Caring for a family member or friend can be a challenge, whether it is your home or theirs. It often turns into a full time job and it is difficult to find enough time to do things well. In our current healthcare maze, it is often asked whether or not Medicare pays for help in the home. The answer is “no.” That leaves many families on their own when it comes to choosing an agency to provide caregivers that they can trust.
In my practice I most frequently turn to Visiting Angels. They are a national network of franchised, non-medical, senior homecare agencies providing up to 24 hour care in the comfort of the home where the patient is staying. There is no better example of a great Visiting Angel’s Agency than the local agency in Punta Gorda, Florida. Sunny Cavanaugh is the owner of the agency.
When writing this, I want you know that I have entrusted many of my patients, past and current, to Sunny. As most of you know I am a huge advocate of excellent patient care. I am grateful that I have been able to entrust the provision of caregiver services of my patients to Sunny. She is involved in each case that is taken on by her agency, and she knows each client and caregiver personally. The backgrounds of the caregivers that she hires are thoroughly screened, and she matches her caregivers’ strengths and specific knowledge base, with a client’s needs. The client and family always have the final say regarding which caregiver seems to work best with their loved one. Sunny often says “the client is in complete control, from start to finish.”
The Visiting Angels’ caregivers are non-medical, in that they provide supportive one on one care to the client. Many of the caregivers have been nursing assistants or home health aides, so they are well equipped to assist with a client’s bathing, dressing and self-care needs. The best part of having a great working relationship with Sunny’s agency is that I can depend on her knowledge of her caregivers’ skills, and she is able to match the right caregivers to the client’s needs very successfully. The caregivers are able to help with a client’s daily care, light household activities, grocery shopping, meal preparation and transporting the patient to medical visits.
Why is Sunny so great? She is a great team builder and maintains good staff. She also has a passion for the business of caregiving, because she has had a long history of being a caregiver for her own family members. She cared for her father who passed away in 1961, her grandfather, who passed away in 1989, and her mother who passed away in 2006. While being a caregiver, Sunny was working in real estate, banking and finance. She knows what it takes to balance it all. Her compassion for the caregiver is insightful and critical to the success of the client’s care. Sunny is amazing. She and her staff are the best!
Note: we will be adding questions and comments about hiring a caregiver agency this month, and will be providing helpful tips and questions to ask when interviewing an agency. Let us know your questions! Leave them here or send us an email through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Sunny Cavanaugh's Contact Information: (941) 347-8288, Charlotte County, (239) 368-0888 Lee County, (863) 993-4444, DeSoto County: www.visitingangels.com/swgulfcoast
