Day Supports is often a group, facility-based service that provides assistance to the individual with acquisition, retention, or improvement in socialization and daily living skills and is one option for a meaningful day. It may also be a one-on-one service according to individual needs.

Day Supports emphasizes inclusion and independence with a focus on enabling the individual to attain or maintain his/her maximum self-sufficiency, increase self-determination and enhance the person’s opportunity to have a meaningful day. To ensure informed choice among a variety of options for a meaningful day, individuals new to the service and 16 years of age and older, will receive education on available options during the planning meeting. Education must include exposure to the same day activities as others in the community and the structure of Day Supports must provide the opportunity to discover his or her skills, interests, and talents in his or her community. Grouping of individuals must be appropriate to the age and preferences of the person.

“Facility-Based” means that individuals who receive this service are often in a licensed Day Supports provider facility that serves individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Individuals who receive Day Supports only have to attend the Day Supports Facility once per week and therefore are often in the community with individuals without intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Individual Day Supports are available to meet specific and well-documented needs of the person. These circumstances may include the provision of individual supports due to behavioral or psychiatric destabilization, medical concerns/necessity, or other infrequent and exceptional circumstances. Individual Day Supports related to medical/behavioral/physical support needs shall require supporting medical or behavioral records and accompanying documentation in the ISP supporting the need for individual services as the most appropriate option.

For individuals who are aging, Day Supports can provide a structured day program of service and support with nursing supervision in an Adult Day Care Program.

 

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Day Supports may include prevocational activities. The following criteria differentiate between prevocational and vocational services:
     

  a. Prevocational services are provided to individuals who are not expected to join the general work force or participate in transitional sheltered workshops within one year of service initiation.
     

 b. Prevocational services include activities that are not directed at teaching job-
specific tasks but at underlying skills that may support the individual to increase 
his/her ability to be able to pursue employment (e.g. attention span, attendance,
and task completion.)