Planning Long-Term Care Before a Family Crisis with Lindsay Friedman

Most families do not make a comprehensive long-term care plan before they need one.

Instead, they rely on a few assumptions:

“Mom will move in with me.”

“My siblings will help.”

“We’ll figure it out when the time comes.”

But when an aging parent experiences a fall, receives a diagnosis, develops dementia, or can no longer live safely without assistance, those assumptions can quickly become a family crisis.

In this episode of From Guilt to Good, Jeanette Yates speaks with  Lindsay Friedman, a former nursing assistant, lifelong multigenerational caregiver, four-time founder, and the founder of CareBloom and LTCareNav.

Lindsay explains why families need to discuss long-term care before care becomes urgent—and why choosing where someone will live is only one small part of a complete plan.

They discuss the true responsibilities of family caregiving, preserving an aging parent’s dignity, the cost of professional care, Medicare and Medicaid misconceptions, sibling responsibilities, dementia care, and the questions every family needs to answer honestly.

Lindsay also shares the first two questions caregivers should ask:

What am I realistically willing and able to do?

What does my loved one want their future care to look like?

Because the best time to create a long-term care plan is before your family has to make impossible decisions with no information and no time.

Audio Chapters

00:00 The crisis created by not having a plan
01:28 Lindsay’s family caregiving journey
03:10 The hidden responsibilities of family caregiving
04:23 Autonomy, dignity, and the care recipient’s preferences
07:41 What Lindsay learned after becoming a family caregiver
09:00 Why families avoid planning for long-term care
11:26 Moving in with family is not a complete care plan
13:47 The potential cost of professional care
15:15 Medicaid planning and the five-year look-back
18:40 Preparing for the next change in a caregiving journey
20:08 Planning for care with limited financial resources
22:20 The difficult questions families need to answer
26:20 Creativity and connection in dementia care
29:31 The first step for families that have not planned
30:17 How LTCareNav supports families
31:31 The experience that inspired CareBloom
35:00 Plan today, protect tomorrow 

Resources and Links

Lindsay Friedman
LinkedIn

LTCareNav

CareBloom

LTCareNav’s Care Compass Podcast

Books by  Lindsay Friedman
Plan Today, Protect Tomorrow
The Questions That Matter

Book Mentioned
Creative Care by Dr. Anne Basting

Program Mentioned
TimeSlips

Episode Sponsor
Savi Security

Jeanette Yates
Website and trusted caregiver resources

Feeling overwhelmed by caregiving? 

In From Guilt to Good Enough, Jeanette Yates offers a powerful guide for struggling caregivers. Having been a caregiver for her mother since childhood, Jeanette knows firsthand the emotional toll caregiving can take. In this memoir-turned-self-help guide, she shares her healing journey, setting boundaries, and reclaiming her life.

Grab your copy TODAY!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Nobody tells you that the hardest part of caregiving isn't the appointments, the medications, or the sleepless nights. It's the moment you realize you've been making it up as you go and there's no plan. And now you're deep inside a crisis trying to make impossible decisions with no information and no time. I know the feeling and I lived it. My guest today has spent her career trying to make sure families don't end up in a place of indecision, uncertainty, and not knowing what the plan is. She's been a nursing assistant, she's been a family caregiver for her grandmother, for her parents, for her chronically ill daughter. She is the founder of CareBloom and LT Care Nav, a platform that connects families with vetted long-term care experts. And she is here today to talk about the only thing that changes everything: having a plan before you need one. Hi, my name is Jeanette Yates. I'm the founder of The Self-Caregiver. I cared for my own mother for several decades and now help caregivers set boundaries and use simple tools that make care and life easier so they can feel good, not guilty. Lindsay Friedman is a four-time founder, lifelong multi-generational caregiver, and former nursing assistant with hands-on experience in memory care and elder care. She is the founder of CareBloom and LT Care Nav, a platform that connects families with vetted long-term care experts to make quality care more accessible and affordable. She has also written the two books, Plan Today, Protect Tomorrow, and The Hard Questions, because she believes in putting the right information directly into Caregivers' hands. Lindsay, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Thank you so much for having me. I've been looking forward to coming in and having a chat with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

I know, and thanks. Before we hit record, or actually after we hit record, you guys, we were having some technical difficulties. So it's taken us a few minutes to get started, but we are ready to dive into this conversation. Now, before we talk about your work, I start where I always start with my guest and ask for you to describe what your personal caregiving journey was like. There's a mention of multi-generational caregiving for you. So take me back to the beginning and talk a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

So my family caregiving journey started with taking care of my grandmother. And it seemed like the natural fit, because as you said, I was a nursing assistant. So I had gotten out of high school and I worked in memory care. I worked in hospice. I'd worked in elder care of all different types, and I was super passionate about it. And I knew how to care. And I thought I was going to walk into this caregiving role and I was like gonna kill it. I was like, I'm I'm getting no exactly what's going on. And I think maybe it'll help other people to feel better that I got there and I was like, oh no, I have no idea what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

Well, I think that's true too, because sometimes we feel like, you know, we're not equipped to do this. If we had been trained somehow to do this, quote, this, whatever that is, we would not be so stressed out or not be so overwhelmed. But really, that's it doesn't really translate like, oh, I if I just had a nursing degree or whatever, it would everything would be okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

And that is what I think is so interesting about family caregiving. You can have the skill sets to toilet property, to like turn properly, know all of the things, can sense when a UTI is coming, all these things that are really important and still be completely lost in the journey.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Right. And so what did the experience of caring for your grandmother teach you that your professional training didn't?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

That one, you are not just a physical caregiver. You are not just showering and managing medications, you become like a Uber driver, an accountant, a project manager, an appointment receptionist. You become a family therapist. You're you're in your navigating family, too, on the outside who don't agree with what you're doing. You become a mediator, you become a bargainer, a negotiator because the person that you're caring for may not really be enjoying what you're doing.

unknown 3:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

These are dynamics that don't exist as a professional.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Right. Right. That's probably, I think, one of the things, one of the I see it more in conversation now than I did when I first started sharing my caregiving journey was the all the caregiving stuff out there was like just assumed perfect family dynamics. You know, I was like, that doesn't that, well, first of all, that doesn't exist. And second of all, that's probably not the norm either. I knew it wasn't for me. All right. So you've worked as a nursing assistant in memory care, assisted living, nursing homes, hospice settings. What did you see from the inside that most families don't know?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

So I think it's really different when you're a professional. I think you see a lot of understanding what the actual care recipient wants. And family members, and I don't blame anyone because I was the same way when I was a family caregiver, you know, you only have so much time in a day. And you have to live your life, you have to accomplish all the things that need to be done. And sometimes when you step into the role of a caregiver, now you're almost managing a second life. You are doing ADLs for a second life, and we forget that person doesn't really want you to be showering them. They don't really want you to take them to the toilet. And so there is some kind of balance that happens. And sometimes when there's no cognitive decline and you're walking in, somebody's like, Well, I don't want to shower right now. And we're like, Well, you have to shower right now because I'm here and this is the time I have to do it. And I've watched a lot of families get into these situations where they're bargaining now with the person, like, why don't you just do it? And I often would, when especially when I was younger before I started doing it, I was like, haven't you ever just not wanted to take a shower at the time you like, but when you don't have help, that's something that we do. We we go our whole lives going, I don't feel like doing this right now. And have somebody come in and be like, oh, but it's now because this is on my time frame. We have to understand some of the dynamics that we're all put into and kind of take a step back and look at it from the care recipient and remember that they were an independent person who doesn't want this to be happening. And allowing them still to have some choice about what the day is going to look like is gonna be really important for your end result of your own day.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

You know, I in a recent episode that I did, I was talking to someone who the focus of his work, Kapir Bhatia, is this idea of autonomy and dignity, even with creating things that help caregivers. And I love that as this conversation, we're talking to caregivers, we're talking about things that caregivers can do to help get plans set up. We're not forgetting the care recipient. And I think that sometimes because we're so we're drowning, right? The caregiver is drowning, we need help. And sometimes it's not that we don't care because we're caregivers, we do care. That's why we're here, but we are, you know, we're thinking about I have 30 minutes to do this shower before I have to go pick up my kids or make it to work or blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. And that's important too. So trying to balance the importance of, like you said, living your own life and also meeting the needs of your person, especially when they're in, you know, when you're you can't just come back later, or they're in a facility that only, you know, showers aren't just whenever you want them. They're like on a time schedule or something. You know, that's very difficult. That's it. I have a friend who deals with that often. And so thank you for bringing that, highlighting that. Now, was there a moment when you were working professionally that cracked something open for you about the system itself or the lack thereof and how there wasn't anything to help families with long-term care planning?

SPEAKER_00 7:41

So I don't think that really came in a professional sense. And I think that's really important when we also look at our paid caregivers. We don't get to see, and when you're a caregiver who's being told the tasks, right, we don't get to see what the family is actually experiencing. We know what the care recipient needs. And I think that is one of the things I like looking back found the most interesting. I worked at a memory care that was very expensive. It was a very beautiful, lovely facility. And I don't think I realized at the time, I had no idea what it cost for these families to be putting their phones here. So I look back and don't realize what that was doing to the family. I just knew what Mrs. Smith needed to make her day more comfortable, what she needed. It wasn't until I became a family caregiver. That was when I saw all of the issues. And that is why the dynamic is so different when you're a family caregiver. And having the skill sets to care to do ADLs doesn't cover what you're about to experience.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Right. So now we get to hop into the core issue of why you're here today, is talking about long-term care. So you say that having a plan for long-term care is the key to ensuring quality care and reducing caregiver burnout. But most families don't have a plan. Why not? And what stops us?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

I think the why not is because nobody wants to talk about this before the incident actually happens. There is a bit of denial, there is a bit of discomfort on behalf of both the adult children and the aging parents or whatever that relationship is. No one wants to say, hey, you know when I'm gonna need help going to the bathroom. Let's talk about that, right? We don't want to be that person. We don't want to age. We want to be well and live our full lives. And I often talk to families like you have two alternatives. You are either gonna age and age for a long time and need some sort of assistance, or the alternative is not lovely. And that does not mean like I'm just gonna stay young. So we're all gonna get there. And I think, especially with the way longevity is increasing, everybody is going to either need some level of care and everybody is going to be a family caregiver. So these conversations need to happen, even if they're uncomfortable, because the end result of not having them is much more discomfort than you are ready for. And I always tell families, it starts with one question from the adult child, typically. What do you want? So realistically, yes, it starts there.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

And I will say for myself, now my situation was very unique. My mom was sick from the time I was a little girl. So, you know, and then I think, like I said, 10 years before we needed to activate all of the documents, all of the plans for how we were going to pay for her when she had to go to the nursing home. We had a plan, but the plan was, you know, I'm gonna take care of it. So, you know, I did not have a other than having the right paperwork in order, which was very important, there was not an understanding for me at the time. And that, you know, I wish I had had LT care now because I know your people would have been like, that's not a plan. That's just that's the start of a conversation. Now keep it going. But the, you know, a lot of times we think, oh, we have a plan, they're just gonna move in with me. That's the plan. So can you talk a little bit about what a family in crisis looks like compared to a family that is actually planned ahead? Can you walk me through, you know, like I thought we had a plan, but we really didn't until we were in crisis.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Because I think saying the plan is you're gonna move with me, you just like you took the first step of the plan of like, what do you want? What do the hours actually look like? Who is going to help? Who's gonna give you a break? What happens when it's not safe at home? So the one book that you're talking about, the questions that matter, it goes into all of these detailed questions because one question just leads to another. And what happens is when you are inundated and when you are in crisis mode and you are searching for it, unfortunately, there are less options. And what does that look like? That looks like, okay, I brought mom home. I don't have a plan, I didn't understand the financial situation of now she has dementia, she's not safe here unless somebody's here. I can't afford to put her somewhere else because I didn't create a plan of what that financial situation is going to look like. I can't bring somebody else in, and now your plan looks like you're you gotta get through it.

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Well, and I think for me and my mom, there was a period of time where we're looking at the writing on the wall, going, okay, plan B, plan C, plan D, plan, you know. And so we started having those conversations. And I just want to let people know too, and and this is probably part of what you talk about as well, but this is not a one-time conversation. This evolves, especially with the long-term care piece. Because, like you mentioned, lifespan is increasing, health span is improving, but it's not really improving to the point there's good, long-term care probably wasn't a thing, you know, a hundred years ago. I don't think it was a thing. I'm not sure about that. But I, you know, long-term care is something that we don't often consider when we think about, oh, taking our care of our parents when they get older. Like I had a different situation, but a lot of people aren't even thinking about that. They're thinking about, you know, a little bit of time here or there, but it is longer. And to bring something to my next question, which you kind of started you started alluding to, long-term care is expensive. Most families don't realize how expensive it is and don't realize that they're not covered for it really in the ways that they think they are. What are families typically most shocked about when they actually start looking at the numbers at the situation there?

SPEAKER_00 15:39

I think that Medicare doesn't cover it. That's the first thing is like you're like, wait, what? They're not gonna cover this. You know, depending on the type of care where you wind up, you could be looking between $3,000 a month on a lower end to $15,000 a month. And these are numbers that are out of pocket. And then if you start talking about full-time 24-hour home care, you're getting up to like $30,000, $40,000 to do the math. Most places are getting closer to $50 an hour now. $50 an hour times $24.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

And a lot of times, places that are not that have something that's less expensive, it comes with its own downsides as well. So that is so true. It's interesting that you say that because I just was watching another conversation with some caregivers the other day, and they were talking specifically about a lot of people don't know that they get to the point where they need some extra help. They call their Medicare office or whatever, and they're like, hey, I need help. I have Medicare. And they're like, okay, great. That doesn't. And it's very, it's an eye burner and very devastating for a lot of families because they've been counting on that, right? So we'll briefly talk about this. This can be its own episode another time, but there is a five-year Medicaid look back that catches a lot of families off guard too. Can you talk about that a little bit? Just what it means in plain language and what people need to pay attention to when it comes to that.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

So I think Medicaid is a great resource to families who really need nursing home memory care. Medicaid also is very state-specific. That's the other thing. And that's why anyone listening, you really need to understand what your state does. And actually at LT Care Nav, we help you understand what is available in your state. But what Medicaid does is they look back five years, meaning if you have a house or you have mom has some money and doesn't really qualify for Medicaid, and you think, oh, well, mom can just give me the house. Mom can give me the money. Well, she can do that five years prior. She can put her house in a trust five years prior to applying for Medicaid, to needing it. And that gets people because when you're thinking five years out, what does that go back to? I need a plan. And that is not a plan in crisis. That is really thinking ahead because there are some really beautiful ways to protect the house, to protect assets if you do it properly. And that is one of the really beautiful things about the plan. If you come that far ahead and you're like, listen, I can't get an annuity, I can't get long-term care insurance, but Medicaid will be a way for me to afford this. Just think about that very far in advance. That's when you need a plan. That's why when I tell people, like, when should you put your plan together? 55 would be a great time to start about your future, right? What is that going to look like?

SPEAKER_01 18:41

And this is where I do want to say, this is where my mom really did have a plan because she knew about this ahead of time. And in our state, she was on Medicaid for she had a disability, you know, all that kind of stuff. So she had been on Medicaid for a long time. So she, but she also owned a house. And so trying to figure out how to navigate that and make sure that she got the care she needed, that she was able to stay on Medicaid in order to get the care she needed, Medicare and Medicaid she had both. We went to a lawyer and got our stuff taken care of, like I mentioned in the intro, 10 years before we actually needed it. And it made when that stuff started to have to be, you know, people started going through all the records, we had that stuff. And that that was the one thing she basically didn't want to ever use it because she wanted to just stay out of a place. But, you know, she did know that there was this possibility. So I will say for anybody listening, Lindsay is not joking. This is something that you really need to, if you think this is, well, actually, even if you don't, you need to go to LTE Care Nav, which I will link in the show notes, so that you can understand more about what this means, what it doesn't, and more about how to make that long-term care plan. Today's sponsor is Savvy Security. You know that low-grade worry that never quite goes away? Wondering if your mom is going to pick up the wrong phone call or click the wrong link when you're not there? That's exactly why savvy security exists. Savvy has built the first digital safety layer designed for families like yours, tools that help flag suspicious calls, texts, and online threats before they reach your loved one. It's not about taking away anyone's independence, it's about giving caregivers the peace of mind and giving people they love a quiet layer of protection in the background. To learn more and try their free tools scam-wise, go to savvysecurity.com. That's s-a-b-i-security.com. Okay, now we're gonna get a little bit deeper. We're just peeling open the onion, layers by layers here. You've written two books and built platforms specifically to help families plan. What is the thing you know that most people in this space will not say out loud?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

That once one door of challenges closes, another one opens. And I hate to say that because I really caregiving is so hard, and anyone listening really knows that. And I think to know that you're not alone, but to know that every new change, we always watch changes in our loved ones, and it's gonna be a whole new experience. Well, I think we just live in different levels of crisis, we adjust to our level that we're living in, and then something changes and we have this another moment, right? And this just continues the entire time through the journey. And that's why having a plan is so important and to plan for all the different situations. So my husband actually says, I am the person, I think through this everything we like through everything in life. So you can imagine I'm just a joy to be around. I'm like, but if this happens, then we can blow up again. I have like bad worst case scenarios. And those are the things that I try and want to help people through is don't be afraid of what's next, but plan for it because when that next moment of crisis hits, you'll be ready for it and it'll be shorter, you'll pass through it, you'll know what to do, you'll know how to hand to handle it.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Now, this next question is something that we talked about when I we had our pre-conversation. And it was one of the reasons I was like, oh, I have to have you, I have to have her on to explain this. Because when people, when some people hear long-term care planning, they're like, oh, well, I don't, we can't afford any kind of long-term care situation, so I can't even deal with that. Is there a version of long-term care planning that is within reach for families who don't have money? I know what you're gonna say. Tell us what that looks like.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

And I know we talked a little bit about Medicaid, but that is not the only option. And I think people forget that we have some really beautiful social services and nonprofits and support systems that are out there. It's just, I think it's very fragmented of finding out what you need and who can help and what you're gonna qualify for. And that is the one thing that at LT Care and have what I want to do is we want to meet every person, no matter your situation, where you are, and basically hold your hand and get you through it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

That's what I really loved about when you were talking, when we were talking about this earlier. So long-term care insurance is not available for everyone. But planning to care for somebody for the long term is something that is available to everyone. And you help people who are looking towards long-term care insurance, people who are considering Medicaid, and then people who are in the in-between. And that's what I really love about your LC care nav is because a lot of things you have to go to this one place and don't you don't qualify. So you can go back out and you do more searching, and then you go to another, and then you got to figure that out. And then, like you said, every city, town, state is different with what's available in their area and how robust their services are. And so having a platform that can pull all that together and walk you through it is so. Important because as caregivers, we don't have time, like we're just exhausted. It gets confusing, and everything has the names all sound the same, and like it's just it's exhausting. So we've been talking a lot about hard conversations, hard questions, things we don't know. You wrote a book called The Hard Questions. What's the hardest question a family has to answer? And why do so many of us avoid it?

SPEAKER_00 24:17

Yeah. So the book's called The Questions That Matter. Not that all good. It is. It's about, but it's about all the hard questions. So I don't think there's just one hard question. I think the hardest question is going to be whatever is most sensitive to your family. And so the book is kind of structured in the way of things of I'm aging. What do I need to ask myself? What does my plan need to look like? But we also have the latter part of the book is about caregiving. The questions that matter about caregiving, because these are conversations that should be had with a family in plenty of time. I mean, I would say when you start to see those slight changes in mom and dad, those little changes that don't need care yet, that are just a little like when you talk to your sister and you're like, Did you hear mom like not remember this again and again, right? Those early signs, that's where you, sister, brother, have to sit down and have the hardest question because you need to be really honest about who you are. And I tell people that this is not a bad thing. But to be able to say, like, I'm not doing this, that is okay. And that does not make you a terrible person, right? But if you're not gonna do it, then what do you need more importantly than anyone else is a plan of who is.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Right. I think that's so important too, because a lot of times we want to believe if we have four siblings, we're gonna split this up four ways. You know, everybody's gonna take a turn. And sometimes that works. I know with my grandparents, my dad's family, they were my my grandparents were in a situation that they could go live with almost all of their children for different periods of time or go on long visits and, you know, give everybody a break. It was okay, that worked well. I know when even when when my grandmother, my mom's side was aging, my mom was sick, but she still, you know, like grandma came and it was like, is she coming to take care of mom or are we taking care of grandma? You know, it's one of those kind of things. Uh, but you know, she bounced around to my mom and two aunts. And so sometimes that works, but some people are not emotionally equipped, physically equipped. I mean, you know, my mom's care took a lot of physicality, you know, there was a lot of lifting and moving and things like that. Some people don't have that. I know a lot of people have a hard time seeing their parents as they start to debilitate more. And those are conversations that you want to have because it's not that they don't want to help, but it's, you know, everybody has their own way they can help, and it might be different in family. So the book is called The Questions That Matter, and they are hard questions.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

And sometimes they're hard answers. And I think, especially when you're on the caregiving end of it, just be honest with yourself. It doesn't make you a terrible person. Like, I am a caregiver. I'm a caregiver at heart, it is what I do, but I can tell you right now what if it came down to my dad needing showering and toileting, I don't want to do that. And so those things exist. So sons who are like, I don't want to do the physical care for mom, daughter saying I don't want to do physical care for dad if I don't have to. But knowing that, and so my mom has MS and has since I've been really young. So I guess I've always kind of had a caregiver role too, like you. My mom is it's gotten worse as she's gotten older, and my dad is taking a good chunk of it. But I can help shower my mom. I can do those things for her. But I know that for my dad, I'm going to need to have somebody go in. My sister feels the same way. Love my dad more than anything. And part of loving him and respecting him and his dignity is knowing that he doesn't want me to do that for him as well.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

And that's one of the, like you said, I think is the first thing you said is what do you want? Right. That's the first question is what do you want? Okay, so you recommend a book called Creative Care by Dr. Ann Bastings. Yes. Okay. So tell me about creative care for families dealing with dementia. This is a, you know, we talked about all types of caregiving here, but there are a lot of people dealing with or caregiving for somebody with dementia. So I did want to give you a little bit of a chance to talk a little bit about creative care.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

I loved that book and the fact that she really took it from an approach of like, you know, a lot of dementia patients, we take away their creativity. And when she's talking about creativity, it's not just like arts and crafts, right? We solve creative problems all day long as caregivers, right? We figure out how to get through the next problem. And I think a lot of times in dementia care, we take away their creativity. We're like, they don't understand, they don't know. So we're just gonna do everything for them. They have no ability to problem solve, they know no ability to engage in other things. And giving them back this is such a gift, and it also will decrease some of like combativeness. So one of her big things is yes, and so if they're saying things that are really not accurate or not true, or like I just saw my mom, or things that are not relevant, instead of saying, like, no, that's not the case, no, that's not how we do this, yes. And what did she say? Ask a question, allow them to live where they are, meet them where they are. And she does a program called Time Slips that I am super duper excited because the Cleveland Clinic is bringing a time slips program to their Parkinson Dementia Group in Cleveland. And so I was asked to volunteer. And I was like, if I get to work with the care recipients in that room and work with creative things, and then they're doing something with caregivers too, so they can come together and have these moments of creativity together. And so I actually I'll revisit with you after we do this this like eight-week program because I get to live it now. I get to live Dr. Ann Bastings' time slips program. I'm super excited.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Well, you know, my mom did not lose her cognitive ability until the last like nine months. But I luckily, because I'd been doing this work for so long and caregiving for so long, that I I knew not to argue with her about things, but it did it did. I mean, we went on train rides, you know, I would go see her and she would say, How did you get on the train? And I would say, Oh, they just let me on. Isn't that crazy? They just like a hobo, just hopped right on. And she would be like, Okay. And then we would go wherever we were going that day. And and, you know, now I do, I will say, I didn't have all the scary things that a lot of people have with dementia. So I was able to have more fun with it with her. There were only a couple of scary moments, but being able to be creative in just that small way with her was a fun, sweet time for us because she was definitely going around saying goodbye and visiting old friends and places and stuff. And so it was a meaningful moment for me. So I'm glad that more of that type of work and study is being done. We're coming close to the end of the episode, but if someone is listening right now and they have not had the conversation yet, have not done any planning, what is the very first thing they should do?

SPEAKER_00 31:24

So, and I would actually tell you the first step isn't even going to LT care event. So that would be the first thing is really asking yourself, if you're the caregiver, do I want to do this? What does this look like? And then the second step is asking your loved one, what do you want this to look like? And is this a good time to talk about it? And if not, I'm gonna come back when would be a good time? And say we're gonna have this conversation. And then once you understand your wants and needs, then come to LT Care Nav and see how you can make sure that what you want can actually come to fruition.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

And so explain to me, just so let's say someone's like, okay, we are ready for planning. We've just been trying to figure out how to start. We're gonna go to go to LT Care Nav. What is it? Just walk me through the first couple of steps.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

So the first thing you do is we actually have 14 different assessments. So whatever your I want or whatever your situation is, that's what you look like. That's that's the assessment you'll find. So say you're saying the the thing is, well, I don't know if I'll need care. See, that's the end of the conversation. We actually have an assessment, a health trajectory assessment where you can come in and you can take your current situation, your current health, medications, all of that. And we can give you a really clear trajectory based off of public health data, when you'll need care and for how long. And so you can have a really honest conversation of like, well, you might not think you'll need care, but based off of everything else, statistically, you'll most likely need care in seven years, and this is how long you'll need care. So that gives you a really great way to structure the conversation of let's think great thoughts, let's think you never need it, but let's plan for seven years of care.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

Yes, that's amazing. I love that. I love that tool. I remember now you mentioning that. I'm like, I have a few people. We're gonna have to run through that assessment. Now, so that's LT Care Nav, but you also have CareBloom, and we haven't had a chance to talk too much about that. So tell me how CareBloom fits into this whole picture. Who is it designed for? Tell us more about it.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

It's designed for family caregivers. So that actually came out of my direct experience as a family caregiver for my grandma. My grandma had long-term care insurance, which was one of the beautiful things she actually did because, as her family caregiver, it gave me the ability to bring people in where we could afford it in the evenings to sleep in her room. And because of that, we had some issues with them because that happens. That is the other thing, is just because you hire someone doesn't mean you don't have to oversee it. So there's no totally walking away from caregiving for loved ones. And so from that incident, I created game. So my grandma was telling me they're not in the room at night. They were saying they were. And my grandma got up one night, they were sleeping in the bedroom down the hallway. She fell and broke her femur. And so I was like, I needed something where I could have been there, where I could have still been asleep and I could have been alerted that this was not happening. And so that anger from that experience led me to create CareBloom to help support families that are caring for their loved ones at home, but are also overseeing caregivers to make sure that the care you're paying for is the care you're receiving because it's not about the paying for care, it's about ensuring that somebody's doing what you want for your loved ones. Because I know that's also a big concern about care family caregivers, right? Nobody's gonna do it like I will. And so we give you the ability to ensure that somebody will do it like you will.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Well, and this is a total side note, but one of the hard truths I had to tell myself is, you know, in an ideal world, I'm the best person to give care to my mother. But the bottom line is I'm not at this point. You know, she needs more than I can give her. And that was a big eye-opener for me and a big humbling moment, but it was true. And so I think, you know, that's something, again, whole other episode. But I do love so CareBloom is like a monitoring program platform.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

We are like a digital eyes and ears without a camera, without a listening device. We're very discreet. And we can tell you changes in behavior, changes in pattern. We customize alerts to should they not be in that room, did they leave the house, did they not get out of bed?

SPEAKER_01 35:39

Love that. So very thorough. And I also know that you do take great pains, both with LT Care Nav and with CareBloom, to secure data privacy, do as much as we can in that area. So I really do appreciate the values. Today's sponsor is Savvy Security. You're probably looking out for two generations right now: your parents on one side and your kids with digital devices on the other. And both of them are getting scam calls and texts that didn't exist five years ago. Savvy was built exactly for households like yours. One family plan covers everyone. Parents, teens, and you. Savvy is real-time protection against AI-powered scams before they reach the people you love. You can have greater peace of mind for just $7.99 a month. That's $7.99 a month for coverage of unlimited family members. Savvy is live in the App Store and Google Play. Details at savvy security.com. That's S-A-B-I-security.com. All right, Lindsay, let's say you have free billboards in every city in America. Something that every family with aging parents would see every day on their morning commute. What would it say?

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Oh, that's a good question. I know. I think I would even just go to the title, like plan today, protect tomorrow. So that's the name of the other book. That's that's really what it is. Your plan today does not doom you to a nursing home, right? All you're doing is protecting tomorrow for you and your family.

SPEAKER_01 37:17

And as someone who used to be in the marketing space, it's short enough people can read it. All right. As we're wrapping up, we want to let people know they can find you at ltcare nav.com. I will have your LinkedIn. I will have LT Care Nav and CareBloom listed. Do you have a podcast as well?

SPEAKER_00 37:35

I do. It's called LT Care Nav's Care Compass. And on my podcast, we actually bring on guests who are our vetted providers that we match to on LT Care Nav because I felt that like sometimes in the industry, it's hard to know what vetted really mean. And is that just a background check? So for our platform, vetted means like you, lots of conversations and really getting to know the provider. And I really want families to feel comfortable. So I give them a little snippet of what some of the conversations I've had with the providers that we are matching you with.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

And everybody can find the podcast on YouTube, CareCompass Podcast. I'll will include that as well. Lindsay, thank you so much for this conversation. For the families listening, if there's one thing I want you to walk away with from this episode, it's this. The plan is not just for your loved one, the plan is for you. The plan is what stands between you and a crisis that swallows you completely whole. Or as I used it to describe it, falling into a pit and just being stuck there. You deserve that protection. So does your loved one. Please go find Lindsay's work. And if this conversation resonated with you, please share it with a caregiver in your life. And if you haven't already, subscribe so that you do not miss an episode. You can find more resources at jeanetteyates.com. Until next time, feel good, not guilty.