Senior Home Sharing helps meet the need for in-home senior counseling

Board member Rita Brosnan is working to provide counseling not just to Senior Home Sharing residents, but seniors across DuPage County. Brosnan is a licensed clinical professional counselor of 15 years who joined the Lombard organization in August 2020.

“I really believe in their mission,” Brosnan said. When she joined, she identified a need for counseling in the residents of Senior Home Sharing homes.

Currently the assistant director of crisis services at the DuPage County Health Department, Brosnan reached out to Lisa Kroll, a licensed clinical social worker and colleague who had recently retired after over 30 years of working with adults and families. Together, they launched internal counseling efforts at Senior Home Sharing.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brosnan said, new residents were “trying to acclimate during a very tough time, a changing landscape, and scary time for seniors especially.”

Kroll began by assessing the needs, independence, cognitive ability, and emotional stability of residents on an ongoing basis.

“But she expressed an interest in doing more,” Brosnan said.

The services expanded to individual, group, and drop-in sessions and case management. Brosnan said they have worked with residents who were adjusting to the loss of a spouse, recovering from substance use or dealing with conditions like dementia and bipolar disorder.

The need for affordable, in-home mental health services existed beyond Senior Home Sharing residents, however. These services can be convenient for many seniors, especially those with mobility restrictions or a desire for privacy.

“Being a counselor, I knew the need,” Brosnan said, a sentiment she heard echoed in conversations with colleagues and loved ones. “My mom had recently started seeing a counselor who came to the house, and they were few and far between.”

Grants laid the groundwork for the expansion of the counseling service beyond residents, and Senior Home Sharing bills Medicare and other insurance to cover costs.

Brosnan explained the specific mental health challenges seniors face that create a need for services like Senior Home Sharing’s.

“Unfortunately, isolation naturally occurs with seniors as they retire from work and aren’t seeing folks on a daily basis,” she said. She emphasized the importance of creating a strong and easily accessible network of people. Brosnan thinks the living arrangements at Senior Home Sharing, paired with the counseling, are very well-suited to combat isolation.

“It helps seniors get connected and stay connected with each other and outside the home,” she said.

In the next two to five years, Brosnan said she would love to grow the in-home counseling program to be self-sustaining and help meet the need of growing mental health concerns.

Senior Home Sharing is a nonprofit organization offering housing to DuPage seniors who are ineligible for government assistance but cannot afford average rent or senior living home costs. The organization currently houses 15 residents across two family-style houses in Naperville and Lombard who receive home-cooked meals and a sense of community.

Interested parties can contact (630) 519-4198 or visit seniorhomesharing.org for more information.