Helping Seniors: Developing Caring Relationships

Suzana Sukunda worked in several homecare companies — until she decided to open her own. ‘We specialize in care and daily living assistance to an array of individuals,’ she says

By Stefan Yablonski

 

Suzana Sukunda owns Homecare Your Way LLC in New Hartford.

After working for other home care agencies, Suzana Sukunda decided to start her own.

“I started the business from scratch; have been in business since 2018,” said Sukunda 34, owner and operator. “I’ve been doing this since I was 18. I worked for other agencies before I opened up my own.”

Homecare Your Way LLC is BBB accredited, she said.

“It was tough to get going. I was facing competition from all the other agencies,” she said. “I was new, didn’t really know what I was doing. I opened up in 2018, but it didn’t really pick up for me until after COVID. I had a very hard time to start.”

She really didn’t like the way some other agencies ran things, she said.

“That’s why I opted to open up my own,” Sukunda said. “My staff, right now, is about 20 employees. The clients are about 15 or so. We see them every week.”

They have 11-50 employees, depending on the need, she added. They go in the clients’ homes — offer 24-hour care, seven days a week.

“We assist seniors with everyday living in their homes. Basically, we provide companion services. We provide transportation to and from doctor appointments as well as other services. We provide one-on-one attention and care,” she said. “Things like running errands, helping with a client’s mail and grooming assistance.”

They take the time to get to know the clients and develop individualized care plans that fits their specific needs, she added.

However, no one care plan fits everybody, she explained.

“Daily services can include anything from meal preparation, hygiene and supervision,” she explained. “We also do grocery shopping, meal prep, light housekeeping — things like that if they can’t do it on their own.”

Skilled nursing care service is available for Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s care.

Homecare Your Way employs CNAs, home health aides, companions. The specific staff member gets assigned according to the client’s needs.

“It all depends on the client. If it’s only companionship, we go a few times a week — just checking up on them — you don’t have to be certified, you’re just a companion,” she said. “But if it is a little bit more hands-on, the staff member needs to be certified. But right at the moment we don’t have any hands-on cases. All my [people] are pretty independent; they just need a little assistance, companionship.”

Sukunda goes to homes as well.

“I do the bookkeeping and all that stuff myself. It’s a lot, but it’s what I worked for when I was younger. Empowering independence is our goal,” she said.

“Every client is different. Some need 24-hour care; they may be starting early Alzheimer’s. Some don’t have any family locally, so we look over them. Others just need a few hours a day,” she continued. “Some just want some companionship, so we just kind of check in on them. It all depends on the individual client’s needs.

“We specialize in care and daily living assistance to an array of individuals. Whether someone needs daily or weekly assistance due to aging, illness, recovery or rehabilitation our care givers provide individualized service.”

How to Contact

To contact Homecare Your Way LLC, call 315-542-2068. The business is located at 3985 Oneida St. Suite 103 in New Hartford. For more information, visit www.homecareyourwayllc.com.