Highland Caregivers

We spoke with Amy McKenna, Director of Operations, and Steven Jeske, Owner and Nurse Practitioner, about the services provided by Highland Caregivers such as companionship, personal care, help around the house, transportation, and even 24-hour live-in support if needed to support the independence and dignity of loved ones.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm
Alison de Merz. My guests this morning are Amy McKenna,
she is director of Operations at Highland Caregivers and Stephen Jski,
he is owner and nurse practitioner at Highland Caregivers. Good morning,
good morning, good morning. For those who don't know about
Highland Caregivers, how did you come about?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
So we have a doctor, an APRN, a marketing guy,
and an IT gentleman that got together and decided that
they wanted to put together a home care agency. They
kind of cover all the bases and.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
There's actually a little more history than that. Doctor Ratt
and I cover nursing homes in Connecticut and actually all
over Connecticut, and we just saw a need for providing
high quality aids and caregivers into the homes, especially after
their discharge from the post acute care setting or the
hospital setting, or even ones living in the assisted living

(00:56):
We felt that we can add another dimension to the
care and provide that little extra service that they may
not be getting currently.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
And where's it located?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
To seventy six Highland Dad in Waterbury, Connecticut.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
I want to stress that even though we're in Waterbury.
We do cover a wide squas of area in Connecticut,
you know, pretty much twenty miles radius of Waterbury, so
we've covered from Torrenton to Danbury down to New Haven.
We cover a pretty extensive area.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
And you mentioned the need for this kind of care.
How urgent is it?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
It's attend Sometimes it's really urgent. A family member might
be declining and the family is not sure really where
to turn or what needs to be done. So they'll
call us and say, hey, you know, I'm not sure
if it's time for me to get services from my
mom or dad, but we are having some difficulty. Can
you help us figure out what the next step is.
And we go out and we do an assessment and

(01:51):
we let them know, you know, this is what would
probably benefit your mom or dad. The services that we
offer we offer a living we offer you know, some
hospice services. We offer Companion PCA, which is a personal
care assistant. We also offer to help take them to
the doctors if you know, a family members working and

(02:12):
can't get work off. So we kind of do a
little bit of everything, but our goal is really to
keep them in their home in the environment that they're
comfortable with. And around the people that need the most
to them.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
Remind that home could be an assisted living facility. We
do see lots of people in the assist a living
that need a little extra support. We work very well
with our partners in the assistan living community.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
What kind of responses have you received from the patients
and their families.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Well, we get a lot of response and feedback from families.
We try to be very open with communication, especially when
we're on a case, because the more communication, the smoother
the case will be with our caregivers between the office,
maybe things that are changing in the home, so we
look for a lot of feedback. We do get. You know,

(02:58):
our caregivers get a lot of feedback that you know
they're outstanding. Our goal is really to put somebody in
another family's home that we would put in with our
own family. So we try to make sure that the
person we're putting into the home has the characteristics that
you know they would get along well with the family
and with the client.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
I used to do that work. I originally went to
school to be a nurse before I went to school
for broadcast journalism. I had one year left, believe it
or not, and my family was going to kill me
when I told them I was changing my major. And
I worked as a home health aid as a CNA,
and I loved it. I especially loved when I worked
for the VNA, where I would go into the homes
like this. I would paint their nails and I'd put

(03:39):
their curlers in, and I'd go to the store for
them and come back and bathe and cook and it
was just wonderful. It made my day and it made theirs.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, And the reward is overwhelming, Like especially when you
can go into a home and you know the person's
lived there for fifty years and they want to stay
there and their wishes are to stay in their home
and be able to be with all the things that
made their life so special, and to allow us to
come in and take care of them just means so much.
So they don't end up having to go to a

(04:10):
nursing home or you know, assisted living and leave everything
that they're familiar with. And the families love it because
they get to keep them home. And then do you know,
the holidays, like their traditions have always been in the past,
nothing really is changing except for that they need a
little bit more support.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
I got a touch upon what you just said experience
that you witnessed. A lot of our aids get to
become friends with the families and the caregiver. I mean
the patients themselves actually find that the best is when
they do become an integral part of their lives and
you know, do the nail painting and all the fun
stuff that you mentioned, because now they're no longer some
random stranger coming into their home. There's somebody that's you know,

(04:47):
loved and welcomed in.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Absolutely tell me about the Connecticut Home Care program and
what they offer seniors over the age of sixty five.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
So the Connecticut Home Care Program was set up to
offer over the age of sixty five services that they
might not be able to afford on their own. So
anybody can apply for it as long as they're over
sixty five. If you're on Medicaid or Title nineteen, then
they will pick up what the cost would be for
the cares. But if you are if you're not on

(05:17):
Title nineteen, then what they do is kind of a
cost share. So they would do an assessment. The care
manager from one of the access agencies comes out, does
an assessment, and then they would let you know what
your share would be for the services that you need
to qualify for the program. You need to have two
needs in two areas, so you need to either have
a need with hands on tire ADLs or IDADLS. Activities

(05:43):
of daily living would be like bathing, dressing, toileting. Those
things would be ADLs, and then IADLs would be like housekeeping,
grocery shopping, more of the things that they need to
have to sustain in their home to make sure that
they have the appropriate care.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
What advice would you offer to a family member or
even to the patient who's hesitant about having someone come
into their home.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
It doesn't hurt to talk to an agency and see
what they can offer and then get to know them.
A lot of people are hesitant because they hear horror
stories or they're worried. You know, are the people background checked?
You know, is there a lot of things that happen.
You know, we background check all our aids. Most of

(06:28):
them have been in this field for quite some time.
You know. You really have to just be open to
understanding what cares you can receive and how it's going
to benefit your quality of care and your daily living.
Is how much it's going to benefit.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
And for caregivers who are taking care of loved ones,
it can take a toll on them and this would
help them greatly physically and emotionally.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, and for the caregivers that are taking care of
their families, you know, there's a new program out there,
adult Family Living, which the state has now approved, so
they could get paid to take care of their loved ones.
And we actually do that here in the agency. We
help families receive monetary rewards to help take care of

(07:10):
their loved one and keep them at home.

Speaker 1 (07:12):
Isn't that wonderful save a lot of families. Tell me,
do you have a minimum number of hours that you require.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
We well, we say we have a four hour minimum,
but we do have a lot of two hour shifts
depending on what the client's needs are. You know, we
never want to turn someone away just because they only
need two hours and not four, So we try to
work with families and really make sure that they're receiving
the services that the client needs.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
I know, some people just need two hours. They could
run out, get their groceries, come back. Then the four hours,
you know, if they want to do something with their
family or you know, whatever it is. It's wonderful that
you offer both of those options. Tell me what made
you get involved with Highland Caregivers, Amy.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
I've been a social worker for you know, quite some years,
and I just I love what I do, what I'm
passionate about what I do. And when I I met
Steve and doctor Rad and Scott and John, I just
knew it was a fit. They have the same vision
I do. And it's really about the care that we
provide and the services that we provide. It's not about
the money, And to me, that means you know the world,

(08:13):
we don't. We're protecting what matters most to these families
and that's their loved one.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
And Steve, would you say that's why you differ from
other companies.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
I have wonderful people around me that make my life
very easy to run this company, right, I'm talking from
the front desk to the back people like Amy. We
have people helping with all facets of this job.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
My caregivers.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
I'm blessed to have them in my life. They provide
the wonderful services. So when it comes to this company,
it would be anything without people like that helping out.
So when it comes to bringing on good people like
Amy and all the other people. It's been a home
run all around.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
I'm speaking with Amy McKenna, director of operations at Highland Caregivers,
and Steven Jesski, owner and nurse practitioner and Highland Caregivers.
They serve the greater Waterbury area. For all of their
services and programs and everything that they do, go to
Highlandcaregivers dot com. Do you want to give a phone
number where people can reach you just in case?

Speaker 2 (09:14):
Sure, it's two zero three eight one nine seven four
nine four.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
I want to thank both of you for being here
today and for serving the community.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
Thank you very much for your time today.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
Thanks for having us