Home Care Benefit 

Acacia Abshire began her journey with the Home Instead team in December 2015 as the Recruitment and Engagement Coordinator and worked her way to Operations Manager in April of 2017.  Acacia hires, trains, and mentors all key players bringing her past professional experience from performing each role at one point for Home Instead.  Acacia’s passion for Home Instead and the mission that she so firmly believes in drives her to making sure Home Instead succeeds – in day-to-day operations (financial and managerial), but more importantly in making sure our client’s lives are enhanced by the compassion and professional aid that our CAREGivers provide.  Acacia does the former by also training each CAREGiver that she hires so she can see their passion and commitment firsthand.  Acacia is one of those people that shines a light on any situation; dark is no longer dark, and light just becomes lighter. 

Acacia enjoys going on family vacations with her husband and 3 children and in her everyday life is always on the move from one event to another with 2 teenage boys and a spunky 8-year-old girl.  Which is told constantly is just like her mother.  Her passion for Home Instead goes so deep that her ambitions are to purchase a Home Instead Franchise of her own.

When you meet Acacia on the street, her southern hospitality will definitely come into play, “Hello Buttercup”.

Julie Blair is the Home Care Consultant for Home Instead where she builds, promotes, and cultivates the relationships between Home Instead and the communities in the Abilene, Texas and surrounding areas.  Julie has over 15 years’ experience in the sales/marketing arena and not only brings her experience, innovative ideas, but also a bundle of energy that is infectious.

Julie also brings her own personal experiences that paved the road for her desire to bring some life, reassurance, and support into Seniors’ lives.  She was the youngest of 4 girls and so when her father was diagnosed with bone cancer, she willingly walked that journey every step with him and her mother.  Then nearly 13 years later when her mother needed assistance and the disease of Alzheimer’s had progressed, Julie stepped in unfamiliar territory to discover all she could on the disease and the best way to help her mother.  Her mother’s journey was for 2-1/2 years and Julie treasured the good moments of recognition and stories until it was time for her mother to go home to where she knew her mother remembered who she was.

Julie believes in the Home Instead values because they match her own and believes in what they do, how they do it and more importantly, why they do it. With her love of people and belief in what she does, she constantly asks the question, “Is this really work?”

Mandy started her career with Home Instead in April 2020 as our Client Care Coordinator.  Mandy has many years of experience that she brought to Texas with her when she moved here from Massachusetts.  She worked with adults that have Intellectual Disabilities and did this for over 20 years.  One of her many passions is working with people who have challenges, and she helps them thrive by building the relationships with the client and family members.  She brings her expertise to the table in guiding the families to enhance the clients lives with a personalized care plan.  So, this role for our Home Instead team is the perfect fit for Mandy.   

Mandy loves spending time with her family, being outside, also has a love for animals, including chickens, cats, rabbits and whatever animal needs to be adopted.

Mandy has started a new journey as “Memaw” and is excited to share her love for animals with her new grandson.

Mandy is one of the first to say, “Good Job” and give out a high five!

Diona Parker came to Home Instead in March 2016 where she began as the Service Coordinator and is now the After Hours On Call Coordinator.  Diona is the “go to” person after normal office hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and you will always be welcomed with a smiling voice when calling after hours.  She will schedule consults as requested or shift changes as needed when things arise, because nothing halts just because it turns 5 p.m. somewhere. 

Diona is passionate about making sure business runs just as smoothly after hours and is very good at her job.  She brings the experience of scheduling and mentoring CAREGivers as well, so this assists in her professionalism of handing anything and everything that takes place while the office closed.

In Diona’s free time while not working two jobs, she is all about her 2 beautiful children.  Diona has a wonderful creative side in crafts which she loves sharing with her children and others. She is also one of those wonderful southern girls which will endear you with the loving response of ‘You got it, Hun’.