Senior Care Academy - A Helperly Podcast

Creating Compassionate Spaces: with Francis LeGasse Jr

• Caleb Richardson, Alex Aldridge • Season 1 • Episode 3

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In this episode, we confront the stigmas of aging, advocating for a shift in perspectives that honors the unique journey of each individual.

Navigating the delicate balance between safety and autonomy, this episode is a candid reflection on the emotional and ethical complexities that shape the world of senior care. From construction headaches to setting fair prices, and the deep emotional connections with those we care for, Francis and I delve into the personal stories that have shaped our approach to caregiving. Listen closely as we discuss how shared spaces in memory care can transform the lives of residents, and why quality communication and transparency are the cornerstones of building trust and exceptional care experiences.

We wrap up with a powerful discussion on the broader implications and challenges facing the senior care industry, from political activism needed for funding reforms to the ever-present disparities in care. You'll also get a glimpse of how Assured Assisted Living is actively inviting people to become part of their unique community model, showcasing the difference intimate, personalized care makes. Don't miss out on this heartfelt exploration into the transformative power of thoughtful assisted living.

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Speaker 1:

What got you originally into the? How did you call it? Not boutique, but the Residential assisted living? Yeah, residential assisted living, small assisted living.

Speaker 2:

So the small assisted living and resident or residential assisted living I don't like some of the other terms that are out there, especially for us, because we're licensed the same as a large community 80, 90, a hundred beds. The difference is differences were licensed for 8, 10, 12 residents and it really stemmed for us from home care. My business partner, brian Turner, and I go back 20 plus years. We ran track together at Michigan. For us, the things we learned about home care was all about that connection and that care. Right, everybody loves one-on-one care and it's just amazing when you really find that click of a staff and that consistency of the staff. How great it is. We started it in 2010, just him and I, and that did really well.

Speaker 2:

About a year or two in, I want to say, is we kept getting more questions of hey, what's next?

Speaker 2:

Like my mom can't be at home all the time by herself, it's starting to get expensive, she's needing more care, and that's kind of when we were looking at small assisted living or residential assisted living and realized, wow, you could offer amazing care at maybe a third of the price of what it would be to be at home 24-7.

Speaker 2:

And your staffing ratio can be like one caregiver for every four or five residents, which is unheard of. I mean, larger communities are one to 15. I've had one to 20, one to 30, but us we run about one to four, one to five. So they get almost that one-on-one experience at a fraction of the cost. So that's really what got us into it. And then we really wanted to focus on memory care to start with, or that memory support, because my grandfather had dementia, other grandfather had Parkinson's and Brian's grandmother had own cognitive health issues and so kind of it was near and dear to both of our hearts to kind of focus on almost that forgotten group, I would say. And that's kind of led us to where we are today.

Speaker 1:

What has kept you in it for 14 years working with I feel like that's a little bit different. You come in wanting to help and then you get in and find all the harder parts.

Speaker 2:

That's a great question.

Speaker 2:

I think, at the end of the day, what really stuck out to Brian and I, as we've learned more about the industry as a whole, is they need more voices throughout the whole spectrum of aging.

Speaker 2:

Right, we need to not get complacent with how we've done things whatever 50 years ago when the first nursing home started, all of those nuances. Right, because people are aging differently. Right, they don't want to age how their parents age, and the next generation isn't going to want to age how their parents age. I think for us is what can we really do to elevate the voice not only of our residents, maybe, or that older adult, but also the voices of those coming into that aging experience now as well too, because I do feel we're at such a tipping point, not just in the US, but nationwide I mean, it's not just in Colorado, but nationwide, even I'd say the world of how are we going to do this the right way? And I think that's where we want to have a voice in a leadership component to say, hey, we've got a pretty good model with how we actually can meet people's care needs on their schedule in a proactive approach, not a reactive approach.

Speaker 1:

For me, it's the opportunity to have a true impact on the aging experience so that we stop being afraid to get older, but we know we're going to do it the right way, and the model that you have is so awesome to me because in home care it really is one-to-one, because you only go to that person's house and most of the time when you get into these larger communities it's impossible to try to run to 10, 20 rooms every day and have a personal touch. So having that where in an eight hour day they can spend up to like two hours with each person, which is huge, how have you been fighting that stigma? Because the assisted livings of today are so different than the nursing homes of 50 years ago, which were basically long-term hospitals, and so there is a lot of apprehension, I feel like, among seniors because of that stigma.

Speaker 2:

There's a whole messaging issue around aging in America.

Speaker 2:

Whether you look at ageism, right, just on the verbiage you, or the idea of putting you know or placing, or all those kind of terms that go with you know, or putting mom here or putting dad there, or placing like or secured unit or locked unit, or putting mom here or putting dad there in places like or secured unit or locked unit, or all those things that go back to a time when we didn't know any better.

Speaker 2:

Right, so it's, this is a new or senile I even I even hate the word dementia between you and I. I mean that if you look at the Latin root and also some of the I think it's Spanish root, it means like demented, as in like within the devil. It's not a friendly term, you know. So I just feel like we've got to be more accepting of getting older, but getting older the way we want to. And I think it's okay to get older on a different term than your neighbor or even a different term than you and I. Right, we all need to have our own experience, but yet it has to be in that community setting, cause I do feel like in America we want to isolate too much and that creates so many issues for older adults.

Speaker 1:

It's interesting to see one 75 year old and the way that they're getting older and handling that and another and just how vastly different that is and how there's like a lack of, I feel education maybe on the different options as you age and what's out there and how to thrive.

Speaker 2:

I think there's some new studies coming out about the quality of life, and the earlier you can intervene in those care needs, the better outcomes people are going to have. Some of our aging challenges are never going to be reversed, right, I think we all know that, right. But can we slow it down to where your quality of life is almost as long as, basically, your longevity? What I think is far too off is quality of life is about that big right, but we're living that long all the way off the screen here, and so there's this big gap of the quality. Like it's one thing that you're facing a terminal diagnosis, right, we all are. I mean, we're all dying someday here. We're not escaping that, right. So what's the quality that we can bring at any stage of that journey? And I think that's where it has to come from?

Speaker 2:

What do we do for the social interactions? What do we do for the emotional interactions? What do we do for the emotional connections? What do we do for that just pure joy that we get out of life versus the sole reason I'm in this house is because, darn it, I bought this house and I'm here until you wheel me out in my wooden casket, which I don't think that's a bad dream, but I would challenge people to be like. If I don't think that's a bad dream, but I would challenge people to be like. If you're not leaving your house for social events, if you're not getting out of your house to interact with other people, you need to look at the why, because I've seen that have such a negative impact on health, right, if someone's not socially interactive, if someone isn't connecting with other people, it's just your quality, I feel like, just starts to really take a dive down.

Speaker 1:

And it's so nonsensical to think about exercising without stretching. Stretching prevents injuries and I'm going to stretch so, that way I don't get stiff and pull a thing. But then, in the opposite sense, on the intangibles of social interaction and emotional well-being, a lot of older adults don't stretch by getting out and doing small social things and then one day they find themselves extremely depressed and lonely and it really does impact their health. I've seen that as well.

Speaker 2:

You're so right. I think that's what's often overlooked by this mentality to agent at home, right In-home caregivers, when you're doing 24-7 and you're only seeing the same one person. I think that's also have your care partner get you out, go to the store, go to a diner, even if you don't want to talk to other people, just hearing the energy and the buzz is helpful. Just energy and the buzz.

Speaker 1:

Just being around the world is happening outside of you. What have you guys found that's helpful in trying to get the message and the really it's education out to younger and younger adults? So rather than looking at it when they're 83 and had a life changing event versus when they're 75 and it's a smooth transition, to kind of improve that quality of life.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think for us, we've also branched into the traumatic brain injury and acquired brain injury care arena. So we have some homes in Colorado called supportive living and it's for definitely a younger population. You know we have individuals as young as 20 years old, 30, 40, 50 years old, so we are starting to use that as part of this is, look, this group that might have some setbacks because of some brain care or brain trauma. Right, they still have 40, 50 years of life left. Yes, are they working through improving their quality of life because of some challenges to you know, some of their brain, whether it'd be like acquired through a stroke or maybe something more traumatic like a car accident, but that's a prime example. They want to get out back in the community, they want to be more engaged, they want to be more social, right? So I think for us, just because you have a diagnosis of Parkinson's or dementia or brain injury, right, that doesn't mean life stops. Life definitely changes, but it doesn't stop. And I think we have to find a way to empower not only the resident themselves but family members to realize dad could get hurt, whether he's 40, he's 50, he's 60, 70, right, let him live his life.

Speaker 2:

Or mom, the idea that we want to bubble wrap older adults or the idea that, oh, mom can't do that, she's 90. It's like, well, guarantee mom was doing way crazier stuff before you even knew what was going on. Pretty sure that you shouldn't be telling mom what she can and can't do, right? Do we want to obviously make sure we're not saying, hey, go skydive without a parachute type thing? Obviously not right. But you know, skydiving safely, hiking on trails that have better footing holds right, where maybe you're not having to scramble and all we're being a little more creative in what we're doing in the outside world, that's okay. But somehow trying to de-risk the environment is the absolute opposite of things that we should be doing. The minute you de-risk the environment, you're stopping to live.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's the equation for quality of life ending at this age, but longevity continuing on, because you've de-risked the environment so much that there's no more quality. You're just sitting there.

Speaker 2:

And I think, looking at some simple things, I always go back to this company, nimble, which is kind of a balance awareness company. They do phenomenal work and their whole thing is balance movement. Right, let's keep your balance up so that you stay active. Right, you stop conditioning yourself to be inactive.

Speaker 2:

Nathan Estrada, who's part of the leadership team there, he's a brilliant physical therapist and his whole thing is like we've got to stop encouraging people to just sit around when they're older, like that. You lose your balance, you lose your muscle tone, you lose all the things that are so important for life and the idea that we're saying well, why would an 80 year old go downhill skiing? Because they can. Like it shouldn't matter if it's an 80 year old, a 70 year old, a 30 year old, a three year old. If they have the desire to do it and they can do it, we need to give it a shot. And if, god forbid, they do get hurt, that's okay, because they did it as best they can, as safe as they could, and that just happens to be life where things sometimes don't always go according to plan.

Speaker 1:

At the end of their life, they're going to be happy. I went skiing and I skied up until I was 85. I got an injury, but I skied until I was 85. I didn't stop when I was 55, when all my friends did.

Speaker 2:

Exactly what it is. It's this idea that our families want to bubble wrap these older adults. Like I said, I'm not saying we need to promote high risk activities. Don't get me wrong. Something because, inherently, everything we do every day you and I do it, our kids do it, my kids do it, the world does it there is an inherent risk to everything that we do and the idea is that because you moved into a senior living community, because you have home caregivers, now nothing can be risky.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's just totally backwards and it's a cool perspective that you have working with those younger people that have had traumatic brain injuries of like they were supposed to be good for the next 60 years and here they are, at 2030, needing this extra assistance to like live your life With the adult children that want to bubble wrap their mom or dad. How do you overcome that conversation when talking about assisted living and what you do at at assured?

Speaker 2:

I think that's always the balancing act, right, because I, for all of us, we want our parents to be here as long as they can, right? I think that's where the root comes from. So I think it comes from an amazing place. First off, and I think a challenge is and I had this whole experience with my own mother and I we have a whole podcast episode on guilt caregiver guilt, especially around you know and my mom's the only daughter of the group. She had three brothers. There's only there's two now living, so she's running the show. She had three brothers, there's only two now living, so she's running the show. And it comes to my 96-year-old grandmother and her kind of care component. But at the end of the day, we have to find a sense of peace in the idea that our parents are getting older. There will be curveballs and sadness and joy and all these other emotions that are going to literally rollercoaster you through their remaining time here, but I think, at the end of the day, if we can get back to the point that, first off, family caregivers are incredible and they need to give themselves more grace about the work that they're doing, second is, go back to cherishing the memories and the moments we have together, not focusing on this idea of well, I want mom to live to a hundred, and the way I'm going to do that is mom's never going to leave her house, because that's where everything's safe. Right, I think that's where we have to get by. No, I want mom and I to have memories. I want to take mom on a vacation. Maybe she never saw the ocean. Whether it turns out to be a terrible trip or hurt on the car, whatever it is, I want to do things that, at the end of mom's life, we both can reflect back and go.

Speaker 2:

Mom, remember that time you and I just got on a plane and we flew to I don't know wherever California, texas and went to the ocean for three days. Or I remember we took my wife and I, my mom and dad, we went to Italy back in 2014. How long ago is that? Well, 10 years ago, my grandmother went with us. She was 86. That was the first time in her entire life she ever had a passport. So I asked my parents like hey, you know, sarah and I and my wife are going to go. I'd love if you and dad would come, and I want grandma to bring grandma with us. Her parents were a hundred percent Italian. You know all this, this heritage there for her.

Speaker 2:

I mean, she knows all the cuss words in Italian which she was a hooter, that you know six years old driving the cabs or cab drivers not hysterical, but just to show her a part of the world she's never saw or even knew that she could do. And she was 86. Granted, she slept a lot on the airplane and the train rides, but she still enjoyed seeing Rome. And we went to Napoli, naples, we went to Capri and she had fun. She enjoyed it. She was 86. First time ever getting a passport.

Speaker 2:

I use that as an example of could something have gone sideways when grandma was on that trip? Could she have had a heart attack? Absolutely. Could she have fallen and then something got hurt for sure. But that's a story she still remembers that we went to and talks about. And that was 10 years ago and her memory is starting to slip a little bit. I'd say she's in that kind of mild cognitive impairment, not anything that's really gone more advanced than that, but that's something she still remembers of the one time she had a passport. It's just those stories that we can still create If we give ourselves the grace to be like. This isn't going to be perfect and that's okay.

Speaker 1:

My grandparents had a similar experience where my aunt was living in Germany with her husband who was in the air force, and I think they were 83, 82, 83. It was the first time getting out of the country and just like the pictures and the memories and like how happy they were because they're small town ranchers in Idaho and they've had their however many acres and that was their life, for their entire life, and like being able to experience that later in life rather than just staying safe.

Speaker 1:

The flip side of the caregiver guilt is the feeling as the caregiver you have to give up 24-7 of your life for the next six years and not living that same idea of not living with your mom or dad and experiencing that life. It's just brutal. So I think that's a great narrative shift that hopefully people start to see and understand a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

As much as I knew about what were the capabilities for how grandma could thrive in the right community environment. It still took me a good four years of working with my mom for her to feel that sense of peace, to make that decision with grandma, because my grandfather passed in October 2011. And I remember my mom's. One of the things she told my grandfather is that she'll make sure she takes care of mom. Mom will never be put into a home. You know all the things that we kind of talked about previously. And then finally, it was about a year after we moved grandma in and my mom goes wow, I never knew how much grandma was thriving. You know being socially engaged and going to get her hair done on a regular basis and you know doing things that she liked to do.

Speaker 2:

And then my mom's own life started to thrive again. She was back to you know doing her yoga and her bar and she wasn't as stressed and worried and arguing with grandma to take her pills, and you know all those little things that we don't realize. A family caregiver sacrifices so much and until you know, you realize that you have this 24 seven emotional love and connection, but also being drained. What that does you know to their own relationships? Right? It's something that needs to be talked about more right Is our family caregivers sacrifice so much out of just pure love? I mean pure love and at what cost to their own health and maybe even sometimes their own mental wellbeing?

Speaker 1:

that gets just kind of glossed over at times in the way we're aging right now, and the relationship too, where it becomes caregiver and care eat rather than, with that space, become mother and daughter again. Exactly what aspect of running these residential assisted livings has been more difficult than, in the beginning, you had imagined?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question. I think the emotional toll and I'd say the emotional and physical toll, like you knew, it's going to be hard hours and to get things anytime you start to build something. I mean, like Brian, when we did the home care, it was kind of his really, where he ran kind of really got us off the ground there and he was, you know, it was just an emotional stress on him and where you're working to build this thing from pretty much non-existent right. And I think with the residential houses we learned a lot about construction that we didn't know, which was a little concerning. That was super stressful. We had to fire our contractor in the middle of the project because he just kind of didn't go well and we had a kind of pseudo general manager until we brought somebody else. You know, then we were over budget and then all those things, and then it was trying to figure out how you fill an empty house, you know, without completely blowing your budget on marketing and things like that. But I think at the end of the day, what was the biggest eye opening for me was how do you not help everybody Because we had to charge a certain price point. I think we're pretty. I mean. Granted, in Colorado we're pretty affordable. Most of our prices, from our assisted living to our secured memory care, we do all-inclusive. We range from now from $5,500 up to about $8,500. That's all-inclusive, depending, and that's a set based on assessment. And our 8,500 is more of a more advanced dementia secured kind of home where there are elopement risks and things like that. But back before we were probably a good 2,000 less, kind of starting back in the day Right. So to me it's how do you balance that out? Because we want to help those that can't afford us but we have to figure out how to balance that.

Speaker 2:

And like that emotional toll, or the emotional toll of getting to know your residents and knowing that with a lot of their dementia diagnoses they're going to pass, like that's. For me one of the harder things to come to grips with was the amount of death that kept occurring over the years, like just the number of people that I have met and know that now are no longer here and you don't realize, and the psychological impact of watching and knowing so many people that have passed away that it kind of eats at you a little bit. To be all transparent, I have a great faith in God. I'm Catholic, I'm born and raised that way and all that stuff, so I have a belief that they're going to a better place. But at the same time it's a lot of people over the years that kind of stick with you and sometimes when you think about it, it's kind of heavy.

Speaker 2:

And I think that's the part that I didn't realize is do this the right way? You actually got to care. You can't look at it as I'm going to build a building and fill some beds and it's going to be a great real estate play for me, right, that's not how we look at it. It really comes down to people first, whether it's our residents or the care team, and so that's the toll I didn't realize is, you know, you get to know these caregivers and you get to know your residents and all these things, and you know that there are some residents that are maybe only going to be with you six months and it's not only stressful on you to lose that person. Whether you're focused on the financial component yes, obviously that's important, but when you get to realize the impact and the person and the family and the staff, that's the emotional toll I don't think I was ever really prepared for, and it's brutal with, I would say, most people that work with seniors in any facet of senior care journey.

Speaker 1:

They're getting into it because they want to help people and so I really resonated with that. How do you not help everybody? Because if you want to help everybody and be everything for everybody all at once, you're going to run yourself just completely dry, not be there for any other aspect of your life. But being able to balance that and balance the death and all of the hardship that's, that is the real struggle to try to to make that distinguishment.

Speaker 2:

I think that's the understatement of the of the day, cause you're right, caleb, especially for us where we know there's this starting to grow, this ever growing gap between the socioeconomic status right of lower income and higher income and what someone higher wealth can afford from an socioeconomic status. Every one of our older adults gets the same high quality of care, right, and then, yes, you can obviously add on and do things if you're have more wealth and more financial availability, lower income and the hiring is just so grandiose that we have to. We've got to come up with a solution that raises that bar for the, for the, for the lower, you know, income class, while not dropping that bar up. Here. It's kind of we've got to raise this up right, versus dropping it to, to balance it out, because our older adults deserve the best. I mean, our country, our world has been built on their successes, their struggles, their challenges, right, we all continue to build on that. So we've got to find a way to honor that and really lean into that more.

Speaker 1:

Especially on the lower income. When you hear their life stories a lot of the time the upper income depending on how they made their wealth and things like that they have really inspirational stories. But you really feel for people that just their whole life was a lot of struggles and now that they're a senior they have the least amount of resources and you're like I just want to help you with everything, but I, if I do that, I'll be spread too thin and I'll be able to provide and, and so I like I'm not sure what the answer is to try to raise that bar when you figure it out, you let me know, because that is kind of the triangle of aging, I think.

Speaker 2:

Right is how do you put that puzzle, those those pieces together, right, so that it makes sense? Yeah, and I don't have a solution for it yet and I don't think there's going to be like a one, some one magic bullet, right, I think it has to be a conglomerate or a collective approach to figuring that out, because that's got to change. The fear of aging has to go away. I mean, it has to. We have to find ways to make sure aging is is joyful and people want to get older and you know we want to find that right approach for that person and the way they want to age. Otherwise, you know, we're kind of kind of doing a disservice for for what we call ourselves as a society, if we can't welcome people out of the world in a great way, we've probably got to look ourselves in the mirror and figure that out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Like you said, because they're the ones that built the world as we know it today. On the flip side of that coin, what is something that's more rewarding than you would have suspected? Getting into residential assisted living.

Speaker 2:

Just the success of the team, watching our team thrive and the way families love on our staff, the way our staff just is second to none. I mean our direct care teams and our leadership of all of that whole care circle there is. I think it's the best in the country. I mean I'm just going to put that out there I mean the way they care, the way they focus on being proactive, the way you know our team, you know, just dives into really having that positive experience for that one person. It's just incredible, just the feedback we consistently get on how my mom was at these other places and she came here and now she's out of her shell and she's coming out of her room and engaging. And I can't believe your staff actually took 15 minutes to sit with my mom and do some one-on-one activity when she was having a bad day. We're structured for that right, so the team can slow down and you know we're hearing that.

Speaker 2:

Oh well, this other place just had my husband on a bunch of these medications and he wasn't himself. And then he came here and you guys said, well, I don't think we need all that. And the doctors agreed and so he kind of came out of his shell and we were able to get him off some of his you know, psychotropic meds and just those stories and how the team cares and just I mean when I mean they care, they care and you know it's something that they live and breathe every day, where they put not only our residents first but our staff too. And that is just a really cool thing to see from our COO, stephanie, who's been doing this for a while, just the way she cares and loves on not just the frontline direct care teams but also her entire team from the administrators and support team and all that. It really sets this culture and this ethos of people matter, you know, and when, when people matter and you take care of people first, really, really amazing things can happen.

Speaker 1:

That is really rewarding rewarding seeing a group of people all care so fully about the outcomes of these people whose lives and emotional and physicalbeing they've been entrusted to. That's really cool. If there was one thing that you could say is one of the biggest keys to having a successful outcome, between the time that they first introduced to Shirt to move in, what would that thing be, that activity be that gets them bought in and just have a great experience.

Speaker 2:

I think it's really communication and I need to throw transparency in there because I feel like communication is something that our industry struggles with and I really think the more communication we can have and more honest communication we can have families and prospective residents really goes a long way. And being truthful about hey, why do you charge what you charge? Why do you staff the way you staff? Why do you think my mom would do better in a shared room versus a private room? Being honest, like look, I don't like private rooms, especially for people starting to have early, moderate signs of dementia because they want to withdraw. And when they're in a private room it's easy for them to just say they're not coming out, kind of sit by themselves.

Speaker 2:

And we know that loneliness and isolation is worse than smoking cigarettes. Now it's like smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Right, when we say hey, we're memory care experts because over the 14 years I have seen people in shared rooms all of a sudden become social again because they're just curious, like hey, where's this person going? I want to follow them. Or they sleep better at night because they kind of know someone's there with them and they're not alone and by themselves. Or you're going to go eat breakfast. Welcome with you, versus.

Speaker 2:

Before it's like I'm not going to eat breakfast, I have no desire to eat breakfast, but all of a sudden it's like well, where are you going? I'm going to get some food. Oh, welcome, it's seeing some of those things that make sense in their world, right? And we, so hard you know world as kids, we want to project what we would want in that moment. Oh, I want my private room with a private bath. We don't realize as that brain change occurs. It needs to be fed differently, it needs different social stimulation, it needs different ways to get people out of their shells. And what you and I might think is like well, I'm never going to sleep next to some guy. I never knew, right, but if you ask some of the World War II vets who were in the barracks, they slept with 30 other guys, right?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they don't mind, so there would be a sense of peace for them, knowing they have a team or people around them. It's some of that stuff. We've got to stop projecting what, as kids, we want on our parents and start to understand that, as that brain change occurs, they're going to change and being different is okay.

Speaker 1:

I like that a lot, especially on the memory care. Taking your thoughts and putting them into words is so powerful and creating longevity with your cognitive abilities not just festering in your room and thinking everything over, but needing to have a conversation about things. I like that a lot. The communication and transparency as to why things are happening that's something I've noticed. A lot, too is the faster that I can tell the client, the patient, the family what's going on, the better. It's so powerful to say this is what we're going to do, rather than so. This happened and this is what we did. As far as building trust and fixing the stigmas, yeah, and I think proactiveness is important, right?

Speaker 2:

I think communication still trumps it all, because our industry is a lot of cloak and dagger, at times of we're not as transparent as we could be, because I think that's how the mantra was back in the 70s, 80s and 90s we don't need to disclose everything, we just need to get them in the bed and we'll be fine. The aging experience needs to be so personal, and rightfully so. The more transparency we can get from the prospective resident and their family, the better the care plan we can do and the better transparency we can give to them saying, hey, we got this. We actually kind of get what you need. It's not a guest anymore, right? It's this idea that we can build out this personalized care plan.

Speaker 2:

And again, I hate patient-centric, I hate all those buzzwords, because at the end of the day, all that matters is every resident gets the proactive care. They don't need to hit a call button and wait 30 minutes. They need to be on their schedule so that we set them up for success and that their days are filled with purpose and joy. That's it. It's that simple.

Speaker 1:

That's just such a sweet mission compared to what a lot of other assisted and memory care communities are doing right now. If you could wave a wand and change something about the assisted and memory care industry, what would you change?

Speaker 2:

It's an awesome question, but a loaded question. Love the question I do. There's two things that I have to talk on. One is this idea of it being a real estate play. I am exhausted by the number of people whether it's residential, assisted living or large communities that they look at it as filling an apartment complex or just turning your rental house to an assisted living. It's not that hard, right, you'll make a lot more money. That, to me, has to stop.

Speaker 1:

There's an influencer that I like on the real estate side Ryan Pineda, great influencer. But I saw something recently how he's like what are your plans for 2024? They're like well, we're going to try getting into the assisted living space. He's 100% a real estate investor and I'm like, oh, I got cringed a little bit. I was like it is not, it is real estate. But like just being like, oh, we're going to jump in as a real estate play.

Speaker 2:

That's the first one is that we've got to acknowledge that assisted living, memory care, nursing care, independent living maybe is a little less because there's not as many care options available in independent living, but it still is a little bit of a different model and what you need to be doing or prepared to do, it's such a muddled industry. You have hospitality, you have medical, you have building maintenance right, you have family support, you have community. You have this whole dynamic of multiple industries that come together in aging services or senior living. It's not just this one. We'll just put a sign out and like they're going to move in right.

Speaker 1:

We'll have a building manager and a facilities person Exactly.

Speaker 2:

I really wish we'd stop this idea of selling the concept of oh, it's a great real estate play. Yes, is it a good real estate investment option? Fine, but there's so much more going on, because, at the end of the day, you are taking care of someone's best friend, someone's spouse, someone's most important person, and what that family has told you is they trust you. And, my goodness, you've got to remember that getting someone's trust is the most important thing that we can do in our industry, and if you screw that up, that just isn't any good at all. And I would say the second piece is figuring out this Medicaid low-income component. We've got to get our politicians, both locally and nationally, understanding what it actually takes to provide care for someone, whether they're in an early journey of aging or more advanced cognitive loss.

Speaker 2:

And this idea that everyone's worried about the snake oil salesman right Coming in and undercutting and doing these things that are below board, and so we've got to keep rates down so we prevent fraud and all these things.

Speaker 2:

No, we have to build a system that looks beyond the fraud component and set up the not trying to work an old system that wasn't designed for what we're doing today, but building a system that can evolve for the future, that enables those that need socioeconomic or financial support to thrive in their own aging experience. That's what we have to start doing, and have the hard conversations at the political level, not just kicking the dang hand down the road for the next administration. And I don't even care what side of the alley you're on, I hate to say it, whether you're blue, red, purple or anything in between. Aging issues are going to affect us all and if they're not, we're all getting older. If they're not, if we're not going to talk about it more at both the local level as well as the national level, we're going to be in for a very rude awakening. And I'm not talking like social security. I'm talking about the actual aging experience, from nursing homes to independent living, to assisted living, to memory care, to all those components that are arising.

Speaker 1:

So many people that aren't in the industry don't realize the discrepancy between private pay and what that charges, and the operating costs and what you're able to give when you operate that way. And they're like 50 sometimes as bad as like 20 25 percent of what you can get using medicaid and it's like it's not a lack of wanting, it's like there's a lack of of funds. You can't have a four or five to one caregiver ratio on 25% of what you would be getting charged. So that's a huge, huge problem. To try to start lobbying for that and making changes, and I would say too, we've done a disservice for this idea of aging at home.

Speaker 2:

I'm not saying it's wrong, don't get me wrong, but I think we have to be realistic about what does that mean? It should be more of an aging in place and the place can change and home can change, because at the end of the day, we don't have enough caregivers to provide a caregiver in everyone's home in the America. That is aging. It does not exist.

Speaker 2:

There's no magical wand that exists, that can double the amount of caregivers in the world Double, I think you need to triple or quadruple it, right, I mean? But at the same time, going back on our earlier discussion, what does that do for the socialization, or lack thereof, if you're seeing the same person every day and you're never leaving your house, you're not seeing the world outside of you, is that the best solution to have? So I'm not saying aging at home is wrong. I'm not trying to die. I'm just trying to say we've got to look at this model of what we want aging to be for the individual person.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, look at it on an individual level. My grandparents I feel like one of the reasons why it works for them is because they have 30 grandkids within like 15 minutes. That I realized during COVID was absolutely the exception and not the rule. Yeah, people like that versus somebody that doesn't have any one of our clients he doesn't have anybody. He has his son that comes like once a month. He would absolutely thrive in a community setting. We're at your time. Are there any questions?

Speaker 2:

I should have asked you what is the kind of the kind of quick question for you. What is your mission behind the podcast?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, the podcast. One is to educate other providers, other caregivers, other seniors on what is out there, meeting with just the spectrum of senior care. So we've had like home health, we've had like home health, we've had a competitor personal care agency. You just kind of educating, because I feel like that's the biggest reason why people aren't getting what they need. They have no idea what is it, yeah, so that's kind of the goal is to try to educate and get people to know what aging can be like with the right provider.

Speaker 2:

So I think you did a great job, then I think we I think we covered the spectrum there a little bit, so it was awesome.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, very cool. Are you guys looking for to fill a community? Who should reach out? Where should they reach out?

Speaker 2:

They can go to our website, assuredassistedlivingcom, or hit up on any of the social networks we're on Instagram, facebook, all that stuff or they can give us a phone call at 303-814-2688. And I would like to say that our model is definitely different. So what I always challenge people is just to come, take a look, come see how we do different approaches, a different model of proactive care versus kind of what you're used to in a larger community. Yes, it's smaller, much smaller. Yeah, but the goal, the level, that's the point, yep, that's the point. You're spot on, caleb. So, yeah, just look at our website and always say come, take a tour, just to give a yin and yang approach. Right, even if you've sworn off residential assisted living, which is totally fine, I always say just come see, because you never know what might resonate with you. Yeah, love that.