FirstLight HomeCare - Northeast Atlanta, GA

Pros

• First Light Home Care provided excellent caregivers to stay with my Mom.
• First Light home health care is hands down the most caring, loving, patient and helpful home health care business there is in Atlanta.
• They listened to every concern and worry I had and had it covered from the get go.
• The nurses were amazing and we got to know all of them very well.
• Jeff Duren, the owner, came to my mom's house and sat with her until a nurse could get there so she would not be by herself.
• They were available all hours and quickly got back to us if we left a message.
• The love and compassion they showed us is priceless!
• FirstLight and Jeff and Michele were an absolute blessing!!

Cons

• They don't care for they clients at all.
• Neither do they care about the employees.
• The owner Mr.James is very unpleasant and unprofessional.
• They do not have Human Resources to solve issues nor do they have enough employees to cover there clients.
• This place should be shut down.
• They only want money and that's it.
• James is the new owner and has no idea about home care service, also he is a very dishonest man with very little compassion of others.
• Whoever this iisaza is she rude and doesn't communicate well!
• They are SUPER disorganized with unprofessional staff and the caregivers are horrible.
• They don't even call when nobody is able to make it out.

Review

Across the collected experiences, First Light Home Care emerges as a company that inspires wildly different reactions. Some families sing its praises with heartfelt gratitude, while others warn others away with sharp, painful accounts of disorganization and poor communication. The threads run through caregiver quality, responsiveness, and the personal dynamics of who runs the agency, making the overall picture complex and highly dependent on the specific team and time a family engages the service.

On the most negative end, several reviewers describe a troubling pattern of mismanagement and limited concern for clients or staff. One account frames the company as a place that "doesn't care for their clients at all" or their employees, lamenting a lack of human resources to address issues and insufficient staffing to cover clients. The reviewer accuses the owner at the time of the incident, James, of being unpleasant and unprofessional, and calls for the business to be shut down, noting that the facility prioritizes money over people. In this same vein, another commenter complains about the presence of a new owner, James, who supposedly has "no idea about home care service" and calls him dishonest with little compassion. The lack of HR and the lack of a stable, adequately staffed operation are highlighted as core problems. A separate commenter even singles out an individual named iisaza as rude and poor at communication, underscoring that communication gaps can be a recurring source of frustration for some families.

Against those harsh assessments, a different and much larger segment of voices describe deeply positive, transformative experiences with First Light Home Care. In one recurring narrative, families who faced dementia diagnoses or other serious health challenges rely on 24-hour care and find the arrangement life-changing. Physicians sometimes recommend in-home care as a way to alleviate the burden on families, and these reviewers say First Light delivered on that promise. They describe caregivers who treat loved ones with dignity, respect, humor, and genuine warmth. One caregiver notes the importance of staying involved at the outset - "I stayed with them the first month or so to make sure that her care was what it should be" - but soon expresses how the caregivers' presence and approach became a sustaining force, allowing the family to cope with the emotional and practical demands of daily caregiving. The sentiment is consistent: the care teams made a significant, positive impact, and families felt they could trust the people in the home.

Within these favorable experiences, specific individuals and behaviors receive high praise. Reviewers repeatedly mention caregivers who are punctual, communicative, and highly professional, with compliments directed at those who seemed to anticipate needs and respond quickly to questions or updates. Names that recur in glowing reports include Jeff Duren (often referred to as the owner) and Michele, along with skilled nurses and aides like Isilda and Amy, whose reliability and compassion are highlighted as key strengths. Families recount timely scheduling updates, easy access for questions at any hour, and a sense that the agency takes responsibility seriously when a family member is sick or hospitalized. The narrative in these reviews places a premium on hands-on reassurance - someone from the agency arriving to sit with a patient until other care could be arranged, or staying by a hospital bedside to ensure continuity of care. The emotional support is described as "priceless," and the caregivers as "loving, patient, and attentive."

Other reviewers emphasize the organization's strengths through the words of those who had an ongoing role in founding or leading the agency. A Founding partner, Arlene Walk, is praised for going the extra mile to ensure needs are met through professional protocols and responsive staffing. One commentator even characterizes First Light as "like first responders?in the right place at the right time with highly trained staff." Such praise is not limited to a single case; it comes across as a consistent thread across several families who relied on the agency during critical, emotionally fraught periods. The testimonials describe not just competent care but a sense of partnership and reassurance that the loved one's needs would be addressed with both efficiency and compassion.

Yet the most candid reviews acknowledge serious flaws that can upend a family's experience. One particularly strenuous account describes an eventful period where the reviewer perceived the service as disorganized, with unprofessional staff and caregivers who were unreliable. The critic stresses that the company did not call when a caregiver could not make it, and they allude to a broader pattern of breakdowns that caused significant distress and fear about whether their loved one was safe. The intensity of this critique - "This is the all time WORST company I have ever dealt with," followed by hopes that the company loses licensing - highlights how a single set of scheduling failures or communication gaps can shatter trust, especially when families are already navigating difficult health circumstances. This voice underscores the reality that even highly rated agencies can produce devastating experiences when reliability and communication falter.

Taken together, these varied experiences suggest a service that has the potential to change lives for the better when it functions with strong leadership, dependable staffing, and clear lines of communication, but which can fall short in ways that deeply affect families when those elements are missing. The presence of two different ownership narratives - the James referenced by some negative posters and the Jeff Duren referenced by many positive posters - adds an extra layer of complexity. It hints at possible changes in leadership or management style over time and suggests that the experience families have may be highly sensitive to who is actively in charge at a given moment. For prospective clients or families evaluating First Light Home Care, the overarching takeaway is clear: verify who is currently leading and staffing the agency, ask for up-to-date references, and insist on concrete care plans, robust communication protocols, and dependable scheduling. When those pieces align, families report care that feels reliable, compassionate, and deeply supportive; when they do not, the consequences can be pointedly painful and distressing.

Physicians

• Southeastern Endocrine & Diabetes PC (0.6 miles)
• Resurgens Orthopaedics (2.4 miles)
• MRI & Imaging of North Fulton (2.5 miles)
• Alpharetta Pediatrics (2.6 miles)
• Thomas Eye Group - Roswell Office (2.7 miles)
• North Roswell Internal Medicine (3.3 miles)
• Modern Ob/Gyn (3.4 miles)

Cafes

• Starbucks (1.1 miles)
• Panera Bread (1.6 miles)
• Starbucks (4.8 miles)
• Starbucks (4.8 miles)
• Starbucks (6.3 miles)
• Starbucks (6.8 miles)
• Alchemist Trading Co. (6.9 miles)

Restaurants

• Wendy's (1.1 miles)
• Miller's Ale House - Alpharetta (1.1 miles)
• Olive Garden (1.4 miles)
• The Cheesecake Factory (1.8 miles)
• McDonald's (1.9 miles)
• Chick-Fil-A (1.9 miles)
• Chick-Fil-A (2 miles)

Pharmacies

• CVS Pharmacy (1.4 miles)
• Walgreens (2.3 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (2.8 miles)
• Walgreens (3.2 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (3.9 miles)
• Walgreens (4.7 miles)
• Walgreens (4.9 miles)

Theaters

• AMC DINE-IN North Point Mall 12 (1.8 miles)
• Regal Avalon (3.8 miles)
• Regal Medlock Crossing & RPX (6.8 miles)
• Movie Tavern Sandy Plains (6.9 miles)

Hospitals

• North Fulton Regional Hospital (2.6 miles)
• North Fulton Hospital Cancer Center (2.6 miles)

Places of Worship

• St Brigid Catholic Church (2.9 miles)
• North Point Community Church (3.7 miles)
• North Atlanta Church of Christ (4.4 miles)
• Perimeter Church (6.7 miles)

Parks

• Morgan Falls Overlook Park (5.4 miles)
• Georgetown Park (6.4 miles)
• Union Hill Park (6.5 miles)
• Peachtree Corners Town Green (6.5 miles)