The solar panels mounted atop the roof of the 1907 white stucco home at the corner of Addison and North in Elmhurst show passing motorists that even though the home is old, it doesn’t have to get by on a less than optimal heating system.
And inside the home, in a suite of basement offices, a group of professionals proves that senior citizens don’t have to settle for less than optimal care.
It is in these offices that Betty Read, a woman who refuses to disclose her age but is surely old enough to have chosen retirement if she wished, built the foundation for her company Wisdom Inc.
Read, who earlier in her life worked as a director of preschool programs and more recently as the manager of the Community Care Program for senior citizens for DuPage County, incorporated her business in 1987, although for two years prior to that she operated it part time.
“When I was working for the county, I was working with people of very limited income, but I realized that there was a whole group of people of more affluent means who still had a need of services such as nursing homes but didn’t know how to find them,” she said.
She began by helping people find the right nursing homes for themselves or their loved ones.
“It happened that I worked with a family who then referred me to their trust officer at First Illinois Bank of LaGrange (now Bank One), and she in turn referred me to another trust officer,” Read said. “I would like to say I had this brilliant idea of specifically working with trust officers, but it just happened.”
Today, Wisdom Inc. works with a large number of trust officers who have been legally entrusted with the management of elderly persons’ property and physical welfare, in financial institutions such as First National Bank of Chicago, the Northern Trust Co., LaSalle National Bank and American National Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago.
“Betty Read will go out of her way to make sure clients are getting the right amount of care yet not paying for services they don’t need,” said Art Gergets, a vice president and trust administrator with First National Bank of Chicago.
Though it is trust companies she lists as clients, Read’s true focus is on those elderly people who benefit from her full range of geriatric services, including care management, the hiring and monitoring of live-in companions, home maintenance and, when needed, guardianship.
Read still helps in searches for nursing homes but prefers to see clients stay at home when possible.
“First of all, one of the biggest difficulties for people as they age is that they become dependent and frail. They are losing control of their lives; their bodies will not do what they want,” she said. “Because they are frail, decisions are made for them. When they are in their home, they maintain a greater feeling of control of their lives. Moving creates a lot of losses. They are not just losing their belongings; they are losing the memories and milestones of their lives.”
The typical elderly people served by Read are physically or mentally impaired; although they may have sufficient money for care, they don’t have family nearby who can assume the many aspects of that care, including meal preparation, shopping for clothes and getting to medical appointments.
This type of business seems perfectly suited to Read, who has been in social work her entire career, but she said that her acceptance of herself as a business owner didn’t come easily.
“I laugh about it now, but for the first two years after I started, I could not bring myself to say, `I am in business,’ ” she said. “I guess having worked in social service, there was something not quite acceptable about it.”
She said, however, that she is past that now. “I am able to live with the fact that there is nothing wrong with making money at the same time I am doing something to help improve the quality of people’s lives.”
Her business has grown, and now, in addition to her main office in Elmhurst, there are others in Oakbrook Terrace, Northbrook and Palos Heights. She is making plans to take her business national and open offices in Arizona, California and Florida. Read has 11 full- and part-time employees, not including caregivers, who work on a contract basis.
Although she may have stumbled into the area of trusts, her success is no accident, others say.
“She is outstanding; she is absolutely the best,” said Carol Grant Opferman, a vice president and trust administrator with the Northern Trust Co. in Chicago.
Opferman recalls her first dealings with Read about five years ago.
“I had a situation in which a husband was gravely ill and the wife needed help,” she said. “Although the husband died, we went ahead and put a hired companion, a young man, in the house. He did household chores, such as gardening and wallpapering, as well as caring for the woman.”
Opferman said she is impressed with the level of training of the caregivers picked by Read.
“I recently visited a client who has Alzheimer’s, and the caregiver showed me a photo album filled with pictures he uses to remind the client of things they had done. He even took photos of me when I was there,” she said. “He learned this technique in a workshop to which Betty sent him.”
Opferman said that Read’s companions will make sure that clients remember to call relatives, send gifts and greeting cards and handle other tasks.
Avian Monti, a retired Chicago high school teacher, has been working as a live-in companion for an elderly woman in LaGrange Park for the last year and a half. “My client has Alzheimer’s but is physically independent,” Monti said. “I cook, shop and drive for her.”
Although Monti lives with the elderly woman 24 hours a day, she takes a 10-hour day off every week and does get vacations, during which a substitute fills in for her.
She praises Read’s knowledge and empathy for the caregivers.
“Once I was really looking forward to a vacation, but just before I left, my client became ill. I didn’t feel like I could go,” she said. “Betty said, `You have to go.’ She is the wisest person about this and takes care of the caregiver.”
Monti said the other advantage of working with Read is that if she runs into problems, she has an entire agency ready to help her 24 hours a day. “If I had been hired by an individual family, I wouldn’t have that,” she said.
Laurel Letwat of Morton Grove, manager of nursing services for Wisdom Inc., also pays monthly or semi-monthly visits to the homes of the elderly and takes them to doctors’ appointments. A social worker also visits them once a month.
Ellen Fortis of Keeneyville, manager of client services, has worked for Read for the last five years. At first she was surprised at what she saw.
“These people have money, and I thought that meant they would have it better,” she said. “Many of these people have lots of money but no family to love them, or they have been exploited by their so-called loved ones. Sometimes we have to work with protective services (when physical abuse by family members is suspected). With money comes its own problems.”
Read has also gone high-tech. She has established Access Wisdom, a hotline (800-562-5555) that the general public can call to obtain free information on nursing homes, retirement homes and assisted living homes throughout the areas served by the 312, 708 and 815 area codes.
A new service called PatientLink will soon be available to hospitals. By computer, discharge planners will be able to check nursing home availability, rates and specific services, such as if the facility accepts Alzheimer’s patients, young adults, even such things as on-site dialysis and motorized wheelchairs.
“The search can be narrowed to five-square-mile areas and 10-minute drive times,” said Phil Wyatt of Elmhurst, the chief operating officer of Wisdom Information Services, which includes PatientLink and Access Wisdom.
This information can be updated daily by the nursing homes that belong to the service.
“This will save discharge planners hours and hours of searching by telephone,” said Rosemarie Grady of Downers Grove, manager of older adult services for Wisdom.
At a time when Read could sit back and let herself be cared for a bit, she doesn’t appear ready to stop. “I will do this for at least the next five years,” she said.
