Heath Fletcher (00:13)
Hi everyone, welcome to the Healthy Enterprise Podcast. If you're back for more, thanks for joining me again. And if it's your first time, ⁓ I hope you enjoyed today's episode. My guest for this episode is Dr. Merle Griff. She's a founder and CEO of SarahCare Senior Solutions. It's one of the top senior care providers in the US ⁓ and SarahCare offers adult day programs, memory care and intergenerational activities that help seniors thrive and give family caregivers the support and break they definitely need.

She's also the author of Solace in the Storm, Caring for Loved Ones in Every Generation. So please welcome Dr. Merle Griff. Welcome Merle Thank you for joining me today for this episode. I'm looking forward to having a conversation with you.

Merle Griff (00:59)
Well, thank you for having me, Heath. I really appreciate it. It's great to meet you.

Heath Fletcher (01:03)
Yes, nice to meet you as well. our listeners are going to want to meet you too. So this is a great opportunity for you to maybe just take a moment and introduce yourself and let listeners know about who you are and what you do.

Merle Griff (01:18)
Okay, well, I'm the CEO and founder of Sarah Care Adult Aid Health Centers. We take care of people during the day. We say 101 activities and home by dinner. So we like to think we keep families together and keep seniors in their community. We're staffed with nurses, so we can do a pretty high level of care while people are with us. But meanwhile, they get out of their house. They have fun, they great food, they have friends.

They just have a good time while their healthcare is being monitored. So it's much, much better for them. I'm a psychologist by training. Started out working with children. My area specialty was three to 12 year olds. ⁓ I was a play therapist and I've kind of worked my way through the lifespan ⁓ and have been working with seniors now for a long time. I think the other important thing is I've been a family caregiver.

⁓ I took care of my mother for many years in my own home after she had a very, very dense stroke. And I took care of my husband for many years who had a chronic illness ⁓ and took care of him in my home. And one of my children had a very, very severe learning disability and is now doing great. And I think that changes your perspective. ⁓ It's not that you're required to do it. I mean, there were...

many, many wonderful professionals who have not been family caregivers. But I think it gives you an insight ⁓ into what's going on and how people feel in a much different way. I know that I changed some of the things that I was doing in SarahCare ⁓ after taking care of my mother, especially.

Heath Fletcher (03:00)
it gives you a lot of insight when you're a caregiver, doesn't it? If you have never experienced the caregiving aspect, it's hard to imagine really what people need when they're in a state where they are in need of caregiving. Whether it's a ⁓ younger person with illness or if it's a senior ⁓ end of life care, whatever it is, until you've actually had that caregiving experience, it's really hard to understand it.

Is that what inspired you to do this? Is that after you were caring for your mother?

Merle Griff (03:37)
Actually, I had already ⁓ opened up my first SarahCare Center. ⁓ I've made many changes though in the business. I made many changes in our processes ⁓ and the way that we interact with families and the way we do intake. I developed new programs and new services based on my experience ⁓ in taking care of her. Absolutely.

Heath Fletcher (04:03)
And this is a large, this is a large situation. We've got a lot of people moving into seniors in need of senior care, isn't it? And I think we're now only halfway through sort of this huge movement ⁓ of a retiring community, don't worry.

Merle Griff (04:20)
Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. There was a study done recently of something like a thousand families. And it found that the average age of the primary family caregiver now for a senior actually was between 35 and 49. And I think everyone always thinks that the family caregiver for a senior is in their 60s. And that's not so. Yeah, it was a really interesting work.

Heath Fletcher (04:50)
That is very interesting. what is other numbers around how many people actually get to stay in their homes with their families? Because I mean, that's, that's not a typical thing either. We you know, we've kind of, as a society grown to put our seniors in in homes or in places where they can be with other seniors, which is, you know, a community environment, but not a lot. What is the rate of people that actually bring their have their

their seniors at home for caregiving.

Merle Griff (05:21)
It's actually increasing. Yeah. Especially post COVID. ⁓ People really reacted to not being able to get into the nursing home or get into the assisted living during COVID. And they began to rethink through ⁓ what they were going to do and how they were going to manage. Plus, the other change was obviously with COVID, more people are working remotely. ⁓ And so they're able to keep their

parents or there is sometimes it's the spouse, parents, people always think it's the parent, it's not always the parents, it's a sometimes it's husband or a wife, or a partner that they're caring for. And now that they're working remotely, they're able to manage the care a little better than they were able to do before. So COVID was a big factor at a big turning point ⁓ in people choosing what we call home and community based services.

Heath Fletcher (06:18)
Yeah, it revealed a lot of cracks, didn't it? know, particularly the one where you couldn't access your family members. I mean, that was probably the scariest one. And I know many stories were told about, you know, actually losing your parent during that time and they were alone for that, for that situation. So that's, yeah, scary for family members to see that and to know, well, not only that too, the resources that we have available to us. ⁓

you know, there's not as many places for people to go now. It's better if we can get as many people to stay at home as much as possible, isn't it?

Merle Griff (06:55)
It is, and we find we like people, I we do some home care, and I'm not opposed to that. But if possible, I like people leaving their home and coming into our center. ⁓ Because you know what happens if you've been hospitalized or you're sick and you're at home, you start to get disoriented, ⁓ and your appearance tends to go downhill. So we find when people come out,

⁓ Suddenly they're aware of how they're dressing and how they're looking and bathing and we can monitor their food and monitor their medication better. ⁓ And they're with people, they're out ⁓ and they're engaged. ⁓ It's much, much better for them. And so sometimes people will say, my gosh, I can't believe the change in my mom or my husband. mean...

It's unbelievable. Just getting out of the house and being with people again makes a big, big difference.

Heath Fletcher (07:51)
Yeah amazing and so I guess for listeners it's probably good to explain that this is kind of like a day a day place a place to go for the day right and and is it an everyday thing or is it kind of a couple times a week three times a week what's

Merle Griff (08:06)
Our centers are open six days a week. ⁓ Some families come two days a week, some families come six days a week. It depends on their work situation ⁓ and their personal situation, but we have flexibility.

Heath Fletcher (08:20)
That's amazing. so, yeah, let's go over what kind of experiences can they have when they get there.

Merle Griff (08:27)
Well, we are taking care of people who all the way from someone who's very frail perhaps and depressed and lonely to someone who has Parkinson's disease or stroke ⁓ or mid-stage dementia. So the fact that we have nursing care ⁓ is very important, but usually what happens is they come in, they have coffee, they have exercise program.

I love to watch the exercise program because my seniors are really doing it well. They're out there and they're just jumping up and raising their arms and doing their thing. And the staff is huffing and puffing. I'm like, look, why? As a senior, you really got to start exercising a little. ⁓ When they go into.

Heath Fletcher (09:15)
funny.

Merle Griff (09:18)
At SarahCare, we run four different activities at any given time. So it depends on what someone's interest is, what their functional ability is. Sometimes we have men's groups because sometimes the men only want to be with the men and the women only want to be with the women. We go out as much as possible. So we have adapted sports, we have adapted bowling, adapted fishing, adapted golf.

They go to the movies, they go out to eat at a restaurant. We want them out as much as we can get them out.

Heath Fletcher (09:53)
mean, these things you're describing, it's exactly the thing. The reasons, these are the reasons why, you know, people actually move into senior centers or care centers because it is in a community involvement. That's the part that gives people a reason to get out of bed and go out and get out of their apartment and get out of there. So this is really nice. It's also maybe a bit of a respite for caregivers too, right? Cause they can, um,

the you know they bring them down and maybe they go off for the day and do something to regenerate and refresh themselves as they.

Merle Griff (10:27)
Because the biggest issue in taking care of someone is, and I don't care whether it's a child ⁓ or whether it's a senior, it really doesn't matter, is your own health. so taking care of someone who may be a challenge to take care of, even though you love to do it, around the clock is hard. And there's lots of research and statistics out there on the impact on the family caregiver's health. Heart disease, high blood pressure, sugar.

So they really really need that respite. They they need to be able to do that

Heath Fletcher (11:02)
this is a great great thing for both parties to be able to experience this. ⁓ and I res reading too something about ⁓ locations that in in some cases you've actually got them located near a ⁓ a daycare program for children. Is that that tell me more about that?

Merle Griff (11:21)
⁓ We actually opened what was called the first shared intergenerational site in the country, ⁓ which meant that the Child Daycare Center and our SarahCare Adults Center were right across from each other. so intergenerational really means building relationships. It's not that the kids come in and Halloween in their little costume and they prance around. It's very cute and that's very nice. ⁓ But that doesn't really build a relationship.

So we did everything from, and we do everything from rock a babies, which is the seniors, if they're able to go in and rock the infants, the baby one on one time with them. I'll tell you something. Oh yeah. Well, the most interesting thing about the program is who are, who, who participates in that the most, the men or the women. So what would be your guess?

Heath Fletcher (12:05)
amazing.

Well, I'd probably normally say women, but you're probably going to say men.

Merle Griff (12:21)
That's right.

Heath Fletcher (12:23)
Naturally, you'd think of the women would not want to be the mothering types, is that right?

Merle Griff (12:29)
Well, women are like, look, been there, done that. And then you're like, I never got to do that. This is wonderful. Right.

Heath Fletcher (12:37)
⁓ wow. Well,

they were at work, right? It's that generation where it's like, that's what they had to do. And that's what the mothers did. And yeah, yeah, it makes sense.

Merle Griff (12:47)
It's all the way through ⁓ high school ⁓ students who have to do community service, ⁓ all the way through college. So we've cross-trained ⁓ students in early education in dealing with seniors and students that are studying gerontology, doing intergenerational programs with kids.

Heath Fletcher (13:11)
I think that's incredible to blend those communities together.

Merle Griff (13:15)
Yeah, well, I'll tell you a quick story. I ran into one of the kids who had younger kids who had been in the Childsacre Center and then had left because she was starting school. ⁓ And I ran, she was at one of my children's schools that I saw her and I said, Jamie, how are you doing in your new school? And she's like, ⁓ it's okay. And I said, Jamie, I'm so sorry. You know, what don't you like about your new school? And she said,

There are no grandmas or

Heath Fletcher (13:47)
Aww. ⁓

That's adorable. Yeah. And I mean, maybe there's I mean, you know, I speak from my from my own experience, I kind of came in and a general at the end of my siblings, and there's a 20 year gap between me and my oldest sibling. So I really never knew my grandparents, I never had grandparents. And so I feel like that I've missed that opportunity, you know, and then because I was so much younger, when when my kids were born, my parents were already elderly.

and were gone by the time my kids were three. So they've had aunts and uncles, sure, but they didn't have, they have had that influence, but didn't have that grandparent influence. And I think it's a really, it's a really interesting, really cool thing to be part of in your, in your family circle, the elders, people that, you know, and you learn to have that respect and that engagement with, with another generation.

Merle Griff (14:44)
Well, it's interesting. studied years ago, children, and they asked them how they perceived how they saw, you know, seniors and grandparents and many of the kids, you know, especially because in the age of mobility, they're not with their grandparents very much describe them as old and scary and smelly. you know, they then

tested them and asked them the same questions after they had participated in a number of intergenerational programs and everything changed. They were wonderful, they were so patient and they loved me and it was great. So intergenerational programs are very effective for both generations.

Heath Fletcher (15:29)
And is it that you are able to do that at all your facilities or not just because of proximity but.

Merle Griff (15:36)
Yeah, we're able to do it, most of them. even if the, and it may not be the younger children, it may be the high school student who has to do the service or it may be a junior high. And we're doing a joint project with them or doing a joint choir or some agricultural gardening projects with them. It all depends right on the proximity.

Heath Fletcher (16:01)
Okay, well, okay, take me back to when you because you opened your first facility. And what year was it? Five I was gonna say, that's the year I graduated from high school.

Merle Griff (16:08)
No, 1985.

So good!

Heath Fletcher (16:18)
So 1985, so that you open your first one and and at what point in your in while you were there, did you go, I want to make I want to turn this into a franchise or was that always part of your business vision?

Merle Griff (16:32)
It was not anything I ever thought about. actually, ⁓ one of my lawyers, you know, they have these kind of newsletters, they said you. And one of the newsletters that I just happened to read by chance said, you know, is your business franchiseable? Not exactly good grammar, but that's what it said. And I thought, wow, that's kind of interesting and kind of challenging.

What was happening at that point is assisted livings were opening up like rapid. I mean, they were all over the place. And some of the care was very good. And a lot of the care was not very good because for many people it was seen as a real estate deal, not as a C-G-P. And so I kind of had this idea that maybe we could, I thought

the next thing people were gonna begin to look at was adult day healthcare. ⁓ And that if we franchised it, we could bring people in who wanted to do it, but teach them how to do it well ⁓ at the highest standard of care. So it would be profitable. I mean, my centers are for profit, they are profitable, but we still maintain extremely high standards of care. ⁓ And so we began actively franchising.

many, many years later after I opened up the first two set.

Heath Fletcher (17:58)
yeah, two to begin with. And then you started franchising. And now you're in like 13 states and how many cities, how many locations?

Merle Griff (18:07)
⁓ I should know that off the top of my head. We have about 30 centers and three new ones that are opening.

Heath Fletcher (18:14)
Wow, amazing, amazing. Congratulations. I mean, that must feel really great. ⁓ to be able to spread this, this ⁓ philosophy and this idea into so many different communities around the country. So amazing. You're getting probably amazing feedback from people I would imagine. had so many testimonials from caregivers and, ⁓ and or from ⁓ people who

who go to the centers and get the care, but also staff, I noticed too. So a lot of people will ask, how do you manage the staffing? I mean, that's resources of our seem to be always spread thin and tapped. And how do you deal with that?

Merle Griff (19:01)
Stamping is a little easier. mean, in my past, I've owned nursing homes and assisted independent living and ⁓ home care. can tell you that stamping the Adult Day Health Center is actually a little easier. The reason for that is our ads read, no weekends, no evenings, no holidays. ⁓ It's a dream job. a nursing assistant has been working in a nursing home, she's pretty overwhelmed. They're working

⁓ One staff member to every 15. We're working on one staff member to every four people. Plus they get to do activities with them. They're not only just doing personal care. So they get to do lots of fun things with them, including going out on the outings with them. ⁓ And they don't have to worry about being away from their family on the weekends or if they want to see their kids.

Heath Fletcher (19:38)
That's very different.

Merle Griff (19:58)
baseball game at six o'clock at night, they're done and they can go to the football game. The other big thing is, and the staff across the country tell me this, it's much, much different for them because they actually form relationships with families. And the families are always telling them how much they appreciate them and how wonderful they are. They bake food for them, they bring them all kinds of things.

So they feel important and they are important. And they feel as though they're really having an impact on people and they really are. So it's a little easier for us.

Heath Fletcher (20:36)
Yeah, well, they're contributing to that building and and reinforcement of community, right? Yeah, which is sometimes gets, when you particularly when you talk about an elderly person, sometimes, you know, they have less and less friends and family members around in that.

that loneliness factor can really have a major impact. mean, your background is in psychology, so you know probably as well as anybody that depression comes, sometimes is rooted in loneliness, right?

Merle Griff (21:10)
Yeah,

no, absolutely is. And people also get disoriented ⁓ when they're too isolated and they spend too much time alone.

Heath Fletcher (21:19)
Is that right? What triggers that? What's that caused by?

Merle Griff (21:24)
They are not forced to deal with reality. And they're not talking to people, they're not seeing people. They tend to watch a lot of television. And so they lose touch with what day it is, what year is it, what season. I mean, they just, ⁓ they become very depressed and very isolated. And they do begin to come often disoriented.

Heath Fletcher (21:53)
Well, I guess they're not exercising that part of their brain, I suppose, where you're engaging with people having conversation, connecting, asking questions. And yeah, so I can see that. Yeah.

Merle Griff (22:06)
Right. And, and for instance, in our centers, we do a program called brain savers, which is a cognitive physical fitness program developed by a neurologist, well-researched ⁓ out of Arizona. ⁓ And so you're not, you have experiences that you're not going to have if what you're doing is sitting at home.

Heath Fletcher (22:26)
Right, right. That makes sense. Is there a limit to how much care a person needs for your centers? if, is there a point where it's like you can't, you can't accept them because they're, they need too much care or they need too much attention during their visit?

Merle Griff (22:44)
Yeah, I mean, we pride ourselves at doing a pretty high level of care. We have people in feeding tubes and colostomy bags, brittle diabetics. But if someone is on IV, we can't accept IVs. ⁓ There are not a lot of behavioral challenges that we can't accept. We really try to work with people, but sometimes there are some.

⁓ And we find, I know that when there's a behavioral problem like physical aggression, that's also happening in the house. And then it becomes a safety issue for the caregiver ⁓ as well as for us.

Heath Fletcher (23:26)
Absolutely. So then if you have sort of groups of people who are not as mobile, they don't necessarily go on all the field trips, you kind of have different, different levels of activities for different groups of people and the and people are all this group is going to go out on a field trip and this group is going to hang back here and play cards or something or is that

Merle Griff (23:46)
A lot of it really has to do with interest. Because we have vans with wheelchair lifts. Yeah, so we just wheel them right on with a wheelchair lift and up they go. And yeah, I mean, we have to make sure that wherever we're going is handicapped accessible.

Heath Fletcher (23:53)
right.

wow.

Yeah, makes sense.

Merle Griff (24:07)
But

other than that, yeah, we just, you gotta move. ⁓

Heath Fletcher (24:13)
amazing.

That's so great. ⁓ alright. So tell me about your transition. ⁓ you know as a as a as a founder and as a CEO that you have gone from you know one facility to two facilities and now you have this franchise ⁓ business. How have you evolved as a professional in that regard where you are now leading this this this force? You know ⁓

How have you transitioned as a business leader yourself?

Merle Griff (24:45)
It's different. It's hard because when you own the centers, that staff is your staff. All right. So if things aren't moving quite the way you want them to or as quickly as you want them to, especially in the opening, ⁓ you can come in and take control of that and direct it as you want it to go. With franchisees, and I mean, I've been very blessed and very lucky. have great franchisees, but you can't

have that direct approach. You'll have to work through the franchisee. So if the franchisee has signed, now they're looking for space ⁓ and they don't look for space for a month because, I'm a little busy and I have this family event coming up. You know, you can't say to them, look, you know, you got to get on this. Get to work.

So you have to learn to be a little calmer, a little more patient. It's a different franchising is a different approach. It's not a direct approach and you have to learn to operate. ⁓ Your leadership style has to be modified. Absolutely.

Heath Fletcher (26:04)
I'm sure some people listening or their control flags are all popping up like, I can't let go of control long enough for that. How do I do that? Is that what you're kind of talking about?

Merle Griff (26:18)
Yeah, mean, you have to learn to keep your mouth shut at times. It's not like you were a stamp member, you know, who you can say. I mean, like, you know, we've rolled out what we call restorative nursing program and I had two franchisees who hadn't implemented it yet. And I said, why not? I don't understand this. You know, you can.

Use existing staff, it makes people better and you can bill for it. I mean, what are you waiting for? They're like, ⁓ well, I don't know, you know, it's new and da da da. So we worked with them and we got the new programs in, but it was at a much different rate of implementation.

Heath Fletcher (27:05)
Right. What was that program? What was that about? Restore.

Merle Griff (27:08)
Restorative

nursing, well, what happens when you're in physical or occupational therapy, there's something called Medicare Flynn's that pays for that physical or occupational therapy. If you're not making enough progress quickly enough, according to the Medicare Flynn's, the physical and occupational therapists have to discharge you. They have no choice. All right. But if you can continue to make progress, then our restorative nurses will begin working with you. ⁓

Heath Fletcher (27:37)
See.

Merle Griff (27:37)
We need to make progress at a slower rate that doesn't impact us. So it's really an outstanding program. ⁓ We've seen people make a lot of progress with us with restorative nursing.

Heath Fletcher (27:50)
very interesting. Yeah. so that the franchise model you've you've rolled this out ⁓ and now you're sort of adopting this new philosophy in in business. You've got ⁓ franchisees in all these different centers. ⁓ tell me about like if if you know at what point what was the deciding factor for you for doing the franchise in the first place? I mean you could have just opened up individual centers and ⁓

Merle Griff (28:17)
Which,

which, which honestly, my husband wanted me to do. He was like, why are you doing this? Just, just open up more centers. And I said, I don't know. just, I know that people are going to do this. I know this is a business that people are going to go into. And, and I'm really convinced that we can teach them to do it really well, ⁓ at high standards of care. ⁓ and not.

have it be like the assisted living business as it turns out. And that was really the motivation for it. Now, if I had realized going into it how involved it was and how much it cost, I'm not sure I would have opened up more company-owned centers, but in retrospect, I'm glad I did. I have great franchisees. They have great centers.

fifth ⁓

Heath Fletcher (29:40)
That's cool.

Merle Griff (29:42)
I feel so much better being here than I do back in my office.

Heath Fletcher (29:47)
Well, that's something you wouldn't get, know, having having a having a, you know, independently owned or not as opposed to an as having owned all your locations and just having managers in each of these. You wouldn't have that degree of self interest or self pride or, you know, passion behind it. Then as if you have somebody who's actually part owner, because that's really what they become, right?

Merle Griff (30:13)
Right, absolutely. ⁓ And our franchisees are on a call once a month. ⁓ We do an educational part at the beginning of the call, but then they talk to one another and they'll say, I'm having this problem. How do you solve it? And people respond. So there was a feeling of closeness among them that they support each other and they help each other. ⁓

and feel really good about what they're doing and about their work, which is key, as you know.

Heath Fletcher (30:48)
Yeah, like a business group where you just kind of bring them all together and they share their ups and downs and victories and everything else. ⁓ very interesting. Yeah, that's a great way to understand that.

Merle Griff (31:00)
I have one of my franchisees, know, and as the lingo goes, is a real techie. ⁓ And a while ago, he was on the owner's call and they were talking about something and he's like, look, you have to use ChatGPT. And they were like, what? What is that? And he's like, no, no, I'll teach you guys how to do this. This is great. All right. This is the newest thing. You really got to learn how to do this. All right. And they were like,

Lewis, what do you use this for? And he said, and he talked about all the business uses that he had. You have to be careful with chat GPT because it's not what we call HIPAA compliant. So you can't put any medical information in it. But he's like, I use it for this and I use it for that. And he said, on a personal basis, I also use it to write love letters to my wife.

Heath Fletcher (31:50)
I've not heard that yet. That's funny. I might have to borrow that. That's great. Hey, that's a good segue to you to brought up AI. Probably you're probably not using a lot of AI other than chat GPT. But what other kind of innovation or technology have you sort of infused into the company?

Merle Griff (32:15)
tell you, ⁓ we end up being ⁓ not so much a distribution channel, but a clinical research site ⁓ for new technology that's being developed. mean, part of the problem ⁓ is the foundations or the VC or whoever it is, ⁓ is funding and technology, but then they have to go out and they have to test it.

Heath Fletcher (32:38)
Right, they need data, they need research.

Merle Griff (32:42)
And what they found was they really couldn't get enough seniors who were willing to participate and try out a new technology.

Heath Fletcher (32:51)
Amazing, yeah.

Merle Griff (32:53)
⁓ We have a lot of relationships where we do that. ⁓ We give our families a small reduction in their daily rate ⁓ in exchange for working with us and giving us some data on how the technology works. ⁓ And sometimes the developers love what our people have to say and sometimes they're not so happy with what they have to say.

Heath Fletcher (33:18)
That's called a clinical trial. ⁓

Merle Griff (33:21)
That's

right!

Heath Fletcher (33:24)
You

can take that information and do whatever you want with it, but that's the information. Yeah. That's the way it goes. That's a great, that's a great thing. I would never thought of that. Actually. That's really, fascinating that that could be used because it's, and you've got such a wide variety of people from various socioeconomic groups that, you know, that kind of diversity and in the, in, those kind of, uh, uh, clinical trials would be very helpful. I would think. Yeah.

Merle Griff (33:52)
yeah, it's very helpful. we used to say 65 and above, then we went to 60 and above, now we're at 50 and above. I mean, we're seeing a lot of early dementia, early stroke, early Parkinson's disease. So we have a wide range in terms of the ages, in terms of the ethnicities, in terms of gender. ⁓ So we're really a great clinical research site ⁓ for...

a lot of the emerging technology.

Heath Fletcher (34:23)
Very cool. Very interesting. ⁓ Alright, so now you've just opened three locations, you said, just your newest three locations. ⁓ What is growth look like for Sarah Carey now? What? How big you want to get?

Merle Griff (34:40)
We'd to probably get up to 100 units. Yeah. We'd see that we're getting rapid growth all of a sudden. ⁓ People are coming out of COVID. They realize people want to stay at home. ⁓ Home care can be challenging. so people are really beginning to look at adult day health very seriously. So we think we're going to see some rapid growth.

Heath Fletcher (35:06)
Yeah, mean, you know, in home care does not give you that community, that engagement with humans that you are offering. I mean, that's just such a such a big part of it.

Merle Griff (35:18)
Right. And we've developed some new programs. We have a new program called Studio 55. It's for those people who are living, especially in active over 55 communities where, you know, one spouse is leaving to go play pickleball and cards and whatever. And the other spouse who cognitively is just fine. It may have been a physician or a lawyer or an engineer or whatever they were doing. But they're a full risk.

and they have problems and they may need some assistance with their personal care. There's some reason why they can't be as mobile and they can't be as active with their spouse. So they come up to the community room to our program called Studio 55. It's designed for 10 to 12 people. We do whatever activities they would like. We design around them. They get out, they're with people, they're active.

They're much, happier than sitting in their house on a one-on-one basis. mean, I've walked in and I had a group of guys that were working, they were watching videos on heart surgery. I'm like, what you guys doing? You're like, we think this is great. Like, okay. long as you're happy. That's right.

Heath Fletcher (36:39)
floats your boat.

For a minute I thought it was Studio 55 was going to be a level up of like some sort of Studio 54 dance, disco dance, get together.

Merle Griff (36:51)
We had to find another name for it because the active over 55 communities were concerned about their branding in terms of their marketing. So they didn't want adult day health. we had to a name. So I'm from Philly originally. I knew Studio 55. I'm like, hey, let's just call it Studio 55.

Yeah. Yes.

Heath Fletcher (37:22)
⁓ Okay, ⁓ so you're going to grow and how do you find new franchisees? What is your method of attracting them and showing them how this could be a viable and worthwhile venture for someone?

Merle Griff (37:39)
Most franchisees come through what we call franchise portals. ⁓ They're their own sites, internet sites where they're looking for a franchise. They may just Google adult daycare franchise or a senior franchise. ⁓ And so they come to us through that. We have a five-step process we put them through. ⁓ And the last step being what we call meet the team day where we interview them.

the whole team, the whole upper management team, they interview us. We show them everything that we're going to be doing for them as a franchisee, ⁓ including all their policies and procedures for their specific ⁓ state, all their job descriptions. I mean, they have, you know, eight days of operations training where they're actually in our centers. It's a pretty intensive plus ongoing support.

that they get.

Heath Fletcher (38:39)
you up from your end? Do you kind of, you know, look at different locations of where you're not at now and look at okay, what's the most what's gonna be the most viable location that we set up and then you sort of target that area and go, hey, we want to open a center here. We're looking for franchisees or do you ever approach it that way?

Merle Griff (38:57)
No, usually what happens, they're coming to us and they're saying, here's the area where we'd like to be. We then run the demographics. We know we need a certain number of seniors within a 20 minute driving radius at a certain median income. The demographics don't support that area. We're going to tell them, this is not good. You can move here, you can move there, ⁓ but this area is not going to work for you.

⁓ Right now we're only trying to franchise in those states where we already have centers because you're trying to build the brand.

Heath Fletcher (39:33)
Right.

Are there a lot of regulations for you when you enter a new state? So every time you, you you're already in existing state to open a new one within that state, it's probably easier than, you know, venturing into a brand new state.

Merle Griff (39:47)
Right, I mean, one of the things about adult day health is it is not consistent from state to state. ⁓ And so you really need to know how to enter a new state, how to become familiar with those regulations, how to write those policies and procedures according to what the state wants. We're pretty good at that. We've been doing this a long time and we've been crossing state lines for a long time. ⁓ So it's something that comes pretty naturally to us.

⁓ but it has been in the past, a problem with the technology. ⁓ so, you know, my, my former chief operating officer wanted to go with the software. And I said to him, this is not going to work. They've never worked outside the state of New Jersey. They are not going out across state lines. It's going to be a problem with billing is what it's going to, and he's like, I don't, yeah, that's exactly what happened. They, they.

The billing system is not like nursing homes where it's the same fed forums in every state. It's in every state and the technology just couldn't keep up with it. Now we're in a great software company.

Heath Fletcher (40:59)
And so then you support, and that's a huge support to provide that policy procedures, infrastructure to the business, and branding and marketing as well, I would imagine.

Merle Griff (41:13)
Right, right. So we have something called The Hub. It's our intranet site. So all the marketing collateral is on there, all the PowerPoints, all the staff training ⁓ is on there. yeah. Is there. So the owner can access it 24-7. So if they're working and they still want to access some things at two o'clock in the morning, it's there for them. Amazing. They can do it.

Heath Fletcher (41:39)
Yeah, that's amazing. Wow, very cool. It sounds like an amazing opportunity for someone. And do you find people that have already come from that background ⁓ who are interested in franchise and you know, in a franchise or

Merle Griff (41:54)
It's a combination.

I mean, we do have some franchisees who are nurses and social workers and physical therapists, a lot of physical therapists. ⁓ But we do have ⁓ financial people. ⁓

Heath Fletcher (42:02)
really?

to see a good business opportunity.

Merle Griff (42:11)
Do they

recognize the senior market? They want to be able to get into the senior market. Many of them though do come to us with a personal story. It's a father they've been taking care of or a mother or a grandparent, but they come from a business background. we want them, having that business background is very important. I mean, when we have our annual conferences,

⁓ I always bring in a speaker from ⁓ NFIB, which is the National Federation of Independent Businesses, to talk to the franchisees about the new regulations, especially in the area of human resources and new laws that are pending and new things that have passed. And I tell them, you're not only running a clinical site, an adult day center, but you're also running a small business. And you can't forget about that. That's very important. ⁓

and you have to stay focused on business as well.

Heath Fletcher (43:13)
Well, think that's really good advice, actually. think that's a great point. I'd like to know if there's any other advice you have for somebody. So if they were to venture into this, ⁓ what advice would you give them? What kind of support as far as ⁓ taking on an organization like this or a company like this?

Merle Griff (43:36)
They really have to decide ahead of time what their role is going to be and think that through. ⁓ Are they going to leave their job and they're going to come in as an owner operator or are they going to stay in their job and hire someone? How are they going to manage that and how are they going to support that? For people who don't have a business background, we put them through a financial 101. You'd be amazed.

how people go into a business and they don't know how to read a profit and loss statement. And they don't even look at it. And even when you give it to them, they're like, I don't want to see it. No, no, no.

Heath Fletcher (44:18)
It's true. It's a weak link. It absolutely is. Yeah.

Merle Griff (44:22)
⁓ And, you know, they don't know how to read a balance sheet. So you've got to put them, and we give them a lot of tools. We have what we call a census workbook, which we give them and it's all the formulas are locked. It's on Excel. ⁓ And they have to learn how to use these tools to run their business. And they have to be willing to commit to that. ⁓ And really,

stay according to a budget and really use their financial tools to help them in their business. It's amazing how much hesitancy there is ⁓ in that among franchisees. ⁓ I have friends who are franchisors with other types of businesses, food and other types, and they all say the same thing. They have about a large percentage, 80 % of their franchisees who are very hesitant.

Heath Fletcher (44:53)
Good night.

You

Merle Griff (45:16)
about running the business as a business.

Heath Fletcher (45:19)
Really? Isn't that interesting? Very interesting. even though you have, I mean, this kind of support, I mean, when you open a business, anyone who knows who's opened their own business, you know, you get support, but you don't get this kind of support. You don't get someone telling you, here, you got to learn how to do this. You got to learn how to do that. It's incredible actually that you can provide that kind of support to them. and cause I mean, if they succeed, you succeed. You know, it's kind of like, it's a partnership in growth, right?

Merle Griff (45:49)
Right. No, absolutely.

Heath Fletcher (45:51)
amazing.

Amazing. ⁓ man, could we could go we could go longer but I wanna talk about your book, Solace in the Storm because that's something that that's new. That's recent, right? And ⁓ I wanna hear about that because that's that's an important part of what's going on for you right now.

Merle Griff (46:08)
⁓ It has to do with family caregiving all the way from infants through the lifespan to seniors. And the reason I did that is because many of us are taking care of multiple generations. ⁓ We have children, we have grandchildren. We have ⁓ children who are older, who are adults, who are young adults. We have grandparents, we have spouses, we have parents. So ⁓ in this way, you can go to the chapter.

or chapters that you need and just read those. It's designed, it's based on my own family caregiving experience where, you know, people mean well, but they say things to you like, oh, you know, you have to take care of yourself. And every family caregiver is thinking to themselves, are you, are you kidding me? Come on now. Do you have any idea what my life is like? Right. And tell me I have to take care of myself. I

Heath Fletcher (47:02)
No time for that.

Merle Griff (47:06)
I don't have an hour to sit and meditate here.

Heath Fletcher (47:10)
That's right.

Merle Griff (47:11)
Okay,

you can't do it, all right? So the book is filled with things you can do in five, 10, 15 minutes ⁓ throughout the day to help yourself and to refuel and to get that little bit of respite that you need in order to continue caregiving. ⁓ And there are some other, you know, kinds of tips in there about like, what do do when your child who's an adult now moves back home again, you know?

How do you manage that? You know, Jane, who is always telling you how you're mismanaging your two-year-old and how you have to do it differently.

Heath Fletcher (47:42)
That's very...

Unsolicited advice, is that what you mean?

Merle Griff (47:58)
Yeah,

that's what I'm talking about.

Heath Fletcher (48:02)
Yes.

Merle Griff (48:05)
You know, ⁓ and that's really what the book is about, you know, and how to deal with professionals. ⁓ especially when you're dealing with a senior, ⁓ and what do do about a resistant senior who, know, who, you know, you want to have a discussion with them about finances or where they're living or how they're living or whatever. And, you know, they're very, very resistant. ⁓ how do you manage that? How do you communicate in a way? How do you handle your siblings who

don't live in town and when they show up in town have nothing to say but, you know, about you should be doing this and you should be doing that when you're the primary family caregiver. ⁓ How do you manage that situation without having an explosion?

Heath Fletcher (48:48)
Such important topics and so there's so many variations of what those experiences are like for people. So I'm sure that's a very helpful ⁓ publication for people to get their hands on. And if they want to get a copy of that, where do they find it?

Merle Griff (49:05)
The easiest way is obviously Amazon.

Heath Fletcher (49:09)
Great. Solace in the Storm. Amazing. I could have used that book. ⁓ I've done, I've care given for two parents who are all gone. My wife's mother who's gone. ⁓ Our kids are growing up. They've left the house. Actually, I think one is on his way back. And then my wife just went through a stem cell transplant the last two years. So I was the primary caregiver. we're just coming out of that storm.

⁓ maybe I I still need your book I think. I need to get a coffee. Mara really enjoyed our conversation today. Is there anything that we didn't cover that you wanna make sure you you get out?

Merle Griff (49:55)
No, I really thank you. We've covered a lot.

Heath Fletcher (49:58)
We

did cover a lot. Yeah, we're already out of time. We could have gone on for another hour, I think. So maybe we'll do it again. So thank you so much for coming. If people want to reach out, what's the maybe tell everybody that what the website is for Sarah Care.

Merle Griff (50:12)
It's www.sarachare. We also have, we're on Facebook for Sarah Care and also Dr. Merle Griff on Facebook and Instagram.

Heath Fletcher (50:27)
And Solace in the Storm. That's right. You know what I didn't ask you? Where did the name come from, Sarah Kerr?

Merle Griff (50:36)
it's always a disappointment. People think that that I named it after a family member and they're waiting for the story about the treasured family member. But actually, it's an acronym. It stands for Senior Adult Recreation and Health.

Heath Fletcher (50:52)
That's cool too. That's very cool. I like that. I'm glad I asked. So yeah, I was expecting a story too, but I don't know. That's good too. I like that. would never even, I would never even thought of an acronym, but that's awesome. Okay. All right. We can end with that. Thank you, Merle so much for your time today and it was great to meet you.

Merle Griff (51:13)
It's been great to meet you. Thank you.

Heath Fletcher (51:18)
Okay, big thanks to Dr. Merle Griff for joining me today. What an insightful episode. Learning about how important community and engagement is for seniors or anybody in need of care. I think it's great that more people are being able to stay home, ⁓ age at home, ⁓ be cared for at home, but I think it's very important as Merle pointed out that they need to get out. They need to have a reason to get out of the house, to do their hair, get dressed.

go have an experience and connect and engage with others. Particularly in the intergenerational program, think with younger generations mixing with older generations in more meaningful ways, very, very important connections. We talked about caregiving and how important it is for caregivers to rest and refresh. And this is a great opportunity for caregivers to take their loved ones to the centers where they can have an engaging day.

be looked for, cared for. Well, thank you for tuning in today. Hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe. And if you ⁓ feel like someone could hear, could learn and benefit from it, then please share the link with them as well. And until next time, take care and stay healthy.