New Support Resources
Check out our guides on supporting members with chronic health conditions
As a Papa Pal, we know you go above and beyond to support your members during every visit. Some members you support may experience chronic health conditions, which can affect their energy, mood, memory, or daily routines.
This month, we launched a new series of guides focused on helping members with chronic health conditions. In them, you will find an overview of each condition and tips to support members who experience them. The health conditions addressed in these guides include:
- Dementia
- Alzheimer's disease
- Depression
- Hoarding
- Diabetes
- Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)
- Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
- Anxiety
We’ve also created guides about supporting members experiencing memory concerns or physical discomfort with an unknown cause.
We hope these guides help you feel empowered to continue making a positive impact in the lives of our members!
Explore our new support guides.
Setting the Community Up for Success
Meeting Papa’s Community Standards
When you agree to be a Papa Pal, you are contributing to the world we want to make—a world where nobody has to go it alone. Kindness, integrity, and safety are the foundation of every interaction. Below are some helpful tips on how to embody our Community Standards as a Papa Pal.
Kindness: We choose kindness
- Show a genuine interest in your member’s life and hobbies.
- Show empathy when a member shares a hardship.
- Be patient and offer support or encouragement.
Integrity: We do what’s right (and show up when and where we say we will)
- Call the member ahead of time to introduce yourself so that the member knows who to expect, and discuss any desired tasks for the visit.
- Confirm in the Papa Pal app any accepted visits at least 24 before they are scheduled to take place. If you do not confirm the visit in time, you will be removed from the visit.
- If you know you can’t make it to a visit, cancel as soon as you can and at least 24 hours in advance. If you need to cancel on the day of the visit, please reach out to our Chat Support Team right away. They will remove you from the visit so another Papa Pal can pick it up.
- Be on time, support with the tasks requested for the visit, and leave on time.
Safety: We prioritize safety
- Use Papa’s masked phone number feature in the Papa Pal app to call members and keep your personal number private.
- If you ever feel unsafe or uncomfortable, leave the visit and contact our Papa Support Team.
- For emergencies, call 9-1-1 and/or use our in-app emergency support for additional help if needed.
Review our visit standards.
Q & A
What should I do if I don’t feel safe on a visit?
The safety of our Papa Pals and members is our top priority. Never stay at a visit that makes you feel uncomfortable. If you feel unsafe and need to leave the visit early, we encourage you to do so and contact Papa Support when you are in a safe place. (Papa will not penalize you for leaving early from a visit at which you felt unsafe.)
There are several ways to report safety concerns:
- Submit a Safety ticket through the Papa Help Center.
- Contact our Papa Support Team either via phone or chat. The specialist supporting you will collect any details related to the incident and escalate it to the appropriate team to review.
Remember: If you ever need emergency help, call 9-1-1. Utilize our in-app emergency support feature for additional help and reassurance during emergencies or when feeling unsafe, including when calling is not an option.
What happens when I share a safety concern?
Here’s what happens behind the scenes when you share a safety concern with us:
- You’re supported — always. You’ll never be in trouble for reporting a safety concern. We want you to feel confident letting us know if something doesn’t feel right.
- Your concern is shared with the Trust & Safety team. This is a specialized team focused on addressing safety issues. They may contact you to offer support and gather more information.
- Your privacy matters. We do our best to protect your privacy during any follow-up. For example, if we contact the member, we won’t share your name or the exact date/time of the visit.
- Keeping you safe in the future. In many cases, we’ll make sure that members’ visits no longer appear for you in the app, and they won’t be able to contact you through Papa’s masked number feature. As a reminder, masked numbers are a special phone number assigned through the app so your real number stays private. Normally, that masked number stays active for every member and Papa Pal pair, but we can disconnect it to avoid future contact if we need to.
- Making adjustments for safety. Depending on the situation, we may adjust the types of visits that members can receive until we can ensure in-person visits will be smooth and safe for everyone.
Check out Papa Pal Central for our resources on Papa Pal safety.