How A Family-Owned Home Care Agency Earns Trust Across Eastern Massachusetts

A home care agency can look great on paper and still fail families where it matters most: the handoff between worry and real support. We sit down with Erica Tomasello, owner and CEO of Care Resolutions Incorporated, to talk about what she’s learned over 28+ years providing senior care and in-home caregiving across Eastern Massachusetts. Her story starts as a family business that stayed in the family, but it quickly turns into a blueprint for how to build trust at scale without treating care like a commodity.

We unpack what makes private duty home care work when clients are more complex than they used to be. Erica explains why her team obsesses over communication, home visits, and caregiver education, and why “listening” is not a soft skill but an operational advantage. If you’ve ever felt that a loved one just needed someone to slow down, hear the whole story, and take the next step with them, you’ll recognize the approach she describes.

Then we get specific about caregiver hiring and caregiver screening. Erica shares why she personally calls references, what she looks for in open-ended conversations, and why private-home experience matters when you’re supporting older adults in real homes, not facilities. We also talk continuity of care, how supervision and clear expectations reduce turnover, and why patience with families, caregivers, and even technology is part of leading a strong home care team.

If you care about elder care quality, caregiver retention, and choosing a home care agency that actually shows up, listen through to the end. Subscribe, share this with someone navigating home care right now, and leave us a review. What’s one thing you wish every home care agency did better?

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Transcript

Meet Erica And Care Resolutions

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, my name is Erica Tomasello. I'm the owner and CEO of Care Resolutions Incorporated. We've been in business over 28 years, and our business office is located in Sherburn, Mass. We serve all of Eastern Mass along the coast and parts of the islands.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Wow, that's a big territory. That's amazing. You have grown a lot over the years, and that's wonderful.

Keeping The Agency In Family

SPEAKER_00 0:26

So I came into the business because my mother is the one who started the company and she wanted to retire and she wanted to keep it in the family. So she asked if I would come on board and learn about the business and then run it on her behalf. And that's what I did about 16 years ago. So here we are.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

And how long had she had the business before you came on board? A lot, a long time?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

So she started it in 1997. And I came, yeah, and I came on board in 2009. And we finally got her to have a retirement party a couple of years later.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

So 2027 will be 30 years or am I off?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

No, it couldn't be. Could it? Yeah, maybe it is. I always say over 28, yeah. Yeah. So is we always say September. So September is when it clicks to the next year.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Wow, you're gonna have to have a little party or something in your anniversary. That's a big that's that is a big milestone. And think of the hundreds of clients that you've served in that amount of time. That's crazy. That's amazing.

What Makes Their Care Different

SPEAKER_01 1:40

So tell us, you've told us your why. Now let's talk about some of the things that make you guys special, obviously family-owned and operated. But what about your home care agency you feel like people really get from you that they can't get anywhere else?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

So I feel like we've fine-tuned our agency and how we work with the community and our clients and our aides because we listen to what people say. So from office staff to case managers to home visitation specialists, clients, clients' loved ones, the aides on the job. And we've taken all the input and we're always ebbing and flowing and doing slight changes and modifications here and there as we grow so that way we can serve people. Time brings lots of change. So we try to evolve with the change in time. We're always providing educational resources to our aides. And we're very supportive of both, we really run in full circle. So if a client needs a shoulder to lean on and talk to, we're here for that. And we take time and have patience for that. Then other times it's just home visits and spending time with the client and hearing our aids and how we can provide care better in the home or assisting with appointments and getting medical equipment in the home. So we really just do a good job of communication and listening. It's not just scheduling and putting AIDS in a home. And I think the passion that our AIDS have, the people that work here in the office have. We always say we're team focused and centered, and we really mean it. And we try to run the agency that way. Of course, we do also have unique structured hours from anything from one hour to any hours of the day, awake overnights and live-ins. And then our longevity, I think, speaks for itself. It's not just me here in the office and my office staff, although they're amazing people, but it's also our aides that are out there in the community every day, in the hospitals, in the assisted livings, in these private homes, walking in stores, going to garden meetings, all sorts of fun stuff where they're meeting others and people can really see it and feel it. And when we get that feedback, it's invaluable.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

That is so great. And yes, your longevity speaks volumes to how well you have served your communities across eastern Massachusetts. So that is definitely something to celebrate in 2027.

How They Vet Great Caregivers

SPEAKER_01 4:17

But tell me also when you're hiring caregivers, and I'm pretty sure that's for most, it's an ongoing hiring. You know, you're always looking for people in most of the time for home care agencies, it's always nice to have some people applying all the time. So tell us, what are you looking for in someone who's coming in a caregiver that's coming to work for you? What really stands out?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

For our agency, we are always looking for an open and transparent conversation. So once we get their references, I am actually the person that calls for those. And I ask all sorts of questions. I like open-ended questions and really speaking to people, whether it was a supervisor, a nurse, a director, or even a client or their loved one. And just having that open conversation and learning about the person and how did they care for that family member and how did they interact with the family? Those are really important conversations to

Why Experience Matters More Now

SPEAKER_00 5:15

happen. That's first and foremost. But also with our agency, we really don't hire anybody brand new to the industry. I'm finding over the years that we are getting clients that come to us that don't really just need a meal or someone to run to the store. Back in the day, you could have plenty of cases that they really just needed that light support. But nowadays they're coming to us a lot more advanced. We get in there and we do a real good assessment that first week, those first couple of shifts. And it's always a little bit more care needs. So we really want aides that have experience. They do have to come with at least one job where they've worked in somebody's private home because it is very different than assisted living or a facility or a hospital environment, memory unit, all of that. So we do also ask for that. That's just something unique that we're looking for. And those references are everything. And then we supervise them quite a lot on

Low Turnover And Better Continuity

SPEAKER_00 6:13

the job. And we're really lucky. I always say when people ask about our turnover rate, we do not have a high turnover rate. And we're so lucky and blessed about that because it provides continuity of care for our clients. We grow to know them really well. And the communication factors open. They know what our expectations are there. They know what our policies and procedures are. And we're always reminding them when we have a Friday newsletter, too, that goes out. But it just works better for everybody as a whole and for the team and for the client. I hope I answered that question, the additional question you asked me. You did.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

What are we looking for? You did a great job. And you know what? That I think what you just said is evidence of a very seasoned home care agency owner, someone who has been around the block enough to know that doing the hard work up front of really vetting caregivers is what helps you have that lower turnover. And of course, caring for them. Because without caregivers, there's no home care agency. But I can tell, having talked to a lot of home care agency owners, that you are willing to put in the work to hire the right person for your clients, for your company. And when you do that, it's so much better. So much better.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Definitely.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

And looking for experience and not just a warm body is absolutely critical.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yes. And then you can provide that when clients are a little bit more specific about what they would like. A lot of people are very open. There's a few people that are extremely specific. But the more we can learn about the client before we start working with them and while we're working with them and the aid, it's a better match. And we make great matches because I like to think everybody that works for us is absolutely amazing and gifted and compassionate. But everybody is also unique individuals and bring brings their own unique personalities to jobs. And that's just life. So yeah, learning about them really helps with that. And learning about our clients during the intake process also helps with that. Yes.

Matching People Through Patience Listening

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Yes. And that is why I, when people ask me, what do you look for in a home care agency? I am always leaning toward a seasoned home care agency owner with longevity behind them, excellent reviews, and just sitting and talking. And you said that you do a lot of listening. And that is also something that I think it shouldn't be unique, but I really believe that we have such short attention spans these days that really being able to listen and hear what that adult child is saying on the other end of the phone or what the senior is saying to you is half the battle. Just hearing them, they feel so much better. And that is hard. It's in a busy, you're in a very busy world where you are. So it's hard to do, but it went again, taking the time up front to really do the homework on the client, the caregiver, and all that makes for a wonderful experience for that family.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yeah. It can't just be business. It can't not for me, not for my case manager, not for anybody that helps out here in the office. Even it comes down to sometimes our payroll because the aides might have questions and you have to be patient and just understand everybody's at a different place with technology. And some people are a little bit more dramatic, and some people are sometimes you have to pull it from them. And you just everybody's, I just say, we gotta just love on everybody that calls it. If they're looking for just you to listen to, just take that time and listen to them. Maybe that's all they needed to get through that shift.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Absolutely. They just needed to make sure they're doing the right thing, or if they're frustrated that they're saying the right thing, or yes, a lot of times it's a new chapter for a client too, or a client's child, and they just they can get worried and overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

And as long as they know someone's here, we're a team. I always say, let's take it one step at a time. We're always going to be here for you if you need us. You reach out like that too. And I think my team does that too. They do a very good job of that. Takes it takes the certain people, it really does.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

It does. You're right. Really having the right team isn't is so important. It's really easy to get frustrated in this business. And but when you've had the kind of experience that you've had and you've had have a great team in your office, things are so much smoother and so much nicer to work with. So I appreciate that.