Blog Feed

PAULETTE COLEY, DARLENA HARDING, MAXINE FOSTER-DAY & SUZANE ROACHES

A home care aide is someone who can persevere through any obstacle while providing quality care for another person in their own home.

"Our staff are prepared every day at 6 a.m. to respond to any emergency coverage needed in any borough, for any number of hours without question," says Dorothy Sanchez, Director of Operations at Selfhelp Community Services’ Licensed Home Care Services Agency.

In such cases, these committed individuals “don’t have the privilege of time to develop trust with clients,” Sanchez added. “They depend on their professionalism and their experience to evoke trust from clients in need."

Home Care Heroes (left to right above) Paulette Coley, Darlena Harding, Maxine Foster-Day and Suzane Roaches are among this elite team who are so skilled at what they do that clients will often request their services to continue beyond what otherwise may be an interim case assignment. That is a testament to their success.

In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, there was never a day that these committed staff were unavailable to help when called upon. They traveled across boroughs and stayed on live-in cases. While many aides were understandably afraid to work, or had child care challenges, this team of aides stayed the course. They are role models for all of us and true heroes to those at greatest risk in the community.

In April 2020, one of these four beloved aides, Maxine Foster-Day, lost her life to the coronavirus. (Please see our separate recognition here.)

“Maxine’s loss devastated our team. The threat of the pandemic hit Selfhelp home care in the heart,” Sanchez added. “Through the grief, through the loss, through the fear, our staff aides continued to answer the call to meet the needs of our community.”

“While there may be a lot of incredible stories about heroes during this pandemic, for Selfhelp, these caregivers are our Selfhelp Heroes,” she added.