AgingCare

For other families and primary caregivers: The agency is working hard with the available labor pool, but there's often not much to work with. Be VERY specific about the needs of your loved one and don't invite people to come if the basics can't be met at the start. Even then you will have to do a lot of good spirited training. Even with a detailed to-do schedule most won't read or follow it. Be specific with the agency about things that go wrong. They'll try to help but can't always accomplish it.

The caregivers were mostly young and inexperienced. There were 2 exceptions. Caring staff but understaffed. They didn't fully understand our relative's needs thus could not fully provide for him.

Home health care daily ADL services. Bathing assistance walking meal prep bathroom assistance Assisting up and down Dressing

We are no longer using their services. Probably didn't use them long enough to form a "fair" opinion. However, we did not particularly love how we were unable to have consistent caregivers. Also did not like the sudden changes in scheduling (ex. we would need help on a Tuesday morning and there wouldn't be anyone available Tuesday. This happened more than once - so that was frustrating). The caregivers were very friendly, caring, willing to help in any way we needed.

The first aide didn't have a driver's license, even though we were assured the aide would be able to take him out. The office helped and said the aide could drive with my mother to help my father in and out of the car, but that's not really what we were looking for. The second aide has bad knees and can't walk up the stairs well, so she can't do certain things. She also doesn't drive. And she's always on her phone. The synergy office staff is helpful and nice, but they make promises they can't deliver on. All in all, we not thrilled with them. They are very good at giving him showers and making up the bed, and occasionally vacuuming. They don't cook him breakfast or lunch, and don't take initiative to find helpful things to do.

There was one caregiver who was only temporary, but she was the best of the all the ones that came out. The main caregiver really didn't do much. She was more reactive than proactive so I can't say that I would recommend her to anyone. The experience was more stressful than I had expected. The case manager was friendly professional. I have no complaints about her. The staff when I called in to say hey you know what's going on they were very responsive. It just wasn't an experience I would ever try again and nor could I recommend the service. The biggest thing that came to mine is, I told them I had Ring cameras in the house and I saw the caregiver sitting on the sofa watching TV, while my mother was walking around the house without her walker. There was only the temporary caregiver who actually brought something to work with my mother seem to understand the dementia issue otherwise they just seem to be passing time.

The care was for my dad who has cerebral palsy and is in a motorized wheelchair. There was not a lot of activity that was done with him. There were several helpers that just came and watched TV with him the entire time. But there were a few that read stories, played games, and went out for walks while dad rode his power chair. As time went on there were some chores that were done. Not many. My mom was still living at that time. She did most all the chores herself or I did them when I would go to their house. Just the companionship was sometimes all my social butterfly dad needed.

The agency is good, but we've had issues with some of their staff. They have not been proactive in giving care. They will let her sleep instead of waking her, and helping her. think they corrected that.

So I choose Capital City Nurses for a couple of reasons. Size of network and range. Ability to receive additional services. Cost. Issues; Lack of communication. Inability to contact them with concerns. Never same caregiver ( new one every other day) Caregiver that were unable to provide services needed. Caregiver attitude ( did not want to be here and let me know) Demanding me to fit my need with their schedule I felt anxiety every time they came. So I finally had enough and told them I not longer to receives service from them.

Different providers each time mostly, one provider worthless but all others very good. My husband had severe leg pain from injury... since amputated. Several providers could not handle him. All tried.... except the one. I would recommend this service to others.

If you need help with a patient who has serious end of life agitation and needs round the clock care, look elsewhere. I was not told that they gave their aids breaks in the middle of the night. I only found out when one of my weekend aids took his break on the first floor and my elderly father stood up in the middle of the night and walked towards my mother's bedroom. Them the aid woke me up at 4:00 am after it had happened and my dad was in bed. My heart was pounding and I couldn't fall back to sleep. None of my aids left my dad alone because when you least expected it, he would get up. Most of my aids were good at assessing the danger. They took they're breaks in his bedroom while he slept. But the agency didn't communicate the brake issue with me until after that situation happened.

Takes several weeks to find a good caregiver match. Many are very inexperienced in caregiving. Most of them sat on the phone the whole time and needed step by step instructions. I finally found a great person and would give her a 10. The others not so much

They are easy to work with, responsive and easy to get ahold of. They could improve on matching the caregivers to the clients needs and personality.

It wasn't as productive as they could have been. One of the ladies took a phone charger. They were always reliable and on time. Starting care was very easy after consultation. They were very good about calling and emailing about what was going on. [name removed] and [name removed] were very very friendly. Quality of care - they mostly sit and talked but didn't help as much with helping her shower or cooking. $[removed]a week is a bit much to have someone come over to talk.

I didn't really like anything about their services

When [name removed] was put in hospice the owner of insisted that the woman helping had to go to hospice and sit with him each day. She was very nasty to the hospice care team. Demanded to know why he hadn't been out of bed or fed. Got my family very upset when we came in because she was carrying on so. [name removed] was near death at that time. He was getting plenty of care from hospice. She called the main hospice and complained about the nurse in charge of his care. The nurse was reported and caused her quite a bit of trouble. There was no reason for her to cause so much trouble! Overall care: the day to day at home with the care giver was ok. The strict rules made it very hard to work around our Dr visits. And such. I felt like I was being treated very badly from the office I will say when I called the office to let the caregiver go she didn't insist on the 2 week notice I was told I'd have to give. My husband had dementia and was in the final stages

It appears that the turnover of the Caregivers is very high. The first one that was sent knew from the start that she would only be there for a short time because she was looking for a new job. The second on, was sent out to fill in for one day and she just sat around and talked and did not do any work. The third person ([name removed]) was very good and dependable, but she took a leave of absence and when she returned, took a dispatch job because she needed more $. Maybe the pay for Caregivers is just not high enough to maintain stability. This is a tough market and as a career Human Resources professional, given the price point it hard to find stable workers.

I like the overall service. Maybe train the caregivers better. I asked for a daily written report, which was not, also I was told if there was any medical issues we will be notified, this was not done as well. I have the pages wrote. A couple of notes are written in there for two weeks where he had been peeing blood we were never told about it, and neither was the supervising agent at Senior Helpers.. the day after we took him to the doctor, he ended up in the hospital for a month and never came back home

The home health aid is very good and conscientious. Their office operation need some tightening. A message may be called in to the office number. Any information not passed to other people in the office.

We went through many caregivers before we got reliable ones