Don't feel Guilty

July 5, 2017

It is so common that we hear that families are not ready to place their family member because they would feel guilty about placing them. We have an answer to this problem and that is, come for a tour at our ComfortCare Homes in Pittsburg. After the tour families realize that this is a house and their family member will be coming to a new home, not a facility.

Many families feel guilty putting their family member in a facility because it is less personalized, there are rules and there are so many people. We understand this but at ComfortCare we have 15 residents and our ratios of staff to residents is so low that we really get one on one time with residents. At ComfortCare Homes of Pittsburg, LLC there are no rules other than nothing that can be harmful to our residents, families can come and go as they please and can call whenever they would like, actually we encourage it. We have family members who call regularly to talk to their loved one or just check up on them and make sure they are doing okay. Just like when these loved ones were at home they received weekly phone calls just to talk, we want residents to feel as normal as possible.

Another reason not to feel guilty and actually feel relieved is easily explained by a story we were once told. At one of the events that ComfortCare was at we had a lady come by our booth and visit with us, after talking to her for a bit she told us her own story. She said one of her biggest regrets was not placing her mom in a home like ours. She explained that when her mom was diagnosed with Dementia that she stopped working to take care of her mom, which is very common, after all, she was a certified nurse. She told us how her mother would get angry with her because she wouldn't take her pills and she had to practically force her mom to take the pills, this made her mom view her as a caregiver. Every time her mother saw her she knew she was going to get a pill or a bath or blood pressure checked. The lady was no longer her daughter but she was her mother's caregiver who made her do things she didn't want to do. The lady continued her story and told us how when her mom was in her final days that instead of her being there as a daughter she was in the mindset of a nurse, monitoring her mother's blood pressure every hour and checking vitals. It took one of her friends coming to the house while the lady was taking the blood pressure to pull her out of the state of being a caregiver. Her friend told her, "why are you taking her blood pressure and checking vitals? Your mother is dying. Be her Daughter that is what she needs not a nurse."

This story is just one of many that we have heard, families feel guilty about placing them and they become the caregivers and some without training. We tell people we are home, this is a house to those who live here and a loved one's home but to our staff, this is their workplace where they are certified to take care of a resident and provide top notch care. But to the staff the people they are taking care of are now their family members too, the staff gets attached but they know how to act professionally too.

ComfortCare Homes of Pittsburg, LLC is a home here for the loved ones but the staff is here to answer questions and help the family along the way to understand what the loved one is going through and help families through this emotional time of confusion..