Boundaries, Business, and Building Something Better

By Kaitlyn Cunningham Morse

I’ve been building Maine Aging Partners for four years—quietly at first, then publicly, and now with conviction. This isn’t just a business. It’s a response to what I’ve seen firsthand: families getting blindsided by care decisions, older adults getting shuffled through broken systems, and a state that too often looks away when it matters most.

In the process of building MAP, I’ve had to build something else too: boundaries.

Boundaries with systems that don’t always want accountability.
Boundaries with institutions that prefer silence to change.
And yes, boundaries in my personal life—with people who don’t show up with clarity, respect, or alignment.

At one point, I wondered if I was the problem. I told family of mine I wasn’t sure my mental health was holding, and years ago, I’d melted down in front of friends trying to make sense of it all. When systems ignore you, when people fall silent, and when the things you’re trying to fix resist being fixed—it’s easy to start believing it must be you. But the longer I lived it, and the more others quietly confirmed what I was seeing, the less that story held. I wasn’t unraveling—I was recognizing something no one wanted to name. I wasn’t the problem. I was the one telling the truth inside a system built to deny it.

My boundaries aren’t baggage. They’re strategy.
They are how I protect what I’m building.

When I work with families, I’m not selling a facility. I’m not taking a commission. I’m helping people avoid the traps, the wasted money, and the heartbreak that so many face when the system pretends to offer care—but really just offers contracts. I do that work because I believe older Mainers deserve better. And I believe the people trying to care for them—sons, daughters, friends, neighbors—deserve a guide who isn’t in anyone’s pocket.

That takes energy. It takes resilience. And it takes saying no—loudly and often—to what doesn’t align.

So if you’ve heard something about me having boundaries, it’s true. I do.
If you’ve heard I’m not afraid to speak up, that’s true too.
And if you’ve heard I’ve struggled, I won’t deny it—because struggle doesn’t discredit you. Silence does.

I built this business out of lived experience. I built it because I couldn’t keep watching what was happening without doing something about it. And I’m going to keep building it—with or without anyone’s approval—because the mission matters.

Maine’s aging system isn’t going to fix itself.
But some of us are here to try.