Adult Home Based Support Program Award

[Guest guest]

I joined the group a year ago and was reading the posts daily until 3

months ago. I couldn't keep up with my email, so perhaps my question

has been answered here before.

We just got our letter from DHS awarding home based support, and I

have a call in to our PAS to determine what we do next. I guess I

have to decide whether the funds will be directed to a provider (like

Community Support Services) to create a plan for my son, or I can use

the funds personally to create my own program, as well as locate

direct support workers. I have read that using the funds personally

involves a lot of extra paperwork, record keeping, dealing with

Access, etc. I don't think I am ready to manage any extra

responsibilities that would entail at the moment. (It's just me and

my son and our 4 pet rabbits and guinea pig!) I have developed some

structure to our week these past 2 years on our own. We volunteer

with the Animal Care League every Friday and off site adoptions,

visit my elderly aunt in a nursing home, etc. I have lots of ideas,

but no time to research and phone or organize. I like the idea of

using these funds myself, but don't want the headache of dealing with

bureaucracy.

Can anyone share their experience of whether turning this over to an

agency or using funds yourself has been more beneficial? I realize

there will be advantages and disadvantages to both, but would

appreciate any advice on what to expect before I speak with my PAS.

Also, if I decide on one option, can I switch to another at a later

date if I choose?

Wish I had kept up with the posts over the months, but there just

aren't enough hours in the day!

Deepest thanks to all of you here who share your wisdom!

Withers

[Guest guest]

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS in getting an award letter for the Home-based

Program! When you initially applied for this program, a Service Facilitator

should have been identified that would be the person to help you understand

how to best use this program to meet your son's needs. If you don't remember

who that person (agency) is, then your PAS agent can give you that

information. You may also change Service Facilitators at any time.

Once you are connected with this Service Facilitator, they will most likely

schedule a time to come out and meet with you and your son and go over the

many supports and services you can receive and have funded through this

program (i.e. personal support services, day programming, therapies,

nursing, adaptive equipment/assistive technology, home modifications,

vehicle modification, etc). A service plan will be created to outline your

son's needs and services that are necessary to meet those needs. Anything

you want funded by this program needs to be included in that service plan,

so it is a powerful tool to getting his needs met and funded. This plan is

updated as needed but typically once a year.

As for the personal support piece, which is what I think you were referring

to when you said should you keep the money or turn it over to an agency. A

personal support worker can be used for many things. They could provide

respite for you and they can be responsible for offering assistance to your

son with his daily living needs, as well as social and communication needs.

You have the choice of either hiring a Personal Support Worker through an

agency or more of the 'self-directed' model where you and your Service

Facilitator would find one who would not be employed by an agency (i.e.,

you, another relative, neighbor, etc.) If you choose the 'self-directed'

model, the Personal Support Worker would need to have an 'employer' who

would primarily be responsible for signing off on the Personal Support

Workers (PSW's) timesheet twice a month. The rest of the emails posted

yesterday were correct about their responsibilities. Aces$ is used as the

fiscal intermediary which means the employer signs over most of their

responsibilities to them which would take over processing the timesheets,

issuing paychecks to PSW's, taking out taxes, and submitting the payment

requests to DHS. There is a lot of initial paperwork for both the employer

and employee to fill out (enrollment forms and service authorization form)

but after that it would only be a timesheet twice a month and some goal

tracking form. The best way to determine which route you want to go with for

Personal Support Services is to think about what services you think your son

truly needs and then who could best meet those. Once that is done, then you

and your Service Facilitator can start the process.

I hope this helps!

--

Lew, Service Facilitator

Clearbrook

lisamlew@...

phone/fax 847-681-1357

[Guest guest]

Hi and congratulations. I will give you my experience. When I got the award I

did not know I had options. At the time I was working 2 jobs and paying someone

to watch my daughter after school. Being one of her Direct Service Workers

allowed me to drop the second job and spend extra time with my daughter doing

beneficial activities and really helped us get along much better. It allowed

us to participate in more SRA activities as I could use the money I got paid to

drive her there. So the income from being her DSW was very helpful to us as I

am a single parent. I haven't really had any problem with the paperwork. I

keep up with it on a daily basis and fax it in. I have had no problem with

ACCESS. I had Home based for about 6 months before they came. My transition

was fairly easy. The down side of this is that I have had a tough time finding

other DSW's to work with her. I have had a couple of college students who just

took had out into the community, which was wonderful (my daughter is now 21),

but they don't last long as they have a hard time finding any common interests

and they are usually very busy.

Hope this helps, Gloria

[Guest guest]

Thank you, Gloria, and everyone else who shared their experiences.

It sounds as if everyone is pleased with handling this personally. I

will be meeting with my Service Facilitator next week to review the

options, but I feel more confident that I will be able to manage this

myself. I am a single parent, too, and am really looking for a male

support worker for my 25 year old son. I need the respite, and he

needs to interact and learn from someone other than Mum! That would

also give me the time that isn't available now to check out other

resources and create a plan of activities. I often wake up to my son

standing in my bedroom door asking " What do you want to do now? "

Thanks and appreciation to all the wonderful parents of this group

who are so generous with their time and wisdom.

Withers

>

> Hi and congratulations. I will give you my experience. When I got

the award I did not know I had options. At the time I was working 2

jobs and paying someone to watch my daughter after school. Being one

of her Direct Service Workers allowed me to drop the second job and

spend extra time with my daughter doing beneficial activities and

really helped us get along much better. It allowed us to

participate in more SRA activities as I could use the money I got

paid to drive her there. So the income from being her DSW was very

helpful to us as I am a single parent. I haven't really had any

problem with the paperwork. I keep up with it on a daily basis and

fax it in. I have had no problem with ACCESS. I had Home based for

about 6 months before they came. My transition was fairly easy. The

down side of this is that I have had a tough time finding other DSW's

to work with her. I have had a couple of college students who just

took had out into the community, which was wonderful (my daughter is

now 21), but they don't last long as they have a hard time finding

any common interests and they are usually very busy.

>

> Hope this helps, Gloria

>

>