The Holding Co.

We were excited to read about this development from DispatchHealth and Medically Home — house calls are making a come back! We hope that as the clinical experience moves into the home, caregivers’ insights will be thoughtfully considered. We have the opportunity to build a health experience from scratch that actually integrates their contributions and experiences, which we’ve so often missed before. And missing it has real consequences — increasing the unrecognized burden on caregivers with the added work of now tending to patients in their home. Let’s get this right together! https://lnkd.in/e-RF4k9z

We read about the tragic deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, with a lot of tenderness and no small amount of outrage. Hackman, who had Alzheimer’s disease, was left alone when his wife and sole caretaker, died unexpectedly. It speaks to the isolation that even the most privileged families in this country feel when they try to take care of their loved ones with cognitive decline. We just don’t have enough systems set up to support family caregivers, particularly at a moment when our country is aging at an unprecedented rate. In the wake of this tragedy, Emma Heming Willis, the primary carer for her husband, the actor Bruce Willis, who is suffering from dementia, took to Instagram and said, among other things: “Caregivers need care, too. And that they are vital, and that it is so important that we show up for them so that they can continue to show up for their person.” Amen to that. We’re so grateful to work every single day on innovations that aim to make caregivers feel more equipped and less alone. https://lnkd.in/gxW-fab5

We’re following the ways in which robots are being integrated into care models closely, and this news is intriguing. One of the UK’s leading care providers is using robots to help deliver care to the homes of elderly and vulnerable people, including providing reminders to take medication, or eat and drink regularly, and offering a simple way for patients to connect with family and carers. These robots are being used in conjunction with in person visits, particularly for the most acute cases, and time will tell whether the combination works to improve care for the underserved. We’d love to know: what are you thoughts on this kind of task-shifting with technology? Excitement? Fear? We’d love to hear from you. https://lnkd.in/gtnHBDji

Congrats to our co-founder, Patrice Martin, for being named one of The Curious 100 by the Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity. She’s in such cool company among a wide range of designers, entrepreneurs, creatives, and builders, including The Holding Co. collaborators like Ai-jen Poo, Marika Shioiri-Clark, Eunice Lin Nichols, and Wendy MacNaughton. Curiosity is such a critical mindset as we redesign the care system we all deserve. We love that this list foregrounds such a foundational and often overlooked virtue.

We’ve just launched our 2025 Care Trends, and we’d love for you to check it out! For this edition, we reached out to 30+ leaders across the care economy to hear what’s top of mind for them. They include startup founders, investors, public health experts, corporate leaders, and more who all bring unique perspectives on what’s happening in care today. Find out what’s keeping these leaders up at night, what’s exciting them most and what they think more people should be paying more attention to. It’s not to be missed. Dive in, check it out and as always please let us know what you think – The link is in the comments. There’s a lot happening at this moment in time (to say the least!) and we’re eager to be in conversation with all of you. A huge thank you to our contributors: Amanta Mazumdar, Andrey Ostrovsky, MD, FAAP, Anna Steffeney, Chris Waugh, Elana Berkowitz, Emily M. Dickens, Erica Phillips, Jake Rothstein, Jennifer Stybel, Jessie Wild Sneller, Joan Blough, Joseph Fuller, Julie Wroblewski, Laura Kohn, Lindsay Jurist-Rosner, Louise Langheier, Louise Stoney, Lynn Perkins, Maria Thomas, Melissa Danielsen, Michael Skaff, Niki Manby, Pooja Mittal, Sara Mauskopf, Sara Mickelson, Shyamal Hitesh Anadkat, Sharon Cilione-Berger, Stephanie Itelman, Susan Golden, Tolu Lawrence #2025CareTrends

Our storyteller-in-residence Courtney Martin has a great episode out with Slate Magazine about how to protect our elders (and ourselves!) from cyber crimes, which unbelievably have become the most costly and widespread crime in the nation! We love this episode, not only because it contains super practical advice that all of us can do immediately, but because it advocates for de-shaming this widespread crime. Our elders must stop thinking they are to blame, and start understanding that this is a collective issue. We love an intervention that points towards the system failure, and potential fixes, rather than making individual caregivers feel like they’ve failed. Take a listen and become part of the solution. https://lnkd.in/gapy457D

Did you know that Medicaid covers nearly half of all births in America and almost half of the nation’s children are also enrolled in the program? You wouldn’t be alone if you answered no. Too many of us don’t understand enough about how foundational #Medicaid is to the care system as it’s currently designed—and not just for older adults, as is often the public perception. This explainer is a great way to tune up your own knowledge so you can think creatively about how to adapt in the months ahead as this administration likely overhauls one of caregivers’ most essential programs. https://lnkd.in/gsfWEaUp

Congrats to Springbank and Cake Ventures for their insightful new report on the dynamics between aging adults and their caregivers. It so effectively disabuses us of the myth of the single buyer in care and gets at some of the relational nuances that often get missed when designing or marketing a product or service for this population. One of the key findings certainly rings true: that both the majority of aging adults and the majority of caregivers believe they are the one with the final decision making power. You don’t want to miss the insights here- https://lnkd.in/gQSBg-k3

Two of the national care conversations most dynamic thinkers, Elissa Strauss, author of When We Care, and Elliot Haspel, who has a brand new substack newsletter, have compiled a fantastic list of the myths about care that hold us all back from innovating and impacting those who need it the most. They write: “There is a care-shaped hole in nearly every major academic discipline, and our political and popular culture hasn’t done much better.” Amen to that. The myths they chose really resonate for us, especially “It ruins care to talk about it in an economic context.” To the contrary, defining the scope of care and the economic burdens and opportunities within it are key to creating a system that actually works for everyone, rather than falling on the backs of overwhelmed women. That’s why we put out our care economy report and do work every single day to create new ways for money to flow for a more caring America. https://lnkd.in/gRqYUbXC

We are keeping a close eye on how Medicaid (the nation’s largest health insurance program and a critical factor in our care system) will be impacted by the new administration, and found this write-up by Flare Capital Partners particularly helpful. Among other things, the authors write: “We are prepared for a period of regulatory uncertainty with potential reform around block grants, work requirements, and spending cuts.” They go on to assert that likely a lot of adaptability will have to take place on a state-by-state basis, and that start-ups that leverage technology, especially AI, will be particularly interesting to investors trying to ride the wave of change. We’ve been tracking the intersection of care and AI through our latest Care Guild class, and will continue to look to care experts to help us understand what protective measures must be taken to ensure our elders, among other most vulnerable populations, are served during this time of such upheaval and uncertainty. https://lnkd.in/e6ZXNs54