The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Hosted by Founder and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting LLC, Norman Harris. The Official Healthcare Edutainment station. Empowering listeners with the knowledge and resources to age comfortably. The podcast platform will uniquely provide laughter, peace, joy, resources and most of all COMFORT. Fostering professional partnerships and engaging the audience by providing them access to a REAL family-like conversation. That gives them the REAL reasons. Connects them to REAL reliable resources. To get REAL results. For REAL Comfort! Through interviews with C-suite healthcare leaders, experts, caregivers, founders, authors, educators, and thought leaders who are doing incredible work for older adults, family caregivers, and the healthcare community.
The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Still Thriving in 2025: A Healthcare Journey with Stephen Lomonico, NHA
What happens to mental health when independence is lost? Steve Lamonaco, President and CEO of Thrive Behavioral Science, pulls back the curtain on the often-overlooked psychological challenges facing nursing home residents and their families.
Drawing from his remarkable journey spanning four decades in elder care—from nursing assistant to CEO—Steve shares how his firsthand experiences shaped Thrive's innovative approach to providing psychiatric and psychological services to over 9,000 elderly patients monthly across Florida's nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
The conversation takes a deep dive into the profound adjustment disorders many seniors face when entering long-term care. "Nobody sits back and says 'I can't wait to get to the nursing home,'" Steve notes, highlighting how depression and anxiety often accompany the loss of independence, financial control, and familiar routines. Particularly moving is his insight into the parallel suffering of caregivers left at home, whose own routines and mental health frequently deteriorate after placement decisions.
Steve's perspective is uniquely valuable because he bridges clinical understanding with administrative expertise as a licensed nursing home administrator. This dual perspective allows him and his team to create systems that effectively address resident needs while helping facilities maintain compliance and quality measures—reaching far more seniors than traditional approaches.
Beyond professional insights, Steve shares personal reflections that reveal his deep commitment to this work, including his habit of working 80+ hour weeks and not taking a vacation since 2004. His advice to aspiring healthcare administrators emphasizes humility, continuous learning, and genuine empathy for both residents and staff.
Want to learn more about supporting elderly mental health or connect with Steve's team? Visit www.thrivebehavioralsciences.com or find Thrive Behavioral Sciences on LinkedIn and Facebook.
I haven't taken a vacation since 2004. I mean a real like a week. So my wife has been, you know she gets to go meet me at conferences and stuff, but I haven't taken a true vacation. I just really about learning on the job and I just kind of entrenched myself into learning whatever I could every day, from sitting down I'm smiling.
Speaker 2:Real big today. Real big today. Yes, I have somebody very special on the show. He agreed to do the show with no problem.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of the let's Get Comfy podcast, brought to you by Comfort Measure Consultant. I'm your host, norman Harris. Right, it's Florida number one health care edutainment station. Yes, that's a manifestation that I do. We have a wonderful guest, wonderful guest with us today. President and CEO, mr steve lamonaco of thrive behavioral science.
Speaker 2:Thank you, sir, for joining us today. So glad to have you. Thanks for having me. It's an honor to have you, uh, grace this set here, uh, with the orange background. You know I'm not a florida gator fan, by the way. Just I like to just say that off work. But thank you, sir, for being here. I really appreciate you joining me in this platform. I mean, it's an honor to you. Give me a chance to sit down, have a conversation with you, one. I love learning about people in general and this is a great way for me to to learn you. But the audience, the community, my audience, audience is people, the everyday person out there. Uh, to hear from someone like yourself, uh, this is going to be great and to hear from your insight. I'm just excited for the audience to be honest with you. So we're going to start there. We're going to start present day thrive behavior science. Um, what specific services does your organization provide, uh, to support mental health in the elderly individuals?
Speaker 1:thrive. Thrive is a what we provide psychiatry and psychology and nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout the state. Um, we go in. I have uh 39 practitioners, both psychiatry and psychology. We do psych nurse practitioners, we have psychologists and we also have I have three medical directors who are all psychiatrists, and we go into nursing facilities and treat patients in the facilities. We do it in a way that we're hopefully taking great care of the resident, making sure they have what they need. We're hoping to make sure that the facilities have quality measures that meet where they need to be as well, but ultimately, it's all about the patient. We also try to help the facilities with compliance and things like that. So we go in, we treat patients, we try to see everybody we can.
Speaker 1:Our model is something a little bit different that we created and partly that's due to my background, because I'm also a licensed nursing home administrator and a certified risk manager. So for me, setting up the procedures that we use, the way you use, how we go about things, is a little bit different than some of the others. I just saw a need when the mega rule came out in 2018. The third part of the mega rule came out in 2018. I saw a need, something that I felt like was being missed in long-term care in the nursing facilities was being missed in long-term care in the nursing facilities, and so I thought, if somebody thought about it the way I think about it as a nursing home, from a standpoint of a nursing home administrator or a director of nursing, and we did things the way I thought about it, the way I wanted them done, we could make a bigger impact on the facilities and really on the industry. Yes, sir, so we've made some inroads, we've done some good things.
Speaker 2:Right, right. So I started this episode a little different. For followers out there, our comfy supporters, I wanted to get off for people to understand what Thrive Behavioral Science is. But I just want you all to understand, Mr Lamonical, here, if you could just let them let the audience know your accolades, accomplishments, um, just brag on yourself a little bit. Just take, take about 60 seconds just to brag on yourself, Mr Lamonical.
Speaker 1:Well, I, I don't know Um, I am a nursing home administrator. As I said, and I'm very proud of that, I started working in nursing homes in the 80s, that's 1980s, so and basically I started in nursing homes because my grandfather was in a nursing home. He actually had a stroke the day we buried my grandmother and I started visiting him, and when I would, I really didn't like what I saw. I felt like we could do a better job. There could be a better job done if somebody really focused on it. I shouldn't say it wasn't. I didn't like what I saw, I just felt like there could be a better job. I felt like I could run the place better. So, that being said, I was pre-med and decided to go this direction, and so I became a nursing home administrator. I was a nursing assistant to start, but I wasn't even certified, because I didn't have to be certified at the time. So that's how long ago it was.
Speaker 2:So you were hands-on before. Oh yeah, so coming out into the real world.
Speaker 1:Once I got my degree, passed my test um actually had to take it twice, not because I failed, I passed the first one. But then the obra 87 came out and uh, on the new test in 92, and so I had to take the test again well, I failed mine so.
Speaker 1:but I passed it both times and then came out and and I got a job actually an intermediate care facility because I was a probably because I was the lowest priced person out there but they had just lost their Medicare cert. So I stayed there until I got the Medicare cert back. And then I went to a different facility and kind of up the ladder. In 2000, I was in Atlanta and I decided to take a little chance. Pps was converting. We were converting to PPS at the time. There's a lot of turmoil in the industry, a lot of sales of facilities and company, and I decided to venture off into pharma. I went to a dinner with a couple of my medical directors and pharmaceutical salesperson came to me and said you would be really good at this, the questions you're asking. So I got into. It was strictly a long-term care division for a couple of different companies.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I actually sold psych in those. So for me it's important to be prepared. So the only way I could get comfortable was to learn everything I could about all the meds not just my own but my competing products and so when I did that I realized how deep I could go and how much knowledge I could acquire if I really studied. So I did that and I did that for about six years. I went from a sales rep and I actually led the nation for five out of six quarters In pharmaceutical sales In pharmaceutical sales. What organization was this? I was with Johnson and Johnson. I was with Eli Lilly.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, the big boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so when I did it I was very fortunate. I mean, I really felt that my understanding of the space was really the biggest thing that made me successful. I could speak the language, I could talk the talk, and it was all about being honest and giving them what they needed information-wise.
Speaker 2:At Comfort Measures Consulting, we're here to help you navigate the complexity of healthcare. If you're caring for a loved one as a caregiver, you don't have resources, you don't know what questions to ask. You need to have options right. Give Comfort Measures a call. Give us a chance. First consultation is free. Speak with me Comfort Measures Consultant 850-879-2182. You can also visit our website at wwwcomfortmeasuresconsultingcom visit our website at wwwconfrontmeasuresconsultingcom.
Speaker 1:Talk to you soon. Well, I was selling psych meds. Oh, you were selling psych meds. Yeah, I was. But you know, I mean, one of your biggest cost centers in a nursing facility is meds.
Speaker 1:And so I also learned, you know, very early to balance and to look at medications before the patients were admitted so that I could make sure that my costs were where they needed to be, which oftentimes means sensitivities or things like that have to be done at the hospital beforehand. Also doing that, I learned labs, because I needed to see where labs were, because if you've got somebody who's got a 7.1 hemoglobin and it's been dropping consistently, tomorrow it's gonna be 6.9. You're gonna have to send them back out for a transfusion anyway. They can keep them another night. Have them do it, then send them. This way you don't have to worry about it and you don't have to put them on Procrit, which is expensive, or it was at least so.
Speaker 1:So a lot of different things that I learned in this time frame that I was a sales rep. Then I was put into management development, which didn't last very long because I did so well in it Not a little bragging on myself. I did very, very well in it after the first visit. So they promoted me to district manager and I moved to California. Okay, life in.
Speaker 1:Cali. Yeah Well, you know what it was different. I was up in Northern California but I ran seven states because of the size of the territory and got to meet a lot of great people out there and we were top five out of 28 districts for my entire tenure, the four years out there.
Speaker 2:And then I became an interim regional director before they downsized due to the economy in I think it was 07 so look, let me ask you this, and I'm sorry to cut you off, please on this was this where you, um uh, you are familiar with, or met or work with I should say sean, uh, denine, yeah, sean was of my.
Speaker 1:Sean was one of my best.
Speaker 2:Well, just me researching you. This is what he said about you. This is during your pharmaceutical, where you was the sales manager. Right, he said I have worked with a number of managers in life and I look at I'm lucky to have worked with Mr Steve hands down, one of the best sales managers have worked with uh, mr steve hands down, one of the best sales managers loyal, honest, patient and passionate.
Speaker 1:Passionate, that's what he said about you. Yeah, I still stay in touch with sean and sean was a great guy. The funny part I messed your last name up. I'm sorry, but yeah, sean, sean, it's funny. I I met sean at a job fair and sean was very nervous. He had never worked in pharma before. He was in financial side of things, but charismatic, and that's what I. You know. When I was hiring, I would look for charismatic people, people who could draw attention to themselves but also had to be smart. Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:I met Sean and Sean was very nervous at the time. Sean sweat through his jacket so much that he was so nervous. But the funny thing is, once Sean calmed down and realized we could just talk, I realized that I had a winner there. Sean was number one in the country for quite a few years, along with another guy, kenny Perry. But we always you know the people that we people used to laugh because I didn't hire people who had pharma experience and I it wasn't that I was shying away from. I hired some people who had pharma, but I also hired a lot of people who were. They had charisma, they had intelligence. They were just people who could, who could speak. Sean's got an eidetic memory. He can remember after reading something exactly where it is on the page Wow. So for him he would remember everything he read and he would be able to spew it back out. But he was such a honest person that he would draw people to them and they believed him.
Speaker 1:And so he was and he, like I said, he gave off that essence of being that, that honest, hardworking and just such a great guy. Well, he felt similar, similar, very similar uh, to you yeah, but I've got a lot of you know, a lot of those folks that they were just so great at what they did. They just needed the right person to you know to maybe take their guard down, because so many people when you manage people, you just have to understand each individual and then know how they need to be managed.
Speaker 1:Not do everything across the board the same way. You cannot, and that's what I tried to do was make sure that they knew that. I always told all my team so many times in pharma. What we saw was people, when their district manager would come in to ride with them, because we would actually go on visits with them, they would be afraid to ride with their because they thought they were going to be critiqued. And I always said I want to be the one that you guys call and say I need you here because I've got a tough one today and if we can get this over the hump, I know you can help me. And so that's the way I looked at it and they would.
Speaker 1:If they had a tough day or they had somebody who was on the, you know, I could put something together that when we came in and we talked, it would be important to them, important enough for them to listen, and we could get the message across the way we needed to. You never talk bad about other medications or other people. It all had to do with your medication. We're a team and so when we would do that, we would we would normally see success because they would understand that we, we were just trying to. Here's a specific area that you can use this medication in, and if you can try it, maybe you'll see the results, and if you do, I want to know about it. It really worked out well, so you know. But we also had focus on the right clients to make sure that we you know our, our practitioners had to be the right people to focus on, and so we tried to do that as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, so pause, yep, that's here. There is a comfy moment, but we do add a little entertainment. Oh, yes, sir, I tell you it's the edgy. Now we're doing the education, but now we have a little entertainment, so we take a pause here. Yes, a moment here. So I take a pause here. Just a moment here, uh, so I have a couple questions for you, sir. Okay, all right, you get it's called. That's my answer. You get three seconds to answer this. Okay, three seconds, all right. If you could eat one dish daily for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Speaker 1:probably, uh, veal parmesan, veal parmesan, my dad's favorite. Well, veal par and bill marsala, but yeah, bill parmesan neil parmesan.
Speaker 2:Okay, uh, let's see, if you were a, uh, an appliance or office supply, what would it be? That'd probably be a refrigerator refrigerator, all right. Um, if you had a superpower, what would that superpower be and what would you use it for?
Speaker 1:Oh, probably strength, and I like the premise of being strong. So I think, without having to use it, you can put that kind of a vibe off, so that you don't have to do certain things and then, when you needed to, you could be strong enough to do what needed to be done.
Speaker 2:All right. Do you have a childhood crush, whether it's a celebrity crush or from the childhood when?
Speaker 1:I was a kid, all I wanted to do was play baseball. So I, Steve Garvey, was the first baseman for Los Angeles Dodgers and he was. I played first base a lot and he was kind of my idol. He was always supposed to be this great guy. He was an honest guy and he was a great baseball player and so I followed Steve Garvey. I also followed Lin Swan because I thought he was a great receiver and I'm a Steeler fan, Lin Swan.
Speaker 2:I'm talking about childhood, of course. My childhood question was Beyonce, oh, like that. Yeah, childhood crush. Okay, childhood crush, but it's entertainment a little bit too.
Speaker 1:Mr Monaco All right.
Speaker 2:So childhood crush, yeah who. You had a magazine on the wall. I don't know if your mama let you put posters on your wall or anything like that.
Speaker 1:No, farrah Fawcett was big at the time, yeah.
Speaker 2:See, I knew it was somebody you might not want to share Farrah Fawcett with the red bathing suit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, I would probably say that was probably it, because I'm pretty sure I had that on my wall.
Speaker 2:I do it.
Speaker 1:Carol Teagues was another one, I think. Carol Teagues was in a pink bathing suit. You remember the bathing suit All right, I still got a pretty decent memory yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's change that topic right now. I don't want to get over, sir, uh. And the last one is if you could be any animal, what would it be and why a jaguar?
Speaker 1:I, I just, I've always grabbed it. I love the, the big cats I love, but they're sleek, uh, they're strong, uh, they're fast. It was either that or a cheetah, but I, I love the speed side of of things, but they're they're sleek, they fast, they're strong and I just think a Jaguar is cool. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for participating in the game. We will resume, but I want to talk about Thrive as well. Okay, so can you explain how the importance of addressing behavioral health in aging adults and how that impacts their overall well-being?
Speaker 1:Well, when you look at life, if you work all your life and you retire, it's time to retire. You're looking forward to your golden years. You're going to enjoy the time. Nobody sits back and says I can't wait to get to the nursing home. You know they may say that. You know, assisted living is a completely different animal. They can go. There are so many things to do there. You know they have freedom. And you go to a nursing home. There's a reason why you're there and it's normally because you can't do anything for yourself. It's very limited. Let's just say that you've got conditions that are making it very difficult for you to live independently. That comes with different risks and some of those are adjustment disorders. Coming into the nursing facility, people are depressed, people have just lost their independence, they've lost their ability to manage their finances, the expense that's related to the cost of care, which care is expensive and I don't think everybody realizes that. But when you look at all of the different things that happen when you're admitted to a nursing facility, that adjustment disorder whether it's depression, whether it's anxiety, whether it's both is a huge impact on how you live every day going forward For us to be able to come in and give them peace of mind to help them cope with certain things that are going to be coming up in their life while they're there, whether it's short term so often.
Speaker 1:I mean, we always used to say and back when we had distinct units, we used to this part of the building is only skilled and this part of the building is long term. Why did you do that? Because nobody who's skilled, who's there for short term, wants to see what it looks like to be long term. They don't want to see that. So when you think about nowadays, we skill everybody in the same. All the beds are skilled, all they're duly certified, and you have a person who comes in and they have to go in with somebody who's long term, who can't do anything for themselves, and they have every intention of getting the person who's in the bed next to them has every intention of going home.
Speaker 1:They need help. They need to understand that's not going to be me. They need motivation Sometimes. They need to understand that they have a chance to get back out and, uh, they also have to understand there if they do have to go that direction. There is life in a nursing facility. You can live a very productive, have wonderful outcomes, have a quality of life that that and they need to understand that, and oftentimes they don't. So we try to give them not only a way to cope through the time period that they're having, but also give them an opportunity to see that there is something on the other end that they don't have. This isn't something where you have to shut down and just curl up in a corner and go away.
Speaker 1:Nursing homes have an incredible opportunity to help people and oftentimes the only thing you ever hear about a nursing home is the bad side. The bad side Because you've got more litigation-happy people out there. That that's what they want to look at. The focus shouldn't be there, because if you saw what I've seen in 35, 40 years of being in the industry, the things that have been done, the people that have been helped in long term care, it's astronomically vast, I mean. But you never hear about the good stuff. You never hear about the good stuff.
Speaker 1:So for us, we're in there and we're talking with folks and we're trying. You know, oftentimes they're overmedicated. We try to reduce those medications. We try to make sure the buildings have their quality measures where they need to be as well, because so many times people are overmedicated, they're being given the wrong medications because they're being used for side effects, so we try to fix that. And then we have talk therapy, where they can be given coping mechanisms so that they know how to deal with what's coming. We can kind of prepare them for it, similar to what you do, norman, with your consulting side. We talk with people on a different level because we understand the space in different ways you and I both and because of that we're able to give more back to those people and hopefully give them some kind of peace of mind so that when they, if they do have to stay long-term, that they have an understanding of what's coming and then also how to deal with it If they go home.
Speaker 1:Even better, we have a clinic base as well, so we can take people once they're discharged and we can follow them in the community and make sure that they have what they need to continue to get their meds, so they don't have to go back to the hospital because they didn't have the ability to get their medications, because on the psychiatry side so many times there's no room for them to go to a psychiatrist and oftentimes primary care doesn't want to write certain medications because they're controlled and so they don't want to delve into that.
Speaker 1:So what do we do? We help them do that. By having telemed, we follow up with their. By having telemed we follow up with their home health care agencies. We can even have medications delivered to their home. We try to find ways that we can help the people once they go in the community so they don't have to go back to the nursing home if they don't need to. But when they are in need we also help to get them there, and then we hopefully can prepare them once they're there to make sure that they're taken care of and that the nursing facility has the the tools to better care for them as well so um with the caregivers right um, just from your perspective, what are some early signs they can look for?
Speaker 2:um for potential mental health concerns and an aging loved one?
Speaker 1:right. Well, obviously, some of them are forgetfulness, you know, and that's not necessarily a psychiatric issue. Sometimes it's neurology. You have to look at what they're suffering from to understand that. But depression you're going to find that a lot of people, even at home. When you look at a certain age group, you're going to realize that it's about that time when you start seeing people, that you lose your friends, you lose your acquaintances, you lose some of your independence. You're not going out of the house as often as you used to because you can't. You may be afraid to drive at night, you may be afraid to drive altogether. You don't have public transportation and you don't have the people that you used to have to get you where you used to go. Oftentimes even family gets more. In this day and age we can, we can operate from different areas and we don't have to be in the same area all the time and still stay in touch. So oftentimes families kind of spread apart a little bit and they don't have the accessibility to do that and you lose touch with some of your family and if that happens you start to become a shut-in.
Speaker 1:I often say in some of my email not emails, but on some of my social media posts that you know you will see people. It's a great idea to make sure, if you've got a neighbor, a friend, reach out to them at least once a week, make sure that they know you're there, make sure you talk with them and just kind of even if it's five minutes maybe invite them to dinner once in a while. If they're your neighbor and they don't have somebody else and they're home every night, and they're home every night all by the, invite them over, right? Um, when you look at people who become shut in, they become in completely isolated because they don't have the friend base they used to have. You know, maybe you used to.
Speaker 1:And I'm just going to throw what if they go golfing on a regular basis with with friends and they lose some of those friends now they don't have the group they used to have, right? So now do you go golfing by yourself or do you stay home? That's a decision you have to make. Same thing you know anything like that. You used to go to the movie once a week with someone and now they maybe passed on or they ended up moving away, or they've gone to an assisted living or a nursing home and now you're in the community by yourself. How do you bridge that gap? What do you do? Oftentimes you're going to see people in your own community that are isolated because they've lost friends, they've lost family. And you know, if you can think about and I used to you ever see the movie Up.
Speaker 1:It's a cartoon movie with Edward Asner. Ed Asner is the guy and they's. They have the balloons and they go okay. So I used to make some of my team watch that, because up is about two people met in high school, met in grade school and they ended up going through high school. They ended up getting married. They spent 50 years together, married wow, and she passes on. Now he's all by himself. He has nothing. He has no one, because all he everything revolved around their, them by themselves.
Speaker 1:So just think about the routines that used to go on because everybody stayed in the same job for a long time. They used to have a routine and you have somebody who comes into your facility who now has. Or you have somebody who you lose and you were used to a certain routine. Every day it was go to. It was get up in the morning, have breakfast with that person, go to work, come home, have dinner with that person, watch certain tv shows with that person, go to sleep with that person, wake up the next day. Everything was the same every day.
Speaker 1:Now, all of a sudden, you don't have that person. Now what do you do? That's what happens when a husband or wife, a caregiver, has to put their loved one in a nursing facility. They're separated from them now, so what does their routine look like now? They are suffering, as well as the person who's in the nursing facility, and those people are the ones that you need to reach out to and make sure that they have everything that they need, that they have someone that can reach out, because, I'm going to tell you, we see declines in those people as well, and they end up coming into the nursing facility as well.
Speaker 2:The ones that were at back home. Yes, right, so what would be your advice? Just a couple of tips for a caregiver that's in that situation a daughter or son that say they just had dad go to nursing home, right, and mom is still back at home, empathy.
Speaker 1:Those individuals I'm going to tell you are are struggling, they're suffering and they're. Some people are strong enough to make it. And there are some people are strong enough to make it, you know, but oftentimes there's, there's not. They are. So their routine is so ingrained that they are disheveled because they are so used to that routine. And I have had people who I have had family members, ocd, and I'm going to tell you that this individual used to be there in the morning at the same time every day. By the minute she used to leave at the same time. By the minute. If she couldn't leave, she would become anxious to the point of mania. Almost Everything had to be, because that's how her life always was, because that's how her life always was. And I'm going to tell you that she could not. This woman couldn't leave the parking lot one day because the ambulance was behind her. So she rammed it just so she could get out and then denied that she did it and everybody saw her do it. But that was part. She was so manic about being on a routine and mind you that her husband was in our facility and he was obviously he needed to be there. She couldn't care for him anymore, but you could see the decline in her because her routine was broken. She could not do the same thing every day.
Speaker 1:When you have people like that who need outreach, you have to be so empathetic about helping them cope with when they're in the building even yes, they're probably the most detail oriented. They are going to be so empathetic about helping them cope with when they're in the building even yes, they're probably the most detail-oriented. They are going to be the ones who are the most anxious about the care that's being provided. But if you can help them to understand and show them and be empathetic towards them, they'll also be your number one advocate. And that's one of the things as an administrator I used to try to make sure I could look at.
Speaker 1:I got to know every patient in the building, know them by name. I'd know why they were there. I'd know their meds. I would know their conditions. I would also know their families, and there was a big deal about that. It made it so that they could come to you without being concerned. They wouldn't have to just pick up the phone and call somebody else. They would call you, they would come in and see you. They know that I would walk down and I would see what was going on and I would fix it. And when you do things like that, I rarely had complaint surveys, knock on wood. I rarely had complaint surveys and I never had an annual survey, not in the state of Florida. I had more than four tags, in fact, I actually begged for my last one of my buildings. I actually asked them to give me a site because they didn't want to give me any. And listen, there's no building in this country.
Speaker 1:That's perfect, even if we get a zero, you know no tag there is no building that's perfect, yeah, but and I never thought of mine I got perfect surveys in almost every facility. I was in One, not across the board, but when I did I was very thankful for it. But I was also nervous about it, because you never know what comes behind it, and that's part of the problem. You get a federal look behind. Or even the next time somebody comes in, I don't want to say they have a vendetta, but they kind of want to show you're not perfect. I never thought of it. Listen, you always strive for perfection, but they kind of want to show you're not perfect. I never thought of this.
Speaker 1:You always strive for perfection, but you can never get to perfection, but you always strive for it and so doing the things that I used to spend minimum of 80 hours a week in my nursing facilities when I ran facilities because I wanted to see breakfast, lunch and dinner. I wanted to make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be. I wanted to meet with families. The way to do that is to spend more time there. I worked weekends and so I would go in on the weekends and I oftentimes would do my own admissions, not because I didn't have wonderful staff taking care of it. I just wanted the hospitals to know who are you sending these people to, and can you pick up the phone and call that person anytime and if you have a problem you'll fix it, and that's.
Speaker 1:I kind of look at myself as a fixer, but I also think if you give people the right tools, you don't have as many things to fix. And so trying to be present all the time made it so that I had less to do. I could help to. I mean, yeah, I was a nursing assistant. I could change people, I could help people. I could move people from one part to another because I knew how to transfer people.
Speaker 1:And so, when you look at doing things, I would never ask somebody to do anything that I wasn't, I wouldn't do myself, and when I would go out to the hospitals, it was more about making sure that they knew the kind of person they were dealing with, who they were sending it to the patient to, and that I would be responsible and accountable for everything that happened and so that gave.
Speaker 1:I feel like that was a big part of my success as an administrator. I just felt like in the role of Thrive, I saw an opportunity to provide, to actually impact, more people. You know, when we first started, you know I was taking care of 120 people in a nursing facility, which was I loved the job. I now, you know my team sees 9,000 patients a month and that's something that I'm really proud of, because we get to impact the lives of 9000 people across the state every month. It's amazing, and because of that, we're hoping that we are providing them with what they need to not only have a better life, better outcomes and better quality of life, but also given the facilities what they need to. Hopefully, because of my experiences, I will point things out when I'm in a facility not call it in, Go talk to the people who need to know so that they can make changes or take a look at it and come up with their own ways of impacting that. So that's that's kind of the way I look at things.
Speaker 2:And that's and you always been involved. And, speaking of involvement, like you say, you've been hands on, but it also you also are part of Florida Health Care Association as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, florida Health Care Association I got involved in when I was an administrator and I saw an opportunity to bring people together there. I was always good with my vendors and I always tried to stay in touch with all of the people who were administrators, because it's a it's a big community but it's a small community all at the same time. We all go through the same thing. Nobody, as an administrator or don, is. Everybody thinks that I've got this difficult building and nobody else has it. You all got the same things. Okay, I'm in, I'm in hundreds of buildings a year and of those buildings, everybody thinks they've got it more difficult or different or something else. And I'm gonna tell you, every situation, almost always every facility has almost the same situations. You may think you've got a bigger psych population and then, all of a sudden, you realize that the place down the street has two times what you have and you had no idea why. You just have to be able to take what you're given and you have to look at it in a way that you can bring it together. Now, that being said, I was able to bring vendors and both the vendors and the facilities together, and I also wanted to be on the forefront and find out more and find it out earlier about, say, legislative issues and things like that. So I became district president for District 5 and got to meet it was funny my first time at one of the board meetings. I didn't know what to expect. I brought, you know, pull out two suits, I mean and it's a little more laid back than that because they're all so close People at Florida Healthcare Association, from Emmett Reed on down to Kristen and Jenny and Tom, and these guys are so smart and they are so caring and they really put their time in to understand everything that's going on.
Speaker 1:Even you know they don't work in nursing homes, they're just advocates for them and I'm going to tell you there aren't better people out there, and so it made me get even more and more entrenched in it. So you go to lobby wednesdays and you go see legislators and when you're doing that and you can passionately explain it to them because you're living it and then getting them to understand what what's going on. And these folks up there are doing the same thing and they do a great job and their advocacy has made it so that this industry in the state of Florida I'm probably the most stringent with regard to OCA regs. I'm probably the most stringent with regard to Ockerregs and I say that with regard to. I think that they take it so seriously from Kim Smoke on down in this area they're just trying to do the best they can to make the outcomes for these patients as good as they can. So trying to come together on that is a big deal.
Speaker 1:I always thought if I could be more entrenched in Florida Healthcare Association, that I could impact even more people and be a greater influence in the community, and so I do try to attend a lot of the district meetings in different districts and help out where I can. But it's been wonderful. Because they are such, the more you work with them, the more you want to work with them. Because they are such, the more you work with them, the more you want to work with them. Because they're just such. They're hard workers, they're so passionate and caring and and and they just do such a great job.
Speaker 1:I I would you are recently won an award as well I, I did I I, I'm currently, I'm on the board for uh, amsc, uh, and it's, it's the affiliated members. We call them vendors, partners, whatever. Yes, sir, and I kind of oversee that. So, that being said, I won AMSC, amsc, yes, sir. Member of the Year.
Speaker 2:Congratulations to you, thank you.
Speaker 1:I was very honored Humbling. I just tried to do what I can and somebody, I guess, saw that, so that's very hard.
Speaker 2:That's really good. You have other accolades but I see you don't like to brag on yourself very much, I understand. But I do want to take just to go back a little bit about you. If you briefly just just share where you're from family, if you like to share, you know family dynamics just a little bit. All right, just what inspired you to become just a nurse home administrator? I know you touched on that, but was there anything from your youth to sort of inspire that?
Speaker 1:All right. So I'm originally from Manhattan, new York, queens area, but we moved out of the city at an early age and moved to Ohio. So I grew up in Ohio, a small town, pickerington, ohio. I have three younger brothers, so I was kind of the lead. My parents I couldn't have asked for a better childhood. My parents were wonderful, always cared and always showed us that they cared and I'll be honest, you know it's they cared for others as well. It was not because they had to, you could just see it was genuine. I think that's where it probably stems from.
Speaker 1:Is is I've always been a person who wanted to help somehow, some way. So I ended up becoming a nursing administrator. I was, I was looking at pre-med and I don't know that I could have done that Wasn't as dedicated to studies as I am now. So my grandfather was in a nursing facility, like I said, and I thought, well, this could be a good avenue and I took it and, honestly, school can't prepare you for what you see once you get in the nursing facility.
Speaker 1:It's really about learning on the job. I just kind of entrenched myself into learning whatever I could, every day, from sitting down in AR to DLN, and I always tell my DLNs I'm going to ask you a lot of questions, not because I'm questioning what you're doing, I just want to learn. Not because I'm questioning what you're doing, I just want to learn. I feel like if people take that premise, they understand it, you know, and stop thinking that they know everything, that they can learn a lot more if they're open. And I learned a lot, a lot. I do the same thing with my docs. I would try to understand everything. So going about that that's you know, kind of when I started thinking about an area that needed help, I saw behavioral health and said you know, over the last 15 years I ran buildings you could see an increase in the number of people who are coming in with behavioral issues.
Speaker 1:You could also see an increase in the number of medications they were on and we were also being asked to reduce those and take care of those people. Being asked to reduce those and and take care of those people. I thought if I could put a team together that could do that and I've got a wonderful team with thrive that you know, between advisors and and, and the team that I have out there with with being able to explain rules and regs from my side and being able to have them apply the, the you know, the the clinical side it makes it so that we've got a nice little balance.
Speaker 2:That's what led the startup of Thrive.
Speaker 1:That's exactly right Understood, and so that's what we did and we followed that model. I think a lot of people have had to follow that model, in fact, because I know that once we got out there and some groups weren't doing it, and we've seen some new groups come in, the groups that weren't doing it now do it. They kind of follow it and and the new groups have taken to doing it that way. And you know, I can't say anything bad about any of the other groups out there. I think they all try to do the best they can. Uh, I think we've got a a leg up in some of them, but they've got a leg up on us too. So we all balance out. I'm friends with all of them and I think they're all wonderful people and I just, you know, from a standpoint of providing care, as long as we're doing we're all doing what we can to impact the long-term care industry, I think the industry will be better for it. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. Well, that's good, and I do have to ask this question and I will say it's like you, following right down my question list here, by the way, answering it. So would you do it all again?
Speaker 1:In a heartbeat. I almost wish I would have started the started Thrive earlier, but I'll be honest, I wouldn't have had the knowledge base because I learned everything from the different roles that I've played and the different people I've worked with. You know, you learn how to manage oftentimes, or how not to manage, because of the people who have managed you in the past and you've seen how they did. I had a boss at one point in pharma that was so afraid to work he was afraid because of my knowledge base coming into that long-term care division that people called me and asked me for information that he he was always adversarial. I always looked at it as let me, let me help you.
Speaker 1:You learn to manage by oftentimes, not only the good but the bad, and oftentimes, when you have a person who isn't a great manager and you see it, you know how not to do things. It's better. I mean, I've had success and failure I've learned from. I've tried to learn from any failure I've had and I've tried to learn from the successes I've had, and I think that it's important to look at both sides because nobody's 100% perfect and you're never going to have success on everything you do right out of the gate. You've got to have the bumps in the road that you navigate and then hopefully get better when you do?
Speaker 2:Would you have any in your early stages? Was there anything you would have tried to avoid? Anything that? Was there anything you would have tried to avoid? Anything that you possibly would have done you would have tried to avoid With Thrive Not with Thrive, just in general, whether it's becoming an administrator or during college or anything you tried to avoid at all you know.
Speaker 1:like I said, I think everything has been a learning experience. I think had I not gone through some of the things that I've gone through whether they were good or bad. I learned from all of them.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 1:I think overall I can't say anything. I've had a wonderful life. I hope it lasts a lot longer. I'm figuring 120, I'm shooting for 120. But you know, I don't know if I'll have enough money to do that. But you know, I think you know of all the things that have happened throughout my life I've tried to learn from and it's only made me better for what it is, whether it was good or bad.
Speaker 2:So, as we conclude here, uh, I want to go back to thrive, of course. Uh, what advancements or future initiatives, uh, you guys coming up or pursuing with thrive?
Speaker 1:You know there are.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of things out there that we're looking at. I don't know that I can necessarily put my finger on one, because some of them I'm still trying to research and see if it's actually a viable option. We I've got some things in my head and some things that I'm talking with some of my you know, my medical directors about some of my team, about that. That hopefully, you know, and we're just looking to impact the market in a different way or or provide more than than uh, than we currently provide, uh, if, if we can figure out a way to provide more for the facilities, for the people that operate the facilities. You know we, we do education, we do training, we do things like that already, uh, but coming up with ways that can, I don't even want to say take more off of them, but give them more tools to work with so that they can do a better job and then also help the residents. There are patients, but your residents, that's really all I'm trying to do is just make their days better every day.
Speaker 2:A message to an up-and-coming just a A message to a up-and-coming, just a brief message to an up-and-coming nursing home administrator or someone that's going to be in healthcare administration right now if they want to pursue becoming an NHA.
Speaker 1:Don't think it's an easy job, because it's not, although I still think the DON job is harder than the administrator job. Yes, I agree, but you need to have the right people in place. You need to be humble enough to accept not criticism but criticism. It's not so much criticism as it is just some helpful tips on how to do things better. Don't think you know everything because you don't. I still don't, and I've done this a long time.
Speaker 1:Take it and know that you're going to have to put in a lot of hours if you want to do it. Well, I don't. I haven't taken a vacation since 2004. I mean a real, like a week. So my poor wife has been. You know she does conferences, she gets to go to conferences and stuff, but I haven't taken a true vacation. I just don't.
Speaker 1:I don't shut off very well. That's something I need to learn. I don't shut off as well. If you can find a way to shut off and go away for a little while as an administrator, I think that's a big deal. I've never been able to do it, but I see that there are some people that are able to do it nowadays and more power to you, more power to you, but I've never done it. I just can't. I'm I guess it's a neuroses of some sort, but but I think you know, if you understand, going in, you're going to have 80 hours a week, you're going to have weekends, you're going to have call 24-7. There's going to be a strain, probably, on your relationships, but preparing for that ahead of time is a big deal. And then throw yourself into it. Do everything you can Learn, ask questions, because the more you learn, the better you'll be at it and the better you'll be able to help not only your residents but your team.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, able to help not only your residents but your team. Yes, sir, and for our families out there, for other providers, vendors, uh and organizations, if you can share with them where they can find you, your website, uh social pages yeah, uh, we're on facebook.
Speaker 1:Uh, thrive behavioral sciences. We're on, uh, linkedin thrive behavioral sciences. You can follow me. Steve Lomonaco yes, sir, or Steven Lomonaco, I'm not sure. On LinkedIn Website is wwwthrivebehavioralsciencescom.
Speaker 1:A little long, but we want to make sure people can find it. And you know, if there's anything we can ever do to assist facilities, vendors, from the Florida Healthcare Association standpoint and I'll be honest, if you ever anybody that has questions about operations, I mean if you just want to reach out, I have no problem giving you a little small tidbit of time so that I can help you if you've got questions. I do attend a lot of the district meetings for Florida Healthcare and so when I am there, you know I do have people that want to stop and talk once in a while. I never have a problem with that. I think it's really important to for all of us to share knowledge, share experiences, so that we can do a better job for those residents who are coming in and help each other out, because it is a tight community. Even though it's big, it is a tight community and you're all going to face the same things. So if I can help and impart wisdom to anybody, I'm happy to do it. I want to yes sir.
Speaker 2:Yes, well, I will say, mr Monaco, he is responsive. I met him on LinkedIn. When I've seen him in person, always greeted, very approachable. I know he definitely looks like you know he the man, so, but he is the man right, but he's very kind. I can just tell you this uh, um, just meeting him in person just as well, so, um, he always had the jury on two, like me too.
Speaker 1:you see him over there these are actually all for ptsd in support. Okay yeah, veterans with PTSD. It's an organization I support. That's where I get those.
Speaker 2:So thank you for joining us here, our comfy supporters. We have our wonderful guests. You heard from a president, ceo, mr Stephen Lamonaco, so happy to join us. Please like, share, subscribe on on youtube. You also can find us on spotify. Visit thrive behavior sciences to learn more for regarding supporting your facility, your residents and clients. Thank you so much for watching. Please visit comfortmeasuresconsultingcom. We're here to support you and your loved ones.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
