Guardians of dignity 277918

SPRING HILL –
They won’t wear scrubs. They will cook every meal to order. You’ll never see one of their residents in a hospital johnny.
The managers of Spring Hill’s Guardian Home Health Assisted Living Facility say they value human dignity above all else. Proprietor Elaine DeCiutiis and her daughter, Assistant Administrator Paulamarie Aurigemma, said they run a high-tech, squeaky-clean, family-oriented assisted living facility in Spring Hill. They opened last October with the goal of providing a unique opportunity for seniors to live in comfort and safety with as much dignity and self-respect as if it were the managers themselves who were living there.
“I couldn’t expect anybody to live in a home that I myself wouldn’t love to be in,” said Aurigemma, a certified nursing assistant (CNA).
She speaks of personal experiences seeing elderly residents ignored or neglected in assisted living facilities.
“I personally drove the daughter of a former resident to Pennsylvania to retrieve her mom from a facility where she had been grievously neglected,” Aurigemma said. “This woman had been a happy, outgoing, ambulatory resident here. She could no longer stand or walk on her own, and had lost so much weight she was skeletal. We found her in filthy bedclothes, wearing nothing but a hospital johnny.”
Aurigemma said this experience added to her resolve to ensure residents at Guardian are attended 24/7, have self-respect, privacy when they need it, top quality health care as soon as they need it, and most of all, that the residents know they are “family.”
Regarding safety, Guardian has a fixed generator and features a high-tech alarm and security system. Cameras cover the entire outside and indoor common areas. Sensors alert when a vehicle enters the driveway or a door is opened.
“We don’t have cameras in personal areas,” said Aurigemma. “We respect our resident’s privacy. We do keep a careful eye on them at all times. We allow them as much personal space as they wish, but encourage residents not to spend too much time alone in their rooms.”
DeCiutiis added, “Our residents prefer the common areas, and we accommodate everyone’s interests as much as possible.”
Like her daughter, DeCiutiis has her degree in health care administration and a CNA license. The two women have completed other classes including medication assistance, Alzheimer’s and domestic violence.
DeCiutiis has her own reasons for wanting to be the one calling the shots when it comes to elder care. When her own father became paralyzed from the waist down, she and her mother would visit him in a rehabilitation facility and she thought, “that’s not the way I’d take care of him. Someday I’m going to open a place of my own.”
When her dad came home, DeCiutiis would send her mom out “for a break,” and care for him. She also cared for her grandfather who had Hodgkins Disease, and a cousin who was blind with cerebral palsy.
“I’ve always been the caretaker,” she said. “Paulamarie is just like me. You need a lot of caring and love to be in this field.”
DeCiutiis and her husband Frank relocated from New York to Hernando County in 1993 and brought their passion for elder care with them. In the new Guardian facility, Frank feeds his passion for landscaping by maintaining the grounds.
“He works for love and food,” said DeCiutiis. Aurigemma added her dad “is there immediately whenever we need anything.”
At the age of 76, resident Don Easton said he is “very happy to be here” at Guardian.
“This is a very nice, well-run place,” he said. “I have been in three other assisted living homes following hospital stays, and this is definitely the best of the three.”
Aurigemma described how when Easton first arrived his medications were “all over the place,” and that “Don was very nervous about being here.” Now both Easton and Aurigemma agree he is relaxed and feeling safe and well-supported in his new home at Guardian.
Aurigemma said, “We keep meticulous records of his medication schedule so when out with family members, they know exactly what his needs are.”
Easton added they have “a lot of other interesting guests drop by to visit, as well as my family members. It’s not like we are stuck away someplace where you don’t see anyone.”
DeCiutiis and Aurigemma also manage an in-home support venture called Your Guardian Angel. They provide personal care, transportation, companionship, meal preparation, light housekeeping, daily activities, and other services to families with elderly relatives who need assistance.
In the future they would consider opening a second home if the opportunity comes their way, but “first and foremost is TLC and efficiency,” said Aurigemma. DeCiutiis continues, “we hope our business will flourish and that we help a lot of people along the way. We wish for more people in this field to have compassion – it’s like a teacher with a child. When someone’s sick or scared and needs you, you have to know how to be there for them, to offer good customer service, and have good people skills.”

Biz at a glance:
Name of biz – Guardian Home Health, Inc.
Where it’s at – 12452 Barrow St. Spring Hill
Get in touch – 352-688-8832 or [email protected]
Web site – http://www.guardianhomehealth.org/