Daya Home Care team members believe that family is where love and healing begins, so people should get to spend more quality time truly "being family."
"We provide non-medical, in-home care and care management to families who are overwhelmed and need help in keeping their loved one home," says LaRhonda Brooks, Daya chief executive officer. "As family caregivers, our clients make the decision to keep their loved ones at home, yet they need support and guidance in making sure those family members are safe and well-taken care of when they can't be there."
LaRhonda says that's where their compassionate and trained caregivers come in. In fact, she named the business Daya due to the word's interpretation standing for compassion, sympathy and joining in other's situations.
Due to a careful vetting process, LaRhonda says, on average, she hires one or two of every 20 applicants.
"After the background and drug screenings, I'm looking for people who are passionate about caring for others and who have solid people skills, along with empathy. I view home care as more like a ministry, where you have to take yourself out of the picture and focus on who needs what type of help," she adds.
LaRhonda knows firsthand how important it is to have reliable home care teamwork established; she served as caretaker for her own parents since she was 12 years old.
"It's important to have someone who has the same values as you and who understands the situations and will work with you—and not just to 'put someone in the house,'" she says.
As a former social worker for the Department of Children Services, LaRhonda was working on her master's degree in social work when her mother pointed out that she excelled in home care and suggested that she develop a new business in that industry sector. LaRhonda says she thought longer about the concept, did the research, and switched to attending nursing school after her mom passed.
"It was during my internships at nursing homes or hospitals where I found the fire that fuels my personal commitment to Daya and the type of work we do," LaRhonda says.
She did launch her own business a year ago this December and has developed the following process for setting up Daya caregivers with families who need them:
- Complete a house assessment.
- Discuss Daya's options for fitting families' schedules, based on four-hour minimums, whether someone needs assistance 20 hours each week or on a 24/7 basis.
- Review and/or interview Daya caregivers to determine potential good matches with new clients.
- Recheck all caregivers' certifications, current availability and skillsets.
- After placing a caregiver or multiple caregivers with a new client, monitor closely the first three days of services by checking every two or three hours if the circumstances are working well and complete training in-home with a supervisor for the first hours of the shift. After that, a check-in occurs once a week and then once a month.
- Determine if families would like or need Daya packages, which include one-step solutions for services considered to be on overtime or during holidays.
"I had one client in Franklin who said I really catered to them. I do like to ask about what 'above and beyond' looks like to each client," she says. "The bottom line is that I'd rather families be creating valuable memories with each other, instead of constantly worrying only about sickness or aging."
Daya Home Care provides personalized support with in-home personal care services, companion care, homemaker services, transportation and friendly reassurance service. Daya caregivers appreciate that many people like to stay in their homes for as long as possible and just need carefully planned senior care and companionship.