 Thank you for joining us for another episode of Condo Insider. My name is Jane Sugimura, I'm your host for this episode. And Condo Insider is a weekly show, and it's about condo living and we deal with condo issues. And today we're dealing with chapter 514b, section 142, it's called Aging in Place. And those people who serve on boards of directors or who are property managers, you may have run into some instances where you have elderly or disabled people who live in your building, and they create situations that affect everybody else like hoarding, or maybe they can't clean their units because of the disability or their age, you know, and you probably don't know what to do, but this section in this statute allows the association to contact a third party if the relatives of the person who live in the unit don't want to get involved. And so, you know, the association is the one who usually, you know, calls somebody, but this statute lets them intervene and try to get help. And it's important that, you know, that these people get help because if they don't, you know, hoarders who have newspaper and magazines and things that this is a fire hazard. And that's just, you know, frightening when you live in a high rise that you've got a hoarder in the building. And you know, if people don't take care of themselves or they can't take care of themselves, you end up with bugs and vermin and everything else that could affect other people who live in the building. So it's really important that, you know, we live in condominiums can deal with this. So today we have on our show. We're going to have, we have Mark Salazar, who is the CEO and president of a company called Venser Health Technologies. Hi Mark. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me on. Mark's company, you know, has, we're going to be talking about it later on, but they've got an app where people, you know, if you are a relative of this person who's living in a condominium who's having trouble taking care of themselves. This app will allow family members to help remotely. But before we get to the app. Tell me about the company Mark, what does your company do. Yeah, so the app Venser Health Technologies is a mobile platform where we recruit providers to be independent contractors to provide healthcare home medical or healthcare services directed to clients and they operate as independent contractors so you can request their services at any time. Basically, and that's our entire platform we want to connect clients and their family members to providers that are looking for, you know, clients and families are looking for services to providers who are willing to provide that services and our goal is actually to go 24 seven. Like, you know, all those on demand apps like Uber and Lyft, we kind of follow that same model. Why can't you order a healthcare worker or healthcare services provider anytime you need for yourself or for your family member and so that's kind of our goal is to make life easier for people so families can just be families and not be, you know, worried about caregiving for anyone that they know or have to have to face that stress when they can address it themselves so we're hoping that our goal for Venser Health is kind of make that an accessible thing to the general public. Okay, why don't you tell me something about yourself I mean what is your background. I'm actually from Hawaii. I moved to San Francisco in 2009. I'm actually from Waipahu. My parents currently live in Ewa Beach. And so I graduated from Waipahu High School. I got my degree in psychology from the University of Hawaii, West Oahu. I moved to San Francisco in 2009. You know, I work at the Mental Health Association in San Francisco. I'm currently the executive director there. And at that job, we what we do is provide peer support for mental health services. We provide peer support for, you know, mental health support or anything like that we have peer counseling. We also run the California peer run warmline it's like the largest peer support warmline in the nation. And that runs 24-7-365. We take on about 8-10,000 calls per month calls in chat. So it's pretty cool work. You know, we support the people of California, especially during COVID-19, you know, we always like to say, you know, if no one's there for you, the California warmline is there for you. And also, like you mentioned earlier, I have also a pretty extensive background in hoarding disorder work. I actually ran a program with the Mental Health Association in San Francisco for about five years focusing on the topic you mentioned, hoarding disorder and the challenges around it that both not only individuals and their families face, but also, you know, the surrounding neighbors, the people like in the condo association or healthcare and environmental codes and all that stuff. So I kind of have some background in that. So it was interesting that you brought that up. That's kind of some of my familiarities with. So that's kind of my work. On top of that, I just got my master, well, not just got, but I received my master's degree from USC in health and health administration last year. So yeah, that's what I do. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, and with your company, the service that you offer, do you offer it in any other, I mean, you're offering it in Hawaii. And right now you have healthcare providers all lined up right. Yeah, exactly. We do have about 30 to 40 healthcare providers ready to go. Right now we're just seeking clients who want to test it with us. So we're in the beta testing phase in Honolulu. We're actually giving five hours for the, you know, free for the first five hours, we're going to give that free to any client that signs up. So if you're a founding member or, you know, condo association looking for some extra work and, you know, you want to help us kind of test the app and get services going to the people that need it. You know, you get free, they people can get free five hours of service for, you know, for the next I believe 20 or 30 people that signed up for we're doing that in Hawaii only. So at the same time we are looking to expand into Las Vegas, San Francisco Bay Area and actually go on. Okay, in these healthcare providers that you you've got lined up. What I mean, what is your background, are they nurses are they healthcare workers or. Yeah, what kind of what kind of people have you got lined up. The people that we're recruiting for are actually certified nurse aides and registered nurses so we do have a balance of both. Currently, the services are focused on respite care services so the minimum qualification is CNA and you need to be on the license. It has to be current within the state of Hawaii, you know if they're operating here, they must operate as independent contractors themselves and I mean, in addition to that we also verify them so we do independent verification on our end that is current and then we also background check everybody that comes through the app to ensure that you know they are saying who they say they are and you know they don't have any high profile things in their background so we kind of make sure that all providers are background check when they get on the app. Okay, and you know, and you said that you know these people are nurses or maybe healthcare workers. What if the kind of service that you know these people are calling about is they just want somebody to come and help mom get dressed in the morning, or maybe cook some meals so it doesn't require like a nursing certificate. Do you have people like that on your list. So that's one of the things that we're trying to focus on at this point personal hygiene stuff you know helping mom, dad, grandma, grandpa kind of address the daily living stuff so if meals are prepped you can help them feed meals, medication, reminders, some light housekeeping also moving around the home if somebody needs to be pushing a wheelchair or something they can help them move around the home. Toileting if needed bathing, showering, light housekeeping, there is some restrictions within you know adverse statutes where you know some CNAs or RNs can't do particular things so you know we have to double check normally in what statute what people are allowed to do so cooking maybe one of those limited things that a in-home healthcare worker can't do basically but they can help prep that meal if that meal's already kind of prepared they can help prepare for them and just hand it to them and serve them and stuff like that so that's one of those things. We are working on extending that to higher level needs like you're mentioning feeding and stuff there are statutes that we're working on to kind of get into that role so people can receive higher level care from registered nurses basically. You know one thing too that that you haven't mentioned is what if you know somebody you know what if mom and dad need prescription medicine do you have something do you have a provider who will run errands for them or take them to the doctors or you know drive them where they want to go. I mean, is that part of the services that can be provided. So that's actually something we're working on to integrate there are statues that prevent that work directly on an app like this. So there are limitations around it like you know like you said transporting people. There are a lot of regulations around that in the medical field. However, we are working on ways to integrate that there are possible partners that we're trying to work with to address those so you know medication delivery or transportation to a physician or a clinic is something we truly want to get to so we want to make this an all one stop shop for people when they need services at this phase of the app. It's primarily serving and providing support to individuals in their home or the unit and get making sure that they can you know live safely within their own themselves. So let's say somebody was interested in your services how would they contact you. Yeah, so it's pretty easy to jump on our website benser health.com that the VENCR HELTH.com there's a sign up right there just click the sign up and you'll get to a form. You know, fill it out. One of our team members will get it and we'll you know we'll get an immediate response. We'll work with you on signing completing the sign up process because this is in beta, we're a little more involved at this early stage we want to make sure your experience in signing up is, you know, is as easy as possible so you know it takes a maybe an extra step at this stage but going on benser health.com, we can help you sign up there. Okay, and, and how long have you guys been doing this. I actually just recently went live. So that's the cool thing so we've been working on the app development for the last year or so and we've been having different iterations we're not only comfortable with the app at this stage to go testing so you know we've gone through countless iterations of this app and so we're comfortable with releasing it and having it tested by the general public at this point so fairly recently that we've been doing this change. Okay, you know we're getting close to the, before we you know get into more specific details why don't we take a break. Why don't we take a break and it'll be a one minute break and when we come back and you're going to tell me exactly how what you know how we go about using this app, and we get help from mom and dad who live in a condominium. Okay. Okay. Welcome back to condo insider, and today's program is about aging in place, which is 514 b 142 in the on their Hawaii revised statutes, and my guest today is Mark Salazar of vencer technology. We're back Mark. How are you. Good. How are you. I'm going to get into the, the, the bone meats and bones of this thing. You're we're talking we were talking about an app. Okay, and, and, and for the people who are, you know, who are just joining us. This is an app that's available for people who want to take care of their of mom and dad, grandpa, or anti, you know, anti. And you can do it. You don't have to live in Hawaii to do this right. Exactly you can live in another state, if you want, another country if you need to, and that's like the beauty of this app. Like, you know, it's meant for family caregivers to get respite care for themselves if they live with the parents or you know relative and it's also meant for caregivers that, you know, care remotely. So that term remote caregiving is applicable here as somebody lives, you know, like me I live in in the San Francisco Bay Area and if I have to take care of my mom I would use an app like this where I can remotely order home health home health services for my mom or dad. When I when they need it so it is actually meant for people who want to help their family members that living condos who are independently living there. And it would be applicable for people, let's say, you're just a real busy person who lives in Honolulu, and you have three kids, and a full time job. Now you got to take care of mom and dad. And so, and you know you just can't you just don't have the time to go running over to the condo. Right. And so, if you, you know if they need services that you can't physically provide for them, you can sign up for this app and have them have the service providers go to the condo and provide these services right. That's a that's right on the money. That's exactly why this app was created a couple of my co founders and early team members were actually in that exact situation where they were, you know, parents full time working full time full time parents. And then they were dropped with the fact that they have to be caregivers for their parents. And that's really difficult to do right. And then on top of that you have no idea where to start there's stressors and top of it. You don't know who's coming in your home and all that stuff and so we developed that app specifically for what you said Jane it's perfectly why this app was made it's to help reduce that stress and to make sure that your mom your dad grandma grandpa is is taking care of when you can't run over to the condo. How can you know for the people who are listening to this show today. How can you guarantee that the providers, you know, the providers that you, you know, that are participating on the app that people who are going to go into mom and dad's condo that they're that they're legit at their safe. Yeah, I mean how do you how do you guarantee that to the people who are using the service. I mean I think like I mentioned earlier, we bear we verify every provider that comes on board. We asked for documentation we make sure that you know their licenses are all current and then as I mentioned we run a background check it's a mandatory background check for any provider coming into the app. So they must respond to that and that's the only way their names get to be added to our mobile registry of service providers so that's that's the best way we could do it. And that's kind of the best recommendations we got from security experts as well. So you know we're following all the steps recommended to us by security officials. Okay, so when when somebody calls you, you know, how do they, you know, how can they sign up for these services. How do they sign up for these services. So again, go online ventral.com so it's a pretty simple process. You sign up, you know, get an application some complete application you fill out the information and then you get a notice from us to download the app actually so download the app complete. You know, the registration process or the sign up process for the app itself. And then when you're ready you, you know, you just basically sign on so you open the app. You, you sign on, you pick your services that you need at this point, it's companion care medication reminders in home mobility as I mentioned, some light housekeeping so you know they're not housekeepers any but they will clean up the place just a little bit so they can leave in, you know, live in decent living conditions. They will assist with serving prepared meals so if they have prepared meals for them to help serve that personal hygiene, you know, brushing toothbrush, putting on clothes that kind of stuff, bathing showering and toileting if necessary so you select that you know select that you need. Once you do that our algorithm, so it matches you with provider in the area that can actually has that experience to provide the services that you're asking for and it's an algorithm based on location this, you know, distance fees and all that stuff as well. And when you're ready to order that after you select your provider you can actually so there's two great options or you can order it on demand like an Uber or a lift to say hey, I want it in 30 minutes cool they'll come in 30 minutes. But then you can also schedule it in advance, you know it doesn't have to be the next 30 minutes or so I can be the next four or five hours, or it could be tomorrow the next day or next week, you know you can schedule ahead which is a great part about it. And then if you know if you're getting there you know you'll get notifications that the providers on their way. If you're doing it on demand you'll get a notification that they're on your way to the house today if it's next week, you'll get reminders that you have scheduled services. Once that's all done you know you get your your parent or grandfather gets that gets those services. The cool thing is both the provider and the client receiving the services or the founding member can rate one another. So if, if the provider isn't providing high quality services and you've been told that as a founding member you can actually note that and say hey, this provider mistreated my grandma or grandpa. This is not the best provider out there and that creates transparency for people right it holds these providers accountable at the same time. On the other end as a provider you also see you know you can kind of let other providers know like if you've had challenges with this individual like some things to note about this person they have x, y and z they may have dementia or Alzheimer's or anything like that. It kind of gives them a heads up and so they understand what they're walking into as well so it's it's a fairly intricate process but it's actually a simple process to go through. And so when people you sign up for services can you say, I want somebody to come three days a week from nine to 12 or, you know, can you do that. Yeah, you can definitely do that you can do block scheduling that's pretty cool about it as well so we wanted to make sure that you know there are people who need the services in a pinch. You know I got to go to the store for 30 minutes to an hour I need somebody here in the next 20 minutes. That can happen. You can say oh I'm going you know I need to go back to the office for three days next week I need somebody to come in in that time. You can also do that as well. Okay and so before they sign up and and sign up for your services is there a way that I mean do you have like a schedule of fees that you charge, you know for for these providers that people can look at before they start ordering services. The great thing about this platform they're all independent providers so we can't set those fees. Technically, we do tell people you know the we provide people the market rates for these types of services. So when you go on the app it'll tell you like market rate is you know x dollars. And that's, however you want to measure that against the current providers fees the provider sets their own rates. So a provider can set it a little higher in the area or they can set it a little lower. So it really depends at this stage, most providers are putting between $15 an hour to about $25 an hour just depends on the provider and the experience and what they're putting on. Okay, and then once they, once, once they, you know, you set up the the request and you, you select the services. How do you pay for this. It's all electronic there's no cash exchange. You sign up. If you have a credit card and an iPhone at this stage. Yeah, everything is all electronic we will never allow cash to be exchanged so it protects both you know the individual and the provider at the same time so you know there's no threat about cash being exchanged within the transaction. So when you sign up to create an account you you you have to give a credit card. Yeah, you do and it's a secured credit card process as well as third party, and it's encrypted and everything you need to know it. Our providers called strike, and they are very trusted third party payment processor. Okay, how safe is vencer, how safe is the app. Again, we have security officials on our team we have medical doctors on our team if you go on our website you'll, you can read about our board members and advisors, physicians, cybersecurity experts. So, oh and nurses and CNAs as well so you know we we have a full set of team verifying everything we're doing making sure it's safe for both the clients and the providers participating in this. And, you know, earlier on that you had some experience, you know, with hoarding. And you know, we know that that there's probably I mean this is a psychological disorder isn't it. Yeah, yeah. That's why it's so difficult to deal with isn't it. Yeah, it's a long. So I think a lot of the misconceptions around hoarding is that's an easy fix for people. What they've seen on TV is that you just clean up somebody's home and it's fixed actually in reality when you know the programs that we've done real transformation and support actually takes it could take months to years to get to a point where they can actually continue to live independently. There are instances where their physical disabilities may be the cause it's not necessarily a mental health disorder just physical challenges. Sometimes you can't lift boxes or take out the trash so it really does vary depending on the individual but I think one of the misconceptions is that, you know, people are lazy or whatever it is but it's actually a mental health disorder where people are experiencing from either trauma or any other issue that they may have related to that only sort of could be anxiety to be anything else. So I think that's what that's the message that needs to be sent out that it's not a quick fix. Actually cleaning up somebody's home without their permission is actually more detrimental than actually providing them service throughout a process. There have been cases of people coming by suicide because they come to a home where their home was actually gutted without their permission so it's always, we always recommend an interactive process an inclusive process with the individual that you're providing services to. Well, you know, a lot of a lot of situations that affect condominiums, you know, really, you know, are quarters. And is this, is this a situation that you have providers that can deal with hoarders. I would that's actually a very specialized type of service, you know, it does require extra training it does require extra support services so if you know if the condo association and property managers want to get into that work to make sure people are safe in their own home. It does take a lot of planning and they have to be really thoughtful and how they want to go about it. So it requires that might be something. That might be something you might want to add to your list of providers because if you have somebody who can deal with a hoarder. I think that's a service that you know and and and it's more widespread than you would think. And it is a very huge problem in a condominium, because number one it's a fire hazard. It's a date you know it creates a danger to the person who's living in the unit and the people who live, you know, next to that person. Yeah, and it creates a situation where you've got bugs, and you know it's just so unhealthy. And you know and and it's a terrible situation and and we had one in our building. And I mean, and I can tell you it was just a horrendous situation, you know they took a whole lot of people to address it. And that's when I found out that you can't just go in with a bunch of people and clean out the unit. I mean because it just doesn't work that way. It doesn't exactly. And if you could add that to your list of providers. I guarantee you I mean you will, you know you will probably get a bunch of phone calls. Actually, I for this those types of situations actually there are specialized people that do that. They can come in more towards mental health services than providers per se in this type of situation. They're, they've properly trained they can actually support a person and get them through some services to kind of improve their living situation so I, you know, this is a short conversation there is a lot to unpack around hoarding and cluttering and I think you know I'd love to have that conversation. I mean, there's a lot of things to unpack with this type of situation, and especially for property managers because there is a balance when working with individuals or helping people who have this challenge. Right. Well, we've kind of run out of time so meet but you know I'd like to you know have you back on the show in a couple of months to see how you guys have been doing. And see if we can, you know, help get you into more homes so that you can help people take care of their elderly relatives who live in condominiums because I mean that's a service, not only to the people, you know, who live in the condominiums but everybody else who lives in the building. It's just, you know, something that you know needs to be done, because you know we all live in this one community, and, and, and when you've got one person who's kind of having some, you know, tough issues. And they need all the help that they can get. And so you know you're, I look on your company as a resource, you know, for the condominium managers and boards and people, you know who have families who live in condo so thank you very much for being on our show today. Thank you so much for having us on Jane. And yeah, like I was mentioning earlier, you know, we're giving away the first five hours for the next 20 people that signed up. And again, we are a resource for everybody, even though we're an early stage company, you know, we want to help people just live normal lives. It's, it is a challenge and families can't be there 24 seven and we're hoping that benser health can be there to support you, you know, continue just being family members and not just caregivers. So again, if people, you know, visit benser health calm. All your information is there. So thank you again. And thank you all for joining us in this episode of condo insider. And please make sure that you tune in next week Thursday for another episode on other issues dealing with condominium living. Thank you and Mahalo.