COA - Council On Accreditation

	Home Care and Support Services: Home Health Aide Services, Personal Care Aide Services, and Homemaker Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

Definition

Home Care and Support Services provide individuals with assistance and care so they can live safely at home independently or with care givers. Individuals may need and choose from an array of care provider services and support that can include:

with supervision, extension of basic skilled services, such as assistance with and monitoring of self-administered medication, provision of paramedical care and procedures, assistance with basic levels of rehabilitation, routine exercise, safe lifting, and healthy movement routines to maintain ambulation, and education on prevention of falls, injuries, and decline to address the value of independent functioning; sometimes known as home health aide services;
assistance with personal care and basic activities of daily living, such as maintenance of physical, cognitive, and social function through physical activity and socialization; sometimes known as personal care aide services; and
housekeeping, meal preparation and food safety, transportation, grocery shopping, managing finances, help with medication, and other instrumental activities of daily living, sometimes known as homemaker services.

Note: For the purposes of these standards, “caregiver” refers to friends, family, and other non-professional supports. “Care provider” refers to direct-care personnel providing in-home services.

Note: The Eighth Edition standards are consistent with services known in the field as “professional-agency,” which include prominent client-centered philosophy and worker training and support components, as compared to services with a self-directed orientation. The latter approach is being instituted in some states to place responsibility for obtaining services and payment directly with clients and caregivers. Research in several states is underway to determine benefits to clients, caregivers, and workers of both approaches.

Note: Please see Self-Paced_Training: Home Care and Support Services (HCS) in the Tools Index for additional assistance with this standard.


	PURPOSE: Individuals who receive Home Care and Support Services obtain a maximum level of independence, functioning, and health, and extend the time it is possible to live safely at home and in the community.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	SUPERVISION Assumption of responsibility for directly overseeing and evaluating the work or work products of personnel within an organization. Also includes inspecting the act or process of accomplishing a function or activity.


	MONITORING An evaluation involving a periodic review of consumer services, organizational activities, or conduct. Specifically, monitoring is an activity of case coordination, whereas more broadly, monitoring is an evaluation technique used in overall quality assurance.


	MEDICATION A prescribed or over-the-counter drug that is injected, taken orally, applied topically, or otherwise administered.


	PREVENTION Actions taken to minimize and/or eliminate social, psychological, or other conditions. Prevention can occur at the individual, group, community, and societal levels and enhances opportunities to achieve positive fulfillment.


	CAREGIVER The provider of physical, emotional, and social needs to another person, often dependent and unable to provide for his or her own needs. Caregiver is the generic term used for the direct service providers in Community Care and Support Services (CCS).


	FAMILY Two or more people who consider themselves family and who assume obligations, functions, and responsibilities generally essential to healthy family life. Child care and child socialization, income support, long-term care, and other caregiving are among the functions of family life. The definition of "family" will rest with an individual's indication of who plays a family member role, including current or former foster family, adoptive family, extended family members, fictive kin, or significant others. Organizations that believe family is the central constellation in a child's life, and that family attachments are of primary importance for human development, will strive to work with professional staff to develop a common understanding of "family."


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	CLIENT See service recipient.


	RESEARCH For purposes of COA accreditation, all forms of internal or external research involving persons served except internal program evaluation and outcomes research, or educational projects performed by students and interns that are part of their professional training.