Helping navigate the complex maze of long-term care

Judith Munson

Contributor

July 28, 2025

DE PERE – Jesse Marceau – co-owner of CarePatrol Green Bay – said for many, trying to find the right place for an elderly loved one once they are no longer able to live by themselves is one of life’s more stressful and emotional challenges.

Numerous questions, he said, often emerge.

Do Mom or Dad need assisted living care?

At-home care?

Memory care?

What about financing?

How many care facility tours does it take until we find the right place?

With nearly 70 such care facility options in Brown County alone, Marceau said it can be a daunting process.

That’s why the team at CarePatrol Green Bay, Marceau said, is focused on helping people navigate the entire process.

“We’re similar to a realtor,” she said. “When you are looking for a home, you reach out to a realtor. They sit down with you, you let them know what your budget is, what you’re looking for and they take that information to find a home on the market that meets your needs. What we do is very similar.”

Locally focused

CarePatrol has locations across the country – with each office locally and individually owned. 

Marceau said she co-owns the Green Bay office with Michelle Graf, who also owns CarePatrol of Fox Cities.

She said she manages both offices, and both women are certified senior advisors.

“We sit down with seniors and their families, and we get to know them,” Marceau said. “We know the footprint of the market regarding who has availability and can meet their budget. We want to find the place that best fits their emotional and physical needs.”

Marceau said the process can be “overwhelming if you don’t know where to begin,” especially with so many options in the area.

“That’s exactly why CarePatrol was founded – to get to know each individual and match them with the most appropriate place based on their clinical needs and their finances,” she said.

New digs

Prompted by a need to expand, Marceau said the Green Bay office, which was founded three and a half years ago, has recently relocated to De Pere.

The office staff includes two full-time senior care advisors, she said, who meet with families in their homes to start the search process and accompany clients along the way until a good fit is found.

Furthermore, Marceau said CarePatrol Green Bay’s client relations coordinator visits the client after they have settled into a facility.

“She talks with them to assure the situation continues to be a good match,” she said. “We don’t just move somebody in and say, ‘That’s it. Enjoy your home.’ We follow through… They’re kind of stuck with us.”

Part of the reason CarePatrol Green Bay focuses heavily on finding the “right fit” for clients and offering follow-up services, Marceau said, is because having to move an already-settled client is not ideal, as “any move can be traumatic.”

“We always try to see what we can do to prevent a move, but there are some times, unfortunately, when someone is better off going into a different community,” she said.

Living her passion

Marceau – who has served in several roles working with seniors, including as a nursing home administrator – said her passion to serve the senior community stems from growing up close to her grandparents, with her grandma later developing Alzheimer’s.

“I would visit her often with my mom,” she said. “When she went into a nursing home – and this is only 15-some years ago – she didn’t have access to a memory care facility. CarePatrol aligns with everything I believe in with helping seniors find the right match.”

Furthermore, Marceau said building a business “where I was born and raised” means a lot to her.

“Many of the people coming through the doors of CarePatrol are names I’ve encountered one way or another,” she said. “Maybe they were a teacher of mine. It’s been pretty great.”

Don’t know until you need it

Marceau said the public is usually not aware of the changes in the senior care industry, mainly because they don’t usually start to think about this stage of life until they or their loved one is in it.

She said the new nomenclature – e.g., “memory care,” “assisted living” or “at-home care” – is often something that needs to be learned, and CarePatrol staff help new clients make the necessary distinctions.

“Nursing home,” Marceau said, is somewhat of an antiquated term, but is still the one used most often by first-time clients.

“People will call and say, ‘My mom needs a nursing home,’ but that’s such a broad term,” she said. “Oftentimes, the mom is pretty independent and would absolutely thrive in an independent community, because she needs socialization.”

Services, such as those provided by CarePatrol, Marceau said, are helping people navigate the rapidly changing long-term care landscape.

Marceau said the offerings have evolved from the “nursing home” concept to facilities that cover several levels of memory care.

This shift, she said, is driven by a deeper understanding of dementia in recent years, resulting in a better quality of life for seniors, which is always the ultimate goal.

The sooner people start to address their later-in-life care needs, Marceau said, the better off they will be long-term.

“And I get it, a lot of people wait,” she said. “They stay in their home, avoiding care, probably because they think it’s going to be too expensive. But it’s often more affordable than people realize. It’s so important to know the wishes of your loved one ahead of time.”

Unfortunately, Marceau said CarePatrol Green Bay does work with a lot of urgent, crisis/priority move-ins.

“We’re meeting people in the ER, and they need something immediately,” she said. “And that’s not how anybody wants to start their long-term care experience.”

Marceau said CarePatrol Green Bay advisors help clients “put the puzzle pieces together” – showing them what might make the most sense.

At-home care, she said, is growing in awareness and demand as many seniors want to stay in their homes as long as possible, and the agencies enabling that scenario are also growing.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in people wanting in-home care, and more of our clients are being served at home,” she said.

With so many care options available in the Greater Green Bay area, Marceau said CarePatrol staff vigilantly learn about each one, while staying engaged with the senior care community.

“Whether we’re touring with clients, visiting someone who we have moved in recently or just stopping by to maintain a good pulse on the ins and outs of these places, [we do our due diligence],” she said. “We have great relationships with them. We know the management. We know the staff, if they have turnover and if they don’t, things like that.”

After meeting with a CarePatrol advisor, Marceau said clients are then given three or four options for facility tours.

The advisor, she said, will schedule and join them on the tour, which is helpful for people who are new to the process and unsure of all the right questions to ask.

“After all the tours are completed, we sit back down with the client and review: ‘What did you like? What didn’t you like?’” she said. “We point out some things we noticed. We review state survey data to make sure they know what the state says about the communities. Ultimately, it’s the family’s decision or the clients themselves on where they’re going.”

All of this work is important, Marceau said, as clients want to know their loved ones will receive individualized care by a staff trained in a variety of therapies versus simply relying on medication.

“There are thousands of families out there who need help, who need guidance,” she said. “We started three years ago in a tiny – I’ll call it a closet, just myself. I think the growth signifies the need in this area and everywhere, really, due to a growing senior population.”

More information about CarePatrol Green Bay is available at carepatrol.com/green-bay.