The Consortium provides varying levels of client care and worker supervision. After a referral is received, a client undergoes a comprehensive assessment to determine medical history, psychosocial issues, living arrangements, and the resources that are or aren’t available. Based on the assessment — and reassessments a minimum of three times a year — we identify service needs and develop a Care Plan.

Workers are assigned to clients, service delivery supervisors develop service schedules, and home care providers are assigned. Clients have the right to choose all aspects of their home care. Barring discrimination, efforts are made to match them with home care providers that meet their preferences with respect to language, cultural heritage, gender, cooking style, and client characteristics such as tobacco use, pet ownership, or sensitivity to the use of scented products.

Our service model is designed to maximize collaboration and support for both clients and workers. We’re committed to employing qualified home care providers and providing a safe and positive work environment for these workers. Home care providers are given a 83-hour basic training and attend follow-up trainings. Peer Mentors visit client homes to assess worker skills and provide hands-on instruction and support. Our Provider workforce is unionized, and the Consortium works collaboratively with SEIU–United Healthcare Workers West to provide liveable wages and benefits and to advance public policies that support funding for training and retention.

The comings and goings of our home care providers are monitored around the clock using a computerized telephony system. Providers check in and out at the beginning and end of each shift and any scheduled lunch hour by calling a toll-free phone number and punching in their employee code.

The system logs the calls by location, time, and date and is monitored throughout the day to ensure that Providers have arrived at the clients’ houses. It allows supervisors to quickly contact a client and, if necessary, dispatch an emergency Provider. On evenings and weekends, on-call workers track attendance.