Struggling to find caregivers, Petaluma senior care appeals to temporary workers

Many of its employees pre-pandemic were seniors and working moms. Now, Sequoia Senior Solutions is struggling with a depleted workforce.|

Like many seniors, Mary Stahl needs a bit of help to navigate the day to day, especially after she fractured her spine in a fall a few years back. That’s where caregiver Denise Lempriere comes in, five days a week, for five hours a day.

“It means a lot, to be able to stay in your own home. To be able to sleep in your own bed means everything,” said the nearly 89-year-old Petaluma resident. “The best thing is the company — they’re like family. Denise has been just wonderful.”

Lempriere has been helping Stahl for about eight months, doing everything from errands, to laundry, to feeding Lucy, her princess Chihuahua. Lempiere previously cared for her own ailing mother, and found a love for helping seniors maintain their independence.

“The whole idea is to keep them happy and healthy at home,” she said. “Right now, it’s about trying to brighten the day, since they can’t be out as much.”

Lempriere’s services are in high demand.

While many businesses are laying off employees and drastically cutting hours, one Petaluma-based company is grappling with an entirely different set of staffing problems triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re struggling to find employees,” said Gabriella Ambrosi, co-founder and president of Sequoia Senior Solutions, which provides non-medical, in-home services to elder adults, including Stahl. “I see how so many people are out of jobs, and we need caregivers. Right now we are really struggling because of it.”

The 17-year-old business launched by Ambrosi, a former nurse, and her husband, Stanton Lawson, oversees more than 150 clients throughout Sonoma County and its surrounding regions. Before the pandemic, the family-run business had about 200 caregivers on staff, tasked with paying regular visits to seniors in need of companionship and daily assistance.

But the far-reaching implications of the public health crisis has decimated the once-abundant staff, causing the company to downsize its administrative team and launch an urgent call for new caregivers.

The blows to their workforce have been twofold, Ambrosi said, as life circumstances compelled a majority of employees to give up their positions, while apprehension over the safety of in-home senior care constricted the applicant pool needed to backfill vacancies.

Once schools and day cares closed, Ambrosi saw a vast majority of her female employees forced to give up their positions to care for their own children, mirroring a nationwide trend. A recent report by National Women’s Law Center found nearly 2.2 million women left the U.S. labor force between the start of the pandemic and October 2020, eclipsing men’s unemployment rates.

Sequoia Senior Solutions relies on a predominately female workforce, which dwindled rapidly in the pandemic. Aside from working mothers, Ambrosi said many in her pre-pandemic cadre of caregivers were also seniors, many of whom left to protect their own health.

“Very early into this, our senior employees couldn’t come (to work) and neither could our younger ladies with children,” she said.

Compounding the problem is a pervasive sense of unease over visiting with vulnerable seniors and entering people’s homes. In the spring, the company began prohibiting caregivers from visiting more than two clients, and requires everyone wear masks and participate in daily health screenings. But even with those precautions, uneasiness remains high, especially as the nation seizes with a winter wave of infections.

“We have had some employees who don’t feel comfortable,” Ambrosi said. “I understand there is some reluctance, but in reality, our seniors are at home by themselves. They’re isolated and many families don’t want to put them in nursing facilities right now, so this might be their next best option.”

That’s certainly true for Stahl, who is happy to be home during COVID-19. “The pandemic, it’s scary,” she said. “We try not to go out much. When we go for rides in the car, we don’t get it out. We just look at the scenery, at this beautiful area.”

Lempriere helps Stahl with her exercises and showers, so they can’t always stay six feet apart. “You take the precautions you can take, and say a prayer, and let go and let god,” Lempriere said. “Knock on wood, we’ve both stayed healthy.”

Stretched thin with a fraction of its care staff, Sequoia’s Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Woolbright said they’re shifting their hiring and recruiting practices, hoping to entice those interested in temporary work. Ambrosi said the state requires five-hours a year of training to become a caregiver, which Sequoia Senior Solutions can provide. They also offer additional programs to learn specialty skills, like how to assist seniors with dementia or Parkinson’s disease.

“We provide a pay increase for each program (caregivers) complete,” Ambrosi said. “Since it’s non-medical, they don’t have to know too much. Really, they need the right personality, with compassionate communication.”

Although Sonoma County unemployment rates have dropped from the record-high 14.5% in April 2020, numbers still outpace those of pre-pandemic levels. The jobless rate fell to 5.5% in November, still much higher than the historic low of 2.4% seen in November 2019.

With many more businesses closed during the winter stay-home order implemented to curb record-shattering COVID-19 rates, Sequoia Senior Solutions is looking to scoop up those who are now out-of-work.

“We’re open to training and employing people who maybe are a bartender or waiter, but temporarily need to do something to put food on the table,” Ambrosi said. “I don’t think the situation is going to go away anytime soon.”

Emily Charrier contributed to this report.

(Contact Kathryn Palmer at kathryn.palmer@arguscourier.com, on Twitter @KathrynPlmr.)

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