Text message terms

West Coast In-Home sends text messages to people who have given us permission: caregivers who work with us, client families, and families and job seekers we have met in person who asked to hear from us. This page explains what we send, how often, and how to stop. We do not send marketing by text, and we never text a number whose owner has not agreed.

Who these messages go to

Caregivers and office staff who work with West Coast In-Home, who have given us a mobile number, and who have agreed to receive text messages.

Client families, and families and job seekers we have met — at a community event, a job fair, an information session, or on a phone call — who gave us their number and asked us to text them.

Anyone who texts one of our business lines, whom we answer in the same conversation.

Agreeing is not a condition of anything. For a caregiver, declining has no effect on which shifts they are offered, how they are paid, or how they are treated. For a family, declining has no effect on the care we offer. Anyone who declines is asked once and then left alone.

How consent is given

In our staff app. A caregiver opens Text Message Consent from their Me page, reads the same disclosures set out here, and chooses either to agree or to decline. Agreeing requires ticking a consent box and typing their full name as a signature. We record the answer, the date and time, the version of the document shown, and — for an agreement — the typed name.

In person or by phone. When someone tells a member of our team that we may text them — verbally, or by writing their number on a sign-up sheet at an event — we record who agreed, the number, whether the consent was spoken or written, when it was given, and which member of our team recorded it. We keep any written sign-up. Nobody is texted first without such a record.

By texting us. A message to one of our business lines is permission to reply to it in that conversation.

We do not obtain consent from any other source. We do not buy phone numbers, we do not accept numbers from third parties, and consent given to us is never shared with anyone else.

What we send

To caregivers and staff:

• Shift offers, confirmations, and changes to a schedule
• Reminders before a shift starts
• Urgent notices about an assignment — a cancellation, a location change, or a safety matter
• Occasional account messages, such as a credential about to expire

To families and the people we have met:

• A follow-up to a conversation they had with us — the information they asked for, how to get started, a question answered
• Booking confirmations, schedule changes and reminders about care they have arranged
• Replies to anything they text us

These are conversational and account messages about a person's own dealings with us. We do not send marketing or promotional text messages under this program.

How often

Frequency varies with a person's schedule. In a typical week this is a handful of messages. In a week where shifts change often it may be more. Message and data rates may apply — what a mobile plan charges for receiving texts is between the recipient and their carrier.

How to stop

Any of these works, and each lasts until the person says otherwise:

• Reply STOP to any message. This stops messages to that number immediately. STOP, END, CANCEL, UNSUBSCRIBE and QUIT are all honoured.
• Turn it off in the staff app (caregivers), on the same page where consent was given. No reason is required and nobody needs to be asked.
• Tell us — by phone, by email or in person. We withdraw the consent we recorded and note when and why.

To start again, reply START (or UNSTOP, or SUBSCRIBE), turn it back on in the app, or tell us again.

Stopping text messages does not stop us making contact. Shift offers, schedule changes and urgent notices still reach people by phone call, by email and in the app. Text is a convenience, never the only channel.

Getting help

Reply HELP to any message, or contact us using the details below. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages.