If there’s someone in your life who needs assistance to remain at home—a senior, an adult with a disability, or someone who is recovering from a recent hospital stay—there will likely come a time when you, as a caregiver, need an extra hand.
Caregiving, while rewarding, can at times be demanding and isolating. A local company recognizes this and offers a range of helpful and convenient services, from personal support, nursing care to companionship to helping with meals, housekeeping, and transportation.
At Right at Home Canada, their mission is to improve the quality of life for those they serve. Their home health care providers are dedicated to keeping clients safe and comfortable in their own homes, wherever home is to them.
Gift certificates
A really thoughtful gift, especially now at the holidays, is one of the company’s gift certificates.
Available in the amount of your choosing, gift certificates can be used toward every service they offer; you can even use them to buy supplies, such as commercial-grade continence products from Tena, medication lock boxes, masks, gloves and more.
Respite care
“The need for respite care is great, especially over the holidays,” says Laura Greenway, founding owner of Right at Home Canada Waterloo Wellington.
Sometimes caregivers want to go on vacation, visit family, or have to travel for work and they need someone to stop in and check on their loved one. The company tries to help as best they can to accommodate all requests.
“The fact that we have one of the lowest minimum hour requirements—2 hours, whether that’s 2 hours a day, week, or month—is important for clients needing assistance. It’s one of the lowest, if not the lowest hourly minimum. You don’t have to book 10 hours a week, it’s just 2 hours any time you need. You’re not committed to a specific number of hours a month.”
The kind of flexibility they offer, rare in the industry, makes their services that much more accessible. That said, the earlier you can plan, the better.
“We do our best to get a professional caregiver in as soon as possible. We also have multiple hubs of caregivers in Halton Hills, North Wellington, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Guelph, allowing for timely support,” says the founder.
What to expect
When you call, you’ll have a no-cost consultation with a Nurse Care Planner. You will go over what you need, whether it’s now or six months from now. “We also provide some healthcare system navigation, talk with your doctor, offer nursing check-ins once a month or more frequently—whatever you need,” says Greenway.
Services include:
- Nursing
- Personal support
- Companionship
- Transportation
- Specialized support for those affected by dementia or in need of palliative care at home
- Medical in-home supports like ConnectCare (medical alert system), Tena continence supplies and more
- A list of trusted referrals, including nursing in-home footcare providers and in-home dental support.
Their service is built around personalized care teams. Caregivers are organized into care teams that support each client. If someone needs about 10 hours a week, for example, there care team would typically be comprised of 3-4 members. Care teams provide consistency of care.
Often government-supplied homecare isn’t enough and families fund part of their loved one’s care. This is where collaborating with Right at Home Canada comes in. If your parent, currently receives 2 hours of support a week but really needs 4, their care teams can provide those 2 extra hours. This too doesn’t have to be long-term, Greenway assures; it could just be a short-term arrangement. “You are never locked in, we just require 24 hours’ cancellation notice.”
Caregivers also provide overnight visits to relieve family caregivers and provide safety for the client. Whether it’s one night a week or one per month—whatever your loved one or family caregiver needs.
The company has someone on call 24/7, so if a client calls at 10 o’clock at night, for example, they can leave a message and the on-call manager will get back to them right away. The peace of mind this kind of care offers is priceless. “Somebody is aware all the time,” says the founder.
Right at Home Canada now has an office in Georgetown as well as KW, Guelph, and Mount Forest.
For more information, visit Right at Home Canada - Guelph & Wellington or call 519-265-7887. Follow them on Facebook and YouTube.