For newcomer families
Home care for refugee and newcomer families
If your family arrived recently and someone at home needs daily help, this page explains how care at home works here, who pays for it, and where to start.
What "home care" means here
In the United States, help with daily life at home — bathing, dressing, meals, housekeeping, company — is a service you can arrange formally, with a written plan and a paid caregiver. It is separate from medical care. Nurses, injections and therapy are a different kind of agency.
You do not have to place a parent in a nursing home to get help. Care at home is the normal alternative, and for most families it is the one the state prefers to pay for.
Who pays
Medicaid. Indiana pays for home care through programs called waivers, for people who meet income rules and need daily help. Ukrainian citizens and nationals paroled into the United States between February 24, 2022 and September 30, 2024 are eligible for federal benefits, including Medicaid, to the same extent as admitted refugees. Many families do not know this.
Private pay. The family pays an hourly rate directly. This is available immediately, with no application and no waiting.
Being paid to care for your own relative. Indiana has a program, Structured Family Caregiving, that pays a family member who lives with and cares for an eligible adult. No medical training is required.
What we can arrange today, and what is pending
Absolute Choice is a licensed Indiana Personal Services Agency, licence number 26-020524-1. Personal care and companion/homemaker services are available now on a private-pay basis.
Medicaid waiver, managed care and Structured Family Caregiving services are pending state certification and are not yet available through us. We will say so plainly rather than let a family wait on something that has not happened yet.
Where to start if you have no coverage yet
Apply for Medicaid at the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration benefits portal. This is the step most families get stuck on, and it comes before everything else.
For an older adult, contact CICOA Aging & In-Home Solutions, the Area Agency on Aging for Marion and the seven surrounding counties, at 317-803-6131. They assess what someone needs and explain the options at no cost.
If you arrived through a resettlement agency, your caseworker at Exodus Refugee Immigration or Catholic Charities Indianapolis can help you with benefits questions.
We are not lawyers and we do not decide eligibility. What we can do is tell you which door to knock on, in your own language.
Language
Ukrainian, Russian, Armenian, English and Spanish are spoken in our office. You will not need to bring your daughter along to translate a conversation with a manager.