Jim Baker founded a company to help aging Americans avoid long-term care facilities by selling in-home solutions to people living in non-clinical settings.

With products such as lighted umbrellas, doorknob grippers and home-monitoring systems, Baker’s shop offers a number of low- and high-tech gadgets intended to assist seniors who aren’t necessarily sick, but still need some help around the house.

A public relations professional who spent nearly 25 years in sales, marketing and management roles with large organizations in the heath-care field – including Briggs Corp. in West Des Moines – Baker opted to open his own business in March 2010. Starting out in a kiosk at Jordan Creek Town Center, he relocated last June to a retail space in the East Village.

Born in Chicago and raised in Windsor Heights, Baker, 63, spent several years living and working in San Francisco before returning to Greater Des Moines about 10 years ago as his mother got along in years.

“At the time, she was probably in her late 80s, still living at home,” he said. “She was the very embodiment of everything I had been working on. She was falling, she didn’t want to go into a community, she just wanted to maintain. But it was very difficult for her.”

A short while later, Baker began asking questions about how he could meet the needs of the “well elderly.”

Now, as Helping Home enters its second year, Baker hopes to turn a profit as his company launches a business-to-business campaign focused on providing alternatives to seniors who don’t want or can’t afford the cost of long-term care.

“What we are starting to do is work with senior communities to help them create what we call virtual communities,” he said. “These are groups of people who may not be appropriate to live in your facility … but they could use something at home, like a monitoring system.”

Baker said about 34 million American families are involved in the care of seniors. “We are still evolving as the market evolves,” he said.