NEW LIFE:Liam Toland has fulfilled his quest for a new challenge in his life by providing homecare for the elderly

AFTER 17 years in the defence forces, Liam Toland was looking for a new challenge in his life. What greater test in the depths of a recession than to start a new business providing homecare for the elderly?

The past year has been eventful and instructive for the former Leinster rugby captain, but he relishes being part of something he believes to be positive amid so much general negativity.

Running a private homecare service for families who want to keep their loved ones at home for as long as possible is very different to anything Toland has done before – but he has found the skills and experience he built up in both his army and rugby careers have stood well to him in his new role.

A native of Limerick, Toland joined the defence forces after leaving school in November 1991 as a cadet with the 2nd cavalry squadron in Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines. He was then assigned to the presidential escort of honour, eventually becoming commanding officer of the motorbike cavalcade.

The former Munster player ended up joining Lansdowne rugby club and captained the Leinster team in 1999, which gave him the opportunity to play in European competitions.

During his career in the defence forces, Toland went on two overseas trips to Kosovo, the first as a military police officer in the multinational military police force. During his second six-month stint there, he was promoted to deputy chief of operations in the Nato multinational task force centre in the capital, Pristina.

“It was a very dynamic and interesting location with troops coming from over 30 contributing nations to work shoulder to shoulder in the centre. This, of course, brought a variety of practical challenges in terms of different languages, different sets of equipment and different ways of doing things, particularly in an environment where we needed precise, accurate and timely information.”

It was around this time that Toland began thinking about making a change in career. He had filled a number of appointments in the defence forces, completed two overseas missions and was looking for a new challenge. He had heard about Home Instead Senior Care being brought to Ireland and was very much attracted to the US-based company’s concept.

“I had huge respect for their philosophy and what they were trying to achieve. Clearly Home Instead is a business, but that comes second to delivering quality care to seniors. The concept is about providing a quality service to people who want to stay at home, but can’t quite cope for a variety of reasons,” he explains.

When the opportunity came up to take on the Home Instead franchise in Limerick more than a year ago, Toland and his wife, Ruth, decided to go for it. For Toland, the decision had several changes built into it – he moved back from Kosovo through Dublin and home to his native Limerick and into the business life in the space of 24 hours.

He and his wife went to the company’s headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, for training in all aspects of delivering homecare to older people. There are 1,000 Home Instead carers providing services to about 1,000 clients around Ireland. Although each of the company’s Irish offices are run independently, the owners meet regularly to discuss how to improve the quality of care services they provide and to support each other, he explains.

“There’s a very strong sense of team so you never feel alone, which is similar to the defence forces. Having said that, the buck stops with me and my wife at the end of the day when it comes to our business in Limerick.”

The goal of Home Instead, according to Toland, is to enable seniors to remain stimulated and active at home for longer than would otherwise be possible. The services provided to clients range from helping with bathing and house cleaning to providing advice on diet and exercise or simply chatting about their past.

Toland remarks: “Family care is the best possible care a person can receive, but the stress associated with delivery of care day after day is huge, particularly where a carer could be in their 70s or 80s themselves and looking after a spouse with no family support nearby.

“There are a lot of similarities to what I was doing in the past, but the last year has been a big learning curve. These are difficult times in which to open a business and employ staff, but it’s been a worthwhile experience to date. We are growing slowly but surely and it’s nice to be delivering a positive service in the community in a time where everybody seems to be looking for a scapegoat,” Toland comments optimistically.