Personal Assistance Services (PAS)

Personal Assistance Services (PAS), also called attendant care, is a range of non-medical services provided by one or more persons, to assist an individual who has severe physical or sensory disabilities with activities of daily living.

PAS services can include:

Transferring, bathing, grooming, toileting, meal preparation / feeding / eating, dressing, help with ambulation.

Caregiver and senior man on a wheelchair walking outdoors in a park.

A photo of a man supported in a wheel chair looking at you at his computer in his office at work.

These supports can make it possible for people to:

Live independently with dignity
Prevent nursing home placement
Enable them to work and be active in their community

The consumer-directed model empowers individuals to recruit, hire, schedule and self-manage personal care as the employers of personal assistants.

General Eligibility Criteria

An individual must have a significant physical disability or brain injury with functional limitations in performing activities of daily living
A PAS application must be submitted to the DARS PAS program
An annual assessment of each participant is also required

Program Specific Eligibility

A young lady sitting in a wheel chair outside smiling at you!

State PAS

Must meet general eligibility criteria
Individual must be willing and able to self-direct PAS services
Financial eligibility is based on income and resources
Before screening for DARS PAS, an individual must be screened and found ineligible for comparable services through Medicaid waivers or similar programs.
A PAS application must be submitted to the DARS PAS program.
If an individual becomes eligible for the Medicaid Waivers or other personal assistance programs at any time, a transition plan must be developed.

A brain image film scan being lookded at by doctor.

Brain Injury PAS

Must meet general eligibility criteria and state PAS criteria, with the exception that the individual must have a personal representative to co-manage the consumer-directed PAS services.

Two business people having a brainstorming session in an office meeting room. The young man is in a wheelchair, an amputee with spina bifida. His coworker is a mid adult African-American woman, sitting at the table next to him, holding up a laptop computer so they can both look at the screen.

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)

Applicant must meet General Eligibility Criteria.
Applicant must apply for and receive Vocational Rehabilitation Services through either DARS or the Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired (DBVI).
A PAS application must be submitted to the DARS PAS Program through a Rehabilitation counselor.
PAS must be one of the necessary components needed in order to achieve an employment outcome and must be in the Plan.