An aging population creates a need for specialized care for seniors

Story by Diane Poulton | Posted: Tuesday, February 21, 2012 12:00 am
            
Helen Seaman has something anyone with Parkinson's disease shouldn't live without: a companion
   
This companion helps her in her daily struggles – organizing her medications, light housekeeping and taking her on errands and to doctor appointments.
   
Seamen, 85, of Dyer, is a client of Home Helpers of Schererville.
   
"I don't know what I would have done if I didn't have them," Seamen said. "They make sure I get to my appointments; I don't have to worry about imposing on my friends."
   
Seamen said she enjoys the break in the routine and the companion's eagerness to help with anything she needs.
   
"The service helps keep me in my home," Seamen says.
   
AARP estimates 7,000 baby boomers turn 65 each day. As the population ages and faces associated health concerns, coupled with the steadily increased cost of nursing home care, there is a growing need for home health care services that enabling senior citizens to stay comfortably in their own environment. It is a quality of life issue, local home health caregivers say. Most of these services were started because their owners through personal experience saw a need that wasn't being filled. All report substantial business growth.
   
Tammy and Bill Spearson started Home Helpers of Schererville in 2010.
   
"Our motivation was caring for Tammy's mother who had cancer for 13 years," Bill Spearson says. "Then Tammy's father was diagnosed with lung cancer."
   
Being the primary caretakers for Tammy's aging grandmother, mother and father while working two hard-hitting jobs, the couple didn't know where to turn, Spearson says.
   
"It was a roller coaster ride," Spearson says. "You want to be there for your family; it taxes you emotionally and physically."
   
Home Helpers provides nonmedical daily living home care and companion care.
   
"If clients like to bake, the companions will help them, Spearson says. "One caregiver, who is 82, is teaching an 84–year–old client to play the piano; I have never done anything in my life that has meant so much to so many people. Our services give the elderly the opportunity to stay at home at about half the cost of nursing facilities."
   
Spearson says of his 27 trained employees, 90 percent are Certified Nursing Assistants and the rest are companions.
   
Home Helpers provides a host of personal emergency response equipment including a fall sensor, which summons help if a person is unconscious and also has a button the patient can push to speak to a person. Care watches provide global positioning tracking systems. Automatic medication dispensers have sound and light alarms, which are activated when the patient fails to take their medication at the proper time and a call center is alerted. If the patient cannot be reached, emergency contacts are called.
   
Tammy Spearson is a Hospice of the Calumet Area volunteer and a Certified Senior Advisor, providing free advice on Veteran's benefits, Medicare and Medicaid.
   
Spearson estimates business, which covers Lake, Jasper, Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, has increased tenfold since the first six months of operation.
   
A growing need
Patricia Hayes quit her job in physician reimbursement to take care of her aging parents. During the four years she helped them full-time, Hayes saw a growing need for specialized care for seniors.
   
"I would sit at the Veteran's Administration Clinic with my dad and see people coming in who shouldn't be driving but had nobody to bring them in," Hayes said.
   
After her father died, Hayes, who has an MBA, obtained a degree in gerontology and was certified as a geriatric care manager. On March 17, 2011, her late father Tony's birthday, Hayes opened her Crown Point-based business, Hayes Helping Hearts.
   
Hayes' company has two separate divisions. The first, geriatric care management, helps families find needed legal and financial aid resources through links on the company website.
   
The second division provides trained certified nonmedical caregivers who help with daily living activities and transportation and serve as companions.
   
"It needs to be about their quality of life," Hayes said. "Their generation was frugal. They saved; they worked their whole lives. Most of them have pension and Social Security income, but that can quickly diminish."
   
Hayes said her business, which has seven employees and covers Lake and Porter counties, has doubled in the past year.
   
First-hand experience
Owner Gina Kelly she started her business, ComForcare of Valparaiso, two years ago. It has 30 employees and covers Porter, LaPorte and part of Lake County.
   
"My father has Alzheimer's disease and I experienced first-hand the struggles people were going through," Kelly said. "With the population growing, people living longer and the baby boomers aging, there was a big need to be filled."
   
Kelly said business has more than doubled.
   
ComForcare assists with daily living activities, medication reminders, safety supervision, family respite care, transportation/errands, chore services and light housekeeping both at home and at assisted living facilities.
   
"It is most satisfying to know that we can keep people in their homes longer through their last stages of life, making them more comfortable in their own surroundings," Kelly said.
   
Kelly said she enjoys meeting and helping family members.
   
"Many children today live out of town because of their jobs," Kelly said. "We give them the security of knowing their parents are being taken care of and we keep them informed."
   
ComForcare has a 10–step requirement process for employees, which includes testing, professional and personal references, background checks, drug testing, orientation and training. Additional training includes the topics of dementia, Alzheimer's disease, COPD, congestive heart failure, diabetes, Parkinson's disease and a program for fraud prevention.
   
ComForcare provides transitional care from hospital to home and the company partners with skilled care facilities and the Visiting Nurses Association. All employees are insured and the majority of caregivers are certified nursing assistants or home health aids.
   
A one-stop shop
Michele Weathreford–Towle is Regional Director of Marketing Services for Total Home Health Services and Complete Home Health of Illinois The companies serve Cook, DuPage, Will and Kankakee counties in Illinois and Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Marshall, Starke, St. Joseph and Elkhart counties in Indiana with 150 employees. It provides skilled nursing, physical, occupational and speech therapists, medical social workers, home health aides and private duty services.
   
Founding board member of both companies, Stan Sroka, is a physical therapist by trade. For 18 years, Sroka worked in nursing homes and home health services.
   
Sroka decided to venture into home health care after noticing that patients had improved in rehabilitation only to decline after a month at home. Sroka said home help in rehabilitation was lacking in Northwest Indiana. He said both the service areas and client base has increased significantly since the companies were established in 2005. He expects further growth when new Medicare regulations take effect in March.
   
"If a patient is admitted to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged, with the same diagnosis the hospital does not get paid for the second stay," Sroka said.
   
"We keep people in their setting; we provide the medical care." Sroka said. "We believe that quality prevails. We believe that the industry is on strong footing and will emerge stronger after health care reform takes full force."
   
Sroka said the best part of his business is patient satisfaction. Many of their clients are repeat business or word of mouth referrals, Sroka said.
   
Sroka said his companies follow strict Medicare guidelines for providing services to home bound patients.
   
"From a clinical perspective, we are truly a one-stop shop," Weatherford–Towle said. "When people come home from the hospital they don't have to worry about their supplies or medications. We follow them from the moment they get home."

Story by Diane Poulton  Posted in Inbusiness on Tuesday, February 21, 2012

http://www.nwitimes.com/niche/inbusiness/an-aging-population-creates-a-need-for-specialized-care-for/article_5fc9c1ce-7ec9-5783-a645-382d3455f3fb.html


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