 Ray Mailloux installs a shower grab bar for a Community House Calls client. Mailloux, former CEO of New Hampshire Catholic Charities, founded a company to handle house work and make it possible for older people stay in their own homes. (VALERIE D. HERSHFIELD) |
“It sounds simple and small, but it lights her passageway so she can get around her house,” said Ray Mailloux, founder of Community House Calls Inc., a business that helps the elderly and disabled adults maintain their independence.
After 25 years as a long-term care
administrator, Mailloux, the former CEO of New Hampshire Catholic Charities,
wanted to make it possible for people stay in their own homes. Whether
itís something as basic as replacing hard-to-reach light bulbs and smoke
detector batteries, or building projects such as ramps or adding other
amenities to make life easier and safer, Community House Calls helps out.
“As long as I worked in long-term care, not one person ever said,
‘I can’t wait to get into a nursing home.’” Mailloux
said. “New Hampshire has the best nursing homes in the country, but
not everybody needs to give up their home just because they donít have
the support to keep up with it.”
“Community House Calls answers a huge need for the elderly and disabled who may be starting to experience difficulty in keeping up with some of the heavy work or some of the seasonal type things,” said Connie Young, program director for Rockingham County Service Link that recommends community-based resources.
“They may not need to look for alternative housing ever, or they can stay (in their own houses) longer.”
Mailloux currently has three carpenter/builders,
an occupational therapist and two chore workers he has known for years,
calling on clients from Manchester to the Seacoast to the Massachusetts
border. They work on an individual project basis, or an hourly basis ($39),
or on a discounted monthly membership plan.
A snow job
Marjorie and Leo Roy are among those who started out needing one job done and have since joined the monthly plan.
Marjorie, 72, has a condition that prevents her from reaching up, lifting or pushing. Leo, 82, suffers from severe arthritis.
“It was in the bad winter two years ago when snow and ice and piled up about three feet on my roof, and we were both sick,” said Marjorie. Worried about collapse, she called Service Link and received the number for Mailloux’s company.
“I called Ray and he sent David (Sanders) right over. He shoveled every bit of snow off my roof and then he got down and did all my porches. After that, if little things happened, Ray would send David over. The second time he came, I adopted him!”
When the Roys moved from Rochester to Kingston, they retained Community House Calls.
“If we didnít have them to check on things like snow removal, we wouldnít be able to live here in the winter,” said Marjorie.
The $100 a month membership begins with a multi-page home analysis, from the kind of roof to the types and windows and appliance brands. Maillouxís company looks for hazards and to see if such things as railings are secure, and if the client has or could benefit from such safety measures as grab bars and stair highlighting. All utility shut-offs are located and recorded.
The latter came in handy early one morning when Marjorie Roy called Mailloux in a panic when she got out of bed and stepped onto soggy carpet.
“I pulled her home analysis and told her to take the phone and walk to the laundry room,” he said. “I said, ‘Youíre going to see a red lever on your left. Push that all the way down.’The water stopped and, over the phone, I could feel her anxiety drop. We were there in 45 minutes. It was just a pipe coupling that didn’t even need a plumber ó but it was ruining their house.”
Along with initial recommendations, clients receive an emergency supply box, laminated fire escape plans on magnets for the refrigerator, along with the health reference guide that lists physical limitations, emergency numbers and family and physician contacts.
Itís a house call that goes beyond a house call.
“The programs are really crafted around the individual needs of the home and the person,” said Mailloux. “It is not to make people dependent, but to maximize their independence.”
Monthly checks include keeping track of when batteries and lights are changed, checking the water temperature, cleaning dryer vents and exhaust fans, coordinating landscaping, pest control, changing the furnace or water system filters and seasonal adjustments such as putting in a taking out storm windows, air conditioners and gutters.
“People like being able to make
lists best of all,” Mailloux said with his characteristic good humor.
House chores
The Union Leader caught Mailloux on his way to Dover where a member needed three cat perches installed and a bookrack she bought from QVC assembled. Her bathroom drain was running slowly and the cat had pulled up the threshold between the bathroom and hallway.
Christmas brings special chores.
“They can decorate fine, but they canít get the boxes up the stairs,” Mailloux said. “We have a woman who hadnít had a Christmas tree in years and she was thrilled to have one in her front room again.”
Veni, 52, is a new member. Formerly a maintenance worker for Massachusetts Electric, she was used to doing everything for herself until she began having health problems in the early 1990s that led to having several benign tumors removed from her brain. Now she has balance problems and uses a cane and wears a protective helmet.
With the light bulbs replaced and a shower grab bar installed, she has begun her list.
Among the projects to improve her environment, Community House Calls will stretch her carpet to remove a slight bump that could trip her and build lower shelves to prevent falls she has experienced in the past from reaching up and losing her balance.
“I think it is going to make a lot of difference in my relationship with my friends and my family,” Veni said. “I’m always having to ask people to do for me and I hate that. I’d rather if, when they came over, they’d come just because theyíd like to visit. That’s the way it started out.”
“We can help this lady and she’ll be able to stay home a lot longer,” Mailloux said. “Farouche knows what she’s dealing with, with her physical issues, but she is also very determined and very independent with what she wants with her life and she’s going to do OK.”
“Doing the interventions to make
the house more accessible and safer is one part, but giving the on-going
support for things that she canít do anymore like the lawn, the lights
and putting in screens is the other.”
The niche
Young, the program director for Rockingham County Service Link, sees the service as a essential tool for Baby Boomers, and a benefit not only for the clients, but also for a family memberís care giver, “who is incredibly busy doing their job.”
“This (service) is wonderful,” she said. “The care giving job is so consuming, and this can give them a relief.” It allows family members who have full-time jobs some extra time for family matters and visiting without having to fix the house ó all while still spending plenty of time to provide care for an elderly relative.
While there are thousands of home repairs businesses in the state, catering to the elderly population is unusual.
“I think with the rising elderly population, as the Baby Boomers age, there are going to be more people looking for this kind of help,” Young said.
In 2000, residents aged 65 and over
in New Hampshire numbered 148,000, up from 125,000 in 1990 said Tom Duffy,
senior planner of the state Office of Energy and Planning. The number
is projected to reach 194,400 by 2010 and 330,000 by 2020.
Extended family
People are crazy about Mailloux and his staff.
Charlotte Prochnow, 82, said being a member of Community House Calls “gives me a very secure feeling. If you have an emergency, you can call Ray and he’ll get someone here.”
Marjorie Roy, a retired home health nurse, said, “I have never met more kind, loving and gentle people ... They love the elderly, and not everybody does.”
She was particularly touched when she took a 10-day trip and Mailloux called her husband every day ó then picked her up at the airport.
“Where are you going to find
somebody to come to the airport with a big smile and a yellow jacket and
a hug to pick you up?”she said. “Itís unbelievable.”
Credentials
The agencies that recommend Community House Calls also give high ratings for interpersonal skills.
Ann Schwartzwalder, care manager at Crotched Mountain Community Care in Portsmouth, expressed “total confidence that (Mailloux) will do quality work, but also be very personable with the people whose homes he’s going into. I could go on and on ... Itís a very unique and needed service.”
Stephanie Krenn, senior guardian with the Office of Public Guardian in Concord, concurs.
“(Mailloux) is very responsible in following through on services, and also has a warm and human manner that builds trust and a level of comfort for the people we serve.”
Krenn tells the story of Mailloux helping clear out two large storage units chockfull of clothing. The client wanted her blue raincoat.
“Ray went through things and
found the raincoat that was moldy and unwearable and quietly discarded
it. He replaced it with an identical coat that he delivered to her, and
sent the bill to us. Everybody was happy,” Krenn said.
‘It’s just fun’
A desire to work closely with people was the genesis behind Community House Calls.
For 15 years prior to starting his business, Mailloux worked for New Hampshire Catholic Charities, the last four as CEO.
“It’s a great organization and I enjoyed the work, but the job of CEO took me far away from the clients. I’m a people person, and I really wanted to get back to that… (As CEO) you can approve everything, but you can’t really see the outcome and the difference.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to live the rest of my life. I believe that, based on my home health experience and long-term care, there was a piece in the middle that is missing.”
Mailloux attributed his affinity with the elderly to growing up close by a grandfather, two grandmothers and two great grandmothers, two of whom lived on the second floor and who “were very much a part of the mix.”
“As a family, we valued them and what they brought to the family. Everybody has a life history, and when you really get to know somebody and what they’ve done, it’s just fun. There’s more to a person than their name and age; it’s about what they’ve done with their lives and what their life experiences are.”