Home and community-based services (HCBS) describe a range of personal, support, and health services provided to individuals in their homes or communities to help them stay at home and live as independently as possible. Most people who receive long-term care at home generally require additional help either from family or friends to supplement services from paid providers. This is because so much of the care needed is personal care: help with activities such as bathing and dressing, help managing medications, or supervision for someone with a condition such as Alzheimer's disease.

Some of the most common home and community services are:

Adult Day Service (ADS) Programs

Designed to meet the needs of adults with cognitive or functional impairments, as well as adults needing social interaction and a place to go when their family caregivers are at work. They provide a variety of health, social, and other support services in a protective setting during part of the day. Adult day centers typically operate programs during normal business hours five days a week; some have evening and weekend hours. These programs do not provide 24-hour care.

Case managers/geriatric care managers

Health care professionals (typically nurses or social workers) who specialize in assisting you and your family with your long-term care needs. This includes, but is not limited to assisting, coordinating, and managing long-term care services; developing a plan of care; and monitoring your long-term care needs over extended periods of time.

Emergency response systems

Which provide an automatic response to a medical or other emergency via electronic monitors. If you live alone, you wear a signaling device that you activate when you need assistance.

Friendly visitor/companion services

Which are typically staffed by volunteers who regularly pay short visits (under two hours) to someone who is frail or living alone.

Home health care/home care 

Two different services, which may be provided by a single agency or separate agencies. Home health care typically includes skilled, short-term services such as nursing, physical or other therapies ordered by a physician for a specific condition. Home care services are most often limited to personal care services such as bathing and dressing, and often also include homemaker services such as help with meal preparation or household chores.

Homemaker/chore services

Can help you with general household activities such as meal preparation, routine household care, and heavy household chores such as washing floors, windows or shoveling snow.

Meals programs

Which include both home-delivered meals (so called “Meals-on-Wheels”) or congregate meals, which are provided in a variety of community settings.

Respite Care

Which gives families temporary relief from the responsibility of caring for family members who are unable to care for themselves. Respite care is provided in a variety of settings including in the home, at an adult day center, or in a nursing home.

Senior Centers

Which provide a variety of services including nutrition, recreation, social and educational services, and comprehensive information and referral to help people find the care and services they might need; and

Transportation services

These can help you get to and from medical appointments, shopping centers and access a variety of community services and resources.