Donna and I both graduated from the University of San Francisco's Life Tranistions Counseling Program. Since we had similar training and both had private practices, Donna asked me to be her supervisor for earning the National Certified Counselor designation. When I became an instructor at USF, I turned to Donna and asked Donna her to be a guest speaker to my counseling students.
Years later, in July, 2002, as I was reading the American Counseling Association's monthly newsletter, I noticed a two-page spread on work Donna was doing with seniors and housing. In her former career, Donna had owned a real estate firm with her husband. Since my husband was also in the field of real estate and both of us were dealing with family eldercare issues, we had several common interests and concerns.
Then, a year ago, Donna called me, asking if I would write an introduction to her book, Aging in Place: Safely living in your "Home Sweet Home" until you're 100+. Having just moved my 99-year old father-in-law, I was all too familiar with the challenges of moving frail elders, so of course I agreed to write the introduction to Donna's book. I also found an editor (whose husband is in a sports club with my husband) for her book.
As soon as Donna's book came out, I was thrown into another eldercare situation -moving my mother, who had lived in the same house for over 40 years and the same neighborhood her entire life. This time, I sought Donna's advice - she became my mentor in elder caregiving, move, housing, and legal matters.
Donna and I are both at the beginning of the baby boomer generation and are experiencing first-hand the challenges of eldercare. With Donna's background in real estate, move management, and fiance, and my background in working with seniors on life transitions and career issues, curriculum development, and training, as well as both of our counseling experience, our energies merged into creating a Certified Caregiver Counselor Certificate training program, which we are launching in January of 2008.
I shall ask Donna a few questions about the origin and growth of her eldercare business. Since the work she is doing is crucial for those who have or expect to have caregiving responsibilities, I shall give you plenty of opportunity to ask Donna questions you might have about her eldercare business. If you don't have time to have all your questions answered in this tele-interview, we are scheduling a series of workshops on the topic of caregiving:
Best-selling career author Richard Bolles suggests that you not only find something that you are passionate about, but also something that the world needs and desires. Following are examples of questions that I shall ask Donna related to Dick's statement:
Now I shall open the phone lines to listeners, so you can ask Donna your questions.....
Thank you Donna, for sharing your business mission and vision with us this morning.
Conclusion
I have volunteered with CCA to offer these tele-interviews with leading entrepreneurs and intrepreneurs to provide you with support to start and grow your private or group practice in an effective, efficient, and time-saving manner. To prevent you from being a "lonely star," we have also provided you with entrepreneurial exercises, a list of upcoming entrepreneurial events, resources, and blogs led by our leading counselor entrepreneurs. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me. And thank you for responding to the tele-interview evaluations. I take them seriously and will keep improving the tele-interviews to meet your needs.