Home care provider TheKey has introduced a new, hands-on caregiver training program designed to elevate client independence, improve caregiver-client matching, and boost caregiver confidence – while simultaneously strengthening the company’s operational sustainability.

Required for all new hires, the mobility training program aims to reduce client falls and distinguishes itself through its practical focus, featuring real-world scenarios, the use of actual durable medical equipment (DME) and hands-on assessments. The training’s immersive format yields measurable benefits for caregivers, clients and the business, according to TheKey leadership.

“Of course, there would be an investment if you want to do it right, which we do,” Shadi Gholizadeh, senior vice president of clinical excellence and quality, said. “If it were just a one-time webinar, it wouldn’t be the same investment, but it also wouldn’t have the same impact. Definitely, there’s more of an investment financially, time, human resources, to doing it in this way, but on the flip side, we would expect to see a return, in business sustainability and all of that, but also quality of care and caregiver confidence.”

Delray Beach, Florida-based TheKey, formerly Home Care Assistance, is a national home care provider supporting 100 markets in the U.S., Canada and Australia. The company employs more than 10,000 caregivers and supports over 100,000 older adults.

The training, called the Mobility Fundamentals caregiver training program, requires every office to have DME equipment, which can include a hospital bed, Hoyer lift, Sara lift and a medical mannequin, for example. Caregivers receive hands-on training and then demonstrate their knowledge back through a skills assessment.

“We go through three different transfer techniques, starting with someone who just needs a boost from sit to stand position, all the way through total hands assistance,” Mansi Mehta, vice president of human resource operations, told HHCN. “ [The training involves] how do you support a client in their home and perform safe transfers that not only help reduce any form of injury for our caregivers, but also it’s building their confidence, strengthening their skill sets, building new skills, that’s all promoting safety for our clients.”

The training ranges from an hour and a half to two hours, delves deeply into DME and transfers, and includes role-playing and case scenarios. While the training is required only for new hires, existing caregivers are welcome to attend if they would like a new skill set, a refresher, or to take on more challenging clients.

The training goes beyond the caregiver, as well.

“We never do something just for the caregiver, and so it’s always part of a broader program,” Gholizadeh said. “We want everyone speaking the same language. There’s going to be a caregiver manager version. … We roll these out, really role by role, so that everyone gets the pieces that they need to see it through.”

Benefits and why the program stands out

The enhanced training program boasts numerous benefits, including downstream impacts on caregiver retention and client satisfaction.

The program helps TheKey better match caregivers and clients, according to Mehta, by allowing the provider to match caregivers with appropriate skills to handle a client’s needs.

By boosting caregiver confidence, the program also improves client independence. The more confident caregivers are, Gholizadeh said, the more likely they are to empower a client to do a task themselves.

The program could also help retain caregivers.

“You have these great caregivers who often end up leaving an industry that they’re actually really great at and you know how much we need great caregivers prematurely because the training wasn’t there,” Gholizadeh said. “They were in situations where they didn’t feel confident. So anything that we can do to help them have that confidence, to set them up for success going into the home, and we see mobility as a really big part of that, being trained in mobility, then we’re all about it.”

TheKey also stands to benefit from enhanced mobility training from a liability standpoint. The program promotes better body mechanics and practices, and therefore helps with liability related to workers’ compensation.

The program, which TheKey says it is happy to share with other companies, is set to endure for the long term, according to the company’s leadership.

“I’ve definitely seen programs that either are too surface level to really be moving the needle, or they’re kind of splashy and big, but they’re not something that’s sustainable,” Gholizadeh said. “Whereas this is now embedded into our training. It’s something that our caregivers are going to continue to experience.”