One evening in May 2022, Anne Marie and Joshua Long found themselves immersed in runaway scribbling on bar coasters in a pub in Kilkenny, Ireland.
They were trying to enjoy a one-year honeymoon anniversary, but all attempts had brought them back to a nagging future vision — and now Anne Marie was talking and thinking faster than Joshua could scribble: What if they were to start their own business to help solve the needs of a growing senior population and their families?
She pointed out how many families across the United States and in their own home area of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, were trying every day to navigate senior living communities, figure out which senior care companies to consider, who to trust for a loved one’s care and best serve each family’s needs and other details they would rather not have to face alone.
So what if she and Joshua were to provide these services instead, where they handled all the details, helped narrow choices for all kinds of senior needs, and made the whole process easy and unintrusive? And free of charge?
“We both have a background in senior care and knew there was such a need for this kind of service,” Joshua Long said. “And the ideas for making it happen were coming to us faster than I could map them out on the coasters.”
Anne Marie also had a name for it: Senior Resource Specialists.
Now, just when SRS should be getting through its startup phase, the Longs’ vision has instead already made it into one of the Lowcountry’s premier resources for almost every conceivable senior living need.
“So much of this was Anne Marie’s doing,” Joshua Long said. “We both do the same things — such as trying to advise families on senior care options. But SRS happened mainly because Anne Marie has an unbounded passion for helping people. And this idea played right into the vision of how we could make an even bigger difference to seniors in our community.”
For example, suppose you have a parent or grandparent in need of some kind of senior assistance.
Options you might choose include:
• Independent living for maximum flexibility and vibrant lifestyles.
• Assisted living or memory care at a senior living community.
• Private duty caregivers in the home in order to age in place.
• Skilled Nursing facilities more complex care needs.
• Hospice care to offer care and comfort at end of life.
Further consider that making a choice without support will likely require checking on various places, making visits and then comparing choices — all with no guarantee of leading you to the right solution.
The Longs take away the guesswork to determine a course of action that fits what you need — even if you’re not sure what you need.
“The majority of my days are spent conversing with seniors and their families, providing support and expert advice as they navigate various aspects of senior living,” said Anne Marie, originally from Pennsylvania. “I also spend considerable time visiting hospitals and rehabilitation facilities, actively participating in senior-living marketing events and discovering fresh resources to benefit our clients.”
Once finished, Long presents each family a plan of action “which usually occurs right after our initial conversation.”
“And almost every time, I witness a visible release of burdens from their shoulders,” she said. “That to me is the most rewarding part of everything I do.”
And this vision and approach has caught on like wildfire.
Since hanging out the SRS shingle in October 2022 – five months after scribbling out the plan on pub coasters — the Longs have not only watched the business grow into four locations so far, but with clients beating a path to their door from Savannah, Georgia, to Charlottesville, Virginia.
As for its Lowcountry influence, SRS has already been voted “Best Of in Mount Pleasant” for 2023 as a Certified Senior Advisor — barely a year after launching.
“And we are actively looking to expand our team,” Anne Marie said.
That expansion could be considerable, considering the growing senior living market.
In a 2020 report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, researchers estimated the number of U.S. seniors at more than 54 million and counting.
The National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care in Annapolis, Maryland, projects that the United States will need more than 880,000 new senior-living facilities by 2030 and 986,000 by 2040.
And the U.S. Census Bureau is projecting older adults to outnumber children by the year 2034 for the first time in U.S. history — meaning that the already huge need for dedicated senior care is only going to keep increasing.
As for Anne Marie and Joshua Long, they have their sleeves rolled up all the way, ready to meet the challenge for a long time to come.
“Neither of us would have created SRS alone,” Anne Marie said. “But together, as a free service, we come alongside seniors and provide hard-won insight, and advocate for them and their families. And at this point, we are excited about the opportunities ahead.”
By L. C. Leach III
