Assisted Waiver Help for Families in Illinois

The Supportive Living Program was developed to provide an alternative for those older residents who are of low income or who have disabilities and are on Medicaid. This allows for individuals to avoid living in a nursing home, by combining apartment style housing with services such as personal care, homemaking, laundry, medication supervision, social activities, and more.

Individuals are able to be independent and be involved in their own decision making, giving them person choice, privacy, and dignity. To be eligible, individuals need to be 65 or older, while those who are disabilities need to be 22 and older; individuals need to be eligible for Medicaid, with income equal to or greater than the current SSI.

For information, families or individuals can contact the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

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Home and Community Based Services Programs

The Home and Community Based Services Waivers or the HCBS is a waiver program that provides several different services that also allow for individuals to stay within their homes or within a community setting. Within these services is the HCBS for the Elderly, which is for those who are 60 years of age or older who are at risk at being placed within a nursing facility. There are two sides to this one for those 60 years and older, with another for those who are between 60 and 64 who have physical disabilities.

Services for this waiver include in home service/homemaker, adult day services, and emergency home response services. To be eligible for this waiver, individuals need to be residents of Illinois, Medicaid eligible, be at risk of being placed within a nursing facility, and can safely maintain in the home or a community based setting.

For those individuals who have disabilities, there is the Person with Disabilities waiver, also part of the HCBS program. At the time of application, individuals need to be under 60 years of age, enrolled in Medicaid or in the Health Benefits for Workers and Disabilities, and be at risk for being placed in a nursing facility.

Services include a personal assistant, home health aides, homemaker service, adult day care, personal emergency response system, respite, and extended state plan therapy services.

The state of Illinois has an executive plan for the next year in regards to implementing and rebalancing the long term care system in order to further provide effective in home and community based services for their elderly population. These changes help to provide sustainable services and programs to be better assist elderly residents, while also establishing more resource centers to assist and provide information and assistance for individuals and their families.

For more information, individuals can contact the Department of Healthcare and Family Services either by phone or by email.

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Responses to this article:

Walter Wrote:

Thanks for including the links to the several Illinois sites regarding waiver info. That helped! My mom can probably stil stay at home for a while so HCBS might be useful for her to look into.

7 September 2015 at 9:13 am

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