By Ethan Kispert
Many of us have been there: concerned for the safety and well being of our relatives, especially seniors. One Scottsdale duo wants to fix this. Functional Futures, started by Dr. Devon Turnbull and Dr. Emily Reilly, is a new Scottsdale North company that assists seniors right in the comfort of their own homes.
What makes them different from other senior care businesses is with how they approach their clients. “We are completely mobile,” Turnbull says. “We travel to our clients’ homes in order to assess them in their own living environment rather than in a clinic.”
The company just opened last month. “We met up over coffee in December 2020 and decided to team up to create this new business venture that we were both excited about and knew would be beneficial to the community,” Reilly says.
Much of the inspiration behind starting Functional Futures came from where they’ve worked before. The collaboration between Turnbull, who runs her own mobile practice for physical therapy, and Reilly, who runs a mobile practice for occupational therapy, served as the foundation behind their new business venture.
“We met last year and began referring more and more clients to each other as we found that a majority of older adults could benefit from both OT (occupational therapy) and PT (physical therapy),” Turnbull says. “This led us to identifying a gap that we wanted to bridge: we realized that many of our clients were in need of home safety modifications, caregiver training, fall prevention strategies and general strength/conditioning, but they didn’t know where to start.”
This is where their company steps in. The duo drives to people’s homes and provides them with the assistance they need. “As a concierge-style service, we never want our clients to feel rushed, and we spend as much time as we need to with them,” Reilly says.
Functional Futures provides a range of services, but their primary service is in assisting clients when they’re at home. “Since a majority of people want to remain in their homes as they age, our goal is to provide a much-needed service to this population,” Turnbull says.
During each visit, they’ll perform a safety assessment in the client’s home and then provide recommendations on improving mobility, stability and safety. Aside from providing home safety assessments, Functional Futures offers other services to customers as well, such as helping clients get more active in their community.
For more information about Functional Futures, visit functionalfutureshmc.com.
