Where home care is more than numbers

Looking for the natural care giverYou can put numbers on any business, but they only tell part of the story, writes Brian Byrne.

The Home Instead Senior Care operation in Kildare and Laois provides some 6,000 hours of care a month, and in the process has already helped around 200 families. If you look at those numbers, the business set up at the end of 2009 by Amanda Bohan is a serious success story.

But it's the human side of that story which is really important, the part that actually measures success. The Home Instead philosophy is to enable elderly people to live in their own homes and environment as long as possible, and by its very nature it has to be 'people centred'.

"What we can do is respond quickly to peoples' needs," says Amanda (pictured on left with office manager Karen O'Donoghue), whose interest in seniors care began while working nights in a nursing home as a student in Dublin, and also caring for her grandfather who had Alzheimer's. "Sometimes our work is simply providing support for a few hours on a daily basis, but if there's a sudden change, maybe due to a hospital admission and discharge, we can adapt the level and type of care immediately to suit the new situation."

That flexibility is a key part of the success of the Home Instead service. But at least equally important is the care they take in selecting caregivers, and then matching them to the client. It's all about relationships and all about people. Especially with the 'live-in' part of the service which is showing substantial growth. This can range, depending on circumstance, from a couple of 24 hour shifts a week through to full 24/7 care by a team of Home Instead staff.

"Getting the right people is challenging," says office manager Karen O'Donoghue, who figures that maybe two out of 20 of the applications that cross her desk end up being suitable. "It takes a huge amount of work to get the quality of the people that we need."

Home Instead meets with students in local colleges to recruit from those who are being trained in this area, but obviously is competing with the nursing homes for these people. And in some respects, caregivers for home care need to be a little different. So Amanda and Karen are currently seeking to recruit from the ranks of 'natural' caregivers in the community through Kildare and Laois.

"There are plenty of lovely women and men out there who have cared at some stage for family members," says Karen. "Perhaps a parent, or an aunt, uncle or dependent. When they no longer need care, have passed on or grown up, there's a void, and maybe those carers can fill that through working with us."

What Amanda and Karen are looking for is people with that kind of practical experience of caregiving. But they are the very ones who might be frightened off from offering their skills in a commercial operation because of the statutory requirement for training. "The training is necessary, but that can be done with us at their own pace," says Amanda. "Already they are home-makers. They bake, they sew, they do all the things that many of our clients value." As well as providing the kind of companionship that is essential to the wellbeing of every human being.

They also need to be licenced to drive, as in some cases they will be asked to use a client's car, and anyway will need to have access to a car to get to and from their work. "There's no age limit, as long as they are physically fit," Karen notes. "The usual Garda vetting and references requirements also apply, but the references don't have to relate to professional experience in the area."

At the moment, the Kildare/Laois Home Instead operation has around 120 caregivers on its books. More are needed, especially with the growing awareness of home care as a realistic, and often preferable option to a nursing home. "Once you go the nursing home route, it's very hard to come back," Karen observes.

Amanda makes the point that in the area where her franchise operates there are many older people living in rural areas. "They don't want to leave their homes, and in many cases their families get together to co-fund care at home. With the tax rebate available, on a cost basis it competes favourably with the nursing home scenario."

That tax break provides for 41 percent of the home care costs to be applicable against income tax for qualifying family members, including nieces and nephews. It can be split between a number of them, and Home Instead can invoice the individual co-funders separately.

That, of course, is again numbers telling only part of a story. Because, at the bottom line for its clients and for Home Instead itself, it's always a people thing.

And maybe you are the kind of people they want to get in touch with as a potential caregiver? If you think you are, give Karen a call on 045 484623.