Home Instead History & Mission
For nearly three decades, Home Instead has delivered compassionate, high-quality care to seniors around the globe.To Us, It’s Personal®
Our founders, Paul and Lori Hogan, launched Home Instead in 1994 to provide care to Paul’s 90-year-old grandmother. Remarkably, after she began receiving personalized, in-home care that allowed her to age safely in the place she loved most – the family home – Grandma Manhart thrived for an additional decade!
That’s why, to us, senior care is personal. We’re passionate about expanding the world’s capacity to care.
More About the Founders of Durango Home Instead
Janine Hearn is her father’s daughter. You can tell right away when she talks about him. Her eyes get a knowing twinkle and her lips quirk up as though she and him are still sharing an inside joke through the telescope of so many years.
Janine had a blossoming social life in the UK, taking her two kids to their after-school activities, going on long walks with her friends, and coaching tennis having been quite a sports star in high school. However, in Janine’s late 30s her father began to take a downward spiral. She found him locked away in his house with her mother; the blinds drawn, the house in disarray, and the darkness descending upon them.
Without a second thought, Janine brought her dad to come and live with her and her children, ages 10 and 15. He continued down the rabbit hole. Her dad was misdiagnosed several times and his condition worsened. Two months after taking her father in, Janine’s mother began to decline. With what can only be described as superhuman strength, Janine took her mother in as well. Amongst an array of health issues, her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and was losing both the ability and will to care for herself at all. Her father’s condition remained a worsening mystery.
Like Atlas, Janine took the weight of her father and mother, her children, her work, and the burden of life itself, all upon her shoulders. Janine cared for her parents for 6 months on her own. When asked how she could have dealt with all of that, she responded with an echo of exhaustion at the memory, “I honestly don’t know,”.
She did it though. She cared for her whole family with grace and compassion, trying as hard as she could to shelter her children from the harsh reality of their grandparents. She describes the growing demands of her parents as “absorbing her”. Every day consisted of hours talking her dad down from the ledge and soothing his paranoia about the “white coats taking him away”. Her mom was nearly immobile on her own but refused to go to the hospital.
Janine tried for help and it seemed every door she knocked on kept closing on her until she found herself looking down a never-ending hall of locked doors.
After 6 months her father passed away and her mother transitioned to assisted living. But on Janine’s journey down that infinite hallway of closed doors she discovered her true calling: caring for others. She says, “If I could care for my parents, then I could care for anyone,” and so began her quest to care.
She founded the Durango branch of Home Instead in 2022 with her husband Dave Hearn. Escaping the demanding reach of corporate risk management, Dave brought with him his brilliant analytical mind and kind heart. Drawing immense knowledge from his career, he provided the structure and organization to match Janine’s compassionate, hands-on approach to caregiving. With their combined strength and perseverance they established themselves in our beautiful mountain town just when we needed them the most.
Forged in the fire of their experiences, the Hearn couple is a pillar of our community striving everyday to make sure the families of our town receive the support and care they deserve. They work hard everyday to ensure family members don’t have to spend what little energy they have looking for doors that remain closed. They are here, not only to open doors, but to step out and greet us before we even need to knock. They have assembled an amazing care team which functions more as an extension of their family than a business. That is Home Insteads mission; to connect members of our Durango community in great need of help with someone who is there to meet their needs with respect, reliability, and care.
For the people who are going through that unimaginable labor of caring for their family, Janine wants to ensure they don’t have to face it alone as she did during those unending 6 months. Her desire to extend her support runs deep. When she isn’t running Home Instead she is volunteering with the Alzheimer’s Association as a trained support group facilitator. She is a founding member of the Durango Dementia Coalition. She has committed herself entirely to her passion for care.