Dementia Training and Awareness, Guides Visiting Angels Franchise Owner in Southern California
It’s a familiar story in franchising: a successful, career-driven person lingering in the corporate world burns out. They then explore entrepreneurship. Investing in a business can mean different things to different people, whether it’s ambition-driven, freedom-driven, or just about finding a better work-life balance.
For Visiting Angels owner Kathy Nelson, her new mission hit home.
“During my career, my husband LeRoy and I found a lot of success in the corporate world, but it didn’t feel like we were making a difference in anyone’s lives. That feeling was amplified when my grandmother, and later my husband’s father, both important people in my life, suddenly needed caregivers.”
Over a short period of time, Kathy’s grandmother, a diabetic, suffered a stroke and required help. Her father-in-law also developed Alzheimer’s.
“I saw first-hand just how a caregiver can improve someone’s life, not just one of their clients, but also take some of the burden off family members who may be juggling kids, work, and a dozen other things all at once like I was.”
Starting From Scratch
In 2016, Kathy and LeRoy invested in Visiting Angels Santa Monica, CA, serving hundreds of clients across Los Angeles County, primarily senior citizens.
The couple quickly realized this was different from your average small business. It became an on-call, all-hands-on-deck proposition 24 hours a day, as caregivers or clients reached out in need of immediate help. These weren’t spreadsheets that needed editing, or marketing campaigns that could use another look. These were families in crises, reaching out for someone brave enough to step up to the plate. As a new franchisee, Kathy was ready to take on the challenge. She leaned on the home office at Visiting Angels and received feedback and support from fellow franchise owners and experienced leaders who understood what it takes to pursue a career in caring.
She also remembered her own experience as a family member in crises, and how much it meant to her when someone truly cared and went out of their way to help. This is what drove Kathy during those early days, and empowered her to continue on this path. “Several people told me, ‘Just hang in there, it will change’,” Nelson said. “I began to experience that once I grew the business and got to the point where we could hire staff and lighten the load a little bit. That’s when it became more manageable. The support meant the world to me, just knowing that getting involved with Visiting Angels was the right move and I was on the right track.”
Delving into Dementia Training
Because of her personal ties to Alzheimer’s and dementia, as well as experiencing first-hand the struggles of memory loss from her clients, Kathy began educating herself and her staff more on dementia. After completing all the courses at her disposal, she continued to seek out higher-level credentials not only for herself, but for her staff and caregivers to specialize in this care at a deeper level..
After searching for opportunities to further support dementia education in her community, she decided that creating an education program herself would be her next project. And so she did, using Visiting Angels corporate courses in combination with Teepa Snow and Second Wind Dreams advanced dementia training methods. In 2023, her team and their education plan was awarded a$1 million grant from the state of California as part of its “Caring4Cal” program. The funds were used to help Kathy and her team train 720 people in dementia care and to educate nurses, caregivers, CNAs, and others in the sector, equipping them to better address vulnerable members of the L.A. community through hands-on dementia care training.
She says that, as one of only 23 companies in the state to receive this grant (most of them official training brands), it was incredibly validating that she was making an impact.
“It meant everything to me because I was able to educate so many people and open them up to what this disease really is. I could pour into family members as well as my own caregivers and give them tools that I would not have ordinarily been able to afford. It was an experience and opportunity I will always treasure.”
Expanding Education
With multiple locations, Visiting Angels has been making a dent in the saturated caregiver market in Southern California. There are over 600 different home care agencies in Los Angeles County, more than four times in any other city in the state. Kathy has taken her education initiatives on the road with the “Virtual Dementia Tour,”. Created by Second Wind Dreams, this tour gives participants a personal understanding of what someone with dementia actually experiences. Kathy offers this tour to her staff, her clients families, and has also brought it to conferences where the tour can truly make a difference, such as the Professional Fiduciaries Association of California National Conference.
“The value I see in the Virtual Dementia Tour is how it impacts a person. The paradigm shift is powerful, turning the learner from observer to active participant. Now we are working from a place of real empathy for someone with this disease because they got a taste of it personally.”
Additionally, Pepperdine University’s Graziadio Business School invited Kathy to join the MBA program for a trimester in the summer of 2025. Students examined Visiting Angels and specifically how Kathy’s brand uses technology in the aging sector. Students were able to present Kathy with business scenarios, including problems they were looking to solve and receive real-world feedback from her about what could work, restrictions they would face, and so forth.
“It was such a full circle moment,” Kathy admitted. “As an alumnus of Pepperdine, it was a thrill to interact with the students and cutting-edge tech available today. Their focus on ‘Technology and Aging’ aligned with my own big dreams for our company, so it was amazing to offer insight and help guide their direction a bit.“
More than Just a Business
This year, Kathy and her husband celebrated their 10th anniversary with Visiting Angels. While operating two locations of this nationally known brand distinguishes them from a mom-and-pop shop, so does the fact that the Nelsons have two children who also work with Visiting Angels. While part of a major brand, their company is very much family owned. Her daughter first worked as a caregiver with the company, then joined their office staff for a few years after college. Her son began in sales and worked his way up to co-owner in the purchase of their second franchise. As a former technology executive, Kathy ultimately said that though she was successful, now she has a purpose.
“Working with Visiting Angels has given me the freedom to mold myself into a person who feels great about my life, my family, and builds a sense that I’m making a difference in the world,” Kathy said. “I’ve learned so much from failure as an entrepreneur, but now I’ve found business success along with a defining purpose in my life, and I love who I am as a person.”