Village Caregiving provides companionship, daily assistance services

ZANESVILLE − A business that offers offering support and assistance with daily needs, such as help with personal hygiene, light housework and transportation recently opened an office in Zanesville.

“Village Caregiving has been around for quite a few years,” said Executive Director Amber Wood of the company founded in 2013. It’s in 19 states with more than 60 locations serving more than 5,000 clients.

There care is non-medical, said Wood, who added companionship can be a multitude of things.

“I have caregivers who go in and play games, or they’ll watch TV, sit on the front porch and talk, take them for rides around their farms,” said Wood. “It’s just spending that one-on-one time.”

She said they also provide light housework, which can include running the vacuum cleaner, making beds, folding laundry, or just tidying up.

“It’s helping them with clutter and things like that,” said Wood.

She said from a personal hygiene perspective, they help clients with brushing their hair, applying lotion to their hands and arms, or helping clients into the shower.

All things that mean so much to older Americans who are often lonely without family or friends surrounding them, Wood said. It inspires memories of her own childhood.

“My dad would take me into the nursing home when I was younger to visit his elderly friends and I loved it. It would always bring so much happiness to the residents to see a young child and have that interaction,” said Wood. “Now that I’m a mom, I get to take my children in there and their faces light up. I love seeing the same reaction when my children interact with the residents.”

Clients can get approved for four up to 58 hours per week of caregiving time depending on their insurance. Village Caregiving also takes private pay. The average approval time is nine hours per week.

“They get a year’s worth of weekly approvals,” she said. “That referral stays open for an entire year.”

Wood said the biggest clientele they work with are veterans.

“My grandfather was a decorated Veteran, and I did a lot of work with VAs in my previous jobs. I always want to help the veteran community whenever possible, helping them stay in their homes and being that support system for them.”

Wood said because of the personal nature of the relationship, Village Caregiving does heavy screening on the front end before hiring its caregivers. Each candidate is run through multiple systems that look for abuse, exclusion lists, and other such data. Those systems include SAMS, AG, OIG, Ohio Nurse Aide Registry, Offender Search, MR/DD Abuser, and Provider exclusion and suspension.

“It’s just to make sure there are no red flags,” said Wood. “If that comes back clean, then we send them down to get the background check.”

She said constant communication with the client and their families is another way they ward off possible issues.

“They all have my cell phone number,” said Wood. “I will call and do multiple follow ups throughout that week (when a caregiver is new to a patient) just to make sure they’re not seeing any red flags.”

She said to date, they have had no issues or complaints in Muskingum County of the 29 employees, mostly women and mothers, who are caring for its 54 patients.

“Our ideal hire is someone who has their STNA or CAN license and they come to us with CPR training,” said Wood. “But if they don’t, we do a lot of training.”

Village Caregiving is located at 1846 Dresden Road. For more information call 740-647-1585 or visit villagecaregiving.com.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Village Caregiving opens office in Zanesville