Special Program Pays Caregivers

An innovative program that has helped Massachusetts elders and younger adults with disabilities remain in the community is undergoing a major transformation.

The MassHealth Adult Family Care Program (AFC) matches individuals who need assistance with activities of daily living with host families who provide those services in a home setting. Services can include assistance with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, incontinence management and other personal care. The new Enhanced Adult Family Care program will now be able to meet the needs of individuals requiring a higher level of care. In addition, it broadens the spectrum of caregivers who are eligible to participate to include most family members. Families or hosts, as they are called in the program, receive about $18,000 to provide care that prevents or delays institutional care.

"People express a clear preference for being cared for in a home setting," said John O'Neill, Executive Director of Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, which provides the program in a number of communities in Greater Boston. "Enhanced Adult Family Care is a wonderful option for MassHealth beneficiaries who would like to receive care from a loved one in a home setting."

The guidelines of the new Enhanced Adult Family Care Program are based in part on another state program called, Caring Homes which is open to non-MassHealth eligible elders with complex medical needs. "This program is built on the foundation of family care giving," said Al Norman, executive director of Mass Home Care. "Sons and daughters will love this program because it allows them to be paid caregivers to their parents."

The Enhanced Adult Family Care program will not only allow elders and persons with disabilities to move into a caregiver's home, but will allow a caregiver to move into the individual's home. Participants must be 16 years or older and meet MassHealth financial and clinical eligibility standards. Caregivers may be any friend or family member other than a spouse, parent, or legally responsible relative and must meet qualifications specified by the state.

MassHealth pays for Enhanced Adult Family Care if an individual is financially eligible for MassHealth and requires physical assistance with at least three of the following activities: bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, ambulating, eating; or, physical assistance with two of the activities above and management of behaviors that require caregiver intervention such as wandering, verbally abusive behavioral symptoms, physically abusive behavioral symptoms, socially inappropriate or disruptive behavioral symptoms, or resisting care.

To learn more about Adult Family Care, Caring Homes or other in-home services, call the SCES Aging Information Center at 617-628-2601 ext. 3151.