We were lucky to catch up with Dr. Erica Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Erica , appreciate you joining us today. Is there a heartwarming story from your career that you look back on?

It all started around three years old, my mother returned to the working field, and I spent most of my time with my grandparents. My grandparents taught me so much to prepare me for the world while growing up, and they sent me to private school because now I know that they felt it would be a better education start for me. At 12, I was full-time with my mother as I continued the remainder of my teenage years. At 18 years old, I gave birth to my daughter, married, and moved from the state of Virginia for the next 15 years. In between life happened, I divorced and became a single mom. Within two years later, I met a man that swept me off my feet, married him, and gave birth to another daughter. In 2010, we moved back to Virginia and spent the next six years regaining a relationship with my family as an adult, especially my grandparents. They loved my husband so much that they trusted him and the man he was called to be. Here is where the story begins, in 2016, my grandfather suffered a stroke and, within four months, was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia. As a family, we did not understand the challenges it took to care for my grandfather, so nine months later, my grandmother suffered mini-strokes and was ordered by the doctor that she would not be allowed to take care of her husband, only herself. During this time, my father was diagnosed with cancer, and my mother had to care for him; my uncle’s wife had a diabetic seizure and fell into a coma. After much deliberation, my husband and I moved in with my grandparents and became their primary caregivers. In December 2023, my grandmother was ill and returned home from the hospital on hospice. On January 27, 2023, she died slowly at home at 89 years old. We are currently providing care for my grandfather, who is now 92 years old. My uncle’s wife has remained in rehab on life support since 2016 and my father is still battling cancer since 2016.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Before moving in, I was working outside of the home, and two months before we moved in, I had the opportunity to work from home, and I took it, not knowing that working from home would be for the purposes of providing for my grandparents. In April 2017, we moved in with my grandparents. I could work from home and work overnight, so I could be alert at night when my grandfather was moving around in the “sundowning” phase of his dementia. I knew nothing about home care, but I started learning about home care. I suggested to my husband that if we could start a small home on the side, we could have just enough clients to share in the profits to fill any financial gaps and the maintenance of my grandparent’s home. This was only supposed to be small because my goal was to complete my Ph.D. in Psychology and continue to teach Psychology at the University level but become full-time status. In April 2017, we started Silver Care, LLC, a home care agency; my grandparents were the first clients. In 2018, I was terminated from my employment. I just resigned from my teaching positions because the full-time work, part-time business, teaching on the side, and being primary caregivers for our children and grandparents became overwhelming. During this time, my husband and I put in full-time work to grow Silver Care, LLC, and now over the past six years, we have provided personal care services to over 500 elderly and disabled and over 600 employment positions for caregivers. In 2020, we were approved for a 501(c)3 non-profit called Silver Care Dementia Center, Inc. This year 2023, we are unveiling this program for individuals living with a form of dementia and educating their caregivers as a respite care program. This is most important for primary caregivers to also focus on self-care for themselves and their families.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start?

Funding our business was all in perfect timing. My husband and I were working full-time jobs. In addition, we had part-time jobs teaching at the local colleges. My husband had two credit cards that received a large increase, and before I knew that we had to take on the primary caregiving for my grandparents, I said we should start a business with these credit cards. When we decided to start the home care, we used credit cards to establish the business, we have taken out no loans, and as of today, the credit cards have been paid off, and no, we have no debt. If we decided to walk away from the business today, we owe no debt to the business.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Treating others how you want to be treated helped build our reputation within the market. When I first started for home care services for my grandparents, I knew nothing about home care. I didn’t even understand the entire process. When I would call other agencies, I would either not get a callback; they pressured me to know what type of care I needed for them, when and how long, or they were impatient. This experience stuck with me when we went into home care. I always train my office staff on the story I experienced. I tell any caller on the phone to be patient, they are experiencing challenges of the unknown, and we need to educate them and guide them through the process. Issues and complaints need to be handled with care, whether it be a potential client, client, or employee.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.silvercare4u.com www.scdcva.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/silvercare4u https://www.facebook.com/SCDCVA
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-jones-phd-8a94076/
• Youtube: @silvercaredementiacenterin8600

Image Credits
William Lashley Shirley Lashley Dr. Lawrence Jones Dr. Erica Jones