By Shannin Prather
July 2018 | 2018 Summer Newsletter
For many years In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Social Workers have used Time-Per-Task (TPT) and Frequency Guidelines when completing in-home assessments to determine the services and number of hours to authorize individual consumers.
Social Workers used TPT guidelines to gather information about the types of daily tasks a consumer needs help with each day, and how often help is needed. For instance, if a consumer needs help getting into or out of a chair, how many times each day is help needed? Most people don’t count the number of times per day they get in or out of a chair, and many times the consumer would make a guess. Unfortunately, this type of assessment often led to an incorrect number of authorized hours.
IHSS no longer uses TPT guidelines when doing intake assessments or annual reassessments. As of December 2017, IHSS Social Workers have switched to Functional Index Rankings and Hourly Task Guidelines (HTG) which are standardized and reasonable.
HTG help Social Workers assign each consumer a rank based on the level of care needed; and use the standard range of hours to assign tasks and times within that ranking. Social Workers are able to consider individual needs and circumstances when doing assessments and assigning hours.
The system ranks consumers within one of six categories:
Rank 1: The Consumer is independent and able to take care of most tasks without human assistance.
Rank 2: The Consumer is able to take care of most tasks but needs verbal assistance, such as being reminded, guided, or encouraged.
Rank 3: The Consumer is able to take care of tasks with some human assistance, including (but, not limited to) direct physical help from a care provider.
Rank 4: The Consumer is able to take care of tasks only with a lot of human help.
Rank 5: The Consumer cannot perform most tasks, with or without human assistance.
Rank 6: The Consumer needs paramedical services (prescribed by a health care professional).
Learn more about the new assessment guidelines by asking your Social Worker during your next assessment; viewing the IHSS Fact Sheets online at cdss.ca.gov/inforesources/IHSS/Fact-Sheets; or by contacting IHSS at (408) 792-1600.