Non-discrimination and language access
Communicare Elite complies with applicable federal and state civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, religion, or any other basis protected by law.
What that means in practice
- We do not refuse service, limit service, or treat anyone differently on any protected basis.
- We do not decline to employ an attendant on any protected basis.
- We provide free aids and services to people with disabilities so they can communicate with us effectively.
- We provide free language assistance to people whose primary language is not English.
- We do not tolerate discrimination or harassment by our staff, and we address it when it comes from anyone else involved in a participant’s care.
Communication support
For people with disabilities
- Qualified sign language interpreters
- Written material in large print
- Information read aloud over the phone or in person
- Accessible electronic formats
For limited English proficiency
- Qualified interpreters
- Information in other languages
- Interpretation during phone calls and office visits
These services are free. You will never be billed for an interpreter, and you should not be asked to bring your own. Please do not rely on a child to interpret for you — ask us instead.
To request support, call (314) 809-6655 and tell us what you need.
Filing a discrimination complaint
With us: call (314) 809-6655, email info@communicareelite.com, or write to 4477 Woodson Rd, Suite 106, St. Louis, MO 63134. We will acknowledge, investigate and respond. We do not retaliate.
With the federal government: you may file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, electronically through its complaint portal, or by mail or phone. Complaint forms are available on the OCR website.
With the state: the Missouri Commission on Human Rights receives discrimination complaints under Missouri law.
Filing a complaint does not affect your services, and we will not treat you differently for having filed one.
Discrimination between participants and attendants
Consumer Directed Services creates a situation most civil rights notices do not contemplate: the participant is the employer, and they choose who to hire. That choice is theirs by law and by design, and we do not second-guess it.
What we will not do is act as an instrument of discrimination on anyone else’s behalf. We do not screen candidates by race, national origin, religion, sex or disability, we do not maintain preference lists organized on those lines, and we do not accept instructions to do so. If an attendant is being harassed in a home, tell us — that is a workplace, and we will act.
Effective communication in practice
A notice promising interpretation is worth nothing if nobody offers it. What this looks like when it is working: you say what you need at the first call, we arrange it before your next appointment rather than at it, and the same arrangement carries forward without you having to ask again each time.
If that is not what happened to you, that is a failure worth reporting under the process below — not a minor inconvenience.