What is personal support, and what does the helper actually do?
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Personal support services, often called PSS, send a trained helper into the home to assist with bathing, dressing, grooming, moving safely around the house, preparing meals and light housekeeping. It is the most used service in Georgia's EDWP waiver and it goes into a care plan after an assessment.
What the helper does
Personal support is the plainest service on the waiver and the one most members use. A trained worker comes to the home on a schedule and helps with the things that have become unsafe or impossible to do alone.
In practice that usually means some combination of:
- bathing, showering and personal hygiene
- dressing and grooming
- getting safely in and out of bed, and moving around the house
- using the toilet, and continence care
- preparing meals and helping with eating
- light housekeeping connected to the member’s care - the dishes, the laundry, keeping the bathroom and kitchen safe to use
- being there so that someone who is unsteady is not alone at the worst moments of the day
The tasks are not chosen ad hoc by the worker. They come from the care plan.
Who it is for
Someone who is having real difficulty with the ordinary business of the day. The test is not a diagnosis - it is what the person can and cannot do safely on their own, which is what the DON-R assessment tries to capture.
It is often the service that decides whether staying at home is realistic. The shower is the classic example: a family can manage almost everything else and still be defeated by the fact that nobody can safely get their father in and out of the bathroom.
How it gets into a care plan
The case manager assesses, writes personal support into the plan of care with the specific tasks the member needs help with, and the plan is approved by the member’s physician or by the case management agency’s medical director. The member then chooses a provider agency from those available in their area, and that agency employs, trains, schedules and supervises the worker who comes to the house.
The amount of support written into a plan follows from the assessment and the waiver’s rules.
What it does not cover
Personal support is help for the member, not general household service.
- It is not housekeeping for the household. Light housekeeping means keeping the member’s own living space safe and clean, not cleaning up after other adults in the house.
- It is not nursing. Wound care, injections and medication administration are skilled nursing tasks and need a licensed nurse.
- It is not transport. A worker is not there to drive the member to appointments unless the plan says otherwise.
- It is not childcare, pet care, or work for other family members.
- It is not a substitute for supervision around the clock. The waiver pays for scheduled support, not for a live-in attendant. Where someone genuinely cannot be left alone, that is a conversation about the whole plan, not about adding hours.
If what the plan authorizes is no longer matching what is happening at home, that is a reassessment, and it is the case manager you tell.
Questions people ask about this
Is a personal support worker a nurse?
No. A personal support worker is trained to help with daily living tasks such as bathing, dressing and meals, and works to the tasks written in the care plan. Nursing tasks are a different waiver service, delivered by a licensed nurse.
Can the helper give my mother her medication?
Medication administration is a nursing task and it sits outside what a personal support worker does. Reminding someone it is time to take their medication is different from administering it. Ask the case manager exactly where the line falls for your family member's plan.
Can we choose which agency sends the helper?
Yes. The member has the right to choose their provider, and the case manager is obliged to tell them which agencies are available in their area. If the arrangement is not working, the member may change agencies.
Will it be the same person every time?
Agencies aim for continuity because it works better for everyone, but staffing is real and covering for illness and leave happens. If the changes are constant enough to be a problem, tell the provider agency and tell the case manager.
Related questions
- What the waiver covers The services Georgia's EDWP waiver pays for at home, from a personal support worker to home-delivered meals, and how each one gets into a care plan.
- What Georgia Medicaid covers at home What Georgia Medicaid pays for when an older adult needs help at home: personal support, meals, adult day health, respite, nursing and more.
- Case management vs home care A case management agency arranges, coordinates and monitors waiver care. A home care agency employs and sends the helper. Two different jobs, two different contracts.
- Who decides level of care The DON-R assessment and the DMA-6 medical form decide nursing-home level of care in Georgia. Who administers them, and what they are actually looking at.