Jennifer Selden and her family know what it’s like to need in-home care for an aging relative.

They had to scramble to do so for Selden’s 88-year-old grandmother when the formerly active Colorado resident was injured in a fall.

“Before she fell, she was fine, and then she came home in a wheelchair,” Selden said. “We didn’t know how we were going to take care of her.”

Eventually the family’s extensive efforts, led by Selden’s mother, resulted in her grandmother having the 24-hour home care she needed. The experience helped influence Selden, a Hampstead resident, to open a Wilmington franchise of Right at Home, a growing in-home care and assistance company based in Omaha, Nebraska.

“I realized how important this kind of service is to people. I understood the difference it makes for the family caregiver, for the client,” Selden said. “Everybody’s quality of life improves.”

Selden’s Right at Home office, which will be located in Suite 3-D, 2210 Wrightsville Ave., will work to connect families and clients to private-duty nursing assistants and caregivers to help with tasks like light housekeeping, medicine reminders and transportation to appointments. The franchise will be licensed to provide personal, companion, sitter and respite care but not skilled nursing, Selden said.

Eric Martin, senior director of franchise development for Right at Home, said in North Carolina, there are roughly 1.5 million people over the age of 65, with more than 33,000 senior citizens living in Wilmington and the surrounding areas.

“And that number continues to grow literally every day,” Martin said.

He said Selden is “in a great area. We’re excited to be there and obviously expecting some great things and helping some people in that market.”

Right at Home opened 14 new franchises and signed agreements to open an additional 10 territories across the U.S. in the first quarter of 2016, Martin said. According to the firm’s website, Right at Home has more than 350 locations in the United States, Canada, the UK, China, Ireland and Brazil.

Each Right at Home franchise is independently owned and operated, and each office directly employs its own caregiving staff, the company’s website says.