What services does Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home care offer?

We provide companionship, homemaker, and personal care services.  Homemaker services are tasks such as light housecleaning, meal preparation, medication reminders, transportation, and much more. Personal care services include assistance with bathing, ambulation, getting dressed, and personal hygiene. Essentially we are here to help manage day-to-day life while also providing social interactions.

Why should I choose Seniors Helping Seniors® services for in-home care?

We are the only company based on a peer-to-peer caregiving model, where active seniors provide care to seniors who are in need of home-based assistance. Our caregivers are mature, life-experienced individuals, almost all of them over the age of 50. This means care is provided by someone who is highly dependable and very patient. A typical experience in this industry is full of last-minute cancellations and a revolving door of faces due to high employee turnover. That isn’t the case with Seniors Helping Seniors® services. We always show up and it’s always the same faces, allowing a meaningful relationship to grow.

How can Seniors Helping Seniors® services help someone with a dementia-related disease such as Alzheimer's?

Seniors with memory loss, dementia, or Alzheimer's have a broad range of needs. It takes a great deal of patience and kindness to lovingly guide them through this stage of life. Enlisting the help of a senior caregiver can provide many benefits, from social stimulation to an extra set of eyes and ears in the home. For example, as occasional forgetfulness or lack of focus starts to be more pronounced, the caregiver can report this to the family and/or the senior’s physician. This allows them to track the progression of the condition and make changes to the senior’s care as appropriate. Caring for a loved one with dementia can be very stressful. Our caregivers help shoulder that burden so you can focus on spending more quality time with your senior. Our team members understand the impacts of memory impairment and are trained in how to care for a senior with dementia and how to be of assistance to you. When Memory Loss, Dementia, or Alzheimer's pose serious challenges to the health and happiness of a loved one and are negatively impacting their relationships with everyone close to them, Seniors Helping Seniors® Hillsborough and Pinellas in-home care can be a valuable component of your support network.

What is the process to get started?

The first step is to speak with one of our Senior Resource Specialists at 727-401-4700 Option 1. They will conduct an initial phone assessment and answer all of your questions. Once you have decided to move forward with Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home services, we will email you a summary of the conversation as well as the digital documents to review and sign. Once the documents have been signed, we will schedule a nurse to perform an on-site assessment. Once the on-site assessment is completed, the office will begin looking for the ideal caregivers and completing the schedule. You will be updated daily on our progress.

How long does it take to get started?

From start to finish, we ask for two weeks to allow time to fully staff with the best possible caregiver matches; however, we are often able to fully staff in a shorter period of time. There are times we’ve been able to complete a 24/7 schedule within just a few days. Timing depends on the current schedules of the caregivers matched with your loved one and if changes need to be made to accommodate your requested schedule.

Will I have the same caregiver?

One of the biggest benefits of choosing Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home care is that once we assemble your care team, there will be very little changes, if any, to that team.

How long have you been around?

Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home care has been around since 1998. This office, independently owned and operated, has been around since 2006 and the first office in Florida.

Are you licensed, bonded, and insured?

All of our caregivers are employees, not 1099 subcontractors, have passed an FBI level II background check, are licensed, bonded and insured and work under our workers’ compensation policy. These are important protections for our clients. We report all income, so you don't become an employer…allowing you to not have to worry about payroll taxes, issuing W-2’s and other Department of Labor and IRS rules and regulations.

Do you provide services in facilities?

We provide services wherever the client calls home, be it a single-family home, condominium, apartment, mobile home, hospital, assisted living facility or skilled facility.

How do I pay for your services?

We are contracted with the VA Hospital (Veteran’s Administration) and Suncoast PACE, both of which cover the cost of our services if you qualify. The VA has two programs that can cover our services…Aid & Attendance or the HHA program (Home Health Aide). Suncoast PACE is for individuals that are dual eligible with both Medicare and Medicaid. Please give us a call at 727-401-4700 if you have more questions about these programs. If you do not qualify for either of these programs then you can privately pay or use a Long Term Care Insurance plan.

Why should I go through an agency as opposed to privately hiring someone?

There are significant and important benefits to hiring an agency as opposed to an individual. One of the most important aspects of quality care is continuity of care. If a private individual gets sick, needs time off, or encounters any unforeseen circumstance that prevents them from showing up, the burden of covering falls to untrained individuals such as family and friends. If an agency is involved, the entire office staff works to find coverage across our many caregivers. Another very important aspect of hiring an agency is that the agency, by law, must have extensive protections in place for the client and caregiver such as general liability, bonding, and worker’s compensation. Additionally, a licensed agency has two layers of oversight for clients. 1) the Agency oversees their caregivers in the form of supervision, training, policies & procedures and 2) the state oversees the agency. Lastly, the agency specializes in the screening process of choosing credible and experienced aides and matching them with clients based on background, skills, and experience.

Is there a program for Veterans to receive care from Seniors Helping Seniors® in-home services?

The VA (Veterans Administration) has two programs that can cover our services…Aid & Attendance or the HHA program (Home Health Aide). Please give us a call at 727-401-4700 if you have more questions about these programs.

What happens if there is an issue after hours or on the weekend?

We have administrative staff on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Do you provide care over the weekend, overnights, or 24/7?

We provide care on all days at all hours, anything from six hours per week to 24/7 coverage. 24/7 care is completed with shifts of 8 or 12 hours. Our caregivers are not permitted to sleep while assisting a client to ensure they remain alert at all times.

What are IADLs and ADLs?

ADLs in healthcare stand for Activities of Daily Living and address the very basic activities that allow someone to care for themselves, such as bathing, using the bathroom, getting dressed, and ambulation. Assistance with these tasks requires hands-on care, called personal care, and requires someone who has had extensive training such as a Home Health Aide. IADLs are Instrumental Activities of Daily Living and include activities such as managing medications, cooking, meal planning, transportation, housekeeping, managing finances, etc. They are more complex activities that are important for maintaining an independent lifestyle.

Are your caregivers employees or contractors?

All of our caregivers are employees, not 1099 subcontractors, have passed an FBI level II background check, are licensed, bonded, and insured, and work under our workers’ compensation policy to protect the clients in their homes. We report all income, so you don't become an employer, allowing you to not have to worry about payroll taxes, issuing W-2’s and other Department of Labor and IRS rules and regulations.