South Carolina

SOUTH CAROLINA’S SUPPORT NETWORK

• Family Caregiver Support Program

Offers: Adult day, in-home, overnight, and weekend/camp respite options; other services include access assistance, counseling, education and training, assistive technology, transportation, chore/homemaker, supplies, meals, emergency response and home modification/repair.

Funded by: National Family Caregiver Support Program under Older Americans Act Title III E and state general funds; administered by the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging and locally by area agencies on aging.

Eligibility: Caregivers of older recipients must be age 18 or older; care recipients must be unable to perform two activities of daily living to receive respite or supplemental services.

• Elderly/Disabled Home and Community-Based Waiver

Offers: Adult day and overnight respite options, capped at 21 days per year for respite provided in a residential care facility and 14 days per year if provided in a skilled nursing facility; additional services include care management and family consultation services.

Funded by: Medicaid home and community-based services waiver and state general funds; administered by the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and locally by the Medicaid agency.

Eligibility: No minimum age for caregivers; care recipients must be a minimum of age 18 and meet nursing home level of care criteria.

• Grandparent and Other Relative Caregiver Support Programs

Offers: Respite care and other support services designed to address the needs of grandparent and other relative caregivers of children. See www.gu.org/factsheets.asp for details on South Carolina programs.

Funded by: Older Americans Act Title III E, state general revenues, and other sources. The Family Caregiver Support Program is administered by the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging and locally by area agencies on aging.

Eligibility: Grandparent and other relative caregivers must be a minimum of age 60 and caring for a child age 18 or younger to receive services in the Family Caregiver Support Program.

CONSUMER DIRECTION

Consumer direction is a philosophy that accommodates people’s needs and preferences by offering them maximum choice and control over services they use. Both of South Carolina’s caregiver support programs offer some level of consumer direction.

• Family Caregiver Support Program offers a menu of services from which caregivers may choose, a choice of respite providers, and vouchers or budgets for respite and/or supplemental services. Family members may be paid to provide personal care and respite.
• Elderly/Disabled Home and Community-Based Waiver offers a menu of services and a choice of respite providers, and family members may be paid to provide personal care services.

LEGISLATION

None related to caregiving.

Sources: National Association of State Units on Aging, e-mail survey of State Family Caregiver Support Program contacts, Washington, D.C., June 2005; National Center on Grandparents Raising Grandchildren at Georgia State University, Research—Fact Sheets, Atlanta, Ga., 2005; Feinberg, Lynn Friss, et al., The State of the States in Family Caregiver Support: A 50-State Study, Washington, D.C.: Family Caregiver Alliance, National Center on Caregiving, 2004; Generations United, National Center on Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children, State Fact Sheets, Washington, D.C., October 2003; National Family Caregivers Association, Prevalence and Economic Value of Family Caregiving: State-by-State Analysis, Kensington, Md., 2000; U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000.

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