Families with children and adults with special needs have made great efforts over the past year to keep them out of hospitals.
Many have turned to home care services for help with this mission.
But this industry is struggling to find enough caregivers during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, families with children and adults with special needs say home care services are vital.
“I always needed a nurse there because Miracle was busy,” said Stephanie Cannady of Wake County of her youngest child.
Three-year-old Miracle has Down syndrome, uses a feeding tube (also known as a G tube), and has other serious medical problems.
In the past, when Cannady couldn’t find a reliable home nurse, she had to quit her job, which compounded her family’s problems.
“I couldn’t make money paying bills because my nurses weren’t on time. But I don’t have to worry about that at Home Rule,” she said, referring to the North Carolina-based home care company.
It was started by Christy McGlothlin when she couldn’t find a nurse for her special needs child.
McGlothlin says her daughter, now 12, was born without breathing.
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“She has a trach, a shunt, a G-tube, cancerous brain tumors and chopsticks in her back,” said McGlothlin of Hickory during an interview with ABC 11 at the Home Rule office in Wake Forest.
She said her experience led her to a career coordinating home health care for people who might otherwise be hospitalized.
“Our families can’t go to work without a nurse. And they can’t usually shower without a nurse. They can’t sleep without a nurse,” she said, which is a really big deal. “
But McGlothlin can’t find enough nurses and is about to hire 200.
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During the pandemic, many nurses were hired by hospitals and others are staying at home with their children, according to McGlothlin, who said, “I literally thought there was going to be this boom of nurses in the market in January and not.”
Although home health care often doesn’t pay that much, she said it is often more rewarding for nurses.
“They know their clients may not be as healthy. You know, they may not achieve their goals, they may be hospitalized if they don’t have a nurse,” McGlothlin noted.
Miracle’s mother said her family couldn’t do it without nurses in their home.
And she would like to see more nurses enter the home health sector.
“The ones we have are great,” said Cannady. “You are doing very well with Miracle and she loves her.”
McGlothlin said Home Rule hires nurses for full-time, part-time, or casual work.
More information is available here on the company’s website.
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