Affiliates
Independence Care System (ICS) belongs to Pathways to Independence, a system of organizations that is dedicated to transforming home and community-based services for adults with disabilities and the elderly. The network includes:
Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHA), www.chcany.org, an 1100-worker, employee-owned home care agency in the South Bronx.
Independence Care System, a nonprofit Medicaid managed long-term care plan serving nearly 1,400 members in New York City living with physical disabilities and chronic conditions; and
PHI, phinational.org, a national policy organization that conducts policy analysis, advocacy, and consultation on effective practice in several states and at the national level regarding direct care workers in both the home and nursing home settings
Pathways to Independence organizations endorse the “Quality Care through Quality Jobs“ model for direct care workers in home health care. This model is based on a fundamental belief that home care (and all long-term care) consumers can receive the high quality care they deserve only when the workers who serve them are offered high quality jobs.
The model is based on the following core elements of a quality job:
- Family-sustaining wages;
- Affordable health insurance and other family-supportive benefits;
- Full-time hours, if desired, and stable work schedules;
- Opportunities for advancement;
- Training that helps the worker provide the highest-quality care;
- Supervision that supports, encourages and guides the worker; and
- Management whose core value is to strengthen the essential caregiving relationship between the consumer and her direct-care worker.
The Pathways system totals over $120 million in annual revenue.
Quality Care through Quality Jobs
ICS believes that that our members receive the high-quality care they deserve when the workers who provide them service and support are offered high-quality jobs.
