Expats Mexico – Wellness Shepherd

I am on my way to Mexico City to speak at a Senior Living Summit being held at the Hotel Marquis Reforma September 3-4, 2025 about the growing need to create evolved, affordable, holistic enclaves of well-being for older adults to age in place, age in community, and more, a subject on my mind since 2003.

Quick history:

In 2003, when serving as nighttime administrator and day time admissions and marketing officer at an exemplary (still is) memory care campus in Rancho Mirage, California, (thank you owner and mentor Floyd), the writing was on the wall.

Unless you are blessed with excellent health your entire life and have experienced no accidents, in the U.S. the cost of adequate long-term care at home or in a residence, could easily require up to $1 million per person with 2025 fees and pricing. With long-term care insurance at several hundred dollars a month, only 80% of costs would be covered.

This awakening was the impetus to look internationally for more affordable options with quality care and medical infrastructure. Mexico and Ecuador, by virtue of proximity, were places I conducted due diligence and developed hands-on experience with locals and expats, as well as other nations farther away.

Thankfully, as a trusted older adult advocate and consultant I have met like-minded souls on my path including Mexico’s Javier Govi, the « nearretiring » proselytizer and real estate entrepreneur behind CIAMAR’s 9th edition Wellness and Senior Living Summit for 50+ to 80.

About 100 to 150 persons are expected to attend the gathering gently modelled after NIC (National Investment Center conferences in the U.S. with 1500 to 3,000 participants).

The concept to develop and expand senior living options is growing in Latin America as the silver tsunami is not just an American/Canadian/European phenomenon, it is worldwide.

Attendees will be real estate developers, venture capitalists, architects, brokers, folks from the tourism industry, and senior living operators who will meet, greet, and assess future potential for collaboration.

I will be on the Bucket List panel with two others to talk about expats who migrate to Mexico and other countries in Latin America and what their expectations are.

Here is a link to the summit home page: https://ciamar.odoo.com/en

Here is a link to the speaker page: https://ciamar.odoo.com/en/ponentes

If you are unable to access it, here is how my bio reads:

Wendy Jane Carrel

Founder, Wellness Shepherd

A trusted older adult advocate and consultant who has hands-on experience with healthcare systems, retirement options, senior living residences, and wellness programs in Mexico, Ecuador, and other countries. She provides informed and thoughtful transition guidance and curated options for families and elders moving to Latin America.

Looking forward to this adventure!

I hope to report about the experience and my findings after the summit.

Looking forward to another trip to beautiful San Miguel de Allende in March 2023. If it were not so cold at night in that expat haven of 10,000 or more retirees, I’d travel there more often!!

In any event, pleased to be joining talented patient advocate Deborah Bickel of Be Well San Miguel for a talk about end-of-life planning, palliative care, and hospice in Mexico titled “Planning for the Third Stage of Life.”

Deborah will share the wisdom of preparing for your care, how she first learned to plan when she worked with AIDS in Africa, and how creating your Mexican Advance Healthcare Directive aka your “documentacion jurada” may assist in creating quality of life to the end of life. The ultimate message: there are good reasons for all foreigners in Mexico to obtain these notarized documents.

I will provide a brief history of palliative care and hospice in Mexico, the Mexican Palliative Care Law of 2009, what care is present now, where to find support, what the future may hold. My talk is based on eight years of research, conferences, studies for a Mexican palliative care diploma, volunteer years with a Jalisco palliative care hospital, site visits, and relationships with palliative care organizations and hospice providers in Jalisco (Guadalajara, Lake Chapala, Lagos de Moreno, Puerto Vallarta, Tepatitlan), Mazatlan, Merida, Mexico City, Morelia, San Miguel de Allende, and Tijuana.

The event is scheduled for 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, March 15, 2023, at the Kubo Hotel Cafe, Stirling Dickinson 28, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

Deborah holds an MA in Public Health from UC Berkeley. She is also a graduate of Stanford University’s Physician Assistant program where she later taught. She has been dedicated to healthcare advocacy in Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, and Africa. She is a fluent Spanish speaker. See https://bewellsanmiguel.com

My bio for this subject is as follows:

Wendy Jane Carrel, MA, is a Spanish-speaking senior care advocate from California. She has travelled Mexico for several years researching health systems, senior care, and end-of-life care to connect Americans, Canadians, and Europeans with healing options for loved ones. She is a compassionate companion and palliative care liaison, legacy writer, co-founder of Café Mortality Ajijic/now Death Café Ajijic, and founding member/speaker of the Beautiful Dying Expo (USA). She is a trauma-informed, gentle End-of-Life Doula (National End-of-Life Doula Alliance proficient), and a speaker and published author on subjects related to senior well-being. Wendy’s web site is https://www.WellnessShepherd.com

Category: Expats Mexico

Senior Living Investment Summit Mexico and Latin America September 3-4, 2025

Wendy Jane Carrel

Deborah Bickel and Wendy Jane Carrel Speak About Mexico End-of-Life Planning + Palliative Care and Hospice at Be Well San Miguel Event March 15, 2023