Home Instead Senior Care
Charlottesville

To us, it really is personal.

In 1996, Jeanne McCusker and her family had a life-altering experience.

Six months after moving to the Charlottesville area, Jeanne’s Mom was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease at the age of 51.

The next four years the family rallied around caring for her Mom at home and making sure she had the quality of life that we all would want for our loved ones. Initially the process started with being support for her Mom as her physical capabilities started to change.

First, her Mom lost her ability to speak which was ironic since her Mom was a speech pathologist and audiologist. The challenge of the disease continued and slowly she started losing other abilities; typing on her communication device, feeding herself through her feeding tube and eventually she started falling.

As Jeanne often tells the families she works with, it is best to try to avoid crisis whenever possible but if it does happen it is time to swiftly make a change. She hired a caregiver immediately to help with her Mom.

The next year or so her family had a wonderful person in the house during the day helping the family and making sure her Mom was safe. As the disease came to the end stages they split the shifts: her Dad took the overnight shift, the private caregiver helped during the day, her sister in the evenings and Jeanne did the weekends since she traveled for work all week.

“It was overwhelming, exhausting and it rewarding all at the same time,” Jeanne says. “The process of caregiving for a loved one is such an intensely personal experience and in the end two things usually arise. First, you are never sorry you did it and, two, no matter how well you did it you always think you could have done more.”

Jeanne’s Mom died peacefully at home on January 17, 2001.

Jeanne's Mission

"I had always wanted to start a business and throughout my sales career I enjoyed the relationships I developed with my customers. In 2003 I decided it was time to do it and I stumbled across Home Instead Senior Care. It was the perfect opportunity to do something important and help people get through what we went through whether it be aging or illness.

The quality of one’s life is so important and often it is the little things that matter the most. I remember how important it was for my Mom to have her makeup done, earrings and watch on. Something so small to those of us that can easily do it but something so important to someone who is losing their independence.

It has been in incredible journey and I feel lucky to have met so many wonderful families through the years. My family experience has enabled me to help families on many different levels. I know I am doing what I am supposed to be doing and it is as if it is my last gift from my Mom."

Home Care for Seniors

The Home Instead Senior Care® network of locally owned and operated franchises is one of the most trusted networks of home care worldwide. An innovator in eldercare since 1994, Home Instead Senior Care is dedicated exclusively to helping seniors stay in their homes as they age.

Care You Can Trust

Home Instead Senior Care franchise owners, administrators and CAREGivers^SM all share a passion for improving the quality of life for seniors and families in their communities. Here in your community, we offer a range of non-medical services that can be customized to your needs so you’ll get exactly the help you need. Our CAREGivers are area residents who are kind, compassionate and truly enjoy working with seniors. They are professionals, extensively trained in elder care, and all are screened, insured and bonded.

Home Instead, Inc. demonstrates commitment to quality care through our proprietary PEAQ program – Pursuing Excellence by Advancing Quality. In fact, we commissioned J.D. Power and Associates to routinely survey CAREGivers and clients to ensure consistent delivery of high-quality service.

In Your Neighborhood

At Home Instead Senior Care, we work diligently to meet your needs and more; we strive to exceed them. Although we are part of an international company — which gives us a world of experience and resources to draw on — we are a local business offering friendly, responsive care right in your neighborhood. We provide thousands of hours of senior home care services annually to seniors in their homes, in assisted-living facilities and even in nursing homes. In situations when a client has aging-related medical needs beyond our home care capabilities, we refer them to our close partners in the local health care industry.

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