I recommend Brent Kline, Chris Paley, and their Home Helpers Home Care team with my strongest…read morepossible recommendation. Let me tell you why.
For several months my 83-year-old mom had been showing increasing signs of needing help to continue living alone in her San Diego home, help none of her kids could provide from our own homes thousands of miles away.
Begrudgingly, she agreed in June 2016 to have me fly out and, with her, interview several in-home care agencies, including Brent and Chris. And even though she for the first time saw the value, she just wasn't willing to take action.
But one day in September 2016 she was walking from her car to see her doctor, blanked out, and took a hard fall, suffering a mild brain injury. Ironically, I happened to be in town again for a conference, and so was able to spend the next five days with her, first at the hospital, and then beginning her recovery at home.
One thing the doctors made clear was that Mom no longer should live alone, and during this acute period she should have someone in the home with her throughout the day, making sure in her weakened state that she would get plenty of rest and, above all, avoid another fall. So since I would have to leave after a few days, my brother made quick plans to fly out and replace me, who in turn would be replaced by my sister.
Given our travel schedules, there would be a four-day gap between my departure and my brother's arrival. So based on the June interview and Brent's professional follow-up, I asked him if on short notice he could assemble a team to provide Mom with 14-hour-per-day care for just those four days. To my amazement and relief, he was.
On the morning of my departure, Brent, Chris, and one of the three staff members who would provide this care for my mom came to her home, met with us, did a quick survey of how to best help her, and let me leave for the airport. And later that afternoon, when it came time for a shift change, Brent and Chris came back to the home to introduce the second staff member to my mom to ensure she understood and felt comfortable with the transition.
Everything seemed to be smooth sailing. But that afternoon, my mom began manifesting new symptoms from her injury--a limp arm, slurred speech, and facial drooping. Prudently, the staff helper called Brent and Chris, who wisely decided the best course of action would be to call 911 and have my mom return to the emergency room for a fresh assessment. The hospital readmitted her, kept her two more nights, and then released her. But again, shortly after she was released and back home for a few hours, the neurological symptoms flared up again, and based on the metrics established by one of the doctors, back to the ER she went, once again being admitted to the hospital, this time for one night before they released her again.
During all of this, Brent, Chris, and their team were absolutely fabulous in every way. They made the difficult but wise calls to return my mom to the hospital. They interfaced with the doctors and communicated to us kids the doctors' findings and instructions. They picked my mom up from the hospital when she was released and brought her home again. Without complaint they adjusted, readjusted, and readjusted again their staffs' schedules. And Brent and Chris personally disrupted their own schedules and that of their families in order to ensure help was available, no matter when or for what reason.
In fact, they were so willing to set everything aside to help my mom that one night Chris even volunteered to step in and provide overnight care for my mom if the hospital released her in the early evening, since it would be too late to arrange for one of their staff members come on such short notice.
As a business owner myself, I felt terrible for them, particularly because of the repeated disruptions of their plans, the massive amount of time personally given by Brent and Chris, and the fact that their staff were without billable hours they had been expecting when they agreed to help my mom.
So I asked Brent if they would please bill us above and beyond the actual hours they had tallied during these four days so that the staff, as well as Brent and Chris, could be made whole.
But they insisted that they would not bill us beyond the actual hours that everyone had served, and that Brent's and Chris's own time would be billed at the same rate as their staff's. So, in the end, the bill was just a small fraction of what we had been expecting, despite the fact that they all went to such heroic lengths to help my mom in a time a real need.
What's more, Brent explained they shared my concern for the financial impact on their staff, and even though they would not be charging us for anything more than the hours actually served, Brent and Chris would be compensating their staff above and beyond the actual hours the staff had provided.
So, as I began, I strongly recommend Brent, Chris, and their team.