About six years ago, Good Comfort’s founder and CEO, Marcel Zierfuss, was told that his beloved father-in-law had Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease. With this diagnosis, Zierfuss and his wife were thrust overnight into the world of homecare in Ontario.
“Navigating the care system, we had no idea,” explained Zierfuss. “Trying to understand the options, finding care, getting care, that was hard enough. But once we started getting care for him, we realised we were dealing with a broken homecare system.”
According to Zierfuss, many providers they dealt with treated homecare like a transaction. “It was like a staffing agency, just providing warm bodies. There were different people every time, there was a lack of consistency and quality, and a lack of training on dementia and specific care needs.”
The final straw was when Zierfuss’ father-in-law had a near life-ending fall while under the supervision of a homecare PSW.
“I said, enough is enough. It is time for better homecare!”
Zierfuss launched Good Comfort Home Care in early 2023, with a mission of transforming home care: providing home care that comes with compassion. Personalized, reliable care that comes with a personal touch. “This is not a transaction but a personal relationship with the loved one and the family,” emphasized Zierfuss.
Good Comfort started with 3 people and over the last almost 2 years has scaled to 100 team members, nurses, wellness partners, and PSWs.
“We really are a one-stop care company, not just a homecare agency,” said Zierfuss. “We provide accessible transportation with PSW support, industry leading care products that we can recommend, and we also do rentals and installations of needed supports as well. We want to help ensure that loved ones are safe and sound at home, and to ensure that family members can access everything they need to care for their loved ones, through one phone call to us.”
Good Comfort also has partnerships with yoga classes, nutrition experts, massage therapists and other supports.
‘We also have a program, ‘Care it Forward’, where we take donations from families or organizations of unused and no longer needed care equipment like beds, canes, walkers, and wheelchairs, and redistribute them to people in need,” expanded Zierfuss.
In addition to all of the above, Good Comfort provides home care options ranging from companion care, to specialized care with trained nurses for palliative or post-surgical needs. Fees range from $38 to $64 per hour, with a three-hour minimum shift.
Good Comfort recently expanded into central Ontario, offering care to residents in Collingwood, Wasaga, Thornbury, Meaford, Owen Sound, Creemore, Barrie, Orillia, and Gravenhurst.
“Bottom line?” said Zierfuss. “We want to help families navigate care. We want to help them get the right care, make the right decisions, and we want to bring the right resources to them. We want to empower families and make it possible for them to have their loved ones safely at home.”
For more information on Good Comfort, call 705-888-2400, email [email protected] or visit the website at www.goodcomfort.ca.
Office hours are Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: and Sunday, 12 to 6 p.m.