No Place Like Home
Conchy Bretos was born in Cuba and came to America in 1962 as part of what was called the "Peter Pan" airlift. At that time, upper and middle class Cubans, worried about Castro, sent their children to the United States. Conchy was 14 years old when she came, and spent three years in a Nebraska orphanage before being reunited with her parents. It's possible she got her resilience from that tough experience. For certain, she grasped on to the American Dream and all it had to offer.
After a varied career in marketing, health care and women's issues, Conchy Bretos spent several years working in Florida state government. As Secretary for Aging and Adult Services , Conchy was frustrated to see senior citizens who needed help either wasting away alone in their apartments or getting shipped off to nursing homes. Why, she wondered, did we have to send seniors who couldn't afford assisted living to the nursing homes that Conchy calls "dump yards" when all they needed was a little help taking care of themselves?
Conchy told us about how the massive federal bureaucracy that pays for health care, Medicaid, essentially offers these seniors no other option. By law, the only care Medicaid is required to provide is in nursing homes. So, Conchy, undaunted, took on the bureucracy. She convinced the goverment to let her try bringing assisted living services--like food, help getting dressed, help with medication--to seniors in their own apartments.
Staying in their apartments, without the regimentation of a nursing home keeps seniors much happier, while saving the government a bundle. Many millions, in fact. Since 1994, her company has brought assisted living services to thousands of seniors in public housing apartments around the country. And, recently, the federal government--through an agreement between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Medicaid program--held Conchy's method up as a model, even changing the law to make it easier for more states to replicate the kind of public housing assisted living services she offers.
I found Conchy Bretos to be incredibly inspiring. Her energy, optimism and "can do" spirit are infectious. Not only that, she's really fun to be around. We hope you enjoy meeting her as much as we did.