Our family was going through a nightmare of surgeries, nursing home stays and rehab for my mother after three knee replacement attempts and a staph infection. My Dad was being over burdened by the cost for my mom’s care at a skilled nursing facility that quickly depleted their savings. Sue was extremely helpful in assisting us with the labyrinth that is the government elder care services. She met with us frequently at our convenience and also kept me updated through emails or phone calls. We were finally able to get the help we needed for Mom and Dad from the county for medical assistance. Sue put us in touch with the proper people and still keeps in touch with us to inquire about Mom’s condition. I would highly recommend Sue Coyle to anyone who is in need of help with elder care management. She is professional as well as compassionate. We were very pleased with her work.
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Sue was incredibly helpful and comforting with our recent loss of a parent. We needed very specialized counseling, coaching, and guidance in navigating a difficult situation with a difficult older person. During the course of her terminal illness, our mother had isolated herself and created a situation where we were unable to gather her basic information or plan for her care or end of life. Sue was able to provide us with the necessary information, network with the out of state providers and engage local services where appropriate, resulting in a much gentler conclusion. We were wholly ignorant of aging service protocols and hospice programs, but Coyle Care Management walked us through these hiring processes, proper medical care, medication, and pain management. We were wholly satisfied with the assistance and would absolutely employ the service again should the need arise. I think that it was the constant contact and willingness to walk us through the scenarios that allowed my wife and I to ultimately have the difficult conversations with our mother that lead to a more peaceful end of life than would have been otherwise.
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I write this letter at the request of Ms. Sue Coyle. I have known her since the early summer of 2019, when I / our family employed her as a geriatric care manager / consultant. I regard Sue as the main factor that made it possible for my father to remain in his own home for another two years after that, but equally importantly, she made regular and important contributions to my and my brother’s sanity and peace of mind. It would take too long to relate the entire narrative of our lives in that period (after dad suffered a stroke, and was diagnosed with vascular dementia), but I will list some high points of the services Sue provided.
- Rapid response: it was rarely more than a half-hour after I contacted her that Sue had scheduled a meeting or other contact opportunity, always within 48 hours.
- After performing an in-home assessment, Sue convinced my father, who was absolutely opposed to it, to accept a deep clean and an in-home personal care worker for tentwelve hours a week, which made it possible for me to continue working part-time. She also found the service we ended up employing.
- Sue was also able to get my brother (who was skeptical that things were as bad as they had gotten) on side after only one conversation.
- Sue connected us with numerous community resources that improved our lives. This included both educational resources for me (the primary caregiver) and a connection to the REACH program at Mosaic, which was essential to my mental health and an important source of information to share with my brother. She is deeply connected to the “grapevine” of various activities going on in the Fox Cities and hooked me up with a support group (unfortunately interrupted by the pandemic).
- Sue provided advice on how to respond to my father’s behaviors (which included things like angry explosions and driving on his tractor to go to a tavern after his driving license was removed). I probably should have listened to her more–I often found myself skeptical about what she said and then later had to concede that she had been correct.
- Sue read diagnostic documents and medical reports and helped interpret them.
- A crucial step Sue took was getting dad to tour assisted living facilities with her. He never would never have done this with us and he was absolutely resistant at the time he took the tours, but when it became inevitable that he would have to move to assisted living, we already had the topic and information on our radar and the facility of our choice already knew about us. Sue cultivates detailed familiarity with the landscape of senior living options in the Fox Cities and the option (that she more or less steered us toward) was the best one for dad.
- She helped me work through serious decisions as we sold dad’s house and got him moved. She found the removal service that we used. She was usually able to listen to me for as long as I needed (often over an hour).
To sum up: Sue Coyle is extremely knowledgeable in her area of specialty, notably tactful, a good listener, a great communicator with elderly people, and just an all-around nice person. She never over-promised and she always kept her appointments. She is extremely reliable and (although this didn’t happen) I would have been happy to leave dad under her supervision if I had ever had to do so. I would absolutely recommend that anyone struggling with the issues around an aging parent engage Sue’s services. I was delighted that she asked me to write this letter. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions I can answer.
Best, Susan