Bill Shifts Gears, Ends Working Career as CAREGiver℠
How does a highly successful Pennsylvania industrial equipment salesman – for 40-plus years, no less – end up as a Home Instead® CAREGiver of Month for an award-winning Denver-area senior-care company?
“I have a history of being a family caregiver. My younger brother has intellectual disabilities, and my son was born with cerebral palsy. I have been my son’s best friend for his whole life. In fact, after I got divorced in Pennsylvania, I ended my career as a salesman and moved to Colorado to be available to help him with his day-to-day needs. It has been very challenging but also very rewarding,” said Bill Hursh, who joined owner Bill Dahlquist’s Home Instead franchise in Denver South about 2½ years ago.
After moving to Denver four years ago, Bill explained: “I started looking for a way to add purpose to my life by providing care for those less fortunate than I am. I started my caregiving life with another agency that primarily works with people on Medicaid. I was not able to get the number of hours I wanted with that agency, so I put my resume on Indeed.com.”
Shortly thereafter, Bill was contacted by Home Instead Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator Danielle Minch and was hired almost immediately.
“In the beginning,” Bill said, “I worked for both agencies. As time went by, I gravitated toward more hours with Home Instead because they are a group of people for whom I could feel proud of working. The Home Instead team’s professionalism is the reason I now work all of my hours with Home Instead.”
Bill had no professional senior-care experience before moving to Colorado. As an industrial equipment salesman, Bill got to know all types of people and got along with all of them. “I think that experience helps me get to know people and have them become comfortable with me in a short period of time,” he said.
He offered another reason for working with Home Instead: “At the ripe old age of about 60, I started to realize how much satisfaction I got from helping others by volunteering with Special Olympics. Not only did I get a chance to teach the young men what I knew about golf, but I also ‘adopted’ four of them for experiences beyond the golf course. We attended local sporting events, played mini golf, ate meals together and experienced other fun activities. This is when I became aware of how much helping others made me feel a sense of purpose and satisfaction. I wish I had learned this much earlier in my life.”
Bill outlined some of the top reasons he enjoys working for Home Instead:
- “My time spent with the staff, other CAREGivers, and the clients and their families has been great.”
- “I get the hours I want to work, meet new people and give care to many very nice families.”
- “Since I am mostly retired, I can take unlimited vacations and know Home Instead will find CAREGivers to take my place. It is nearly impossible to find that kind of situation with other part-time jobs.”
- “I don’t really think of my time with Home Instead as a job. I think of it as an opportunity to add purpose and the pleasure of giving to others to my day-to-day life.”
Bill doesn’t believe he can single out one client for a special memory.
“I will say I’ve gotten very close to many of the families for whom I have given care. In those cases I actually feel like I become one of the family. They know I am willing to do whatever I can to be of help,” he said.
During one of those giant Front Range spring snowstorms, Bill spent more than 30 straight hours with one client because his client’s wife was out of town on vacation.
“Therefore,” Bill said, “it was very important that her husband had care around the clock. The storm made it impossible for other CAREGivers to get to the client’s home. It was a very satisfying feeling knowing I had provided peace of mind to his wife so she could relax and enjoy her time away. The family caregivers benefit from our services in addition to the clients themselves.”
Bill is among more than 90,000 CAREGivers worldwide, and he has helped add to those numbers because of his strong belief in Home Instead’s purpose. It isn’t hard to see Bill lives the Home Instead® principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
All Home Instead CAREGivers are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (303) 389-5700 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
