NORA LIERO & MAUREEN M. O'BRIEN
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"Dear Kim,
How can my family begin to express how grateful we are to you, Barbara, and your agency Home Helpers’ caregivers?
As a family, we had made the decision to move our mother back to her apartment from a skilled care unit for the last weeks of her life. The planned move became more urgent as her condition deteriorated and the level of care required increased. You exceeded our expectations in creating a care plan and selecting a roster of aides to cover 24 hours a day, after getting just three days' notice from us that we were bringing our mom back.
At a time when we were emotionally spent and physically fatigued, you personally allowed us to breathe a sigh of relief that our mom’s needs were clearly understood. You and Barbara met with us, you asked insightful questions, you knew what was critical for her care plan, and you personally selected each caregiver. You were also quick to evaluate if a caregiver was not the right fit for our mom’s care plan. If so, you made the appropriate changes.
Home Helpers’ caregivers are a special group. We especially laud Shacar for her cheerful and respectful treatment of our mom. She sang to her, prayed with her, and talked to her. Please extend our utmost thanks to Betty also; her quiet but confident presence in our mom’s room was reassuring and comforting. And Betty’s watchful eye is the reason we were with our mom as she took her last breath. That was so important to us.
In addition to assembling the best caregiving team, you were able to lessen our anxieties with advice about integrating hospice and personal care aides visits, maximizing hospice nurse visits, organizing our mom’s room at her home, and recommending the needed medical equipment for proper care.
At times it seemed our family must have been your sole client! You were so vested in our mother’s care and our family’s well-being at such a challenging time. You came to the apartment to introduce each new aide, to assure that each understood the care plan and medication schedule, and often just to check on us.
It wasn’t your agency’s responsibility to provide assistance to us with calls to the hospice agency to try to hasten deliveries of needed equipment, or to the skilled care unit to resolve medication questions, or to bring a commode and shower bench you had at your office. But each time you relieved us of another phone call, we felt supported by you.
Most thankful are we for your experienced opinion that we should call our out-of-state siblings to come sooner than later to say their goodbyes. Indeed, our mom passed away within days of our siblings’ arrival.
We may have omitted thanks for other kindnesses; your and Barbara’s presence at our mom’s funeral was your final one. It was completely unexpected but will be a lasting memory of the truly personal and genuine care each of you provided.
As you know, our family has high expectations and we have been relentless advocates for our parents’ health and wellness. When we engaged Home Helpers, we truly felt we finally had competent and compassionate assistance advocating for our mom.
We will recommend your agency with no hesitation. Please let us know if we can help you in any way in the future. What you do is incalculably important in the lives of those you care for and their families."
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