Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
Sunday Sip - Seniors Helping Seniors
And welcome to the Sunday Sepp. I'm Libby Collins. You know it's your age. I'm important is it for you to stay in your own home. But sometimes things occur when you need help, but you don't want to overwhelm your family and friends. But there is help available and joining us is Van Evans. He is from Seniors Helping Seniors Waukesha. Van, pleasure to have you here this morning. Thanks for having me this morning. I appreciate you getting me on. Tell us a little bit about Seniors Helping Seniors. Because you've been around for what? Over a dozen years? We have. And not only the local Waukesha County Seniors Helping Seniors, but Seniors Helping Seniors nationally started out in the late 90s and has grown to over 140 areas throughout the country that they serve now. All of them independently own and operated locally. So tell us a little bit about what makes Seniors Helping Seniors unique. Yeah, so not only do we have kind of a wide array of services that we offer. You kind of went over some over the intro a minute ago where even if you need a few hours a week, eight is kind of the minimum that we see. And then all the way up to we have clients that are we're with 24 hours a day, seven days a week through holidays and everything. So that's home care, right? Personal care. What makes Seniors Helping Seniors different? As we specifically try to, as you said, you know, have Seniors themselves being the caregivers. So the average age of the caregivers at Seniors Helping Seniors Waukesha is 64 years old, which I think you would find decades older than probably your average home care company in the area. Yeah, what I find interesting is the caretakers that you have are very carefully matched with the clients. Yes. And that makes a difference because it really is great for them as far as emotional and social health to have somebody that they can associate with and really communicate with when they're in their homes. I think so. I think, you know, obviously a caregiver in their 20s, 30s, 40s can and and do do an amazing job with clients, right? And we have some younger caregivers as well for for clients that need that. But I think one, the being a closer age to the person that you're serving, right, can help foster a good relationship, a better relationship. You have more in common. And then also we're very, we're very big on consistency with the caregivers. So not only have someone on paper that you should be able to, you know, have a better relationship with, but now you get to see them over the course of months or years consistently, you know. So now you really build that relationship and it feels less like a stranger coming in your home after that first few times. And I like to say more of having like a friend come down the street to help you out. And what are some of the services that they provide? Yeah. So it's, we, we customize it to what you or your loved one is really going to need. But for some people, they still live independently in their home. Maybe their spouse has passed away and they're alone. So it's, Hey, what are the, you know, what are the five or six most difficult tasks for you to do? Is it going in the basement and getting the laundry? Is it changing all the linens on the bed? Is it cleaning, right? Do you, are you to the point where you don't really want a meal prep anymore, right? You need medication reminders, that kind of thing. So that's what we do on kind of the low end where we're just stopping by a couple of times a week to help out. And then let's say you have much larger needs. We have a huge client population that's Alzheimer dementia Parkinson's. So now you need much more help just with daily activities of living. So both safety, right, respite care and Alzheimer dementia, all the way to help with toileting, bathing. Like I said, meal preparation, that sort of thing, just really the basics of kind of getting through your day for those folks that either physically or mentally are unable to do so by themselves. And they actually come to your home. So you can stay there. You don't have to change where you are, even if you've got some sort of a physical difficulty. I think so. And that's what I mean. That's our main goal, right, is to let seniors continue to live as independently as possible, given their circumstances. And that's primarily in their home. But Wisconsin also has some rules about assisted living facilities where you can only get so many hours of care per week and per month in an assisted living facility. So we have a lot of clients who they're bumping up against that max hours that their assisted living facility offers. They don't want to go to a higher level of care, say a nursing home. They want to stay in their apartment or in their condo at the assisted living facility. So we will come in several hours above what the assisted living facility can offer to kind of round out the care that they need. Now, I know you're a veteran. So VA benefits are very important to you and to others. And you accept those. We do. Yeah. So, you know, there's three ways that we kind of accept payment for care. And obviously private pay is one. We have clients that have long-term care policies, insurance policies. So if you have one of those, reach out. There's a lot of different companies that offer them, but we work with a lot of different companies. And then, as you said, veterans. So VA has a community care program. So that's for services that the VA either doesn't offer period or doesn't offer in the specific veterans area. Home care is a service that the VA doesn't offer at all. So they contract with local companies, like senior helping seniors, where the veteran not only gets that service paid for by the VA, but the veteran has total ownership of the choice. So the veteran can choose the provider, right, in our case, seniors helping seniors in the home care industry can choose a provider that they go to. So what's some of the feedback you get not just from the clients, but from the client's families? Yeah, I think, you know, it's huge because it's, you know, we are, I mean, other than the case of maybe children, we're in the client's home more than probably anybody else, right? So, you know, we can see the improvements they make just like the kids make. And that's what we see is, you know, hey, mom and dad, they're more active now. They're getting up and going for walks. They're back out in the garden, right? They're back reading, they're back sewing, those things that they, that they enjoy doing at a young age. But I think they, they get kind of so tired and just so focused on just kind of getting through their day with all the tasks that you need to have done around a house that they lose some of the time for hobbies, right? And they lose some of the motivation for hobbies. So taking that weight off of them can not only give them more time for their hobbies and their reinvent or reinvest time in those hobbies, but can also, you know, with kids, a lot of times it's son or daughter is the main caregiver. So taking the weight with a respite care, taking a few hours off your shoulders as a son or daughter of mom or dad that needs help and giving you back the relationship where when you come over, you're not a caregiver anymore, you're son or daughter. And it's that quality time that you're spending with them instead of running around doing the 15 tasks that that we can take off your plate. Well, another thing that makes you unique is you charge a flat rate. We do, yeah. So we we'd like to be very upfront, regardless of what we're doing, we're going to charge the flat rate. And you're not going to be locked into a contract. So let's say you let's say what we find often is family will come in town around the holidays, right around July 4th in the summer that, you know, the grandkids have off from school, they'll come and visit. But with a contract, maybe you dip below the hours that you said. So even though you're not using the hours, you're paying for them. Yeah, maybe you maybe you don't get along with a caregiver or you'd like to switch agencies, but you have a contract. So that's we try to make it easy because we know it's a very big conversation, right? To have with either yourself, if you're the elderly person needing care, or with mom and dad, it's a big step to kind of give some of that independence up. Again, we want to help you be more independent and stay in your home, but you're still giving some of that independence up. That's a big conversation. So, you know, having it be just a more comfortable conversation and having it be something that they can kind of dip their toe in and try out without being contractually obligated to this three or six month period, have us come over for a few weeks. See if you like your caregiver, if you don't, you call us and we won't come back and nothing lost. I mean, it's it's such a great service. Seniors helping seniors. And I'm sure there are a lot of people wondering, okay, what's the next step? How do we get all of you? Yeah. So I would say, you know, SHS walk us off, walk us off, excuse me, for seniors helping seniors walk us off. Or, and I had it right in front of you, but 262-225-7978. I believe I'm remembering that, right, is our, is our phone. So I would say, and one thing I want to say while I'm on the, on the air with you is not only if you're looking for care for yourself or a loved one, but if you are a senior yourself and you think that, you know, giving back this way in the community, making a little extra money on top of it, if you're partially retired or fully retired and looking for some really worthwhile to do with your time, because that's the bottleneck, right? We have a lot of seniors in the community, obviously, that need this service and that call us, but the biggest bottleneck to getting them services, having enough seniors to care for them. So that's what I would, that's what I also wanted to say was on if you're a senior and you're thinking, this is something, hey, you know, I'd like it. Just on the, just on the employee side, it's very easy. You don't have, you know, you tell us when you want to work, you tell us how many hours you want to work, there's no nights or weekends if you don't want, no holidays if you don't want. So if you're a senior out there that needs care or that wants to help care, please call us. And again, give that phone number one more time. Yeah. So 262-225-7978. I hope I'm not getting the two and the five. You've got to give it one more time because you went a little fast, 262-225-7978 or shswakashaw.com. It is a pleasure to have you here, Ben Evans. Thank you. And thank you for sharing all of the information about seniors helping seniors. I'm Libby Callens. It's 929 on WTMJ.