Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen

Ep # 149 Choosing Local Care That Puts Family First

• Doug Drohan • Season 2 • Episode 149

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Too many choices and not enough clarity—that’s how most families feel when they start searching for home care. We brought in Achieve HomeCare Agency’s owner, Chris Pableo, to cut through the noise and explain how a local, non‑franchise provider can respond faster, personalize care more deeply, and earn your trust when it matters most.

We start with the essentials: what home care actually includes. Chris breaks down personal care for daily living—bathing, dressing, meal prep, light housekeeping, companionship—and the added layer of skilled nursing like medication management, wound care, and real‑time coordination with primary doctors. You’ll hear why proximity in Bergen County gives Achieve the practical edge: weekend calls answered by a real decision‑maker, same‑day visits to fix issues, and rapid caregiver swaps when personalities don’t mesh. Independence is a theme throughout; the right aide doesn’t take freedom away, they protect it by making everyday life safer and more social.

We also confront the toughest topic—dementia care. Chris shares how honest guidance sometimes means saying home care isn’t enough and helping families consider memory care settings. When staying home remains the choice, he outlines the safeguards that reduce risk: consistent routines, trained aides, and clear communication among family, nurses, and physicians. Along the way, we touch on staffing, caregiver vetting, after‑hours support, and the founder’s mission-driven path into home care, shaped by two decades in healthcare and a commitment to serve local seniors with dignity.

If you’re weighing options for an aging parent, this conversation offers practical questions to ask any provider: Who answers after hours? How fast can you replace an aide? How do nurses coordinate with doctors? What’s your threshold for recommending a higher level of care? Listen, take notes, and share with a sibling or friend who’s starting this journey. If the episode helps, subscribe, leave a quick review, and pass it along to someone who needs it.

Achieve HomeCare
Chris Pableo
125 Washington Ave STE 201 Dumont, NJ 07628
(201) 338-4415
info@AchieveHomeCareNJ.com
AchieveHomeCareNJ.com

Intro/Close:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and come together.

Doug Drohan:

Here's your host, Doug Drohan. Hey, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, coming to you live from Bergen County. I am your host, Doug Drohan, owner of the Bergen Neighbors Media Group based in Bergen County. And today we are joined by another Bergen County uh business owner. His name is Chris Pableo. Chris is the owner of Achieve Home Care Agency based in nearby Dumont, New Jersey. Chris, welcome to the show.

Chris Pableo:

Thank you, Doug. Thank you for this opportunity and uh good to be here.

Doug Drohan:

Yeah, yeah. So Home Care Agency. I have to admit, when I go to a senior networking event and everybody gets to stand up and introduce themselves, I'd say the number one uh you know business that stands up with about six or seven different companies is usually the home care business. That is true. So um, yeah, so like why start Achieve Home Care? Like, what's your um reason for being, so to speak?

Chris Pableo:

Yes, so that is true. Every time you go out to a networking event, you will see at least probably like five home care agencies, and we're of the same business, we are our old pay home care agencies, especially in Bergen County alone. You're looking about possibly 500 home care agencies in the area. That's a lot, and you may think that oh, why bother going into this business?

unknown:

Right.

Chris Pableo:

I acknowledge that the need is still more out there, and each agency could only do so much. In fact, we've been so lucky, we've been in business for the past three years now, to be exact. We opened uh we conducted our business uh November 1st of 2022, and um yes, and I I they questioned me that one as well. Yeah, but why home care agencies? And I again I there's a huge need out there. In fact, the past three years I've been concentrating just within Bergen County. I haven't tapped other neighboring counties because there's just a lot of needs, especially in this county. Pretty much each town has an assisted living facilities or a skilled nursing facilities. So you could only imagine that uh that the kind of needs that has been uh driven all these home care agencies out there.

Doug Drohan:

Right, right. So yeah, now we say when you go to um a networking event, there's five or six. If I go online and say, type in private pay, not even just I'm gonna be more specific and say private pay home care agencies. I'm gonna see one, two, three, four, five, it goes on and on and on. So the question for me as a son of two 90-year-old parents who don't live in New Jersey, by the way, but if they lived in New Jersey, why should I choose achieve? Like what's you know, what's special about you? Yeah, I'm sure your mother thinks you're special, but why should I think you're special?

Chris Pableo:

Yes. So the useful thing that the uh all the family members should consider and choosing which home care agencies that they are going to use is that the proximity of the area of the uh of that home care agencies. I know there's a lot of big home care agencies out there with uh with franchise names, right? But it is always good to work with local non-franchise home care agencies. Here are here are the uh convincing reasons. If you have issues, you would like someone that if you're gonna pick up, if you're gonna make the call, you'd like to talk to a person right away, and that person can address right there and then the issues that you are bringing up to them, or the even the feedback, small feedback here and there. Let's say, oh, my mom doesn't like this caregiver that you're sending. You would like that that issue can be addressed even on a weekend, even on a nighttime. And that's the good thing with working with this kind of agencies just like ours.

Doug Drohan:

Yeah.

Chris Pableo:

Okay, it's more personalized, it's more personalized, and just like me, most of my clients just within the area, I do visits. Like I just came back from a uh to visit my Crystal client that just that I just opened a couple of weeks ago. There's more a personalized, more one-on-one uh care to our clients. Keep in mind, when you hire home care agencies, you you're not hiring just the caregiver, you're hiring the entire agencies, and that is the kind of value, that's the kind of impression that we are bringing in to our clients. I always say, we are all in, we're all in this together, and let us help out in this journey.

Doug Drohan:

So, um, so what are the kind of services that you provide? Because uh you could say home care services, but I don't know what that means entirely.

Chris Pableo:

Yeah. So the the achievement home care agency is there, we are certified to provide both personal and medical uh services. Personal meaning to say our home health aid, they can provide cares, help out, assist to the clients assisted daily livings. Those are including toileting, meal preparation, housekeeping, light housekeeping, you know, personal hygiene. So those are the care uh care services that our home health aid can provide. We are also certified to provide a skilled nursing, uh, wherein that's being tendered by our registered nurses, medication management, making sure that your parents' uh current medications, the efficacy of its uh medication, can literally in real time be communicated to a primary physician. So we have that kind of service. We can also supplement wound care. That let's say the Medicare certified agency can only provide three days visit based on Medicare model, and the doctor's order is five days a week. So who will do it in uh on those two other days? You don't want to do it, so you can always uh reach out to achieve home care. So those are the two services that we provide the personal and the medical, uh the skilled nursing services that we do. And uh both of those can be uh provided if somebody lives in an assisted living facility, yes, in an assisted living facility, or if they are in their own apartment or even in their own familiar place in their house. Right. That's where we could come in.

Doug Drohan:

That's okay, so that's interesting. And I guess they're different people. Somebody who's coming with home care versus I mean personal care, like helping them bathe and things like that versus a skilled nurse. And then um, you know, one of the biggest things, and I think you know, my parents are 90 years old, turning 91, they're driving from Florida to visit me and then go to Long Island next weekend for my nephew's wedding. Um, they live in their house. My one of my sisters lives in the same town. She has five kids, four kids. Sorry, she killed me for saying five. Um and they live nearby. So the point I'm getting at is my parents have a lot of social interaction, um, not only with you know their kids and grandkids, but you know, other people in the community. I would think that the you know, one of the biggest issues with um someone whom whose spouse may have died is just companionship, right? What if they're what if you know, I'm someone I can dress myself, I can bathe myself. I don't want to go to a senior living community because I like my house and I have a dog and you know, right, want to have my grandkids over. But what if I just want somebody to, you know, I don't know, help me out with um certain little things around the house or you know, playing cards or you know, I don't know, you know what I'm talking about?

Chris Pableo:

Like yeah, yeah. You guys do something like that? Yes, we do. So one of the many things that one of the I would say myths that uh that's out there that they're thinking that oh, if I'm gonna have a home health aid, if I'm gonna have an aid from the house, I'm useless. I'm totally dependent now to someone. I cannot do it by myself. And it it will be an embarrassment that oh, I have an aid. So they have to they have to uh put everything in perspective. For us coming and helping and assisting the the client, we are not taking away their independence. In fact, it's the opposite. We always empower our our clients to continue to do what they've been what they've been doing, what they love to do. If they would like to to go out, to do all that, we will always empower them to continue to live, to live quality of life. We are there to be their support. In case they will need our assistance, we will always be there. And that's the good thing, and that's the good thing having someone, especially with a live-in kind of coverage or even just an hourly coverage, that at least you can call someone right there and then just to help you out. Maybe the kind of coverage that you need at that point will be just for companionship, and it's always good to have someone because uh you never know when the day that you need, at least you have someone there for emergency basis. But then again, as I I would like to keep on bringing this up having a home health aid, having an aid with you does not take away your independence. In the in fact, it does the opposite, and I've seen that in many instances.

Doug Drohan:

Yeah, okay, that's that's great to know. And um, I mean, as we um as we said, I you know, there's a lot of companies out there, and I think one of the biggest issues for me would be who's coming into my parents' home. I call it this person, or if it was me, you know, who's coming in? You know, you hear horror stories, and that's right. You know, I don't know to you know, to they're gonna are we gonna jive or we're gonna get along. Yeah, I'm a pain in the butt, you know, which I'm sure I will be when I'm 90 years old, if not now. That is true. So um what like staffing? I know during COVID, luckily you weren't in business in 2020, but I know one of the biggest issues for home care agencies was getting into people's homes, right? But then the distance your staff, the the higher talent, wanted to travel, right? If you're focusing on Bergen County, where are you finding your your skilled workers? Yeah, um, do they live in um other counties? Are they getting here by public transportation? And can I trust that I'm gonna get along with them? Like, how do you what happens in that case where maybe that's not the right fit? The person just we don't get along, or you know, do you have cases like that? And and if you do, what happens in that case?

Chris Pableo:

Yeah, those questions, those are legit, and it happens pretty much on a regular basis. I'm not saying that there's always an issue. Yes, there are issues everywhere. So let me just backtrack. I I I I've been doing this home care, uh uh, I've been a uh manager, director of of a home care agencies even before Achieve. I used to run another home care agencies prior to COVID, and at the height of COVID, I was uh uh lucky enough that I have my support, my my caregivers who really supported me at the at that height of COVID. So I've been in this uh home care agency business for over 10 years now. So so there will there be an issue? What what are the actions that you're gonna uh to uh put in place? So let me uh cite you a specific example that it happened to me over the weekend. We just opened this uh case in a facility, and I sent an aid on Sunday, started at seven o'clock in the morning. Less than two hours, I got a call from the client. Oh, this aid is not working out, and this isn't working out. Guess what? I went there because the good thing is it's just like five minutes away from my house. I went there on a Sunday morning. Just try to pacify, uh, deep dive on what's really going on. Luckily, it went smoothly until the end of the shift at 7 o'clock. But then again, I visited my client again this morning and she said, Chris, I don't want that caregiver anymore. And I said, I get it. We will send you another one. We're just so lucky that most of our caregivers just live within this area, hack in Sack Patterson, neighboring town of Bergenfield. Most of our caregivers are just within our close proximity and can easily go back and forth to these facilities that we are providing care or to this uh home addresses that we are providing care in the area. So if we encounter issues in terms of staffing because they don't like my care or uh they don't like the the aid that we sent, we can easily make an adjustment. All our caregivers, they are professionals, they are all certified, but in terms of likability, that's more on subjective, it's more on the personality, and there's always personality, personality, uh conflicts, issues, and all that. As an agency, we just have to make sure that we can address uh address that issue when it arises. And we have to make sure that before we send an aid, we have to do a great deep dive, getting to know the patient well and getting to know who will be the best fit for this caregiver. More or less, uh, most more often than not, we are, I would say we get very uh uh uh rare issue about I don't like this aid and all that, but it happens and we're ready to address it.

Doug Drohan:

Okay, okay, yeah. I mean, so it seems like obviously for you to be successful in this business, you have to have your heart in the right place, right? That's right. Um, you know, taking care of of your clients. It's something like I I there's a guy that I um I follow with um daily dose of inspiration from somebody named Larry Levine, and he says, you know, care about your client as much as you care about your next sale. Um that is true. Your heart in the right place. He has a book called Selling from the Heart. So um, how did you get into this line of business? Like what obviously you're following your heart. How did you get into this business?

Chris Pableo:

So I've been in the healthcare industry for uh over 20 years now. In fact, um I've got a lot of questions about oh, so you're are you a nurse? I said, No, I'm not a nurse. Oh, are you a social worker? I said, No, I finished political science. Political science. Okay, way too far from healthcare. Yeah, but my heart and my passion is in healthcare. Um, obviously, I'm from the Philippines, uh as you could see, and then um for me, this is my vocation, this is my calling in taking care of someone's elderly. It's just like me taking care of my distant uh parents back home. Um, my mom passed away a couple of years ago, my dad's still alive, and this is yes, it is a job, it's a well, uh, it's a it's a good job, but at the same time, it's therapeutic that uh taking care of someone's parents, that I'm doing it for them, uh, talking to them about the how to the navigating all the complexities and all that. It's very therapeutic in me. That's why my heart and my soul is in this one. I I I know this is my vocation since uh 10 years ago when I jumped into home care. And I still love uh when I see when I when I get a call, when I open a new case, for me, it's an opportunity to serve another uh elderly in the in the community. I love it, I just love it.

Doug Drohan:

That's great, that's great. So, I mean, it's one thing to love what you do and feel like you had a calling, it's another thing to own and run a business.

Chris Pableo:

Yes, right.

Doug Drohan:

Um, like what was that like? When did you make the decision to say, you know what? I don't want to work for someone else, I'm gonna start my own company. Uh, did you know what you were doing at the time?

Chris Pableo:

So when I ran my other home care agency before, I pretty much have I would say like 80% of what I what I know that I can do it. Yeah, um, but when I quit smoking when I was 40 years old, it was called turkey. So when I decided to, hey, it's about time, I just say that you know what? Yes, let me do it now. Yeah, I didn't think I didn't overthink. That's how I put it. I didn't overthink that can I do it, or do I need yes, of course. I did some analysis and all that. I do I know how to do it. I said, I can learn as long as you are willing to learn and you have your heart and soul in a in a specific uh task, it's nothing impossible. Nothing is impossible.

Doug Drohan:

So, would you say that's your advice for uh aspiring entrepreneurs? Yes, yes, regardless of the field they choose, right?

Chris Pableo:

That that is true. Make sure you have your heart and soul in a in anything that you do, and um you'll be successful.

Doug Drohan:

Yeah, you know, and to your point, when you mentioned earlier that there are franchises and big like national franchise home care businesses out there, I've met some of these franchises, and uh and I met a guy, I don't know, you know, name shall rename remake. So I asked the question, how'd you well? I was looking to buy a franchise, I had a franchise, you know, consultant, and it was either you know, home care agency or it was like a Panera bread, or it was a you know club Powates or something like you know, so there maybe they were a finance guy in their previous career, and they're just looking at this as a business to uh to run with you know dollars and cents and PLs and and things like that. So um I was surprised to be honest, uh that you could be somebody without any kind of background and just it's just a franchise, like any other franchise, like a McDonald's franchise. You just happen to say, Oh, I like the margins in home care. Yeah. Um that always surprised me. So I think, yeah, you do have a um you do have a one up on you know these bigger guys, even though they might outspend you on the internet and and uh maybe magazines. But um, so I want to before we leave, I mean, we're gonna talk about how people would reach you. Um I guess it doesn't matter, like no one comes to your office, really, right? It's really done over the phone. That is true. Um, one of the things that I see growing in New Jersey and Burton County and Rockland County is uh the need for dementia care and memory care. Yes. I don't know if it's just diagnosed more or if it's a combination of like a lot of things in in um you know health, where you could say there's more cancer, but are more people diagnosed with it in the past when we weren't, you know, diagnosed. So do you guys address the dementia memory care issue?

Chris Pableo:

Yes, we do. Um, but this is what separates us with other home care agencies. Because as much as we wanted to have a case, as much as we wanted to have you know revenue by taking care of someone, but if we don't see this client fit anymore for home care, I'm gonna respectfully highly like I'll be adamant to the client to the family that your mom is beyond home care and they should be in a facility setting, especially people with living with dementia. Yeah, but if they are insisting that, Chris, I cannot let my parents be in a facility, let's just work things out. I lay them out all the recommendations. I have one right now. Yeah, she's been in this uh apartment, I would say 70, 80 years. Who am I to insist to them that hey, your mom is not safe anymore? I'm nobody. I mean, yes, I'm helping them out. I'll try to work them out, I'll try to work out where in let's make your parents safe, safer while they're living in this condition. So, and and I'm happy we're we've been successful with this one, we're still ongoing on this case. But always, always for people who are with their parents who are living in uh with dementia, and you're having uh a home health aid, remember that having a home health aid is not always the answer. Always make sure that yeah, the home health aid may uh the the home care agency may say that yeah, we can take care of your mom and all or your dad, but maybe because they're they're more of their bottom line, right? Always check that is it really safe for your parents to be living in in the house that they've known, they've been that they've grown. Always consider everything and get second opinion with other home care agencies or even to their primary physician. But that's how that's how we do things. We have to make sure that uh everyone is safe because at the end of the day, we are providing care to people's lives as much as uh we're checking on our bottom line. But that's our priority, the safety of our uh clients.

Intro/Close:

And I think we're not gonna do that.

Chris Pableo:

We're back. Okay, we're back.

Doug Drohan:

Yeah, why don't we uh that was interesting, so we'll see how this plays out. We can probably edit it. But uh Chris, let's just finish up by you know, pick and reach with two zero one three three eight four four four four four four four one five.

Chris Pableo:

Yes. Or always go to uh achieve home care nj.com. Achievehomecarenj.com.

Doug Drohan:

That's great, that's great. And uh you are located in in Dumont, but again, uh I guess that matters in terms of proximity that you feature that you focus on Bergen County for the most part, but obviously it's your people come to your clients, so it's not about where your office is, it's about where they're located. That is true. Uh, this is great. I really appreciate you sharing that with us. Uh, we're just gonna say goodbye with uh with some music, and you and I'll be right back.

Chris Pableo:

Thank you so much, Doug.

Intro/Close:

Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen.com. That's gnpbergen.com or call 201 298 25.