Meet The Gentle Home Care Team
Gregg Berliant
Gentle Home Services co-owner
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Gregg Berliant, co-owner, has enjoyed working with elderly clients for over 25 years. Gregg is responsible for Growth/Development and oversees all Financial Aspects of the agency. Gregg gets tremendous satisfaction knowing that he is making a difference not only to the thousands of clients he has helped, but also to their family members. Prior to Gentle Home Services, Gregg handled mostly large institutional accounts for Medline.
Away from the office, Gregg has served as a Board Member for Lake/McHenry Continuity of Care and Life Services Network. Gregg is currently active in a number of charitable organizations, including finishing the Ride to the Rock for MS and The Parkinson’s and Alzheimer's Walks. In addition, Gregg has been a volunteer delivering meals, for Meals on Wheels for 15 years.
A graduate of Bradley University, where he met his wife, Kris. Together they have two wonderful children. Gregg has thoroughly enjoyed coaching his daughter’s hockey team for the past several years and his son’s baseball team. He gets the most pleasure out of volunteering with his family at PADS (Public Action To Deliver Shelter) Lake County, preparing and serving meals.
Michael Berliant
Gentle Home Services co-owner
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Michael Berliant has been the co-owner and President of Gentle Homecare and Gentle Home Services for over 25 years. Gentle was founded in 1990 with the intention of providing quality and compassionate care to seniors in and around the Chicagoland area. Through hard work the business has grown to become one of the largest privately owned non-medical agencies in Illinois.
Michael enjoys working with seniors and other individuals with healthcare needs as well as the families and professionals who support them. Mr. Berliant is one of the founders of the Best Practices Home Care Alliance which was formed to establish higher standards in home services. GHS is a founding member of the Home Care Association of America and Michael was instrumental in the formation of this group and helped to make licensure of private-duty become a reality. Michael is the past Treasurer for HCAOA formerly known as the National Private Duty Association. Mr. Berliant also serves as a staff volunteer for the Mankind Project and devotes several weekends each year to lead retreats to help men lead lives of integrity and mission. Michael is also very involved with The Chicago Chapter of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, an organization he became particularly interested in after his father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s over twenty years ago. Michael graduated from Southern Illinois University Business School with a degree in Marketing. Michael has been married to his wife, Elizabeth, for over twenty years and they have three children Leo, Halle and Joie.
Penelope Neuhaus
Office Manager
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Penelope joined Gentle Home Services in May, 2011 and boasts a resume which includes over 20 years of professional experience in home health care with an emphasis on human resources, scheduling, billing, employee relations and customer service. Her responsibilities encompass many aspects of Gentle Home Services business, including hiring, conducting new employee orientations and providing administrative support for licensure compliance. She also handles all client and employee scheduling and service requests outside of normal business hours as our On-Call Manager. Penelope is always identifying new and better ways of maintaining the excellent quality services Gentle Home Services has become known for. She works closely with our staffing coordinators and our caregivers to ensure that all clients have an exceptional care experience.
Lisa Shenkman
Staffing Coordinator
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Lisa has been with Gentle Home Services as a Staffing Coordinators since May, 2008. Her role is to help facilitate client care by carefully selecting caregivers, best suited to assist the clients specific needs, in their home environment. Lisa has over twenty six years of experience in the healthcare administrative field. Having started out as a Certified Nursing Assistant Lisa expanded on her medical knowledge by going into Ambulance Dispatch Assisting before moving on to Pediatric and Geriatric staffing in clinical and home settings. Her compassion and excellence in customer service has served to benefit in assisting and advocating care for many families. Born and raised in the Chicago area, Lisa loves spending time with family and friends.
Debra Sweet
RN,CMC
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Debra has been a registered nurse for over 35 years. She worked for 17 years as a staff nurse on an orthopedic, medical-surgical unit and as a nurse in charge of the unit. Pursuing her desire to expand her expertise and a passion for working with seniors, Debra transitioned into the senior living industry. Working in independent and assisted living facilities, her duties included healthcare coordinator and regional assisted living coordinator.
In 2001, Debra began working in the private home care field and became active in providing geriatric care management services for clients. She obtained certification in geriatric care management in 2008 and joined the team at Gentle Home Services. In addition to her role as a geriatric care manager, she performs client assessments, creates and coordinates comprehensive plans of care, performs follow up on-site client visits, and supervises caregivers in the field. She also provides medication services when needed.
Luz Ramirez
Staffing Coordinator
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Luz has been with Gentle Home Services since 2011 as Staffing Coordinator. Luz concentrates mostly on our facility staffing business. Luz started working in the medical field as a C.N.A in 1996 at a Chicago area retirement home. From 2000 - 2008 she worked as the lead care manager at an Assisted Living Property in Buffalo Grove with Alzheimer’s and Dementia sufferers. In 2003, Luz became certified as a Med Technician. She worked extensively with physicians and nurses in a variety of settings. In December 2009, Luz began working with Unlimited Health Services, which in May, 2011, merged with Gentle Home Services. Her compassion to help people and excellent customer service has served to benefit Gentle Home Services and it's clients.
Born in Chicago and raised in Puerto Rico Luz now resides in Des Plaines, IL . She has been married for 14 ½ years and is the proud mother of 9 year old son Orlando Junior. In her personal time Luz loves spending time with family and friends and enjoys going to the movies, dancing , and babysitting her nieces and nephews.
Linda Wilson
Care Coordinator - Continuing Education Coordinator
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Originally from Canada, Linda has lived in the US since 1989 and has worked in the Healthcare Industry for 26 years. She started out selling I.V. solutions and other related products. For the last 10 years she has worked and found a home with Gentle Home Services.
Linda assists our clients in determining what their needs are and she specializes in finding the right match with our caregivers to ensure those needs are met. She helps setting up in-services for our continuing education program and provides counseling and ongoing training for the caregivers.
Lorena Nehring
LPN
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Lorena has extensive experience working with older adults and their families, as a Geriatric Care Consultant/Manager providing assessments, case management and counseling. Additionally, she has worked as a nurse for over twenty-five years in hospitals, homecare nursing homes and at an assisted living facility.
Lorena received her Master’s Degree in Counseling from National Louis University and worked as a Case Manager/Counselor at North Shore Senior Center and Evanston/Skokie Valley Senior Services. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Social Services for Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and her nursing degree from Smith School of Nursing in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Lorena enjoys facilitating groups, such as: Alzheimer’s Support group, Parkinson’s Support group and Caregivers Support group. She has been trained in the practice of Mindfulness and Stress Reduction and is a trained facilitator in Cog Fitness (Brain Fitness), having studied under Dr. Baer of NeuroQuest. Lorena is a member of the American Counseling Association and a member of both the Lupus Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Amy Konke
Administrative Assistant
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Amy joined Gentle Home Services in 2008. She has more than 10 years of customer service experience and accounting. She is responsible for processing payroll and billing and making sure client and caregiver files are up to date. Her organization and time-management skills allow office operations to be carried out efficiently and effectively. She is quick to help and always has a positive input into the care of our employees and clients.
Besides working for Gentle Home Services she is a mother and assists in managing her husband’s electrical company.
Susan Scatchell
Business Development Director (Cook County, DuPage County)
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Susan Scatchell-Business Development Director (Cook, DuPage County) Susan has worked in health care her entire profession. In her early career days, she managed the health information management departments for several hospitals in Chicago. With a Bachelor’s degree in health information management and a Master of Science in Health Services Administration, she has first-hand experience with the ever-changing health care delivery system.
With a desire to work closer to home, Susan changed careers and shifted to the private duty home care industry. Her role included marketing and sales support and primary point person for all community outreach. She was the Treasurer for the Illinois Chapter of the Home Care Association of America for six years and Secretary for the State of Illinois Continuity of Care. Prior to joining Gentle Home Care, Susan worked as the marketing coordinator for a boutique elder law firm comprised of ten attorneys.
Susan is a seasoned marketing/sales professional with outstanding skills and connections in all aspects of the elder care continuum, health care and legal industries. She contributes over 15 years of marketing experience, inside and outside sales, relationship development, referral networking, business development, project management, event planning, public speaking and social media.
Susan chaired the Alzheimer’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s Chicago Committee. She also served her community as a board member on the Park Ridge Chamber of Commerce and the Citizen’s Patrol with the Police Department. She still serves as a board member for Advocate Lutheran General Men & Women’s Association. In her spare time she loves cooking, cycling, outdoor music at Ravinia, and watching her nephews play college football at UW.
Colleen Muscarella
Business Development Director (Lake County, NW Suburbs)
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Colleen brings a varied, rounded perspective and experience to Gentle Home Services. She was involved in her husband’s construction business for many years and also managed her own gourmet food business. People remember her from the community Farmer’s Market Days. Her keen sense of business brought her to the DBR Chamber of Commerce where she assisted in membership, special events and still serves on their board of directors. Colleen’s social demeanor serves her well as a natural connector and resource.
In 2011, Colleen became involved in health care as the social services designee for a skilled nursing, memory care and assisted living residence in Lincolnshire. In this role she helped families secure care, often meeting with the family members to understand the needs of aging adults with dementia and changing physical abilities. She has a warm ability to listen and gently navigate families through the healthcare system. Prior to joining Gentle Home Care, Colleen worked as a senior advocate and community relations manager in the North Shore. Her responsibilities included recruiting, hiring and training facility caregivers, personal care assistants and CNAs.
Colleen is a seasoned and respected professional in the industry. She offers a rich database of contacts and resources for our professional colleagues, aging adults and their families.
The Wilmette Arts Guild, Parkinson’s Foundation and ALS Les Turner Association are important organizations to Colleen and her family. In her free time she enjoys reading, friends, good food and dogs.
Susan Freund
Wellness Coordinator, Tamarisk
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Susan joined Gentle Home Services in October 2020, bringing with her a well-diversified background. After college and graduate school, Susan spent 10 years working as a Speech-Language Pathologist in the Chicago Public Schools, suburban schools and skilled nursing homes. She then transitioned to working for an independent concierge medicine firm where she developed an expertise in client relations/customer services, operations and interpersonal skills. Additionally, Susan was involved in supporting her husband’s financial planning practice.
A lifelong resident of Chicago’s North Shore, Susan now resides in Northbrook, IL. Susan has been married to her husband, Alex, for almost 25 years and they have three children Ilana, Adam and Jenna. In her free time Susan enjoys exercising, reading, cooking, doing any kind of organizational project and spending time with family & friends.
