Providing in-home care giving to individuals and families
ByAs featured in the Rutherford County Business Pulse:
Cindy Lazar has cared for her son Jeff for 25 years. Not just in the usual way mothers care for their sons: washing their clothes, cooking their supper, nagging them to clean up their rooms, simply loving them.
Way beyond that. Jeff was born with spastic quadriplegia and is confined to a wheelchair. He relies on someone else to take care of his personal needs: taking a bath, getting dressed, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner and even going to the bathroom. Virtually everything Jeff needs his body to do, someone else has to be there to help.
For his entire life his mother cared for him by herself. Now, Jeff wanted to go to college, away from home, just like any other young person.
“I wanted so much for Jeff to have the kind of life he wants,” said Lazar. “He wanted to live in an apartment, earn a degree, be as independent from me as he possibly could be.”
But it was going to take a lot of help…a lot of help.
Never underestimate the power and will of a mother. Cindy Lazar got on the phone and started dialing. She began learning about community care giving resources for Jeff, but it didn’t take long to hit a solid brick wall: the first phone call.
“After being turned down by four different agencies in Murfreesboro, I ended up on the phone with Melissa Warren and Family Staffing Solutions of Rutherford County,” Lazar remembers. “I was so very disappointed at that point, and I didn’t know what we were going to do. The other agencies said they could not staff the number of hours needed for Jeff’s care as an MTSU student living in an apartment. I couldn’t accept that Jeff ‘s chance to go to college away from home wouldn’t happen because we couldn’t find the help he needs.”
Not only did Warren say she would provide the care Jeff needs, she promised Cindy that if she didn’t already have the right staff member to become Jeff’s primary caregiver, she would not stop until she found and hired the right one.
“Cindy and Jeff are exactly why I went into this business,”Warren says. “I want to help people. I’m determined to help people find good solutions so they can live their own lives as they choose to live them, as independently as possible.”
Cindy Lazar can’t say enough about Warren and Family Staffing Solutions of Rutherford County. “Taking care of Jeff is a big job, and Family Staffing has been right there, caring for Jeff just like I would myself. Knowing they are there for us has made all the difference in the world. I am extremely grateful for Melissa Warren and her staff of terrific caregivers for all they have done for Jeff and for me.”