This Recovery-Informed Care Training for Home Care Agencies is Currently in Development
NAHCS is developing recovery-informed workforce education for home care agencies serving people who are aging in recovery, medically complex, or homebound. The training is practical, privacy-respecting, fellowship-neutral, and designed to remain within the caregiver’s professional role.
Home care agencies are serving increasingly complex populations, including people aging in recovery from substance use disorders. These clients deserve care that protects their dignity, privacy, independence, and recovery-supportive routines—without requiring disclosure, labeling, or changes to agency policy.
This is workforce education, not treatment. It complements required certification, agency supervision, in-service education, and quality-improvement efforts.
Why Recovery-Informed Care Matters
Many home care clients are quietly living in sustained recovery. As people grow older, experience illness, or become homebound, the supports that have helped them remain stable—routine, mobility, meetings, relationships, and community participation—may become harder to maintain.
Caregivers are often among the first people to notice changes in a client’s routine, mood, mobility, or social connection. However, most caregivers receive little guidance about how to respond professionally when recovery is part of a client’s life.
Recovery-informed care can help agencies:
- Protect client privacy and dignity
- Support stability without crossing professional boundaries
- Increase caregiver confidence
- Reduce avoidable misunderstandings and service disruptions
- Recognize and report concerning changes appropriately
- Serve an often-overlooked population more effectively
Who the Training Is For
The training is being developed for:
- Home care agency executives
- Supervisors and care coordinators
- Case managers
- Home attendants
- Home health aides
- Personal care aides
- Training and quality-improvement personnel
What the Training Will Cover
Core topics will include:
- Understanding aging in recovery
- Recovery in everyday life
- Recovery capital and sources of stability
- Multiple pathways of recovery
- Respectful and recovery-informed language
- Client privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity
- Professional boundaries and role clarity
- Supporting routines and social connections
- Assisting with in-person or virtual recovery meetings when requested
- Noticing and reporting changes that may affect client stability
- Responding appropriately within agency policy and supervision
Caregivers can support a recovery-informed environment, but they do not direct, monitor, or determine a client’s recovery pathway.
Training Guide
The training will be supported by:
What You Should Know About Recovery-Informed Care: A Practical Guide and Training Manual for Agency Executives, Supervisors, and Case Managers.
The guide provides agencies and training personnel with practical information, teaching material, examples, and guidance for incorporating recovery-informed principles into home care services.
What This Training Is—and Is Not
This training:
- Is recovery-informed and workforce-focused
- Does not require clients to disclose a recovery history
- Does not involve therapy, counseling, diagnosis, or addiction treatment
- Does not authorize caregivers to work outside their assigned roles
- Does not provide professional certification
- Does not replace agency policies, required training, or supervision,
Clinical, regulatory, supervisory, and compliance responsibilities remain with the participating agency.
Program Development Status
NAHCS is currently completing the curriculum and preparing qualified instructors through a structured train-the-trainer process. This will help ensure that the material is delivered accurately, consistently, and responsibly.
The training is not currently available for registration. Delivery options, scheduling, and pricing will be announced after instructor preparation is complete.
Agencies interested in receiving future information may contact: