Consumer Directed Care

Consumer-Directed Care is part of a culture change in long-term care. Consumer Direction is the wave of the future. In the upcoming decades, aging individuals will be more educated and will desire more input and control in their healthcare and long-term care services. One of OSA’s leading efforts in promoting culture change in long-term care is training staff in the philosophical shift from case management to facilitation. This shift is critical in learning to work with savvy individuals who will require less management and more counsel and support. The Office for the Study of Aging takes a leading role in promoting consumer direction in South Carolina.

A study conducted by OSA indicates that caregivers who placed a relative in a nursing home would have delayed placement if more supportive assistance had been available. OSA found that often the caregiver did not receive enough assistance in caregiving or respite and, therefore, was overwhelmed.  The relatives also indicated they received help from family members. Consumer-Directed Care addresses these caregiver issues and much more by empowering individuals to make decisions about and manage their personal care services and providers.

Community Choices (formerly SC Choice), the consumer-directed care community-based waiver program, was created to give more choice and control to frail elderly and disabled individuals desiring to stay at home. The program also addresses the needs of caregivers who wish to delay institutionalization of their loved ones. With increased control over services, caregivers may receive more supportive assistance to keep their loved ones in the home.

SC Choice was developed in collaboration with SC Department of Health and Human Services Division of Community Long Term Care to give informed consumers more choice and control over their service dollars and providers. Individuals in the program were given access to a budget to purchase personal and community-based services and supplies. 

Community Choices was establised to provide a continuum of levels of choice and control to all frail elderly and disabled individuals in South Carolina's community-based waiver program.  This change allows individuals a range of choice and control over all community-based waiver services to just a select few.  With the change from SC Choice to Community Choices, more indivuals are allowed choices at the level in which they feel comfortable.   

The Office for the Study of Aging provided technical assistance and evaluation of the SC Choice program. OSA has developed the philosophical training components of the program, including person-centered planning . OSA has trained Community Long Term Care staff to prepare them for the implementation of the Consumer-Directed Care program.

For more information, please call (803) 777-0222 or email osainformation@sc.edu.