Partnering to Improve Care: Transforming Home Care Communication and Coordination

Quality home care requires a coordinated approach from family members and direct care workers, but opportunities to receive training in how to best communicate and collaborate to make this possible are rare. A lack of communication and collaborative problem-solving skills can create misunderstanding, mistrust, and conflict, negatively impacting caregiving relationships and, critically, impacting client wellbeing. Direct care workers and family caregivers often have different understandings of the breadth and limits of their respective roles – for example, a family member may request that the home care worker perform tasks that are not within their permitted scope of work, or a home care worker may hold cultural beliefs about the family’s role in providing care that can lead to judgment when family members do not meet those expectations. Yet, with the right training and tools, home care workers and families can overcome these challenges and build effective partnerships that improve and maintain support for older adults.

To put that understanding into practice, PHI partnered with the Florida State University College of Medicine, Department of Geriatrics to develop a comprehensive, online training series for family caregivers and home care workers, Partnering to Improve Care. We designed two training programs—one for family caregivers and one for home care workers— to strengthen collaboration and coordination between these essential caregivers, through mutual skills development around role clarification and boundaries, communication, self-awareness and self-management, and joint problem-solving.

PILOT PROGRAM

In 2024, PHI launched a pilot program for the Partnering to Improve Care training series. Participants began with an online course, with the opportunity to then attend a live, facilitated learning lab that strengthened and expanded their skills through peer interaction, reflection, and dialogue. In total, 113 family caregivers and 79 direct care workers completed the program, with 40 participants subsequently attending the learning lab.

PHI’s Senior Learning Experience Manager Alison Simmons and Registered Nurse Educator Kathleen Graham had the opportunity to sit down with family caregiver Erma Castillano and Personal Care Specialist (PCS) Michelle Williams to talk about their experiences as learners in the pilot program. Erma has been working as a caregiver since 2007 and, more recently, has been caring for her mother and grandmother. Michelle has been working as a direct care worker for more than 25 years, taking care of older adults in Jamaica before immigrating to the U.S.

Alison Simmons: As we begin, can you tell us how you got started as a caregiver?

Erma Castillano: I came with my family from the Philippines about 17 years ago. I went to school for many things, such as medical billing and coding, and to get my CNA. Caregiving is the one thing I really love doing. Now I take care of my mother and grandmother.

Michelle Williams: When I came to America, I started working taking care of the elderly, and I grew to like doing that. There have been times when I’ve tried to run away and do other things, but I come right back to caregiving. I keep getting called back.

Kathleen Graham: Before you took the Partnering to Improve Care training, what other training had you experienced as a caregiver? How was this training resource different?

Erma: I have worked with different companies that have given in-service training in person and online. I think it’s more engaging in person. The PHI training is very engaging. I liked the Zoom meeting because I got to meet people and share ideas.

Michelle: I get a lot of training from my jobs. You (PHI) refreshed my memory on things I learned a long time ago and forgot. For example, if a person asks you to stay late, you might say something they don’t agree with. But if you change a word and put it in a kinder way, it will help them understand better.

Alison: When you were in the learning labs, did you meet people you had not met before?

Erma: Yes. I met my kabayan. Kabayan means they are from the Philippines, too. I loved being able to talk to people and get resources. I enjoyed being in small groups to answer questions and talk about what we were learning. We were able to share tips, ideas, experiences, and advice with each other. That was very helpful.

Michelle: I was getting to talk to other people. I was learning from them, and I know they were learning from me, too, and this is why it was encouraging.

Kathleen: What made you decide to engage in this training opportunity?

Erma: I had taken other PHI training through HomeBridge, so I wanted to learn more, explore more, and get more resources.

Michelle: It was a different training, and it was interesting. The training was giving me skills and helping me with different ideas and skills.

Alison: Partnering to Improve Care is focused on communication skills like pull-back and body language. How has the training around communication changed your relationships or what you do?

Erma: It was really helpful. As you know, [in addition to now being a family caregiver], I’ve been with this career for over 17 years. Sometimes you don’t have the patience, and sometimes you do. The roleplay in the training helps me to look at myself. I’ve been through all those things (the examples in the roleplay) and I can see myself. It refreshed my memories, like “I did that wrong. I was supposed to be doing this.”

Michelle: It helped me to change the way I did things before, to find more patience and understanding, to use different techniques to approach things. I always had compassion in doing this job, but the training helped me to understand people better and to sit back and observe more.

Alison: If you could tell the people who read this article one thing about your experience with the PHI training, what would it be?

Erma: I would say we are really blessed to have this training because it’s really helpful. It not only helps me, but also all providers and recipients. Having the opportunity to collaborate with others, learn communication skills, and get more resources was helpful.

Michelle: I would encourage the people who have never had this training to take it, because it helps you to know how to deal with the elderly. We learned what can help us to improve the way we speak and with our behavior.

We provide detail on program implementation, lessons learned, and participant feedback in this companion PHI blog post.

If you are interested in bringing Partnering to Improve Care training to your organization or finding out how you can access it to support your own caregiving efforts, please fill out this contact form, and a representative of PHI’s Workforce Innovations Team will be in contact soon.