You’ve heard about "win-win" situations. But Caregiver Services Inc. has come up with a "win-win-win" situation that should be of great benefit to South Florida.
Caregiver Services, Inc. (CSI) is a leading source of in-home, quality care that enables people to continue living at home. CSI also owns and operates CSI Caregiver Institute, a school in the Miami area that offers a two-week, 75-hour course that trains people to be home health aides.
When CSI discovered a need for these services farther north, they stepped in to help meet it. According to Steven Hochhauser, CSI’s Executive Vice President for Business Development, "We heard about a program that was being run by Palm Beach County, a division called the Community Action Program, where the mission was to retrain those who were unemployed and get them back into the work force."
He said during its 2009-10 fiscal year, the County identified 600 people who were collecting unemployment, which was draining the County both by money flowing out and by the people not paying taxes. The plan was to have them trained and working by the close of the fiscal year, which ended in September; but in August, only 200 had been retrained and placed. "Once we learned about this," Hochhauser said, "we told them about our school and they got very excited about it."
CSI made a proposal to the County and said the course had four requirements for its students: They have to have a clean background in order to be able to work with the elderly; they have to pass a physical and not have any communicable diseases; they have to have liability insurance; and finally, the students have to pass the course. "We said, ‘So why don’t you go through your list (and pick out ones who might be eligible).’ We said if the County is willing to take care of all of that, as well as the tuition for these students, we’ll put them through the two-week course." He added that the tuition is inexpensive, $300 for the two-week course.
In return, the graduating students will have certification as a home health aide, and the school guarantees to place the students in CSI’s various nurses registries, which are the licensed agencies that provide services to Seniors throughout South Florida.
The County agreed to the idea. Using federal grant money, it paid for the tuition and the background checks. "We also provided (the students) with the application to get liability insurance once they’re placed on a job, and we arranged for a local physician clinic to do the physicals all at one time, so they could be qualified to work the day they graduate."
The first class had 19 graduates and Hochhauser said classes can accommodate up to 35. The second class was scheduled to start mid-October. "It’s a great human interest story, and we think we can replicate this over and over again. We believe there’s going to be a waiting list, once people see you can literally be retrained and certified to provide services and placed in two weeks."CSI pointed out that graduates sign an agreement up-front that they will work a minimum of 20 hours per week and up to 750 hours over a six-month period for clients in need through Caregiver Services, but "they have no obligation to work with us fulltime or permanently. As Independent Contractors, they could work for any of our competitors or other health care providers. So we’re not only doing this for us."
He added that once a person becomes a home health aide, he or she can take additional courses to become a certified nursing assistant. "And it’s not unusual for some of these certified nursing assistants to go on to become licensed practical nurses or RNs. So it’s a stepping stone for people who are motivated and desirous of changing their lives around."
With the potential for many new students joining the program, is CSI concerned about flooding the market with home health aides? No. "The demographics of Florida compared with some other states are such that we have a tremendously large elderly population. So the chances that the supply would exceed the demand would be rare."
So as a result of this idea, Palm Beach County wins because it gets out-of-work residents off of unemployment and back to contributing to the community; CSI wins because it has a fresh supply of new talent to provide needed health services; and the graduates win because they have a new career with guaranteed placement.
Win-win-win.
