About Us

If your family needs help exploring senior care options, our expert Advisors are a wonderful source of information with a wealth of experience. Your local Senior Care Authority office, serving New York City and Southwest Florida, is here to help. Should you need assistance outside of this area, we have franchises located throughout the United States and Canada and would be happy to direct you to services in your area.

Cynthia Perthuis, CSA, CDP, CADDCT Area Owner, SENIOR CARE AUTHORITY

Cynthia Perthuis leads the Senior Care Authority office in New York City and Southwest Florida after a 30+ year career managing teams in client support and service, relationship management, product and business development.

Cynthia’s own personal experience with her parents and her entrepreneurial background brought her to SCA. She worked with her parents between 2010 and 2017 to find the right care, both in-home and assisted living. The stress of helping aging loved ones, working full-time, and caring for her own family while living over 1500 miles apart, was overwhelming at times. She often wished there was a non-conflicted industry professional to help when facing these life-changing decisions.

Cynthia has a passion for helping others and advocating for those that do not have the ability to speak for themselves. Her listening and communication skills, as well as her networking abilities, gives her insight into potential solutions to difficult and seemingly impossible challenges.

Contact Cynthia

ANNE ELWELL, RN, MPH

Anne Elwell, RN, MPH, is a past Principal and Vice President of Community Relations at Qualidigm, a not-for-profit healthcare quality improvement and consulting organization in Connecticut, and has over 28 years of experience in healthcare quality improvement. Specifically, in overseeing the care provided to the Medicare population, with a focus on patient-centered care.

Her area of professional specialization is in forming collaborations with leaders of hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, physician practices, other health care and community providers, and patients and families to improve communications and processes for patient transitions between health care settings.

Anne’s professional expertise was invaluable as she worked with her parents and family to identify the most supportive living environment for her aging parents. Her understanding of the clinical, emotional, and social issues involved allowed her parents and family to determine that an assisted living facility was the right solution for them.

Felicia Saraceno, CDP

Felicia Saraceno has a distinct passion for working with seniors. She is a Certified Dementia Practitioner with ten years of experience in the senior health care industry. She has worked in senior living as an executive director and sale director assisting seniors, families and their loved ones with transition to assisted living, memory care and continuing care retirement communities. She has extensive knowledge and skills of the areas senior living communities in Southwest Florida to help guide families to the perfect solution for their unique needs.

In addition to assisting with transitional care she can also assist families with more than just senior placement. Felicia is also an experienced realtor and can assist with decluttering, home staging and the real estate sale of your loved ones home, providing a full service package to her clients.

Felicia also volunteers for the Parkinson’s Association of Southwest Florida as a committee member and is the co-chair for their annual walk, the Alzheimer’s Association, and is a board member for the Naples Interagency Council.

Her compassion and empathy provides families with overall peace of mind.

Mobile: 203-631-1737| felicia@seniorcareauthority.com

Ruth Allen Cox, CDP

After a 30 year career in the performing arts, healthcare and substance abuse prevention education, Ruth joins Senior Care Authority as a Senior Care Advisor. A passionate advocate for seniors, Ruth has served as a longtime advisor and advocate at Say Ah!, a health literacy non-profit organization serving seniors and their medical care providers to deepen understanding of health outcomes through clear effective communication.

An active listener, coach and problem solver, Ruth brings a compassionate, trustworthy approach to serving individuals and families as they work through the difficult transition to senior care for their loved ones.

917-561-1918 | ruth@seniorcareauthority.com

Virginia Chambers, CDP

After spending more than 30 years in her career for Global Sales, Marketing, and Executive Relationship Management, Virginia joins Senior Care Authority of New York and Southwest Florida as a Senior Care Advisor and recently became certified as a Certified Dementia Practitioner.

Virginia’s experience finding the right care for her own family members over the past 25 years, for both in-house and assisted living options, gives her a personal perspective on the much-needed advocacy for families facing these emotional life-changing decisions.

A compassionate listener, Virginia is passionate about making a difference for families as they navigate through the discovery and decision-making process. She is caring and focused on ensuring that families feel embraced by the support that Senior Care Authority provides to all their clients.

In addition to her role with Senior Care Authority, Virginia also serves on the Board of Directors for LSA Family Health Services in NYC for the past 5 years.

917-572-2445| virginia@seniorcareauthority.com

ROBERT W. ELWELL JR., MD

Robert W. Elwell Jr., MD spent three decades providing primary care to residents in central Connecticut. Prior to relocating to the Naples area, he pursued his passion and provided medical care to a predominantly geriatric population at Masonicare in Wallingford, CT, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). His patients lived in various home settings including independent living, assisted living as well as rehabilitation, long-term care and memory care. He worked with his patients and their families when circumstances made it necessary to make alternative living situations to provide the safest and most supportive environment for their physical and emotional well-being. He often states that “he learned as much from his patients as they got from him.” He is an avid listener and problem solver.

Josie Lawrence

Josie Lawrence brings her 30-year experience in finance to her role as a Senior Care Specialist with Senior Care Authority. Josie is passionate about feeding seniors and has been a volunteer chef and organizer for 20 years at a Saturday morning meal preparation and delivery program for seniors in need in East Midtown. She is also a volunteer chef at a Soup Kitchen on Park Avenue. What excites Josie about Senior Care Authority is the assistance, advocacy, and multi-layered support for families with challenging decisions

SENIOR CARE AUTHORITY COMPANY HISTORY

Senior Care Authority was founded in 2009 by Frank and Michele Samson of Sonoma, California. They opened a local placement agency and learned everything there was to know about finding the right care situation for older adults who needed help with activities of daily living.

They came to the Senior Care space with successful business development skills in their past, as well as personal family experience finding care solutions. The business took off, primarily due to their diligence, compassion, and commitment to helping families.

In 2014, the model was franchised, and Senior Care Authority is now a national company with offices throughout the US and Canada. As part of their expansion, they partnered with an eldercare consulting practice who brought another set of senior care services and skills to the company, a great differentiator for Senior Care Authority.

Cynthia and her team were helpful, professional and caring. She was a great resource for learning about different options, levels of care, and facilities. And now that my mother has been placed, she has remained high touch and showed concern about how my family settles into its new situation. I highly recommend Senior Care Authority.

F.C., Staten Island, New York