Where the Caregiving Need Is Greatest, Ana Goes
Every staff member at the award-winning Home Instead® franchise in Clearwater, Florida, can list a number of glowing things about Care Professional of the Month Ana Segrera, who joined the office in 2016. The first one that comes to mind is: Ana treats her clients as if they were her family members.
So, when Ana approached her Home Instead managers about taking time off for a series of personal caregiving duties, most of them family-related, the Home Instead staff didn’t blink an eye. They knew of the importance to Ana. They also guaranteed when Ana wanted to return, there would be a place for her. “Every Home Instead Care Pro team should have an Ana.”
Referring to the reason for her job absence, Ana said: “A close friend asked me to take care of her 99-year-old friend who needed help at home because she was in hospice care. After I arrived to help her, she was alive for two more weeks until God took her at home.”
Ana added: “Then I traveled to Mexico City for three weeks to assist my mom. She had suffered two small strokes, so I helped my mom with physical therapy for her left arm. I came home to Florida and was here for two weeks. Then, on a Sunday afternoon, I got a phone call from my brother in Mexico City. He said my mother wasn’t feeling well, and we had a video call. I knew my mother had suffered a major stroke, so the next day, I traveled back to Mexico City to take care of my 88-year-old mom because she needed more care and different physical therapy. I needed to make sure she had the care she needed.”
At the end of January 2022, Ana returned to Florida and resumed working with Home Instead. Four months later, Director of Care Professional Services JC Crady announced Ana had been honored as the franchise’s Care Pro of the Month.
Six years ago, a stroke of serendipity occurred that benefited Julie Castle’s Home Instead franchise. Ana, who moved from Sarasota to St. Petersburg, explained: “When I lived in Sarasota, a Care Pro told me she worked for Home Instead of Sarasota, and it was a good agency. So, when I moved to St. Petersburg, Home Instead was the first agency I sought. When I lived in Sarasota, I did some care for my brother-in-law. After he passed away, I cared for my sister-in-law before she died. Of course, I am a ‘long-distance family caregiver’ for my mom.”
With Ana, Home Instead was getting an experienced senior-care specialist. Ana said: “I started working for an assisted living facility in 2000 as a care aide. Later, I added to my education by taking a course as home health aide. I worked at the assisted living facility for about a year. Then I worked for a home-care company from 2001 to 2015. I also worked for two other agencies during the same period. In 2002, I took a course for CNA and worked for a care community for three years. I was a busy senior-care specialist.”
When Ana moved to St. Petersburg in 2016, she worked for Home Instead in the mornings. From 3 p.m. to 11 p.m., she worked in a rehabilitation facility from 2016 to 2021.
Asked what she likes most about her job as a Home Instead Care Pro, Ana said: “Every client is a challenge for me because they are different, and my goal is to make sure that they have what they need when I am there. I just put myself in their place and treat them the way I would want to be treated, and I do that with respect.”
Ana feels she’s part of a multi-cultural family as a result of a memorable client experience. “I took care of a Japanese client from 2016 through 2021. She was always happy to see me, and I was with her until almost at the end of her life. Her children adopted me as another sister, so I have my Japanese family, and we still stay in touch,” said Ana, who embodies Home Instead’s guiding principles of “Build Trust, Take the Lead and Share Your Heart.”
Our office serves all of Pinellas County, including Clearwater, Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Safety Harbor, Oldsmar, Largo, Pinellas Park, Seminole, Belleair, St. Petersburg, Gulfport and surrounding beaches. All Home Instead Care Professionals are screened, trained, bonded and insured. For inquiries about employment, please call (727) 799-1400 or apply online. For further information about Home Instead, visit our website.
