Growing numbers of retirees and still working seniors are beginning to assert their independence ? staying home longer and looking for alternatives to the retirement home.
“People are living longer and staying healthy, and they want to remain in their homes,” said Leslie Lewis, manager of the Bel Air Home Instead Senior Care office. “We offer [our clients] customized service to whatever their needs are.”
Home Instead Senior Care ? headquartered in Omaha, Neb. ? is capitalizing on this trend. Home Instead employs more than 37,000 “CAREGivers,” representing about 5 percent of this work force in personal home care. The companyprojects service revenues of $465 million this year and half a billion dollars in 2007.
At $16 an hour for nonmedical service, care givers help with daily activities such as driving to appointments, light house-keeping, making meals and simply keeping them company.
“The caregivers really are exceptional people,” Lewis said.
According to an in-house survey, 92 percent of Home Instead?s care givers are women, aged 40-64.
However, Lewis foresees that age range expanding to include younger adults and those close to retirement themselves.
At age 73, employee Marge Campbell was named CAREGiver of the Year.
“It?s rewarding for me, too,” Campbell said. “I?ve been with one family for nearly four years. … I?ve put in over 4,000 hours.”
“She?s wonderful care,” said Dorthy Clemens, Campbell?s client, whom she assists 42 hours a week. “She does everything I ask her to.”
Campbell is an exception in one respect.
While the Labor Department reports that one in three care givers work part time, Home Instead reports closer to a 90 percent part-time rate.
It?s a growing field.
In two years, the number of personal and home care aids for the elderly, disabled or mentally ill rose 15.4 percent, according to the Labor Department. More than 700,000 people now work in this field, and the Labor Department expects this number to increase 41 percent in the next 10 years as the baby boomer generation enters retirement.
“In 2011 the first baby boomers will turn 65. By 2030, over 20 percent of the population will be over 65,” said Roger Baumgart, president of Home Instead Senior Care.
“Our biggest challenge will be finding enough quality caregivers.”
