Lance A. Slatton: The Phone Call That Changed His Life — And Transformed Senior Care for Thousands — Full Episode Transcript

When caregiving feels overwhelming and the system feels impossible to navigate, this is your guide. Here, you'll learn ways to navigate long-term care planning, find real support for caregiving, and prepare you for the road ahead. I'm your host, Lindsay Friedman, and now you're not in this alone. Let's get started.

Welcome back to another episode of the Care Compass. Today, we are here with Lance Slatton, who is the founder of All Home Care Matters and runs All's Authors. And he is also a brand ambassador for LTCareNav. And we are so thrilled to have you be that brand ambassador for us. And of all the work that you do, you're such a staple in this home care, senior care community. So I'm so excited to have you here, to have you partnering with us on this.

Well, thank you, Lindsay. And I'm really excited to be here and to be helping talk about all the great work you're doing at LTCareNav and Care Bloom. I think it's just a great fit for us and to help get these resources out to families.

I appreciate that. And you really are such an icon of the industry. And you go back a long time. But can we go back to that time? What brought you here? What made you want to serve this community of seniors?

Well, really for me, I never wanted to be a podcaster, an influencer, a YouTuber, none of that. But what I did want to do is help people. And that really is a story that goes all the way back to my earliest memories of childhood, where a lot of kids wanted to be a baseball player, a basketball player. I wanted to be a physician. I wanted to be a doctor. My mother was a registered nurse, an RN.

And she worked for an amazingly incredible old country doctor, I call him, where he literally would go home on lunch and take care of his mules. And then he'd come back and finish the second half of his day. But it was really just that idea of being able to help people sometimes at their most needed moments in life, which, you know, everybody says, from millionaires to average people — without your health, you don't have anything. That's the one thing you can't necessarily fix just by having money or even lack thereof.

And so I always wanted to be a doctor and I continued that pursuit through high school. I went and did EMT training, paramedic training, went to college and I brought one of the largest, oldest medical fraternities in the world to our campus and was kind of shepherding all of this right through to applying for med school.

Until, when my wife and I were newlyweds, we got a phone call one evening that my father had had surgery — and we didn't know he had surgery. He was a veteran in the Marine Corps in the sixties. And I always say the Marine Corps then is not the Marine Corps now, though they're still amazing, incredible people and we appreciate their service. That mentality back then, the Marine Corps was a lot less regulated and a lot more stuff was going on than what is going on today.

And so he had this mentality where I can deal with it, I can push through it, I don't need to involve anyone else. And so he never told us he was having surgery until we got this call from a home healthcare nurse. And she says, hey, I have your father here. He just had surgery. I'm doing the wound care for his wound. And we're like, wait a minute, hold up. What's going on? Do you have the right phone number?

And she said, look, he had a fall. He landed on his tailbone, his coccyx, and developed a really bad bruise. And like you and I right now, we're sitting on our coccyx, and ninety percent of our day is sitting on our coccyx. And so for my dad, it wasn't much different. That bruise never had a chance to properly heal. And when a bruise doesn't have the chance to heal, it can turn into an abscess. And that's what happened in my father's situation. And so that abscess ended up bursting. And instead of what most of us would do, go right to the emergency room, he went to that old country doctor I was talking about. And he said, you need to get to the ER right now, let me call an ambulance, this is serious. And my dad said, no, I'm fine, I'll drive myself — which is very much in line with his mentality.

So the nurse was concerned after the surgery, and he's home, he's not able to take care of it. And so we had two options. One, he can come stay with my wife and I if we have a place for him, which we did, or she wanted to put him into rehab for a couple of weeks just to get proper wound care on that. And we said, well, no, he can come stay with us. So he did. And we had home health care coming to the house up to seven times a week in some cases because of the severity of the wound.

And that two weeks ended up becoming almost three years and seven major operations. So during that time, Lindsay, we were never shared resources. We were never told about any benefits, nothing. We were never asked, is there anything that they could help us with? My dad being a veteran, giving him additional resources through the VA.

And so around the two-and-a-half-year mark, I had actually called my wife and I said, I have this idea and I think we should start a company where we send people to the homes to help people like us. Well, she said, look into it, see what you can find out. And so maybe a week or two later, I'm discovering, my gosh, there's an entire industry out here. But yet no one ever told us about it. So I didn't know about it.

And so we made the decision to start our own home care company. And we talked to some of the wonderful franchises that are out there, but for us, the best fit was just starting it ourselves from scratch. And there's a lot of pros to doing it that way, and there's some cons, but I think that for us, at least individually, the pros far outweighed the cons. And so we started providing care for families and I found a way to help people in their time of need just like I've always wanted to do. But for me, I was able to do it on a much grander scale.

I was interviewed not that long ago for this magazine article and I had not been asked this ever in all these years of doing the podcasting and influencing: do you regret it? And I didn't know what they meant initially. And I said, regret what? And they said, do you regret not going back and finishing? And I said, you mean medical school? He said, yeah.

I said, honestly, first, I'm kind of taken aback, I've never been asked that. But I've also never really thought about it. If I really regretted it, I would have gone back because I was in my early twenties. And I said, but for me, it's always been about the people we're helping, not about the titles you get for helping them. And I feel like we're doing it on a much bigger scale and sometimes even more meaningfully, because we're able to spend as much time with these families as possible. We can do videos like with you and LTCareNav and Care Bloom and get resources out globally versus a fifteen, twenty minute interaction in a doctor's office. And so I didn't regret it, because for me it was always about helping people.

I had such a similar experience. I got a business degree, but I had worked as a caregiver all through college and I continued, and I went to nursing school. I really wanted to be a nurse because I wanted to help people, and I couldn't make it through nursing school because there's a lot of blood and there's stuff you have to do that I just couldn't make it through. And the day that I decided not to finish was actually a really heartbreaking day for me. And I had a lot of regret for a period of time after.

And it wasn't until I came back that I realized I'm actually able to help on a more grand scale. And I was like, okay, it might not have been this, but my entire goal, just like yours, was to help. You never really wanted to do the podcast, that kind of thing. But I feel like we're reaching so many other families who, like you and like others, were just not sure what to do. You sort of feel like you're in a bubble when you hit the time of needing care.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, and speaking about helping people globally, one of the questions we get asked quite often is, what's your most memorable interview? And I said, well, that's really hard because we've interviewed U.S. senators, Medal of Honor winners, presidents of medical schools — just tremendous people that have done tremendous work of service for others. But I can't really pick one single interview, because that's like, I have three kids and it's like, pick your favorite, right? They're all my favorite and I tell each of them they're my favorite. Just don't tell your brother or sister. It's a running joke in the family.

But one interview that really stands out for me personally was very early on in All Home Care Matters. The show has been around for just over six years. And one of the interviews that really stands out, speaking of globally, was this woman who lived in Australia. We didn't really have any big following at that time. It was decent, but this is like the first year of the show. And we get an email from her and she says, I'm so-and-so, I live in this village in Australia. She goes, you may not have any interest in this because I'm really a nobody. And she says, but I just really appreciate your guys' integrity and the care with which you talk with people, and just who you are and your principles, and I would love to share my story for the first time publicly.

So now we're like, well, where's this going? And so her son was born with something called Williams syndrome. It's hard to describe, but if you look up Williams syndrome and you look at the way it presents itself visually, everybody's probably met somebody or knows somebody who has had Williams syndrome. And she says, but for me, I never told my son that he had Williams syndrome. So he went through, you know, zero through high school never even knowing he was quote-unquote anything different or that he had anything wrong with him — however you want to describe it. And she said, and I never told anybody in our community here in Australia.

And for me — you're a parent, Lindsay, and you're also a daughter, just like I'm a parent, but I'm also a son — I'm looking at this from both sides. Okay, if I'm the son, how do I feel about this when she did eventually tell him after he turned eighteen and was done with high school? But as a parent, how do I feel about this? Do I want to tell my children something that may or may not quote-unquote give them an excuse not to do something, or a crutch to fall back on, or prevent them from trying to reach their fullest potential because they may think I can't because of X, Y, and Z? I just thought it was quite a conundrum.

And so we had her on the show. And for her to place that trust in us, to be able to share her story and possibly help other families that are going through something similar, with a child or even with a loved one of some relation, it just really meant the world to us. You just don't know who you're impacting and who you're reaching. Sometimes you may never know, but here's this woman in this little town in Australia, on the other side of the world, literally, and she wanted to use us as the platform to share this publicly for the first time. It just meant the world to me. And so that one always stands out. But again, like you said, you have such a greater impact doing what we're doing than we probably will ever even truly understand or appreciate.

No, and it really does. Just to even have families reach out and say, that meant a lot, that's what I was feeling. And to be able to support those who are going through it also — but like the caregivers, because I'm sure you get a lot of the caregivers who come to you and the family members, and they're going through their own kind of discomfort while they're dealing with this as well. What do you see? How do you deal with that? How is it to deal with it differently in the real world than when you're talking about it on a podcast?

There's a lot of crossover, a lot of similarity. We get families calling our company all the time. Sometimes these are families we're never going to service, but we're able to service them through support and counseling. And we don't charge them anything for doing that. We just help guide them.

Because especially in Michigan, one of the things that is really unique is we're one of the few states that is considered quote-unquote a non-licensed state. And so when families go to hire care in Michigan, they need to really know what they're hiring. I can't tell you the countless families that said, my dad just got discharged, the doctor says he needs care or else this or that, and we found this lady at the local Meijer or Walmart, had a sign on the board, now helping, now hiring, that sort of thing. And she wasn't a company. It was her and a girlfriend. And then they find out the person wasn't insured and they didn't have workers' comp, and they get hurt taking care of their loved one. Now they're suing them for lost wages and personal injury.

So those people, we can help guide differently here in Michigan because we're a little unique for that. But the overall sense, when we're speaking to people virtually or at conferences and stuff, we're explaining the options available to them, because nobody really overall as a rule typically sits down and explains what's available to them in their community and their state and the different agencies — area agency on aging or different nonprofits. And we just help to guide them depending on where they're at.

No, that's great. But how would you tell a family, especially in a non-licensed state, how do you hire the right person? What are the questions you ask to make sure you're going to get the quality care that you're looking for?

Well, if you're going to hire somebody privately, which I always kind of try to steer people away from, but if that's the choice they make — first thing off the bat, look for three references and talk to those references. I can put references on paper, but it doesn't mean they're legitimate. So you need to actually use those references that are provided.

But I think even before that, do a background check. As a company, we have access to different systems for background checks and motor vehicle checks. We go right through the state of Michigan, secretary of state; criminally, we go through all of the court systems. Now you can get records publicly, but there's also records that may not be public, and we can get access to that as a licensed company, where an individual just doing it from home will only get access to public records — and public records don't show the full picture sometimes.

But if they have a good background check and it's clear, and you check the references and the references all check out and they're legitimate and you feel comfortable, that's when I would then schedule a one-on-one meeting with that person. And you also want to make sure that they have the qualifications. If it's caring for a loved one with Parkinson's disease and they had great references, but they've never worked with anybody with Parkinson's disease, they may not have the right background or education or experience or skills to really know how to care properly for a Parkinson's patient. A Parkinson's patient's care is going to be entirely different than maybe grandma who is no longer able to drive. So you want to make sure that whatever the care needs are, this person is able to really provide that care.

Yeah. And I think besides some of the intricacies of you don't know who you're hiring, there are a lot of beautiful things that come with hiring an agency. If that person can't show up, they're going to try to find you a backup. There's a lot of great things that you're paying extra for.

Have you seen, because the cost of care has gone up just like everything — how are families handling that? Do you see it making it more difficult to get families to come in for home care? Do you find it to be a harder decision because of the cost?

Well, I think it's a little bit of both. Some families who are already receiving care may have to cut back on the amount of care they're receiving. We have, at least at our company, tried not to do any price increases to the best of our ability and kind of ride out the economy, if you will. But like you said, it's a trickle-down effect. When the cost of everything else goes up, all the services go up, your gas goes up, your eggs, your milk — it's no different than care.

And we also take into account our staff. Their wages need to be increased also because their cost of living is going up. So if we have to do a cost increase with our families, we're passing that also on to our staff. We have people that have been with us for ten-plus years and would probably walk across the Grand Canyon with no harness to do whatever is needed, because they know we would do the same for them. We're really big on our employees and recognizing they're the backbone.

We tell families all the time, you need to trust when we send somebody in the home. We're going to come meet with you. We're going to do an introduction. Our staff are going to get a full briefing before they ever come to your home. And that first visit, we're coming with them also as kind of an icebreaker. That's for the family, but it's also for the staff too. If you have a loved one working for us and they've been in the same home for five years, ten years, which is the case with some of our staff, and all of a sudden they no longer are providing care for that person because maybe they passed or maybe they went into the hospital, and we get them reassigned to a new home, we tell them, even though you've been with us for ten years, this is your first day in this home.

So we are seeing families have to scale back some. And then the families that are looking at care, sometimes it's unfortunate, they don't have much option. If you have grandma or whoever your loved one is and they're no longer able to drive and they live alone, they need some kind of support, because they're going to need that access to their doctor's appointments, if they need a refill on prescriptions.

And maybe the family steps up more than they had been because they're trying to support their loved one. But it may still not be enough to cover all of grandma's needs. And so instead of maybe having help four days a week, they might say, well, we're going to start off with two days a week. Because when you need care, you have to get it one way or the other, whether it's through a home care company or maybe they have to go into rehab, whatever it is. Unfortunately, the state of the economy may not be helpful, but it can't always dictate, because when you need care, you need care.

Absolutely. It is one of those things that it doesn't matter if you can afford it or not. It's coming for you. I love that you have these aides who have stayed with you for so long, because having been there, there's a lot of turnover because they're not treated correctly.

Well, real quickly, two things I want to say about that. When our staff hit their five-year anniversary, we have this beautiful crystal tree, because our company logo is a tree, and so the crystal is cut out in the shape of our tree. And then at the base, we'll put their name, their hire-in date, and then below, their five-year anniversary. And then when they hit the ten-year anniversary, the tree gets even bigger. And then they get some nice incentives as well for those anniversaries.

But to your point, a lot of times when they come here it's a big cultural shock to them, because a lot of times they were misled, lied to. I can't tell you how many times our company has interviewed people and they'll say, well, yeah, I am employed currently. And we'll say, well, why are you looking to leave? Well, I haven't really had any work. And we'll say, well, when did you hire in? Last month, two months ago — some crazy situations. And we'll say, well, what's your schedule? Well, they haven't given me one yet.

And what a lot of companies do is they will just do a mass hiring across the board, tell people they have jobs, and then they kind of leave them dangling. Because one thing about home care, Lindsay, and you know this, you don't get to pick when and where your next client is going to need care. The phone could ring right now and somebody needs twenty-four-seven care. So they'll go through that roster and some of them won't be available, but some will. They'll just keep calling until people say, okay, great, I can start, so that way they don't have to go through the process of hiring right when the care is needed.

A little bit different with us, and it has served us well as the number one home care company in Michigan for the last five years: we only hire when we actually have work, because we want to show them we're not just saying it, we're doing it. One of the most common questions we get from candidates is, do you really have work? And that's because of these other experiences. And we say we only hire when we do have work. We're not going to waste your time or our time.

If I could give a quick example: last year sometime, this great candidate on paper came in. Before they ever come in, our office staff will do a pre-screen. So we have a form, they apply on whatever platform they applied on, and we'll look in our database — we have a database of many, many people, over fifteen thousand people. And we want to reference, this person applied two years ago, why did they not get a job? They didn't have a driver's license at that time, but they said they did in the pre-screening and on the application. And then when they came in for the in-person interview, we copy that license, we copy the insurance, if they're a CNA, CPR, all that stuff. And if they don't have the license, we don't do the interview, because we only hire you if you are licensed and insured and have a license in good standing.

So this woman on paper looked great, never applied with us before. Everything was great, pre-screen was great, the whole nine yards. She came in for her in-person interview and I actually sat in on this one, and we were going to welcome her back for a second interview, which then gets into a little more nitty-gritty details and examples and situations. And at the end, we always ask them: hey, we've asked you a lot of questions today, do you have any questions for us? This is your time, take as much time as you need.

She says, I really just have one. She says, everything you guys said is really great. We do yearly evaluations with yearly pay increases, you get set schedules, a lot of perks and benefits. She says, but the last company I interviewed with and I took the job with, they said a lot of really great things too. But then once I got on board and got my schedule, it wasn't the schedule they told me I was going to have. She goes, so why should I trust that what you're saying to me is true?

I said, well — and this was me at the time — I completely understand. We've been doing this for a long time, and I get it, I understand it very well. All I can say to you is look at it like this. The last candidate that came in here said all these wonderful things, just like you said. And we hired her. And she ended up not showing up for her orientation or background check, all this stuff. Then when we got a hold of her, she said, well, I can't work Monday through Friday, I can only work every third Saturday of every leap year. I said, I'm not holding all of that stuff against you, because you're you.

And I said, just like I wouldn't want you to hold another company against us, because we're us. All you can do is take our word, read our reviews, check out employee testimonials, and then let us show you and not just tell you. And she said, you know what, that's actually the best answer I've ever got. I'm not trying to make her uncomfortable, but I'm trying to get it so she can see the perspective. We're not holding anything against her that maybe other employees that didn't work out or candidates that didn't show up did. Don't hold other companies against us. We're us and you're you. Let's have a fresh relationship. And she's been a phenomenal employee ever since then.

No, that's great. And I think that's really good advice, even if you're somebody, a family, who's been burned by a home care company once, because that happened with my grandma. But don't hold it against it. There are so many great organizations and people out here doing these kinds of things.

Yes. And the other thing too is, with Michigan being a little bit of a unicorn so many times, and this is very unfortunate — we had the president of the Home Care Association of America, the largest lobbying firm for home care in the country. And when her and I were talking, she knew we're from Michigan, and we really got on the topic about licensing in Michigan and there's a couple other states that are not licensed. And the problem, Lindsay, that we face is when you have companies that are in Michigan and they are providing care, whether it's one person or ten people, how do you remove all those companies from being able to earn a living?

Because they started when it wasn't licensed. So now you go and say, now you have to get licensed, and people are going to put up resistance. Where we function as much as we're able to with the resources available to us in Michigan as an unlicensed state — just like our friends in Illinois, they are a licensed state. There's a registry. There's a lot of different safeguards and different things in place and resources, not only for the families, but for companies. And people don't want that though, because what's that going to cost them? It's going to be more paperwork they have to do, more fees to the state. Maybe some of their staff aren't going to be qualified, so to speak, or permitted to work in home care for one reason or another.

So we're big proponents and we're advocates for all states being licensed, because I think that will also in time — not overnight — lend itself to then maybe Medicare being able to provide some sort of benefit for families of Medicare recipients to use some of that toward providing care. Because when you have that, it's also better for the economy and for society. If you and I are brother and sister and we're taking care of mom and we both have to miss work, we're losing income, we're losing revenue, and it's costing the company money. Now we're not taking that revenue we would have made and putting it back into our communities, which is going to affect other companies. It's a huge snowball effect, but we have to get licensed in order to at least start having those types of conversations.

I think we need that just for protection for families. It's a vulnerable population. There are a lot of people trying to grab at it right now that I see, and being able to provide quality and reassurances for families is, I think, so important.

Yeah. Well, and it is, it's a safety concern for their loved ones, but also for the families. We had a situation not that long ago where a family — wonderful family, beautiful mother who we're caring for — they found us after the fact. They went through their local church. And a lady there had a sister who had a quote-unquote home care company, and come to find out it wasn't a company at all. It was her and her girlfriend. And several factors: they would always call off or show up an hour late, all these things. But then someone had stolen all of mom's family heirloom jewelry and there was no recourse. She could not go after them. They didn't have bonding insurance. There was no substitute for how can we get this right?

And that was a horrible way to learn about home care. Because again, this lady said she had a company, it's coming from what they thought was a trusted source. But at the end of the day, the families don't know what they don't know. I say all the time, when I go to my doctor, I don't say, can you show me that you have malpractice insurance? Can you show me you're a licensed medical doctor? It's just kind of an unspoken, known fact, because you're open and you're functioning, so obviously you're able to be doing this, otherwise they wouldn't allow you to. Home care doesn't have that kind of regulation. And that's the scary part. I could go to our local gas station and hire the gas attendant to come work for us. And I would never do that, but legally speaking, I would be absolutely allowed to do that. Doesn't mean I should though.

Yeah. I think that's such a great warning to families about who you hire. You're not really getting a bargain. It's the whole you-get-what-you-pay-for thing. So if someone comes in a lot lower, just wonder why, be cautious. This is the person you love, right? This is intimate care, really making these decisions.

Well, and going back to the things where I was saying, check the references, do a full complete background check — local police stations a lot of times offer that — have that one-on-one with that person. And then, if they say they're a CNA, if they're CPR certified, if they have any sort of credentials at all, then ask for verification of that.

But then, what do they have as far as protection? Do they carry their own workers' comp? Are you going to add them as a household employee on your homeowners insurance, or get a rider to cover them as a household employee? Are they going to be 1099? Or are you just going to try to pay them cash under the table, which I strongly advise against, because if they injure themselves, you are going to be the accountable party and they will make sure you're held accountable. Even if it's all fake and not legitimate, just the cost and the stress of having to get to that point where it's thrown out could be extremely costly.

So that's where legitimate companies like ours come in, where all of our employees are direct hires. None of them are subcontracted or 1099 or anything. And they all have bonding insurance. They go through complete background checks. We do all of the safeguards humanly possible to make sure that this person is safe and able to be in your home. And when you just hire somebody under the table or call a person you see has a flyer at the grocery store, you need to then do your due diligence to ensure that they have those protections in place as well.

No, absolutely. There's a reason that it's a little more expensive, because you're taking on a lot of the burden, and family needs to remember that. How do you see, because of the shortage of caregivers, how do you see technology changing your home care industry? And when do you think it'll start to be leveraged by all agencies?

I think the licensed states, the agencies there have a leg up on the non-licensed states — again, Michigan. I think once awareness starts to really raise and trickle down from having that doctor's appointment where you're taking mom in and you have these concerns, and doctors starting to say, here's some options, instead of it kind of being all or nothing, hospital, nursing home, or nothing.

I can't tell you how many times over the years where a doctor will say, well, I'm not really comfortable sending mom home by herself. Well, then the family will say, well, actually we have a home care company. Oh, that's perfect, then yes, mom can go home. But instead the doctor should be saying, have you looked into hiring home care for mom? We've got to try to change the conversation so that it's not just nursing home, hospital, or nothing for these families. Because again, if you're not in the industry like you and I are, you don't know what you don't know. I know it's so cliché, I say it probably a million times a month, but it's the truest statement that really summarizes it. You don't know these services are available, so you can't ask for them. You need somebody to help educate and inform you. And that's where I think our healthcare industry could do a little better job at making people aware that there are other options than just facility care or institutional care.

Yeah, there are a lot of other options coming out too. And I love that you're being a voice for that. And I love that with LTCareNav we're showing there are options — and the right one for you.

Yes, absolutely. And to follow up on the AI, there is some amazing AI out there now, and hopefully more coming out sooner rather than later, that will give families a lot more peace of mind. There are a lot of good tools out there. It's not going to substitute having that compassionate warm hug or conversation with your loved one. But even the remote monitoring sensors — if mom lives by herself and you don't have someone there, having some Nest cameras in the home, but then even more affordable for a lot of families would be just having these little range-of-motion sensors.

You can set one up in the bedroom, the kitchen, the hallway, the living room, and then you'll get data reports. It won't be visual as far as seeing mom, but you'll see, okay, there was motion at 8 a.m. this morning from the bedroom into the bathroom. Bathroom motion, thirty minutes, left the bathroom, went to the kitchen. So you can start deciphering how the day looks and what's going on — four hours in the living room. And those are very economically affordable for families. It's something where I say it's better than nothing, and they can give some good insights into how mom is doing and what her day looks like.

Yeah. And that's one of the things that we're trying to do with Care Bloom. We sort of take it a little bit deeper because we have a watch and we're really watching behaviors. But there are really interesting things. I would say be careful with technology too. You have to be as careful with the technology as with the person you hire.

But no, I really appreciate your time and appreciate you being our brand ambassador, and we love working with you. So thank you for joining us today.

It was great, Lindsay. Always great to see you.

Yes, you too. Have a good day. All right. That's a wrap for today. Until next time, remember, you're not alone. Take things one step at a time. Stay centered and trust your compass. See you next time on LTCareNav's Care Compass.