Home Instead Honors Top Caregivers Amidst a Deepening Industry Crisis

SAN MATEO, CA – February 20, 2026 – Home Instead, a global leader in in-home care, has announced its 10 recipients of the 2025 Care Pro of the Year Award, casting a spotlight on the individuals who provide essential, compassionate support to older adults. While the annual award celebrates personal dedication, it also arrives as the home care industry grapples with an unprecedented workforce crisis, making the recognition of such professionals more critical than ever.

The honorees, hailing from communities across the United States and Canada, were selected for what the company describes as an “extraordinary commitment to helping older adults age with dignity, independence, and joy at home.” The award represents the highest form of recognition for professional caregivers within the vast Home Instead network, which, as an Honor company, delivers over 60 million hours of care annually.

“Aging is not just a stage of life, it’s a deeply personal journey,” said Dr. Lakelyn Eichenberger, gerontologist and caregiving advocate at Home Instead. “These Care Pros understand that showing up with empathy and heart can transform someone’s ability to age on their own terms.”

The Human Touch: Stories of Extraordinary Commitment

Behind the award titles are powerful stories of human connection and unwavering dedication. The actions of the 2025 winners illustrate a level of care that transcends a job description, turning daily support into life-affirming practice.

Take Darla Amlong of Norfolk, Nebraska. Inspired by the care her own mother received, Amlong is known for her creative problem-solving. In one instance, she undertook a 181-mile round-trip drive to ensure a client could spend a cherished weekend with her daughter, transforming a simple transport into a memorable adventure. Her efforts exemplify a deep commitment to making each client's day “lighter, easier, or more meaningful.”

In Magnolia, Texas, Milagros Fernandez brings the lessons of a lifetime to her work. Having left Cuba as a young woman and later caring for her own mother for eight years following a stroke, she treats every client with the same patience and dignity she afforded her own family. Families she works with describe her as a blessing, noting thoughtful gestures like bringing homemade flan and her unshakable competence in moments of crisis.

Similarly, Maureen Walsh of Norwell, Massachusetts, has a history of advocacy that informs her caregiving. She has been credited with preventing choking incidents, catching a client mid-fall, and providing steadfast emotional support through difficult diagnoses like Parkinson's and dementia. For the families she serves, Walsh is a pillar of strength, making them feel less alone in overwhelming circumstances.

These caregivers, along with fellow honorees like Kathryn Bolissian of Markham, Ontario, who leverages her experience as a mother to a child with special needs to bring a sense of calm and stability to her clients, represent the profound impact of empathetic, personalized care. They are the frontline workers making the concept of aging in place a dignified reality for countless older adults.

A Crisis of Care: Recognition in an Industry Under Strain

The celebration of these exemplary caregivers occurs against a stark backdrop: a severe and worsening labor shortage in the home care sector. Seth Sternberg, CEO and co-founder of Honor Technology, Home Instead's parent company, noted the gravity of the situation. “Across the country, demand for in-home care is growing faster than the number of people entering the caregiving profession,” he stated. “If we want more older adults to be able to age at home, we have to take care of the people who make that possible.”

Industry data paints a grim picture. The median turnover rate for home care caregivers surged to 77% in 2022, a significant jump from 65% the prior year. Across the broader senior living sector, nearly 80% of leaders identify attracting and retaining staff as their primary challenge. This high churn rate not only disrupts continuity of care for vulnerable seniors but also places immense strain on providers struggling to meet surging demand from an aging population.

In this context, formal recognition programs like Home Instead’s Care Pro of the Year are more than just a corporate accolade; they are a strategic tool for retention and morale. Research indicates that robust employee recognition can reduce voluntary turnover by as much as 40%. Studies have also found that home care companies with formal recognition programs experience 31% less voluntary turnover than those without. For many caregivers, feeling valued and appreciated is a powerful motivator, sometimes even more so than compensation alone. By publicly celebrating its top performers, Home Instead reinforces a culture of appreciation that is essential for stabilizing its workforce of over 100,000 Care Pros.

Tech and Tenderness: The Future of Aging in Place

Addressing the caregiver crisis requires a multi-faceted approach, and for Home Instead and Honor, technology is a key part of the solution. The 2021 acquisition of Home Instead by Honor Technology brought together a global care network with a sophisticated technology and operations platform, creating a powerful synergy aimed at modernizing the industry.

The Honor Care Platform utilizes machine learning and AI to tackle logistical complexities. Its software works to find optimal caregiver-client matches based on skills, location, and personality, while also managing scheduling, regulatory compliance, and performance analysis. This frees up local franchise owners and the caregivers themselves from administrative burdens, allowing them to focus on the human element of their work.

Furthermore, tools like the Honor Family App enhance transparency and communication, allowing family members to see schedules, receive daily care notes, and provide feedback in real time. The platform is designed not to replace the human touch, but to empower it. By streamlining operations and providing robust support, the technology aims to professionalize the role of the caregiver, reduce burnout, and make the job more sustainable and rewarding.

This blend of high-tech support and high-touch care represents a forward-looking model for the future of aging. The excellence of the 2025 Care Pros of the Year is the ultimate goal, and technology is the scaffold that helps make that level of quality care more consistent and scalable. The winners will be formally celebrated at Home Instead’s annual franchise convention, and their stories will be shared widely, serving as both an inspiration and a reminder of the vital importance of the caregiving profession. As the needs of an aging society grow, this dual focus on celebrating human compassion while leveraging technological innovation will be crucial in ensuring everyone has the opportunity to age on their own terms.