Dreaming of Something New

Caring for the elderly population with dignity is a moral obligation the younger generations must carry. We have a responsibility to treat our elders better than the options available to them today.

Family Tree founders Drew Mosher and Robert Harvey worked together at a local hospice agency for many years on the business development and community education team. They were responsible for developing relationships with local physicians, nursing centers, and hospitals so they could best serve the community. Through their work, they met with hundreds of wonderful families struggling through the process of end-of-life care. Drew and Robert shared a passion for helping these families navigate the complex and confusing landscape.

Due to the nature of their roles with hospice, they had a unique, inside-out view of the many skilled nursing centers and assisted living communities in the area. Like many others, they believed the long-term care industry as a whole is lacking. Far too often, staffing issues and profit margins have a detrimental effect on residents’ care. Beautiful, elaborate new buildings do not necessarily correlate to the quality of care within.   

They also met many wonderful people working in the facilities they served, including Rick Atha at Atha Assisted Living. Robert and Drew each met Rick, Atha’s owner and operator, at different times over the years. They each secretly harbored a deep curiosity of this new concept, residential assisted living, where 24/7 care is delivered in a house, located in a real neighborhood. In early 2017, Robert and Drew spoke with each other about their dream to start a place like this, drawing on their experiences with Atha. They were both describing the same place!

Out of this, Robert and Drew developed a relationship with Rick Atha, learning all they could about his residential assisted living homes. In a fortunate twist of fate, Rick confessed he was ready to retire and hand his business over to someone who would carry on the legacy of treating seniors the way he would want to be treated.

Drew and Robert planted Family Tree Residential Assisted Living in Summer 2017. They quickly brought on Alan Halberg in 2018, a nurse with 27 years of experience in hospital care, long-term care, and healthcare management, to run the houses on their behalf.

The founders remain heavily involved and are proud of the team they have created, and the shared commitment to dignity, respect, open communication, and keeping the caregiver-to-resident ratios at 1:5 maximum.

Family Tree is intentionally different from the other places.

It is not a facility. It’s home.

Welcome home.