January 30, 2013

(This letter of commendation for First Light is from a physician whose fatherhad advance dementia)

Monday morning, 9/10/2012,was one of the lowest points in my life. In the past month,my beloved father who had started to become combative had been…

  • …discharged from a Louisvilleassisted living facility and sent to a psychiatric hospital in Indiana for evaluation and treatment for his behavior,...
  • …subsequently admitted to his first Louisville nursing home and discharged three days later for combativeness,…
  • …then transported immediately to another psychiatric hospital in Indiana for further treatment of his combativeness and was awaiting for his family(and caseworker) to find another nursing home that would take him.
  • My family had been recently horrified to find out from several reliable sources that,unfortunately, in Louisville, if a patient’s chart documents a history ofeven mild combativeness, it’s very hard to find any nursing home that would accept him/her.
  • Often the family has to seek options in Indiana or send their loved one to a very distant Kentucky state hospital

Furthermore, my 81-year-old mother was so exhausted, for her nightmare of managing my father’s institutional care had started eight months earlier with three hospital admissions in Florida and one medical transport flight. Her three children were trying to help her, and although she’s a strong woman, we were getting very concerned about her emotional and physical health. The problem was we kids all lived in different states and werelimited by great distance.

On that September 10thmorning, I had been waiting several hours for my dad’s caseworker to return my call and give me some direction on how we were going to find a nursing home that would be willing to accept my dad. At the point I started feeling impotent rage, I decided to call A Place for Mom, Inc. which is a nationwide information service for eldercare issues. They gave me some nursing home referrals but also referred me to First Light because we were also going to need 24/7 caregiver service for my Dad to ensure he wouldn’t hurt himself or anyone else and once again get discharged.

I immediately called Dub Newell, the owner of First Light, and told him about our family’s desperate circumstance: We “needed a caregiver service that would do everything possible to keep my dad from getting discharged from another nursing home.” Dub was very compassionate and honest. He made me feel comfortable because he didn’t sugar-coat the challenges of my dad’s situation. I told Dub that I would get back with him after I called a few other caregiver agencies.

It was now several hours later and the caseworker still hadn’t called me from my dad’s psychiatric facility. And then I got a call from a Guardian Angel: First Light’s Jennifer Welscher. All of sudden the profound frustration and hopelessness faded away because I was speaking with a person who had an encyclopedic knowledge of virtually every aspect of eldercare in Louisville(and even Indiana): good and bad nursing homes; significant people to contact; eldercare laws; issues with Medicare; caregiving issues regarding patient’s with dementia; etc. ,etc, etc. And she was so nice and compassionate!!

Over the next eleven days, Jennifer assisted and guided me in helping our family find a nursing home for dad with the concern and dogged intensity of a family member. She would give me some advice and call me a few hours later to see how things were going,several times a dayeveryday! Finally, on September 21st my dad was admitted into a nursing home that he resided in until he passed away peacefully on January 23rd.

Skeptics may think that Jennifer was so incredibly helpful in order to secure that lucrative 24/7 caregiver contract for her agency and that this angel persona would fade as soon as we signed with the agency, but her level of care and support never dwindled one iota. From September to January my father’s carepresented an incalculable variety of problems and challenges for Jennifer and she and the First Light staff addressed them immediately and effectively.

It’s worth repeating, Jennifer Welscher would turn herself inside-out for us if it was necessary to resolve any problem, and she remained my family’s Guardian Angel from the day we met her until now.I never ever, ever, ever heard my mother complain about Jennifer in any capacity one time.

My mother and my siblings will always remember and greatly appreciate the extraordinary generosity of spirit that Jennifer shared with us. She, Dub and so many of the caregivers of First Light helped us through the most difficult time our family ever faced. And it meant so much to us that many of them showed up for Dad’s funeral with stories to tell and tears to shed.

Obviously, without hesitation my family recommends Dub Newell’s First Light Home Care to anyone who wants “Exceptional Care” from “Extraordinary People”.

Jon Grossman, MD