Home Care Benefit 

Suzanne opened the Springfield, MA branch of Home Instead Senior Care after spending several years caring for her grandmother and great-aunt, and realizing that this was, indeed, a calling for her. She brings with her the clinical skills she gained as a mental health therapist with a concentration in geriatric psychology. While working on her masters’ degree, Suzanne interned at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute in Los Angeles. There, she worked on the geriatric unit in individual therapy and group therapy settings, as well as conducted discharge planning meetings with patients and families. “There are so many aspects of running this business that appeal to me,” Suzanne says, “but hands down, my favorite is the initial assessment meeting with the clients and their families or friends.” It is during this time that she becomes excited about the potential she sees Home Instead can make in a client’s life, admitting that “to become a partner in care as someone ages also brings back the feelings I had when I cared for my grandmother, which were pretty special.” Suzanne’s family (along with a little help from a Home Instead caregiver) helped her grandmother remain at home until she died at the age of 101, surrounded by family in her home. “That is the spirit that inspires our work here,” she says.​