Home Health Care

Each year at this time many of our clients and our staff start to get excited that spring is coming. It is that time when many of our clients plant some flowers, vegetables or spices (or all) with our staff. It does not matter whether our clients live in a house, condo or an apartment.

Our staff can help our clients plant items on their back patio/porch/door area, in buckets or in the ground. Also, the client and staff can plant flowers near the front door, to add some life and cheer to the home, not only from the inside, but from the out side as well.

Now we are not a lawn and yard service, but we can help with some light gardening. Like having a pet helps certain older folks with companionship, and having a pet can work that way for all of us for that matter!!! Gardening keeps a balance and normalcy in a persons life. Especially when that person has always planted a few things around in their yard through their life. Gardening helps in a therapeutic way for an individual, it help one find that inner peace and calm.

We water the plants together with our clients too, and the exercise is good for all involved. We can use the vegetable/spice items in meals that we prepare, or we help prepare with our clients, as well. And, as Martha Stewart would say: “And that’s a good thing!”

We can help our clients pick out the flowers, vegetable and/or spice plants they like. Of course we can do more if our clients can not help that much, so everyone can take part in the adventure of light gardening, and the cheer it brings. We find that Cherry Tomatoes and Purple Pixie Eggplants grow the best in buckets on the back porch

Chris

The care that you deserve………The art of having constant staffing.

Today we took in 2 new clients. These new clients were with 2 other agencies. The clients and their families were sick of never having the same staff show up to their homes, and no one from these agencies they were with, were returning their calls back to them. Well that is NOT how it should work – and it’s not how it works with us. Our clients are number one and the only reason we opened our doors 7 years ago.

One of the family members said: “With the other agency it was like reinventing the wheel every few days.” Her mother was so frustrated she was actually thinking about leaving her home, and going into assisted living. Rather than staying in her home of 59 years. They had called us and asked if we tried to have constant staffing for our clients. Our answer was and is a big YES! And, she is still in her own home

There are times things occur and staff will have change. It is important to be up front about this, but we do all that we can to maintain constant staffing. Most all of the time it works out. We have staff that have worked for us for years, that have also been with the same clients for years. But we can guarantee there will never be a time when it is a new staff person every day or every week. This is simply not how we do home health care, ever! We also make sure if possible if the staff is going to change, that we have a cross training session between the old and new staff.

We also match clients and staff based on skills/experience and personality. Since we respect our staff and treat them well, we have very little turn over and excellent staff morale. That is so key in having constant staffing and building working relationships. But this takes caring and experience in the office with our managers, to make sure what goes on in the field works for everyone. Caring and experience make the difference.

The reason we make sure we have constancy with our staff, is because it helps our clients have a sense of balance and security in their life and home. When you have to have home health care, we realize that it is a big deal, and it is something no one wants to have to have. We realize this fact. So home health care should be as smooth as possible. Home care should be something that enriches the life’s of our clients and helps maintain as much integrity and independence as possible.

When dealing with our staff, every day with respect to our clients, we stop and ask our self’s “Is this the way we would want things done in one of our own family members home.” If the answer to that is yes, that is the way we go, if the answer is no, then we do something about it.

Chris