Our History
Bette and Bernie Fitzgerald opened their Senior Helpers office in 2014 because of their passion for helping others and commitment to delivering the best possible in-home care experience to seniors and their families. Currently, their Senior Helpers operation proudly services clients across nine different Florida counties.
Our Commitment
Senior Helpers is dedicated to providing the highest quality care and client service in the industry. Our caregivers are background screened, trained and expertly matched to meet the need of each client we serve.
We don’t send a stranger. We understand that one of the most difficult aspects of being the client of a home care agency is having caregivers show up at our door without being properly introduced or prepared. Or in the case of having a substitute, not getting any advance notification of a change — then dealing with substitutes who were poorly prepared to provide appropriate care. With Senior Helpers, this should not happen. We are dedicated to providing proper introductions and timely communication of any required change in service staff. And all caregivers are fully briefed on client needs, preferences and care plans before being added to a shift.
Caregivers are supervised employees, not independent contractors. We are not a referral service or “nurse registry,” where workers are assigned to cases, leaving families to sort through the fine points themselves — whether taxes get paid, whether background checks have been performed, whether they’re bonded and insured. We do all these things in advance of hiring caregivers, along with testing caregiver skills, verifying credentials, and speaking with families and employers they’ve worked with before. All of our caregivers work under the strict supervision of an assigned Caregiver Manager and Registered Nurse.
Safety and security is our first priority. Everyone at Senior Helpers is focused every day on delivering top quality in-home care that is safe and secure for both clients and caregivers. Caregivers receive continual health education and skills assessments in critical areas such as hand hygiene, use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), home safety and sanitization. All caregivers and clients are regularly screened for any signs of illness or health concerns. Caregivers are provided with and required to correctly use PPE, such as gloves, masks and hand sanitizer, while working with clients.
Quality caregiving starts with education. All of our caregivers are tested and certified as either Home Health Aides (HHAs) or Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs). Each undergoes skills assessments when on boarded to the agency and regularly thereafter. Ongoing training is required for caregivers in areas such as infection control, hygiene, nutrition, home safety, and Alzheimer’s/Dementia and Parkinson’s care. This unrelenting focus on information sharing, education and training gives our staff the proficiency needed to best serve and protect our vulnerable clients.
Focus on the client. Senior Helpers employs proprietary programs to assess each client’s health status, goals and concerns. Our Staying Home Safe® program and proprietary Life Profiles® patient scoring assessment tool gives us an elevated focus on clinical best practice in client care designed to reduce or prevent readmission to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.
