Seniors Helping Seniors

Showing posts with label home health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label home health care. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2011

New Franchise Opens in Michigan

Our Seniors Helping Seniors family here in Michigan is growing! A big welcome to our newest Partners, Nancy and Sarah. They will be providing the same services for the elderly in their community that we do in the greater Grand Rapids, MI area for those seniors who want to maintain their independence and stay in their own home.

This is our 8th franchise in the state of Michigan, dedicated to providing loving, caring and compassionate in-home health care for seniors. Some of our services include: Companion Care, respite, Alzheimer's care, handyman services, yard word, meal preparation, transportation, medication reminders and other non-medical home care services.

The full press release for Nancy and Sarah can be read below -
For Immediate Release - April 26, 2011  


Mother and daughter team join forces providing heartfelt assistance for senior citizens in Northern Macomb and Southern St. Clair counties providing jobs and in-home assistance.

Rochester Hills, MI – To help meet the growing demand of older Michigan residents who want to remain in their own homes and stay as self-sufficient as possible Nancy Olson and her daughter Sarah Mullins have established a new Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home service franchise location in Rochester Hills. Their office will be providing services for seniors throughout Northern Macomb / Southern St. Clair Counties, and they will be hiring local seniors to help provide services.

Seniors Helping Seniors in-home services offers loving, caring, compassionate non-medical services by seniors for seniors to help them live independently with dignity and respect.  Seniors Helping Seniors Receivers are matched with senior Providers. They provide services, such as: companionship, transportation, meal preparation, overnight stays and handyman services among others. Providers are seniors with the heart of a volunteer, but are compensated for their time.

Nancy has had experience providing care for family members. “Through this experience I have learned how quickly circumstances can change in a family due to illness and/or aging and how important it is to be able to find caring, reliable people to step in and help families cope with those changes.”  She realizes how much her own mother and aunts could have benefited from Seniors Helping Seniors services and looks forward to the opportunity to help other families.
                                                         
After Nancy lost her husband she cared for a woman with cancer and helped her stay in her home.  “I found great satisfaction helping this woman each day.  Small things became big memories. She had no appetite and was very thin. I could carry her upstairs to help her bathe, change and get tucked her into bed.  She wouldn’t eat for her sons but with persistence and patience I was able to find things she was willing to eat. Although she only lived another three months, those months were some of the most rewarding for both of us. We formed a genuine bond and friendship. We began as strangers and ended as friends. That relationship motivated me to make the decision to bring Seniors Helping Seniors services to our area.”  


Sarah, a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), has seen a change in healthcare from patient based care to finance based care focused on volume and cost. Sarah has always enjoyed working with people and providing them quality care. “I am so excited to have this opportunity to be involved in seniors’ lives and to help them remain independent and living in their own homes.”   My mother and I are embarking on this franchise endeavor mostly because of past personal health hardships in our own family.  We want to be able to create a safe, compassionate place for people to turn when they need help.  After experiencing what it is like to go through a long illness as the sole caregiver we recognize the need for quality, empathetic care.  We would like to become a trusted resource for our community.  We have always felt the desire to help others and we believe this will be a way to put words into action.”

The Seniors Helping Seniors organization differs from other area services in that they find providers who are mature and have a lot in common with those for whom they are helping. These providers are people who truly want to help others and have the heart of volunteers not just employees motivated by a paycheck. These providers welcome to opportunity to provide comfort and care to members of their own peer group while supplementing their incomes.

Both Nancy and Sarah are active in the community. Nancy has volunteered in the Rochester Hills community schools.  She has also participated in the Rochester Junior Women’s League, and the annual Wayne State University brain tumor fund raiser.  Sarah has volunteered with the Fayetteville, NC MacPherson Presbyterian Church Youth Group, the Fayetteville Animal Protection Society (A no kill animal shelter), The Salvation Army Christmas gift drive and was a member and volunteer for the Fayetteville, NC chapter of the Jaycees. She has been a leader of the Family Readiness Group for the 37th Engineer Battalion from 1999-2003 at Fort Bragg, NC.  Sarah is also active in the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation annual walk-a-thon.

“We know that in order for our Franchise Partners to be successful in this industry, they need to have a passion for both working with seniors and doing good. When we met with Nancy, we knew that she had the heart we look for in our Partners along with the desire to be successful. We did not talk to Sarah until after both of them went to an Open House in Reading, PA to meet our founders, but we were very pleased to hear from the home office that Sarah had many of the same qualities as her mother. We know that Nancy and Sarah will be a wonderful resource within their community as well as a great addition to our growing Seniors Helping Seniors family here in Michigan.”  Dave VanderLinde, Jr., Regional Owner Michigan

Philip Yocom, and his wife, Kiran Yocom, co-founded Seniors Helping Seniors in-home services, which began as a non-profit organization serving Berks County, Pennsylvania over ten years ago. The original Seniors Helping Seniors center continues that tradition, providing over 1,000 hours of service every month.

Philip Yocom said, “What began as a heartfelt mission to fill a need that was not being served by our local community is now being recognized as a prime business opportunity being fueled by the fastest growing demographic in our society.” He continued, “We want the existing Seniors Helping Seniors organization and our franchises to be the first place that seniors in need of non-medical services and those seeking extra income call.”

Seniors Helping Seniors organization has grown to over one-hundred franchises in over thirty states including Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

Philip adds, “We support all of our franchises with the expertise we have gained in running the Seniors Helping Seniors Berks County office.  We also provide marketing, sales, management, and technology support. We believe we have found a practical, cost-effective way to help seniors remain independent and continue contributing to their community.”

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Why is In-home Senior Care Growing?

The "Graying of America" is something we have all heard about now for years. News stories tell us daily about boomers, our elderly and upcoming changes in health care and so forth. And, it's true. Our population is aging and our resources are being more and more stretched as we try to care for our elderly in the manner that they want to be cared for. 

Why Is the Need for Homecare Greater than Before?
 
Did anyone ever want to go into a nursing home?
Not in most cases. But historically many families were able to provide care for their elderly relatives so that they did not need to go into a nursing home or assisted living facility. And families still do provide care - 65 million Americans are already serving as caregivers.
Who Are Caregivers
Many caregivers are baby boomers themselves. Older baby boomers are starting to turn 65 now and they are becoming more aware of the need to plan for their own needs. We are seeing our government start to talk about how to deal with our aging population in the best and most cost effective manner. Caregivers themselves in many cases are trying to juggle family, work and care giving.
What Happened?
What changes have happened in our society to make this issue bigger today than it ever was in the past?
1) Adult Children are more likely to live further away (do you know anyone who has left Michigan?)
2) Higher divorce rates mean more seniors are living alone and families caring for 2 elderly parents are stretched even more
3) Lower birthrates mean fewer potential caregivers

4) Nearly 40% of chronically ill adults live alone (according to a U of M study) and many of them are married to a spouse with health issues of their own 


Seniors Helping Seniors has a well defined process to help potential franchise partners get all the information they need to make an informed and prudent business decision. At the same time we are sharing information about us with you, we also want to learn more about why you think in-home care may be a good fit for you.
Throughout our process you will have the opportunity to meet our founders as well as our entire corporate team, speak with and ask questions of existing franchise partners, go through a detailed demographic analysis to define a territory that sets you up for success and review our franchise agreement. Email today to take the first step in learning more about the franchise opportunities available with Seniors Helping Seniors In-home Services.