What this is

Home care aides often face hard moments alone. A client refuses her medication without saying why. A man resists being helped to the bathroom because being independent is more important to him than safety. A woman with dementia accuses the aide of stealing. Many aides are undertrained for these situations and have nowhere to turn in the moment.

CareDepth is a mobile tool that gives aides a calm second opinion when they're not sure what to try next — grounded in what the aide and previous aides have already learned about this specific client. Over time, CareDepth builds up the agency's understanding of each client — what works, what doesn't, what's changed — so the next aide on the next shift isn't starting from scratch.

And families who want to know how their mother is really doing can get a meaningful answer without aides or admins having to write a report.

CareDepth is aide-first. Most home care software is built for operations — CareDepth is built for the person in the client's home.

Who's building this

I'm Jay Barnes. I spent about twenty years at Fidelity, leading teams that built the online tools people use to manage their workplace 401(k) accounts. I left to start my own work after caring for both of my parents through Alzheimer's — first my father, then my mother.

That experience is what drew me to home care. The knowledge aides and family caregivers build about a person with dementia is enormously valuable and easily lost from shift to shift, and the tools available today don't take it seriously enough. CareDepth is an attempt to change that.

Where things stand

CareDepth is on track to begin pilot deployments with Massachusetts home care agencies this summer. I'm currently talking with agency owners about what they most need — those conversations will shape both the pilot group and the product itself. If you run or work for an agency and would be open to a conversation, I'd welcome the chance to talk.