27 Residential Care Homes near Columbia City, OR. Page 2

Finding this care home has been the best thing for my mom. The owners could not be more kind or caring. For my mom, the added bonus of having children in the home has been such a blessing. [name removed] was so helpful to me in my search, and she hit it out of the park with this recommendation. I tell everyone involved with looking for care to contact your service. Thanks from my whole family!

If you have a loved one with complex needs who requires superb care-giving along with tender loving attention, look no further than Brighter Days. After a harrowing journey into a memory care facility that traumatized my father and landed him in the geriatric psychiatric ward of a hospital, my family was desperate to find a living situation that could meet my father's high level of needs – and where he could still feel safe and at home. A Place for Mom recommended Brighter Days, and it has proven to be a GODSEND to my father and our entire family. V. and her staff at this level three adult foster home provide not only exceptional care for my father, but a sense of safety, reassurance, and love to our entire family. The house is clean, airy, and quiet; the food is homemade and delicious (where else will your loved one get fresh-squeezed orange juice for breakfast?); and the residents are treated with tenderness and respect – even when they become cranky about having their basic hygiene needs met. V., the owner and main caregiver, is a trained nurse, so she can handle many of the more difficult aspects of patient care that would normally only be done in a nursing home. She worked in pediatric nursing for many years, and has been working in eldercare since coming to the US 20 years ago. Her pediatric experience shows in how she cares for the elderly: she intuitively understands the needs of my father, who is oftentimes flustered and upset because he can no longer communicate clearly through language. A bit of our story will highlight the exceptional care offered by Brighter Days: The psychiatrist treating my father was skeptical about placing him in an adult foster home saying, "If this place is what you say it is, you have found the pinnacle of adult foster care!" My father's needs – both physical and emotional – were so great that she believed they could only be handled at a nursing home facility. Not only was he wheelchair-bound, but he was considered "reluctant to care," sometimes hitting out and biting at the psychiatric staff. V. at Brighter Days received daily reports from the psych ward, but remained confident that she could work with my father. When we brought my father into Brighter Days for the first time, within a few minutes he indicated he felt "back home." He then asked to go to the bathroom, allowing V. to attend to him, then immediately fell asleep in his big armchair-recliner. Later that evening, my mother was alarmed when the phone rang and showed the Brighter Days number, fearing it was another call about my father falling – or something worse. Instead, it was V. calling to reassure my mom that she had put my father to bed without incident. In the days and weeks that followed, NONE of the aggressive tendencies seen at the memory care facility or in the psychiatric ward returned. My father is content and calm, because the animal instincts that now rule his mind can trust that he is safe and secure. The family is relieved of the distress and worry about what could be happening to him out of our sight, and we all report sleeping better. In one respect, the psychiatrist was correct: Brighter Days is the pinnacle of adult foster care! A note: Brighter Days is probably best for lower-functioning elders who no longer have the capacity or desire to make crafts and play bingo. It has room for only five residents, and most of them are no longer super social.

We brought our mom to angle hands 2 years ago. She was on hospice and weighed 90 lbs. she had no will to eat or even live. With in a couple months, the staff of angle hands had our mom gaining weight and eating. She became happy about life again. She is mom again, despite her dementia. She is reading and writing letters. She smiles laughs and we can have conversations with her again. [name removed] and her staff truly love and care about the people in their care, as well as the family members. We don’t want our mom with any other facility. Our mom doesn’t want to be anywhere else. As difficult of a decision it is to put a loved one in a care facility , angle hands makes you and your loved one feel loved and cared for. I would recommend angle hands to anyone going through this difficult time. I love and appreciate all that work there. They have become our family.