01233 746 000
01795 515 392
Ashford
& Swale

About us

About Seniors Helping Seniors – Ashford & Swale

 

AN AWARD-WINNING ELDERLY HOME CARE BUSINESS

At Seniors Helping Seniors, elderly home care means improving the lives of others and that is at the heart of everything we do. We positively change how “seniors” are treated, changing what is expected along the way in elderly home care.

We are the proud winners of multiple awards for the social impact of our elderly home care services. Our unique in-home care has been matching seniors who need help with seniors who want to help for over 23 years. The home care service helps seniors and their families by offering compassionate, loving care from fellow seniors who they can trust and relate to.

At Seniors Helping Seniors, our services are flexible, and they are built around our clients and customers. No job is too big, and no job is too small, and every family’s budget is accommodated.

Every office of Seniors Helping Seniors is a family owned and operated franchise, owned by individuals who have been carefully chosen because they have the right public-spirited attitude to make a real difference in their community.

Who owns the Seniors Helping Seniors franchise in Ashford & Swale and what experience do they have?

Zoe and Paul Martin own and manage Seniors Helping Seniors Ashford & Swale. Paul explains, “Our area is bounded on the North by the Isle of Sheppey, the South by Tenterden, the West by Charing and Smarden and the East by Chilham across to Sellindge.  We cover all of the inner and surrounding villages too. However, if you are outside this area, we and our colleagues will do our best to help you too, so please call us.”

Paul and Zoe have lived in Kent all their lives and hold a lifetime of experience in helping and caring for people.  Paul & Zoe met at school in Rochester where Paul was a Cathedral chorister, the couple subsequently marrying there, following a proposal at the West Door!

Zoe had early experience of caring whist at school, contributing to the “Hands” voluntary activity which involved visiting and giving company to lonely elderly residents.

Both Paul and Zoe come from a service background, Zoe having enjoyed a rewarding career in medicine and healthcare in both NHS and private sectors and Paul, a successful career in estate agency, together running their own award-winning estate agency practice in the village of Charing.

Whilst running their estate agency and helping the older generation move home, often making the difficult decision to downsize, Paul and Zoe’s naturally caring nature regularly came into play during what is recognised as one of the most stressful times in people’s life, going above and beyond just selling the client’s home, by assisting with solicitor’s paperwork and even shopping for groceries and supplying cold remedies from the supermarket in heavy snow when one client was housebound, suffering from the flu!

Much closer to home, Zoe explains “we have over twenty-five years direct personal experience of managing and coordinating care for close family and we understand perfectly just how much time and planning that level of care requires.

“We understand the responsibilities and complexities associated with Powers of Attorney and we both hold Lasting Powers of Attorney for family members.  We also assisted the family in caring for an elderly Aunt who lived alone in north London, alternating visits with other family members, but personally visiting her every other weekend to ensure she was able to remain comfortable in her own home for as long as possible.”

What inspired you to start a Seniors Helping Seniors?

Paul: “We’ve always felt drawn to help someone in need. Zoe enjoyed enormous satisfaction assisting patients in their time of need whilst working in the healthcare sector and, during the course of operating our estate agency, a large proportion of our clients were of the older generation, some luckily very fit and active with a large family/social network and others, either not as fit as they used to be, or alone and needing help. We both thoroughly enjoyed providing the support these clients needed.

It’s clear that there is now more of the latter type of person, yet there isn’t a healthy supply of individually tailored care services to support these people. We want to address this and make a difference in the Ashford and Swale area.

We like the idea of helping:

  • Seniors who need help
  • Seniors who would like to help
  • And families who live too far away to visit relatives regularly but would like the assurance that their relatives are well looked after.

“It is widely accepted that it becomes more difficult for over 50s to secure meaningful roles in society today, particularly if they don’t want to work full time. We want to change that in a small way, and we loved what Sally and Christian have done in East Kent and the brilliant service Seniors Helping Seniors provides.”

Providing much needed employment for over 50s.

Many seniors are lonely (almost 3 million over 60s live alone in the UK). Life events such as divorce, children leaving home, unemployment and bereavement can have a huge impact on well-being.

Becoming a Seniors Helping Seniors Carer with complete control over working hours and the type of work, gives people new purpose with the bonus of supplementing their pension or other incomes.

The services Seniors Helping Seniors provide are non-medical, non-personal care. They are the essentials to allow less active seniors to remain in their own home, such as companionship, transportation, shopping, light housework, housekeeping and laundry, pet care, gardening and general help around the home and garden.  It’s about having company and support to enjoy life to the full, whatever that means to each individual. We don’t dictate what we do, you choose.

How do you believe Seniors Helping Seniors is different from the other area services?

Seniors Helping Seniors home care is different in so many ways!

  • Firstly, through the active recruitment of life experienced seniors to become carers.
  • Secondly in our meetings to understand the Client, their likes and dislikes, their passions and their wishes.
  • Thirdly in matching our carers to ensure mutual interest and empathy.
  • Fourth, in award winning customer service. Courtesies like introductions and not rushing in for a 15-minute visit without time to do anything much and having no chance of ever building a relationship.
  • Finally, we are different in having no minimum hours or restrictive contracts and being completely flexible in the hours our clients can book. One hour a week or 24 hours a day.  The only thing we set is the minimum visit time of one hour to ensure a meaningful visit every time.

All of these reasons are why Seniors Helping Seniors carers enjoy their role and more often than not build friendships whilst caring for their clients, and every single Seniors Helping Seniors carer is carefully selected to ensure they have similar interests to their clients thereby promoting natural conversation and friendship. Carers work when they want to and have our support and back up.

The Seniors Helping Seniors elderly home care franchise came to us as a real breath of fresh air and we saw it as a great opportunity to help our fellow senior citizens. The sprightly and not so sprightly!

Seniors Helping Seniors unique standards of care are provided by one person or a small team who enjoy the work they do and have no time pressures. This is a very special quality and one that feels natural and right. We are pleased to invest in Seniors Helping Seniors because it’s about self-esteem, getting the work done to the highest standard, giving peace of mind, restoring confidence, participation, having fun, getting people out and about and engaged and giving great value for money”

What services do you provide?

Seniors Helping Seniors non-medical, in-home elderly home care has been matching seniors who need help with seniors who want to help, for more than 20 years with outstanding success. Peer-to-peer assistance allows seniors in need to receive elderly home care from someone who they can trust and relate to and it takes many forms.

Our senior providers offer many non-medical in-home services including but not limited to:

  • Companionship
  • Housework
  • Garden help
  • Transportation to Hospital, Doctors or anywhere else you need to visit
  • Trips to local events
  • Medical appointments
  • House maintenance and small repairs
  • Shopping
  • Dementia care
  • Meal preparation
  • Mobility assistance
  • Respite care (supporting regular carers)
  • Overnight stays
  • Pet care
  • Holiday companionship
  • and so much more…

Do you have any personal care-giving accounts to share?

Oh yes! One of our elderly clients, a lovely characterful couple whose house we were selling (a lovely cottage in a rural country lane), fell ill during the harsh winter of 2010, succumbing to the flu, approaching the Christmas holiday. We rang all of our vulnerable clients to check they were okay and whether they needed anything. This couple asked if we could get them some bread, honey and two, yes two, lemons. We couldn’t help but ask if they wanted them waxed or unwaxed! The snow in their lane was over 18 inches deep and even if they felt well enough, they couldn’t have driven their car in those conditions. We were lucky enough to have a four-wheel drive estate car at the time, so we drove to the supermarket and bought the supplies they needed and dropped them round. We felt this was a simple thing to do on our way home, but they were so grateful, and it was so rewarding for us to help them move home. It was lovely to be invited to their new home once they’d settled in as well!

Our Mission

Our non-medical care focusses on keeping well.   Preventing crises is very much right-place, right-time in the UK.

The cost benefits and efficiencies in our processes secure our sustainable domicilary elderly care business model. 

All our services are delivered with sincere companionship because our focus is same-person care and carefully matching carer to client.

Fully managing all elements of service provides outstanding customer experiences and supports outstanding carers.

Our carers are staying active, staying social, and staying financially stable with an hourly wage which is above the Living Wage. Our franchise partners make money through doing good. 

The teachable business model exemplifies profit with purpose, empowerment, inclusivity, self-governance, thought leadership and the value of local expertise.

 

"We have been using the services of Seniors Helping Seniors for over 4 years and have been really pleased with the care and attention the team have always given to Mum. Nothing has ever been too much trouble and the team have often gone above and beyond to ensure that Mum was comfortable in her own home for as long as possible.

They often shared lots of laughs and fun times as well as caring for her emotional and physical needs and it always left us reassured that she was in the best of hands.

They are a very flexible team and always willing to help out when additional support was required putting the needs of Mum first. A special thanks to Eileen and Simone who have been on the journey with Mum and become more than a companion to her, they have become good friends. A very caring exceptional company. "

Helen

"Our Mum is suffering from severe dementia and although we take on a lot of the care ourselves, we needed some extra help in the afternoons. The care from SHS has been outstanding. All the carers have been great with Mum, taking her for a drive, a cup of tea and a piece of cake when able which is her favourite thing to do.

We have received photo’s of Mum from the carers of Mum while she is out and she always looks so happy. She can’t wait to go with them! Teresa provided Mum with a photo book at Christmas – such a lovely thing to do and Mum treasures this. Tina has been great also - always there to help co-ordinate and offer support.

We really cannot fault the care received. We know Mum is in safe hands and Dad can have a rest while she is out. Highly recommended! Joanna, Karen and Nicola."

Isabel

Get in Touch with our Team

After 20 years in elderly care, we know how you would like to be treated! 

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