Kevin J. Dyer says...

My family, including both my parents at 92 years, three of my brothers, their wives, and I were very skeptical and fearful of just 'who were these people and what can they do that we cannot' when we were first introduced to North River Home Care (NR).
Introduced is just a nice way of saying (forced into) that the nursing home/rehab facility that both of my parents were residents of in May 2011 stated that they couldn't discharge either of my parents back to their independent living facility without 24/7 care being provided for them. The independent living facility stated that they would not allow my parents back to their home of over 3 1/2 years unless we selected among several vendors that were recommended to the family to provide this 24/7 care.
We selected NR upon the advice of a trusted family advisor, Jim, who had personal and professional experience with NR, their management, and their caregivers.
Over the first month of engaging NR we found how 'on target' Jim's advice was regarding the professionalism of the whole team from NR was in dealing with my parents, family, and myself.
The learning curve on our and NR behalf was steep as mom was a fiercely independent, strong willed, woman who was supported by dad in almost all of mom's home management decisions.
At one time mom managed, for over 8 years, a household of a dying mother-in-law, a demanding father-in-law, two brother-in-laws, and six sons in addition to being a loving and supportive wife to a husband and his rising career. Mom and dad were 'soul-mates' from when they first met in 1936 until their recent deaths. Mom fought even having her own children provide care to her and dad in their own home never mind 'strangers'. Dad was much less emotional about things as he worked on getting mom to agree to sell the family home that mom loved for over one year once he recognized that he couldn't take care of it as he used to be able to after a fall that resulted in a broken tiba and a loss of mobility and flexibility.
He and mom moved into their independent care facility in mid-2008 and with the family all pitching to help mom was successfully adapting, as dad had within months of moving, in to their new way of life. Sickness forced them both into the hospital, then the rehab center, then NR providing 24/7 care in their home didn't go over at all with mom to say the least.
NR, led by the senior management team, engaged caregivers that put into action the caring, compassionate, humanistic care that they advertised. Mom and dad both eventually 'adopted' their caregivers into our family. NR must be given a lot of credit and praise for being very flexible in adapting to our parents changing needs. When caregivers personalities or styles didn't blend with either my parents or family members NR management reviewed the situation and made the appropriate adjustments or sometimes were able to make myself or other family members recognize why the caregivers were acting as they had. NR joined the whole family in making my parents last months as happy, peaceful, active, and enjoyable as possible.
In July 2011 my parents moved into three rooms adapted to their needs in my brother's home in in Hanover, MA. They no longer required 24/7 care as my brother, his wife, their 5 year son, and/or one of us other family members were staying with them BUT my parents and the family needed help in continuing to live as normal a life as possible while opening up their home to our parents. NR provided this assistance for about 40 hours of caregiving a week to stabilize both my parents and the households functioning.
Mom died in November 2011 and dad in January 2012 under Hospice and North River care at home. Speaking on behalf of my family I can state with all certainty that we will always have a warm place in our hearts and memories of the services provided by all of the NR team members, from their senior management, their scheduling team members, the financial personnel, and especially the caregivers to both of our parents and my family members. Thank you all especially Theresa and Michelle.
I would recommend NR to any family or anyone faced with the need for caring and professional caregivers.

Kevin J. Dyer

Kevin J. Dyer

Visit This Member's Website: http://www.NorthRiverHC.com