Caledon Community Services expanding program

November 8, 2018 · 0 Comments

Written By JOSHUA SANTOS

Caledon Community Services (CCS) is changing the way it delivers personal support worker services (PSW).

PSW service is provided under the Assisted Living Program. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. The program is expanding to encompass the entire municipality.

“Recently, our assisted living service provision boundaries have expanded to include all of the hamlets and villages across Caledon and a new fiscal 2018 and 2019 client target of 177 clients. A win for Caledon,” said Geraldine Aguiar, director of health services for Caledon Community Services.

CCS Assisted Living Services were only available to eligible clients in the six Peel living senior buildings in Caledon, prior to the expansion. CCS had funding for 67 clients in those settings.

“We were also funded to serve a small geographic radius in Bolton that was funded to serve 12 clients and a small radius of clients in Caledon East that was funded to serve 15 clients. This was a total of 94 funded clients,” said Aguiar.

Aguiar said the service was not declining, as speculated by some residents. She also said individual clients’ schedules have been adjusted.

“As part of our quality improvement work with the care planning process, individual client schedules have been adjusted, in consultation with the clients, to provide longer visits that are more meaningful and as close to their preferred time as possible in an effort to decrease the amount of reported client not home appointments, said Aguiar

“What this means is that our staff are attending scheduled care appointments and the client is actually at home to receive the care. To be clearer, this means that instead of clients having to be home to receive several five to 10 minutes scheduled visits throughout the day, which impedes their ability to plan regular activities, they now receive two to three visits that range from 20 to 30 minutes at a time.

Unscheduled care visits continue to be available by calling the office. A staff member will respond within 30 minutes.

“This operational change was well received by the majority of clients, co-designing at its best,” said Aguiar.

PSW services include dressing, personal hygiene, assisting with mobility, monitoring medication use and other routine activities of living for high risk seniors.

Homemaking services including shopping, housecleaning and meal preparation.

Those interested in qualifying can contact the Home & Community Care office at 905-796-0040 to request an assessment for Assisted Living Services.

“All individuals are assessed for eligibility by Home & Community Care, said Aguiar. Eligibility is based on the results of standardized assessment tools. Home & Community Care refers eligible clients to the appropriate Assisted Living Provider.

“Once eligibility has been confirmed, the results of the standardized assessment tools inform the level of PSW activity for each client. Each service delivery profile is unique to the client’s individualized needs and abilities.”

PSW Services for the Assisted Living program provided by Caledon Community Services is funded by the Central West Local Health Integration Network (CWLHIN). CCS is funded to provide an average of one our hour of PSW services per day per client. Eligible clients can receive PSW services free of charge.