Wellness Customer Service and Home Health Aide Status Report 3 April 30 2010

Steiner, Executive Director Adams County Education Consortium 12050 Pecos Street Suite 200 Westminster, CO 80234-3493 Submitted by: Judith Cohen Market Views, LLC 1489 Steele Street #212

Submitted to: Sandra M Steiner, Executive Director Adams County Education Consortium

12050 Pecos Street Suite 200 Westminster, CO 80234-3493

Submitted by: Judith Cohen Market Views, LLC

1489 Steele Street #212 Denver, CO 80206

April 30, 2010

SECTORS GRANT EXTENSION

STATUS REPORT 3:

COMMUNITY WELLNESS CUSTOMER SERVICE/SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

PERSONAL AND HOME CARE AIDES

HIGHLIGHTS Community Wellness

 A meeting of representatives of Adams County school wellness programs took place on April 27 and was attended by 11 people

 Attendees shared information about their programs

 They were interested in further meetings and identified areas for further activity

 Kimberly Zollinger from the Colorado Legacy Foundation agreed to

coordinate additional gatherings; Joanne Holden from the Tri-County Health Department will work with her

Customer Service /Soft Skills Training

 We developed a list of potential topics for a half-day customer service course for healthcare supervisors

 We e-mailed selected healthcare agencies to solicit their responses to the idea; two agencies indicated interest in having employees attend this course

 We spoke with officials from Front Range Community College and

Community College of Aurora about offering a customer service class for healthcare supervisors

 A curriculum developer from Front Range Community College is

available to create a course outline and teach this course

Personal and Home Care Aides

 On April 21-22, we visited the Schmieding Center for Senior Health and Education in Springdale Arkansas with the director of home care

services from Christian Living Communities and a care manager from Seniors Inc

 We observed four hours of instruction in an Elder Pal class (the first level

of certification for home care aides) and met with program and

foundation staff

 Both industry representatives felt strongly that it would be beneficial to home and personal care aides to have the kind of training offered in Elder Pal before they go into patients’ homes

THE GRANT EXTENSION PROVIDES US THE CHANCE TO PURSUE THREE AREAS

1 Community Wellness

Goal: to improve the wellness of children and families

Expected outcome: an alignment of intention and support that may result in

 Curriculum creation and sharing

 Possible new occupation identification – community healthcare worker

 Enhanced family support for wellness activities

 Science and math applications for academic instruction that will also teach wellness concepts

 Verification of the effectiveness of the best programs available for community wellness

Research Activities

1 Existing curricula that have evidence-based positive results

2 The agencies/organizations that are currently doing work in this area

3 The resources available to community/schools/workforce/social services

4 Existing wellness community/school programs and curricula

Results

On April 27, 2010, we held a meeting of representatives from organizations that provide school wellness programs in Adams County A copy of the

invitiation is attached to this report as Appendix A The following agencies were invited:

Adams 12 BASE and Nutrition

Adams 14 School Health Coordinator

Aurora Chamber of Commerce

Brighton Schools Nutrition Services

Children's Hospital

Community Health Services

Colorado Association of School Executives

Colorado Department of Education

Colorado Legacy Foundation

Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Get Smart Schools

Mapleton Schools Food Service

Partners for Community Health

Tri-County Health Department

University of Colorado School of Medicine

YMCA of Metro Denver

Invitation recipients forwarded the information to additional agencies The following individuals attended the meeting:

 Emily Jacobs, School Health Coordinator, Adams 14, Healthy Schools Colorado

 Kim Zollinger, Health and Wellness Consultant, Colorado Legacy Foundation

 Jana Wright, Health Literacy and Education Coordinator, Partnerships for Healthy Communities

 Chris Sjolin, Adams 12 BASE and Nutrition

 Joanne Holden, Tri-County Health Department

 Linda James, YMCA of Metro Denver

 Debbie LaMarre, The Pinnacle Charter School

 Eileen Mosher, The Pinnacle Charter School

 Rainey Wickstrom, Partnerships for Healthy Communities

 Wendy Peters Moschette, Farm to School Initiative

 Caryn Tomasjewica, Health at Work

The agenda included:

I Introductions

a Welcome, Sandy Steiner, Executive Director, Adams County Education Consortium

b Participant introductions, two minute program descriptions (complete grid on page 2)

Participant name

Program name

Clients

Services offered

Funding

II What else needs to be done to improve wellness in Adams County: Unmet needs that can be met with school programs

a Available resources that could meet these needs

b Additional resources needed

III Ongoing communication among school wellness programs

Participants shared activities from a wide range of school wellness

programs Of the 11 people in attendance, four work for school districts (Adams 12, Adams 14, and The Pinnacle Charter School) and the rest work with nonprofit or other consulting organizations providing programs to schools Joanne Holden from the Tri-County Health Department talked about mini-grants that will be available to the schools as part of the larger wellness grant the Department recently received

The discussion about what else needs to be done to improve wellness in Adams county took several directions Participants considered ways to improve coordination among the diverse departments that share

responsibility for wellness: nutrition services, physical education, health services, and human resources with its mandate to improve employee

wellness

We also discussed the benefits to each school or school district of selecting one wellness goal at a time Suggested goals were increasing the amount of time children in school have to eat, eliminating food rewards, and

scheduling recess before lunch

Several participants named areas where participants could advocate for changes in wellness policies at the federal level

Participants acknowledged the benefit of learning about each others’

programs There is general interest in continuing to meet and in reaching out to more school district representatives Continued meetings need to be clearly targeted It was suggested that the next meeting discuss ways to select one goal, perhaps from a suggested list of several goals, and

implement that goal Kimberly Zollinger, health and wellness coordinator for the Colorado Legacy Foundation, volunteered to coordinate additional meetings Joanne Holden from Tri-County Health Department will work with her These meetings would aim to include all of the persons responsible for wellness within the school districts as well as the nonprofits and consultants currently working with the schools The Colorado Legacy Foundation would

use these meetings as a pilot project to demonstrate how to improve

coordination within the school wellness community

2 Customer Service/ Soft Skills Training

Goal: Improve the customer service and soft skills of newly hired and incumbent healthcare workers Expected outcome: One or more classes to be offered to healthcare workers

Research Activities

1 Industry documentation of need

2 School review of existing curricula

3 Investigation into a more role-play/interactive form of instruction that would be made available at HS and post-secondary levels and to incumbent employees

Results

We are exploring the feasibility of offering a seminar to give healthcare supervisors tools to help their frontline employees in providing good

customer service The following e-mail was sent to fifteen managers in healthcare facilities, primarily in long term care

When no-one responded, we personally called four of the contacts One nursing home indicated that the class was not needed One manager of many nursing homes discussed the idea with her management team and people from three nursing homes and one marketing manager indicated interest Some asked to bring more than one person Two additional

contacts expressed interest but did not commit specific individuals to

attending

I have spoken with you during the past few months about whether your organization has any difficulty filling certain job openings and your need for customer service training for your current employees Research indicates that supervisors and managers agree that healthcare workers need better customer service skills My research has been conducted using grant funds from the Colorado Department of Labor under the auspices of a consortium of local workforce

organizations.

In response to this identified need, we are considering sponsoring a half-day training session in May for supervisors in healthcare organizations on providing ongoing customer service training and coaching for employees.

Customer service trainings that most organizations provide usually produce

mediocre results at best because they aim at finding the quick fix Sending the

troops in for a day of generic service training may be an immediate way of

communicating to employees the importance of improving their behavior, but it

ignores the critical role that managers play in supporting employee

performance.(Gail Scott, Journal of Healthcare Management, November 2001)

We envision a low cost class (Under $30) that would cover:

 Defining quality service with meaningful metrics

 Identifying what is in it for employees to change their customer service behavior

 Constructive feedback as a coaching tool

 Employee meeting “service warm-ups”

 Role playing

 Patients and families giving feedback in training sessions

At this point we are trying to determine interest in this training.

Would you send one or more supervisors to this training session?

If yes, how many would you send?

What other topics should be included?

What are the best days of the week or month and times for half day training sessions?

Who is the best contact person in your organization for training like this?

Thank you for your response and for all the good work you do for patients, families, and

our community.

Andrea Crane, a curriculum developer and health care faculty member from Front Range Community College is available to help write the curriculum for this course and to teach it A tentative date of June 2 has been set to deliver a four hour class Judith Cohen and Andrea Crane are writing a detailed course outline that will be reviewed before moving forward Front Range Community College may be able to offer some credit for the course The Colorado Association of Homes and Services for the Aged is willing to make course flyers available at its annual meeting in May

Contacts

 Nancy Case, Dean of Health Sciences, Community College of Aurora

 Bernice Harris, Vice President of Instruction, Community College of Aurora

 Julie Beggs, Director of Continuing Education, Front Range

Community College

 Andrea Crane, Instructor and Curriculum Developer, Front Range Community College

 Sarah Bogucki, Human Resources Coordinator, Piñon Management

 Jennifer Rutledge, Piñon Management

 Kathy Mekelburg, Administrator, Fairacres Manor

 Maxine Roby, Administration, Rowan Community

 Jane Runge, Sales and Marketing Specialist, Piñon Management

 Piper Knight, Staff Development Coordinator, Clear Creek

 Kelly Denning, HR Specialist/Director, Christian Living Communities

 Mary Katherine James, Director, National Federation of Licensed Practical Nurses

 Laura Landwirth, Executive Director, Colorado Association of Homes and Services for the Aged (CAHSA)

3 Personal and Home Care Aides

Goal: Improve the quality of care and the job situation of the uncredentialed persons providing care to the elderly and disabled in their own homes

Expected outcome:

 Training for personal care providers that articulates to other

healthcare careers

 Certification for personal care providers

Research Activities

1 Identify minimum competencies

2 Validate employer support for a minimum certification by employees

3 Develop approved training programs at educational institutions that would offer transferable credit for this healthcare area of study

Results

On April 20, Judith Cohen; Lisa Braun, home care director, Christian Living Communities; and Shana Long, care manager, Seniors Inc flew to Tulsa, Oklahoma, spent the night, and drove the next morning to Springdale,

Arkansas to visit the Schmieding (pronounced shmeeding) Center for Senior Health and Education (www.schmiedingcenter.org) The Schmieding Center offers primary care, consultation, and

rehabilitation for older adults in addition to the

programs that interested us: education for elder

caregivers Appendix B contains information on

additional programs available at the Schmieding

Center

The drawing below outlines the home caregiver

training available through the Schmieding Center.1

1 There is an error on this chart There are only 15 hours required for the dementia

training.

At the airport, l to r, Lisa, Judith, Shana.

This home caregiver program includes a total of 115 classroom hours The Arkansas requirement for Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) is 90 hours which includes a required 15 hours of dementia training The Colorado

requirement is 86 hours The program emphasizes three elements:

 Safety

 Skills

 Compassion

On our first afternoon in Arkansas, we spent four hours observing an Elder Pal class The class had 12 students, one classroom instructor, and three instructors supervising the skills practice The Elder Pal class is given

during a single week It combines lecture, video, and hands-on learning The videos not only show how to do these specific skills, they constantly

reinforce values such as respect for patients, telling patients what the

caregiver is about to do, and cleaning up afterward The Center includes a model apartment with two elderly manikins, Gerald and Geraldine Students practice skills such as foot care, showers, and hair washing in the

apartment The Schmieding Elder Pal class covers most, but not all, of the Colorado State training requirements for home care assistants However, the majority of Schmieding students complete the entire four-part course, leading to a CNA

The Center screens applicants before admitting them into the program They look for reading competency,

judged by ability to fill out the

application form and additional

questionnaire They need to know

basic addition and multiplication

They are asked to provide three

references

Students in the home caregiver classes pay the tuition themselves The Center is just beginning to investigate the possibility of getting Workforce Investment Act (WIA) money to pay for their classes There is a student handbook for each caregiver level Students pay $15 for each manual

Classes also use Mosby’s

Textbook for Nursing Assistants The Center

owns these books and lends them to students Each course ends with a written final exam where students need a score of

80 percent or higher to pass The compentency tests are pass/fail If they pass both the written exam and the

competency tests, they are awarded a certificate

Schmieding Center Home Caregiver Training

Hours

Elder Pal $100 25 Personal Care Assistant $100 25 Home Care Assistant $150 50