Personal Assistance Services

Personal Assistance Services (PAS), also called attendant care, are non-medical services that help people with severe physical or sensory disabilities with activities of daily living.

PAS can include help with:

• Transferring
• Bathing
• Grooming
• Toileting
• Meal preparation / feeding / eating
• Dressing

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

Eligibility

• You must be a Virginia resident
• You must be at least 18 years old
• You must have a serious physical disability or brain injury with functional limitations in performing activities of daily living
• You must also be able to make decisions for yourself. This means you can hire and manage a personal care assistant and handle the paperwork to be their official employer with the IRS.
• You cannot be eligible for comparable services through Medicaid or other programs

Program-Specific Eligibility

There are three distinct categories of PAS services.

1. State PAS Eligibility

• Must meet general eligibility
• Financial eligibility is based on income and resources. The resource limit is $75,000. Income is evaluated on a sliding scale and is not limited to $75,000.

2. Brain Injury PAS Eligibility

• Must meet general eligibility
• Must meet State PAS eligibility criteria
• Individual must have a personal representative to co-manage the consumer-directed PAS services

3. Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Eligibility

This is the program to apply for if you are seeking employment. It can only be applied for through a DARS rehabilitation counselor.

• 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

Apply

1. Apply for Medicaid

   Have you applied for Medicaid in the past two years? If no, you will need to apply for Medicaid and receive a eligibility determination before submitting an application for State PAS.

   Eligibility requirements make this program extremely limited.

2. Download application

   To apply for the PAS program, download the application and mail it to the DARS PAS office.

   Download Application

3. Mail your application

   Mail to:
   PAS Program Manager
   DARS PAS Program
   P. O. Box 71958,
   Henrico, VA 23255