Civil-rights concerns at THHS

Speaking up should feel safe.

THHS Nondiscrimination
Grievance Procedure

You have the right to raise a civil-rights concern, ask for help, or file a grievance without fear of retaliation. This page explains how THHS helps you put your concern into words, document it, and bring it to the people or agencies who can review and address it — whether the concern involves discrimination, language access, disability access, effective communication, a reasonable modification, or retaliation.

Last updated: May 19, 2026   ·   Effective: May 19, 2026

1. What this page is for

Tender Hand Healthcare Services LLC (“THHS,” “Tender Hand,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is committed to providing healthcare, home-care, community-based, and developmental-disability services in a respectful, inclusive, accessible, and nondiscriminatory way.

If something goes wrong, we want to make it easy to speak up. This page explains how THHS helps you raise, document, and file a concern — and how we connect it to the person, department, or government agency responsible for reviewing it. Our role is to assist and to route your concern to the right place, not to sit in judgment of a civil-rights complaint.

This page does not replace emergency reporting, abuse or neglect reporting, clinical complaint procedures, HIPAA privacy complaints, employment complaints, DDD incident procedures, or any other process required by law. Where the law requires THHS to review a concern internally, we will do so or coordinate that review; in many cases, our role is simply to help you document the concern and bring it to the agency responsible for reviewing it. If a concern belongs somewhere else, we will help point you there.

2. Who can raise a concern

A concern may be raised by:

• A current or prospective patient.
• A current or prospective DDD participant.
• A guardian, parent, personal representative, authorized representative, or advocate.
• A family member or support person, when authorized or appropriate.
• An applicant for THHS services.
• A visitor or member of the public.
• An employee, job applicant, contractor, caregiver, or volunteer, when the concern falls within this process.
• Another person acting with appropriate authority on behalf of an affected individual.

You may ask us to keep your identity confidential to the extent reasonably possible. You may also raise a concern anonymously, though limited information may affect how fully it can be reviewed or answered by us or by an outside agency.

3. What you can report

4. How to tell THHS about a concern

You can reach us by phone, email, or mail. You do not need special legal language, a formal complaint form, or an attorney to tell us what happened.

You can also tell any THHS supervisor, Administrator, care professional, or representative. That person will pass your concern to the right contact so we can help you from there.

5. Information that helps us assist you

Share as much as you are comfortable sharing. The more we have, the better we can help you write it up and file it. Helpful details include:

• Your name.
• The name of the affected person, if different from you.
• Your preferred phone, email, mailing address, or other contact method.
• Your preferred language or communication method.
• A description of what happened.
• The date or approximate date.
• The location, program, service, department, website page, appointment, or activity involved.
• The names or roles of people involved, if known.
• The type of discrimination, access barrier, language concern, communication concern, or retaliation involved.
• Any accommodation, language assistance, auxiliary aid, accessible format, or reasonable modification you are requesting.
• Any documents, messages, photographs, or records you would like us to consider or include.
• The outcome you are hoping for.

Missing information will not cause your concern to be turned away. We may contact you for anything that would help.

6. How THHS helps you file

7. What happens after you tell us

Here is what you can generally expect once you bring a concern to THHS. The goal at every step is to support you and move your concern toward the right place.

8. Our response targets

THHS aims to respond as promptly as reasonably possible. These are our service targets for helping you.

These targets are meant to help us act quickly. They do not extend or replace any deadline set by an outside agency — those deadlines can be much shorter (see Section 13), so it is best to act promptly.

9. What THHS can do to help

While a civil-rights complaint is reviewed by the appropriate authority, there are things THHS can often do right away to help — especially around access and communication. Depending on the situation, we may be able to:

• Provide requested language assistance.
• Provide an auxiliary aid or communication service.
• Provide information in an accessible format.
• Reconsider or arrange a reasonable modification.
• Remove or reduce an identified access barrier.
• Clarify a policy, practice, decision, or communication.
• Review or improve a form, website feature, workflow, or service practice.
• Help you file your concern with the agency responsible for reviewing it.
• Explain why a requested action cannot be provided and discuss reasonable alternatives.

The formal determination of whether discrimination occurred, and any legally binding remedy, rests with the civil-rights agency that reviews the complaint — not with THHS. Privacy, employment, clinical, and legal requirements may also limit what we can share about actions involving another person.

10. If you want to take it further

You do not have to come to THHS first, and you never have to stop with us. If you are not satisfied with how a concern was handled, or you simply want an outside review, you can take your concern to a government civil-rights agency at any time.

THHS will help you do that. On request, we can:

• Explain your external options.
• Help you complete an outside agency’s complaint form.
• Provide language assistance or an accessible format so you can file.
• Provide a copy of what you shared with us, where appropriate.

Outside agencies have their own deadlines and procedures — some as short as 180 days — so it is best to reach out to them promptly. Their contact information is in Section 13.

11. Privacy, confidentiality, and records

THHS keeps records of concerns in line with applicable legal, regulatory, contractual, privacy, and organizational record-retention requirements.

12. Protection from retaliation

13. Where civil-rights complaints are reviewed

Civil-rights complaints are reviewed and decided by government agencies. You can contact any of these directly — you do not need to come through THHS first — and we are glad to help you file with them. Each has its own deadlines and procedures, so contact them for current information.

14. THHS contact for assistance

For help raising, documenting, or filing a concern — or for questions about language access, effective communication, reasonable modifications, or retaliation — contact:

Tender Hand Healthcare Services LLC   ·   Nondiscrimination Grievance Procedure   ·   Effective May 19, 2026