Senior Care Finder‘s CEO and Co-Founder Christie Stukenholtz shares her personal story with Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show. Suzanne recalls that she needed a resource like this years ago to help her make the right decisions for her mom.
Christie says, “My first interaction with senior care and searching for options was for my grandmother, who lived in Washington state. I lived in Nebraska, and my dad called and informed me that she could no longer live independently at home, and asked if I could be helpful in figuring out where she could go next. And quite frankly, my husband, Heath, worked in the senior living industry. I was pretty savvy. I was a smart researcher. I did not think it would be very hard. So I confidently said yes, and quickly had a rude awakening of how hard that process was.
“We were fortunate to get on a plane and rent a car, and drive around to a number of different communities, and tour them – many of which did not look anything like the few pictures I found online – and ultimately found a great place for her. But on that flight home in 2015, I told Heath, this cannot possibly be the experience that everyone is going through. Not even a place to see a comprehensive list of my results, or really understand the differences of care types, or how you pay for it. It’s a big, confusing world… And if I can’t be the one to care for my mom or my grandma, it’s a really, really big deal who that person is, or community is. And so I really felt a pull to to jump in and do something about it.”
Christie adds, “Now, consumers, in my opinion, are much more educated, because they’re doing research on their own right. And they want to learn and gather information, and they don’t want to be sold to. And we really study the behavior of that person, and try to meet them where they’re at. So that’s really the need that Senior Care Finder is trying to fill, is being a place that people can go take a deep breath and really start educating themselves, and start that process that so many times can feel very overwhelming.”
Check out the Senior Care Finder website.
Senior living communities and senior care providers can claim their free listing.
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks.
