For reliable post-hospital senior care at home in Lakewood, Dallas, families call Senior Care of North Texas, a locally owned, Texas-licensed agency (License #020448) whose employee caregivers meet your parent at Baylor or the house after a hospital stay or a fall. They handle the ride home, the first night, showers, meals, transfers on old stairs and wood floors, and rides to follow-ups, at one flat $30–34 an hour. Care can often start within 24 hours.
Lakewood families reach us in one of two ways. Some get a call from the emergency room late at night: Mom slipped on the hardwood, nothing is broken, and she is being sent home in a few hours. Others have days of warning: Dad has been at Baylor University Medical Center since Sunday, and the discharge planner has just said Thursday. The help your parent needs at home is similar in both cases. How you get there is not, and this guide walks through both.
How do you know an agency will be reliable in the weeks after a hospital stay?
Reliability is not a slogan on a website. It is whether someone actually shows up at the house on Lakewood Boulevard at 8am on day three, knows what the discharge papers said, and has a backup if they are sick. Ask any agency you call, including us, these questions:
- Can you meet us at the hospital before discharge? We do the free assessment at the bedside, so the plan reflects what the discharge planner and the therapists actually said.
- Are the caregivers your employees? Ours are background-checked, insured and supervised by the agency. You are not the employer.
- What happens when the caregiver is out? We send another caregiver who already has the care plan. A neighbor's private helper often has no backup at all.
- Who answers the phone at night? Our line, (214) 550-6533, is answered 24/7.
- Does the rate change as needs change? Ours does not. One flat $30–34 an hour covers days, evenings, weekends and overnights, and there is no levels-of-care pricing. Major holidays are the one exception, at time and a half.
- Can we cut back hours without a penalty? There is no long-term contract, so the schedule shrinks as your parent gets stronger.
Those six answers tell you more than a brochure. Our post-hospital recovery care page lays out the full service, and our in-home senior care in Lakewood page covers the 75214, 75206 and 75218 ZIP codes, from the M Streets and Greenland Hills to Hollywood Heights, Junius Heights and the streets around White Rock Lake.
Who can help an older parent at home after a fall in Lakewood, Dallas?
Senior Care of North Texas can. A fall that ends with an ER visit and no admission is often the harder start, because nobody hands you a discharge plan. Your parent comes home shaken, sore and a little afraid of the house, and often there is no home health team ordered and no therapist scheduled yet. The family is left to decide, at midnight, whether Mom can be alone tomorrow.
Our Lakewood page puts it plainly: a parent home from the ER, shaken, should not be alone. A caregiver can be there for mornings, meals and steady support, starting with a few hours a day. Here is what that looks like in practice:
- Getting up in the morning. Out of bed, to the bathroom, washed and dressed, with a steady arm on every transfer. Mornings are when unsteadiness is often at its worst.
- Showers with someone right there. A small 1920s bathroom is where a shaken parent least wants to be alone. The caregiver gets the room ready and warm, then stays close through the whole shower.
- The house made easier. Rugs, cords and clutter moved out of the walking routes on every visit, and the things your parent reaches for most put within reach.
- Meals and water. A real breakfast and lunch, and reminders to drink.
- Watching and telling you. If your parent seems more confused, is in new pain, or is not eating, the caregiver tells the family the same day so you can call the doctor.
What the caregiver does not do matters just as much. Whether your parent needs an X-ray, a new medication or physical therapy is a question for the doctor. Exercises come from a licensed therapist. Our caregivers are not therapists and do not assess gait or design exercise programs; they encourage the walking the therapist assigns and give hands-on help with transfers and mobility between visits.
No honest agency can promise that a parent will never fall again, and we will not. What we provide is a trained person beside your parent at the moments that carry the most risk. For the day-by-day view of the weeks after a fall, read our guide to the first two weeks after a fall at home.
A fall sent home from the ER, or a planned discharge: how the first week differs
The two starts lead to the same kind of help, but the first few days are organized differently. This is how we usually set them up for Lakewood families.
| Question | Sent home from the ER after a fall | Discharged after a hospital stay |
|---|---|---|
| When we usually hear from you | Late at night or the next morning, often with no warning | When the discharge planner first mentions a date, often from the hospital room |
| Where the assessment happens | At the house, usually the same day or the next morning | At the bedside, with the discharge instructions and the therapy team's advice in hand |
| Who gives the medical instructions | The ER papers and your parent's own doctor | The discharge planner, the physician and any home health team the doctor orders |
| Typical first schedule | A four-hour morning visit, sometimes with an evening visit added | Longer days, sometimes overnights, for the first stretch home |
| What the family does first | Book a visit with your parent's doctor and ask whether therapy is needed | Read the discharge papers with us and list every follow-up appointment |
How to read this table: find the column that matches how your parent came home, then read down to see who is involved and what the first schedule tends to look like. In both cases the caregiver's work is the same non-medical help; what changes is how much is already planned for you when we arrive.
Baylor, Presbyterian or Medical City: why the call from the hospital room matters
Most hospital stays for Lakewood families happen at Baylor University Medical Center, a few minutes down Gaston Avenue. Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas on Walnut Hill is the other frequent discharge, especially for families closer to Lake Highlands, and Medical City Dallas is a longer drive up Central. Wherever your parent is, the best time to call is while they are still in the bed.
Here is what that call sets in motion:
- The assessment at the bedside. Ryan Berry, our co-owner, does the free assessment himself. He hears what the discharge planner and the therapists recommend and turns it into a schedule: who is at the house when, what gets cooked, which appointments need rides.
- Your parent meets the plan before going home. Coming home to a caregiver who was introduced at the hospital is easier than opening the door to a stranger.
- A caregiver at the house the first night home. We can have someone in Lakewood when your parent arrives, and care can often start within 24 hours of your call.
- Someone at the hospital, too. If the family cannot be at Baylor around the clock, our hospital and facility sitters sit with patients inside the hospital, so the same agency covers the last nights there and the first nights home.
Tell the discharge planner that non-medical support is arranged. Planners across Dallas–Fort Worth work with agencies like ours every day, and it often makes the discharge itself go more smoothly. Our hospital discharge checklist for DFW families lists what to settle before your parent leaves.
What does the first day home look like in an older Lakewood house?
Lakewood's Tudors, Spanish revivals and colonials from the 1920s and 1930s are the reason people stay for fifty years. After a hospital stay they also mean polished wood floors, a step between rooms, a bathroom too narrow for a walker and, very often, a bedroom upstairs. Our guide to stairs, narrow bathrooms and wood floors in older Dallas homes covers changes to the house itself. The first day home is about the person.
- The ride home. The caregiver can pick your parent up at the hospital or rehab and give a steady arm from the car to the chair.
- Settling in. Bed made, walkways cleared, glasses, phone and water within reach, and a first meal ready.
- The prescriptions. The caregiver can pick up new prescriptions at the pharmacy, often the one at the Lakewood Shopping Center, and gives medication reminders on schedule from the organizer or list your family or pharmacy has prepared. Caregivers do not fill organizers or give medication.
- A plan for the stairs. If the bedroom is upstairs and climbing is not yet wise, we can suggest a downstairs daytime setup until mobility improves. On the stairs, the caregiver is beside your parent every step, until the physical therapist says otherwise.
- The first evening. Dinner, a wash or shower if the doctor allows it, help into bed, and a lit route to the bathroom. If nights are the worry, an awake overnight caregiver is billed at the same hourly rate as days.
Hands-on help with bathing, dressing and toileting during recovery is personal care, and our guide to bathing, dressing and transfers in an older Lakewood house goes room by room through that help.
Where does the caregiver's job end and the medical team's begin?
We are a non-medical agency, licensed by the State of Texas for Personal Assistance Services. That line is clear, and it is part of why hospitals and home health agencies are comfortable working with us.
- The caregiver does: the ride home, setting up the first night, a steady arm on transfers, showers, dressing, toileting, meals cooked to the discharge diet, medication reminders, rides to follow-ups, light housekeeping, and noticing changes and telling the family.
- The physician, home health nurse or therapy team does: wound dressings, injections, IV lines, exercises, medication changes and every health judgment.
Medicare home health is a different thing from what we do. When a doctor orders it for a homebound patient, Medicare covers short, visit-based skilled care: nursing visits, therapy, and a bath aide for a limited time during that episode. Original Medicare generally does not pay for non-medical help with bathing, meals or companionship when that is the only care needed. Our page does Medicare cover home care? explains the difference. Most recovering seniors need both, and our caregiver makes sure your parent is up, fed and ready when the nurse or therapist arrives.
The caregiver is also a second set of eyes. Changes in appetite, new pain, swelling or confusion get reported to the family, so you can call the doctor early instead of late.
Follow-ups on Gaston, and getting back out around the lake
The weeks after a hospital stay are full of appointments, and for many Lakewood families the doctor is at Baylor's medical offices on Gaston. Missed follow-ups are one of the common reasons a recovery goes backward. The caregiver drives, in your parent's car or their own, walks in with your parent, and brings them home.
The same rides cover the ordinary errands that keep a week normal: the grocery store and the pharmacy at the Lakewood Shopping Center at Gaston and Abrams, the hairdresser on Abrams, and church on Sunday. When the therapist agrees your parent is ready, a slow walk at White Rock Lake or an afternoon at the Dallas Arboretum on Garland Road is a good outing for someone who needs to keep moving and see people. For a parent who has given up the keys, those outings keep the recovery from shrinking into one room.
How many hours do Lakewood families start with, and what does it cost?
Every visit is at least four hours, a whole morning of help. After an ER visit for a fall, many families start with a morning visit and add an evening one if bedtime is shaky. After a longer hospital stay, the first stretch is often longer days. Families commonly keep recovery care for two to six weeks, and some find a small amount of ongoing help is worth keeping.
Our rate is one flat $30–34 an hour, the same for days, evenings, weekends and overnights. It does not rise as needs grow, there is no assessment or start-up fee, and there is no contract. Here are the monthly estimates from our cost page.
| Hours per week | What it often looks like during recovery | Estimated monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | One morning a week, late in recovery | $520–590 |
| 12 | Three mornings a week, as strength returns | $1,560–1,770 |
| 20 | Five four-hour mornings, a common first schedule after a fall | $2,610–2,960 |
| 40 | Full weekdays, often the first stretch after a hospital stay | $5,190–5,880 |
How to read this table: pick the row that matches the help your parent needs this week, not forever. Recovery care is meant to move up the table toward fewer hours as strength returns, and because the hourly rate never changes, cutting back simply lowers the bill. Our cost of in-home care in Dallas–Fort Worth page has the full figures, including 24-hour care.
Tapering is built into the service. Families typically step down from full days to a morning visit, then to a couple of mornings a week, without renegotiating anything. If a setback happens, the hours go back up just as simply. If both parents in the house need help, one caregiver can help both at a couples discount.
Why Lakewood families call Senior Care of North Texas
East Dallas families often know a neighbor who hired a caregiver privately. That works until the caregiver is sick, on vacation or gone, and then the family is the employer with no backup. We are built for the opposite.
- Locally owned. Ryan Berry, one of the two owners, comes to the house or the hospital for the free assessment himself, and hospital discharge planners and social workers across North Texas know him by name.
- Employee caregivers. Background-checked, insured and supervised, and matched to your parent. If the match is not right, you ask for a change and we make it.
- Caregivers who know East Dallas. The caregivers who serve the area drive Gaston, Abrams, Mockingbird and Garland Road every week, so a morning start on Lakewood Boulevard or a same-day extra shift near the lake is realistic.
- Licensed and rated. Texas Personal Assistance Services License #020448, and 4.9 stars across 44 Google reviews.
- Quick to start. Care can often start within 24 hours, at a published flat rate with no contract.
We serve all of Dallas–Fort Worth, and the same team also covers nearby Preston Hollow and the Park Cities.
If your parent is at Baylor tonight, or just home from the ER, call (214) 550-6533. Someone answers 24/7. If you would rather start in writing, request a free in-home assessment and we will call you back. Either way, we can plan recovery care at home before your parent walks through the door.
This article is general information, not medical advice. Questions about your parent's injuries, medications or exercises belong with the physician and the therapy team.
