DANIEL CLARK: For Transparency in Elder Care - First Stop ELDERado

Finding the right elder care for your loved ones shouldn't be a stressful challenge. But for most of us it is.  Elder care is EXPENSIVE! Yet, families everywhere grapple with the lack of reliable information.

Imagine if booking elder care were as easy as booking a hotel. In this episode of Love Conquers Alz, we sit down with Daniel Clarke, the visionary founder of Elderado— which is not a Cadillac or a song by ELO, but rather the perfect name for a groundbreaking web platform designed to help families compare over 1,400 long-term care and retirement homes across Ontario. Daniel shares the story behind Elderado, his mission to bring transparency to the long-term care industry, and his ambitious plans to expand the platform to the United States and the world. 

Don and I, along with guest Daniel, discuss the essential role of transparency and compassion in finding suitable elder care. We explore the importance of reliable resources and personal experiences when navigating these complex decisions, highlighting the positive aspects of elder care while addressing systemic issues families face.

Whether you’re searching for the right care home or advocating for change, this conversation is a must-listen!

Learn More about Elderado
Connect With Daniel Clarke

Chapters

• 0:00 Navigating Elder Care Options
• 8:08 Challenges in Elder Care Systems
• 23:19 Choosing Elder Care Homes Wisely
• 34:02 Evaluating Elder Care Options
• 39:19 Enhancing Elder Care Homes Quality

Transcript

Don Priess: 0:00

When the world has got you down, Alzheimer's sucks. It's an equal opportunity disease that chips away at everything we hold dear and to date, there's no cure. So until there is, we continue to fight with the most powerful tool in our arsenal, love. This is love conquers all, a real and really positive podcast that takes a deep dive into everything, Alzheimer's, The Good, The Bad and everything in between. And now here are your hosts, Susie singer Carter and me. Don Priess,

Susie Singer Carter: 0:39

hello, everybody. I'm Susie singer, Carter, and welcome to love conquers all. The podcast all about Alzheimer's caregivers and Long Term Care elder advocate, advocacy. And today I feel very I feel very vulnerable and naked because I don't have my sidekick, Don here with me today. He's he's recovering from back injury, and he's laid up. So I'm, I'm, I am taking it on today by myself, and hopefully this will be, it'll be good, but I think it'll be great, because we have a great guest, and so that'll help. So I hope everybody, I want to thank everybody for listening to us, and it's been, it's, it's really great because I see the numbers are going up, and I'm, I'm just, we're just super excited and feel very validated that so many of you are consistently listening and sharing our conversations, which I think are getting I thought they were great. I think they're getting even better and better. So really happy that you're here with us. We know there's a lot of podcasts out there, but we really endeavored to bring you the best information and the most valid information that we can and have a lot of fun while we're at it. So without further ado, I have a question. I want to say to you this. I want to say, why when we're looking for the perfect hotel with the best amenities with, you know, the great views everything anywhere in the world, there's like so many sites you can go to right that you can rely on to get a great place. You can go to booking.com you can go to Trivago, Expedia. So why is it so freaking difficult to find a reliable database with information about elder care homes, one that uses filters to help families do the same with elder care. That's, you know, that's, that's a big issue, right? So, I mean, you might be thinking, because I get pushed back all the time, Susie, there are sites that do that, they're all over the place, and I am aware of that there are a lot of places that say they do do that. But the point is, is, how well do they do that? I know they're out there, but how reliable? How? How are they reliably presenting what is available? And that's that's something that's very hard to vet until you're in it, right? So, and when you're in it, you're usually in some sort of stress situation. You're not, you hadn't planned for it, and now you're, you're scrambling to find a place for someone that you love very much, and that that becomes very, very difficult, you know? And how do you know that the rating that they're giving this place is authentic, right? You don't, you have to, you have to trust. So how do you do that? How do you trust? How do you trust these sites? What gives you, what gives you that that sense of of peace? Because that is a sense of peace when you can find some place that you feel good about putting someone that you love very much in for a very long time, if not the rest of their life, that's, that's, that's a major issue. It was a major issue for me. I must I spent so much time shopping, going from place to place to place, to look for a place when my mom finally had to move into assisted living. And it, it is daunting, it's depressing, it's hard, and if you don't have a, you know, a pretty big tribe with you, it's even harder. So so today's guest, Daniel Clark is the founder of El Dorado, which is a portal online site which is an elder care navigational tool that provides the highest quality and most transparent information about every elder care home in Canada. And if I said that wrong, he's going to correct me. But, but, and I say, and let me just preface this by saying, Why am I talking to somebody in Canada? Because this young, incredible human being is not just he's his plans are to bring this kind of form, this kind of, you know, business model, to everywhere in the world. And I think it's so important. And he's and it takes somebody like this guy with so much. Passion and so much empathy and and and and brilliance to do something like this. And I think it's important that we talk to him and hear him out and hear why he was motivated and moved to create El Dorado. And it was all, it all came from a personal experience, which is why all of us who are in advocacy. Or, you know, we are, we become, you know, caregiver support, or we launch a site like El dorados, because we've gone through it ourselves. And Daniel went through it with his grandma, Marnie Ellis, who was hospitalized with lupus, and it was super stressful time for his family, and they were told that they needed to find long term care, so they were at a loss, and I'm going to let them tell you the rest of the story, because I'm going to invite them in. Hello, Daniel, so happy to have you here. Daniel,

Daniel Clarke: 5:55

hi, Susie, Thanks for Thanks for having me. So one correction I'll make is that right now we're not across Canada. We're just in Ontario. We have ambitions of being across Canada. But, yeah, we, but yeah, so, so that's kind of the start of the start of my story. So yeah, when I wasn't involved in in elder care or health care, in in any way, but I was really close with my grandparents, and on my on my mom's side, where, as you alluded to, my grandma was diagnosed with lupus, and especially my mom, my aunt, my grandpa, they'd already been doing some research before my grandma reached the point where she was hospitalized. But you know, when you're when you're in it, you think that you're well prepared, and then when the time comes, you realize, you know how much you still have to learn, or you know how difficult these situations can be to navigate. So, yeah, my my grandma was was hospitalized. It was then in the hospital where they let us know it's not the right place for her, and she had some home care and that, you know, it can be relatively inconsistent. So my grandma needed to move into either long term care or assisted living, which basically, up here in Canada, long term care is government subsidized, whereas assisted living is completely private, and they match you with a social worker, or could be a care coordinator, or they go by some different titles, but essentially their role is to help you navigate this process. The issue is that that person that they match you with, so let's call it the social worker that they match you with, their hands are largely are tied because they can give you a list of the long term care homes, but they're not actually allowed to recommend or provide suggestions of any of the long term care homes, because they're all government subsidized. They're all basically considered the same in the government size, even though there's, you know, vast differences but between them. So you just get this list of long term care homes. And then for retirement homes or assisted living, they, because it's all private, they they don't really provide any any suggestions. So they had at the hospital, they had information about one local retirement home, but then it was largely left on the family to to navigate what your options are. So you're already in a really stressful situation. You know you want to spend time with your loved one, but now you're having to run around to all these different homes even it's difficult to even know the list of homes that that that exist, and then from there, trying to figure out which ones are going to be the best fit. You know, who has the care services you need, what's it going to cost? It was just a really, really stressful, really overwhelming situation. And something that's made matters worse, where I am in Ontario, is they introduced something called the more beds Better Care Act. So now we are typically in in Canada, you don pay for your time in the hospital, but they'll start charging you for the bed if you require some form of senior care. After, after three days, you start paying$400 a day, which you know for for most people in Canada, you come and go from the hospital without ever getting a bill. So that's something that's become an even bigger shock to the system that my family didn't have to deal with, but now families have to deal with. So you're under this, this time crunch in order to in order to navigate your options. And it's just a really difficult, murky system to try and navigate like terms are different. Terms are used to describe the same thing, even the if you're going down the route of long term care, just since I've been involved in the space, the names changed three times. So you know it just a couple of months ago. It's now called Ontario Health at home that you deal with. Most people still know it as Home and Community Care support services, but the language is changing all the time, and it's just not something that we think about day to day. You know, not a lot of us think about like, oh, what? What are our options going to be for a long term care or retirement home? So a lot of us wait until until we need. It and that that creates a lot of challenges, and unfortunately, it can lead to sub optimal outcomes for for the family and the care service or the care home that you ultimately go with. I

Susie Singer Carter: 10:14

think thank you for sharing that. I think it's really important to hear about what other you know, countries are doing and other systems are doing, because we're all so very close. Like, yes, we're the same. It's like, you know, Medicare and Medicaid takes care of long term care, whereas, well, Medicaid really takes care of the living part of it. And then assisted living is not covered at all, you know. So it's not subsidized by the government at all, and it's private pay. So it's very similar and and at the moment, like we're looking for the the panacea, like, what is the right way to to do this system? And it's, I think it's super important to hear how where other systems succeed and where they fail as well, because, you know that can that can that can, you know, stop us from wasting time in a certain area. Because, you know, a lot of a lot of a lot of solutions become performative, because they just want people to think we're doing something. And now the public want, the public won't be annoying us, right? But we can't. We can't be satisfied with what they're just doing something. We have to know that what they're doing is actually helping right.

Daniel Clarke: 11:31

100% you're, you're, you're completely right. And you know, there, there's so many, there's so many challenges up here, for example, we've got in Ontario about 70,000 long term care beds, and there's over 40,000 people on the wait list. So, you know, there's, there's people who and the wait list is always, it's, it's, it's triage. So it's, it's kind of needs based, so the higher your needs that higher up yours. So there's a lot of people who really need to be in long term care, but because there's people who need to be in, more critically, that they can't get in for years, and that creates all sorts of challenges. And then, you know, up here, we have this big disparity between Long Term Care, which is government subsidized. So for example, in a long term care home in Ontario, for a private room, it's about$2,900 and for a basic room, it's it's just over $2,000 but so that that's subsidized. But then if you're looking at retirement homes, and especially if you need assisted living, which is, you know, if you have higher care needs, that's completely unsubsidized. So then the price discrepancy is huge, like, there's, you know, all sorts of people in assisted living who might be paying seven, 810, plus $1,000 I've spoken to families that are spending over $20,000 a month, and you know, for one, you know, who's got that kind of money, and, and, and, and also where, you know, there's just this gap in gap in support. And there is a big push going on up here by the Ontario Retirement Community Association and some of their allies to make it that that retirement homes, you can get a tax credit. It's done in a couple other provinces, and it's worked quite successfully, especially in Quebec and in in Canada. But, but yeah, I mean, there's a lot that needs to, needs to be done. There's not enough beds, there's not enough staff, and it's, it's something that really needs to become a bigger focal point, because none of these changes happen quickly, like having the government promised that by 2028 in Ontario, we're going to have 30,000 new long term care beds. We're not even close. And in all honesty, we might be net down from where we were from, from when that announcement was made, because there's been a number of homes that have closed and, and you know, if you know these, these changes take a lot of time, and we've all seen the demographics. We know the number of of baby boomers that are, that are coming and and we need these changes to like, we need more action taken sooner rather than later.

Susie Singer Carter: 14:07

So true, like, we're having, one of my colleagues, who's a filmmaker as well, is doing a short film. I'm gonna go see about what, you know, a horrible name, but it's called, you know, it's about granny dumping is what they call it, because these are for people that don't have a family or or support in any way, you know, not even, not even, you know, a signed Guardian, and they're just dropped off after a hospital stay on the street, you know, with just to, I don't you know it's just, it's, it's, we treat our dogs better, we treat our pets better, right? And in Canada, I'm sure it's the same in terms of of the attention that this demographic gets because of ageism and ableism. Is that, do you find that a bit. Issue, yeah,

Daniel Clarke: 15:01

well, and, and, I don't know that it's always even intentional, like, I think some of the issue is that when, when people are in this space, you know, it's they do so much work, like helping take care of their love, and so even if you're in, you know, the most amazing assisted living facility, there's still, you know, that there's a lot of stress involved. There's a lot of advocating that that goes on. And I think that when you're in it, it's hard to advocate for the system as a whole, because you're so busy advocating for your loved one. And then I think that by the time you know when, when your loved one passes, that you're just so done with the system. You're so tired, you're so frustrated that you just want to get as far away from it as possible. And I think that's a big reason why there hasn't been the innovation in the space as there has been in some of the areas. Like, in a lot of ways, it it's, you know, elder care is a lot more old fashioned than than a number of the other systems. You know, just the fact that El Dorado is the first website in Ontario that even lists all the long term care and retirement homes together. Before that, that that didn't even exist, you had to go to all these different sites even know what what your options were. And I think it's just because, yeah, it's just because people get so, so frustrated when, when they're in it, that they, yeah, they just want to get as far away as possible, and then, and then, what, when you're in it is when people really open their eyes up to, like, just how difficult of a situation it is. Because, I think that for the most part, as a society, we just try and avoid, you know, kind of thinking about, like, getting older. And because with getting older, we start thinking about dying and loss and things like that that no one likes thinking about. So so, like, ageism can certainly be an element of it, but I think that there's a lot of good people that just want to, like, yeah, they just want to be as far away from it, like, when, when they don't have to be as possible. I

Susie Singer Carter: 16:59

agree. People ask me all the time, why? How did you decide to do No Country for Old people? Because Didn't you just want to just close the door and go back to your life, right? But I think that, you know, I for me. I couldn't not share what I learned, because I would feel I don't think I for me, that's just me, and maybe it's because I'm a filmmaker, and I thought I can do something about this. You know, that's that's my, that's my, that's my sandbox, and let me try to at least share what I've learned and and hopefully it will, it will do some good. I i do think it will. I think people like you, you're 35 right? Yeah, yeah. And I think that's so great, because it's people like you and your generation that, if you're looking at it, that other people will and you'll make it, make it just natural. It's the same way we look at, you know, care for children. It's natural. It's what we do, and it's the cycle of life, and what you're doing is just so powerful to you know, to have a voice in it, in your generation, it's really meaningful, and I really applaud you for it. That's when I first met you. I was like, I love you so much. I love what you're doing. It's just incredible. Thank you. Thank

Unknown: 18:18

you. I appreciate that. And you know, I, you shared your, your sizzle reel with me for no country, for old people. And, you know, it's, it's such a powerful, it's such a powerful watch. And I look forward to seeing the, seeing the whole film, when, when, when it's released. And, and I think that's part of it too, is is telling, is telling more stories, and and, you know what? The stories like you have to share are very important, but then also something that we're trying to do with with El Dorado. And part of the reason why we chose the name El Dorado is, you know, because el dorados that you know the Mayan city of gold and prosperity, and

Susie Singer Carter: 19:00

because you love super tramp.

Unknown: 19:04

So, you know, we do also want to share some of the like, more positive stories. So I volunteer. I volunteer in a long term care home. And you know, there's in the news, all you hear is, is negative stories of of you know, neglect of abuse, of a lack of funding, short staff, all these negative things. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot that needs to be improved about long term care, but at the same time, there's people who are living their best lives in in there, you know, making the most of it and and, you know, we want to be able to share some of those stories too, not to diminish that. You know, there's not things that need to be improved there, there are. But I think when everything's negative, then you know who, who wants to go into a long term care home? And you know your entire perspective, all you've heard is, is these, these, these horror stories. And we also want to be able to share more of the the. Positive stories, and, you know, try and, you know, kind of nudge things back in, back in the right direction. Because as much as there's a lot of reason to be critical, we yeah, we want to provide some balance to the conversation that, you know, it's, it's not death's waiting room. There are people in there who are, who are, you know, making the most out of, out of what they have, and I get to see it when I like, I love volunteering in in the long term care home, because, you know, some of the people you get, you get to meet and, yeah, you, you know, sometimes things are going on there that I I don't love, but at the same time, you just try and take the positivity and, you know, kind of make the most of it.

Susie Singer Carter: 20:40

I so agree with you. I agree with that 100% because I think it's important to for people to understand that, that there are people living their best life and enjoying their life there, and that we need to support that, right? So it's not like, it's, it's like, like you said, like, it's like, we're throwing them in the dungeon and locking the door and walking away. No, there's people. I mean, when I would go to visit my mom, you know, I there, I always tell the story about the cool group, who are all in their 90s, who didn't have dementia for the most part, but they were the cool kids, right? And every time I come and sing with my mom or whatever, they'd always go Susie singing, come on over. You know, they come. They'd all hang out. They'd go to dinner together. They're just, they were the cool group, and they were enjoying their life. And I enjoyed them so much. And, you know, and, and, and I think that that's important to understand, that there is good life going on, and that, you know, a year to someone in their 90s is is way longer than a year in someone in their 30s, right? Because that's, yeah, it's more meaningful,

Unknown: 21:48

absolutely. And people like that. They, you know, they brighten up a resident so much like you can. I've been into a lot of long term care and retirement homes in Ontario, and you know, as much as the staff can make a big difference, the actual facility can make a big difference. The biggest thing that I find is, you know, it's, it's the residents, and it's, you know, if there's residents in there who are, you know, welcoming, getting people involved and things like that, then, then, naturally, those homes just feel home here, like it feels like it's their home, as opposed to, you know, where hospitals have kind of that sterile feel to them, and, and sometimes the long term care, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and, you know, plenty of long term care homes feel like an institution. But then there's also homes that you go into where you see that there's a lot of residents that just, they bring a really upbeat vibe and and, you know, not that it should be up to the residents to have to kind of create that environment, but when they're when that environment is, is there? Then, then, you know, it it the people, they the staff, prefer it. The other residents prefer, you know, it's just, it's just a better environment. So, exactly. So that's something that we want to do with El Dorado, is share more of share more of those stories. Because there's, you know, we certainly want to, you know, Shine spotlights on areas where things need to be improved. But at the same time, you know, because we try and educate people on on the entire system and and, yeah, we also want to share the more positive side. And then it also breaks down some of the fear that a lot of older adults have on on going into long term care or retirement home. Because, you know, certainly if, if I just read the paper, and that was my perspective on long term care, there's not a chance I'd want to, I'd want to go there because, yeah, because you never read in the paper is anything, even neutral, everything is a really negative stories,

Susie Singer Carter: 23:46

right? But see, and for me, that comes down to ageism, because people don't really want to hear about older people. So I think if we can force, you know, that's what I think that's when I talk about ageism. I think it's that, it's that the public doesn't really want to acknowledge it because of their own fears, right? And so, but, and I think when you when you get to see these kinds of stories that are very inspiring, then it becomes, it, it's, it's a positive and so it becomes attractive. It becomes, you know, compelling, and that's what we need. More more of you know, and unless less kind of stereotypical stories, but, you know, really just an inspirational, aspirational, you know, we should be able to be, to aspire, to be able to have that kind of life in our third chapter, yeah. And, and I think that's important, you know, because we all get there, hope, God willing, and so, you know, I hope that I'm aspiration. I hope I when I'm 90, I'm still doing hip hop, you know. And I'm doing, I'm doing the what, you know. I'm enjoying my life, you know. And I think, I think that's what we're here for. We all are on borrowed time. It doesn't matter how old. We are so we don't know what we don't know. So we have to make the best of it. Absolutely

Unknown: 25:06

my my grandpa is 97 years old. He still lives at home on his own. I a couple of weeks I was golfing with him, and his big thing, he's I really look up to my grandpa. I think he's one of the, you know, most admirable people I've I know, or I've ever met, and his whole thing is he just, he doesn't stop. So, you know, he goes to the gym every day. He's working on learning French. He, you know, he exercises, he gets out and and, you know, he tries to stay physically stimulated, mentally stimulated and, and so that's very much something that I try and keep in mind, is like, you know, like, keep going. Like, don't, don't stop. And, like, I said, he's, he's, yeah, he's, he's getting up there in years. But you would never, you would never guess it.

Susie Singer Carter: 26:01

I love it. I love it so much. Yeah, I just my friend, one of my colleagues. Dad is 90. No, he just turned 100 What am I talking about? It went to his 100th birthday at an assisted living, and he's a writer, and he still writes, and he's writing a new play. He's so incredible. We had the best birthday party at at the assisted living and he was like, you know, one of, one of the actresses that's in my other film, my mom and the girl who lives there as well, Liz Torres and and they, we introduced them at because I didn't know that they that she was living there and he was living there anyway, after we all spent like, about three hours together, he walked by her With this candy goes, I'll see you later.

Unknown: 26:44

Well, and I love that. And, you know, it's, it's such a it's such a gift to get to grow old and, and, yeah, that I absolutely love that. That's, I love that story. We'll

Peter Eun: 26:57

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Susie Singer Carter: 27:58

I have a couple questions for you, so these are the harder questions. So you know when, when people I've since learned from doing this documentary about, how do you check on the ratings for long term care in particular? And there's on on our CMS, which is the Center for Medicare and Medicaid, they'll have, they have a compare, right? So you can go on there and there's ratings and but the issue is that they're self reported, right? And the issue is, is that our rating system, these five star system, doesn't really reflect the truth, because there's ways to manipulate the system. So what are you? How are you getting, I'm sure that happens in Ontario. How do you, how do you work around that? And what do you think would be a good solution for all of us to to get those kinds of true ratings and make the standard, you know, well, a you know, well, it is achievable that they have to meet required, you know, compensatory, they have to do it, whereas now there's ways to game the system. Yeah,

Unknown: 29:09

so, so that's a that's a great question. So one of the things that we don't do is we don't actually rate any of the home so we collect information to help people make the most informed choice for for themselves. And part of the reason why we did that is when I started El Dorado, first thing I did was I interviewed 80 families that had placed a loved one in long term care retirement home in the previous year to learn know about their process. Who was involved in the decision. You know how long it took them, and then also how their expectations have have been met or not in in reality. And one of the things that I learned from that is that there was instances where I heard from different families where they had a loved one in the same home, and vastly different opinions of of that home. So one of the things that was clear to me early on is that, you know, someone's care needs, their circumstances, even their ability to make friends within a home is going to vastly, is going to drastically impact, you know, their their opinion of it. So instead, what we try and do is pull as much useful information and try and make this the decision making process as transparent as possible. So we do include in a listing. You know, you can see the Google reviews. You can see how it's rated on Google. Also for long term care homes, they report to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, things like the percentage of residents who fell, the percentage of residents who have pressure sores, and things like that. So that information has historically been somewhat difficult to access, so we put it all on the site. It's color coded, so that you see not just how they're doing, but how they're doing versus all the other all the other homes. But yeah, ultimately, we don't, we don't assign a score to homes. We give you all the information so that then you can assess, you know, this place is most likely to be the best fit. And then we still do recommend that people tour homes in person. So really, what we want El Dorado to do is help you narrow down from, there's 1400 elder care homes in Ontario, narrow it down to the, you know, maybe three, they're gonna be the best fit, and then two of those three in in person. But yeah, ultimately, we don't, we don't actually provide we, or at least at our current stage, we don't, we don't provide a rating. We just give you the the filters and the information you know. You can access the inspection reports through El Dorado, and you know, the languages of care that are available, the cultural designation. You can watch a video tour, see sample menus, activity calendars, amazing thing, yeah, things like that, that that we provide to you, as opposed to saying, hey, this home is a four and a half out of five. This one's a three out of five, just because different different families, sure, or did, or different older adults, they'll, they'll have different opinions of various homes.

Susie Singer Carter: 32:19

So that's, that's excellent. So what? So let's say, once they go to El Dorado, when you're going into to tour, your top three what, what do you think is the best way to do that? What would, what would you recommend on a tour? What would you look at? You know, I'll just give you something real quickly. I just say like one of, one of the people that we interview, one of our experts for the documentary said, you know, if, if he was going to tour a place like oftentimes, you know, you'll go in as a family, and you'll go in and see a really beautiful lobby, and you'll go, oh, it's gorgeous. Oh, look at the dining room. It's beautiful. Okay, done. And, and he, you know, one of his things that he said was like, I would go in and I'd say, can I just walk through the halls? Can I look at, can I talk to some of your residents? Right? And because if I saw that there was residents sitting there, and there was nobody around, and I couldn't find see any, like, you know, CNAs or anything, then I'm going to start wondering, is it just, am I just buying the lobby?

Unknown: 33:20

Mm, hmm, yeah. No, that that's, that's a great point. So there's a few things that some of them are things that I picked on. Some of them are like kind of recommendations that that have been given to me, given to me over time. So, so yeah, a few things. First is, because typically, in the lobby, a lot, I find a lot of retirement homes, which for retirement homes in Ontario, though, those aren't government subsidized, so they're typically a little more expensive, but they're also nicer. So a lot of times they'll set up some sort of, like social area also in the lobby to try and, like, kind of bring some life into it. So, you know, are there people that are that, are there, or wherever has been designated as a kind of a non meal time, kind of gathering place? Are there people there? Are they engaging with each other that can be a good sign? Also, when the staff are, you know, walking by residents are do they do they know them by name, which is awesome if they do, even if they don't know them by name. Are they kind of acknowledging? Are they acknowledging the residents, when you're away from the lobby, say you got to go to the bathroom and try and go to the bathroom, not because it's really easy to make the bathrooms right at the front where most people would go, really clean. But you know, what's the cleanliness like elsewhere in elsewhere in the home? And you know, if you have a chance to chat with any of the residents, that's that's not always going to be something that's possible. But you know, just chatting to them and not to because. Know, they're probably not going to say, like, hey, like, Don't come here. But, you know, asking them about, you know, are there, are there activities that they that they really don't enjoy? Or, you know, should there be, like, certain things on the calendar they keep an eye out for? Because, you know, if they can call out things that are coming up in the calendar, then, then that probably means that it's a home that, you know, is kind of more engaged and have better activities. And then, you know, something that I'm a little more particular about is little details. So a lot of homes will post things like menus around or activity calendars. Are they act? Are they current? Because if, if those sort of things aren't current, it's a small detail. But, you know, making sure that you get those sort of things right. And then the last thing I'd say is, typically, at least for retirement homes in Ontario, they'll offer that, you know, you can have lunch for free, or something like that, if you're if you're going on a tour, and, you know, take advantage of that and try and schedule it. So it's a time when the when all the residents are eating as well, and then you can have a look around. And you know, what's, what's it like in the in the dining room? Are people engaged with each other? Are Are they not? Is it, you know, is it just the kind of, really quiet and so on? Because maybe that's what you're looking for. And you know, maybe you do want a retirement home that for your personality is a little bit more quiet, but it just gives you, it just gives you a feel for for what you can expect when you know when you'd actually be a resident inside the home and and also realizing that it's probably during that meeting, during that visit, going to be the best that it will be at any point. So just just having a frame of reference that that generally, they're, they're trying to, you know, they're trying to make a good impression. So, you know, it's unlikely that it's going to be significantly better than than what you experienced that day. Just because they, they are trying to make a good impression on

Susie Singer Carter: 37:02

you. That's such good advice. Yeah, I think that's brilliant. Yes. Oh, and we do that too. When they do invite you to have lunch, when you go to tour, and I agree with you, take them up on it, even if you're not hungry, sit there and just see how what is the what is the community like, right? And then it also gives you a good opportunity to speak to some of the other residents, you know. How you doing? What are you eating? Is that? Is it yummy? Do you like it? I got the, you know, it gives you a chance to actually have a have a conversation that doesn't feel, you know, stilted. So I think that's great advice, I think.

Unknown: 37:38

And if anyone's not quite sure on how to be able to start that conversation with someone at another table. Like, something that I like doing is, you know, asking around some of the other tables, like, oh, like, What's your favorite thing on the menu? Like, what would you suggest? And then that usually opens up to like, oh, like, are you touring? Oh, what for? And then you know that that gives you an opening if, you know, to have a wider conversation, if, if you're interested, but yeah, so just ask people around, you know, what do they recommend from, from the menu? And I typically find that there's, you know, there's a lot of people that are quite eager and interested in engaging with you.

Susie Singer Carter: 38:14

I love it. Yeah, that's great. That's really great. So I think, I think, what do you think? I mean, I don't know. In Ontario to if they have, do they allow animals as they do, they have, like, an out, you know, those kinds of things so

Unknown: 38:30

that that so that is probably on our short list of new features to add, because some homes do allow, like, small pets. So, like, kind of dogs, cats, things like that. It's, it really depends on, it really depends on, on the specific home. So they, they make the rules about that. But yeah, there are some homes that that do allow that do allow small pets. There's even, I was in a home in in Oakville just a week or two ago. And not only do they allow small pets, but they've got a designated, like, pet washing room, where either you can go in or a groomer can can come in and to kind of give your dog or cat a spa day. So, so yeah, some homes do, do allow it. You know, there's, there's some homes here that are culturally designated. So that means that a lot of the residents will be from a particular culture, and then a lot of the food and activity are geared towards that are geared towards that culture. And you know, for some people, that's going to be, you know, a much better, a much better fit for them, especially, especially when it comes to food like that's something that I hear. I grew up in a very multicultural area, and, you know, food in elder care homes are something that becomes a big challenge. Because it seems like breakfast is always the biggest challenge, because culturally, there can be, you know, vastly different things that people eat for breakfast, and it's, it's hard to, you know, someone who's. In, you know, in their golden years, to suddenly try and say, you know, you've been eating breakfast one way for the past 80 years, and now we're gonna change that on you, right? So, yeah, being able to find a culturally designated home, that's why it was really important to me that on El Dorado, we have filters by language or by culture. Because when I speak to my friends, it was just ridiculous that there was no easy way for them to find which homes either kind of spoke the language of their loved ones or or were culturally designated. And I mean, something that I'm sure you, many of your listeners, are aware of, is that one of the early signs of dementia and Alzheimer's losing second languages. So you know, if someone can receive care in their native tongue, then they can repay, remain independent for much longer, which is typically going to lead to a much higher quality of life. I

Susie Singer Carter: 40:51

love it that those are so and those are little details that when you're in a stressed out situation, you might not think about, right? You might not think like, if you're if your family member loves animals, and like, I know here there's some facilities, like the one, one of them that my mother was in, they just had, like animals that were just that belonged to the facility, right? So they just ran around, and they were part of the home, they were the commute, part of the community. And everybody loved them, you know? And I think that if you are someone that is used to that, you know, those, those are kind of things to look for. You know, how open are they to that? How, you know, how does it match what you've, what you've, your lifestyle is, and maybe you don't like animals, and you don't want them running around all over the place, right? So you do need to look at those kinds of things, the details, little, little details that mean a lot.

Unknown: 41:38

Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that because so one of the reasons why you know so the pet filter is one of our most requested filters, and and it's because it's not only people who want to have pets, but it's equally people who just don't like being around pets. And on the flip side, they aren't interested in because something that can be easy to get, get lost, especially with all that news headlines, is that, you know, these are people's homes. This isn't just, you know, something like, we are talking about people's homes. And so, you know, you want to feel comfortable in in your own home, like, imagine you hated dogs, and in your home where you're currently living, you're required to have a, you know, a dog is gonna live in your living room no matter what. Like, you know, nobody, nobody would want to move into that house. And, and, and I think that's something that's really important to remember, is that, you know, the these are homes, and we can get caught up in all the statistics of, you know what it is, and you know, you just see these large numbers, and they're overwhelming, but at the end of the day, yeah, the these are, these are people who are looking for somewhere to, you know, live with their health, independence and dignity and and, you know, it should be easier for them to find which home is going to be the best fit for their circumstances.

Susie Singer Carter: 42:59

I just love you, Daniel, you've got it. You get you're so smart about this, and you have such a great perspective. You get it so well, like I didn't get it at 35 I didn't, I didn't think about it. My mom was such a pistol, and I didn't think about it. My dad died very young in a plane crash, so I didn't really have and my grandma was everybody was kind of independent. They just kind of went Goodbye. I'm going, you know. So I didn't really have experience with that, and it's so it's so lovely that, you know, you have such a great, compassionate, not notwithstanding, intelligent perspective on on these, these situation. No, it really does. It's very, it's very heartwarming and touching to me, because it is their home, and we can't forget that, you know, it's their home. And, and nobody you know, listen, you work your whole life, and you want to have a certain type of life, and, and now, you know, because of the the cycle. And now, do you have more needs than than anyone can handle? Okay, but let's make it as good, as wonderful as possible. And and remember that these are individuals, and they that these are not one size fits all,

Unknown: 44:09

yeah, yeah. And you know exactly what, what you just said there, where, you know we're talking, they've worked there. They've worked their whole life. They've literally laid the infrastructure that we enjoy. They've, they've fought battles so that we don't have to and, and, yeah, like, I really think that, you know, deserve better. And I was very fortunate to grow up in in a great family unit where, you know, where kind of always looked up to my looked up to my grandparents, like that was very much kind of part of our family unit is, you know, kind of the patriarchs of the family and and, you know, and part of it is just that the stories that like that was always my angle for why, why I've always enjoyed kind of spending time with my grandparents. Is, you know the stories they have they have to tell and and you know things that they can share, and you know the perspective on, you know what it was like when they were younger, versus versus my age. And even with both my grandparents, both my grandpas served in in the Navy, but where my grandpa, I've got one surviving grandparent. And, you know, I did some backpacking through sales to south southeast Asia. And my grandpa was, you know, on a ship going through Southeast Asia and being able to share, like, what it was like in Hong Kong when he was there, versus when, when I went and, you know, some, some things like that. It's just, it's priceless. Yet, I didn't, I didn't realize, you know, it was really once I started losing grandparents that that I realized, you know, just, you know, what, what an incredible source of joy that they can be, and you know, all these great stories that they have. So I do have some regrets that I, you know, I didn't, kind of start sooner, but at the at the same time, try and enjoy as much time as I have with with my grandparents. And that's also part of the reason why I love getting to volunteer at at a long term care home where I I work in a gift shop where it's kind of fallen it's only open when volunteers are there, and most people just come into chat. And you know, you hear all these, like, great stories, or sometimes you're just somebody to they get to chat to and, and, yeah, I mean, it's like, it's, it's a great time. And I'd encourage anyone, like, if you're, if you're looking for something to if you're looking for something to do, there's always, like, there's great activities that they go on, that they're always looking for volunteers for. And, yeah, if you have the chance to get involved, then, you know, don't be shy. They'll be, they'll be happy to have you

Susie Singer Carter: 46:46

100% I always tell people, like, if you want to feel good about yourself, like you'll just, first of all, you'll have such a blast. And you'll, you will, you'll learn so much you and you're so appreciate. It appreciated. And like, you know, you know it's like, the older you get, everybody looks younger to you. Well, you know, I would walk in and they'd always go, Wait, that's your daughter. Wait, how old? How old are you? And I go, How old do you think I am 22 Yes, I'm 20. How did you guess that? Right, so if you want to, or, like, if I'm singing, they're like, oh my god, she sings incredible. She's like, Barbara story, son. I'm like, I am really, no, they're just so kind and lovely. And, you know, you want to feel good about yourself. It's really, you're doing it for yourself as well. So Don't, don't think you're not

Unknown: 47:31

100% like, I tell people, you know, it's, it's a selfish endeavor that that I am, that I'm on because, you know, I I, I've seen what it's currently like and like I don't I want it to be better for my parents than, you know, it was my grandparents that I want it to be better for me. So that's, you know, we all have a goal of living a, you know, a long, prosperous life, but at the same time, most of us are going to end up in some sort of, you know, elder care home. So, you know, at that, why not work to make it the best that it can be, so that when you get there, it is, you know, it's like Disneyland for for, you know, for older adults, it's just like the most incredible place

Susie Singer Carter: 48:18

possible. Would you say it's like El Dorado, I want to say this to you, what's your what's your grandpa's name that's alive,

Unknown: 48:31

Hugh Ellis. So

Susie Singer Carter: 48:33

Hugh Ellis and Marnie is that his wife? Yeah, they raised, they raised an incredible grandson, thank you. You are incredible. And I thank them for that. I thank them for giving you such lovely values and curiosity and compassion. So Daniel, I'm, I'm rooting, I'm counting on you to keep to to, you know, keep going. Don't stop do what you're doing. Bring it on. Over here in America and everywhere else that needs needs this kind of, you know, this kind of service. And we all do so I am, I am cheer leading you on. I know everyone else that's listening is cheerleading you on too. And, and I thank you. I can't wait to hear more about you and all the things you're going to be doing, because I know you're going to be doing a lot. You're very special and

Unknown: 49:27

and one thing I can mention is, though, although we're not in the United States right now, and it's probably going to take some time before you know we're looking at expanding anywhere outside of Canada, there is a similar platform that follows a similar model called Purple door finders that is kind of expanding across the that's expanding across the states, and, you know, follows a lot of the same principles that that that we do so, if so, if somebody is looking, you know, right now, that can be a resource that that's really helpful, because you do have to be. Careful that there are a number of pay to list platforms, and there are, you know, certain platforms that are known for they'll just recommend, because, you know, they're being paid to recommend. And ultimately, I know with my family, we, you know, we wanted the best care for my grandma, not the best care of the people who were paying to be listed on a particular on a particular service and and, yeah, so that's that's something that, to me, is is really important. And of course, I want El Dorado to be big and successful, but I also want to make sure that, you know, all families are able to, you know, navigate this really challenging time as as you know the best way possible. And whether it's with El Dorado or whether you're somewhere else with another solution that exists there, because families deserve better, like they that just it's such a stressful time when you know when you're having to go through looking for elder care, and families deserve better resources.

Susie Singer Carter: 50:55

Amen, amen. So thank you. I think we'll put all that on the show notes. Everybody, they'll have the is it called Purple doors is? What is it? Purple door finder, yeah, purple door finder. And, of course, El Dorado, of course, Daniel Clark and and everything else you'll and you can reach out to him, and if you want to interview him, or have or talk to him, or just tell him how great he is, you could do that because he deserves it, and I want to just tell you how much I love him again. And this whole show is about love, because love is powerful. Love is contagious, and love conquers all. So thank you all for following. Please share if you like this show, stay well, take care of yourself. Have fun and, see you and hear and talk to you next time. Thanks.

Angela Fairhurst: 51:53

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Don Priess: 52:58

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