Angela, 80, was committed to remaining in her home as she grew older. Fiercely independent, she rebuffed suggestions from her son, Paul, that she would benefit from some assistance to remain independent at home.
One day, though, she fell while getting the mail. From her hospital bed, she reluctantly agreed with Paul that it was time to find some help. Paul assumed that task would be fairly straightforward — but unfortunately, he learned it was everything but.
“Mom needed the nurse to come in make sure she was getting better and the therapist to make sure she did her exercises,” he recalls. “Then, we ended up with one person who grocery-shopped for her and someone else who delivered lunch to her every day.
“I live three hours away, so we also needed someone to help her keep her medicines straight. I was dealing with five different companies! People wouldn’t show up and Mom couldn’t always keep track of who was who, so I didn’t know who to call. I thought I was going to need to move her in with us, which I was prepared for — but that’s absolutely not what she wanted.”
Fortunately, a friend told Paul his father was receiving care from an organization that served older adults with multiple home-based services under one roof, from healthcare to meal delivery to help around the house. Paul wondered if his friend’s description was too good to be true — but one phone call proved he was correct.
“It was like a dream: In a half hour, we had the next few weeks mapped out for Mom, and ALL the help was going to come from the same place!” Paul says. “I hung up and started dancing around my office.”
Two years later, Angela is thriving with the help of the professionals she calls her “second family.” She knits blankets for their babies, asks how their kids are doing in school, and even, Paul recounts with a laugh, offers relationship advice.
“These people, they are so patient with her and just laugh when she sticks her nose in where it doesn’t belong!” Paul says. “But I love that she is so close to them and they care so much about her.”
If you’re looking for assistance for a family member who is committed to remaining in their home, you’ll find many options. But if it’s important to you to keep logistics as streamlined as possible, take a page from Paul’s playbook and consider WesleyLife, which offers a broad network of assistance.
A network is made up of assorted services that assist people in varying stages of life and are provided by teams from a single company. Examples are healthcare plus assistance with shopping and cleaning to meal delivery to specialized services, such as end-of-life care.
Advantages include ease of arranging or changing services, encouraging connections to form between client and caregivers, and remitting payments to only one organization.
So if you’re searching, do yourself and your loved one a favor: As you do your homework, ask if the organization has a network if varied services designed to make life easier for older adults. If you call WesleyLife, the answer will be "yes” -- and you can prepare to enjoy your newfound peace of mind!
