Gooding, Idaho
Safe Haven Assisted Living Home
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Deborah Hall: Health Care Hero
DEBRA HALL, House Manager at our Safehaven Assisted Living Home in Gooding, Idaho, was honored as a "Heath Care Hero" in the October 2009 Idaho Business Review for her care and dedication to the needs of the residents under her care.
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Dani Grigg, of the Idaho Business Review, writes: "When a 90-year-old hospice patient named Walter mentioned that he hadn't seen his brother in 40 years, care provider Debbie Hall got on the Internet and searched until she found the lost brother. A few days later, Walter and his brother chatted on the phone for an hour and a half.
"He was so happy;' Hall said. "For days he kept saying, 'I can't thank you enough.'''
Hall (pictured with Safe Haven resident Audrey Belsher) serves as manager of Safe Haven Homes of Gooding, an assisted living facility. She said working there is like having a house full of grandparents. And she works hard to make that house feel like a home.
The daughter of a former patient said in the days leading up to her father's death, the family experienced better care than they could expect to receive anywhere. "I have never seen kinder people who cared for my dad;" the daughter, Donna, wrote to Safe Haven, adding that the staff welcomed the family into the home in those last days, providing food and beds and even doing their laundry. "He loved them and they loved him as well. No one could have treated him better... They talked with us, cried with us and attended his funeral."
Hall said she knows life might be easier if she didn't let herself get so attached to the aging residents, but with all the time spent together, it's not something she can avoid.
"We do more than fix meals, clean rooms and give medication," she said. "You develop a relationship--it can't be helped." She said she deals with the passing of residents like you would with the death of anyone who passes away--she cries.
Hall has managed Safe Haven for five years. She also volunteers as a crisis pregnancy counselor for Helping Hearts and Hands in Gooding.
