Growing Old With Dignity

Clayton resident hopes budding home care company will improve quality of life for seniors

Clayton entrepreneur Barth Holohan took an interest in older people at an early age. When he volunteered in retirement communities as a high schooler, it wasn't just for "community service hours." He loved working with and being around older adults. The truth was, he also saw things he didn't like and wished he could change.

Holohan is now president of the St. Louis branch of Home Helpers, a company that focuses on non-medical care for older adults. Home Helpers provides services such as bathing, transportation, cooking, cleaning and simple companionship to older adults in their homes and in retirement communities.

"We provide services that would allow your grandmother to live independently in her home as opposed to moving to a nursing home," Holohan said. The ultimate goal is independence.

And with more than 300 companies in the area providing in-home care to older adults, it is that desire to provide independence, combined with a unique array of services, that has set the young company apart and assisted in its rapid growth. Holohan started the business from his home, hired his first employee in May 2002 and now has a staff of 48 working out of a South Hanley office.

"Most home care services are provided by Medicare or Medicaid to older adults who've just returned from the hospital," Holohan explained. "They provide medical assistance for a few hours a day or even just a few days a week."

Standard home health care for older adults usually involves physical and occupational therapy for patients but does not provide what extends beyond medical needs, and this is where Home Helpers takes over.

"We've grown so quickly because we were able to find a niche," Holohan said.

Holohan's success is not simply the result of a lucky business venture or a desire to cash in on the aging parents of the baby boomers. It involves an interest that took root in childhood and has since shaped his education, career choices and life.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Holohan's family moved frequently, settling in St. Louis when he was 4 years old. His father started his own business, an executive search firm, thus planting the seeds of entrepreneurship in Holohan and his brother, who owns a clothing business.

Holohan started a landscaping service with his brother when he was 12, mowing the lawns of neighbors.

"That's when I really realized how much I enjoyed talking with the older people who hired us," Holohan said. "We'd chat after I'd cut their grass. Some needed help with various tasks. Others were just lonely and wanted someone to talk to."

Holohan's interest carried over to his high school years at Westminster Christian Academy where he volunteered at a nursing home for a senior service project. Extending beyond a need to accumulate service hours, this experience furthered his passion for working with older adults.

Temporarily relocating to Kentucky to receive his undergraduate degree in business, Holohan also made an effort to take social work classes and pondered involvement in the seniors industry, however little was available besides work with nursing homes. He took a job with Ernst & Young's Management and Health Care Consulting Group.

Holohan went on to receive his MBA and a MSW degree in gerontology from Washington University while working for a marketing and consulting firm that focused on the seniors industry. During this time he also received his nursing home administrator's license.

Upon completing his education, Holohan realized that his true desire was to not only work with older adults but to steer away from the medical aspect and to do it on his own, his way. Through his years of experience and education and his unwavering interest in the well-being of the elderly, Holohan had come to know that many older adults simply needed companionship and assistance with everyday tasks, not a move to a nursing home. Holohan noticed a deficit in this area and became determined to fill it.

While Holohan briefly contemplated starting a business completely from scratch, the advantages of a franchise quickly became clear. Home Helpers, a Cincinnati-based home care company, seemed to offer the best bet. His franchise became incorporated in March 2002 and is growing at a rapid rate, having found the middle ground between leaving seniors to fend for themselves at home and sending them to a nursing home.

Although owning a franchise carries with it a name and reputation, Holohan is left to his own devices beyond that, able to shape and mold the company to his liking through the services it provides, the rates charged and the employees he hires.

It was Holohan's personal choice to have social workers on staff. Once the company's services are requested, a social worker is sent to meet with those involved in order to develop a care plan, one that directly involves the person who will be cared for. After the plan is in place, the social worker introduces the older person to his or her caregiver. The process continues with regular checkups on the caregiver, and if problems such as a clash in personality result, changes are made.

"The entire process is extremely personal," Holohan said. The individual being cared for has a great deal of say and involvement in his or her situation, a factor that sets the service apart from those that let the cares and concerns of the older adult fall by the wayside.

Looking at the bigger picture, care for older adults has made many recent improvements. The government is starting to look at ways to cut cost and increase care, he said. Government wavers are issued to older adults that often cover services provided by companies like Home Helpers.

"Care for older adults is becoming more proactive instead of reactive," Holohan explained. Older adults are able to live longer, have more independence, and many catastrophic events are avoided through early prevention, he said.

These improvements extend to the options available for aging adults. A few decades ago, their choices were limited to living at home or in a nursing home. Those who lived at home were moved to a facility at the first sign of incompetence. And while more options are now available, it is still not uncommon for older adults to be moved out unnecessarily.

"An older person's spouse might have died or their family might live out of town, and they end up in a retirement community when they just needed a little assistance," Holohan said. And that "little assistance" is what Home Helpers aims to provide, its brochure listing dozens of available services, from picking up prescriptions to putting together puzzles.

As Home Helpers continues to grow, it is picking up additional services through outside companies. The purchase of the franchise includes a partnership with Direct Link, an in-home emergency monitoring system that provides Home Helpers customers with added assistance through a button worn around the neck or wrist that is linked to an emergency contact system.

In addition, they recently partnered with a company that provides medical equipment, and although Home Helpers does not have nurses on staff, they work with a service that will provide them upon request.

Marketing Home Helpers' services has not been a problem so far. In fact, it's something Holohan is enthusiastic about, and being from the area has its advantages.

"I'm not afraid to go out and talk to people. They understand my passion and many people share in it," Holohan said. "They also appreciate the fact that my interests and focus haven't changed throughout my career."

It remains important to educate potential customers on the ways in which Home Helpers stands out from its many peers, what makes it different. If not, people will see it as being just like the other 300 instead of being completely unique, Holohan said.

But overall, the response has been positive and people have been receptive, especially members of the "sandwich generation," the men and women caught between caring for aging parents and caring for their own children. Studies have shown that members of this age group ultimately spend more time caring for older adults than they do for their own children.

"Members of this generation definitely benefit from our services," Holohan said. "Having to deal with aging parents, growing children and a career on one's own without getting burnt out can be impossible."

The services Home Helpers provides go beyond assistance for older adults. The company's slogan, "Making life easier," extends to new mothers who might need an extra hand in those first few weeks, those recovering from a recent illness or injury and working parents who are not able to be around when their children return from school. These services include light housework, meal preparation, laundry and homework assistance.

Although this area of the company is slowly taking hold, Home Helpers' core continues to be its care for older adults. And Holohan continues to live out his passion with each new employee acquired and customer satisfied.

"It excites me to be able to help people stay independent," Holohan said. "At the end of the day it's nice to remember that through this company, I'm able to give them more options."