Plainvew-based Seniors Helping Seniors is part of a nation-wide franchise that offers in-home care services that enable seniors to age gracefully and maintain an independent lifestyle in their own homes for as long as possible.
However, this Seniors Helping Seniors is currently suffering from a shortage of mature workforce caregivers due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are seeking to get the word out to any interested parties that may be interesting in pitching in some of their free time to help the elder members of our community.
When compared to your usual senior caregiver group, one thing sets Seniors Helping apart is that the organization is comprised of a network of active mature workforce caregivers who serve as helpers to less-active seniors as well as companions in a way that a younger individual could not, due to their shared life experiences.
Seniors Helping Seniors caregivers help their clients with numerous household tasks, offer companionship and light housekeeping, cooking and shopping, as well as assistance with personal care such as eating or bathing, pet care, small household repairs, yard work, help with bills and correspondence, transportation to and from appointments, and more, according to Director of Operations Reema Nirola.
“There are seniors who are looking to get help…they don’t want to go to a nursing home and feel isolated, they want to remain in their home for as long as possible with dignity and respect,” she said. “So we have ‘young’ seniors who want to stay active and are looking for something meaningful to do, and we match them up with less-active seniors that need assistance with daily living tasks.”
However, Seniors Helping Seniors has faced significant challenges recently in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aspect of COVID-19 that hit Seniors Helping Seniors especially hard was – due to health concerns – the number of mature workforce caregivers that they had available to work with their elder population, which has been significantly reduced. While their current staff level was able to meet the needs of their many clients, things like specialized one-on-one attention and a personal touch had to be sacrificed in the name of expediency. But now that the pandemic is starting to wind down, Reema said that getting the word out that mature workforce caregivers are desperately needed is more important than ever.
“We're still providing the same services, but things aren't the same as they were before the pandemic,” she said. “Due to the shortage of mature workforce members, we're not able to spend time with our clients, and as a result many of them have become very isolated. They’re experiencing depression and loneliness and they really want somebody to talk to, to spend time with, and one thing we very much need are mature workforce caregivers to offer their time once again in order to help them out.”
Reema hopes that now that COVID-19 vaccines are available, more people will feel comfortable offering their services as mature workforce caregivers to help the vulnerable seniors that her organization caters to.
However, with the advent of the new Omicrom COVID-19 variant, being fully vaccinated is now a requirement to become a part of Seniors Helping Seniors mature workforce; if an individual wants to offer their services but they have chosen not to be vaccinated, they unfortunately cannot do so at this time due to safety and health concerns. If vaccination requirements change at any point in the future, Seniors Helping Seniors will make an announcement.
Seniors Helping Seniors in-home care service was co-founded in 2007 by Kiran and Philip Yocom in order to realize Kiran’s personal mission of providing care for those who can’t care for themselves. Before coming to the United States from India, Kiran worked with Mother Teresa for 14 years.
From their roots in Pennsylvania, and their first match in 1998, Seniors Helping Seniors has grown to include hundreds of locations in the U.S. and Internationally. They continue to grow and evolve, adding new services to better assist seniors and refining their caregiver training as new industry best practices come to light.
Mature workforce caregivers for Seniors Helping Seniors are trained in Dementia and Alzheimer's care, as well as being able to keep family members who may live out-of-state in the loop as far as their loved one’s ongoing condition is. Care ranges from daily visits to overnight stays and even 24-hour care.
To find out more about the services that Seniors Helping Seniors offers, and are interested in offering your services as a mature workforce caregiver, please visit seniorshelpingseniors.com or call 516-390-8938.