Kupuna Care Pair is an online platform that demystifies long term care, and saves families’ valuable time by simplifying the process to compare available services and connect to local care providers in Hawaiʻi.
Todd Pang, our Founder, has spent over a decade operating adult residential care homes and fulfilling a personal mission to raise awareness of long term care in Hawaiʻi.
Throughout the years he has observed daily that families can’t find adequate information about senior care and can’t easily navigate a search that may become as costly as buying a home and as consequential as writing the final chapter of a loved-one’s life story.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pang had come to realize that many long term care facilities struggle to fill their vacancies and lack an efficient and cost-effective way to get brand their services, despite the increasing demand in the community for long term care.
There had to be a better way. In 2021, Kupuna Care Pair was born.
“The stress of navigating a fragmented system is compounded by the fact that it is difficult to find coordinated information about providers and services, referral sources, how to access these services, and how to pay for them.”
— Hawaii Community Foundation & Nonprofit Finance Fund: Caring for our Kupuna, 2013
“Complicated language…further complicates seniors’ and families’ understanding of the services available to them. Among the [care] providers in the cohort that had low enrollment relative to their capacity, most cited lack of information about their services as the primary challenge.”
— Hawaii Community Foundation & Nonprofit Finance Fund: Caring for our Kupuna, 2013
“Unless people have basic information about long-term care—what it is, their risk for needing it, and what it costs—they are unlikely to be motivated to spend time establishing long-term care plans…”
— Hawaii Long-Term Care Commission: Long-Term Care Reform in Hawaii, 2012
Kupuna Care Pair has four component parts:
One: a simple yet powerful self-assessment tool developed from years of experience in advising families and providing care. The assessment takes into consideration key care needs, budget, and personal preferences without the use of sensitive health information, so families can quickly identify a suitable category of care for their kupuna.
Two: an awareness campaign to bridge the information gap and provide a single destination for families to access crucial long term care knowledge. See our comprehensive introductions to the various licensed care services available for our kupuna, with suggestions on how to choose among the many types.
Three: a comprehensive map of elderly care across the State of Hawaiʻi. Combining disconnected information from the State Executive Office on Aging, the Department of Health Office of Health Care Assurance, State & Counties’ Aging and Disability Resources Centers, DBEDT Hawaii Housing Finance & Development Corporation, and various other sources, we have created the internet’s only map of every licensed care service and facility, so families can conduct an immediate search by care type and location.
Four: an online Elderly Care Marketplace with detailed facility listings, searchable and filtered by vacancy status, amenities, pay type, and almost 100 other criteria. Each listing is self-managed by the care facility owners/representatives, and the marketplace allows for direction communication between families and care facilities.