Our History
Senior Helpers was founded in 2002 by Tony Bonacuse with the help of Peter Ross after their firsthand experience in caring for their respective family members. Tony and Peter identified a need that was not being filled properly by the other companies. They realized that most seniors would prefer to age in their own home rather than move into an unfamiliar institution. Unfortunately, the options available to most seniors were very limited. Most seniors did not have access to well-trained, dependable and accessible in-home care. This was the mission-driven spark that started Senior Helpers.
The first office opened in Baltimore, Maryland, and quickly developed a reputation for delivering excellent in-home senior care with their well-trained staff of professional caregivers. Based on the success of the Baltimore location, the company began to expand. Over the past 13 years, the Senior Helpers family has grown to include a network of more than 300 locally owned and operated franchises across the United States.
Senior Helpers of Triangle was proud to join the system in 2022. Like every other owner, we too are fully-committed to the original goal of providing dependable and accessible in-home care with well-trained caregivers. Nothing is more important to us than being the best available resource for seniors and families in our community. We are lucky to serve hundreds of seniors in our community, and we are committed to continuing to provide uncompromising levels of care to all our families.
We never send a stranger. Based upon our experience of working with caregivers, one of the most difficult aspects of being the client was having the caregiver 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 for our son's needs. With Senior Helpers, this will not happen. A proper introduction will be made.
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, along with testing skills, verifying credentials, speaking with families they’ve worked with before.
Nurse support is available 24/7. Few things are as traumatic as being rushed to a hospital on a stretcher, but when a caregiver cannot call a nurse for advice about how to deal with medical situations, the only option may be calling 911. Barring a life-threatening emergency, this should not be the first phone call a caregiver makes. Most private-duty home care companies offer little or no nurse support.
