Staffing an adult family home (AFH) is often quite challenging. With a perpetual shortage of caregivers and high turnover rates, you might feel like you’re always trying to hire.
Fortunately, there are some resources that may be able to help you recruit, train, and retain quality caregivers for your AFH. We discuss some strategies for recruiting and retaining AFH staff below, including some fantastic resources that can make the strategies more doable.
How to Recruit Caregivers For Your AFH and Reduce Turnover
1. Offer to Help With Training.
As an AFH owner, you’re likely well aware that there’s a shortage of qualified caregivers. For some would-be caregivers, Washington State’s training and certification requirements could be a barrier to entering the field. If you can help with training in any way, you might find it easier to bring on new staff.
There are resources to help adult family homes cover the cost of caregiver training and certification. The Long-Term Care Foundation has a program called the Adult Family Home Training Network that can cover the full cost, as we discuss in more detail below.
2. Support Continuing Education.
Many caregivers do not want to stay in their current role forever. While some people find the work rewarding, it can be extremely difficult in many ways, and the pay range is not ideal for most people.
Some caregivers hope to transition into nursing careers. If that’s their goal, their first step is likely to become a CNA/NAC (Nursing Assistant-Certified). You can help your caregivers gain the training they need to become NACs through a bridge program like Sunrise’s NAC Bridge training.
Depending on the situation, the Long-Term Care Foundation’s Adult Family Home Training Network program can fully cover the cost of this training, too. Our team at Sunrise Services can help your AFH coordinate with the foundation for funding.
3. Be Clear on Caregivers’ Duties.
Your caregivers should know what types of tasks they can and cannot do, based on their state-required 75-hour basic training. However, you still need to provide some clarification on their personal responsibilities.
Make sure caregivers have all the information needed about the residents. If some duties are being neglected, address the problem as soon as possible. At an AFH, every staff member’s work affects everyone else, so clarifying any confusion about duties could help you reduce frustrations that lead to higher turnover.
4. Promote a Positive AFH Environment.
Caregiving is not easy for caregivers or residents, which is part of the reason AFH staff turnover tends to be high. Nurturing a positive environment will help everyone in the home and might just reduce turnover.
As the AFH owner, you can model polite communication, patience, kindness, and professionalism. These norms set a healthy standard for your AFH staff and create a better environment for everyone in the home.
How to Get Training Costs Covered for AFH Workers
The Long-Term Care Foundation of Washington State has a program that could significantly ease your AFH’s staffing and training burden: The Adult Family Home Training Network. This program provides a stipend for the hours that your caregiver spends in successfully completed training. Here’s what you need to know:
Stipend Benefits: $24 per hour for each hour of successfully completed training (regardless of caregiver’s hourly wage)
- Reimbursement for DOH application and testing fees
- Reimbursement for initial CPR/First Aid certification (if not included in the training)
Stipend may be used in one of the following ways:
Reimbursement to the AFH:
1. If you paid the caregiver for hours spent in training (HCA or CNA course hours only), the stipend can reimburse you for those wages you paid the caregiver.
Bonus to the caregiver:
2. If the caregiver was not paid during training, you may choose to issue the stipend as a bonus upon training completion. In this case, you are responsible for distributing the stipend and managing any applicable payroll deductions.
The Long-Term Care Foundation hopes to help AFHs recruit and train more workers who meet state certification requirements. The program’s benefits come from a collective bargaining agreement between the Adult Family Home Council and the State of Washington.
To be eligible for this program, your AFH must be contracted with Medicaid. The amount of benefit your AFH can get will depend on current funding availability and your AFH’s Medicaid occupancy. The employee whose training is covered must have already spent at least 8 hours working in your AFH.
At Sunrise Services, we can help you coordinate with the Long-Term Care Foundation. The application and approval process is quite easy when you get simple directions from our staff. Once you complete the very short application and it is approved, you can begin making applications for your AFH employees.
We love helping other AFHs gain the resources they need to offer quality care and training. Contact Sunrise Services today for help coordinating with the Long-Term Care Foundation to get caregiver training covered.
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