Community All Stars - Meet local do-gooders who are making southern Rhode Island a better place
SO Rhode Island
September 1, 2011
by - Kate Petterson
“This is my passion,” says Jenny Miller, President and Owner of East Greenwich’s Senior Care Concepts, a service that provides geriatric care management. She oversees the provision of a number of services to her clients, including long-term health care planning and acting as a liaison between the senior, their family and health care providers. Miller holds a bachelor’s degree in social work and human development from Wheelock College and a master’s degree in social work and gerontology from Boston University. Her interest and passion for this field of work started from an early age and grew from a special relationship she shared with her grandmother. You could say that Miller started in the business early, volunteering in assistant living and nursing homes before receiving her degrees.
Besides running her business, Miller belongs to the National and RI Association of Social Workers and the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers. She is also a member of the Rhode Island Alzheimer’s Association Board and a graduate of the 2008 Leadership RI program. Providence Business News named Miller one of the “Top 40 under 40” in 2009. Her most recent achievement is being voted as 2011 Social Worker of the Year in Aging by the RI chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Miller says of the national honor, “It’s humbling and it’s exciting when your peers are nominating you for this position.” Miller reiterates, “This is my passion. The last thing you want is someone who doesn’t care helping you.”
In fact, the biggest compliment Miller believes she has received from her clients is when she is told by adult children that they were able to go back to being a son or daughter because of her help. She likes to describe herself and her employees as a “rent-a-daughter” or “rent-a-son” who take care of the details and use their skills and training to ease the difficult, and often time consuming and exhausting transitions, for both adult children and aging parents. When asked what she would say if she could share only one message with adult children who having aging parents, she responds thoughtfully, “There is help out there. You don’t have to do it alone. It is really important to be a son or daughter and get the professional assistance you need.”
