New Home Instead office focuses on training, caring for caregivers

Home Instead Dublin is getting settled into its new home. 

The senior care service business recently put the finishing touches on a 5,000-square-foot facility off of Hillcrest Parkway behind Robins Federal Credit Union, doubling its footprint and providing ample headquarter space for the company that assists seniors residents in a nine county area between here and Statesboro. 

“I wanted something that was visible and a building that looked nice from the road,” said Billy Frost,  who has owned and operated the franchise for more than 20 years. 

But the location serves as more than just another attractive business front along one of Dublin’s busiest corridors, but was built to improve support given to Home Instead’s staff of about 160 caregivers. The new building features an expanded training room giving Frost better ability in preparing his staff for what they might encounter in a client’s home. 

While the company only provides basic care – such as hygiene and bathing; light housework and meal prep; and escorting patients to appointments – staff must be able to operate hospital beds, patient lifts and a variety of handicap accessories to safely do their jobs.  The new training room is equipped with it all, and a few extras the old office couldn’t accommodate. 

“Trying to adequately prepare our caregivers to go into the home of a senior and provide the kind of care we want to provide is a challenge,” Frost said. “We are committed to continually improving the quality of the training and the support once they get into the field doing their jobs. That was a big focus of this building, to have the room and the space to be able to do that.” 

The new building was built to support the staff in other ways as well, like in case of an emergency. In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, Frost opened his office, then in the Oak Ridge Shopping Center, to staff allowing them to use showers and electricity. A full bathroom for staff and an expanded kitchen and breakroom in the new location gives workers a little slice of home when they can’t use their own. 

Frost launched the local Home Instead in 2005 at the suggestion of his sister. The two were facing a common dilemma – searching for a way to care for aging parents while keeping them at home. Home Instead focuses on the smaller, seemingly simple things, like doing laundry and even just keeping patients company while their family members work or attend to other duties. 

The business started with two office staff and 12 caregivers and has done nothing but grown. Home Instead now works with a wide variety of clients from Alzheimer’s patients to war time veterans through the VA. 

“We cater to people who want to be at home, or families that want to keep their loved one at home,” Frost said. “But visit nursing homes, assisted living homes and even the hospital. We go to wherever people call home.”