Personal Supports

Description:

Personal supports services provide assistance and training to the recipient in activities of daily living, such as eating, bathing, dressing, personal hygiene, and preparation of meals. When specified in the support plan, this service can also include heavy household chores to make the home safer, such as washing floors, windows and walls; tackling down loose rugs and tiles; or moving heavy items or furniture. Services also include non-medical care, and supervision. This service can provide access to community-based activities that cannot be provided by natural or unpaid community support and are likely to result in an increased ability to access community resources without paid support.


Personal support is designed to encourage community integration. Personal support in supported living is also designed to teach the recipient about home-related responsibilities.


This service can also include respite services for a recipient aged 21 years or older living in their family home. Respite services provide relief to the caregiver and are incorporated into the personal support service. The provider, to the extent properly qualified and licensed, assists in maintaining a recipient’s own home and property as a clean, sanitary and safe environment.

This service is provided in support of a goal included the support plan or an identified need to support or maintain basic health and safety and is not purely diversional in nature. 

Staff Qualifications:

  • Be at least 18 years of age
  • Have one year of experience working in a medical, psychiatric, nursing or childcare setting, or in working with recipients having developmental disabilities
  • Have college, vocational, or technical training from an accredited institution can substitute at the rate of 30 semesters, 45 quarter or 720 classroom hours for the required experience


All providers and their direct service staff must comply with training requirements as noted in the appendices of this handbook.


Minimum starting pay $15 per hour and up based on experience.

Life Skills Development –Level 1 (Companion)

Providers and employees providing companion services hired after September 2015 (the effective date of this rule) must meet the qualifications outlined in this handbook.



Providers and employees of agencies must be 18 years or older, have a high school diploma or GED, and have at least one year of verifiable experience working directly with individuals receiving services in a medical, psychiatric, nursing, or childcare setting or working with recipients who have a developmental disability.

Staff Qualifications:

  • Be at least 18 years of age
  • One year of experience working in a medical, psychiatric, nursing or childcare setting, or in working with recipients having developmental disabilities
  • College, vocational, or technical training from an accredited institution can substitute at the rate of 30


Minimum starting pay $15 per hour and up based on experience.

Supported Living Coaching

Description:

These services can include assistance with locating appropriate housing; the acquisition, retention, or improvement of skills related to activities of daily living (e.g., personal hygiene and grooming); household chores; meal preparation; shopping; personal finances; and social and adaptive skills necessary to enable recipients to reside on their own. This assessment is designed to assist the provider in becoming familiar with the recipient and the recipient’s capacities and needs. The assessment addresses all aspects of daily life including relationships, medical and health concerns, personal care needs, household and money management, community mobility, and community interests. Recipients are limited to adults aged 18 years or older.Housing procurement


Things SLC do: Household maintenance and management, Safety and emergency procedures, twenty-four-hour emergency assistance, Meal planning and preparation, Shopping and consumer skills, Clothing care, Self-care, manners, and sexuality, Money management and banking, Utilizing third party benefits, Time management, Recreation and leisure, Mobility and travel skills, Civic responsibilities, Advocacy, Interpersonal communication, and Facilitation of one-to-one

Qualifications for Supported Living Coach:

  • Be at least 18 years of age
  • Providers of supported living coaching services must meet at a minimum, one of the following requirements:
  • Have a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university with a major in education, rehabilitative science, business or a related degree.
  • Have an associate’s degree or two years of college from an accredited college or university and have two years of documented direct experience with recipients with developmental disabilities.
  • Have one year of college from an accredited college or university and three years of documented direct experience in working with recipients with developmental disabilities.
  • Four years of direct professional experience in working with recipients with developmental disabilities may substitute for college in a year


Minimum starting pay $18 per hour and up based on experience