About Caregiver Agency
Encore Caregivers Story
A Perfect Fit
Encore Caregivers’ Story: In 1996, husband and wife Nora and Mike Aden decided to go into business. It was a perfect fit: Cameo Caregivers, a small in-home care agency. They acquired the company from an elderly couple who had started it more than a decade earlier because they couldn’t find quality care for their aging parents. When Nora, a Registered Nurse, and Mike, A CPA, acquired Cameo Caregivers, the small agency had only 13 clients and 25 caregivers. Through the Adens’ efforts, Cameo Caregivers had grown to become one of Houston’s most significant private duty, in-home care agencies.
An Offer at the Right Time
When a business-saavy doctor offered to purchase Cameo Caregivers in 2004, Nora and Mike considered the possibilities:
1) They wanted to travel.
2) They wanted to spend time with their grandchildren.
3) They needed a rest.
4) They knew a good offer when they saw one.
They accepted the offer and retired to the Hill Country. Life was perfectly sweet (for a time).
An Expired Non-Compete Agreement
As the five-year mark of the sale of Cameo Caregivers passed, Nora and Mike again began to consider the possibilities:
1) They had traveled.
2) They had spent time with their grandchildren (whom they sometimes found to be too much of a good thing).
3) They were rested, but bored.
4) They missed the business.
The Adens decided it was time for another plunge into Houston’s in-home care industry.
An Encore Performance
In 2009, Encore Caregivers was born. Nora and Mike had started their own agency, from scratch. Their idea was to keep the agency small with only a few caregivers and clients. The day after receiving Encore Caregivers’ license to operate from the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, Nora and Mike attended a local caregiver conference. It was there that ties were reestablished and the word got out, “Mike and Nora are back!” Later that afternoon, the first client call came in. Encore Caregivers was off and running. Since then, the agency has achieved steady, significant growth. Despite the rise and fall in oil prices, despite the economy, through bull and bear markets, Encore Caregivers became a shining star in Houston’s bright business sky. Once again, the Adens were at the head of one of the Bayou City’s largest private duty, in-home care agencies.
A Quality Friendship
When Mike and Nora decided to take a step back from the full-time operation of Encore Caregivers in 2015, they brought in friends, Marilou and Milton Schopper as partners. Milton has decades of experience as a business owner and consultant. Marilou has an equal amount of experience in public and private sector communications and public relations. Both have personal, family experiences with dementia and Alzheimer’s that bring vital knowledge and empathy to the table when advising families on care choices for their loved ones. Under their leadership, Encore Caregivers remains the solid, caring, skilled and professional in-home care choice for Houston’s seniors.
Awards and Accolades
Honoring the Legacy
In the years following 2015, Milton and Marilou have ensured that Encore Caregivers continues to offer only the best kind of in-home care to Houston’s families. That statement can be backed up with telephone survey after telephone survey. Who is completing the surveys? Home Care Pulse is a benchmark marketing company, well known in the senior in-home care industry.
The company calls 10% of Encore Caregivers’ clients and caregivers (current and recent past) each month and asks for a simple 1-10 rating to questions like these: (client) Does Encore Caregivers significantly improve your quality of life every day? (caregiver) Do you have the level of training necessary for you to excel at your job? Far from being cushy, softballs – the questions are bold and pointed and the answers quickly uncover the “good” and the “needing improvement” in the day to day. Using results from the surveys, the Schoppers have tweaked the company’s offering, for clients and caregivers – in an unequaled continual improvement program that has reaped rich results.
Home Care Pulse announced in January of 2019 that Encore Caregivers was the only company in Houston that had won their national award, “Best of Home Care Leader in Excellence”. In January of 2020, Home Care Pulse announced that Encore Caregivers was one of only three Houston companies to win their national award. In a national Webinar in January 2021, Home Care Pulse announced a “three-peat” for Encore Caregivers – once again a “Best of Home Care Leader in Excellence” award winner.
After 13 years of serving Houston’s families with 2 million hours of high-quality service under the company’s belt, you can be more confident and comforted than ever that Encore Caregivers provides the best in skilled, professional and caring service for your family.
Encore Caregivers
Each professional in-home caregiver agency is licensed by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, under Chapter 142 of the Texas Health and Safety Code, to operate as a home and community support service agency in Texas. (beware, there are many unprofessional, unlicensed agencies operating on the fringes of state regulation).
Encore Caregivers is so licensed by the state – as a PAS – a non-medical, Personal Assistance Service. Not only are we licensed, but Encore Caregivers is bonded and insured, as well (beware, such is not always the case with many caregiver companies).
What distinguishes Encore Caregivers from the very large field of “a caregiver company near me” in your Internet search?
In a national webinar in January, 2023, Encore Caregivers was awarded four national awards by our industry’s leading marketing benchmark company, Home Care Pulse. The awards were given as the result of the answers to telephone surveys of clients and caregivers throughout the year (10% of our clients and 10% of our caregivers are surveyed each month. We use the results as the basis of our continual improvement program.) Home Care Pulse awarded us their national Employer of Choice award (we think we are one of the best caregiver companies to work for). Also, Encore Caregivers won their national Provider of Choice award (we think we are one of the best caregiving companies ever). Home Care Pulse has another national award, called the In-Home Care Leader in Experience award. It has even more strict criteria. Encore Caregivers won that, as well. And, for the first time ever, Encore Caregivers was designated one of the Top 100 Caregiving Agencies in the United States. That is pretty impressive when you take into consideration that Home Care Pulse surveys nearly 7,500 of the nation’s largest in-home care agencies. Boy are we on a roll!
Part of our formula for success is that Encore Caregivers hires only professional, experienced, skilled caregivers (beware, such is not always the case with each caregiving company). Our caregivers might be CNAs (Certified Nurse Assistants), HHAs (Home Health Aids), PCAs (Patient Care Assistants) – they have a wide variety of titles, but they are all skilled professionals.
We make sure that our caregivers are the best of the best.
They have a minimum of one year, hands-on, direct client care experience in the last two years, with an institution or home health service – under the supervision of a nurse.
Applying caregivers present their documentation:
They are then background checked on the local, state and national level. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Caregiver Misconduct Registry is checked for any infraction.
If they meet the above standards, they are given a written competency exam. If they pass the exam, they proceed to an interview with our nurse to further assess their skill level. They also interview with our administrator and lead care coordinator to assess work history, presentation, compassion level, personality, areas of experience, etc.
If they pass all the above hurdles, they are invited to a 4+ hour orientation in which our office staff trains them in our policies and procedures and our dos and don’ts. All administrative paperwork and badging is completed.
They are introduced to our extensive training program, including Skills Labs (hands-on training with our RN), In-Service Trainings (with speaker and hands-on training with our RN), and nurse-directed on-line courses.
They are then enrolled in our 8-week mentoring program overseen by our field lead and assigned 4, 1-hour on-line classes to complete in that prescribed time frame. Our field lead stays in close contact with them in order to ensure client and caregiver satisfaction.
It’s a winning formula.
When they come on board as our caregiving staff, we assign them to go into clients’ residences (homes, hotels, hospitals, assisted and independent living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, etc.) and offer elderly care. These professional caregivers offer service to clients in three distinct categories:
Companionship: Reading, reminiscing, going on walks, just going – period – as appropriate to the client’s condition. Pre-COVID, we’d hear, “Let’s go to the Hill Country and look at the flowers.” We did that. We went to wedding rehearsals and family reunions and theaters, restaurants and museums. COVID has kicked us in the knee a bit. Now, our caregivers mostly transport clients to doctors’ appointments, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc, but the field is expanding. We can drive the client in their car or in our car. In addition, our caregivers are helping clients with hobbies that they can’t do alone anymore, or they don’t want to do alone anymore. This provides the crucial social interaction sorely lacking in so many seniors’ lives – the social interaction often key to slowing cognitive decline.
Light Housekeeping: The State of Texas allows caregivers to do 20% of their work as light housekeeping. Basically, we keep clean, sanitary and organized the areas where the client predominantly lives: bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, living room. Can we change bed linens? Do laundry? Clean the bathroom? Vacuum? Dust? Make light meals and snacks? Yes, we are doing that throughout the Houston Metro Area every day. Examples of what we won’t do: pick up grandchildren’s toys, clean a guest room, rake leaves, clean windows, pressure wash the garage. We focus on client care.
Assistance with ADLs (Activities of Daily Living): This is a massive category, one that includes functions that too many of us take for granted – walking, eating, drinking, showering, bathing, grooming, dressing, toileting and more.
The benefits of having professional care available in the comfort of a senior’s own home offered by one of the best caregiving services in Houston cannot be understated.
If you’re looking for elderly caregiver services in the Houston area, look no further – Encore Caregivers could be the perfect agency for your needs.
With professional and experienced staff as well as years of experience, Encore Caregivers represents a great choice. Boost the overall quality of life for loved ones as they are provided with personalized care unique to their needs – by one of the best in the business – Encore Caregivers.
Why Choose Encore Caregivers
We get an A+ for customer service
We saw an Inc. (magazine) article that was singing our song. The author described a situation in which a family purchased a $350 Star Wars Lego set, built 2/3 of it and then discovered that one bag of small parts was missing. The dad went straight to Lego customer service on-line.
The company’s response was epic:
“Dear John, Thanks for getting in touch with us and providing that information! I am so sorry that you are missing bag 14 from your Mos Eisley Cantina! This must be the work of Lord Vader.
Fear not, for I have hired Han to get that bag right out to you. Have a bricktastic day and may the force be with you.”
You’ve got to love that sensitivity, creativity and smarts. The customer e-mailed with a $350 problem. It was solved in a few keystrokes and left the client with a smile. That is a trusted formula for business success – customer loyalty, great reviews. It is customer care and business-building at its best.
It’s not always easy, but it is something that we strive for every day with our clients here at Encore Caregivers.
They call with challenges. Their loved one can’t be left alone, or needs special care, ensured safety, a skilled, compassionate, watchful eye. So often, they call with shaky voices, concern, sometimes tearful. We focus on hearing them, understanding the ins and outs of their unique story and bringing them peace of mind.
Yes, from time to time there are rough spots. That’s life. We accept that, knowing that the way we guide each of those circumstances to a solution defines us. And, we think we get an A+ for nailing it.
The Inc. article ends this way:
“By the way, delight is maybe the most powerful thing you can do to generate loyalty among your customers. It doesn’t take much, but even little things like knowing your audience and responding accordingly can go a long way. Making someone smile is easily the best way to remind them why they became a loyal customer in the first place. When you look for ways to delight them, even when something didn’t go right, you can’t go wrong.”
When was the last time you met professionals who delighted you? Breaking news: We’ve got an office full of them! And, that makes us all smile!
Our Process
Client-Focused Senior Care In Houston, TX. Our senior home care providers care about each and every client and providing the best care possible for them.
Quality Senior Home Care Begins With You…
STEP 1
Whether planned or resulting from an upset, you recognize the need for help. You are seeking solutions. Your call should be to Encore Caregivers at 713-686-2233 or e-mail us at:care@encorecaregivers.com
