Our Services
TAPCA provides low-cost training for personal care providers, family caregivers and job-seekers. For more information, please contact us at 1-888-41-TAPCA (82722) to speak with a representative.
We offer low-cost training options for home care agencies, including group rates, customized trainings, and on-site services. For more information, please contact us at 1-888-41-TAPCA (82722) to speak with a representative.
Paid training is provided for San Francisco IHSS workers currently employed by the IHSS Consortium or as a San Francisco IHSS Independent Provider. If you have questions about eligibility for paid training, please contact us at 1-888-41-TAPCA (82722).
Course Descriptions (Click on a course title for a brief description)
Basic Training and Follow-up Support
Personal Care Provider Basic Training PLUS
Support and Retention
Continuing Education Courses New!
TAPCA offers a wide array of continuing education courses for personal care providers and family caregivers. We are approved by the California Department of Public Health to provide Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for Certified Nursing Assistants and Home Health Aides. One CEU is provided for each hour of in-class training.
Hoarding and Cluttering
Common Risks of Hospitalization
Fall Prevention
Understanding Medications
How and When to Report Abuse
Paramedical Services
Bed Bugs
Mental Illness
Hoyer Lift Training
Dementia Care
Preventing Bed Sores
Understanding Diseases (ALS, Parkinson's, Huntington's, and others)
Substance Abuse
Understanding Body Mechanics
Managing Time and Stress
Team Building and Professionalism
Respecting Differences
CPR and First Aid Certification
Basic Training and Follow-up Support
Personal Care Provider Basic Training: 75 Hours (Not eligible for Continuing Education Units)
Basic Training is an introductory course for personal caregivers. The course focuses on key concepts of Personal Care and includes the following topics:
- Activities of Daily Living
- Light Domestic Duty
- Dementia and Other Cognitive Disorders
- General Safety & Emergency Procedures
- Recognizing and Reporting Abuse and Neglect
- CPR and First Aid Certification
Support and Retention
A Support and Retention Coordinator provides ongoing support and individualized training for providers trained through TAPCA in the four months post-training. Follow-up training and support takes place both in the clients’ home and at the TAPCA Training Institute. This critical follow-up support leads to greater retention and job satisfaction.
Continuing Education Courses
Hoarding and Cluttering: 2 Hours
Older adults comprise some 40% of hoarding and cluttering complaints to the health department and with the prevalence of this behavior being three times the average population in individuals 55+, this training will illuminate the many challenges and opportunities that providers can consider to effectively address this behavior in older adults.
Common Risks of Hospitalization: 2 Hours
Injury and infection among the elderly commonly lead to hospitalization. This training will highlight common risk factors and what you can do as a care provider to reduce the risks of hospitalization among your consumers.
Fall Prevention: 6 Hours
Unintentional falls are a threat to the lives, independence, and health of adults ages 65 and older. This training will increase your awareness of common risk factors and enhance your observation, reporting, and communication skills to reduce those risks.
Understanding Medications: 2 Hours
Understanding the different types of medications prescribed to our clients can be challenging. This training focuses on common medications, their uses and possible side effects.
How and When to Report Abuse: 2 Hours
Abuse takes many forms—physical, sexual, psychological, and financial exploitation, as well as neglect. The issue of abuse and neglect cuts across all racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, geographic, and relationship boundaries. This training explains the responsibility of personal care providers to report abuse and neglect.
Paramedical Services: 2 Hours
Paramedical services are prescribed by a doctor for a person's health and require training to perform. Common services are injections, colostomy irrigation, catheter insertion/care, suctioning, G and NG tube feeding, ventilator and oxygen care, fecal impaction, range of motion to improve function, wound/decubitous ulcer care and other services requiring sterile procedures.
Bed Bugs: 2 Hours
A bed bug is an insect that feeds exclusively on blood. This training will help you to identify, eliminate and prevent the outbreak of bed bugs amongst the clients you serve.
Mental Illness: 2 Hours
Working with consumers who have a mental illness or a developmental disability can be very challenging for direct-care workers in large part due to the misconceptions that exist in our society. Learning about mental illness and developmental disabilities, what causes them and how they affect consumers and their families, can help participants to overcome stereotypes and develop awareness and understanding.
Hoyer Lift Training: 2 Hours
A Hoyer Lift is a lifting device or hydraulic lift that is commonly used in to help transfer consumers from beds to wheelchairs and back again. This training will demonstrate the proper technique required when transferring any consumer using a Hoyer Lift.
Dementia Care: 2 Hours
In this training, participants will learn how dementia affects a consumer and those around him or her. Participants will receive the tools they need to understand and respond to challenging situations, in order to give those with dementia the best possible quality of life, care and support.
Preventing Bed Sores: 2 Hours
A pressure sore is an injury to the skin and the tissue underneath it caused by pressure to the area. This training will help providers to identify the early signs of bed sores and ways to protect further damage to consumers’ skin.
Understanding Diseases (ALS, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and others): 2 Hours
This training will help care providers understand the process of degenerative diseases such as ALS, Parkinson's, Huntington’s, and others.
Substance Abuse: 2 Hours
This training will help care providers recognize various controlled substances and how to identify if a consumer is under the influence of a substance. The training will also cover steps on how to manage a situation if they encounter a client whom they believe to be under the influence of a controlled substance.
Understanding Body Mechanics: 2 Hours
The work of a personal care provider frequently requires physically lifting objects, equipment, and helping people move from one place or position to another. This lifting and assistance requires the use of proper body mechanics in order to avoid injuring oneself or the consumer.
Managing Time and Stress: 2 Hours
Personal care workers frequently report not having enough time to complete all the things that need to get done. On top of that, the work can be both physically demanding and emotionally challenging. This training helps to provide personal care providers with the tools and resources to manage time and stress.
Team Building and Professionalism: 2 Hours
Since the direct-care worker usually spends more time with the consumer than any other member of the support team, he or she is the “eyes and ears” of the care team. One of the direct-care worker’s most important responsibilities is to carefully observe any changes in the consumer’s condition or environment, write down observations in clear and objective language (“record”), and pass that information on to the appropriate person (“report”).
Respecting Differences: 2 Hours
Within every group there are similarities and differences among individuals. Some of the differences are race, class, language, age, sexuality, religion, culture, abilities, etc. This training will help participants begin to learn how to identify their assumptions and how to respect differences.
Certification and Credential
CPR and First Aid Certification: 6 Hours
OSHA-compliant basic First Aid and CPR certification. Certification is good for two years.