Care Services
The Independent Living Services Provided by Comfort Keepers®
Each Comfort Keepers client has unique care needs. That is why we offer a full range of in-home services—to tailor care plans that provide our senior and other adult clients the right amount and types of help to support independent living at home. These services are provided by the special caregivers we call Comfort Keepers, to promote independent living to its fullest. Examples of our services include:
In-Home Companionship and Care Services
Conversation and Companionship
Comfort Keepers are available to provide clients company and engage in conversation, or to sit down to share a meal together. Social contact such as this is proven to enhance the health, happiness and quality of life of seniors.
Meal Preparation
Comfort Keepers prepare hot, delicious, and nutritious meals, allowing clients to help with preparation according to their ability. Many seniors do not have the opportunity to eat a well-balanced meal, so this service helps seniors get the nutrition they need to enjoy healthier living.
Laundry
These services can be done in either the client’s home or the Laundromat and include washing, drying, ironing and putting things away. Comfort Keepers involve clients to make sure laundry is done according to their preferences.
Light Housekeeping
Comfort Keepers light housekeeping services include vacuuming, dusting, sweeping and mopping floors, cleaning bathrooms (sinks, tubs, showers, and toilets), cleaning kitchens (sinks, appliances, counters, taking out trash), straightening all rooms, organizing closets and drawers, and cleaning any interior windows that can be reached without a ladder. Comfort Keepers does not provide outdoor cleaning or maintenance.
Grocery Shopping/Errands
Comfort Keepers shop for groceries at stores of their clients’ preference and run errands, such as picking up prescriptions or going to the post office. Clients may choose to stay home or help with the shopping and errands as an excellent way to stay active and engaged. Comfort Keepers will use any coupons provided.
Incidental Transportation
Comfort Keepers provides transportation incidental to other care services, such as taking clients to medical appointments, barbershops, beauty salons, shopping, or wherever else a client wants to go. Getting seniors out and about is good for their mind, body and spirit—and an integral part of Comfort Keepers’ Interactive Caregiving™.
Medication Reminders
Although Comfort Keepers cannot administer medications, they can help ensure that clients take their own medication as prescribed. Comfort Keepers can assist with opening medication containers, reading labels and reminding the client when it is time to take a dose.
Grooming Guidance
Comfort Keepers assist clients with washing and combing their hair and other grooming tasks to enable them to feel good about their appearance.
24-Hour Care
Depending on each client’s needs, Comfort Keepers can provide from just a few hours of service a week to full-time in-home care. Through our 24-hour care service, a team of Comfort Keepers coordinates caregiving responsibilities in shifts around the clock. This offers clients and their families full-time peace of mind.
Specific non-medical in-home care services can be tailored to meet each client’s needs. This type of continuous in-home care service is ideal for clients who are at risk when unattended, such as persons with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related conditions.
Respite Care or Relief for Family
Caregiving can be rewarding and often strengthens bonds within a family. At the same time, caregiving can be demanding amidst life's other responsibilities.
Family caregivers and those in their care can benefit from a little time off now and then. That is why Comfort Keepers offers respite caregiving. This service can be scheduled as needed to provide family caregivers time to run errands, go shopping or get some much-needed rest.
Personal Care Services
Bathing, Grooming and Hygiene
Comfort Keepers help clients look and feel their best. These services enhance clients’ mental as well as physical well-being, helping them feel positive about their appearance. Bathing not only cleanses the skin, but goes deeper to refresh the spirit, provide relaxation and stimulate circulation.
Mobility Assistance
Comfort Keepers assist clients as needed with mobility to help them maintain as active a lifestyle as possible. Being able to get out and about offers both physical and mental health benefits to seniors. Physical health benefits of activity include increased stamina and energy, a strengthened heart, lower blood pressure and improved digestion and sleep. In addition, activity improves mood, releases stress and increases mental alertness.
Transferring and Positioning
Comfort Keepers are trained to move and place clients in correct posture position to promote health and safety and proper functioning of the body's many systems. Proper transferring and positioning from or into beds and chairs eliminate pressure areas on the skin, reduce weakening and stiffening of muscles, and encourage proper breathing, digestion and elimination.
Toileting and Incontinence Care
Comfort Keepers compassionately and sensitively care for seniors and other adults, helping them maintain dignity and self-esteem as they receive help with the activities of daily living. Through this caring approach Comfort Keepers help to lessen clients’ embarrassment associated with the loss of independence related to incontinence and need for toileting assistance.
Feeding and Special Diet
For a number of reasons, adults may need help feeding themselves. This loss of independence can be difficult to accept. Comfort Keepers understand this and make the extra effort to turn mealtime into an enjoyable social time.
In addition, Comfort Keepers help make certain that seniors and other clients stay on prescribed diets to prevent or control a wide variety of medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and osteoporosis. And in general Comfort Keepers enable clients to eat a well balanced diet that provides the energy needed for active living and nutrients for disease prevention, healing and healthful living.
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Specialized Care Services*
Dementia Care
Many of the Comfort Keepers offices provide care for clients that are experiencing symptoms of dementia. Some clients may experience momentary confusion or lapses in memory, but others are dealing with advanced stages of dementia conditions. For those that provide this specialized care, specially trained Comfort Keepers will provide activities that can improve a person’s quality of life such as music and other activities to stimulate the senses.
End-of-Life Care
Our compassionate Comfort Keepers come to the aid of individuals who have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. We help them and their families with emotional and moral support as well as helping out around the home and providing personal and companionship care—whatever is needed.
Comfort Keepers can support the family directly or work in partnership with a hospice agency or medical provider to fully meet the family’s needs.
Our ultimate goal is to help families make the most of their time together, helping to lighten the burden at a very difficult time. Through respite care, we give family caregivers needed rest.
And we can continue to help after a loved one’s passing. Our Comfort Keepers help families deal with the grief and assist with tasks such as organizing personal items and moving belongings—or just being there to listen if family members need to talk.
Veterans Care Programs
Veterans or surviving spouses of veterans in need of in-home care may qualify for benefits through the Veterans Administration. Comfort Keepers is proud to serve those who have served our nation. We assist veterans and their spouses in the application process and provide in-home care services for approved participants in VA programs.
In-Home Safety Technology
Personal Emergency Response System (PERS)
The SafetyChoice® PERS allows seniors to easily summon emergency help at home when a caregiver is not present. All it takes is a simple push of a button on a console, or a pendant or wrist band that can be worn for easy access. A response professional at Comfort Keepers’ 24-hour Centralized Monitoring Station will answer the call through the two-way, tabletop PERS console, determine the nature of the call, dispatch help appropriate to the situation—an ambulance, neighbor, family or friend and stay on the line to reassure the senior until help arrives.
Medication Solutions
Staying on schedule with multiple medications is not easy. But it is with Comfort Keepers SafetyChoice® Medication Solutions.
By simplifying the process of organizing and dispensing medicine on time, our Medication Management System helps seniors and other adults get the greatest benefit from their prescriptions. The system provides reminders for each dose in three ways—an automated voice, a display screen and flashing lights. And when a dose is missed, the system sends an alert to the Comfort Keepers Centralized Monitoring Center, which notifies whomever the client has chosen.
For safety’s sake, the Medication Management System's locking storage compartment limits access to one dose of pills at a time. The locked compartment can hold three to four weeks of medicine organized by the caregiver.
The Medication Management System is an easy-to-operate, cost-effective way to promote a senior's health and continued independence.
Portable PERS (GPS-based PERS Systems)
The Portable Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) with GPS technology is the ideal solution for active seniors who spend time away from home or live in rural areas.
Using state-of-the-art global tracking technology, this system can quickly locate a senior who becomes lost or needs help—wherever he or she may be. It provides seniors and their loved ones peace of mind.
A senior who becomes lost simply presses a button on the device, which is the size of a cell phone. Comfort Keepers’ Centralized Monitoring Station (CMS) then receives a signal indicating the seniors' location. A professionally trained CMS representative contacts the senior by way of the device’s two-way communication feature and sends help.
The system also allows family members to pinpoint a loved one's location in real time via the Internet or by calling the CMS, which remotely tracks the senior's location.
A variety of belt and arm clips are available through Comfort Keepers to securely carry the portable PERS unit.
Door and Window Sensors
These sensors can be programmed to signal the Comfort Keepers monitoring station when a door or window is opened. They promote security for seniors as well as detect wandering of persons with dementia. When an alarm sounds, monitoring station personnel will alert people on the subscriber's responder list. The sensors can be turned off during the day.
Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
In the event of fire or release of harmful, but odorless, carbon monoxide, these detectors signal the Comfort Keepers monitoring station to dispatch the local fire department. The detectors also sound in the home, and voice contact will be made through the two-way communication feature of the PERS to make certain the client and caregiver are aware of the situation and leave the residence.
Bedside Pressure Mats
When pressure is applied to them, these wireless floor mats send out an alarm in the home and to the Comfort Keepers monitoring station to alert designated responders. The mats can be placed at bedside or other critical areas of the home and are ideal for monitoring the safety of people who are at risk of falling or wandering due to dementia.
Around-the-Clock Monitoring Center
Comfort Keepers’ SafetyChoice Centralized Monitoring Station (CMS) never sleeps. Our caring, professional CMS operators are ready 24 hours a day to respond immediately to alarms received through our clients’ SafetyChoice in-home safety technology devices, including:
- Personal Emergency Response System (PERS)
- Bedside Pressure Mats
- Door and Window Sensors
- Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
- Medication Solutions
- Portable PERS (GPS-based PERS systems)
Ours is one of the few alarm monitoring companies to meet the exacting requirements to be rated and approved by Underwriters’ Laboratories and Factory Mutual. Our state-of-the-art emergency response technology enables our CMS operators to continually monitor emergency calls and signals sent out from SafetyChoice devices. A backup power supply and multiple backup receivers ensure uninterrupted service.
In addition:
- State-of-the-art computer automation provides SafetyChoice operators immediate access to detailed information to inform emergency responders about subscribers’ medical conditions, age, preferred hospital or other special instructions.
- The CMS, as an optional service, can make up to two check-up calls a day to make sure a subscriber is OK.