Policy Manual sample

MDT Home Health Care Agency, Inc. RESPITE CARE POLICY I. INTENT It is the intent of our Agency to make respite services available to assist families in maintaining the consumer in the family home. Respite is part of a network of support services that are available for families and is not meant to supplant other services. II. DEFINITION Respite is the provision of intermittent and/or regularly scheduled temporary non- medical care to consumers with developmental disabilities on an in-home and/or out-of-home basis. Respite services are designed to do all of the following: • Assist family members in maintaining the consumer at home. • Provide appropriate care and supervision to ensure the consumer's safety in the absence of family members. • Relieve family members from the constantly demanding responsibility of caring for the consumer. • Attend to the consumer's basic self-help needs and other activities of daily living, including interaction, socialization, and continuation of usual daily routines which would ordinarily be performed by the family member. • Meet emergency needs. In order to provide appropriate respite services, our Agency will make available the following options: In-Home Respite is the provision of respite services within the consumer's own home. Parents/family member may choose to use family members or others for provide respite, or they may choose to use an authorized individual or agency. Out-of-Home Respite services are provided by a vendor who is licensed by the State or an agency authorized by the State or it is licensed by Department of Health Services. There are numerous service codes under which our Agency can provide respite. Respite is provided in a setting outside the consumer's home. Parents may choose a licensed community care facility, an intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled licensed by the Department of Health. Authorized facilities must have training, education, and the skills to perform the required licensed services. Out of home respite service is intermittent or regularly scheduled temporary care to consumers and is designed to relieve families of the constant responsibility of caring for a family member; to meet planned or emergent needs of the family; to allow parents the opportunity for vacations or other necessities of family life. III. POLICY Our Agency shall provide respite care to assist the family member. Authorized respite hours may be used by the family at any time during the authorization period. Families of consumers in out-of-home placement are not eligible for respite services. Any family member who chooses to participate in parent as vendor respite voucher must comply with all federal and state requirements. All parent vendor programs require the parent be vendorized with the regional center of residence. Respite provided by trained health professionals is covered in the Agency Policy & Procedures. The respite needs of each family shall be individually assessed by the authorized planning team program to determine the actual number of respite hours needed. Families customarily use from 12-24 hours/month. This number is suggested as a guideline. When camp is offered as a respite option, the calculation of time available for camp will be based on conversion of authorized respite hours. The person authorized to receive the voucher respite funds must hire an individual (not a spouse) to provide the respite. This individual must be at least eighteen years of age and have a valid social security number. IV. SERVICE APPROVED The type and amount of respite services that our Agency will provide will be determined by the planning team program based on consumer and family needs. V. EXCEPTIONS TO POLICY The Director of Nursing (DON, Clinical Manager) has full discretion to authorize service approved which are exceptions to the board-adopted authorization of service polices. Home Health Agency Nursing Care & Procedures K-219