Home Instead Senior Care
Medina, Akron

How Home Instead Senior Care Began in the Akron/Medina area

In the spring of 1997, Pam Myers was sitting in her home in Seville thinking. She was unhappy at her position as Director of Marketing for a national publishing firm. While the job was still challenging, it was no longer "rewarding". Pam was searching for something that would "make a difference" in people's lives.

That's when Pam came across an article about Home Instead Senior Care -- a company designed to HELP older adults and their family caregivers by providing companionship and home care services.

What she read hit home! Pam was always extremely close to her grandparents and she saw the problems they had maintaining their independence as their strength and mental capabilities diminished.

And, Pam also understood personally the stress that family caregivers experience. Her mother had passed away from lung cancer several years earlier. While Pam's younger sister was the primary caregiver, Pam pitched in regularly on week nights and days off. She remembered how rewarding it was to help during her mother's final days, but also how stressful it was to find time to help, along with keeping up with a full-time job, working on her masters degree and taking care of her own young family.

Pam knew right away that Home Instead Senior Care provided a service that was very much needed -- one that could help improve the quality of life for seniors and their families -- a service that could truly help "make a difference" in people's lives.

So, in July 1997, Pam left her job with the publishing company and opened the local Home Instead Senior Care office with her mother-in-law, Doris Zappone.

While their initial service area covered the western part of Summit County and the eastern part of Medina County, Home Instead Senior Care was being asked to provide care throughout the rest of Summit and Medina counties. So, in April 2000, their office expanded to include the remainder of these counties as well as northern Wayne County.

The increased coverage brought more growth requiring additional management staff. In the fall of 2000, Pam's husband, Ed, joined Home Instead Senior Care full-time. When Doris Zappone retired, Pam and Ed purchased her interest in the company.

Nearly fifteen years later, Home Instead Senior Care's dedicated, compassionate team of over 125 local CAREGivers, has worked closely with our office staff to assist thousands of area seniors to safely return to or stay in their homes.

Pam and Ed are dedicated to earning YOUR trust by providing reliable, responsive service from professionally-trained CAREGivers.

Our shared goal is to help you or your loved one stay HOME INSTEAD! 

Home Instead Senior Care Began from Personal Experience

Paul and Lori Hogan founded Home Instead, Inc. and began serving seniors in Omaha, Nebraska, as Home Instead Senior Care in 1994. It was Paul Hogan's own family experience caring for his grandmother that made him realize the need for non-medical home care and elder companionship services to help seniors live independently at home.

Fulfilling a Growing Need as Our Population Ages

In June 1995, the company began franchising. By 1998, Home Instead Senior Care had grown to 99 offices and was recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as one of the 100 fastest growing franchise companies in the United States. In 2000, Home Instead Senior Care began international development with the opening of an international partner relationship in Osaka, Japan with Duskin Corporation.

Offering In-Home Care Worldwide

Today, the Home Instead Senior Care franchise network is the world's trusted source of companionship, Alzheimer's and home care for seniors, with more than 900 franchises in the United States, Canada, Japan, Portugal, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Taiwan, Switzerland, Germany, South Korea, Finland, Austria, Puerto Rico and Northern Italy. The network employs nearly 65,000 trained CAREGivers^SM who provide millions of hours of elder care services annually.

Philanthropic Endeavors

In 2003, the Hogans established The Home Instead Senior Care Foundation as a means to further enhance the lives of older adults. The Foundation's focus and objective is to provide financial assistance to non-profit organizations specializing in projects and programming that improve the quality of life for seniors. To learn more, visit The Home Instead Senior Care Foundation website.

Outstanding Achievements

In 2007, Paul Hogan was recognized as the International Franchise Association's Entrepreneur of the Year. This most prestigious honor has been bestowed on past recipients including J. Willard Marriott of Marriott Corp., Frederick A. DeLuca, CFE of Subway Restaurants, and Russell Umphenour of RTM Restaurant Group.

The American Society on Aging also recognized Home Instead, Inc. as the Small Business of the Year in 2003 for it's exclusive CAREGiver training program designed by the world-renowned experts of The George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Center.