Our Services

Supporting Safety, Connection, and Community Life

Companion Services provide supervision and assistance designed to support an individual’s health, safety, welfare, and participation in home and community life.

The service is intended to help an individual participate more meaningfully in everyday activities while receiving the level of support identified in their authorized service plan.

Companion Services may include:
• Supervision related to health and safety
• Assistance with appropriate daily activities
• Support with community participation
• Encouragement of social interaction
• Assistance with meaningful activities
• Support while participating in community settings
• Assistance with maintaining safe routines
• Support that promotes independence and quality of life

More Than Supervision

PSSN views companionship as an opportunity to promote meaningful engagement.

Our staff encourage individuals to participate in activities that reflect their interests, preferences, relationships, and personal goals.

Community Inclusion

When Companion Services are provided in community settings, ODP requirements regarding integrated and inclusive settings apply.

Pennsylvania ODP describes Companion Services as direct services intended to provide supervision or assistance supporting health, safety, welfare, and meaningful participation in home and community life. (Pennsylvania Government )

Supporting a Safe and Healthy Home

Homemaker/Chore Services help eligible individuals maintain a clean, safe, and appropriate home environment when the service is authorized under the applicable waiver.

These services can address certain household tasks that an individual or household member is temporarily unable to perform because of physical limitations or other qualifying circumstances.

Homemaker/Chore Services may include:
• Household cleaning
• Laundry
• Meal preparation
• Basic household maintenance activities
• Activities necessary to help maintain a clean home
• Activities necessary to help maintain a safe home environment

Our Approach

PSSN provides homemaker/chore support with respect for the individual’s home, preferences, routines, and dignity.

Our goal is to help maintain an appropriate living environment while supporting the individual’s ability to remain safely in the community.

Important Information

Homemaker/Chore Services are not intended to function as general housekeeping for an entire household.

Eligibility and authorization depend on the applicable waiver requirements and the individual’s circumstances and service plan.

Pennsylvania ODP identifies Homemaker/Chore as an ODP waiver service. (Pennsylvania Government )

Supporting Individuals. Supporting Caregivers.

In-Home Respite provides temporary support to an individual and relief to the unpaid caregiver who normally provides care.

Respite is intended to provide short-term support while helping the individual remain safely in their home and community.

In-Home Respite may provide:
• Temporary supervision
• Assistance with the individual’s routine
• Support with activities of daily living within the authorized service
• Support with safety
• Assistance with meaningful activities
• Support while the primary caregiver is temporarily unavailable or needs relief
• Continuity of the individual’s normal routines

Supporting the Whole Family

Family caregivers play an important role in the lives of many individuals receiving ODP services.

Respite can provide caregivers with temporary relief while ensuring that the individual continues to receive appropriate support.

PSSN’s respite services are designed around the individual’s needs, preferences, routines, and authorized service plan.

In-Home Means In-Home

When in-home respite is authorized, services are provided in accordance with the applicable ODP requirements governing the location and delivery of respite.

Pennsylvania ODP recognizes Respite as an ODP waiver service, and Pennsylvania materials distinguish between different respite service types, including in-home respite. (Pennsylvania Government )

Skilled Nursing / Shift Nursing

Supporting Health, Safety, and Independence

PSSN provides nursing support for individuals whose assessed needs require nursing services through an applicable Pennsylvania ODP waiver.

Shift Nursing is a waiver service designed to address an individual’s nursing needs and support the individual’s health and safety in the community.

Nursing services may include:
• Nursing assessment and monitoring
• Observation of health conditions and changes in condition
• Implementation of physician- or healthcare-provider-directed nursing services
• Health-related interventions within the nurse’s scope of practice
• Monitoring of health and safety needs
• Assistance with medically necessary nursing tasks authorized for the individual
• Communication with the individual’s healthcare team, when appropriate
• Nursing documentation and care coordination related to the authorized service

Person-Centered Nursing

At PSSN, nursing services are designed around the individual’s specific needs, preferences, abilities, and authorized plan of care.

Our goal is to provide appropriate nursing support while promoting the individual’s dignity, independence, health, and safety.

Important Information

Nursing services are provided only when the service is authorized and the individual’s needs meet applicable ODP requirements. The scope, frequency, and duration of nursing services are determined through the applicable assessment and service-planning process.

Pennsylvania ODP identifies Shift Nursing as a service under the Consolidated and Community Living Waivers and other applicable ODP waiver programs. (Pennsylvania Government )

Our certified investigators provide thorough, impartial, and professional investigations, ensuring concerns are addressed with care, confidentiality, and respect.

This is a direct service (face-to-face) provided in home and community settings to protect health and welfare and to assist individuals in acquiring, maintaining, and improving self-help, domestic, socialization, and adaptive skills. Services consist of support in the general areas of self-care, communication, fine and gross motor skills, mobility, personal adjustment, relationship development, socialization, and use of community resources. When services are provided by agency-based providers, this service also includes transportation necessary to enable the individual to participate in the home and community habilitation service, in accordance with the individual's ISP.

Through the provision of this service, individuals learn, maintain, or improve skills through their participation in a variety of everyday life activities. They learn and use skills in the context of these activities — a functional approach to the delivery of services. These activities are necessary for individuals to live in the community, to live more independently, or to be more productive and participatory in community life.

This service is intended to assist an individual who is age 18 or older, provided to individuals living in private homes for the purposes of providing supervision or assistance designed to ensure the individual's health, safety and welfare, or to perform activities of daily living for the individual.