Respite Benefits (0-19 years) – Provide annual funding (depending on family income) directly to families to purchase respite services. Parents pay caregivers, manage their respite budget, and provide a record of respite expenditures to local ministry offices. These benefits are delivered at the SDA level, and may be enhanced to meet extraordinary need.
AT HOME PROGRAM
The At Home Program (AHP) provides respite and/or medical benefits to assist parents in caring for children with severe disabilities at home.
To be eligible for the At Home Program, a child must be:
- 18 years or younger for Respite Benefits; 17 years or younger for Medical Benefits
- A resident of British Columbia
- Enrolled with British Columbia Medical Services Plan
- Living at home with a parent or guardian
and assessed as having at least one of the following:
- Dependent in at least three of the four activities of daily living (eating, dressing, toileting and washing); or
- Having a palliative condition; or
- Having a degenerative condition (Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2); or
- Having complex health needs and qualifying for direct nursing care through Nursing Support Services. These children can automatically access AHP Medical Benefits.
Children with a palliative condition, as indicated by the child’s physician or nurse practitioner on the At Home Program application form, are eligible for both At Home Program Respite Benefits and Medical Benefits, without an eligibility assessment.
Based on eligibility, one or both benefits are provided as follows:
- Medical Benefits (0-18 years) – Provide essential medical supplies, medical equipment, medical transportation, therapies, orthotics, dental, optical, PharmaCare and MSP coverage. These benefits are administered and delivered centrally.
- School-Aged Extended Therapies (SAET) assist families with the cost of purchasing out-of-school direct (one-to-one) therapy services to maintain or improvement of functional skills or address post-surgical rehabilitation needs. SAET services enhance the primary OT and PT services made available through the SAT program and school district SLP services.
- School-Aged Therapy & the At Home Program’s School-Aged Extended Therapies Benefit Info Sheet
This information sheet explains how the School-Aged Therapy program and the School-Aged Extended Therapies benefit of the At Home Program complement one another, and how services are to be coordinated across the two programs. - Guidelines for Therapists: Writing Functional Outcomes
- At Home Program Guidelines: Use of Therapist Assistants
This document guides the safe, effective delivery of therapy services through the School-Aged Extended Therapies (SAET) benefit of the At Home Program. It applies to occupational therapy (OT), physiotherapy (PT) and speech-language pathology (SLP) services that are funded by the SAET benefit and delivered by a therapist assistant (TA), under the supervision of a therapist.
