Helping Disabled Children and Updating Education on Elder Care

Aug. 25, 2024 ~ For more than 20 years Angels Place has provided a helping hand to families with developmentally disabled children by offering a wide array of services. Tom Szepanski, CEO of Angles Place, said the group offers an environment of love and compassion, coupled with an atmosphere of acceptance, dignity, friendship, and the potential for personal growth and independence. Angels Place is a Christ-centered community that works to serve their families by providing loving homes and professional support to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Angels Place has more than two dozen homes scattered around the metro area to provide caring homes for residents.

Care YaYa co-founder and CEO Neal Shah joins Michigan Voices to talk about his program, which connects seniors and those needing affordable companion care with pre-health students at top colleges across the country. Shah outlines the elder care crisis unfolding in the country and how the current model of home care is out of date, typically providing home care for a charge of $40 an hour and paying the actual worker only $12 an hour. At Care YaYa, vetted students in the medical field are matched with those needing assistance for $15 to $20 an hour which goes directly to the student worker. Shah said the students are then able to use the experience to work toward their degrees or graduate programs.