LifeCare Solutions, based in Mountain Brook, is the leading comprehensive care management service in the Birmingham area and helps families care for people of all ages who need help navigating serious health and lifestyle challenges.
Many older people have health concerns, both mental and physical, and even young people may have to cope with or recover from serious injuries, chronic illnesses or disabilities.
Regardless of age, they all need someone they can trust to help them find their way through a bewildering maze of healthcare providers and other services.
LifeCare Solutions is there with a holistic, client-centered approach.
“Our mission is to support, educate and provide on-going expertise and resources to our clients and their families through compassion, guidance and understanding,” says Christy Baynes, the firm’s Founder and CEO. “We are committed to helping our clients achieve their best quality of life while living with a chronic illness.”
“Working with families, our expertise provides the answers at a time of uncertainty,” says Taylor McElmurry, the vice-president of operations for LifeCare Solutions. “We guide our families to the actions and decisions that ensure quality care and an optimal life for those they love, thus reducing worry, stress and time off of work for family caregivers.”
The caring, well-trained staff at LifeCare Solutions can assess the client’s current needs and help the client and the client’s family plan for the future.
They can also help educate caregivers; help clients and families plan for crisis care; and connect families with other resources and providers, including help with legal and financial matters.
“We help navigate them through their care journey, and that covers basically everything they can’t do for themselves,” McElmurry says. “We recommend outside resources, like caregiving, home health, physicians, facilities and so many more local resources.”
Baynes started the company in 2012 when her professional and personal experience showed her the need for true continuity of care focused on the whole person, because care doesn’t stop when a patient walks out of the hospital.
“Care is our calling, not our job,” Baynes says. “Our own families and loved ones have endured many of the same hardships and challenges that our clients face.
“We choose team members with the right educational background, years of expertise in the industry, personal experience and — most importantly — the heart and passion to serve our clients and their families,” she says.
Baynes’ husband, Allen Baynes, serves as the company’s Chief Financial Officer, and Bragan Petrey — a certified registered nurse practitioner — serves as Assessment Specialist.
The company has grown steadily and now has 18 staff members with 250 years of combined experience.
“Our staff has backgrounds in areas such as nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, gerontology, speech pathology and social work,” McElmurry says. “Our expertise includes in-home care, home health, adult day care, support groups, assisted living and memory care assisted living, skilled nursing, and palliative and hospice care.”
LifeCare Solutions has also expanded its service area, recently opening an office in Opelika. The company now serves Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, the Auburn/Opelika area and their surrounding communities.
LifeCare Solutions is also a proud woman-owned business, and nearly 90% of the staff members are women.
“All of the wonderful women on our staff have servant’s hearts and use their expertise as well as compassion to guide our clients and their families towards a solution,” McElmurry says. “To our team, it’s personal!”
Women certainly bring some strong, positive attributes to the company.
“Women not only bring great wisdom and experience to the business world, but they also bring such understanding and compassion while doing so,” McElmurry says.
The work the staff does at LifeCare Solutions is very gratifying.
“The majority of the time, our clients or their families come to us lost, overwhelmed or in crisis mode because the healthcare industry is so complicated, lacks unified communication, or there are just too many choices,” McElmurry says. ‘On top of all of that, caring for a loved one is emotional. We get to meet our clients at whatever stage they are at in their care and relieve them of their stress and burden so they can be family. To do what we do, you have to have a bleeding heart, but being able to see the relief that our service brings to our clients and their families is reward enough.”
People also need and want personal, hands-on care, so each client at LifeCare Solutions has just one care manager.
“We want to build that relationship of trust between the care manager and the client and client’s family,” McElmurry says.
LifeCare Solutions has tremendous expertise in caring for patients with dementia.
“Dementia care and support have always been at the forefront of our company’s focus,” McElmurry says. “Most of our care managers have worked decades with persons living with dementia.”
Baynes began her geriatric career in 1998 at UAB working as a research assistant in the REACH (Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer’s Caregivers Health) Program.
In fact, the firm is the first PAC (Positive Approach to Care) Designated Organization in the state.
“Our organization incorporates PAC’s training and techniques in our staff training, family education and community outreach,” McElmurry says.
The Thoughtful Engagement Specialists at the company work with those living from dementia, and TEP features one-on-one personalized activities that “bring a client joy,” she says.
For example, one woman with dementia loved to collect antiques. “So we take her estate sale shopping,” McElmurry says.
“However, most of the time our clients just need someone to talk to and to be there to spend time with them,” she says.
LifeCare Solutions has also seen the age range of its clients expand over time.
“While geriatrics is still our specialty, we have been helping younger and younger individuals who need the same help as older adults, whether it involves a chronic illness, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse or mental health,” Baynes says.
For more information, call 205-848-8400 or go online tolcscaresolutions.com.
