Mostly the same things — but full time, with training, and without the emotional weight of being the daughter.

We know which MassHealth form is the right one. We know that the cardiologist's office returns calls after 3pm and the neurologist's doesn't. We know what a discharge planner can be asked for and what they'll say no to. That knowledge is the difference between six phone calls and one.

And you get to go back to being family instead of staff.

No. We don't provide hands-on personal care — no bathing, dressing, transfers, or medication administration. We coordinate, advocate, and navigate.

If your mother needs hands-on care, part of our job is finding the right agency, checking that they're properly licensed, arranging the schedule, and staying on top of them when the aide doesn't show up.

Those are good organizations doing necessary work, and if they can serve your family well, use them. We'll tell you when that's the case.

The difference is caseload. An Aging Services Access Point may carry a hundred or more people per worker, which means triage rather than sustained attention. We carry a small number of families on purpose, so the person who answers your call already knows your mother's medication list.

Medicare and MassHealth do not cover care management, and most private health insurance doesn't either. This is out of pocket for most families — that's true of every care manager, not just us. Some long-term care insurance policies do reimburse it, so it's worth checking your parent's policy.

Private care managers in this region generally charge by the hour. We charge a flat monthly retainer instead, because hourly billing makes families ration their own phone calls.

Currently, our monthly rate is $350/mo. Sliding scale is available and we will tell you plainly whether you qualify.

Then we'll help you get the assessment scheduled, and we'll say so clearly.

PACE is more comprehensive than anything we offer — medical care, transportation, meals, day programming, all under one plan. If your family qualifies and it fits, that's the better option and we're not going to pretend otherwise to keep your business.

That's the most common thing we hear, and it isn't a dealbreaker.

Refusing help is usually about control, not about the help. Most people will accept someone who's clearly working for them — not someone their children hired to manage them. We introduce ourselves that way, and we move at the pace your parent sets.

Sometimes we start by working with you alone until your parent is ready. That's a legitimate place to begin.

Very few families do. One sibling lives nearby and carries everything; the others live far away and have opinions about it.

A neutral outside coordinator changes that conversation more than people expect. Everyone gets the same written care plan and the same updates, and the discussion shifts from whose account of the situation is accurate to what actually needs deciding.

No. Decisions stay with your parent, or with whoever holds health care proxy or power of attorney.

We make sure the decisions are informed, that the options are on the table in plain language, and that whatever gets decided actually gets carried out.

That's a real option, not a consolation prize. The Assessment tier is a home visit, a written care plan, a full benefits screening, and a referral list you can act on yourself.

Plenty of families use that once, handle things on their own for a year, and come back when something changes. That's a good outcome.

English, Kreyol, and Spanish. We work directly with your family in the language your family speaks at home — not through a child translating for a parent, which is how important details get lost.

We're based in Lawrence and work throughout the Merrimack Valley. If you're farther out, ask — we'll either take it on or point you to someone who should.

Your coordinator and, where it's needed for care, the providers you authorize us to speak with. Nobody else. We ask for written authorization before we contact anyone on your behalf.

We don't sell or share your information, and we don't pass it between Reconstruction Institute programs.

For two women who did this work before there was a name for it.

Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first Black licensed nurse in the United States, trained in Boston, and spent nearly her whole career in private-duty nursing inside families' homes — one household at a time, for decades.

Aramintha Ross is the name Harriet Tubman was born with. The part of her life most people skip is what she did afterward: she opened and ran a home for elderly and indigent Black people on her own land in Auburn, New York, and died there in 1913, cared for by the institution she built.

A circle is what a care team makes around one person.