For family caregivers, when an aging parent reaches a certain point of declination, it may seem as though there is no choice but to put the loved one in an assisted living facility.

But a new Issaquah business is giving families another option.

This month, Issaquah couple Richard Smith and Justyn Scarbeau are opening a local franchise of Right at Home, an international agency that provides care for elderly patients so that they can avoid moving out of their homes for as long as possible.

Right at Home, which opens June 19, provides care for people with a variety of special care situations, including Alzheimer’s/dementia, osteoarthritis, hypertension/stroke recovery, diabetes, heart disease, neuromuscular issues and cancer recovery.

The business matches caregivers with seniors who just need some extra help with everyday tasks, such as cooking meals, cleaning, bathing, getting dressed and remembering to take medications at the appropriate times. This way, clients are still able to manage a household and take care of themselves, and are not forced to leave the comfort and familiarity of their houses.

“People are happy at home, they feel better at home; home is safe,” explained Scarbeau.

Scarbeau witnessed this firsthand with her grandmother on the East Coast, who passed away after moving to a nursing home.

“I saw her health decline … and she started that downward turn because she was unhappy, she was out of her home,” Scarbeau said. “There was no car anymore, she had to make new friends, she didn’t have the stability and comfort of home … [The decline] was more rapid having to go into an unfamiliar home. It’s really just that domino effect.”

Scarbeau’s situation of being thousands of miles away from a family member with worsening health is not unique in this day and age; with large companies like Microsoft Corp., Boeing Co. and Amazon bringing workers from around the country to the Pacific Northwest, more and more middle-aged people are finding themselves having to choose between their careers and caring for aging parents back home.

Right at Home, which has offices across the U.S. and internationally in Canada, Japan, China, the UK and the Czech Republic, can step in when people are too far away to care for their loved ones.

“There is a need for this type of service all over the world,” Scarbeau said.

And while the goal is to keep clients in their homes for as long as possible, Scarbeau and Smith plan to partner with local nursing facilities and hospitals to provide services to patients there. On the nursing home side, this could mean providing facilities with a larger number of caregivers who can in turn give more help to individual patients, such as giving more car rides or more baths per week, or sitting with an Alzheimer’s or dementia patient at night to make sure the person does not leave their bedroom.

“We’re working to establish relationships with all of the surrounding facilities to let them know we are here, we support them, we’re not here to take away their clients … we are here to help them fill those gaps,” Smith said.

With hospitals, this means working with those in charge of discharging patients to ensure that the patient isn’t re-admitted back to the hospital for the same problem just a few weeks later. Right at Home caregivers can make sure a recovering patient is taking the proper medication at the right time, and is not being too active too soon, while still letting the patient enjoy being back home.

“The more comfortable the individual is in their surroundings, the better the healing process,” Smith said.

Smith and Scarbeau, who will soon celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, did not intend to go into providing care for the elderly. Having moved out to Washington from Boston, Smith worked in finance and Scarbeau had a job at Microsoft Corp. After the stock market crash, Smith got out of the financial services industry and decided he “wanted to do something worthwhile.”

When the couple settled on the idea of Right at Home, Scarbeau intended to keep working full-time at Microsoft Corp. However, she said that she began reflecting on “where I got my joy.”

“I said, ‘I can do that [Microsoft Corp. project], but what kind of reward am I going to have? If I take that leap of faith [with Right at Home], think of the people I could help … What would I hate about myself down the road — trying and failing, or not trying at all?’”

Seven weeks after leaving one of the world’s biggest tech companies, Scarbeau said that she’s very happy with her decision.

“It’s been a crazy, whirlwind journey, but so rewarding so far, and we haven’t even started providing services to clients,” she said with a laugh.

For Scarbeau, it was really a journey of “getting back to my roots.” Growing up, she took care of her younger siblings and, as the daughter of a hospital administrator and a nurse, spent a lot of time caring for patients in hospitals.

Smith, too, has a caregiving background. In college, he and his mother cared for his grandfather, who had cancer. Smith had to balance studying with taking overnight shifts with his grandpa. He said an agency such as Right at Home would have made that time much easier on his family.

“Peace of mind is the biggest thing in providing dignity to the people we support,” Smith said.

“We just want to improve the quality of life for the people we serve,” Scarbeau said, highlighting Right at Home’s mission. “We’re really excited to have this opportunity to give back to the community.”

Smith and Scarbeau will be looking for full- and part-time caregivers in the coming weeks. To contact the Issaquah Right at Home, email info@homecareissaquah.com or call 425-369-4044. The office is located at 1595 NW Gilman Blvd. Suite 6B.

The mission of Right at Home is to provide peace of mind and as high a quality of life as possible for the people it serves. Nicole Jennings/staff photo

The business opens on June 19. Nicole Jennings/staff photo