With its unique business model, Seniors Helping Seniors has found a way to benefit both the caregiver and care recipient in communities across the country including Middle Tennessee.
There are many seniors and retirees who are looking for meaningful ways to stay engaged without the commitment without the demands of full-time employment. There are also elderly community members who, as they age, discover they need help with tasks of daily living, or who just want someone to keep them company. Seniors Helping Seniors® sets itself apart from other care services in that it pairs people from these groups together to the mutual benefit of both.
“We're a non-medical home care agency for seniors, and our service is provided by seniors,” says Nick Deitmen, a local Seniors Helping Seniors® franchise owner. “We are trying to solve the loneliness epidemic on both sides. Pairing seniors with other seniors counters loneliness and helps establish a deeper sense of companionship. People who have been in that season of life understand what you're going through with a client. It feels more like having a friend come over to hang out with you versus having a young caregiver show up and treat you like a patient. You're really treated more like a friend.”
Before opening the Nashville franchise, Deitmen was working in healthcare tech but striving to find a way to work in the service side of the industry.
“I increasingly felt like I was getting further and further from understanding who actually used the work I was doing, who was benefiting from the work I was doing,” he says.
When his grandmother started receiving assistance from a similar program in his hometown, Deitmen witnessed firsthand how beneficial this system was. Its positive impact on her everyday quality of life inspired him to act.
Deitman opened his Seniors Helping Seniors franchise earlier this year, providing service to Nashville, Bellevue, Antioch, Belle Meade, Green Hills, Brentwood, East Nashville, Donelson, and Madison. “It has been the best decision I've ever made,” he says. “We provide things like light housekeeping, meal prep, running errands, transportation to taking them to lunch or taking them to the senior center to participate in activities.”
While SHS caregivers do not administer medications, they do help with activities of daily living such as bathing, creaming, toileting, dressing, and medication reminders. For those living in assisted living communities, they can help residents participate in activities at their center, accompany them to outings, and come over for lunch to keep them company.
By hiring seniors as helpers, SHS Caregivers are better able to relate to those for whom they serve. Many caregivers previously have cared for their own aging parents, so they have already experienced many of these later-in-life scenarios. Deitmen explained that all caregivers are carefully vetted, having undergone a background check, auto insurance verification, training through the company, and specialized training for memory care.
One local caretaker is Julia Boklage. After working as an accountant for 25 years, she retired last December before realizing she wasn’t quite ready to quit working altogether.
“I stayed at home for a month or so and decided this is just not for me,” Boklage says. “I've worked all my life since I was 17, so I decided I would look for something that I could do that would be giving back and helping folks and also making a few dollars for myself. This is what I found, and I've really enjoyed every minute of it.”
Seniors Helping Seniors’ flexible schedule proved to be the perfect fit as Boklage has three clients she sees every week. “One of the great things about it is you get to design your schedule around your own commitments and things you want to do,” she says. “I'm so thankful that I found this; I’m not a nurse but I can certainly help people live,” she says.
“We're a non-medical home care agency for seniors, and our service is provided by seniors."