Home care company expands with new Kildare offices
Rachel McGaley, HR and Social Media manager, with Heather Murray, Brenda Kavanagh and Denise Gibbons.
A PROSPECT of significant growth in the home care services field as the population ages underpins the expansion in the Leinster region of the latest such business in the Kildare-West Wicklow area. Komfort Kare, which has just opened new offices in Kilcullen, comes with a five-year track record in the Dublin area.
Kilcullen is familiar ground for Baltinglass-born Komfort Kare CEO Brenda Kavanagh — she lived there while studying social care at the former IT Carlow, and worked part time in the local Bardons Bar and Restaurant to help with her expenses. After getting her degree she joined Nua Healthcare Services, and later worked with Caremark homecare in Naas where she eventually became a manager. In 2019, Dublin-based investor Maggie Chen established Komfort Kare and brought Brenda in as CEO. When the pandemic hit, the enterprise provided support to nursing homes, and quickly grew staff levels to some 90 people.
"After Covid calmed down, we moved into elder care," says Brenda. "Initially in Dublin from where we extended to Westmeath and Longford. In addition to Kildare and West Wicklow, from this office we will also be providing services in Laois and Offaly."
The local manager is Laura Glynn. Komfort Kare offers clients a range of behaviour support, domestic assistance, personal care, complex care, ASD support, and 24-hour health care services. In addition to private clients, the company is an approved HSE provider and can also provide agency staff on a temporary or permanent basis.
Staff are all fully qualified to a minimum of QQI level 5 training in healthcare and are trained in Patient Manual Handling, Safeguarding, First Aid and CPR, and more.
"We have also recently began working with Griffith College, with which we offer a two-year apprenticeship to a level 6, working alongside our staff who mentor them all the way and they get full hands-on experience as well as their qualification."
A major expansion of companies in the sector over the last decade makes it highly competitive both in getting business and in recruiting qualified staff. To attract and retain staff, Komfort Kare is offering higher wage rates than many larger competitors.
Brenda said. "We also offer a full healthcare package and guaranteed roster hours.”
Komfort Kare introduced themselves to Kilcullen with an open day which included demonstrations of chair yoga, a sensory room, the care staff training space, and a mobile unit offering people a sense of what it's like to have dementia.
The business model is based on the fact that there are going to be more older people around who are in a position to stay in their own homes with the right supports. That's a key element of the Sláinte Care programme looking forward, with primary care centres and home care together helping to keep people out of hospitals and nursing homes.
