The Team CarePal Story
Team CarePal was born through Cindy's lived experience of caring for her loved ones.
Team CarePal spent this year surveying and talking with over 100 care partners on the tech tools they were using to manage their caregiving role and the struggles they faced. We took all of their feedback and designed Team CarePal.
Paisley Churchill was our first project manager when we chose our developers. She quickly fell in love with Team CarePal and our mission. Shortly after meeting her, she became a care partner to her Nana and realized how important this was to families everywhere. Paisley became an investor, our Chief Product Officer, and also our family.
After extensive conversations with leaders across healthcare, community supports, and social service organizations, a clear need emerged: the ability to communicate directly with care partners within the app to support them throughout their journey. We shared our app beta with these partners and used their feedback to co-design the next generation of our dashboard.
Zolo is our AI-powered support assistant, co-trained with researchers. Zolo uses app user demographics and burnout assessment scores to surface relevant resources and supports from our internal database, developed in partnership with industry leaders—tailored to what the care partner is experiencing in their journey.
We launch our FREE app on the app stores for families to download. After realizing that family care partners were facing financial struggles by caring for a friend or family member, Team CarePal decided that the app will always remain FREE for families in Canada. This shaped our social enterprise and mission.
Team CarePal completed our first health economic model showing the massive impact of reducing care partners' burnout can have on our economy, healthcare system and families.
Team CarePal became more than an app—it’s a connected care ecosystem. All care partners, families, and neighbors use one app from hospital to home, community, and senior care. One integrated pathway where families and seniors can connect to and be supported by the organizations they need, when they need them.
Team CarePal spent the rest of 2023 onboarding new clients like Canterbury Foundation, Golden Healthcare, Caregivers Alberta, Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Gateway, Creative Aging Company and more. We walked alongside them learning how they were going to use the platform to better support care partners along their caregiving journey.
Alberta Innovates recognized the important work Team CarePal is doing and awarded us with a $300K grant to elevate our platform to clinical level compliance, integrate with Point Click Care, add multi languages, needs assessments and more. Thank you Alberta Innovates!!
With our early adopters, we co-designed three programs to meet families where they are:
- Together Going Home: Supports hospital-to-home transitions with preparedness assessments and resource connections.
- Together We Care: A community-based program matching families with local supports, volunteers, and social prescriptions.
- Together in Care: Strengthens communication and collaboration between families and senior care homes.
Through these programs, organizations can streamline communication, deliver tailored services, and help prevent burnout—while families use one free app feeling connected, supported, and prepared.
Stay Tuned. Things are getting exciting!