There are many reasons to choose CDPAP over a traditional homecare program. In this article we’ve given 6 common reasons why people are leaving traditional homecare agencies in droves to join CDPAP.
However, before we begin it is necessary to make sure we are all on the same page as to what CDPAP is.

CDPAP stands for Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program, and it is just that, Consumer Directed. Let’s say you (or your parent or anyone else you care about) can’t get around as well as you used to and need help with laundry and shopping. Or, for example, you have more advanced medical needs and need help when the nurses are done with the actual medical care.

In such a situation you have two options, CDPAP or a traditional homecare agency. The basic difference is who has responsibility, and therefore control, over the care for the patient. If you choose to have an agency supply the aide, they do just that, but they also control and direct your care. If you choose CDPAP then the patient maintains control and determines who cares for them and what their tasks are.
We should point out at this point that both of these programs are covered by Medicaid and there should be no cost to the patient for either option.

6 Reasons, here we go:

1. Freedom to choose who takes care of you:

Under CDPAP, the consumer (patient) chooses who works for them. The great thing about this is that it doesn’t have to be an official Home Health Aide. No training is required. The fact that you want this person to take care of you is good enough. Want your brother to do the job? No problem! Son? Daughter? Friend? No problem! It really is as simple as it sounds.

There will be no strangers taking care of your parents, and more importantly, you get to hire someone who cares! Anyone who has experienced nursing home or home health agency care, knows that it is the rare provider who manages to insert that personal loving touch that is natural to a family member taking care of someone they love.

The training for an official Home Health Aide is about a week. Compare one week of training to the care your son can give you… It’s usually a pretty simple decision.

2. Freedom to choose the schedule:

If you receive an aide from a homecare agency, that agency will discuss with you what hours you want the aide to work, but ultimately the decision is in their hands. Under CDPAP the decision is in your hands.

If you feel like you need an aide in the evenings, then you hire the person to come in the evenings. Under CDPAP you have complete control over the aide’s schedule. You can even split the shift; have them come in, leave, then come again. If you want them to come in the mornings then leave come back in the afternoon take you to do errands. That’s just fine, you’re the boss!

The point is control and independence.

3. Freedom to choose the tasks:

We just casually mentioned that you can have an aide do your errands with you, however it is worth stopping to think about for a moment. This is a momentous evolution of what it means to have an aide that has only become possible under CDPAP.

A Home Health Aide from an agency is never allowed the liability to driving you someplace. Even if you use Access-a-Ride the aide almost never will get paid to come or follow along and help you at the destination. With CDPAP yet again, you are the boss! You determine the aides tasks and if that means taking you shopping and the aide is willing… well then, go right ahead.

There are other tasks that are commonly not done or limited by an agency. Keeping someone company at dialysis is one example of a task done almost exclusively under CDPAP. Under CDPAP, you take responsibility for directing the aide and therefore you can direct them how you like. There is no lawyer in the back room of an agency saying this task is too dangerous or has too much liability.

4. Never lose care:

So many homecare agencies promise to deliver an aide for the weekends and then send no one. It’s incredibly and tragically commonplace. If you decide to go with a homecare agency because they promise to supply a qualified aide when you need it, doesn’t guarantee that they will follow through on the commitment. Countless agencies fail to staff their clients on the weekends and holidays leaving the client up the creek. Whatever the reason may be on their end, frequent call outs, poor scheduling, or outright corruption in management, it still leaves the patient in harm’s way.

Under CDPAP you can hire as many aides as you want to make sure that you always have coverage, and more importantly you hire people who care.

5. You’re already doing the work:

All too often when someone is with a homecare agency the children and family of a patient find that they are doing the work the aide should have done anyway.

Whether it’s because the aide was on the phone instead of working or because the agency limits their tasks, the family and friends almost always step in to fill the gaps. So if you are already doing the work, why not file the paperwork and get paid for it?

6. Maintain your independence:

Have you ever see a 20 year old call an 80 year old, Honey? When was the last time someone in the healthcare system took the time to carefully consider the desires of an elderly patient before making decision for them?

These are rhetorical questions and perhaps you are blessed with that doctor who really cares and treats you or your parents with the respect they deserve. However, even if you are so blessed, I’m sure you’ve also experienced the other side.

Nursing homes are often so horrible, not because they offer poor care (although some do), rather because to the busy staff Mom is sometimes just a room number. Nothing destroys a person as quickly as a sense of helplessness and feeling faceless. The more responsibility and independence you or your loved one can maintain the better you will be both physically and mentally.

If a person is still in a position to exercise control over their life then the appeal of CDPAP is obvious. 100% of seniors or disabled people would choose independence over an institution.

Nursing homes and home health agencies come from the same school of thought. It’s not Mom making the decisions and it’s certainly not the family, but with CDPAP you are the boss!