Sidney business grows into new location

SIDNEY – It took only a year for one Sidney business to expand from their home’s dining room table to a new office space near Legion Park.  

Safe at Home, which provides assisted living services to senior citizens at different stages in their life from Ogallala to Chadron and Kimball to Hemingford, opened for business on April 18, 2021.  

One year later, Safe at Home has 70 employees, are in approximately 60 homes in the Nebraska Panhandle, and opened new office at 2046 10^th Avenue on April 22, 2022.  

“At the rate we’re going, we joke around that we’re going to have to put desks in the hallway,” Safe at Home Owner and Founder Amber Fields said. “There’s a lot of need. I think 20 percent of the population, on this side of the state, are elderly people, and a lot of them are still living out on farms.” 

According to Fields, patient care needs range from two hour to 24-hour assistance. She says employees pick their own schedules based on their availability. She has some employees who work a few hours a week, to some who work almost 70 hours a week. 

“We have people that are just getting started, retired people, teachers and working moms,” Fields said. “We always try to hire in the area. We try to match people up and give them that flexibility so they can go to school, raise kids and do the things they need to do in their lives.” 

Fields says they have taken people to nail appointments, hair appointments and parades. She believes it’s important that people in the community can be back out doing what they want to do. 

“I think with COVID-19, a lot of people got stuck in their homes, especially elderly, and they were alone” Fields said. 

Safe at Home works with people who are getting out of surgery and only need care for a couple weeks all the way to people who need hospice care.  

“A lot of times when people come in here, they’re coming in here because it’s the very last thing,” Fields said. “They don’t know what else to do, so they need us right now.” 

The goal of Safe at Home is to provide care and happiness to people from their homes for as long as they need, according to Fields.  

“We really want elderly people to stay in their homes,” Fields said. “To be happy, and people are living longer.”