After taking care of his own grandparents, it became clear to Doug Stark’s family that there was a clear need in Wichita to provide higher quality care for the elderly struggling with dementia. He is joined by Robert Miller as they share their journey with Don and Ebony to bring more compassionate care to Wichita.
Wichita is the flagship city of ComfortCare Homes. Founded by the Stark family in 1993 after their experiences caring for their own family members with dementia, the company remains a family business strongly committed to developing models for dementia care that foster compassion and drive innovation.
In the process of caring for the Stark grandparents at home, the vision of ComfortCare Homes materialized. The core concept of ComfortCare Homes centers on providing a clear alternative to hospital-like nursing homes by building and remodeling traditional houses to suit the needs of small communities of people living with dementia.
ComfortCare Homes understands that clinical care in large impersonal facilities can elevate stress and increase confusion, and that most people suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia respond well to calm, familiar environments. When the Starks opened the first ComfortCare Homes residence in 1993, they began to see their intuitive understandings create meaningful impacts on lives outside of their own family. Before long, ComfortCare Homes acquired several more residential properties throughout Wichita, and in 2014, built the very first advanced dementia care home from the ground up--Founders Crest--using the insights and innovations gleaned from our first twenty years of operations.
Wichita has been our home for more than 25 years. In that time, we’ve expanded across the city with nine homes, and across the state of Kansas through licensee partnerships in several other cities. We invite you to discover the wide range of services and unique amenities that we offer our residents.
On this episode we discuss:
- How it all began
- Being a healthcare hero with no medical background
- Thinking about a social model, not a business model
- The family “serial entrepreneur”
- Being a resource to support and educate
- What they learned from the Small Business Award
- Building new resources and capabilities into home care
Listen on popular podcast directories and aggregators, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pandora, and ICT Podcast Network or using the player above. Send feedback on this show and/or suggestions for future guests or topics by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or emailing communications@wichitachamber.org.
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Wichita Chamber Business Accelerator is a weekly podcast devoted to supporting and learning from area business owners. Released every Wednesday, it's produced by Forge Podcast Co, managed by the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Evergy.
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