New Paso Robles caregiving group provides peer support, companionship to older adults
San Luis Obispo County families searching for caregiving help for aging friends and relatives have a new option.
Seniors Helping Seniors, an in-home caregiving franchise headquartered in Pennsylvania but with locations nationwide, opened its first location in San Luis Obispo County last year with the help of Paso Robles residents, Ron and Maria Torres.
The organization pairs active seniors with less active seniors for peer-to-peer caregiving and companionship.
“Our niche is that we prioritize and focus on hiring seniors to do the work, with the idea that this is more of a peer relationship and can help improve the lives of not only the care receiver, but the caregiver,” Co-owner Ron Torres said. “Give them more purpose, keep them active in the community.”
Since opening the franchise in November 2022, the Torres’ said there’s been a flood of interest from community members who want to sign up as caregivers.
“I thought I was gonna have a hard time finding caregivers, and it’s just blown me away the quality of the caregivers,” Ron Torres said. “They hear our story, and they hear what we’re doing, and they say ‘I want to be a part of that.’”
Over the past four months, the Torres’ have hired and trained roughly 20 senior caregivers, with more candidates reaching out each day. About seven care receivers have been matched with caregivers at this stage.
“There’s so many lonely seniors out there,” Ron Torres said. “To be able to bring into their lives meaningful friendship or companionship, is just a huge thing.”
Paso Robles family saw a need for senior caregiving services locally
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Ron and Maria Torres became the primary caregivers for Maria’s mother, 77-year-old Ramona Gonzalez.
Maria Torres left her job as a physician assistant to care for her mother full time. The family soon realized they needed respite from the non-stop work of caring for an ailing parent.
“As Ron was learning about this model, I totally fell in love with it,” Maria Torres said. “(Seniors Helping Seniors) does stand out as the most respected and rewarding home-care provider in the United States, and that concept of a senior helping a senior — who better than a senior understanding the needs of my mom?”
The family spent about two years searching for a senior caregiver to provide Maria Torres with some respite and Gonzalez with some companionship.
The challenges they faced while identifying a good fit for Gonzalez was a key reason behind why they opened a San Luis Obispo County location for Seniors Helping Seniors, the Torres’ said.
“We wanted to bring this to the community here to meet that gap,” Maria Torres said.
Seniors Helping Seniors offers peer companionship, care
Seniors Helping Seniors pairs active caregivers with seniors who might benefit from caregiving and companionship from their peers.
The caregiving services offered do not include in-home nursing or other types of clinical services, though medication reminders are among the services offered to seniors requiring care, according to the Seniors Helping Seniors website.
“So then when they follow up with their doctors, it’s like, ‘Oh I see your blood pressure has really been in control,’ because now there’s somebody there reminding them (to take their medication),” Maria Torres said. “We’re non-medical, but just the reminding them is what is the key to keeping compliant with their doctor’s orders.”
Many of the services offered by Seniors Helping Seniors are focused more on companionship and quality time while performing everyday tasks that become more challenging with age, such as light housekeeping, going on walks, cooking and shopping, pet care, yard work, escorting to appointments, errands, outings and more.
Care tailored to seniors with dementia, Alzheimer’s or other forms of memory loss is also available.
Ron Torres recalled a situation where the daughter of a 91-year-old man with early onset dementia lamented that her father spent most of his time sedentary in his chair. After a senior caregiver came into the picture, the client became more active.
“It’s been amazing because with the caregiver there to prompt them — ‘Let’s get up, let’s walk,’ — they’ve been walking to the mailbox and he’s been active and engaged,” Ron Torres said. “It’s really a cool thing.”
This respite care is particularly important for friends and family that are the primary caregivers for aging parents. Respite care allows caregivers to take the opportunity to recharge for a few hours with the confidence that an experienced caregiver is at the helm.
“The last care receiver we just signed on, it’s a 101-year-old lady and her son is doing 24/7 care,” Ron Torres said. “He came to us and said, ‘Well I just need a break.’ There’s a lot of really stressed out family members who are providing care like that.”
How to get involved with Seniors Helping Seniors
The owners of Seniors Helping Seniors in Paso Robles said they match the caregiver and care receiver based on their personalities and specific needs.
“We do a very thorough job in getting personality traits from both the client and the caregiver and then we match them,” Maria Torres said. “It’s just a beautiful friendship that occurs.”
She said there have been a few times where it wasn’t a perfect match, and caregivers were switched out to find a better fit.
Amyna Weeks of Paso Robles was trained by Seniors Helping Seniors to be a caregiver. Weeks, who also works retail at the Dollar Tree, said she has always been drawn to service and particularly enjoys engaging with the elderly.
“It was really exciting for me to think that I could help another person and with their daily care,” Weeks told The Tribune.
She was matched with a care receiver for about two weeks, but soon it became clear that the man she was matched with needed someone who could provide more physical assistance with his mobility than Weeks was able to provide. She is now waiting for a reassignment.
All caregivers who are employed by Seniors Helping Seniors must have had past caregiving experience, though it does not need to be professional experience, Ron Torres said.
Caregivers must pass background checks, are placed on the state’s home health aide registry and go through a training process. Each shift with the care receiver is at least four hours.
Before being matched with a caregiver, Ron and Maria Torres meet with their families of potential care receivers and conduct a free home inspection and assessment to identify the needs of their potential client.
“We want our clients to be treated with the utmost greatest customer service,” Maria Torres said.
Clients pay out-of-pocket for the in-home care services, and part of the assessment is determining what families can afford and what resources may be available to help them pay, Ron Torres said.
Anyone interested in learning more about how to get involved with Seniors Helping Seniors in San Luis Obispo County can visit seniorcareslo.com or call the office at 805-369-2110.
