Caring Companions Of Atlanta

Helping People Live With Dignity

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“How Do You Find Such Amazing Caregivers?!”

It is a comment that we never time of hearing from our clients! When I think that the client genuinely wants to know, I explain our philosophy of care vs. the Industry’s. Once that is on the table it is pretty simple to see!

Philosophies

When my business partner Paul Demick and I decided to start a home care company close to 8 years ago, we did so with a pretty simply mission. “Do the right thing at every turn for everyone involved.” It sounds so simple! However, actually bringing that philosophy to life has been harder than one would think. Along with it came a lot of tough decisions like foregoing higher billings a profit and investing in human resources beyond what we had ever imagined.

In the home care industry, there is a temptation to commoditize the business into selling “hours.” The more hours you sell, the more money you make. However, what we learned early on that it is precisely that approach that equates to filling shifts and not offering great care.

Why is that? Well, if all you do is fill shifts with someone willing to go to a job, you miss the biggest opportunity of providing care…which is aligning a caregiver(s) with a client to create a connection and establishing a bond that makes the care seem more like a relationship that a job. If all you do is fill hours, you occasionally might get lucky and hit one out of the park. However, most of the time, all you are doing is throwing warm bodies at shifts…which equates to turnover and a reduction in consistent, quality care.

Meet Cjay!

When we visit a client one of the first things we say is “this is a three-way partnership between you and your family, Caring Companions of Atlanta and the caregivers we align with you. If you think of it any other way, the likelihood of creating a positive outcome goes down dramatically. And, frankly, we are not interested.”

When a client does not see it that we politely part ways. Sure, it costs us money, but at the end of the day, what we really thrive on is what we started this BLOG with! “How Do You Find Such Amazing Caregivers?!”

The answer is, we listen, align, train and create a team environment that helps make all of us…from the client to Caring Companions to the caregivers successful. Read below:

  • Align: We listen to what is important to the client and the family and use that to align caregivers that fit with what they want a need. We will not send a “chatty Cathy” into an introvert’s house…nor would we send a caregiver that is not a pet person into a home with pets. If someone likes crafting, we search for caregivers that like to participate and engage…not ones that keep to themselves.
  • Train: we train each caregiver one-on-one against the family dynamics, diagnosis, preferences and environment they walk into. Then we introduced the caregiver prior to starting. Let them get the lay of the land to ease first day butterflies. The result is a caregiver that is set up to succeed.
  • Team-environment: We avail each caregiver access to our Supervisor, Office Manager, Geriatric Care Coordinator, Geriatric RN and the owners. They have all of our numbers and have usually met most of the before they even walk into a client. By doing so, they know we have their back!

So, when we hear the comment “How Do You Find Such Amazing Caregivers?!,” we politely answer…sometimes with detail and sometimes with niceties. But inside, we are high-fiving and feeling satisfied about a job well done!

Adam

 

Caring for Others vs. Caring for Family

A one of the owners of Caring Companions of Atlanta, I have amassed a wealth of experience finding and integrating care into client’s homes. While it can be intimidating, following a specific process, usually yields a positive outcome (see this link to see out process named Anatomy of Great Care below)

Anatomy of Great Care

Presently, however, I find myself in relatively unchartered territory. In August, my 90-year-old father is slated to be in town for a couple weeks while my stepmom orchestrates a move of sorts in Chicago. The townhouse they have in Chicago was devastated but a plumbing leak last year and, due to COVID and a variety of other things, the renovation has been lengthy. However, the time is finally coming to move back in. Fortunately, they have a small hobby farm only 90 minutes from Chicago and set up shop there while all the work took place.

Thirteen years ago, I did help orchestrate care for my mom while she battled Leukemia. However, it was a little different because my cousin was more on the ground than I was. My cousin lived in the same city while I was bouncing back and forth between my home in Atlanta and Arizona.

My dad had heart surgery in May and has been slower than expected to bounce back than anyone would have hoped. He is, indeed, better, but what was not accounted for when the surgery was planned were his past two years of health issues. He had a nasty car accident and a myriad of complications following that. All said, he had 24-months of atrophy and being largely sedate. As a result, much of his strength evaporated.

So, while the valve replacement surgery was nothing short of a miracle and he is improving, it has been as a snail’s pace.

We are excited to have him be here to say the least. He is a one of those people that is so easy to have around. He has his own agendas and coexists so efficiently. It is almost as if he is not even there aside from meals and chats. However, his care needs have increased significantly, and I find myself feeling somewhat intimidated to be a family caregiver during his visit. This is complicated by the common tendency for elders not to want to burden. He does not want to admit his needs…and as such it is hard to know what to do and when.

I wanted to acknowledge this for all the family caregivers out there. Care for a loved one, while a pursuit of passion and love, has its own challenges. Sure, our team orchestrates care for many people with a variety of conditions. However, when the care resides closer to home, a new set of emotional and physical challenges emerge.

I know we will love his company when he is here and miss him dramatically when he leaves. In the meantime, I admittedly feel some apprehension of what lies ahead.

Adam

We don’t just look for clients…we look for Partners!

The above statement might seem counterintuitive. After all, we are a home care company and without clients we would cease to be in business.

We don’t look just for clients…we look for Partners!

Many people (and some home care companies) see care as an hourly commodity. Families need care and go to a company to hire them a caregiver. Sounds simple. However, after 7 years of working in this business we have found that simple model to be flawed. Care is so personal. It involves having a new person enter one’s intimate space and assist with some activities that can be quite uncomfortable without the proper approach and humility. To us, care is anything but a commodity…rather is it a calling.

Think about this. At the onset of a new client, a caregiver is sent (or in our case introduced) into someone’s intimate space. A space that might bring with it, family dynamics, pets, issues with clutter, possibly challenges with handling day-to-day finances, anxiety, etc.

Depending on the case, the residence might (or might not) have been modified to help someone that has mobility issues…maybe even has lifts and bed side commodes, etc. The person the caregiver is to help might be resistant…after all, the caregiver is there because their client (at some level) is losing their independence. The client might even be resentful the caregiver is there and flat out not want them to help or be there, despite the need.

So, a caregiver has to go into the aforementioned situation and figure out how to balance all of that and make “lemonade out of lemons.” That is a daunting task…but absolutely necessary if there is to be a positive outcome.

Now consider that the caregiver also has their own life to live. Caregivers have families…they too have health issues from time-to-time. They have bills to pay, cars to maintain and might even be caring for their own loved one. Kids sometimes get sick. Then, they, like all of us, have to navigate Atlanta traffic. Who has not been late due to an accident or construction?! And caregiver’s cars break down sometimes just like ours!

The Partnership

So, let’s go back to where we started. When we sit with a family, the first thing we tell them is “if you want this to work and you genuinely want a positive outcome, you need to think of care as a three-way partnership. A partnership between your caregiver(s), Caring Companions Management Team and YOU!”

Homecare in Atlanta GA: Caregiver Criticism
Home care in Atlanta GA: It is a partnership!

Caring Companions will do everything we can to create a positive outcome, but we cannot do it alone. We will do everything we can to make our caregivers successful, including giving them 24-hour access to our Geriatric RN, Geriatric Care Coordinator and Supervisor…even the owners…but we cannot do it alone.

About the caregivers…if he or she is good and aligned well, they become an extension of the client’s family. As such, they deserve to be treated well and as part of the team…not an hourly worker or employee. Embrace their lending a hand and enjoy the partnership

So, what do we mean by we cannot do it alone? if a family has unrealistic expectations or simply wants us to make their care challenges to simply disappear, it never works as well. There are uncontrollable aspects of this business. Since there are uncontrollable aspects to the business, work with us and not against us to create a successful outcome.

Families that want their caregivers and home care company to succeed almost ALWAYS have a positive outcome.

HomeCare.org

Many of you have heard me speak about the importance of planning ahead as you age. It is not all that intuitive nor at the top anyone’s list. For many, aging can mean some loss of independence. No one wants that!

However, planning ahead can make a dramatic difference. Lynn Ross, who is our Geriatric Care Coordinator, once told me that when is comes to aging, most people practice crisis planning and not advance planning. Why? Because they do not want to accept that they are getting old. It is much easier to think “heck, I have been driving for 80 years.  I am not going to stop now. Nothing will happen!”

My father thought that way and ended up in a serious car accident that had him in the hospital and rehab for months.

So, in keeping with thinking ahead, I wanted to share HomeCare.org 

HomeCare.org is a research organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of older adults by ensuring that they have access to the tools and resources to remain independent and safe in their own homes. Their website is designed to offer access to the latest research, real-world insight from experts, and financial resources in order to live independently: You can learn more about home care, its stages, Medicare coverage, and costs here:

https://www.homecare.org/does-medicare-cover-in-home-care/

https://www.homecare.org/the-cost-of-24-7-in-home-care/

Be well friends…and always feel free to give me a call if you have any questions. My cell number is 404-408-2187.

Adam

What’s Better than a 5-Star Client Review?!

How about a 5-Star caregiver review?

Last week, we started a new caregiver with one of our long-time clients. Like every time before we followed our process which is pretty intuitive to us. It sets everyone…the client, caregiver and us up for success. We did the following:

Meet Cjay!
  • Alignment: We used our knowledge of the client and our care plan and recruited for a caregiver we believed would be a great fit for that specific situation. Personality fit, knowledge of the conditions the client is living with, etc.
  • The offer: Once we found a good match, Suzanne, our Office Manager shared the care plan with the candidate to see if she felt the same…that she would be a fit. She agreed and we offered her the job
  • Care plan formal review and training: At that point, Gail, our Geriatric RN, reached out to the caregiver and thoroughly took her through the care plan and everything she should be aware of entering the care environment (client preferences, things to watch out for, etc.)
  • Introduction: Next, we introduced the caregiver. To do that, Cjay, our Caregiver Supervisor set up a time with the client to stop by and make the introduction. When the caregiver arrived, Cjay was waiting for her in front of the client’s residence. Cjay asked if she had any questions to make sure she was good and the two proceeded to go knock on the client’s door
  • Shadowing: Because Cjay is very familiar with the case (as she is every client case) she stayed with the caregiver for a couple hours to make sure things went well

To us this was business as usual. As we always do, we called both the client and caregiver after the first shift to see how things went.

After learning all went well, we were surprised to get a call back from our new caregiver. She said she had to call and tell us she could not believe we went to such great lengths to set her up to succeed.

She went on to say that she NEVER had anyone go over the care plan twice….much less the Office Manager and a Geriatric RN. She continued by saying that she was blown away when Cjay met her outside. She’d never actually been introduced! Normally, she said, she was simply sent to a house she’d never been to all by herself to meet a client. She continued by saying having Cjay introduce her to the client and subsequently stay to make sure things went well enabled her to feel none of the awkwardness that is common when starting a new job.

She gave us 5-STARS!

OK…to be honest, we know not all home care companies do what we do. That being said, we certainly never tire of hearing from a caregiver (or client) about how happy they are having us on their team. It all traces back to our goals. Quality and continuity of care leading to positive outcomes for the families we serve, the caregivers on our team and the management team at Caring Companions.

Adam