Service aids elderly to downsize, relocate

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mark Thomsen is a veteran caregiver.

“My mother had Alzheimer's for 10 years, and my father was a paraplegic for 24 years,” he explained.

He and his two siblings collaborated in the care for their parents.

“There was probably nothing that we hadn't done” during that time, he said.

Working in his role as executive director of assisted living in The Views in Cedar Rapids, he'd observed hundreds of families dealing with the issues that come with the transitioning process brought about by declining health and other aging issues.

In 2009 he launched his own business, Senior Transitioning Services, a fully insured and bonded company dedicated to assisting seniors and their families through the process of downsizing and relocating.

“The need is for this type of service is huge,” he explained, adding that families are at a loss as where to start once they realize their elderly family members can no longer live alone.

Issues such as taking the keys away from someone who is no longer a safe driver to downsizing from a house can be overwhelming tasks to navigate. Senior Transitioning Services helps their clients organize and pack their current home, they handle the moving process, and they unpack and resettle people's new living quarters and assist with dispersal of additional furniture.

The company employs 12 part-timers who do all the packing in the former residence as well as the unpacking and setting up in the new living arrangement before the client arrives.

“They make the beds and hang the pictures, etc.,” said Thomsen, who also hires movers for the heavy lifting and carrying.

“People being transitioned are already scared, frustrated, angry or nervous because their life is changing dramatically, and our goal is that, when they walk into their new residence - whether it be a nursing home room or some other assisted living facility - that new location will be 100 percent ready for them to live in.

“We try to mimic what they had at their former residence,” he said. “If they had a china cabinet by their front door, we try to arrange that in the new place.”

Owner: Mark S. Thomsen

Company: Senior Transitioning Services

Address: 1712 Greenlefe Ct. NW, Cedar Rapids

Phone: (319) 981-5716

Website: www.seniortransitioningservices.com

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