CarePatrol helps seniors and their families identify the best local assisted living options

BY PHIL HALL Phall@westfairinc.com

In his work as a realtor with RE/MAX Heritage in Westport, Craig Oshrin is no stranger to connecting potential homebuyers with their future residences. Last month, Oshrin took on an additional responsibility that further expands his Realtor work, albeit with a very specific client base: Oshrin is a new senior care advisor with CarePatrol Franchise Systems LLC, serving the lower Fairfield County market between Greenwich and Stratford.

“We help our clients, senior clients and their adult children, to navigate the process of getting into an assisted living, independent or memory care facility,” Oshrin said. “There are a lot of choices out there. We help do the tours [of the facilities] and qualify our clients by understanding their mental acuity, their physical abilities and their assets — some don't really have much of savings, they just have a home that's been paid off.”

Prior to his 10 years as a realtor, Oshrin ran a moving company for 14 years and he considers his full background to be helpful in his work of coordinating what might be the final relocation of his elderly clients.

“I've moved over 5,000 families, so that bedside manner really comes into play,” he said.

CarePatrol is offered as a free concierge to seniors and their families — the franchisees are paid directly by the providers in the company’s network. The regional franchise for CarePatrol where Oshrin is affiliated is owned by Jordan Fray, who also owns the franchises covering Westchester and New Haven counties. In the Fairfield County market, Oshrin is partnered with Chris Curran, a former real estate client.

“We met in 2016 and I stayed in touch with him all this time, like I do with a lot of my past clients,” Oshrin continued, noting how “the stagflation in our real estate market, meaning nobody buying and nobody's selling” encouraged him to consider expanding his opportunities. He acknowledged the deleterious impact of the Covid-19 pandemic that on the assisted living communities, but he recognized that the post-pandemic environment has brought a more positive attention to these facilities.

“Now, we're going into the silver boom, in which we're going to see a lot of seniors moving into these communities,” he said.

Curran, who is director of senior placement with the local CarePatrol, also viewed this opportunity as an extension of his career.

“I have basically lived the senior care continuum in reverse over the past 15 years,” he said. “I started my healthcare career journey at a hospice and palliative care center in the Bronx called Calvary Hospital, where patients are dealing with end-of-life care needs. I was connected to that hospital via my great uncle, who was the medical director there and he brought me in to start in the social work department by working with the patients and helping the families understand what a hospice entails. Then, I really was passionate about working with the patients and I worked on the floors as a kind of a nurse's aide, and then trained as a cancer care technician that did the wound care and a lot of the ostomy care that has to be done for a lot of end-of-life patients.”

While Curran was serious about his work, he admitted becoming “a little burnt out” after several years of what he described as a “very arduous job.” It also didn’t help that he was living in Connecticut and commuting to and from the Bronx. He found a Fairfield County-based job as a homecare liaison who educated families and patients regarding the senior care continuum.

“And when CarePatrol came along, it was just a perfect transition because I could provide this service where I've lived all these experiences and seen so many of these cases with regard to homecare and hospice,” he said. “I could really talk to families, educate them and empower them to make the best decisions possible.”

Looking ahead, Oshrin is predicting the local CarePatrol franchise will be “the number one service provider when it comes to delivering value for seniors and their families, making sure that we're placing them in the right communities the first time while adding the real estate component when they have questions or having me setting up to list the property and tying up a lot of those loose ends.”

“We are already one of the number— one providers in the area of senior placement services,” added Curran. “We're all about safety and we want to be the go-to team with regard to resources for seniors to age gracefully and with their families being stress free and feeling confident that their loved ones experience quality of life, safety and socialization.”