Plymouth In-Home Care Business Creates Special Senior Connections
The state’s workforce is aging. Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development data shows that the number of senior workers have increased since 2005.
One company with a branch based in Plymouth is tapping into that workforce by offering a unique job where seniors help each other.
Seniors Helping Seniors serves people throughout the Twin Cities and northwest suburbs. Caregivers spend time with senior clients, helping chores, appointments and errands.
Rachel Ackland is one of their clients. She just celebrated her 80th birthday.
Mark Tafel talks with Rachel Ackland in her Minneapolis apartment.
Six days a week, Jenny Duffy and Mark Tafel split time helping Ackland start her day.
They are 73 and 69-years-old — an appropriate age for caregivers at Seniors Helping Seniors.
“Really developed more of a friendship than a working client caregiver thing,” Duffy said. “It’s much more.”
Ackland said having a peer as a caregiver makes a difference. They have cultural touchpoints and things that they relate on.
“Their experience makes, I think, connecting easier,” Ackland said.
Mutual Benefits
As Ackland got older, she knew she wanted to age independently, outside of an assisted living facility. That’s when she found Seniors Helping Seniors.
She lives in an apartment in Minneapolis with neighbors she knows well.
“It’s very nice, for example, to be having ongoing connections with people where we recognize each other and begin to know each others’ backgrounds and who we are,” Ackland said. “And its just difficult in assisted living.”
The owner of the Seniors Helping Seniors Plymouth branch is Kim Nermyr.
The company only hires senior citizens for in-home care.
Nermyr said that makes their company different, and in many ways, better.
“It’s really opened my eyes to the value they can bring, in terms of life experiences, their dedication, their commitment,” Nermyr said. “They are doing this because they want to do this. And that’s different from feeling like you need to have a job.”
Ackland said she’s found friendships with Duffy and Tafel.
“I’ve been just very, you could say, very blessed,” Ackland said. “I have two wonderful seniors who come, and are very different. That’s great. Kind of counters my tendency to be sometimes depressed.”
But the caregivers say it is even more special for them.
“I would like to say I get a lot more out of it than I believe they do,” Duffy said. “I do.”
“It adds structure and meaning to my life, to be doing this work,” Tafel added.
More info on Seniors Helping Seniors is available on its website. The company was founded in Reading, Pennsylvania.
