Care Consultant Spotlight: Diane Trunecek, CarePatrol

This week, I was lucky enough to interview Diane Trunecek, a Senior Care Consultant at CarePatrol. CarePatrol is a no-cost senior care advisory service that helps older adults and their families navigate transitions in care. In this week’s interview, Diane shared her thoughts on how senior living operators are differentiating today to attract discerning residents.

Grab your Monday morning coffee and dive in with me! And stay tuned to the end of the newsletter for some resources I’ve pulled together for the AgeTech NYC community (think: free HR software; affordable coworking spots…).

— Sarah Richard

P.S. - It’s not too late to join the AgeTech NYC community tomorrow at August’s AgeTech NYC event, hosted by Brian Geyser at Maplewood Senior Living. 

Could you give us an overview of your background?

My background is in clinical psychology and hospitality. When I was in graduate school, I started doing research on the transition of seniors into senior living communities from a Psychodynamic perspective. At this time, I had an opportunity to start working in a senior living community. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for me as I was able to dive into the senior living space and experience it firsthand. Working in senior living communities gave me invaluable experiences that helped me to understand the complex relationships that flow between consumers and operators. It also helped me to further understand the role that each of the seniors/residents, their loved ones, front line workers, and executive teams/corporate ladders, play in working together to support each other. These experiences also gave me insight into the backend of the business in re: to budgets, occupancy/sales, care plans/regulations, operations, and disaster preparedness to name a few. I am very happy to be with my local team of advisors at CarePatrol as a Senior Care Consultant.

Can you tell us more about CarePatrol?

CarePatrol is a free, senior placement service that is composed of local advisors who help seniors and their loved ones to narrow down options for senior living communities based on care needs and budget - thinking not only now, but long term as well. We are a concierge style service that will attend the community visits with the seniors/their loved ones to be an extra set of eyes and ears, as well as help ask questions they may not think or know to ask as each senior living communities care capabilities vary. Additionally, I like to get them connected with other local resources to help get them set up for success while they are in the process of looking. This is one of the many reasons that I love networking - as they say, it takes a village!

What do families care about right now when it comes to selecting a senior living facility?

I think that most loved ones care about the quality and levels of care that are offered, safety, and overall lifestyle. Alongside that, the responsiveness from the community's team when they have a question or concern is huge. These may seem to be basic things, but they can unfortunately leave more to be desired.

How are senior living operators differentiating right now?

Many of the senior living communities have had to up their game in terms of services that they provide, including, but not limited to: opting to do higher care levels, extending transportation capabilities, food quality/service, utilizing technology (e.g., dedicated person to help the seniors, classes offered for residents, and/or to assist their employees workloads), and hospitality/concierge services.

In Manhattan, there were only about a handful of communities for about 15-20 years. In the last five years, we have doubled that ecosystem with luxury senior living communities. Newly built communities typically adopt their design and aesthetic from past experiences at their other communities, as well as research that points to certain elements being helpful in the aging process (e.g., circadian lighting, accessibility for differing abilities, more boosters for internet throughout...), which is great news for aging consumers.

What advice would you give to founders looking to build technology for senior living operators?

Make sure to get familiar with the basic terminology that is used by senior living operators. Understanding the unique differences between care levels (e.g., skilled nursing/rehab vs. senior living communities that offer independent living, assisted living, and/or memory care) and how people pay for services (e.g., private pay vs. medicaid vs. medicare) is a good place to start.

Like everyone in today's modern world, senior living operators are wildly busy. Not only do the majority of them go into work, but they go into work where their 'clients' live and call home.

Many of the larger, name brand senior living companies have standard protocols and procedures to which they keep their operations streamlined. It is great if you land a huge corporate account like this, but they often pilot the product at a handful or so of their communities across the country first. This can be exciting to some front line staff in the community, but daunting for others if it creates more work, pulls them from time with their residents, other job tasks take priority, if they are "bad" with technology, have poor internet connection, and/or don't embrace it. Perhaps think about how you can get the buy-in of not only those in the boardroom, but the front line staff/residents alike.

What else should the AgeTech NYC community keep in mind as they work to support families and their loved ones living in senior living?

Communication (in a timely manner) is key. Again, this is one of the biggest complaints I hear from loved ones that could easily be fixed. Even if there is no final answer yet, communicating that you are still working on a solution can go a long way in easing their anxiety.

Caregiver burnout can be and is very real. Make sure that whatever you are creating is indeed enriching their and/or their loved ones lives, and not creating extra work for them.

If all else fails, treat others as you want to be treated. When you are 85, 95, or 105+, how do you want to be treated and what services do you hope there are?

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