Digging Through the Notes: Taking Care of One of Ours

Before I was in the home care business, my grandparents used home care.

It wasn’t until last week that I realized they used A Place at Home. While looking up my profile on our computer system, my mom’s name also came up, and that led me on a very rewarding search through records one afternoon.

My grandparents have both passed away, and the daily memories I get from them usually come in passing from the pictures I have on my refrigerator. Reading their care notes last week brought both joy and sadness, but the feeling that gave me the most comfort, was the Caregiver’s compassion shown to them evidenced by the careful recording of the notes.

The amazing thing is that, had I not known who these care notes were about, I’d bet money that they were about my grandparents. That’s how detailed APH’s caregivers are when it comes to caring for and documenting the care of our clients.

“R finished 25% of her dinner and 100% of her dessert.” 

“R went to bed at 9:00 but A stayed up to watch the baseball game in the den.”

“For breakfast, A had toast with orange marmalade.”

“R visited with friends and was on the phone most of the day.” 

These notes were totally my grandparents.

Another thing I appreciated, was reading the email communications between our CEO and my mom. He checked up on them often to make sure her parents were receiving top-notch quality care.

When talking to our CEO, Dustin, I mentioned finding my grandparents’ care notes in the system. Even though they were only clients for about three weeks, three years ago, Dustin remembered exactly who I was talking about. With the hundreds of clients APH serves, he was able to say with confidence that he remembered they lived in a two-bedroom apartment over on 90th and Western, that APH provided 24-hour care, and that R was a very sweet lady.

Those are truly caring qualities of a CEO and employees. As the recruitment specialist, I do a lot of Caregiver interviews. Many applicants are well-qualified.  But my deciding factor in hiring, is asking myself if I would put this applicant with my loved one.

I’m so glad to know that when my grandparents needed care, it was through A Place at Home; I wouldn’t have chosen any other company or Caregivers for that task.

– Leigh Chaves, A Place at Home Recruitment and Retention Specialist

In the News: Our CEO’s Interview with the Midland’s Business Journal

The Midland’s Business Journal featured our CEO, Dustin Distefano, in the July 21, 2017, Business Minute section.

Among the highlights are his two best pieces of advice he’s received: 1)The key to success is persistence, never quit and good things will come; and 2) If you work to achieve success for your employees and other people, success will come to you. He also touches on his favorite charities (Alzheimer’s Assocaition and the Ronald McDonald House for children) as well as how he got into the business and other interesting facts.

 

Bets for Vets – Join Us!

A Place at Home along with CHI Health at Home, will host a Casino Night called “Bets for Vets” on Friday, July 28, 2017 at Brighton Gardens, 9220 Western Ave., Omaha.  All proceeds will benefit VA Homeless Outreach Programs.

The VA’s specialized programs for homeless Veterans serve hundreds of thousands of homeless and at-risk Veterans each year. Independently and in collaboration with federal and community partners, the programs provide Veterans with housing solutions, employment opportunities, health care, justice- and reentry-related services and more.

Chris Cummings, Community Liaison with A Place at Home, stated, “We are excited to work with CHI Health at Home as well as Brighton Gardens to have this opportunity to help homeless veterans.  All of our organizations deal with veterans every day and we know the impact they have had on our country. A Casino night is a fun way to collect donations and raise funds, and we have been overwhelmed by the community’s generosity in donating prizes and offering their time to volunteer for the event.”

Admission to the event will be a minimum of 5 donated items from the donations accepted by the VA Homeless Outreach program. For each 5 items donated, attendees will receive $500 in chips.