DOH Issues DAL on Cultural Competency Requirements for Home Health Aide, Personal Care Aide, and Certified Nurse Aide Training Programs
(Jan. 21, 2025) On Jan. 16, 2025, the Department of Health (DOH) issued a Dear Administrator Letter (DAL) regarding cultural competency requirements for NY home health aide, personal care aide, and certified nurse aide training programs.
From the DAL:
Training programs are required to include training regarding working with patients or residents of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities or expressions. This new training module is required for certification or recertification, as applicable, of home health aides, personal care aides, and certified nurse aides, and is applicable to training programs approved by the New York State Department of Health (“Department”) and/or the New York State Education Department. To ensure compliance, the following are required, at minimum:
- Home health aides, personal care aides, and certified nurse aides must take the training at certification and recertification.
- Home health aides, personal care aides, and certified nurse aides must take the Affirming Care for Older LGBTQIA+ Individuals training every two (2) years if they are staff of a nursing home or an adult care facility, including an assisted living residence.
- Existing home health aides, personal care aides, and certified nurse aides must take the training.
- Existing training programs approved by the Department and/or the State Education Department must ensure that all nurse aides receive the training and maintain compliance as outlined above.
- All training program applicants must demonstrate their capacity to provide the required training within their standard curriculum.
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This training is available on the New York Learns Public Health Learning Management System at https://www.nylearnsph.com/Public/Default.aspx.
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After the course is completed, the registered user will receive a confirmation certificate that must be retained.
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Questions regarding this guidance may be emailed to hhatp@health.ny.gov, pcatp@health.ny.gov or natp.doh@health.ny.gov, as applicable to the training program type.
Contact: Amy Nelson, anelson@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8383 ext. 146