CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) — Last month’s snowstorm was a major challenge for many throughout Charlottesville and the surrounding community, including BrightStar Care of Charlottesville and its clients.

With the brunt of the storm and its aftermath behind the community, Chief Operations Officer Malina Rivers and Community Outreach Specialist Korey Hess discuss how their caregivers navigated the storm to provide much-needed care to their clients.

“Certainly we faced the challenges that everybody else did,” Rivers said. “But you know, when you care for people, it’s important to have a plan.”

 

Planning ahead

Rivers said BrightStar began planning for the storm five days in advance, making sure to prioritize their care toward those who relied on BrightStar as their primary support. Rivers said they also considered that some of their clients live in areas that would be difficult to navigate in and out of with the ice, with some caregivers even staying at their clients’ homes for multiple days.

She shared one story of a caregiver who spent multiple days at her client’s home, with the caregiver telling Rivers, “I thought I might hate this after day three, but it’s like an adult sleepover. We’re having the best time.” The caregiver and her client were going through the Julia Chiles cookbook during the storm and catching up on episodes of “Days of Our Lives.”

 

Staying connected even snowed in

For Hess, doing his job as Community Outreach Specialist was challenging due to the ice keeping him inside his home. Rather than going out and about the community as he usually does, Hess said he instead made a lot of phone calls just checking in.

“When you go through something like that,” he said, “you just want people to stay positive. Specifically when you don’t have too much to do and you can’t get out, just checking in, making sure they’re good. Specifically the people who are with their clients and continuing to go to work.”

 

Stepping up to provide care

Ultimately, both Rivers and Hess praised not just their aides at Brightstar and the healthcare community as a whole in Charlottesville for all the work they did during the storm. Hess mentioned how many healthcare professionals had to spend multiple nights at their respective facilities, much like BrightStar’s caregivers stayed at their clients’ house.

“It was amazing to see these people in healthcare just prioritize the client,” he said. “I wish I could do more, be on the streets, bring coffee and keep everyone good, but it was awesome to see.”

Rivers made sure to highlight BrightStar’s caregivers and healthcare workers as a whole for sacrificing time with their families and homes during the storm to provide much-needed care to their clients and patients.

“It’s kind of scary when you realize ‘Ooh, I don’t know how long this is going to last,'” she said, “but we gotta make sure those people get care because we don’t know the next time someone’s gonna get in there.”