Some of the Caregivers on the Comfort Keepers team serving central Vancouver Island. From left to right: Carla, Sweet, D’Arcy, Liz, Char.
PARKSVILLE – Quality care for seniors. That’s what D’Arcy Falkiner insists the team at Comfort Keepers provides clients throughout central Vancouver Island.
“We are determined to provide quality care for the community. That’s really important to us,” says D’Arcy, a Registered Nurse whose franchise area reaches from Nanaimo to Bowser, including Port Alberni. “We interact with our caregivers very closely, and we encourage and reward them. We’re helping frail and elderly clients stay in their own home, which is what they want to do. We’re always looking at safety, cognition and nutrition, and making sure they have a well body.”
Comfort Keepers provides a variety of care that is needed by an aging population, everything from companionship and light housekeeping, to driving clients to appointments. They hired a foot care nurse to offer that service to clients, and they also stage social events for their employees.
“This year we held a summer social down at Rathtrevor Beach,” she notes. “We rented a picnic shelter and had lots of great prizes for different activities, and it was a lot of fun. These types of events make for a very nice working environment for everybody.”
Clients enjoyed the Comfort Keepers summer social at Parksville’s Rathtrevor Beach
Independence is a major issue for the vulnerable. Typically, it is a crisis that requires intervention on behalf of a loved one, like an injury that becomes life changing because it reduces their mobility.
“People are very proud, and the last thing they want to do is let others know they can’t cope,” D’Arcy observes. “The hardest thing is talking them into the idea that they would do a lot better with a little help. Those really are difficult con-versations, because they’ve already determined that they’re okay.”
Introducing care into the home must be done tenderly, so prospective clients can gently warm up to the idea of having someone around that is really there to help when needed. D’Arcy en-courages people to get care in place early and develop relationships, so their loved ones already have a professional in place to care before they’re needed.
“We encourage people to try it, and if they don’t like it, that’s fine, because sometimes they find it difficult to realize that somebody else is doing things for them,” she explains. “If they have someone that comes in once or twice, they can maintain their independence and their health a lot longer, because they have help.
“So we start by building a relationship with them. Show them we can take items off their plate and improve on key items related to their health.
When a client loses their ability to drive, having someone close who can take them where they need to go is extremely helpful.
“That’s a huge area where we can be help, be-cause families are busy, and often clients don’t want to bother their family,” she says, adding that Comfort Keepers staff can often be viewed almost as extended family. “I tell my staff they need to treat their clients just like we’d want our mom and dad to be treated.”
By Mark MacDonald