Need help organizing caregiving? This concierge business is at your service.

Alyse Dunn cared for her aging dad as he struggled with multiple sclerosis. Shortly before her father’s death, her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Eight years of caregiving were hard enough for Dunn and her sister, Lisa, who were just in their 20s and 30s. The daughters of two physicians, they also had to conduct research into their parents’ diseases as Mom and Dad didn’t want to receive care at the hospitals where they were accustomed to caring for others. While caregiving, Dunn didn’t find many tools that eased her journey. 

After her mother died in 2020, Dunn vowed she’d help families in similar situations. Drawing on her work as a former senior software engineer for Venmo, Dunn, a graduate of the University of Michigan, founded the website and app CareCopilot in 2021 to ease the logistical and administrative ups and downs of caregiving for others. Her stock options from Venmo and a pitch competition win bolstered her business.

CareCopilot’s three full-time and one part-time employees currently serve as concierges to caregiving clients nationwide. Most of the caregivers who come to them are adult children seeking reliable and affordable in-home care or pre-vetted, highly-rated senior communities for their parents. Many of the caregivers are women and only children. CareCopilot’s team manages families’ administrative tasks such as completing Medicaid applications, interviewing eldercare attorneys, locating adult daycare centers, securing healthcare proxies, or searching for culturally competent in-home aides. They screen and recommend which nursing homes in southeast Michigan take Medicaid or which dentists in Buffalo make house calls and have reasonable rates. 

“We’re more than just a service,” Dunn said. “CareCopilot is dedicated to easing the burdens of those caring for aging loved ones.”

The company, headquartered in New York City where Dunn now lives, supports families across the United States in caring for aging loved ones, intending to alleviate the stressors associated with caregiving.

While a growing number of companies have paid caregiver leave and referral services, a scant few offer support or services for navigating the acute challenges of caring for aging parents. 

Subscription services for CareCopilot, which start at $50 a month depending on the level of need, are open to anyone nationwide and tailored to a family’s needs. There’s unlimited support for $750 a month for those needing more extensive services like moving a loved one across the country. If a loved one has complex clinical needs, CareCopilot might have to refer them to a geriatric care manager. The company currently doesn’t accept health insurance, but it’s an area Dunn said she is investigating for future integration. 

One recent client needed help finding a Korean-speaking in-home nurse for her father. Another sought an in-home care aide in a remote suburb. “We contacted over 18 agencies until we found the perfect match,” Dunn said. “Our goal is to allow caregivers to focus on what matters most – spending time with their loved ones.”

Finding the right balance between work and family isn’t easy. In the United States, an estimated 53 million people were family caregivers in 2020, up from 43.5 million in 2015. An increasing number of them are struggling to coordinate care. Two-thirds (67 percent) of working adult caregivers in a survey released in May by AARP and S&P Global reported having difficulty juggling work and life responsibilities, with most saying it impacted their daily stress.

“These are universal concerns,” Dunn said, “and we’re here to provide solutions.”

In addition to its core concierge services, CareCopilot hosts free monthly meetups in New York City as a respite for active caregivers of older parents or grandparents. To make events accessible, she posts on Meetup.com events where caregivers can unwind free manicures, rooftop films under the stars, or “paint and sip” classes. As with the concierge business, many attendees are flying solo, so last-minute cancellations from caregivers aren’t uncommon. Events with a bit of alcohol are most popular, said Dunn, who sees the respite activities as part of her mission to ensure no caregiver feels alone in their journey.