Last Updated on 12/1/2008

Published on 8/28/2008

By Tim Callahan

Timcallahan01@aol.com

An elderly couple in the handbell choir at Surfside Methodist Church became ill at the same time. They were fine mentally, but physically it was a different story. However, neither one wanted to go into a nursing home.

With family far away, it was left to church members to take them to the doctors and chemotherapy. It was this experience that convinced the Willoughbys -- Harry and Bre, who are not spring chickens themselves -- to start a business called Right at Home, providing in-home care and assistance to seniors and disabled adults. They opened the franchise in Murrells Inlet in March.

"We saw the need," Bre said.

The Willoughbys researched various business possibilities first. Harry was in the hotel business for 30 years. Bre was a school teacher who retired from Maryville Elementary in 2002. They were looking for something they could do together, and the church couple's dilemma, as well as Harry's experience with a parent with Alzheimer's, led to Right at Home, a national company that franchises their business. There are 150 franchises nationwide and three in South Carolina -- in Columbia, Hilton Head Island and Murrells Inlet.

The Willoughbys toured the two South Carolina franchises, flew out to Omaha, Neb., to the company's headquarters for a review and a two-week orientation and took the plunge, buying their own franchise. Finding qualified and compassionate certified nursing assistants and caregivers was their next task as they set up their office on Mt. Gilead Road.

Caregivers are carefully screened, trained, bonded and insured for the protection of the company and the client. Learning the company's software and setting up their computer system was another daunting task.

Harry started soliciting referrals, visiting hospitals, social workers, rehabilitation departments and assisted living places. Bre handled inquiries and made home visits, finding out what potential clients wanted and needed while scoping out the home environment to make sure every need was documented and she could pass on the information to a caregiver.

Four months later, they have a list of 60 caregivers, and Bre does phone and home visits to make sure the client's needs are being met. It is this personal touch that the clients, often desperate for contact with the outside world, find irresistible and compassionate. And that is what the Willoughbys want to provide: compassionate care.

Bre is already dreading -- "I don't want to think about it," she said -- clients going to their final resting place after they go through the list of homes: their home, assisted living homes, a nursing home and then their eternal home.

Bre is a long way away from caring for kindergarten students, but she appears right at home in helping the elderly.

The Willoughbys say in-home care is the perfect choice for someone who wants to remain independent but has challenges with the everyday activities of living: companionship, safety supervision, meal preparation, house cleaning, shopping and errands, grooming and dressing and medication reminders, to name a few.

After a home visit and talk, Bre prepares a specialized care plan and puts it in a notebook at the client's home for a reminder and check for the caregiver.

It is a 24/7 business and Harry and Bre are on-call at all hours. If a caregiver doesn't call in at shift time, which is rare, the Willoughbys get a call from a computer check-in system eight minutes later and Bre is on her way to the home while "invaluable" staff coordinator Judy Ferrell goes down a call list to find a replacement.

While the hours are for younger, driven people, the Willoughbys don't mind. They care about what they do.

"It is fun to work for yourself," Harry said, "and to work with people. It's an opportunity to do good, and you ought to do good while you are still here."

"It's a challenge," Bre said, "but retirement can be boring. There is a need here, and it is heartbreaking especially to see the elderly with no children and see how helpless and needy they are."

Right at Home's phone number is 843-651-4848.