“Hi, I'm with Genesis Healthcare and I just read about your company in our company newsletter and I wanted to take a minute and tell you what a fabulous service I think you provide…
A couple of years ago while working for another nursing home company in my area I had a need to bring my terminally ill mother into our facility for several months and since leaving home to enter a care facility is normally not always pleasant, one of the brightest spots for her was that she was able to have her hair done every week which she was not previously able to do at home any longer because of lack of mobility and she looked forward to the beautician visiting every week.
I think the salon was one of the most overlooked features of the facility and I tried to initiate some small, inexpensive renovations but it never got off the ground and getting an appointment was difficult for residents because the beautician could only devote one day a week to us, and residents often had to self-schedule by signing up, and a resident who did not travel past the salon where the sign up sheet was located very often just missed out.
The beautician would try to accommodate but with only have one day to be there she literally could not get everyone in that wanted in. She often felt badly and had to manage promises of "I'll make sure I find you next week and I won't leave until you're done".
My mother would light up if someone from activities offered to take time to paint her fingernails as well, and would often ask, "Do you think I should have my nails done today?" and you could sense her excitement.
Unfortunately, obviously time wasn’t always plentiful for someone to do this and we tried to drum up volunteers but that program in itself can be difficult to manage while there are other regulations more pressing to deal with.
I'm thrilled to be with Genesis and see the committment that they put into their facilities and enhancing residents lives and I'm not suprised they picked up on a service like this!"
— Rachel Rowley, Genesis Healthcare