Long Term Care Detective Work : Care Patrol Digs Deeper

Securing a long-term care option that is best for you or your loved one can seem like an overwhelming process. Where do you begin? What are your options? How do you know which facility is the right choice? Thankfully, there is a free local service that helps people answer these questions and sort out the details with patience and compassion. We sat down with Cilla Buck of the Northeast Ohio branch of Care Patrol to find out how they help seniors and their families find the right fit.

Care Patrol was started about 21 years ago in Phoenix, AZ by a social worker named Chuck Giovanni. There are now more than 100 locations across the country, including the local branch run by Cilla and her husband Kevin. “We help families of seniors find assisted living, independent living, memory care, or in home care,” said Cilla. “We try to match them by location, by their care needs, and how much they can afford. [W]e actually look at the care violations of the communities … to find the safest care options. We don’t just shotgun names out there; we actually tour with the families. We take them to about three or four different communities that would match what they’re looking for, much like a realtor shows families new homes. And best of all, we are a free service to the families, so they don’t have to pay us anything.”

People have a variety of needs and preferences, from wanting to bring a pet with them into assisted living, to dealing with limited private pay funds. Care Patrol works to match facilities with the needs of the their clients. “Maybe they have a pet,” said Cilla. “To seniors, their pets are like their children because their children are … grown up and moved out. If they have a pet, we only look at places that allow pets. Or maybe they only have three or four years of private pay. We will only take them to places that accept the Medicaid waiver after spend down. Those are some of the categories we look at.”

Memory issues are also, sadly, a common challenge that families face when looking at long-term care options. “If their mom or dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s,” Cilla shared, “or they have dementia and they’re not remembering, they need a secure memory care community. A secure memory care community is one where you have to press a number to get in and out. It’s locked down so, if they’re wanderers—and I’ve had calls from families where their mom or dad has wandered off out of the house and they found them down the street. … It’s very scary for the family members. Sometimes we say it’s like drinking from a fire hose, and we put it down into a drinking fountain. We walk them through the process, and we’re a free service.”

Levels of Care Options

Some people want to stay in their homes. Others want the community and ease of living found in an independent or assisted care situation. Care Patrol works to help their clients find a safe and happy living situation that will best suit them. “We help them find in-home care providers if they’d like to stay in their home,” said Cilla. “Or, if they’re just not safe in their home, maybe they’re looking for independent living; they’re just tired of taking care of all the responsibilities of the home, getting the lawn mowed, getting your driveway plowed, shoveling, all those responsibilities. … We have a lot of seniors that are still driving, but they’re just tired of taking care of all the responsibilities of the home. [With independent living,] they have an apartment—sometimes it’s one bedroom, sometimes it’s two bedrooms, it might be even three bedrooms. It’s their apartment, but they’re still in a community where they get one or two meals provided. … But they’re still driving, they still have their independence, they can come and go as they please.”

Cilla went on to describe how assisted living offers a higher tier of personal support while still providing independence. “Then you have assisted living,” she said, “where maybe they need some help with those ADLs [activities of daily living]. They still have their apartment in a community, but there are now nurses [and] caregivers available. They can come into your apartment, they can help you get dressed, they can help you shower … and even get you down to the meals. And usually with assisted living, three meals are provided.”

An Ongoing Relationship

One of the best things about Care Patrol besides the fact that they are a free service is that they stay in touch with their clients. “Even after they pick a community and they [move in],” Cilla said, “we stay in touch with the family … to make sure they’re happy with where they chose [and to see that] things are working out the way they had planned. … You might go into a community with a beautiful chandelier, but we want to know how they treat their residents.”

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Here at HandyPro, we make your well-being our priority. Our interview series goes hand-in-hand with that effort, and we hope you find it helpful! For more information on how we can help you make your home a home for life, visit us at

www.StayAtHomeModificationsInc.com or call me (Brian Pritchard) at 216-212-7531.

If you’d like to learn more about Care Patrol or schedule a consultation with Cilla or Kevin Buck, you can reach them at 330-315-2895 or find them on the web at www.CarePatrol.com or Like them on Facebook at CarePatrol of Northeast Ohio.

To listen to the full audio interview, please click on the player below...