NEWCOMERSTOWN — Sometimes, a family just needs a helping hand with their senior citizen grandmother, grandfather, mother, father or a family member who can use some help with life.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have members of a second family who could step in to provide that assistance?
That’s the concept behind 2nd Family Home Care, a new in-home senior care provider that has opened its corporate office in Newcomerstown.
Jeff Neidig, of New Philadelphia and owner of Medi-Wise Pharmacy in Newcomerstown, hosted a grand opening recently at the Newcomerstown Senior Citizen Center for his new business that will be based in Newcomerstown but will service a wide area of east-central Ohio.
2nd Family Home Care will provide services to senior citizens who would like assistance in their home with the activities of daily living, such as bathing, grooming, hygiene assistance, light housekeeping, nutrition care, meal preparation, medication reminders, companionship and specialized care for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.
Through his local health care contacts and conversations with people coming to Medi-Wise Pharmacy, Neidig said he learned of the need for in-home senior assistance in the area. He researched 2nd Family, which offered a different response to those families in need of a helping hand.
“I found it to be an efficient franchise,” Neidig said Thursday. “Home care happens in the home. We meet clients one on one to develop a three-pronged approach to help keep them in their own home. One is to have trained caregivers and aides. The second is to have a RN (registered nurse) coordinator who can make an assessment of what needs to happen to allow that person to stay in their home and the third is a technology solution that offers a transparent look into their care.”
In a release, Neidig said that the mission is simple, “delivering the best care possible for seniors and their family members in the East Central Ohio community while allowing them to remain in their home. Every conversation with a family is focused on that mission… (We’ll) make you this promise, at 2nd Family East Central Ohio, (we) will do everything (we) can to treat your family like (our) own. It is truly (our) belief that ‘Family comes first’.”
“We won’t send you a caregiver that we wouldn’t trust with our own Grandma. 2nd Family caregivers serve our clients with dignity and they recognize that caring for your loved ones requires specialized awareness and training as well as a relationship with the client and their families built on trust. 2nd Family caregivers are trained to provide the peace of mind the families deserve and to enhance the quality of life for our clients and their families by truly becoming their second families.”
At the opening, Neidig said home care is sometimes not fully understood and that families may make a decision that a senior family member “has” to go into a care center or assisted living. He said 2nd Family Home Care can provide resources to prevent that or at least slow down the process and help in making that decision. He said it’s a supportive agency that can help senior citizens stay in their own home.
That “supportive” theme was echoed by Jamie Smith of the Tuscarawas County Senior Citizen program, of which the Newcomerstown Senior Citizen Center is a part. While the Senior Citizen Centers can offer some of the same services as home care, Smith said the county program can not offer the next level care offered by 2nd Family Home Care.
“We have about 90 active cases,” Smith said, “and that’s pretty much our capacity right now. We see 2nd Family Home Care as a next step referral for those senior citizens who need more than we can provide.”
Also speaking at the opening was Tuscarawas County Commissioner Kerry Metzger, who thanked Neidig for opening the service, noting there was a lack of this type of service in the county and that there was going to be more need for it in the coming years.
“If you need help, give me a call when I’m retired,” joked Metzger, who retired from a dental practice while he was a commissioner, then retired once from the commissioner’s office before coming back to fill a term, and is planning to retire, again, at the end of 2022.
Dee Stocker, president of the Newcomerstown Chamber of Commerce, thanked Neidig for opening the service in the village, saying, “This is nice for the community and it’s nice to have this type of outreach.”
Career opportunities with 2nd Family Home Care are available for nursing assistants and registered nurses.
For more information, go to www.2ndfamily.com/oh/east-central.com or call 740-462-3152.
