Aging and Long-Term Support Administration - Information for Professionals

AGING AND LONG-TERM SUPPORT ADMINISTRATION

Training Requirements & Classes - AFH/ALF

Important Announcements

Home Care Aide Certification Checklist and Quick Link page available – See a certification checklist outlining the steps to getting certified and quick links to all needed info and forms.

New CE Requirements took effect July 1, 2012. Read more...

All long term care workers must complete 12 hours of CE by their birthdate. DSHS must approve all training materials and instructors. Learn more.

The following information is designed to help adult family homes and assisted living facilities get approved to offer long term care worker training to their staff.

Summary of LTC Worker Training Requirements

Adult Family Homes (PDF)
Assisted Living Facilities (PDF)

LTC Worker Training Options

It is your responsibility to make sure your LTC workers get all training in the required timelines. Here are the options you have.

Option 1: Teach your own staff with your own instructors.
Option 2: Send your staff to outside DSHS approved community instructors. Find a Community Instructor.
If you use community instructors to teach ALL required LTC worker courses, there are no forms you have to submit to DSHS. If you want to provide ANY LTC worker course, you must follow the instructions outlined below for training your own staff.
Option 3: A combination of options 1 and 2.

To provide ANY LTC worker course, use the steps and forms below.

See Table 1 if applying for the FIRST time.
See Table 2 below if you are an approved Training Program and need to communicate changes.

Training Your Own Staff - Applying the First Time

Table 1: First Time Applicants Always download and use the most current version of forms
Step	How This is Done	Form Needed
Step 1. Understand what LTC worker training is required	Review Understand the 75 hour training requirements Overview for all Long-term Care Workers
Step 2. Notify DSHS Notify DSHS of your intent to train.	Fill out and submit a Training Program Application (TPA) form. Send in a separate TPA form for each different licensed home/facility if you have more than one.	TPA form This form tells DSHS what courses, instructors, and curriculum you want to use.
Step 3. Get instructors approved Identify and get approved instructors who meet the DSHS required qualifications for each course.	Review the DSHS minimum instructor qualifications. Attest that your instructors meet these qualifications in your TPA form.	TPA form
Step 4. Get curriculum (training materials) approved Identify or develop curriculum (training materials) to use. All training materials must be approved by DSHS.	Decide which curriculum you want to use. This can be either curriculum (training materials): DSHS has developed and is available for you to use. YOU have developed and now want DSHS to approve. Developed by other Training Programs that DSHS has already approved. You must have permission to use them. See a list of: Other DSHS contracted community instructors. Contact them directly and see if you can use/purchase their curriculum for core basic and/or population specific training. List the curriculum name in your TPA form. If you need to get your curriculum approved, submit the materials with the required forms as listed in the next column.	Orientation and Safety (ORSA) ORSA Instruction Sheet How to get YOUR own training materials approved. No form is needed. DSHS has curriculum for these courses. See or download the DSHS training materials. DSHS has curriculum for these courses. See or download the DSHS training materials. Now available in Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Enhancements to RFOC as core basic training CBRFOC Form RFOC can be used as the foundation for core basic training but it must be enhanced. These enhancements must be approved and sent in with the CBRFOC form. CBRFOC Instruction Sheet More detailed information on what is and is not considered RFOC enhancements and some tips on how to develop these enhancements. HIGHLY encouraged! DSHS has a 3 hour curriculum on challenging behaviors that can be used in core basic training, population specific training, or CE. List it in your application where you want to use it. Download the Navigating Through Challenging Behaviors curriculum (PDF). Now available in Chinese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Population Specific training PB Form Continuing Education See the Continuing Education section of this website for more information and forms.

Training Your Own Staff - Currently Approved Training Programs

Table 2: Currently Approved Training Programs Always download and use the most current version of forms
Step	How This is Done	Form Needed
Step 1. Notify DSHS Notify DSHS of changes to your Training Program.	Fill out and send in a Training Program Update form if you are adding or dropping courses, instructors, and/or curriculum.	TPA UPDATE Form
Step 2. Get instructor changes approved Identify and get approved instructor changes (adding or removing instructors) who meet the DSHS required qualifications for each course.	Review the DSHS minimum instructor qualifications. Attest that any new instructors meet these qualifications in the TPA UPDATE Form.	TPA UPDATE Form
Step 3. Get any new curriculum (training materials) approved Identify curriculum you are adding or dropping from your approved training program. All training materials must be approved by DSHS.	See Step 4 in Table 1 for all needed information.

Forms

TPA Form
Use to apply to become a DSHS approved Training Program the first time.
TPA Update Form
Use to make changes once your Training Program is approved.
ORSA Instruction Sheet
Use to get more detailed instructions if you want to submit your own orientation and safety training for approval.
CBRFOC Form
Use if you are sending in enhancements to RFOC to use as core basic training.
CBRFOC Instruction Sheet
Use to learn what is and is not considered RFOC enhancements and get tips on how to develop enhancements.
PB Form
Use to get population specific training approved
CE Approval Form
The form you need to submit to get CEs approved.
Document CE completion – creating a CE training certificate
What has to be on a CE training certificate, including a sample template

Additional Resources

Find a Community Instructor
Approved instructors offering long term care worker courses – including CE.
Find more continuing education classes and training materials
Order printed copies of DSHS developed student materials
- DSHS curriculum available
  PDFs and/or Word files for Orientation and Safety, Navigating Challenging Behaviors, Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, Dementia Specialty and Mental Health Specialty.

Additional Information for AFHs

AFH Administrator Training

All applicants for an AFH license must successfully complete AFH Administrator Training. This includes an applicant applying for an initial license or opening additional AFHs. Learn more about this training or find a list of approved instructors.

AFHs food safety CE requirements

All AFHs must have long term care workers complete 30 minutes of CE on safe food handling each year in lieu of getting a food worker card. Learn more about required Food Safety as CE.