A Helpful Hand

Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2001 | 8:54 a.m.

Ruth DeHollander has traveled the world. She's sharp, outgoing, witty, fiercely independent, organized and creative.

An avid poet with a diverse collection of prose, the 89-year-old recently penned a clever poem venting her frustrations about the Atlanta Braves baseball team's performance last season.

Each year she sends more than 100 Christmas cards to friends and family, and still corresponds with her late husband's relatives who live in the Netherlands. In her living room, she has a giant Hammond organ that she plays.

Essentially, DeHollander lives a full life at home in Las Vegas.

But it's her knees that keep her down.

Arthritis makes it difficult for her to handle daily tasks, such as opening blinds, running errands, preparing meals, washing dishes or getting into bed.

"Nobody realizes how difficult it is until you're unable to," said the gregarious senior while completing a crossword puzzle at her dining room table.

As more people are living well into their golden years, those unready for nursing-home care or too independent to move into a controlled living environment find themselves in need of assistance and companionship.

As a result, many seniors and adult children who are caring for elderly parents are turning to a growing industry for help: non-medical, in-home care and assistance, in which hired caregivers come to the rescue.

"I really wanted to stay independent," DeHollander said. "I don't think I would like (a retirement home)."

DeHollander's daughter and son-in-law, Roxy and George Phillips, who live nearby, had been making several trips to her apartment daily. But when Roxy developed medical problems of her own, the three realized they needed to find other options.

So they hired the service of a local franchise of Comfort Keepers, an Ohio company that offers in-home companionship and care giving.

A caregiver visits DeHollander's house each night of the week, does a little housekeeping, sits with her, tucks her into bed, then locks the door before she leaves.

Three mornings a week a caregiver helps DeHollander with chores, meals and keeps her company.

"My primary concern is that I knew my mother had to have help dressing and bathing," Roxy Phillips said. Susie Godown, one of DeHollander's caregivers, "works extremely well with my mother. Plus she is a real good companion for my mom."

What the Phillips pay to have a caregiver go to DeHollander's apartment 26 hours each week outweighs the cost of placing her in a nursing or retirement care home, they said.

"With a care home, you are talking a substantial amount of money," George Phillips said. "Comfort Keepers costs about $1,000 less a month."

Hired care

The average cost for services from such in-home agencies is roughly $15 an hour, and often decreases in cost based on the hours a client uses them.

"I have some clients who use us every other week because they want to do their grocery shopping," said Kathleen Favier, owner of one of the two local Comfort Keepers franchises. "I have some who use us once a month."

Sharon Thacker, whose mother, Ruth, is in the early stages of Alzheimers disease, called Favier, who recently sent caregiver Bob MacLachlan to the house.

"We've been watching 'Golden Girls' and eating ice cream every night," MacLachlan said while snacking on a muffin recently with Ruth at a local casino.

The day prior, the two had gone to have Ruth's hair done, then took a scenic drive out to Red Rock National Conservation Area before stopping at a restaurant to eat a hamburger.

"I don't know what I would do without him," Thacker said. "Before I was just running myself ragged coming over after work, getting (her) groceries."

MacLachlan, who is retired and recently moved with his wife to Las Vegas from upstate New York, said that in New York he had taken care of a 98-year-old man in his home through a service similar to Comfort Keepers.

"Even though he was 98, legally blind, he and his family ... didn't want him to go into a nursing home," MacLachlin said. "He was adamant about that. So he used his resources to take care of this later-in-life time."

Though in-home, non-medical care is not a new concept, the stigma of having someone care for parents has been peeled away and more people are opting for it than in the past, said Gladys Perri, who owns the local business ADL Home Care with her husband.

"Twenty-five years ago families took care of family members," Perri said. "Adult children are a lot busier today than they were 25 years ago.

"And now they're seeing that it's acceptable to hire someone to sit with their parent."

Representatives from home-care services say that before choosing a service, prospective clients should make sure the business is insured, bonded or licensed, and that businesses will provide referrals from clients or reputable organizations that have used their services.

Options for care

Jerry and Kristina Clum of Ohio began Comfort Keepers three years ago after Kristina, a registered nurse, found that when she went to people's homes to offer medical care, many asked if she could run an errand or vacuum the floor, Favier said. The agency now has more than 150 franchises in 39 states.

A similar franchise, Visiting Angels, recently finished its second year of operation in Las Vegas. Owned by husband-and-wife team Bonnie and Steve Robbins, it services about 350 clients and has 130 caregivers.

"We do a lot of live-ins, caregivers who stay for 24 hours," Robbins said. "Or maybe they just want to get their hair done ... It's what you need. We tailor a program based on the needs."

While caregiving tends to be a tremendous burden on family members who become overwhelmed with the task, Robbins said the majority of her senior clients call directly for the help they need.

"It's a situation (where) you go to someone's home and talk with them and they really are in a lot of emotional pain," she said. "A lot of couples move here as seniors to retire and the spouse passes away.

"A lot of seniors on the state program really don't have a lot of family and they really wait for us to come through the door."

But not all seniors, especially those living on a fixed income, can afford in-home care, said Joanne Wyman of the Nevada Division of Aging Services, which oversees the Community Home Based Initiatives Program (CHIP), a state program that provides services for the elderly, and which also contracts with in-home care agencies.

Government programs and insurance offer assistance to people who cannot afford to pay, but often with government assistance, there is a waiting list or criteria that must be met to qualify for such programs. The waiting list for assistance through CHIP is eight-12 months, Wyman said.

Nonprofit organizations such as Lutheran Social Services and local Helping Hands agencies that assist the community through volunteers offer in-home and errand service to the public at low or no cost.

Lutheran Social Services of Nevada's Friends of Independent Seniors program began working with seniors last December and services 115 people with its volunteers. The program, however, is still in need of volunteers, Shirley Hancen, program manager, said.

Whether it's a business or a nonprofit agency, the home-care organizations usually try to pair seniors with the same caregiver for each visit.

"We like to keep it as close to possible with the same caregiver," Favier said. "There is a bond that develops between them."

Often clients and families become attached to caregivers.

"I think we've actually adopted (Bob)," Thacker said. "He just puts you so at ease."

Godown, DeHollander's caregiver, said she's grown attached to DeHollander.

At night, Godown said, "We just sit around and talk. People don't realize (seniors have) been through it all.

"We chat about before the Depression, after the Depression. If I'm having a bad day, she brightens it up for me," Godown said. "It starts out being a job that you go to. But then it ends up being a lot more than that."

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