About Evon

 

My journey in healthcare started in the Army Reserves, where I was trained as a combat medic in my twenties, at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. After returning to New York, I was stationed at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, where I worked at the Veterans Administration hospital as part of my reserve duties. I then attended California State Polytechnic University at Pomona as an Animal Science Major; primarily the food industry. This was from 1991-1996, just as corporate farming was taking over from the smaller farmers. My education as a science major necessitated my understanding of publications and trials, medications, and biology. Critical thinking skills were a big part of my education; as a student, I learned the basic research model from hypothesis to published research.

 

In 1996 I married the love of my life, Robert Rogers, a disabled former Army veteran, police officer, and shipfitter in the Philadelphia Naval Shipyards. Robert already had chronic pain resulting from his service as a soldier and police officer, sustaining injuries from both. At the Naval Shipyards, he suffered a horrific work accident in which he had an interior rotator cuff detachment. He went through 5 major surgeries until he said no more. I was his primary caregiver and managed our household and his full-time care. Towards the end of his life, he had cancer and Parkinson's disease with the accompanying dementia. I took care of him through to his end of life, with his passing at home in hospice care, in 2015.

 

During that same period, my Dad had a fall with a broken hip while my parents were vacationing in British Columbia, Canada. I was the one out of his four kids that he wanted in Canada, as he was in the hospital for hip replacement surgery.

After his surgery, we needed to have an air ambulance fly him, my mother, and myself back to the United States, as my parents lived in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was admitted to a hospital in the Scottsdale Healthcare System. I gave up my current massage practice in Texas and eventually sold my home to move closer to my parents.

 

I accompanied my Dad in the hospital, acute care hospitals, and then rehabilitation hospitals. I felt strongly about being present daily wherever he was to assist him and advocate as needed. He proudly told everyone at the facilities, that I was his "nurse."

He would come home and then be readmitted multiple times until his passing in 2011. I then cared for my Mom in her home, as she was in her eighties until we found a wonderful independent living apartment in Scottsdale. It was small, and the staff was amazing. She lived there until her passing in 2012.

 

Afterward, I wanted to get into caregiving, with the intention of caring for people as I cared for my husband and parents through the end of their lives. I joined the California Home Care Aid Registry and started working as a private caregiver. My experience was in group homes for the intellectually disabled, home health care for people with family members who were being cared for at home, and medically fragile children in foster care homes. I worked in large care facilities with our Elders, but as the environment would be geared toward the company or corporation, they were difficult places to work. You could see the residents' needs were not met by operators who were indifferent to the suffering caused by their mindset. I also worked with multiple home health care agencies, some good and some bad. With my extensive work experience, I learned many things about how various companies or corporations ran their businesses until it became clear, who would be doing right by their residents or clients and who lacked interest and knowledge.

 

My research on Elder abuse laws in California and Arizona, government documents on Elder care in home health and residential facilities, and private research on Eldercare have given me a clear overview of the state of affairs in our country. There is much room for improvement.

 

This combined knowledge of first-hand experience for decades in caregiving and my research into how these industries operate put me in a unique position to serve anyone wanting to find quality residential care for their loved ones.

My concern is for the Elders receiving services and their families who love them.

 

Disclaimer: This is not legal or medical advice and only covers the current operators and staff. Facilities can change in management and staff/caregivers,

 

I can assist you with what to look for when choosing safe residential facilities for persons needing assisted living and dementia care.