Meet the East Columbia office

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 20 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 East Columbia was proud to join the system in 2024.  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.

Our mission and vision are to bring the best home care service to individuals whose goal is to age at home.  We work diligently to continue to educate, coach and train our care professionals to make sure our clients are safe as they assist them with their needs.  Our team of care professionals consists of individuals who will encourage and support our clients to continue to do the things they love, encourage a healthy lifestyle physically, mentally, and socially.  We remind our team that their goal is to create a positive environment and a healthy daily routine that our clients can enjoy and benefit from cognitively.Our mission and vision are to bring the best home care service to individuals whose goal is to age at home.  We work diligently to continue to educate, coach and train our care professionals to make sure our clients are safe as they assist them with their needs.  Our team of care professionals consists of individuals who will encourage and support our clients to continue to do the things they love, encourage a healthy lifestyle physically, mentally, and socially.  We remind our team that their goal is to create a positive environment and a healthy daily routine that our clients can enjoy and benefit from cognitively.

About the Team

We believe that to be successful in improving Home Care it is all about the Team.  We decided early on that our team needed to include individuals who embraced the same beliefs about what home care should be, where it should be headed and believed wholeheartedly, we are enough to make the difference and to make the changes needed.  We decided to build an organization that would enable us to be better connected with our clients and their loved ones.  We also felt it important to focus on how to better support our team of care professionals.  We have developed ways to enhance their training, improving our culture to allow them to feel connected to the office and each other, and create ways to recognize the important work they are doing.

Client Care Managers

Our client care managers take the time to assess and get acquainted with their clients and their families so they can create a customized care plan with a care agenda that works for everyone.  They use the Life Profile tool to identify safety risks, learn the health history and current health status of the client, assess the level and type of care needed.  They will also use our Quality-of-Life Planner to determine activities the client enjoys and goals the client would still like to achieve independently and with assistance.  We believe that it is important to learn as much as we can about the people we care for because we want to create an environment and care agenda where they remain engaged and continue to thrive.

Recruiter

Choosing the right team is very important to us.  Each care professional on our team represents who we are and what we stand for, so our selection process is very important to us. We conduct a thorough nationwide background check and administer a drug test on each person we decide to hire. They must exhibit a compassionate heart, making a difference for our seniors must be important to them, and they must be willing to continue to learn.   Our reference checks are preformed to learn about their work ethic, how they perform in a team environment, and how well they communicate.

When we feel we have the right person we want to get to know them and what is important to them.  This enables us to match them with the right clients and to be able to celebrate any achievements, recognition rewards they earned or anniversaries with things they enjoy and would appreciate.

Each care professional during onboarding is trained in our Center of Excellence where we assess their skills and make sure they are trained and comfortable with DME that will be used during the care of client.  We also offer and encourage each care professional to continue with their training by taking advantage of any of our many training programs.

Center of Excellence

Our Center of Excellence is a multi-unit training center that portrays a model of a client’s bedroom, kitchen/dining area and bathroom.  We use the space with care plan examples to train our care professionals on common durable medical equipment used in care (walkers, transfer belts, transfer boards, Hoyer lifts, etc.), spotting safety risks, refresh or train on proper transfers, monitoring common vitals and how to use monitoring sheets, train on common housekeeping tasks, how to track med reminders, stand by assistance, and much more. 

We encourage our Health care provider partners, clients and potential clients to come visit this space and observe a training session.  The center allows us to help care professionals to meet their clients at each stage of their care which can allow the clients to remain with care professionals they have been with and have become comfortable with.

Nurse

We realized that client care support and the proper training and support of our care professionals is equally important in providing the right care with the right people.

Our nurse assesses the ability of each care professional’s level of care they can provide.  The nurse assesses any health or physical restrictions, develops a training plan to equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to be safe and successful with the client.  Our nurse provides this training through the Center of Excellence, on the job, shadowing and through our on-line training modules.

The nurse also assists with client care management for clients needing a high level of care. 

24/7 On Call Service

At Senior Helpers, we understand that care needs don’t follow a 9-to-5 schedule. Whether it’s an urgent concern, a last-minute schedule change, or simply a question that can’t wait, our 24/7 On-Call Service ensures that help is always just a phone call away.

No matter the time of day or night, there will always be a dedicated team member available to answer your call, provide guidance, and address any immediate concerns. Your peace of mind matters to us, and we are committed to offering reliable, round-the-clock support.

📞 Call us anytime at 803-329-4357—we’re here for you 24/7!