The holiday season is often a time when we reflect on the past year and assess goals and aspirations for the coming year. As part of this process, the status of your health along with your family members’ is an important component of a family’s “annual review.”
Those of us in the home care field see a strong seasonal increase in the need for care services in the first few months of the new year. Often when families get together over the holidays, family members are surprised at how a relative — typically an elderly parent — has changed with regard to their ability to live independently in a quality manner because of aging or disability.
Identifying and selecting additional resources to care for a family member can be a daunting and intimidating process. We wonder: Where do I go for information? Who can I trust? How do I select from the various options? HomeWerks Home Care is here to help families navigate this process.
What services does HomeWerks Home Care provide?
HomeWerks provides caregivers to assist with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, eating, and toileting, for people living in their own homes. These services help seniors and those with chronic or acute disabilities remain safely and comfortably at home. There are two levels of care: 1) lower-level care for people who are independent with their ADLs but seek companionship and 2) higher-level, hands-on care for people with greater needs, provided by a certified nursing assistant. Generally, home care is a non-medical service because it does not provide a registered nurse, distinguishing it from medical home health care, where nurses can perform tasks such as wound care and administering IVs.
What are the benefits of home care?
Beyond allowing people to remain at home, studies show that home care plays an important role in reducing medical costs. Clinical data show that home care costs a fraction of hospital or nursing home care. For those receiving home care, health issues are often identified earlier and treated proactively. This can reduce or prevent hospital and nursing home admissions and the need for more intensive treatment or supplemental therapy.
Why use an agency instead of hiring a caregiver directly?
A licensed agency ensures the company’s care policies and procedures are reviewed and approved by state health boards and that caregivers are properly hired and trained. Agencies vet caregivers through background and reference checks. Agencies like HomeWerks Home Care carry workers’ compensation and liability insurance, reducing your risk. Licensed companies also provide replacements when an aide is unavailable, along with management oversight for unexpected situations.
How is HomeWerks Home Care different from other home care companies?
HomeWerks Home Care is not a franchise home care agency. We are a locally founded, family-owned home care agency created solely to provide our clients in the Wilmington area with personalized home care services. When using HomeWerks Home Care caregiver assures that the caregiver delivers care based upon how the client wants it, not based upon a large company’s requirements.
HomeWerks Home Care makes every effort to match caregivers to client considering needs, skills fit, interests, demographic and cultural factors. HomeWerks Home Care invests in our most important resource: our caregivers. We pay our caregivers a significantly higher average rate compared to most other agencies. This fosters motivated caregivers, less employee turnover, and more intimate, long-term relationships between caregiver and client.
If you have long-term care insurance, HomeWerks Home Care is approved and certified by most insurance companies to provide services whose costs may be reimbursed back to you.
Our agency is all about quality not quantity. It may sound cliché, but we don’t want to be the biggest agency but rather have the absolute best reputation for high-quality services for a select group of clients. We will not take on new clients unless we are confident that we can provide services that continue meet our high-quality standards.
Meet the HomeWerks Management Team
Tom and Paula Werks. (Submitted photo)
Tom and Paula Werk, Owners and Operators
Before starting HomeWerks Home Care in Raleigh in 2010, Paula Werk ran Residential Resources of the Triangle, LLC which primarily assisted people with relocating from a house to an assisted living facility. Prior to joining HomeWerks Home Care in 2016, Tom Werk had a long and successful career in the pharmaceutical, medical diagnostic and clinical-research organization sectors.
Paula Werk is a native North Carolinian, and Tom Werk was raised in Wilmington. They both love to travel, enjoy watersports and love spending time with their two adult kids and two grandchildren. You can often see them walking The Loop.
Shirley Brex. (Submitted photo)
Shirley Brex, Operations Manager
As operations manager, Shirley Brex brings a diverse background in public relations, customer service and management, along with a genuine passion for helping others. Brex is dedicated to supporting clients and their families, ensuring that every individual is truly cared for with compassion, personalized attention and service.
Billy Hauber. (Submitted photo)
Billy Hauber, Scheduling Manager
Billy Hauber is originally from upstate New York where she received a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in health science from State University of New York at Oswego. She has been a certified nursing assistant for over 13 years,12 of those years with HomeWerks Home Care. Hauber is passionate about treating our clients and caregivers with the respect and dignity they deserve.
Brenda Shayesteh. (Submitted photo)
Brenda Shayesteh, Office Manager
Brenda Shayesteh has over 15 years of experience in payroll management and compliance. She has a proven track record of accuracy and efficiency in managing payroll operations with a focus on customer satisfaction. Shayesteh has also held a variety of positions in the corporate financial accounting field.
Grace Granato. (Submitted photo)
Grace Granato, MSN, RN, Clinical Nursing Manager
Grace Granato is a clinical nurse professional with more than three decades of practice grounded in direct patient care, clinical education, and outcomes‑driven quality improvement. Beginning her career as a critical care and emergency department nurse, she later advanced into roles including nursing educator, clinical outcomes manager and clinical peer review analyst.
Theresa Bozeman. (Submitted photo)
Theresa Bozeman, MSN, RN, Clinical Nursing Manager
Theresa Bozeman, MSN, RN, is an experienced clinical nurse professional with more than 35 years of practice grounded in direct patient care, clinical education, and outcomes driven quality improvement. Bozeman began her career as a surgical nurse, then progressed to nurse manager, nursing supervisor, and clinical outcomes manager.
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