Referral and Workforce Resource Centers (Referral Registry)

Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington’s Referral Registry is a web-based database of individual in-home providers who are ready and available to work. Referral Registry services will be available to consumers/clients (Aging, Developmentally Disabled and Children with Disabilities) who use publicly funded in-home care services. Consumers/employers and case managers can access the Referral Registry to find individual providers. Clients can interview providers referred by and/or found on the registry and hire the one(s) that best suit(s) their needs. Along with the Referral Registry, a number of programs to support both individual providers and consumers/employers will begin, including; peer mentoring, professional development opportunities through community colleges for providers, and supervisory training for consumers/employers.

The programs to support individual providers and consumers/employers were developed by the Home Care Quality Authority as part of a $1.4 million demonstration grant to improve the direct services community workforce from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Referral and Workforce Resource Center Services are available through Aging and Long Term Care of Eastern Washington and its partners in Spokane, Whitman (Council on Aging & Human Services) Ferry, Pend Oreille, and Stevens (Rural Resources Community Action) counties. Consumers/employers and individual providers can access the Referral Registry operations at 1-800-970-5456.

The RWRCs are supported through a grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services to Improve the Direct Services Community Workforce. Grant funds were provided to the Home Care Quality Authority and have been used to implement a Referral Registry, and to develop and deliver support programs for individual providers in four RWRC sites.