Visiting Angels is Expanding to Highland County and is Hiring Care Specialists

Visiting Angels is expanding to Highland County.  Visiting Angels is an agency that provides assistance that allows seniors to live independently, comfortably and safely in their homes.  Care specialists can provide a wide range of help, such as assistance with errands, meal preparation, medication reminders, personal care and also acute care for those who are bed bound.

Chris Dickey is the owner of the Visiting Angels franchise that serves Highland County.

“We provide Care Specialists,” says Dickey.  “They are typically a licensed individual.  We are overseen by the Virginia Department of Health and we provide the activities of daily living.  We are licensed by the state and the state has strict requirements of who we can utilize.  We are the second largest agency in the U.S.  We go through a lot of screening and training of our caregivers, a lot of licensing and a lot of insurance.  So, when you hire through an agency you know that you’re going to get someone that’s licensed, bonded, insured, trained, to give you the best care possible.”

Visiting Angels strives to provide much more than care.

“You want to make sure that the caregiver has similar interests and background, because we assign the same caregiver to the client permanently,” says Dickey.  “We also, of course, assign them based on their training depending on the acuity of the case.  But we look at both because ultimately, we are trying to build a relationship.  We have cases that have spanned ten plus years and in those cases the family responds to us to say that our caregiver became a member of their family and bonded with their loved one and that’s ultimately what we are trying to achieve.”

Visiting Angels is a private pay agency, but it works with Veterans’ programs and long-term care insurances.  Visiting Angels also partners with Medicare and Medicaid agencies, home health and hospice.

“We work extensively with the Veterans Administration,” says Dickey.  “They provide veterans and their spouses stipends for home care. You can call us and we will help you get it sorted out with the VA, what your benefits are, or you can call the VA directly and then we are an accredited agency that they utilize and so they will call us to set up care.”

Visiting Angels is also looking for employees.

“We hire, we train, if you have no experience but you have compassion, we will train you to be a Care Specialist,” says Dickey. “So, we are always looking for great people to come and work with us.”

Tracey Wolfe is the Main Nurse at the Staunton Office and is also the Director of Nursing Case Management.

“One of the things we’re really proud of in Highland County is our relationship that we’ve developed with the VPAS Office and the Department of Social Services over there,” says Wolfe.  “We have a great relationship we’re building there just to get to know the community a little bit better.  Everyone in our office has really loved Highland for a long time.  Most of us are from this area and so we are familiar with Highland.  And just really proud and enjoying the relationship we’re developing that’s allowing us to get to know what the needs are and the community resources that are there and really looking forward to 2021 with them.”

For more information go to www.visitingangels.com or call 540-688-3958.