Quick visits on-demand or on your schedule!
Mom lives in a different city and needs someone to help her with her laundry or get to a doctor’s appointment. You’re out of town and Dad sounds lonely and needs some companionship. Dad overslept and missed lunch and you can’t find anybody to help him.
How many times have you been in a crisis like these? When this happens, the adult child can feel helpless and frustrated. But PAP partnering sponsor Swingby.care has found a way to put that adult child at ease with an easy to use app you can download for free from the Apple or Google Play App Store. Use referral code “OOPIOO” to let them know you found out about it from PAP!
Jeremy O’Bannon and Brooks Rhinehart of Swingby.care talk to Kim and Mike Barnes of Parenting Aging Parents about what their service can do for aging parents, how the app works and how a need for companionship helped inspire them to do this.
Read the full transcript
Transcript of Interview: “Need someone to check on your aging parent?”
Mike Barnes: I think that all of us with aging parents have hit that position where we think, “Oh my gosh, I need some help. I need somebody to just go by and check on Dad or pick up something for Mom or do something that won’t take very much time.” If you’re not in town or you don’t have time at that moment, it can be hard to know who to turn to.
Kim Barnes: Yes, well today we’re introducing you to Jeremy O’Bannon and Brooks Rhinehart. They have founded a company called SwingBy.Care. They’re a partnering sponsor of Parenting Aging Parents. You are trying to solve for that, and so we’re so glad that you are with us today. Thanks for being with us.
Jeremy O’Bannon: Thank you.
Brooks Rhinehart: Thank you.
Kim Barnes: Let’s start with the idea. We hear from so many in our community that sometimes they just need to get eyes on their mom. There are times when my mom will call from Houston, three hours away, and she’s having an issue with her computer. She just needs a little help—not something that necessarily requires a Home Care Agency. A lot of people are looking for something that could be just a quick trip or checking on them. Tell us a little bit about how SwingBy will fix that.
Brooks Rhinehart: We have created an on-demand or scheduled non-medical companion service. It’s a wellness check-in that could be for seniors or people who just had surgery and are bed-bound and need a little help. The idea is non-medical tasks. If your mother or grandmother needs a light bulb changed, for instance, our caregivers, or companions, can show up at the house and go through a series of questions. We learn a lot about the person, like whether they have eaten, their hygiene, if the pets are fed, if the trash is out, if the mail is in, and things of that nature.
The report will also provide suggestions to the family member, such as needing the backyard mowed, the front door not locking properly, or the house needing a deep cleaning. As soon as we’re done, that’s sent to the caretaker and/or family members for them to review. We do light housekeeping, like doing the dishes, companion services like playing cards or watching Jeopardy, and transportation to and from doctor’s offices or errands. The way it’s organized today, it typically takes 35 minutes for us to do a wellness check-in and provide a report. It’s $45 for the initial 35 minutes and $1 per minute for anything over that. This is all app-based, but we do have a hotline for people who are not comfortable with applications.
Mike Barnes: You mentioned the word “companion.” I think that’s key because so many of our aging parents are looking for companionship. It’s not necessarily spending eight hours a day doing something, but having someone drop by to watch the stock market report with my dad or play cards with Kim’s mom brightens their day a little bit.
Jeremy O’Bannon: You nailed it. Companionship is really the core of what we’re trying to accomplish. A lot of seniors are by themselves. Neighbors aren’t what they used to be. Our parents’ generation relied on neighbors. Companionship was really the start of what we’re trying to accomplish, and that will lead into and blossom into other things we can do.
Brooks Rhinehart: They call it the “gray tsunami” because the baby boomers are coming of age. They are healthy and independent, but let’s be real, we all need help every now and then. We can provide that at a very fair cost without the commitments of a traditional agency, which can be very costly and require four to eight hours a day, multiple days per week. That’s the gap we are filling.
Jeremy O’Bannon: We are trying to apply modern technology to modernize this need and make it seamless and easy. We want to give the adult children peace of mind. Sometimes you just need someone to check on your parents, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.
Kim Barnes: Really trying to solve the challenge of having someone check on mom or dad, especially if you’re out of town, have a super busy day, or can’t leave at the moment. Whether they need help right that minute or planning ahead, we want to make it easy.
Brooks Rhinehart: A lot of people have come to us begging us to start because they are exhausted. It doesn’t mean they don’t love their parents, but they just can’t go over there right now. They need a service that is safe and provides a generated report for peace of mind.
Jeremy O’Bannon: There are a couple of things within the industry that are alarming and sad—very low pay and unfit caregiving due to low pay. We have a practical approach to ensure caregivers are provided an aggressive payment schedule. The people taking care of you are professionals who will receive a fair wage, with a large safety component. That’s what we’re focused on.
Mike Barnes: You’ve made some great points. Helping people understand this model looks different than calling a home health agency. This is all app-driven, like Uber or Lyft but for caregiving. You go on the app, select or request someone to go by and check on your mom. Just like with Uber or Lyft, a caregiver sees the request and chooses to accept the job if they have time.
Jeremy O’Bannon: The philosophy is the same. We’re providing technology to make the match and provide quality caregivers. The app is very intuitive. You can watch the caregiver come to your home. You can track them and see their profile. You can decline the caregiver and choose again.
Brooks Rhinehart: We want quality people. They’re going in to check on your parents, my parents, Brooks’s parents. It’s important to build a strong network of companions.
Mike Barnes: I want to look at the app. Explain what people will see when they download the app and how they will use it.
Jeremy O’Bannon: The application is a single app with multiple sides for caregivers and care seekers. For someone seeking care, they will see what a wellness check is and what we do and cannot do. You select the types of activities you’re interested in, put in some information about the person receiving care, and their address. It’s super simple to create an account through your phone with a text message verification.
Brooks Rhinehart: The simplest way to book a swing by is to set up a time when you need someone. It can be right now or scheduled for the future. It’s a 35-minute minimum, and as a user, you can book for yourself or for someone else. Everything is a wellness check-in. We focus on that really well. Additional services are a dollar a minute.
Jeremy O’Bannon: You see the profile of the caregiver, their qualifications, and a picture. You can track them as they arrive. Mom or dad doesn’t need to worry about a stranger at the door. You get notifications and text messages, making it clear who is coming and when they will arrive.
Mike Barnes: You mentioned companionship as a core. Jeremy, it gave you the idea for this service. Tell us about that.
Jeremy O’Bannon: We all have experiences with aging parents and grandparents. They need companionship. When you visit them, you see a need. They don’t want you to leave. Whether you’re doing Meals on Wheels or playing music at assisted living, you see the reaction. Companionship is important. It might lead to music therapy as part of our service. There are huge opportunities to satisfy that need.
Kim Barnes: Especially for seniors living at home, they might be more isolated. They don’t drive much and are at home. Even in independent living, they might have issues with a computer or need assistance. It’s great to have someone provide that help.
Brooks Rhinehart: That’s what we’re here to do. Whether it’s tech help or other non-medical services, we want to fill that gap and provide peace of mind for seniors and their children.
Jeremy O’Bannon: We’re not a medical task company, but we will have an affiliate network for medical needs. We can identify issues and point people in the right direction through a vetted process. We’re like a home inspector identifying what needs to be done and matching people with the right services.
Mike Barnes: The possibilities are endless. SwingBy.Care is the way to get to your website. How do people get the app downloaded?
Brooks Rhinehart: SwingBy.Care will have active buttons to send you to the app store, whether on your computer or phone. It’s available on both Apple and Android. Look for the logo and type in SwingBy.Care to find it in the app store.
Kim Barnes: We appreciate all that you’ve done.
Jeremy O’Bannon: Thank you.
Kim Barnes: It shows that you have an option to get help. Sometimes, living three hours away from your mom or dad, you need someone to check on them or show them how to turn on the ringer on their iPhone. There are lots of options.
Mike Barnes: If you have any other topics you’d like us to discuss, please let us know at Parenting Aging Parents.
*This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos or mistakes.
