From the Heart Senior Services

My short dealing with this agency was a devastating nightmare. «From the heart» should be removed from its name. Stay away.

«From the Heart» should be called «From the Wallet».
My wife and I needed a caregiver for my mother-​in-​law, and we engaged this organization. We expressed our needs, especially the parts where (a) we needed the same person to be at our home so my m-​i-​l can have consistent care, (b) this person was on time and © a self-​starter. This was particularly important because my wife was starting a new job just days after my m-​i-​l came home from a few weeks in rehab. We were assured this would happen, and we put down a $ 2100 deposit for what we understood was for the first 2 weeks of care. Please note that my m-​i-​l is on a very limited income, and this was also the first time in several years that we had two incomes of our own so we can pay our own bills.
The two weeks turned out to be a nightmare. The first person they sent lasted a few days, but every time she arrived at the house she acted like she’d never been there and needed my wife to go over the routine every single time. This took time away from my wife for getting ready in the morning and getting out the door to be at work on time — which is kind of important when it’s a brand new job. To make matters worse, common sense things like cleaning up dishes, changing soiled bedsheets, were not done. Then we were told by the agency that she wasn’t coming back and that we would have a new person. We ended up having a new person EVERY SINGLE FRICKIN’ DAY who had to be given the complete rundown EVERY SINGLE FRICKIN’ DAY. One person ended up taking a phone call from her son, turned her back on my m-​i-​l who almost slipped out of bed. The last person was the final straw. She was barely in her twenties, was 30 minutes late, and had her iPhone in her hand clearly intent on focusing on that. We sent her home immediately. I ended up missing an appointment I had that morning and stayed home from work to take care of my m-​i-​l. We immediately fired From the Heart.
Then it got worse. We started getting invoices for the times that the supposed caregivers were there. We asked them to keep the deposit and send us the balance. They told us it didn’t work that way, that the deposit was pretty much IN ADDITION to the invoices. They called and harassed us. Our time was precious, and as I stated my wife had started a brand new job and was not in a position to take personal phone calls and deal with this. Finally, they decided WITHOUT OUR DIRECT AUTHORIZATION to charge the credit card we had used to make the deposit to make the final balance. This credit card was linked to my m-i-l’s checking account, and it wasn’t until we tried to use it to buy things that she needed that we found out this agency had made the unauthorized charge. Again, she is on a very limited income. We were $ 200 in the hole and uncertain how we were going to pay for my m-i-l’s needs until her next social security check came through. We called the bank and reported it as fraud since we never authorized the payment.
The final blow: we got a letter from them in the mail AFTER THE FACT that they had done this.
I do not care if there was a clause in the contract that we signed that gave them permission to do this. They did this without our knowledge, without them sending us any sort of written notification via certified U.S. mail and a timeframe for us to respond and make arrangements before they took action like this. If they had done as we had asked in the beginning — keep the deposit and bill us for the rest — then this review would have been unnecessary. However, I think it’s important for you, the reader, to know about our experience before you make a decision like this for the care of your loved one.

We needed a caregiver for mom on a short term basis as she recuperated from surgery but before she was ready to return to her assisted living home.
The good people of From the Heart were recommended by the residence as one of a small list that met their high standards for bonding and background checks.
I liked their old-​school approach and focus on the patient from the beginning. They were immediately available, handled exceptions and requirements quickly and easily. Most importantly, the caregiver was well trained, thoughtful, patient and very sweet. Well done. I’ll certainly recommend them to friends and call on them should I need someone again in the future.