Retirement News : Seniors : Businesswomen open support care for seniors

Businesswomen open support care for seniors

Date Added: 30-03-2005

Neera McNeil was set for life. She had an MBA from York University's Schulich School of Business and a career position at Procter & Gamble, one of the world's largest corporations. But for this committed businesswoman, selling household products for someone else just wasn't fulfilling.

"Selling soap and detergent is one thing, but I felt I wanted to do more in my community. And, I wanted to prove myself as a businessperson," says McNeil, now co-owner of the first Canadian franchise of Comfort Keepers, a private provider of non-medical home and hospital support care for seniors and others needing assistance and/or companionship.
McNeil, 34, studied the home support and long-term care market intently and found that present government funding of non-profit home-care agencies limited such support to only a few hours a day.

With a staff of up to 30 certified personal support workers and homemakers, McNeil says her company's Richmond Hill office, which opened last September and services the Greater Toronto Area, offers support care 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

And, while Comfort Keepers, a U.S.-based company, is not the first for-profit support care company in Toronto, McNeil is confident the home support care market for seniors is growing. She points to a 2004 Statistics Canada study of the "sandwich generation," couples in their middle ages trying to cope with raising their children and having elderly parents who are no longer able to take care of themselves, which shows a slightly higher percentage of them are concerned with providing senior care than child care.

"It is these people who need help, and, yes, I feel we are providing a valuable service," says McNeil.

An estimated 600,000 people in Toronto are unpaid caregivers to seniors. For some, though, providing care is not possible. McNeil cites the case of an 80-year-old North York client whose wife recently died and whose two children both work full-time and live more than 20 kilometres away. Comfort Keepers staff do light housekeeping and grocery shopping for the man, and aid him on his walks seven days a week, six hours each day. McNeil stresses that "the most important aspect, though, is the companionship our staff offer seniors who want to continue independent living, rather than move to a long-term care facility,"

However, McNeil is quick to argue her company is not set up as an alternative to non-profit home care agencies. "We're not out to compete with publicly available services. We see ourselves, instead, as a complement to what socialized medicine is in Canada."

McNeil and her Canadian franchise co-owner, Laurie Saunders of Toronto, have two Comfort Keepers operations in British Columbia, one in Calgary and in December opened another office in North Bay (servicing Orillia as well).

And with Ontario's seniors population expected to double by 2028, McNeil and Saunders plan on continuing to grow the Comfort Keepers franchise operation across Canada.

For More Information: http://www.metronews.ca/worksmart_news.asp?id=7197