Comfort Keepers® of Southern Fairfield County
Our Story
Comfort Keepers is a nationwide organization with over 525 locally owned and operated offices in cities and towns across America. It was founded by a husband and wife who saw a need to enable people to remain safe and independent in their own homes. The strength of the organization lies in the commitment made by each of the owners and their staff.
Our office in southern Fairfield County was also founded by a husband and wife team. In 2001, Marian and Dennis Patouhas became the 61st office to open and the first in the tri-state area. Together, Marian and Dennis combined their extensive backgrounds in caregiving, human resources and business to create an office that ranks among the most successful in the Comfort Keepers family. During the course of their marriage they cared for seven elderly relatives of their own.
Marian, ever the visionary and an early Baby Boomer, saw the need to provide care to both seniors and those needing assistance in the home. While homecare is often confused with nursing care, Comfort Keepers provides non-medical services, doing those things for our clients that they are not able to do for themselves. In short, Comfort Keepers helps people remain safe and independent in their homes. Marian felt that far too often the only alternatives for an aging adult were a nursing home, assisted living or moving in with family, when all the while, what that person really wanted was to stay in their own home.
The philosophy that Marian and Dennis brought to this business was consistent with an underlying principle that Comfort Keepers was founded upon; place the caregiver first. Making the caregiver (our Comfort Keeper) part of our business, treating them with the respect and dignity deserved by those who do such an important job only serves to elevate the level of care they bring to our clients. History has proven that this approach works. A happy Comfort Keeper means a happy client. As important as staff training is, so too is matching our caregivers' personalities with that of our clients. In a world where the most important jobs are often among the most poorly rewarded, it is a tribute to our staff and our more than 50 Comfort Keepers that we find the best candidates who are caring, compassionate and have good common sense.
Dennis and Marian also found that there existed real gaps in the information available to seniors and their families on issues of getting older. What resources are available? Where do I go for information? To help fill this need and as a service to the public, our office sponsors and hosts a weekly radio show that addresses new issues and new ideas on topics of getting older. The show is heard every Sunday at 1:00 pm EST on WNLK - WSTC 1400 and 1350 AM. This has now been extended to the internet and is available anywhere at www.thehealthyagingshow.com
Tragically, in February 2006 Marian was killed in an accident. Her loss was truly profound and will forever effect all who knew her. Over the course of her life, she taught many lessons and led by example. She trained others well to follow in her path and caused those left behind to double their efforts to continue what she saw as such a needed service. The result, a group of compassionate individuals who view providing care to those in need as truly an honor.
Serving
Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Fairfield, Easton, New Canaan, Weston and Wilton
Listen
Home Care Licensing
License Number: HCA0000108
Location
Email: norwalk@comfortkeepers.com