it but it's not. And so then price becomes a real driver in the discussion. And so the living room visit allows us to demonstrate the value that we can bring safety around the home, how we handle mobility issues and how we do simple things.
Speaker 1:Every shift check the garbage to see if something's been thrown away that someone was trying to hide because they had an accident Check to make sure the towels are washed and dried. And again me going through having a caregiver. I remember the first time they asked me, did the towels need to be washed? And I realized they probably hadn't been washed in weeks. I didn't think about that. So it's to really hands-on and face-to-face understand the environment. Does the home need to be renovated in any way? Way? A lot of older homes getting someone into a bathroom. It's frightening to see what families try to do to make that work If someone's in a wheelchair or they're in a Hoyer lift.
Speaker 1:So being able to bring our expertise of how to keep everyone safe in the environment and then demonstrate what our commitment is, how we manage quality with our lead caregivers, how we do supervisory LPN visits every two weeks that we don't charge for, that's just part of what we do, and getting out there face-to-face is the next step of the process and then being available for any questions or concerns that the potential client has and I tell everybody here it really drives our quality is every one of our clients has the phone number of five other home care companies on their refrigerator.
Speaker 1:It's just how it works and yet they're not all the same, and so having that face-to-face interaction, being able to show. We do an independent interview of our clients every month and our care pros by a company and they have the option to answer anonymous. We have that data we can demonstrate. We've got the Google reviews and I encourage people to go through our website. We're lucky enough to partner with Proof Senior Network. That just do a hell of a job and really help us get our message out, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker 2:You guys do an incredible job at Incredicare and you have a wonderful team there that really does care about the clients, the families, and you go above and beyond and those are the kinds of home care agencies that we love to work with, because it really is. I know some of my colleagues on my team have said you cannot own a home care business. If your heart's not in it You're not going to succeed, and you guys are a great testament to having team members that really this is a calling and a mission, like you said.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
