Geras Media originated from our founder’s personal experiences with his aging mother’s care, and from witnessing his wife’s family’s challenges transitioning their grandmother from her family home into an assisted care facility for her final years. As his mother was aging and physically declining, his family found themselves in the fortunate situation of having his oldest sister – an elder care RN – able to live with their mother. She lovingly converted a portion of their home into a mini assisted care facility and was also able to provide the care herself. Thus, his family was able to address the major challenges associated with caring for an aging loved one: keeping the senior in his or her home, having trusted care that truly has the senior’s best interests, and having family nearby. On paper, the situation was perfect… and yet, there were still issues.
A few years later, he observed the challenges his wife’s family endured transitioning grandma from her family home of over forty years into an assisted care facility. Even though the family was well resourced financially- which is often one of the biggest and most stressfull challenges family’s face- there were still myriad challenges.
In both cases, some of the challenges or issues were unique to the situation, but most seemed to be challenges faced by every family, to some degree. What organically started as friendly, empathetic advice to friends, then expanded to a few essays and blog posts offering advice more broadly, and eventually evolved into a business dedicated to helping families navigate elder care options and solutions- Geras Media. Today, we have expanded beyond those humble and very personal beginnings, but have not forgotten the love of a son for his mother as we strive to improve senior living through innovation.