Jason A. Smith | the Valdosta Daily TimesAfter being a nurse and doing social work for more than a decade, Shannon Perkins opened a personal care home called Nurturing Love. 

VALDOSTA — Shannon Perkins has spent her life devoted to working with people in need in her community.

“I was a social worker for the state for about six years,” Perkins said. “I worked with Division of Family and Children Services doing investigation.”

Before working for DFCS, she worked as a nurse at Shands University of Florida for a number of years.

Perkins saw there was a need to help individuals with mental or physical disabilities, and she wanted to have a more active role in meeting those needs.

“I wanted to do something beyond social-work them,” Perkins said. “I wanted to go out and be active and help them, because I saw a fit and a need for that.”

This desire to help the specific needs of those that she felt were underserved led to Perkins opening new business: Nurturing Love.

Nurturing Love is a personal-care home, working with anyone from the age of 18 and older who needs assistance due to a mental or physical disability.

Perkins said her home focuses on helping people who are ambulatory, so it does not take in residents who are bed bound or use a wheelchair.

Perkins said her business was licensed in August 2017, but she didn’t open until May.

She wanted to earn more certifications and learn more about the needs of the area before opening the business, she said.

“I wanted to reach out to more agencies in Valdosta, Lowndes County and in Georgia,” she said.

Now that the business is open, Perkins does her best to help her clients that stay in her home “to live as much of a normal life as possible,” she said.

To do this, residents live on site and have staff on the premises 24 hours a day.

The staff help residents with a myriad of daily activities.

The staff helps “anybody that needs help with personal hygiene, grooming, showering, reminders to take medication, supervision to take medication and transportation to get to medical appointments,” she said.

The personal care home provides food for the residents throughout the day.

“We ensure they get three meals a day and two snacks,” Perkins said. “For breakfast there is a hot and cold breakfast. Cold breakfast is something like cereal. Hot breakfast is like eggs with bacon or sausage.”

For lunch, the options are usually a cold or hot sandwich with french fries or chips and a fruit, she said. Dinner is usually chicken, rice and a vegetable.

“We do focus on healthy foods and making sure they get the nutrition they need,” she said.

For residents with special diets including low sodium or pureed diets, Nurturing Love caters to residents’ needs as long as it is prescribed by a doctor.

“Anything that a doctor has prescribed, we will honor that diet.”

Nurturing Love works with residents on life skills such as socializing, coping and interacting in different social settings.

“We talk about when you get overwhelmed or anxiety to take a moment and take a deep breath, and learn when to stop and take a break from an activity or a project to calm down and reassess the situation with a clearer mind,” Perkins said.

To teach residents how to interact in various settings, Nurturing Love takes residents on regular field trips.

“We make sure they are out in the community, whether that is out to eat or at the mall,” she said.

“We take them out at least once a week at minimum.”

Perkins said the field trips are a way to help residents live a normal life and get outside.

Nurturing Love hosts various activities including bingo and arts and crafts.

“They have a lot of input here when it comes to activities,” Perkins said.

=“We just make sure that they get the best quality care that they deserve. Our main goal is to make sure their loved ones know they are getting taken care of. We want our residents to feel like part of a family here at Nurturing Love. It is a business, but it is family oriented.”

Because some of the residents are mentally disabled, residents must be checked in and out of the building, and if a resident leaves for an appointment, a staff member is always with him or her.

“The only exception is when the resident is at another facility or program that is trained to supervise the residents,” Perkins said. “These typically include state programs, life development skills classes or activity centers.”

Because of her desire to help people in need, Perkins said she strives to make Nurturing Love feel less like a personal care home and more like a home.

“Our goal is, and what we really focus on is, our residents,” she said. “We are a personal care home, but we are family. We want them to feel like they are a part of a family.”

The facility can house four residents, and there are openings available for new residents.

Nurturing Love, 704 Holly Drive, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information, call (229) 415-9148. 

Jason Smith is a reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times. He can be contacted at 229-244-3400 ext.1257.