Sandra Salmon, the owner of Opal Stork Home Care, is passionate about nursing and taking care of others. She attributes that to her Jamaican heritage and its culture of nursing and helping her grandmother back in Jamaica delivering babies and embalming the dead. “My grandmother was a Doctress/midwife, (no formal training) so we had a lot of babies born at our house, including me,” Salmon says. She keeps a photo of her grandmother at the office.
“I was born into this work,” she says, only half joking.
Salmon recently moved Opal Stork Home Care from West Haven to Woodbridge. She originally planned on opening a second office in Woodbridge but liked the larger space on June Street so much that she moved all the business operations here.
Opal Stork Home Care provides non-medical in-home care to clients in New Haven, Litchfield and Fairfield counties. They provide meals, light housekeeping, laundry, shopping and more. All of Opal Stork staff are vaccinated and there is a short wait-list for in-home care. Salmon takes pride in matching the caregiver with the family and client. “There’s a lot of staff turnover in homecare, so we try to get it right the first time and provide continuous service for our client.”
Although Opal Stork Home Care provides non-medical care, they have two Registered Nurses and one Advanced Practice Registered Nurse on staff. The nurses supervise and educate the homecare staff about how to properly care for clients with medical issues. For example, says Salmon, if a client has diabetes the staff will be trained to remind the client to take their medications, to check blood sugar levels and the staff will keep an eye on warning signs, like if the client is too sleepy or drooling.
In addition to in-home care, Opal Stork Home Care also provides transportation in wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Aides may accompany patients in the transportation service. Another unique feature of Opal Stork is that they have hospice aides that are medication certified and are supervised by the RNs in administering medication.
To learn more about Opal Stork Home care, visit their website, www.opalstork.com or call 203-745-4080