The North Shore Outlook

September 27, 2007

Care coming

A North Shore resident and VP for Nurse Next Door, David Reeve has plans to bring the in-home health-care provider north of the Lions Gate providing service for ailing seniors and peace of mind for their children.

by DANIEL PI

There’s a story David Reeve finds very pertinent these days as he passes his tenth month as vice president of operations for Nurse Next Door, one of Western Canada’s largest home health-care service providers.

It’s about a family with two adult children facing tough questions when caring for their parents, one recovering from surgery and another suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Suddenly, besides working full-time jobs and raising their own families, the son and daughter have become the primary caregivers to their parents.

It’s something they’ve never trained for, and leaves them feeling unprepared.

“We’ve never gone to school or been equipped to do that,” Reeve explained.

That’s where a service like Nurse Next Door becomes a lifesaver for the seniors it cares for and the families, he said.

“We almost have two demographics in our business, the seniors we care for and the sons and daughters,” Reeve said.

Reeve can happily conclude that the son and daughter in his story now have peace of mind knowing a trained and qualified health-care professional is coming in several times a week to care for their mother, which allows their father to go out on occasion and enjoy his retirement with friends, maintaining his health and wellness too.

As the Canadian population continues to age – a recent Statistics Canada census showed that one in seven Canadians is a seniors – Reeve figures there will be more situations like the one he described occurring.

That means more people, from concerned sons and daughters to lonely seniors, will be turning to services like Nurse Next Door for care.

“The peace of mind is tremendous,” Reeve said.

While the numbers show a service like Nurse Next Door is necessary, Reeve added the business’s motto isn’t about filling a niche but rather making sure each client is cared for according to their needs.

The business, after all, was founded by two entrepreneurs in 2001 who originally set out to find caregivers, one for an ailing grandmother and the other for a pregnant wife confined to bed rest.

They didn’t find anyone fitting their specifications and figured the could offer a better service.

Now Reeve said Nurse Next Door has four franchises in Burnaby, Kamloops and New Westminster, more than 1,000 employees and 750 to 1,000 clients.

Care can range from a couple hours a week to 24-hour live-in care and ranges from companionship to fully trained nurses.

This way, Reeve added, clients can choose the amount of care they want and also keep the price at a manageable level.

A longtime North Shore resident, Reeve has his eyes set on bringing the service up to his home turf where he said almost 17 per cent of residents are seniors, higher than the national average of 13.7 per cent.

“I’m really tied strongly with the community,” Reeve said. “By 2008 we are coming over to the North Shore in a large way.” 

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