The companies that provide non-medical home care are relatively young, and as a whole our industry is very green.  In fact, both national associations that serve the private duty home care companies as their primary focus have been founded since the turn-of-the-century. 

The "dot com" industry is as old as ours, which is pretty amazing considering that the concept for caring for the elderly has been around since the beginning of modern medicine, when the number of elderly individuals began to explode.

There are many benefits to participation in a professional association, regardless of industry.  Some of these benefits we are already seeing in private duty, while others we anticipate seeing greater benefit in the future than we are today.

Best Practices -- Basically you can learn from others' mistakes, without making them yourself.  Even better, you can learn from others' success and then emulate it.

Raising Standards -- This is a direct result of best practices.  As more companies begin to implement best practices, the average standard of acceptable care improves over time.  We know that "raising the bar" works on goal setting for your own agency, but it also works industry wide.

Self Determination -- The weakest members of our society need and deserve a certain level of protection.  We've all heard the stories of homecare companies and homecare aids who haven't had the best interests of their clients at heart.  When this becomes prevalent, legislators step in.  We've already seen a dramatic rise in licensure at the state level, causing heartburn for many successful homecare companies.  If private duty home care wants to have more influence, they need to self regulate, rather than creating an environment that elected officials are required to create legislation to protect the elderly and their families.

Education -- From CEO to caregivers, education improves the overall quality of your agency, and increases the likelihood of success.  Creating standards of education, certification, and the expectation of excellence can only help our industry.

Representation -- Home care associations can be the representatives for our industry.  They can represent us when it comes time to lobby Congress.  They can act as a self regulating body.  And they can represent our interests to various licensing or accreditation agencies.  They can represent us when developing relationships with potential payers, particularly at the governmental level.

Community -- Saving the most important for last... private duty home care is a very family oriented industry.  We employ people with families to take care of other people and their families.  Our companies are generally small, and often have a real family atmosphere.  Associations can become extended families of like-minded individuals.  This sense of community can be important, particularly with the rapid growth that we've seen from new homecare companies who appear overnight.

Developing strong relationships with other members of our industry, and focusing on the benefits that these relationships can provide will, in my opinion, be critical to the success of private duty home care in the foreseeable future.

Mitch Opalski currently serves as the Chief Operating Officer of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), in addition to his role as Acting Director of the Private Duty Homecare Association.  He has been with NAHC for 5 years, previously in the position of Vice President of Finance. His deep background in accounting, finance, and management provide the experience needed for effective association management. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame.