How Pansy Home Care Builds Dementia Expertise In Connecticut

“Dementia specialty” is easy to say. Building a home care agency that actually lives it is something else entirely. We sit down with Jonah Francis, CEO and co-owner of Pansy Home Care, to trace how a Jamaican immigrant mother’s decades as a CNA became the foundation for a Connecticut home care agency named in her honor, and how that legacy turned into a clear, repeatable standard for dementia support.

We dig into what growth looks like when it’s mission-driven, not ego-driven. Jonah explains the move from Hartford County into New Haven County and the larger goal of becoming the authority on dementia care across Connecticut. Along the way, we talk about why dementia care is never “perfect,” and why that honesty matters, especially when families are exhausted and decisions feel high stakes. You’ll hear the values they use to stay grounded under pressure: extreme accountability, extreme awareness, and extreme urgency, because great care cannot wait.

Then we get into the real differentiators: Purple Flag accreditation, Positive Approach to Care training that teaches caregivers how brain change affects communication and behavior, and a caregiver support system built for the moments when even the best-trained person gets stuck. We also break down their three non-negotiables for caregivers: care and safety, engagement through relationship, and support for the family. If you’ve ever wondered what “good dementia home care” actually looks like day to day, the “moments that matter” updates and family communication practices will give you a concrete model to compare against.

If this conversation helps you, subscribe for more, share it with someone navigating memory care, and leave a review so more families and caregivers can find it.

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Transcript

Meet Jonah And Pansy Home Care

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Valerie, thanks for having me. My name is Jonah Francis. I'm the CEO here at Pansy Home Care. I'm one of the two owners. This company was started by my mother, Pansy Francis. So yes, it is named after her. I have an interesting story about that as well. And we started in 2013 and currently cover both Hartford County as well as New Haven County in Connecticut.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

And I know you guys have grown a lot over the last few years and have opened a new office and all kinds of things. So yeah, tell us how you got started and the origin of the name of your home care agency and all about your mom.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Yeah, sure.

The Immigrant Story Behind The Name

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Much like myself, my mom is an immigrant to the United States. We were born in Jamaica, both myself and my mother. When my mom came to America, her first job she got was being a CNA. Back in those times, this was like I think 1990. Back in those times, she the CNA courses was what, four to six months long. Fast forward to today is one week, maybe two weeks at most. So, you know, she really got oriented in what great care looks like. But just like we say for our caregivers here, it was the same thing with my mom. And I got that from her as well, which is what we're looking for is a combination of someone that is a good employee and a good caregiver, right? Because those two things are separate and measured separately. But together, they make a wonderful caregiver, someone that anyone would be lucky to have caring for them. It's a calling at the end of the day. So from about 1990, my mom was in working as a caregiver for about 30 years before she started the company. And when she started the company, she always had an urge to do. And her story is pretty cool because I think I had the best caregiver as a mom, as a son growing up with my mom. But it was actually proven from the amount of recommendation letters when I started working with her. I was filtering through as I was trying to make space within her office for myself coming in and starting to support her. And as I was like starting up those things out, I said, you know what, let me look at what I'm throwing out. And what I was throwing, what I throwing out, I had to take them all back, was like recommendation letter after recommendation letter. I filtered through almost 25 different recommendation letters from the owners of places like Hebrew Holman Hospital, which is still active to this day, as well as some of some other places that are now closed down. But that's who my mom was. She was the person that oriented and trained and onboarded all new caregivers because they always said, we want you to give them that Pansies touch. And from then she took that Pansies touch, started the organization, and that's what we've been doing. We've been training people to start to blossom and grow under Pansies umbrella.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

That's excellent. I love your story. I love the fact that you named the company after your mom, and and everything about that is it's heartfelt. And you're right, I'm gonna rewind on something you said about caregivers not only need to be good employees, but they need to be good caregivers. And you can't you can teach anyone a skill, right? But you can't teach them how to have compassion. So, and it's just it's true. A caring person, and I would say that 90% of the time, most of our caregivers are heartfelt people, and they do this because they want to help, they want to fix, they want to correct, they want to make things better. Yeah, you cannot teach that kind of heartfelt desire to or calling to care for others. So I love the whole story. And you talked about two offices in the beginning. So tell us a little bit about how you've grown over the last couple of years because you've opened a new office and tell us a little bit about all that.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Yeah,

Growth Plan Across Connecticut

SPEAKER_00 3:48

as of November 2025, we launched in a second, a second county here in Connecticut. And the reason we did that was because we because of the impact we're looking to have by the end of 2029. Our mission is very simple and our vision is very simple. It's to be the authority on dementia care here in Connecticut, covering all of Connecticut. And in order to do that, we do want to help everybody, including caregivers as well. And in order to do that successfully, we need to branch out and be so that we can cover all fact facets of Connecticut. So our mission is simple, once again, is to be able to support everyone in Connecticut. And the only way we could do that is through expanding.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm so excited for you guys to have that new office open and that's pretty wonderful. So also tell us about your specialty because not every home care agency, a lot of home care agencies will say they specialize in dementia care, but you're different when you see that.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Yeah.

Three Differentiators In Dementia Care

SPEAKER_00 4:47

I would say so. We don't even call it a specialty, it's just who we are because you go around in our industry and everyone has a dementia specialty program. And for us, it's just our DNA, it's not a specialty, it's not an ancillary program that we have. It simply is who we are, it's all we do. We live and breathe dementia care. And I'd say that through our three differentiators. Number one, we're purple flag, we are the first purple flag accredited home care agency. Purple flag is usually within the assisted live-in realm. And I'm proud to say that we help them to branch out into the home care sector, including reviewing policies and procedures as the first organization that went through that process with them so they can get it right for the non-medical side of care. What Purple Flag does is it shows that we have the systems, policies, and procedures of a world-class organization working with people living with dementia. The second differentiator I would say is PAC, right? We are the only PAC-designated organization in New England. And PAC stands for Positive Approach to Care with the Great Teeth of Snow. And I myself am a mentor for her organization. And what PAC does is it teaches you about the brain. So you have a not only a better understanding of the people that you're working with and how brain change impacts their livelihood and the progressions, but it also helps you to start learning about yourself a little bit more as a caregiver. And so when it comes to the teaching of how to support people living with dementia care, we're not inventing anything here. We're taking what works and applying it to our organization. And our third differentiator is we truly believe we have the best caregiver support system in the industry working with people living with dementia. And what we mean by that is from our competent confidence training down to the support that we are providing for our caregivers with our administrative staff, their continued education, and how we're supporting the family. We are, we don't have a name for what our caregivers might be going through, but we do have an actual image that stays in our mind that leads us within the trainings that we're doing to best be able to support them when they call in. And that image looks like this. Because they're typically on the phone trying to explain to you what's going on while trying to listen for your feedback at the same time trying to keep themselves and their clients safe. Even the best trained caregiver finds themselves in situations that they can't always figure out on their own. So they need people that are competent and confident in their trainings and abilities to be able to help them. And we're proud of our continued approach to try and get that right. First, you you have to name it. While we didn't name it, we have a we have an image for it, but you have to have something to be able to continue to build off to support people in the right way. And I'm proud of what we've done so far.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

You know what? There, I have talked to very few home care agencies who have taken this as seriously as you have taken this. And they're I and the state of Connecticut is very lucky because we need more focused home care agencies that are supporting their staff caregivers, their family caregivers, dementia. We need that training and focus to be way more intense than what we're doing right now across the board. So whatever accolades you've been given are well deserved. And like I said, the folks of the state of Connecticut are lucky that you are where you are, because if I had to choose a home care agency, my parent obviously had dementia of some kind, that's that would there is no other choice for me. So I appreciate you taking, and this is an enormous amount of work for you. This is like it's not like this just was something that you piecemealed together as a tremendous amount of work for all of you, from your staff to your leadership, to make something like this happen. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

Thank you, Valerie. And I would just say to that, it's the same thing like when we go out and we have in services and lunch and learns, it's very easy for people to fall in love with everything that I'm saying and think that we are perfect. And dementia care is not perfect. So even with talking to you and whatever the audience is that might be listening here, we are not perfect. Again, dementia care is not perfect. So what I what we do though is we live by our core values, which is AAU with an extreme in front of it, right? Extreme urgency, extreme awareness, and extreme accountability. Reverse order, extreme accountability, extreme awareness, and extreme urgency. And so because great care cannot wait. And as long as we're responding in the urgency that situation demands, that's what we feel most comfortable with. If we're preparing our caregivers for success, that's what we feel most comfortable with. And we put in the processes and layers to give ourselves the best chance of being successful. And I think that's what our families that choose to partner with us appreciates most. We're transparent, we're upfront. We're not gonna hope that something that you requested or we discussed might just go away and brush something under the rug. We are gonna we are very aware, accountable, and we're gonna be there at the urgency that the situation demands. And I think that's what they love most about us. But we understand dementia care, right? That's a little bit different.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Hiring Standards And Moments That Matter

SPEAKER_01 10:09

And so let's get back to what you're looking for in a caregiver. We touched on it, but that I would imagine that not only is this a great place to work, and I get it, nobody's perfect, no home care, no business is perfect. No, none of us are perfect. You're looking for caregivers that meet certain criteria, and they are probably extremely happy that they found you once they have. So tell us what you guys are looking for when you have someone come to your door to apply for a job.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Yeah, most definitely. Even today, there's an orientation going on in the background, and the amount of time that we spend with caregivers before they even start their first shift, I think is a little bit different. And the type of trainings that we put them through is a little bit different. And that's the comments that we get repeatedly by everyone that walks through our door. But in terms of what we're looking for, it's very easy for us. We we've identified what that looks like for our organization, and we require three things. We're looking for three things from our caregivers. The ability, number one, to provide care and safety. I think that's the root of all home care agencies, whether it's dementia care or not, care and safety, ADLs, IADLs, those are that's the root of everything. Next, again, we're a dementia-focused organization, which means we have to be a relationship-focused organization. That relationship, the engagement is what's gonna get the buy-ins for even on your harder shift, both for the caregiver as well as for the client, that they're gonna want to return the next day at the end of the day, right? Because they've connected in a way that makes their want to provide service at another level than just your Joe Schmo that goes in and supports tomorrow, and ah, this was tough. I don't want to go back and doesn't return. So engagement is number two. And then the third thing for us is supporting the family. This is something that sometimes can be foreign to a caregiver, good caregiver or not, because sometimes they just want to be hyper-fixated on the person that's living with dementia that they're supporting, not understanding that regardless of how that's going in the home, we still have that family caregiver that needs that reassurance, that needs you to do certain things for them that's gonna make sense. So, what that looks like for us is that they are providing what we call moments that matter, and they're documenting every two hours and at minimum on a weekly basis, sending us a nice picture that we can forward out to the family. Having a child in daycare and getting those type of notifications, that's what stemmed the idea. It always makes me feel so great to see my son and my daughter smiling, happy, having a good time, learning, doing something. And from what I've seen so far, it makes our clients, their family members, feel the same way. They like seeing that, they like the good news. They don't just want to hear when things are challenging.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

That's so great. You know what? I you're on the road to being a consultant as opposed to you need to teach other home care agencies all the things you just said. Taking a picture of them doing something fun, productive, or even just sitting having a conversation over tea, or just being comfortable. Yes, just relaxed, not anxiety ridden, not trying to get out the door, trying just that nice, calm, peacefulness. Everybody feels so much better when that happens. And yes, I love that too.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

100%. And again, those are our three requirements for anyone that's gonna be a memory care partner here with us. So throughout our entire orientation, we're consistently gaining buy-in that. So to make sure that number one, they understand that, but number two, they have the capacity to do it and then they want to do it because again, sometimes people think that all the caregiver does is sit there and be on their phone. And let's face it, we are in the 21st century. People are gonna do those things, right? They have things to check in, notifications are coming at a thousand miles an hour all the time throughout the day. However, what we've just broken it down to is what's just gonna be the most impactful things that a caregiver has to do on their shift. And it's those three things for us it's the care and safety, it's the engagements and moments that matters, and making sure that we're supporting the family members so they still feel good at the end of the day that they they're that their loved one is being cared for in the way that they can't do themselves for whatever the reason is.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Yeah, if you break it down, it's that simple. It's that simple. Make the daughter feel like this is the right decision.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

And then they're gonna be with them for the for forever, right? Yeah, I think everyone wants a good relationship at the end of the day. And I think that's the secret, at least in dementia care, non-medical dementia care, anyways.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Yeah, absolutely. I thank you so much for all of this great information about you guys. Did you come up with all of this yourself? Have you did it, did you learn this from someone else?

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Yeah,

How The Model Was Built

SPEAKER_00 15:02

everything. So when I came into the industry in 2017, when I joined my mom, I knew nothing, but I would also say that I had the best teacher, which was my mother. And then I picked up different mentors throughout the span of being in within the industry. When we decided to change from being a general home care agency to a dementia-focused agency in 2020, what I like to say is our hearts and our numbers aligned. We were starting to lean in that direction. I started becoming known for dementia care, and the agency slowly started to follow suit. And when we looked up at our census, we saw that almost 90% of our census were people living with dementia. And were we providing the right care? At the time, we were doing the best we could, and we've learned so much more about how to do this. And so to answer your story, it was all of those mentors, all of the teachings and learnings along the way that we've adopted that's helped us to become where we are today. As I'm sure that this will continue to evolve as we continue to learn more and just put ourselves in a better place to be able to provide or to fill the four buckets. Our administration support our administrative team, our caregivers, our clients, and make sure that the organization remains healthy as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Absolutely. That is, you've done a such a great job. I appreciate you being here. And again, Connecticut needs to be like, yes, here's he lives here. They're here. Thank you for talking to me, for sharing this with everyone, and we'll make sure that we get this out there.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Thanks, Valerie. I appreciate the opportunity.