Daily Living Blog

Camp Barnabas Reaches Across Barriers

What is in a name? Does it describe our personality, our character? When a parent chooses a name, is that baby already that person or do they grow into it? What about a label? Poisonous labels warn us to stay away. Sensitive skin labels affirm that anyone can use the product. Labels have the possibility to warn us, restrict us or release us.

There are names and labels throughout our society that are placed on things, places and individuals. Old, Geriatric, Disabled, Autistic, Handicap, Dementia are each words that label. They can be descriptive terms or defining terms. Each of these terms can be used to characterize part of a person’s identity. However, they do not define the whole person. The range of each label is vast, enormous and truly undefined. For example, “Old” can be someone further along in age than you (teenagers call their parents old) to someone who is the oldest living person.

However, often times we see that these labels are allowed to not just define but limit a person. Stereotypes are fixed on the recipient. These labels can become so defining that they mold everyone’s perspective to the negative and the impossible. This is especially true with children who have been diagnosed with a disability or are suffering from chronic illness. The diagnosis becomes the focus, the label and the limiter.

I had a conversation at the end of last summer with one of the founders of Camp Barnabas. Camp Barnabas is a summer camp that provides life-changing opportunities to people with special needs. Cyndi and Paul Teas, are the founders of Camp Barnabas in Purdy, Missouri. Cyndi explained that often those who attend camp consistently hear what they cannot do and are often labeled by their medical prognosis. She said that “many are hearing what the world is telling them – they don’t fit the norm.” But Cyndi pointed out that there are a lot of variations within the “Norm”.

Cyndi said that one of the most limiting factors for people with disabilities is attitude. “People’s attitude toward the child that then forms their attitude toward themselves.” She shared that it is rare for them to see a child so empowered that their disability does not hinder them, but in those cases the child is so much further along.

Camp Barnabas’ respects the difficulties and joys of parenting the special needs child. Their philosophy states “we strive to bring new experiences into these families. We seek to promote a sense of normalcy in the lives of children living with disease or disability. We recognize that disease and disability impact the whole family and we therefore minister to the sibling of a child with special needs by inviting them too to join in the camp experience.”

The camp experience is tailored for each group attending. Every activity is adapted to meet the needs of the campers. There are 9 terms and each term of camp is for specific groups based upon diagnosis including Developmentally Disabled, Physically Disabled, Autism, Hematology, Oncology, Burn Patients, Chronic Illnesses, Diabetes, Sickle Cell, Hemophilia, Amputees, Craniofacial Syndromes, Blind, Visually Impaired, Deaf, and Hard of Hearing. The age is from 7 years old and up.

There is a buddy counselor assigned to each camper for the entire week. The camp is structured so that each camper can successfully do the activities. They adapt everything, from the ropes course to games. Cyndi says, “We see a different way to do it – so that they are able to participate in every way. We don’t want them to sit on the side lines.” This philosophy is proving itself time again as campers state, “I never knew I could do that” and parents are in awe exclaiming “I didn’t know they could do this.”

For many of these young people, their diagnosis has completely limited their lifestyle and their identity. Cyndi says many of these kids haven’t been allowed to just be kids. But Camp Barnabas is that – a place where they can be celebrated for who they are and be a kid. “They need to know that God has a plan for their life. People keep making plans for their life based upon what they think they can do.”

Camp Barnabas’ success is measurable in many ways, including by the sheer number of campers that come back. 98% of the campers return year after year. Since their beginning in 1995 they have had over 10,000 campers. Children, youth, adults who have come through the gates of the camp to the tune of 150 volunteers cheering, calling their name and celebrating their life. These campers leave with an understanding that they can do anything, they just might not do it like someone else.

Camp Barnabas, the founders, the staff, the 1800 volunteers and the 10,000 campers and their families truly reflect Living Unlimited!

To find out more about their camp please visit their website at http://www.campbarnabas.org/. Or to make a donation or volunteer you can contact them at 417.476.2565.

Moving Forward

Today, Homecare Suppliers is moving forward with a new momentum! Unlimited by the challenges that have faced them in the days past. What lies ahead are days filled with solutions! Solutions for individuals faced with mobility and disability issues. Answers that define the future of everyone they serve.

Over the course of the last couple of months, Homecare Suppliers and its staff have spent their time in a quiet pursuit of purpose. Director of Operations, Pam Billings, explained that they used the Lenten season as a time of reflection, guidance, prayer and introspection. She says over the 40 day period they literally “stripped Homecare Suppliers back to the foundation”. They stopped pushing in all the directions available for a home medical supply company to go. Instead, they reigned back in their efforts and were still.

What they discovered when it was all stripped away was their passion. A passion that had somehow gotten burried under the day-to-day business of running a company. A passion to serve. A passion to assist those faced with the challenges of aging, mobility and disability issues.

The resonating question may be ‘what does this mean for their customers?’ The answer is that from the outside, looking in, nothing will appear to have changed. Homecare Suppliers has always been dedicated to superior customer care and service. But internally, there has been a shift back to their main purpose: meeting the needs of those they serve. “We had the foundation right, we just lost focus for a bit and got caught up in the competition’s movements as well as a little too distracted by the industry standards for pricing, products, sales and service,” shares Pam. She goes on to stress that “the services we will provide and the products we will begin to carry will reflect more customer needs and not just industry standards.”

Pam states that “Homecare Suppliers is dedicated to assisting all we serve to live life unlimited no matter the challenge before them. We no longer are saying the issues our customers face are a ‘limitation’ but instead we are stressing that those issues are a ‘challenge’ that can be overcome.”

She realized during those days of introspection that the challenges they as a company were facing were much like the challenges that their customers face when looking for assistance in the home healthcare market. Both Homecare Suppliers and customers are often faced with a plethora of products, services, costs, time constraints and even at times an overwhelming sense of just not knowing which way to go. But just as Homecare Suppliers discovered, there is a difinitive way to travel through any path of uncertainty and to find the necessary solutions to live life unlimited.

To find out more about the new products and services available through Homecare Suppliers, call 888-252-2205 or visit their website at http://www.buyastairlift.com.

Homecare Suppliers, LLC Makes Its Mark Online With Instructional Videos Leading to a New Level in Customer Service and Care

Contact: Pam Billings, 816-525-2205
www.buyastairlift.com

Kansas City, MO –

Homecare Suppliers, LLC, a nationally certified provider of home medical equipment for senior-age adults, is using innovation, customer service and easy-to-use online planning videos to help seniors live longer and healthier lives in their homes.

Homecare Suppliers industry leading Web site – www.buyastairlift.com – has become one of the top Web portals for consumers purchasing assisted living/mobility products online.

Throughout its Web site, customers discover detailed product descriptions, complemented with online videos showing installation instructions as well as product demonstrations.

“Customers increasingly tell us they’re looking for ways to make the buying and installation process easier, so Homecare Suppliers LLC has introduced a series of videos demonstrating our industry-leading products and their installations,” said Pam Billings, Director of Operations for Homecare Suppliers, LLC. “This offers our customers a valuable new tool that will make their decisions easier and their buying experience more pleasant.”

Homecare Suppliers started using online videos when it began selling via its Web site self-installed stair lifts. The company quickly recognized customers needed to be able to see how the stair lifts worked and how easy they are to install. Homecare Suppliers became one of the first dealers to use such videos on its Web site.

As Homecare Suppliers has added new products to its Web site, the company has continued to expand its online videos. Today, the Web site features more than 40 planning videos in its online library. The helpful videos cover everything from measuring your stairs for a stair lift to installing a bath lift in a tub.

The success of the online videos is evident to Homecare Suppliers, which has seen an increase in sales and positive responses from consumers who tell them competing dealers actually recommended they go to Homecare Suppliers online video library to watch the installation videos or to help answer their questions about how certain products work.

In addition it its online videos, Homecare Suppliers’ Web site features include easy-to-use navigation, strong visual images and content, customer testimonials, product photo galleries and site-search functionality. Products Homecare Suppliers offers online includes: stair lifts, wheelchair and scooter ramps, wheelchair and scooter lifts, bath lifts, shower chair, walk-in bathtubs, dumbwaiters, toilet bidets, bed rails and numerous daily-living products.

Homecare Suppliers maintains a toll-free phone number to assist customers at 888-252-2205. Homecare Suppliers is headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., and operates offices outside Springfield, Mo. Homecare Suppliers also has contracts with qualified installers across the nation

About Homecare Suppliers, LLC
Homecare Suppliers is a privately-held business specializing in home medical equipment for senior-age adults. Homecare Suppliers was recently recognized by Senior Approved Services as a Certified Senior Approved Service. The national certification is only awarded to those service providers (or businesses) that have at least a 90 percent customer satisfaction rating. The company is dedicated to providing a new level of service and technology for consumers researching and buying assisted living/mobility products online. Homecare Suppliers’ Web site is located at www.BuyAStairLift.com.

Contact:
Pam Billings, 816-525-2205
pbillings@buyastairlift.com

Homecare Suppliers, LLC

Homecare Suppliers is featured in February’s Homecare Magazine

Homecare Suppliers is pleased to be featured in Homecare Magazine. Homecare Magazine is a monthly magazine by HomeCare. HomeCare serves home medical equipment providers who provide patients in the home with medical equipment, medical supplies, and a variety of in-home services. Their magazine provides HME subscribers with timely legislative, regulatory and business news; in-depth analyses of various market segments; features on emerging issues and trends; practical how-to advice on business operations; best-practices profiles; and a constant stream of new product information.

In the February issue, Susanne Hopkins highlights Homecare Suppliers with her article titled “Getting A Lift Without Medicare.” It can be read in its entirety here at HomecareMag.com. While the article is written in part to inform those in the medical equipment industry that they can get by without medicare and insurance reimbursement, it also highlights the foundation on which Homecare Suppliers is built: Integrity & Quality Customer Service.

Pam Billings, Director of Operations, explains in the article why we chose as a company to not pursue medicare and medicaid products.
“There was too much turmoil in the Medicare segment, says Pam, and it was tainted with the appearance of fraud and abuse, something her husband, a police detective, particularly wanted to avoid.

“We found that most companies get payment up front,” Pam says, adding that Homecare Suppliers does, too, when the company completes an Internet sale. But when sales are local, the installation is completed before customers pay. “We wanted to be unorthodox and say, ‘We trust that you are going to pay us,’” she says.

The article points out that Homecare Suppliers is not only an internet sales dealer but we also do site visits to assist our local Kansas City customers with their purchases of bath lifts, stair lifts and other mobility products. We want to go the extra mile to make sure that our customers are getting the product they need.

Introducing Us to the Blog World

Welcome World. We are in the process of finding our blogging voice. Our goal with our blog is not only to support our customers at Homecare Suppliers – www.buyastairlift.com with useful information to assist in their mobility needs but also to raise awareness and information about seniors and disabilities that affect mobility.

We are excited about 2009 and our awareness campaign. As we take to the world wide web in new platforms and ways, we hope that you will be active with us in ensuring that we meet all your needs. Let us know how we can be of help or what we can discuss to keep you informed.

We thank you for your support and we thank those of you who are just finding us. We look forward to all that this year brings. Happy 2009!!

We appreciate the search engines that are hosting us in their directories. Thanks. As soon as we can figure out how to add you to our blogroll – we’ll do that!

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