	Group Living Services

Introduction

Administration and Management

Service Delivery Administration Standards

Service Standards

PA-GLS 18: Personnel

Personnel are qualified by personal characteristics and experience to work with the residents in care and involved families.

PA-GLS 18.01

Residential counselors, house parents, adult care, and/or youth care workers have:

a bachelor’s degree or are actively and continuously pursuing a degree;
the personal characteristics and experience to provide appropriate care to residents, gain their respect, guide their development, manage a home effectively, and participate in the overall treatment program;
the temperament to work with, and care for, children, youth, or adults with special needs as appropriate; and
adequate training and supervision.

Note: The elements of the standard will be considered together in order to provide a rating. Demonstrated competence in elements b and c with appropriate supervision and specialized training can compensate for a lack of a bachelor’s degree.

Research Note: Having the personal characteristics, experience, and temperament to work with and provide appropriate care for residents is vital to group living services practice. Literature indicated residents, when asked at discharge, invariably responded that their relationship with their worker had the greatest impact on their treatment.

PA-GLS 18.02

The clinical or program director is qualified by:

an advanced degree in social work education or a comparable human service field; and
experience in the delivery of services to the residents and their families.

PA-GLS 18.03

Depending on resident needs, qualified professionals and specialists provide services and support related to the following:

mental health;
substance use;
medicine and dentistry;
nursing;
education;
physical and developmental disabilities;
speech, occupational and physical therapy;
recreation and expressive therapy;
nutrition; and
religion and spirituality.

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	PURPOSE: Individuals who receive Group Living Services regain, maintain, and improve life skills and functioning in a safe, stable, community-based living arrangement.

RELATED FILES


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	COMMUNITY A specific group of people living in the same locality and who may share a common culture, values, and norms. Communities can also be defined by race, religion, ethnicity, age, occupation, political status, tribal affiliation, interest in particular problems or outcomes, or other common bonds. The term "community" encompasses worksites, schools, tribes, residential neighborhoods, business districts, recreational areas, and health and human service sites.


	PERSONNEL The body of employees and/or volunteers that carries out the organization's tasks under the organization's administration and/or supervision. This definition does not include foster parents who are specifically referenced in relevant standards


	PARENTS Parents can include: birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive parents. Please see service standards for more specific information about use of this term.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	SPECIAL NEEDS A designation used in reference to conditions or characteristics of a person that reflect a need for special care, services, or treatment. When the term is used in the context of adoption services, special needs refers to conditions that make a child harder to place for adoption. This includes children who are members of sibling groups, older children, children with disabilities, children of certain racial /ethnic backgrounds, etc. When the term is used in the context of foster care it refers to the need for a higher degree of specialized case services and attention due to mental and physical disabilities. When the term is used in the context of out-of-school time services, a child or youth may have special physical, behavioral, medical, emotional, or cognitive needs that should be addressed or accommodated. The term is also used in other contexts. See also DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES.


	TRAINING Instruction so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient in a skill or body of knowledge.


	SUPERVISION Assumption of responsibility for directly overseeing and evaluating the work or work products of personnel within an organization. Also includes inspecting the act or process of accomplishing a function or activity.


	PRACTICE Established actions or ways of proceeding in the regular performance of organizational duties. Policies and procedures often guide practice.


	CLINICAL The study, assessment, and diagnosis of the client situation followed by direct treatment to help the client achieve prescribed goals.


	DISCHARGE See CASE CLOSING


	ADVANCED DEGREE A degree at the Master's level or beyond from an institution of higher education. An advanced degree does not include a Bachelor's degree, an associate's degree, or an educational certificate.


	SOCIAL WORK Professionally responsible interventions carried out by persons with formal, professional education at the BSW or MSW level from an accredited school of social work and appropriate licensing, certification, and registration credentials. Interventions are directed toward improving the transactions between people and environments to enhance the adaptive capacities of the participants and improve environments for all that function within them. Social work is a professional practice with a consumer group consisting of individuals, families, small groups, organizations, neighborhoods, and communities and involving the disciplined application of knowledge and skill.