The first thing you notice about Tucson in September isn’t the heat everyone warns you about. It’s the quiet. The mountains sit still and gold in the early light, the sky stays an impossible, cloudless blue, and for a few hours before a conference floor fills up, everything feels calm in a way that’s hard to find in this industry most days. Jen, representing ABS at the Senior Helpers Conference this year, said that stillness was the first thing that struck her. It didn’t last, and that was the point.
Her first morning on-site was spent doing something almost meditative: setting up the booth. No pitches yet, no lanyards crowding the aisle, just the quiet work of building a space for conversations that hadn’t happened yet. Then the doors opened, and the people started arriving. Regina was there too. Over the next few days, the two of them met a lot of them, and this is what they heard.
The Conversations That Stayed With Us
Every home care and home health owner who stopped by the booth was carrying something a little different.
Lead with Love.
Scale with Support.
Operate with Excellence.
Some were tired in the specific way that only after-hours calls can make you tired — the kind that comes from being the person who has to answer the phone at 2 a.m., every time, because there’s no one else to hand it to.
Some were brand new to Senior Helpers altogether, curious and a little unsure, wanting to understand how ABS actually supports agencies like theirs before they made any decisions at all.
One conversation is still on our minds. An owner who is also, quietly, the primary caregiver for her senior mother. She’s carrying a weekly bill that doesn’t ease up, and a full-time responsibility at home that doesn’t clock out either. She wasn’t looking for a sales pitch. She was looking for someone to understand that running an agency and caring for a parent can both be happening to the same person, at the same time, and that neither one gets to wait.
Others weren’t owners at all. Training and development leaders came by wanting to understand how ABS could work alongside an entire network of owners, not just one agency at a time. And some of the best conversations were with people already using virtual assistants elsewhere and genuinely happy with them, who stopped anyway — not because anything was broken, but because they wanted to see how ABS compared.
Nobody who walks up to a booth is a category. They’re a person mid-decision, mid-workday, mid-life, trying to figure out how to hold everything they’re responsible for.
Familiar Faces, New Friends
Not every conversation was a new one. Regina caught up with Craig Dowling, Franchise Development for Canada, a longtime friend who stopped by the booth to say hello — the kind of friendship built alongside the business, over years of showing up in the same rooms.
Hearing It Straight From Our Clients
The best moments at the booth were the ones where our own clients showed up to talk about their own experience, unprompted and in their own words.
George Pennamon, Client Engagement Operations Manager for Senior Helpers Westchester (owned by Joanne Taylor, an ABS client for the last couple of years), on Shane Castro, their digital lead coordinator and recruiting coordinator:
“She has been an absolute pleasure to work with. Her professionalism — she is constantly on point and constantly on task. A great pleasure, a great addition to our team.”
And on Shala, their scheduling coordinator:
“Shala is second to none. She sets the bar very high. She takes her position very seriously… Couldn’t ask for better VAs. ABS is great. They’ve been great.”
Kelsey, from Senior Helpers of Buffalo, on her team’s ABS professional, Joanne:
“Our virtual assistant Joanne is fantastic. She’s taken so many tasks off of our plate. She shows initiative. She communicates wonderfully with our caregivers. We love having her as part of our team.”
And Ivan Payes, an ABS client for three years, sat down with Regina about his two ABS professionals, Jessa Merza and Kristine Ann De Padua. What stood out to him wasn’t just their skill — it was making sure they never felt like outside help: “You make sure they’re comfortable, that they feel like they’re not just an outsourced team, but truly part of the office team.” Regina’s last question to him was the kind that tells you the most: what would happen if ABS disappeared tomorrow?
“It would be catastrophic. The big thing is making sure your team’s success is our success too — ABS has become such a part of our success that we couldn’t survive without them.”
Why We Keep Showing Up
After-hours exhaustion. A first-time owner still learning the landscape. A woman caring for her mother while running her agency. A franchise leader thinking about her whole network. A happy client who still wanted to compare notes. Three clients who took the time to say, plainly, that the people behind ABS matter to them. Different situations, one thread running through all of them — people responsible for the care of others, quietly needing someone to help carry the load.
That’s the real reason ABS shows up to a conference like this one, year after year. Not for the booth traffic. For the chance to sit across from the people doing this work and hear, directly, what it actually costs them.
Who ABS Is, and Why We Show Up for Home Care
Ascension Business Solutions exists to give home care and home health organizations the operational support they need to keep showing up for the people who depend on them — scheduling, caregiver recruiting, after-hours coverage, intake, and the administrative work that quietly determines whether a good day is possible. We’re not simply a source of virtual assistants. We think of ourselves as an operational partner, working alongside owners so the person running the agency isn’t also the permanent backup for every function inside it.
That matters because of who’s on the other side of every one of those roles. Home care and home health agencies are run by people who chose an industry built entirely around caring for someone else — and they deserve operational support built with the same care in mind. That’s what our three values, Love, Support, and Excellence, are meant to hold us to.
That’s the whole reason we were in Tucson. Home care and home health exist to help those who can no longer fully help themselves. Everyone at that conference — owners, caregivers, franchise leaders, partners — is on the front line of that work. ABS exists to support the people doing it, because we support those who support others.
Let’s Talk
If any part of this sounds like your week, we’d like to hear about it the way we heard from the owners in Tucson: directly, and without a pitch first.
