The in-home care industry really is a special place filled with servant minded individuals with opportunity to impact the lives of millions of clients and family members across the country. I joined the industry 15 years ago based on my own firsthand experiences over many years with family members that required support with their activities of daily living, and after more than 15 years of experience in franchising, saw a compelling opportunity to make a significant difference in communities across the country.
Like so many, my family started to face the question of how to care for loved ones that were aging with chronic and terminal illness back in the 1970’s, of course I was very young then! At that time no one knew what home care was. There were no standards, no licensing of agencies and quite frankly, no easily available resources to support loved ones and their families when care needs arose.
My family was fortunate that the Caregivers hired privately to provide care in loved one’s homes, were terrific. They were servant minded, provided great care, and became part of the family. They spent holidays with us, went on vacations at times and not only took care of our loved ones, they also supported our family. That scenario plays out millions of times a day in our country. As a result of my experiences, when I had the chance to join Home Helpers® Home Care with an organization that has a mission that matters, I jumped all in.
Over my 15 years leading Home Helpers® Home Care, the industry and the organization has changed dramatically. Home Helpers® Home Care is celebrating 25 years this year, with 25 years of continued record-breaking growth. That is a testament to our endeavor to do things right, and to always do the right thing, focusing on exceptional client care.
Home Helpers has utilized the franchise business model to leverage 25 years of a trusted brand, recognized for hundreds of national awards and to standardize the client and Caregiver experience to scale the business. In doing so, we can vastly reduced the learning curve for new franchisees coming into the industry and support them with a brand, business model, marketing expertise, and operating system to guide growth. We invest heavily in our relationship with our franchisees to Making Life Easier® to deliver on our mission to “Be the most trusted and respected provider of comprehensive home care services and support for individuals who choose to remain independent wherever they call home.” Everything we do must be in alignment with our mission. Staying true to our mission, Home Helpers® Home Care, utilizing a franchise business model has built a footprint serving more than 1,000 communities today.
Additionally, I currently serve as President of the Board of Directors of the Home Care Association of America, the industry’s largest trade association. In that role, I get to clearly see the vital role that in-home care plays in families, communities, and our society. In-home care has created an innovative solution to fill the gaps, created by traditional care models in the fast-growing care needs of an increasing elderly population.
With an aging population, our country will need robust thought leaders and broad continuum of care options to meet the growing needs of our aging population. Home Care provides individuals choice, the choice to maintain dignity and independence, the choice to live at home. And through the work of the Home Care Association of America and its members, we continue to advocate for families to have greater access to care, funding options, standards of care, and trained care providers to make those decisions.
The in-home care industry is at an inflection point and as such we must think differently about care delivery. The adoption of innovative technology in client care for better outcomes will be essential and to leverage data on both a micro and macro level. To date, our industry has been fragmented in this regard and if the in-home care industry is to be able to offer insights to the scope of our services provided, improvement of client outcomes, and savings to the healthcare system as an industry, we must find a way as an industry, working across many stakeholders to aggregate real data, rigorously collected and analyzed, to demonstrate the true value of in-home care. To date this information has only been available through small-scale validation studies. As a result of minimal data, the impact of home care has hindered the advancement and slowed the ability of the industry to realize its full potential in the country’s health care system.
So how do we get there? Every stakeholder involved in the in-home care industry must get engaged. Whether through trade associations, state associations, or other organizations aligning with research institutes, academic institutions, and policy makers to ensure that these key insights are conducted and shared to improve the overall health care continuum, of which in-home care plays a vital role.
By 2040, nearly 81 million people in our country will be over the age of 65, and 7 of 10 of those will need support with their activities of daily living to have the choice to maintain dignity and independence with a choice to live at home. As an industry, with strong thought leadership and collaboration, we are poised to continue to grow for many years to come.
BIO
Home Helpers Home Care is a leading brand in the burgeoning $75 billion senior home care industry, which is ranked in the top 5 most profitable franchise sectors. By enabling individuals to live independently at home for longer than otherwise possible, we make a difference in people’s lives every day. The Home Helpers family strives to deliver the same exceptional care for the families we serve as we would expect for our own families – and for ourselves.
– Ranked the #1 Senior Care Franchise and “Best of the Best” by Entrepreneur magazine for 5 straight years
– Continually ranked in the Top 10 Home Based Businesses
– With a solid presence in more than 1000 communities in North America, Home Helpers is expanding its caregiving network to be “the extended family when the family can’t be there”