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Is there a single right way to run a home care agency? We sure don’t think so. That’s why we’re interviewing home care leaders across the industry and asking them tough questions about the strategies, operations, and decisions behind their success. Join host Miriam Allred, veteran home care podcaster known for Home Care U and Vision: The Home Care Leaders’ Podcast, as she puts high-growth home care agencies under the microscope to see what works, what doesn’t, and why. Get ready to listen, learn, and build the winning formula for your own success. In the Home Care Strategy Lab, you are the scientist.
Miriam Allred (00:01)
Welcome back to the Home Care Strategy Lab. I'm your host, Miriam Allred. It's great to be back with all of you again today. I hope everyone's having an awesome week. Today in the lab, I am joined by Melissa Morante, the Chief Marketing Officer at ComForCare Palm Beach. Melissa, welcome to the show.
Melissa Morante (00:17)
Thanks so much for having me.
Miriam Allred (00:19)
I'm really excited to meet you and to get better acquainted and learn about some of the innovative programs that you all have in your office. was telling you before we got on that I think it was a lawyer in the space that pointed me to your father who has now pointed me to you. And I have a lot to learn from you today. So I am super excited.
Melissa Morante (00:37)
Same here, excited to share.
Miriam Allred (00:38)
So, let's start with your introduction. Tell us a little bit about yourself, about your background coming into home care, and then you getting involved in the family business.
Melissa Morante (00:48)
Sure. So my background is actually not home care or health care. I have a public relations background. I worked in the consumer marketing and PR space for almost 20 years in New York City for a big agency.
I did work on consumer healthcare products, ⁓ but ⁓ my background is really PR and marketing. I joined the family business in 2016, relocating from New York to Florida, which was a big move and something I swore I would never do. ⁓ But here I am. ⁓ We're ⁓ a family owned and operated. ⁓
care agency. So it's myself, my brother-in-law, my sister, and my parents. The Palm Beach office opened in 2010. My father purchased 50 % of an existing franchise. And then in 2012, my sister and brother-in-law joined. And then in 2016, I came along.
Miriam Allred (01:53)
Amazing. And your title today is Chief Marketing Officer. Tell us a little bit about like day in the life or what you do for the business.
Melissa Morante (02:00)
Yeah, so day in the life, ⁓ I am responsible for ⁓ developing relationships with our referral sources. ⁓ We are good old fashioned marketers. We knock on doors and we set up meetings and we go to networking events ⁓ and we build relationships, right? Homecare is a referral driven business. ⁓ And so you get referrals when you have relationships with people.
Miriam Allred (02:29)
Mm.
Melissa Morante (02:29)
And so that is, that's my primary role. One of the other things that I'm responsible for is I am our Parkinson's care expert. And so three of our owners, my sister, my brother-in-law and my dad are all nationally certified Alzheimer's educators. And when I joined in 2016, we identified a real gap in understanding of Parkinson's and we have unique expertise
and chronic illness and so I sort of dove right in. My grandfather had Parkinson's and what we think was Lewy body dementia, although we didn't know half of what we know now back then. ⁓ Had we, his life would have been very different. My grandmother's life would have been very different.
Miriam Allred (03:12)
you
Melissa Morante (03:18)
⁓ And so I sort of immersed myself in the disease and ⁓ like my brother-in-law says, I became a student of Parkinson's ⁓ and really became an expert. There is no certification like there is for Alzheimer's and so ⁓ Parkinson's care expert is how we describe the role.
And so along with that comes training all of our caregivers on Parkinson's disease. And then I do a lot of volunteer work and education on the disease out in the community.
Miriam Allred (03:49)
Fantastic. We're going to talk a lot more about that today, your expertise and how you've translated that. One question though, you coming from New York, big PR kind of marketing firm, but joining this company in 2016 and you said you're very much like boots on the ground type marketing. Was that a hard switch for you? Did you come in? I just, I just imagine you come in from like a digital heavy, like online presence marketing background, but to come and
shift gears to boots on the ground type marketing. Did you come in kind of guns blazing like we should do more online and have like a really strong online presence or did you understand from day one like this is a very referral based business and we need to go all in on that strategy. Like what did that look like?
Melissa Morante (04:29)
Yeah, so admittedly I am not a fan of the technology. Like I'm old and I like good old fashioned meeting people, talking on the phone.
Miriam Allred (04:34)
Okay.
Melissa Morante (04:42)
You know, one of the things, we had talked about this earlier, right? One of the things that came out of COVID is everybody started jumping on Zoom and it became an excuse, right? To not leave your office. And all of these meetings started happening on Zoom. And I was like, we are social beings. Like we need to be out there and talking to people. And so, ⁓ no, for me, it was...
It was more about sort of learning how to, we call it marketing, but it's sales essentially, right? And I...
in my previous life had this sort of vision of what a salesperson was, right? My father has been in sales his whole life. And so that was the uncomfortable part for me and learning how to knock on doors and try and cold call, right? And set up appointments and all of those things. That's a little bit different. Sometimes you can make the analogy to pitching media, but...
It's not really the same. And so that for me was the biggest transition, was sort of learning how to sell.
Miriam Allred (05:54)
And we use all those words synonymously in home care marketing, sales, even PR. Like we kind of lump all of that together. But, you know, between you and me, it's like there's nuances to each of those. But I think in home care, it's very much like a sales effort, business development effort to grow the business through these referral partners. Before we jump into kind of the core topic, tell us the size.
and shape and kind of details of the business, know, where you're located, what counties you cover, how big the business is today, maybe how many administrative staff, how many clients, give us kind of the lay of the land of how big and the size and shape of the business.
Melissa Morante (06:28)
Sure. So we cover a rather large geographic territory. In South Florida, oftentimes the sort of bigger franchises have broken down their territories into much smaller segments. But for us, we own ⁓ North Dade County, which is Miami, ⁓ or North Miami, ⁓ all of Broward County, all of Palm Beach County.
and then what we call the treasure coast. So Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River, and Okeechobee counties. We have, I think we're at like 19 or 20 administrative staff at the moment. And that's everything from our director of nursing to our administrators, to our schedulers, to us, our marketing people. are... ⁓
owner operated and so we are all very much involved in the day to day. I'm responsible for marketing. My brother-in-law is responsible for marketing. He has a sales background. My father is our CEO so he operates as sort of our 30,000 foot strategy although he's still very involved and does a lot of speaking in the community. ⁓
We do have a director of business development in Palm Beach. We have somebody who fills that role in Broward and somebody who fills that role in Miami as well. Let's see, in terms of clients, so gosh, I should know this we're probably at the...
200 to 250 clients at any given moment. You know, it's obviously very, right? ⁓ But I would say that's probably a pretty good estimate.
Miriam Allred (08:12)
Okay, yeah, that's great. Just helps us get an understanding of where you guys are at and kind of the size and shape of the business. As far as payer sources go, are you guys heavy private pay or do you take a lot of government payments?
Melissa Morante (08:23)
So we are contracted with the VA and we ⁓ have quite a few VA clients. It's not a huge part of our business, but we do ⁓ take care of lot of veterans, which we're very proud of. We also take ⁓ all long-term care insurance or private pay, of course. And then we also in a 2021,
⁓ partnered with Alpert Jewish Family Service here in Palm Beach and created another agency that's called JFS ComForCare and through that agency, in addition to private pay, we also take care of Holocaust survivors. Those services are paid for by the claims conference. We also do a lot of guardianship work with them, so we take care of wards.
And then they have some grants and so there are some subsidy clients that we take care of.
Miriam Allred (09:17)
Okay, wow, I'm not super familiar with that program, but it sounds like you all have focused heavily on like specialties. Florida's a very crowded market. I don't have to tell you that. There's a lot of agencies, a lot of stiff competition there. So you have to stand out. You have to specialize. You have to create a name for yourself. And it sounds like you all have done that in a lot of different ways, including the one that I want to focus on today. But let's talk about your Parkinson's expertise. So you mentioned that you were kind of like the certified Parkinson's expert.
Was Parkinson's a focus of the business from day one or when did that specialty start to take shape and become a core focus?
Melissa Morante (09:55)
So to your point about differentiating yourself, right, in a very crowded marketplace, what the team identified before I got here was chronic illness, right, was one way that we could differentiate ourselves. And in particular at that time, it was Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. And so when my sister and brother-in-law got here, Allison and Tino,
Tino's charge was I'm gonna become a student of dementia and I'm going to learn everything I can about Alzheimer's and so he did and and they all took the certification and so they are nationally certified ⁓ educators and so that ⁓ was sort of the first step into focusing on chronic illness, differentiating ourselves from the competition.
And so when I joined in 2016, we had, think, one or two clients that had Parkinson's, and we really started to identify, gosh, we probably need to know more about this disease. The numbers are growing. We're seeing more and more of this. And then I have a personal passion for exercise.
And so the connection between exercise and Parkinson's, right, made sense. And so I met the, at the time, she's no longer there, but at the time I met the program director for the American Parkinson Disease Association. She and I became fast friends and I just became very involved in her organization.
I started to volunteer and help her with special events. They do an educational symposium every year. They do an optimism walk every year. They had a medical director who was a movement disorder specialist. He let me shadow him. And then she taught me how to facilitate a support group. And then that relationship continued to grow. They asked me to join their board of directors, which I did.
⁓ And then just like Allison and Tino and Scott became Alzheimer's experts, I became a Parkinson's expert. And what I'm not sure we knew that the need was growing in terms of more and more diagnoses, but I think what we didn't realize at the time was.
Not a lot of people are owning the Parkinson's space. A lot of people are sort of dipping their toe, right, in Alzheimer's and ⁓ of course they are. There's, you know, seven million people in the U.S., right, living with Alzheimer's. I think that's the new stat. But no one really owns Parkinson's and so that really was a differentiator for us. And then...
I know you want to talk about the support groups and we'll talk about how that grew right out of just one group that I sort of took over from somebody.
Miriam Allred (12:58)
Yeah, so that before we get to the support groups, it sounds like that national Parkinson's Association was your source of information and education, because that's what I wanted to ask is Alzheimer's and dementia. There's a certification. There's a lot of information out there, but Parkinson's less so. So it sounds like that association was the source of a lot of your education and learning. Were there any other important people, associations, online reading, education? Like what were any other sources that you turned to to learn more about Parkinson's?
Melissa Morante (13:28)
Absolutely. So there's the three big organizations. So there's APDA, the American Parkinson Disease Association. There's the Parkinson's Foundation. And then there's the Michael J. Fox Foundation, of course. Right? And so all of those three, there are others, by the way. There's like Davis Finney and there's the Bryan Grant Foundation. There's like PMD Alliance. And so I just started to get my hands on whatever information I could get my hands on.
Some of it was local experts, be it occupational therapists who specialize in Parkinson's, physical therapists, speech therapists, other movement disorder specialists. I went to every event I could find where people were speaking and educating. I got my group fitness certification with a specialty in senior fitness and Parkinson's exercise. And so I...
really just immersed myself in the disease and found whatever credible resources I could find to just educate myself. And I'm still doing that, by the way. Like that doesn't end, right? There's always continuing ed and more things to learn and new research and new surgical treatment options and new medications. And so you you have to stay on top of that stuff, especially when you are running support groups.
and people come craving information.
Miriam Allred (14:53)
Okay, I have so many more questions, but I want to get into the support groups because that's why we're here. And I think this is so fascinating. So you mentioned, was it then the association that asked you to host a support group initially? Explain where the first support group was born, like how that opportunity came about and what that initial support group was.
Melissa Morante (15:11)
Yeah, so for me, so for the Parkinson's groups, ⁓ it came out of the association. There were support groups that were being run by various facilitators. There was one group in Palm Beach Gardens and the program director for the APDA was running that group and she said, I would love to teach you how to facilitate this group because then I can go and start other groups.
And I said, great. I had been shadowing her for a while. And so I took that group over from her. And then out of that group, people started asking, well, Palm Beach Gardens is a little far. Like, would you do a group in Lake Worth? Would you do a group in Boynton Beach? Would you do a group in Boca? And so out of that group, then came...
two, three, four, like eight, I was doing eight groups between South Palm Beach County and Port St. Lucie ⁓ at the time COVID hit. That only that Palm Beach Gardens group continued to be associated with the APDA. The other groups I sort of took on as those are just my groups. And so I wasn't affiliated with any organization because what I quickly learned was people just want good information.
doesn't really matter where it comes from as long as it's a credible source. And so at that time I said, look, my mission is to educate people with whatever resources are available. So if it comes from the APDA, that's great. If it comes from the Parkinson's Foundation, that's great. ⁓ At the time there wasn't really any local presence for Michael J. Fox here, there is now. There's a gentleman who...
is sort of feed on the street and he goes around, he's a volunteer and he educates on a lot of their research programs, which is really great. And so I didn't brand my groups as Parkinson's Association groups, they were just Melissa's groups. And then COVID hit. And we had to go virtual because everybody was afraid to go and I often host in like senior living communities.
and they weren't letting people in the buildings. So I took the groups virtual and I did ⁓ two groups a month, one in the morning, one in the afternoon to accommodate as many schedules as I could. And then post COVID when the world opened, ⁓ the people that were not excited to go back in person and wanted to stay with the virtual groups begged and pleaded, please, please, please don't cancel the virtual group. So I promised I wouldn't.
And so I still have two virtual groups every month, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. But I'm back up to six other ⁓ in-person groups every month.
Miriam Allred (18:05)
Okay, loads of questions about these groups. think this is so fascinating. So they're Parkinson's specific, correct? Who is attending? And you just kind of answered this, who is attending and where are you hosting these meetings, the ones that are in person?
Melissa Morante (18:13)
They are Parkinson's specific.
Yeah, those are great questions. So my groups, the Parkinson's groups, are for people living with Parkinson's and or loved ones. Tino runs 15 dementia caregiver groups. Those are caregiver only groups for obvious reasons, right? Like people who have advanced dementia, whether it's Alzheimer's or another type of dementia.
really challenging for them to participate in a support group. so those are his groups are caregiver only groups. And his started a little bit differently actually. There was a memory care community, strictly memory care, who approached Scott and said, we think there's a real need and we would like you to facilitate a support group. And so it was Scott and one other person, like one participant.
in this memory care unit. It was the wife of somebody. And that's how that started. It was him and one other person. And then more people joined, and then Tino came, and then same sort of thing, right? One group turns into two, into three, and now he's up to 15. He calls me a slacker, because I only do eight. And then he also does a group for the VA. He works very closely with...
Miriam Allred (19:34)
Yeah
Melissa Morante (19:43)
somebody at the VA and he does a zoom group for caregivers of veterans living with Alzheimer's.
Miriam Allred (19:51)
This is wild.
So out of your company, we're talking like 25, 30 support groups, all with different like specialties. so are you lots of questions? I'm just going to keep dialing through some questions here. So this is a lot of groups. This is a lot to coordinate and organize. Do you host any at your office or do you host all or most of them at facilities or yeah, where are kind of the primary locations that you host these?
Melissa Morante (20:01)
Yeah, yeah.
So we host mostly in communities for a couple of reasons, right? It is actually mutually beneficial. So the communities have now potential residents, right? If they don't already live there, they have potential residents coming in. So the communities love that. And there's also, certainly in the Parkinson's space,
There are lots of communities who have a lot of residents who have Parkinson's who need the support. And so for them, especially when mobility becomes more of a challenge, it's actually very easy for them just to come, I'm making this up, downstairs to the community room or upstairs to the art room or wherever, right? So ⁓ yes, we host in senior living communities. I am doing, let's see, so I'll give you an example.
I have one group in a doctor's office. They let us use the conference room and it is one of the leading movement disorder specialists in our area. So he is allowing us to use his conference room, which is great. I host one at a rehab hospital up in Jupiter. And then I have, I think the other four in person are in senior living community, I'm lying.
One also at another doctor's office, but in that particular space, it's more research based. They don't see patients in that office. So, and then the rest are in senior living communities. Tino's the same, mostly senior living communities. He does one at one of the libraries ⁓ down in Broward County. I think he does one up at like Alzheimer's Community Care. We're very involved with them locally.
Miriam Allred (21:53)
This is.
Melissa Morante (21:59)
⁓ I think he hosts one either at their office or at their day center for caregivers. So it sort of runs the gamut, but we pick locations that are easy for people to get to. We do them once a month. And so it's always the same day and time every month. So the second Tuesday at 10 a.m. here. And then we budget an hour and a half for time for each.
Miriam Allred (22:24)
This is fantastic
on so many levels. Like it makes sense for so many reasons because these are all prime referral partners for you. And like you said, targeted location that people can access just so many good things that can come out of this. Talk about how you structure these meetings. So actually kind of like step into, you you get to this doctor's office and there's a group of people there. How do you structure these meetings? What does that 90 minutes look like?
Melissa Morante (22:49)
I and I think people will be really disappointed when they hear me say, I don't have a formal structure, I don't have an agenda, I never walk in with sort of a plan. What I tell people is ⁓ this is your group. So whatever you want to talk about is what we are going to talk about. And sometimes it has nothing to do with Parkinson's.
Right? Because as I've explained to people many times, my groups are for people with Parkinson's, right? And, and or loved ones, right? But they are thinking, living, breathing Parkinson's 24/7. The support groups are not only support, but their socialization. And so for them to be able to sit around the table,
and talk with people who are going through similar experiences, maybe about Parkinson's, but maybe about like, we had one guy on our Zoom call, his grandkids came to visit and he was like, I realized how bratty my grandkids are. Like, I just don't know how to deal with them. And I was like not enjoying this visit. And we spent about 40 minutes, right?
Miriam Allred (24:03)
Yeah.
Melissa Morante (24:12)
with everybody sort of chiming in on how you handle a situation like this. I mean, during COVID, we once spent an entire group talking about what everybody was binge watching on Netflix, right? Because people were just craving socialization and that was how we had to do it during COVID. I do bring in guest speakers as does Tino ⁓ for various topics. So anybody from a movement disorder specialist to a drug rep.
to a surgical treatment option, a device company, to a speech therapist, to an elder attorney, right? To talk about making sure all of your documents are in order, ⁓ topics that are relevant to this audience. And what we also talk about a lot is they're not just living with Parkinson's, right? Oftentimes, like if it was just Parkinson's, people would be like, all right, we can totally handle this.
But it's not. There's like cardiac issues and urology issues and gastro issues and arthritis and just getting older, right? Like getting older stinks. so, and it's hard for people and it's hard to navigate. And so we talk about all the issues that are relevant
And I know it's working for a couple of reasons. They keep coming back, so that's a good sign. ⁓ But I get like three or four calls a week from people looking for either a support group or just Parkinson's resources.
Miriam Allred (25:39)
Yeah.
Melissa Morante (25:53)
Like, I'm not happy with my movement disorder specialist. Can you recommend somebody else? Like, where do I go for PT? Like, where is there a Rocksteady boxing class? Rocksteady boxing classes were a victim of COVID, unfortunately. And there were many before the pandemic, and there are very few now. And so that is a real challenge because exercise is so critically important. And so... ⁓
you know, those kinds of things. The dynamic too in the Parkinson's groups by design is very, very different than I think the dynamic in Tino's caregiver groups, right? These are people living with the disease. And so we have, it's very positive. ⁓ It's very empowering, right? We focus on what we can do, not what we can't, right? We talk a lot about the gratitude game.
so, and I think people appreciate that. I don't think people want to come and complain. At least that's what my experience has been. They want to come and feel like I can do this. Like I can beat this.
Miriam Allred (27:04)
You mentioned people calling in to inquire about the support groups and people calling to inquire about Parkinson's. How do you market?
these support groups? Like is it just on your website? Like what are all the marketing channels that you've opened to get people to find out about these support groups?
Melissa Morante (27:23)
So it is interesting, right? I started getting all these phone calls and I was like, my gosh, how are people finding me? And so what I learned was, I don't know who made the list, but there's a list somewhere. And if you Google support groups, Parkinson's support groups in South Florida, my name comes up. I didn't do that, but amazing. The APDA has my groups listed on their website, their Florida chapter website.
Miriam Allred (27:42)
Okay.
Melissa Morante (27:51)
The Parkinson's Foundation, I, so I'm on the education committee. I'm no longer on the board for APDA, but I am on their education committee. And I am also a Parkinson's Foundation ambassador. And so I did that. So, because again, back to my earlier point, like I just want to be able to support people with the information that they need. And so by not taking a board position, it allowed me the flexibility to be involved with.
both organizations. And by the way, the organizations are friends. They support each other. They often do events together. And so ⁓ everybody should know that everybody works beautifully together down here in South Florida. But that did afford me the opportunity to work with both. And so I have developed a very good relationship with the Parkinson's Foundation here. I actually sit on their outreach committee for an event called Moving Day.
West Palm Beach, which is their sort of big signature event every spring. And so they refer to me for support groups and Parkinson's. I mean, they have Parkinson's resources, obviously, but they do refer to me for support groups. I back in the day had my had the people who come to the groups. I emailed them flyers and I said, the next time you're in your doctor's office, ask if you could leave these in the waiting room. I mean, I had like other people.
doing the work for me. And so they did. And I would get calls and I would say, how did you find me? I saw a flyer in my doctor's waiting room. who's your doctor? Somebody I'd never heard of. The drug reps helped me. They, you know, they find me, they want to come speak. So when they're seeing patients, they promote the support groups. I talk about them in every networking meeting. It's
Yeah, with our sort of feet on the street knocking on the doors, we are obviously talking about the fact that we provide home care, but one of the ways that we like to give back to the community is these support groups. so, and people are just so receptive because the need is there. I mean, especially, excuse me, in the doctor's offices, they see their patients and their caregivers coming in.
and they need the support. And so I think the doctors and nurse practitioners are just as thrilled to be able to say there's support out there for you, right? Here's a list.
Miriam Allred (30:17)
Yeah, and this has been years in the making. You know, this wasn't an overnight effort. Look how many people and how much effort you've had to put into this over the years. But to have built it up to where it is today is just fantastic. And I think what I love so much about this is it touches kind of that sales and business development effort. But it's also a really personalized touch point with your clients and with their families. And everyone is craving socialization. And we talk about like loneliness is like the silent killer in this industry. And so
Melissa Morante (30:22)
for sure.
Miriam Allred (30:47)
just creating a space and a time for you to connect personally, also outside of their homes, for them to come and have this experience outside of their homes is good for you and good for them. And so there's just so much good that come out of this. And I didn't actually know, but I love that you have the dementia caregiver support groups. Like that is a phenomenal idea where it's these caregivers that are caring for these people and it's so burdensome and so heavy on their hearts and on their minds and they need support.
And so one of my questions is, think of another agency may think like, wow, this is a lot of extra work. We already do a lot of recognition and training and education. This feels like one more thing. Is that how you all see it? Or do you see it as this is actually the core of what we do and other things are almost secondary to this effort?
Melissa Morante (31:39)
Yeah, we definitely don't see it as extra work. We see it as our differentiator. We see it as a way. So we believe, right, if you give, you get, right? And everything comes back. And I don't mean to say that like, yeah, we're doing these support groups, right? Because we know ultimately we're gonna.
get business, but the reality is, is everybody in a support group either refers a client, becomes a client, or is a client, right? Because the need is there, right? But what we don't do is sell in our support groups. That is a line for us, and we're very, very conscious about that. I never ever...
Talk about ComForCare in my support group unless somebody asks specifically about home care We I mean look I send out emails every week with the list and my signature is on there like people know what happens though is People who have become clients in support groups they become walking billboards And they talk about how important it is
and how they were so grateful that we were able to step in and help. And so we don't use it, again, we don't use them to sell. Our mission is to give back to the community, to support people who need the support. know, look, ironically, I've been doing this for eight years, almost nine years. And two years ago, my mom was diagnosed with Parkinson's.
And so I tell people all the time, look, I used to be like an educator and a support group facilitator. And now I'm like part of a family caregiving team. I mean, my mom is still very independent. She's working, she's driving, doing all of those things. My father is obviously here and around and involved. But yeah, we're part of a family caregiving team now. And so my role has changed.
And so I feel like that actually gives me something else to contribute, even as the facilitator to these groups. Like I get it. I get it. Yeah. Yeah.
Miriam Allred (34:05)
You're on the ground level right alongside of them more than you've ever
some of the challenges? We talked a lot about like the good things and how this runs. Was the challenge getting them started? Is the challenge being consistent and holding yourself accountable to the meetings? Is the challenge sourcing new people to keep kind of feeding the groups? Like what are some of the challenges that you've encountered over the years doing this?
Melissa Morante (34:27)
think the biggest challenge is consistency with attendees, right? And so what I've seen more recently in my groups is a little bit of an ebb and flow with people coming. So I have a group in Palm Beach Gardens that I run consistently for a few months. We were at like 12, 15, 17 people.
And then all of a sudden we have like four people, right? Or six people. And I'm like, where are all the people? Like, where did they go? And I don't think there's a rhyme or reason. I think things happen, right? Here's what happens with chronic illness, right? Things happen. And so, you know, somebody may be, somebody may have taken a fall and now they're in rehab.
And so their loved one is visiting them in rehab and not coming to the support group. I don't know because I ⁓ don't manage the RSVPs and registrations. The groups are happening. I'm showing up. If no one shows up that month, that's okay. I'll sit for a half an hour. I'll wait and make sure no one's coming and then I'll leave. But I'm there. So if there's one person there or there's 17 people there, that's what's happening.
at that group and I will talk to anybody who wants to talk. So I would say that is sort of the biggest challenge. I think the other challenge too, and this might be a surprise based on what I said earlier, because the communities do love it, is it is trying to find the right place to host sort of geographically. And so how to accommodate as many people as possible without
having so much overlap. Like we have such a large geography that making sure you're in enough places where enough people can access you. And so like right now for me, the south part of Palm Beach County, I don't have any groups there. I go from like Wellington or Lake Worth and then Broward County, which if you're not from Florida, that doesn't mean anything, but that's really far.
And so that is a little bit of a challenge, right? How do I accommodate the people in the South part of the county? And then there's also like the time, like I'm running eight groups a month, but I have other responsibilities, right? Tino's doing 15, like how many more groups can we possibly take on without other things being sacrificed?
That's also a little bit of a challenge too, like how much more can we take on because the groups did grow and they're wonderful and we love doing them and we love helping people, especially to your earlier point too about caregiver burnout, right? Tino's caregiver groups, I mean, we know, right? Caregiver burnout is epidemic, It's like a legal cause of death in 11 states.
I saw a stat yesterday that social isolation is more harmful to people than smoking 15 cigarettes a day. And so it's really important, right, that these groups happen because people need them.
Miriam Allred (37:53)
Mm.
And that's what I love what you said. doesn't matter if one person shows up or 17 people show up. It's the consistency. Like hard, important things take work. And this is one of those where it's a lot of effort. It's eight groups, know, 90 minutes every single month. That's a huge time commitment. But like you said, it's like these are individual lives and this is maybe, maybe arguably the most important thing that you do is supporting these people in these support groups. One technical question. I thought this was interesting. You mentioned not
managing like the RSVPs and maybe over communicating with people to remind them and get them to come. I'm curious if that's one, because it's just a lot of work to communicate all of that, or if it's, this is very like volunteer base, you know, there's no obligation, there's no pressure to attend, you want people to come up with their own free will. Is it a little bit of both of those or is it more the second or more the first? I'm just, I just think that's interesting because you could be
a lot more communicative and a lot more forward and inviting people, reminding people, et cetera. But I'm wondering if there's almost more of a reason not to do that.
Melissa Morante (39:00)
Yeah, I think more of the second, right? It's look, come or don't, that's okay, right? Come once, come to more than one group, try all the groups, like no rules. I do send out, so at the beginning of every week, I send out a reminder of all the groups that are happening that week. Daytime, location, or for the virtual groups, the link to join. And I've built this list over the years, so now I'm almost.
I think there's like 400 people on the list. And so those are people with Parkinson's, caregivers, and some professionals. So the other thing that I share on that distribution list is not just support groups, but I share local events, I share research opportunities, I share interesting news articles, ⁓ anything that crosses my desk regarding Parkinson's that I think people should know or might find interesting. So I am a...
very communicative in terms of like making sure people have what they need. What I am not good at is the, yes, let me know if you'll be there because the truth of the matter is, it's okay if you come or don't come. And I don't want people to feel pressure that, no, they RSVP'd and like, this doctor had a cancellation and now I'm able to get in or I'm just not feeling well today. And I...
don't think I can make it. And I don't want people to feel guilty about saying they're gonna be there and not, or not saying they're gonna be there and then show up. Like, I'm there. So, yeah. And I don't know if I was better at managing that, if it would change anything. But I just feel like, yeah, these groups are happening. Like, hope to see you there is sort of how I leave it.
Miriam Allred (40:44)
Yeah, no, I think that's great. You've been doing this for a long time and I would consider you kind of the expert in this field. And so I'm just curious, you're thinking on some of these things and your thinking evolves over time. know, one quarter you may put more effort into communication and it may not yield the results that you thought. so leaving it kind of more open-ended as is maybe working just fine. There's no rhyme or reason to it, like you said, and you're catering it to these people. What do they want? What do they need? And not putting any pressure, any burden on them because they have enough to think about and worry about.
What if anything would you do differently? Say you were going to, you've been doing this for eight years, you guys have a lot of groups, so you've learned a lot of things, but I think a lot of owners, operators listening to this, this is a great thing that they could start implementing in their own market. If you were doing this for the first time again, is there anything that you would do differently or how would you approach getting started in this effort?
Melissa Morante (41:35)
Gosh, that's a great question. Gosh, I don't even know.
because it's interesting, didn't, so the initial group wasn't mine, so I almost feel like I sort of had like a little bit of a head start almost. So I'm not quite sure what I would do differently. ⁓
You you could argue that having a little bit more structure could be something that would be interesting, but I have to say from my perspective that what I know is that these groups are working. And so I don't know that anything more formal or structured would be ⁓ helpful or not. I don't know. This sounds terrible, but I think like they're working.
so well I'm not sure I would change anything. And to your point, that might evolve. Like, I might feel differently next week. You know, I don't know.
Miriam Allred (42:33)
That's,
No, that's great. I think the easy place for people to start, like my take on this is most home care companies have referral partners. Go out to your existing network of partners and find out who this would be a good fit to pull off together. Start in a community, start in a doctor's office, go out to your existing partners, figure out who would be the right fit partner to host this and start working with them from there and start the marketing efforts with them from there.
just get started somewhere. Like you said, you were kind of teed up into a group and that was amazing. people could go and seek out the, it sounds like the Parkinson's chapter, Alzheimer's chapter in their local market and see what support groups are in existence. If there's not some that's, you you landed on a gold mine, but start, you know, start looking for groups in existence and become a part of those, but also leverage your current referral partners and go find out who would be a right fit to start hosting this.
Melissa Morante (43:31)
Yeah, absolutely. So I do believe the Alzheimer's Association, you can become, I don't know if certified is the right word, but you can become certified to facilitate an Alzheimer's Association support group. And so that is a great opportunity for people who want to get involved in the Alzheimer's space. In terms of the Parkinson's space, the American Parkinson Disease Association, if they have a local chapter,
I would bet money that they're doing support groups. So that is a great way to sort of get ⁓ exposure and involved and then learn from somebody just like I did. And then, you know, take that to the next level. I always tell people, I talk to some of our franchisees, find the local organizations and get involved. That is where you...
get the most learning. And the truth of the matter is you can't forget, like you can't just like start a support group because you want to help people. You first have to become an expert in the disease. And so there was no way I could do this if I didn't understand Parkinson's disease as well as I do, right?
Miriam Allred (44:40)
Yeah,
exactly. You have to become the expert first to be able to pull something like this off.
Melissa Morante (44:43)
Yeah,
yeah, you have to become the expert first, which is why I say to people, find the organizations, find the movement disorder specialists, and immerse yourself and learn everything you can.
Miriam Allred (44:57)
And think outside of the box. think that's what drew me to this, to you and your father talking about these support groups. had this aha moment, like, wow, I don't hear enough about home care companies doing this. I hear a lot about events and Alzheimer's walks and kind of the standard things. this felt like the support groups have been around for a long time. They're not like a novel concept, but running them out of a home care company with a referral partner about a specific area of expertise becomes just this.
Again, multi-pronged effort that can help your company in so many different ways, both with the clients, the caregivers, the families, and the referral partners. This is the opportunity to spin all of those together in something really meaningful.
Melissa, this has been fantastic. where do you hope that this takes you and takes ComForCare? Like what do you want this to do for the business going forward? Are there future opportunities or things that you hope this could morph or grow into?
Melissa Morante (46:00)
Yeah, so I look I think I I do think there are some pockets in our territory. So growing the number of support groups is certainly on the radar. Without a doubt, I also think growing. My expertise in Parkinson's disease and some other chronic illnesses, right? Like MS is an opportunity where we.
right, we need to do some more learning. And so I think that for sure is an opportunity. you know, one of the things I'm really excited about is I, like I mentioned, I'm a Parkinson's Foundation ambassador. And one of the programs that they have recently launched is a hospital safety program. And that is because there are startling statistics about Parkinson's patients who go into the hospital and then who leave worse.
because they're just, and again, it's not ill intentioned, there's just lack of education ⁓ in terms of medications, in terms of movement and fall risks and all of those things. And so they launched a hospital safety program, which is an education opportunity, right, for ambassadors who are certified in the program to go into hospitals and educate.
And so that is something that is on my radar. I just have to finalize my certification and then be able to start going into hospitals and teaching because it really could make a huge difference for those patients who are going into the hospital. And so again, we go back to helping people live their best life and improve the quality of life. And so that falls under that.
umbrella and so that is something that's on my radar in the near future, sort of short term ⁓ to do that. But I think our mission is going to continue to help people make sure they have good information so that they can make good decisions.
Miriam Allred (48:01)
Fantastic. And I'm glad you mentioned that, you know, other chronic conditions, MS being one of those, I've said this on several recent podcasts. I think we're aging is becoming a hot topic and we talk about just whole person care and wellbeing and holistic based care and what that means for home care. And you mentioned, you know, your, your passion for exercise. There's just a lot of room for like specialization in home care and people want that social piece that
exercise piece, that nutrition piece, like there's all these components and your home care company can specialize and differentiate in so many different ways. And look how much good can come out of that. Again, there's so many home care companies and everyone's talking about Alzheimer's dementia, but there's so many other niches and specialties that you can focus on and become that expert in your market and then build a support group around it to start drawing attention to yourself. Like there's just.
So much room for like innovation and creativity in these types of programs. And I think you all have found that and are leaning into that and it's driving a lot of success for you.
Melissa, thank you so much for joining me in the lab. This has been fantastic. I will share your contact information in the show notes, if that's all right, and your website and information about some of these organizations and groups that you've mentioned so people can learn about them and take advantage of them. But thank you for being so gracious with your time today and sharing all of this information.
Melissa Morante (49:20)
was my pleasure, thanks for having me.