Rose Khalifa is CEO of Metro Solutions and a registered nurse with extensive experience serving seniors and families.

Her professional experience gives her a deep understanding of the health care system.

But she says it was the years she spent caring for her mother that really shaped her approach to supporting families.

Work she continues through the nonprofit organization she founded.

Today she leads efforts to help seniors and caregivers access the support and resources they deserve.

Rose, it's wonderful to see you.

Thank you so much for being with us.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> Well, you talk about that journey and given all of your education, your experience in the medical field.

It was spending time with your mother as a caregiver that really gave you the the empathy and a feel for what families are are going through.

talk more about that and and I guess relay in a way how you got a great understanding of of what's needed.

>> Well, caring for my mom was always a privilege and an honor and she is no longer with us.

She's passed away in December of 2022.

But as a nurse, it was natural that I wanted to be her caregiver.

It made me a better nurse.

It made me a better daughter.

And it prepared me for what would come down the line.

opportunities for me to turn that learning experience and help other families who are caregivers like I was with my mom and be able to do it with more resources and not be burdened in the same way that we were.

>> And so, not only did you take this experience and use it to provide advice and support to others, you actually use this inspiration to start a nonprofit organization to do just that.

Metro Solutions located here in Southeast Michigan.

Tell us about what you do, what services you provide, and how people can connect with those things you do on behalf of uh people who need care and caregivers themselves.

>> We had an opportunity to participate in the My Health Link demonstration project in 2015.

So we established a subsidiary of our company that was dedicated to uh learning what long-term support services and home and community based services that are being now provided under this my health link demonstration project which has now become a permanent program in the state of Michigan.

It just ended in December of 2025.

But we have an opportunity now to work with families who are um receiving benefits from their health plan, to have home and community based services, to have a caregiver, a paid caregiver to get them enrolled in the program and help support paying them on a monthly basis.

>> Where you're focusing attention is bringing a caregiver into the home.

that way folks have an experienced uh caregiver.

But that's also a complicated thing to navigate.

How does Metro Solutions help and what does that work entail?

Many people have family members, community members providing caregiving services once they become aware of the fact that they can receive dignified care where they're able to identify someone they trust to come into their home or to keep the people already taking care of them and work with their health plan or with their case worker to allow those individuals to become paid caregivers.

We work with them to go through the credentiing and all of the required administrative tasks to get that caregiver enrolled in a way where we would be able to help compensate them for the services.

You can get authorized to be a provider and be paid for those caregiving services.

So if you have uh Medicaid, you need to contact your case worker and discuss with your case worker that you have needs that are you cannot fulfill yourselves.

Activities of daily living that you want to be assessed for home health services or long-term support services.

So many different ways to refer to it.

Even home and community based services.

If you don't have Medicaid, but you have a health plan provider, flip over your card.

look at the number on the back of that card or log on to your to the portal if you have that a ability and contact the the health plan provider.

Ask if there's a care coordinator or someone you can talk to to answer questions about what's available to you under your health plan benefit and request an assessment.

They will come to your home and do an assessment if it is a benefit and determine what that benefit will be.

If I were to contact my health care provider, give me some some power words, some some language that I would use to navigate the voicemail tree or or online.

>> You need to be able to just request whoever answers that line at the health plan that you want to talk to a care coordinator assigned to you or someone that can answer questions regarding home care services or home and community based benefits under the plan.

What are some things we should know about navigating language and cultural barriers on the way to getting the best care?

>> That is uh continues to be a challenge, but most organizations, most companies are doing their best to prepare printed documents that are available in multi- languages and they have those available on their portal.

The MDHHS, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services also provides for those types of printed documentation um that is available in dual languages.

But not all organizations have staff that are bilingual.

Um, and so that's one of those things that we need to be more mindful of in not only in Detroit, in southeast Michigan, on a national level >> to allow people who have limited English proficiency or family members be able to still access the same care withstanding the issue of limited English proficiency.

So, we need to ask and inquire, are there available individuals that can help us navigate in a language that we're most comfortable with?

ask for help.

I I know u as part of your organization, you have so many wonderful people employed that you've recruited into uh the caregiving space that may have not been uh there previously or have spent uh a career track there.

What would you say to folks to address the the crisis in the caregiving workforce um of the rewards of this profession uh and encourage them to sign on and become a caregiver professionally?

>> I would encourage anyone that naturally feels that they have a nurturing personality that they always want to be there to help others that they have empathy.

They feel appreciate the fact that people need to be heard.

Sometimes they need a hug.

Sometimes they need a smile.

That you just want to help people heal in their most difficult times.

That health care in some way is probably a good career choice for you.

Unfortunately, direct care workers are not paid well enough.

It is a crisis because it's an unrecognized, not well compensated providers.

Frankly speaking, even today with the rules that are coming down with the electronic visit verification, all the documentation, the necessities between the member receiving the care and the caregiver hired, they're really going through quite a bit for minimum wage.

>> So, it is a challenge nationally recruiting and having people become direct care workers because we don't pay them well.

So amid all these crises, sometimes the best we can hope for is continuous improvement.

We're also looking for hopeful signs.

Do you see any hope, some improvements, some things that are happening now that lead us to a better place on caregiving?

>> Yes.

For those who end up um having the opportunity to be enrolled as a direct care worker, technically being employed because they were doing it on a volunteer basis, they begin to appreciate the profession a little bit different because now they have some training, they have some rules, they have an opportunity to get certified, they may find this value in going into nursing or some other type of profession in health care.

So it has been a good segue for us to really draw those individuals who have this natural nurturing personality to pursue some type of career in in healthcare.

One of the most exciting part is when people decide that they want to begin to create resources and they begin to be um guidance to other uh senior citizens and loved ones who are also providing care from from an empathetic familial responsibility to join the workforce if you will.

So I think eventually we'll have a stronger movement uh once we get many of the people enrolled as professional caregivers and um but it continues to be a challenge with the compensation.

>> Rose Khalifa, we are always smarter and more informed by having spent some time with you.

We are grateful that you've joined us.

Thanks so much.

>> Thank you.

>> We want to thank Impart Alliance at Michigan State University's College of Osteopathic Medicine.

This work is made possible by a grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services as well as the supporters of our caregiving initiative, the Ralph C. Wilson Jr.

Foundation, the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, and AARP Michigan.

Thanks to all for helping make this important program possible.