SOLENVIA Caregivers Uses Training as a Differentiator

Bryan Dylewski, the founder of SOLENVIA Caregivers, started his entrepreneurial journey running a medical equipment startup called Mobility Products Unlimited back in 1996. The company eventually grew into the third-largest mobility provider in the U.S.

, but life-changing medical news altered the course of Bryan’s career forever. His father was diagnosed with ALS, and Bryan took on the role of caregiver. That journey showed Bryan just how important and challenging navigating the caregiving space is for older people and their families.

This led to him founding The Home Aides, which evolved into SOLENVIA Caregivers, in 2014.

Training initiative

Back in April, SOLENVIA announced their move to make Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP) training a system-wide requirement for franchise owners. We spoke with Bryan to discuss the thinking behind raising the training floor, SOLENVIA’s approach to providing truly individualized services, and how they’re helping franchisees stand out in a marketplace where demand and competition are both high.

We provide caregiver services to individuals the senior population, and we find that probably ninety to ninety-five percent of our clients live with some type of brain change, either Alzheimer’s or dementia. And we look at every one of our clients as an individual, and each one of them has very specific needs.

People with Alzheimer dementia have a range of behavioral needs that need to be managed on a day-to-day basis. And really, our role as the caregiver is to be able to know what those behaviors are and how to respond to those behaviors.

And we believe that the training element, having people who are trained to recognize dementia/Alzheimer’s behaviors and responses, is beneficial — not only to the caregiver but also for the clients and their families. This certification will create a better experience for everyone across the system.

In the press release where you announced the new requirement, you said that the gap between “managed care” and “genuinely informed care” is what you’re working to close. Can you tell us a little more about how you see this gap and why you feel strongly that closing it is something important for SOLENVIA to be taking a lead on?

Individualized care

I think the healthcare system is designed to treat diagnoses and that people, when we go and receive a treatment, we’re categorized by diagnoses. We see that each one of our clients has an individual need. When we accommodate that individual need through SOLENVIA Caregiver Services, we see that people respond well to it.

I remember one of my first 24-hour live-in clients, we had it was a gentleman on hospice, and the family brought us in for twenty-four-hour services. The expectation from the family and the doctors was that the client was going to be around for another four weeks, maybe. We brought in a caregiver named Lawrence, and Lawrence spent time with his client, paid attention to him, fed him, kept him clean, and provided companionship.

The client thrived and ended up living an additional eight months. Lawrence did such a good job assessing, understanding, and meeting that person’s individual needs that the relationship ultimately ended for financial reasons, not medical ones.

I think that speaks to the nature and the core of what we’re doing here, what our services do for individuals.

Vision and development

At SOLENVIA, we’ve launched this training initiative at the ground level, so it will be baked into our system from this point forward. We also have the ability to create the training and really develop it as time goes on and the system grows. We can take in new ideas, process new information, and evolve in whatever ways we feel are best to deliver great services.

I think that’s one of the unique differentiators that we have at SOLENVIA: we’re actively working to set a standard. We believe in identifying people’s unique needs, accommodating them, and delivering positive outcomes.

When you look at the structure operationally for the franchisee, it’s the owner/operator model. The owner/operator is the one who’s CDP certified or trained. They and their staff can receive ongoing training from our trainer. And then in addition to that, there are training manuals that they’ll be available for the caregivers that each franchisee will be able to use as a resource to provide ongoing training.

The intent was to really come and set the franchisee up to really be successful, knowing that the majority of our clients suffer and have some type of brain change. And to work in that space, we believe it’s important for people to have that knowledge and understanding and to be able to promote good responses and promote a good service. So, it builds credibility, not only the referral side, the people who are actually referring the services to us.

It builds trust and credibility to the families, and it also equips the caregivers with the knowledge and security and confidence to go into a situation and be able to work with somebody with various levels of Alzheimer dementia.

We’re a people business, and I think at the end of the day, it’s about ongoing reinforcement, development of training materials, and having the training translate into a good service for our customer. When you have a caregiver that has been trained well and can work successfully with a very complex individual with behavioral needs and create positive outcomes, that’s a win.

That’s what we want for our franchisees. We want to set them up for win-win situations. when you have happy clients and happy customers, you have happy referral sources that continue to refer to you, and at the end of the day, that leads to happy franchisees.

We’re going to strategize behind that.