Christal Becton opened Visiting Angels to serve New Tampa and other parts of Hillsborough County in 2004. As the franchise owner and director, she says she feels blessed to be in the business of helping senior citizens and their families.
Visiting Angels provides home care services as an alternative to moving into a nursing home, retirement center or assisted living facility, allowing seniors and others in need to maintain the independence of their daily routines in the comfort of their own homes. It is a nationally branded company, headquartered in Pennsylvania, with 500 locations across the U.S.
“When my 84-year-old aunt, who lived in Columbia, SC, needed assistance, I had to hire a caregiver for her because I was unable to keep traveling back and forth to care for her,” Christal explains. “I believe that’s what started me on the road to in-home care. After my husband retired from the military, and I was ready to get out of my job in corporate America, I began looking into franchises. That’s when I found Visiting Angels.”
Christal opened the Visiting Angels office on N. 56th St. (south of Fowler Ave.) in Temple Terrace, minutes from most of New Tampa.
She has a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, and a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in organizational management from the University of Phoenix campus in Albuquerque, NM. She also has a wealth of previous nursing home experience, having served as Chief of Recreation Therapy at a nursing home in Albuquerque.
While the business has grown over the past 12 years, Christal says that what hasn’t changed is her passion for helping people and for matching clients with caregivers to give them the help they need in their homes.
“I enjoy working with seniors in need,” says Christal. “So, this is the perfect profession for me.”
She says every aspect of running Visiting Angels is rewarding. “The challenges are learning experiences and never a burden. We really have very few issues.”
Services
“Most of our clients are seniors who need some extra help,” Christal explains. “We also can help anyone over 18 who needs assistance. Younger people sometimes need help, too, due to their own physical challenges or health issues.”
Available services include everything from helping someone temporarily recover from an illness or surgery to providing ongoing companionship to a senior who just needs a friend.
“We also go grocery shopping and run errands, prepare meals, assist with personal care and do light housekeeping,” Christal adds. She says some clients require help with bathing or shaving, some just need a hand getting up in the morning and starting their day, while others may need clothes laundered and linens changed.
One difficulty common for many seniors, especially those who don’t drive or have a relative nearby, is arranging transportation to their doctors’ appointments. Visiting Angels’ staff will transport clients to and from their appointments, and always remain on site throughout their clients’ visits.
“We provide the vehicle,” Christal says, adding that the service is a relief to relatives who find it difficult to take time off from work to drive their loved ones to their medical appointments.
Visiting Angels accommodates its clients’ schedules, whether they need a few hours of assistance a week or even 24-hour-per-day, 7-day-per-week care. Day or night, weekends or holidays, temporary or long-term, Visiting Angels can help.
Care Providers
Visiting Angels’ healthcare providers include about 50 Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) and Home Health Assistants (HHAs). Christal says that her company serves about 40-60 clients in New Tampa, Temple Terrace and other surrounding areas.
She adds that the company runs a comprehensive background screening on all caregivers. Christal says she is very selective about who she chooses to help her clients. Many are graduates of medical academies that specialize in home care and/or have worked at assisted living facilities or in other health care environments. Christal says Visiting Angels caregivers choose to specialize in home care because they enjoy the personal interaction with only one or two clients.
“One of my CNAs has been with the same client since 2004,” she says. “In hiring, I make sure my staff has a passion for doing what they do, and that they have a strong employment history in caring for seniors.”
Christal also interacts with each new family who calls Visiting Angels and requests a free, in-home assessment.
“I personally do each new client assessment myself,” she says. “I like to make a connection with the family. I get to see how they live and learn about their background, which makes it easier to connect them with the right caregiver.”
During the in-home assessment, she reviews each client’s needs and asks about the types of services desired, noting the patient’s daily routine, meals, proximity to doctors’ offices and number of regularly scheduled appointments. She then prepares a care plan and selects the caregivers who are best suited to meet your needs.
After personally meeting all of the available caregivers, you get to choose the candidate you prefer.
“One of the things that sets Visiting Angels apart from other home care services is that our clients get to choose their caregivers,” Christal explains. “People don’t just show up and say, ‘I’m here to take care of you.’ Our clients actually meet the caregivers beforehand, so they already feel comfortable with the person who will be caring for them.”
These caregivers become an important part of each patient’s routines, and often, families let Christal know the significance of the care their loved one received in their time of need.
“Thank you for the wonderful care you provided,” said a grateful family in a letter to Visiting Angels. “You were more than a caregiver to us, you quickly became a friend… [Mom] so appreciated your presence and friendship, as we all did… It was always a relief to us to know that when we needed you, we had no worries at all about Mom being taken good care of.”
Christal says that technology also allows her to keep in close contact with the families of her clients — whether they are out of town or busy working, a quick text or email keeps Christal, the caregiver and the family all on the same page regarding a patient’s care.
In addition, technology allows Visiting Angels to provide information to the community, even those who aren’t her clients.
Christal sends out a newsletter and also provides information on the company’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/VisitingAngelsTampaFL, informing people about dementia, caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s, fall prevention and other issues that affect seniors.
“The greatest change I’ve seen as a business is our ability to communicate with the community and use technology effectively to reach out to the community and be a resource,” she says.
Visiting Angels is located at 9812 N. 56th St. in Temple Terrace. And, for a special offer just for readers who mention the Neighborhood News, call Christal at 929-7067.
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