The Challenge
Christine’s mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. For a while the family managed her care on their own, and it worked. Then in 2021 her condition worsened and she began having seizures.
After a long hospital stay, the family brought her home. She now had significant needs, including a feeding tube and a complex seizure medication regimen. Christine and her sister both had to return to work. Their father was at home and able to help, but not able to meet the full level of care his wife now required.
The family was clear on one point: they wanted to care for her in their own home rather than move her into a nursing home. That meant finding someone they could trust with her while they were at work, in the period just after COVID when trust was in short supply.
They did approach another provider first. That person was not willing to wear a mask during the day with a medically fragile client, which mattered to the family at the time, so the search continued.
Facing Something Like This?
Our Approach
A family friend had referred them to Christine Kanak years earlier, when she cared for Christine’s father-in-law, who also had Parkinson’s disease. After he passed away, the family reached out again for her mother.
After a few phone conversations, she arranged an in-home visit within the week and met with Christine, her sister, and their father together, so all three of them could be comfortable with the arrangement before anything began.
The original plan was for Christine Kanak to cover two of the four days herself and assign an employee to the other two. After meeting the family and assessing the level of care required, she changed it and took all four days personally. She was there Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, roughly eight to two, for nearly two years.
She had not performed feeding tube care before. Her response was to say she was willing to learn and to ask the family to show her, and she took it on from the beginning, along with the seizure medications.
Between visits she was reachable. Schedule changes came with plenty of notice in both directions, and when the family had an evening event she would come out at those times as well.
Near the end, when the family moved to hospice care, she came out on a weekend even though the family was home. When her mother needed to be started on morphine and no pharmacy in Philadelphia could fill it, she drove to a pharmacy in Jenkintown to get it, telling the family to stay with their mother while she handled it.
The Solution
Christine and her sister were able to work without worrying about who was with their mother. She was cared for at home, not in a nursing home, for the rest of her life.
After their mother passed away, the family kept Christine Kanak on. Their father was still fairly independent, and they did not want him to feel he was being supervised, so the visits were framed as help sorting out their mother’s things. She kept an eye on him at the same time. In total the family worked with her for about two years.
Christine has since passed Christine Kanak’s name on to friends in the same position, including a family caring for a mother with dementia. Her reason is the one thing that is hardest to find: trust.
This Is What the Right Support Looks Like
Care Type
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Timeline
2021 to 2023, approximately two years
