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Businesses tackle home care shortage from new Struthers location

A pair of businesses is taking on the home care staffing shortage from its new location in Struthers, with each tackling the issue from a different angle. 

The leaders of Help Me Care Edu and Help Me Live Home Care hosted a ribbon cutting Wednesday to celebrate the grand opening, featuring free food, jazz music and bouncy houses. The new office is inside the former Struthers United Methodist Church. 

It started when Clarence Barnes established Help Me Live Home Care in late 2019, just before the onset of COVID-19. Help Me Live’s home care services include assistance with necessary everyday tasks, transportation and companionship. 

When the pandemic hit, Clarence Barnes said it caused a spike in demand for in-home care, as some elderly and disabled people did not feel safe or comfortable inside nursing homes. Even though more than five years have passed, the demand for at-home care hasn’t gone away, according to Help Me Live CFO Kelvin Melendez. 

“We've been seeing a big increase,” Melendez said. “Some people [would] rather have care at their own homes, rather than be sharing with other people, you know, the privacy.”

Over time, the business ran into an all-too-familiar problem: a low supply of caregivers. 

“We needed to provide staff for our staffing agency, so we decided to open up a nurse assistant program that was easy access to the community,” Clarence Barnes explained. 

That sister organization is Help Me Care Edu, which offers a nursing assistant course spanning 75 hours over 12 days, including two days of clinical work at Heritage Manor. Laura Barnes, the instructor at Help Me Care, says she teaches healthcare ethics in addition to basic nursing skills. 

“We do legal and ethical talk about the human beings”, said Laura Barnes, who is also Clarence’s mother. “It’s important, compassion. How to take care of the elderly … how to treat them, how to respect their rights — and they do have rights.”

When they complete all the required hours, the students are eligible to take the state nursing assistant test. The only requirement to participate in Help Me Care’s nursing assistant program is a high school diploma.  

“It doesn't make a difference how old you are. It's never too late to get out and try and start something over, or do something new,” Laura Barnes said. “This particular field is something that pays well, and it's going to always be around.”

“No AI can do what an STNA can do,” she added.

Help Me Care only offers nursing assistant classes for now, but hopes the new location will help them expand their offerings to other medical vocations — potentially including a Licensed Practical Nurse program. 




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