Caregiver Programs in Ohio (2026): The Complete Directory

If you have been awake at 2 a.m. wondering how you are going to keep doing this, you are not alone, and you are not without options. Ohio caregiver programs run through a decentralized but well-funded support system, and most families never see half of what is available to them because nobody told them where to look.

There is help that pays you. Help that gives you a break. Help that walks alongside you when your spouse or parent has dementia and you do not know what to ask next. The hard part is not whether the help exists. The hard part is knowing the right phone number to call and the right name to ask for.

This guide is the map. Every major Ohio caregiver program in 2026, what it actually delivers, who runs it, and which deeper Brevy guide takes you the next step. Read what you need, save what you do not, and call the Ohio Department of Aging statewide line at 1-866-243-5678 when you are ready to talk to a person.

Ohio caregiver programs at a glance

Ohio caregiver programs that pay family members

For the full walkthrough, eligibility, application steps, hourly rate ranges, the OAC 5160-44-32 spousal rule, and the Next Gen MyCare transition, read How to Get Paid as a Family Caregiver in Ohio. The condensed version is below.1

PASSPORT consumer direction

PASSPORT is Ohio's flagship home and community-based services waiver for adults 60 and older who would otherwise need a nursing home. It is run by the Ohio Department of Aging through the 12 Area Agencies on Aging. Under consumer direction, the participant hires their own personal care worker, and that worker can be an adult child, sibling, or other family member (not a spouse, except in the narrow circumstances at OAC 5160-44-32). Rates under consumer direction vary by waiver and AAA; verify the current hourly rate with your care manager. PASSPORT serves Ohioans 60 and older who need a nursing-facility level of care but want to stay in their own home, and it covers personal care, homemaker services, adult day health, and care coordination.2

Ohio Home Care Waiver

The Ohio Home Care Waiver is the under-60 analog to PASSPORT, run by the Ohio Department of Medicaid directly. It serves working-age adults and children with nursing-facility level of care who want to stay in their own home. Like PASSPORT, it includes consumer-directed personal care that pays a family caregiver. Care managers are assigned through ODM.

MyCare Ohio Waiver

MyCare Ohio is Ohio's integrated program for adults who are dual-eligible (both Medicare and Medicaid). Beginning January 1, 2026, Ohio rolled out Next Generation MyCare as a Fully Integrated Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plan (FIDE-SNP) structure, with the new MyCare Ohio Waiver replacing the older capitated program. The Ohio Department of Medicaid rolled out Next Generation MyCare in 29 counties on January 1, 2026 and is expanding it to the rest of Ohio through August 1, 2026. The waiver pays family caregivers under the same consumer-direction model used by PASSPORT.3

DODD waivers (IO, Level One, SELF)

The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities runs three waivers for adults and children with I/DD: the Individual Options Waiver, the Level One Waiver, and the SELF Waiver. All three pay a family caregiver under Participant-Directed Homemaker Personal Care (PD-HPC). SELF and Level One are budget-capped; IO is uncapped within a cost-neutrality test. Enrollment runs through your County Board of Developmental Disabilities, not the AAA.

VA programs in Ohio

Three federal VA programs pay a family caregiver of a veteran enrolled at one of Ohio's five VA Medical Centers (Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Chillicothe). The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers pays a monthly stipend built from the veteran's locality GS-4 rate and multiplied by a factor of 0.625 or 1.00 on the current program, or 1.00, 0.625, or 0.25 for a legacy household (see below), plus CHAMPVA health coverage, counseling, respite, and travel benefits. Veteran-Directed Care gives the veteran a monthly budget to hire family caregivers, partnered with the local AAA. VA Aid and Attendance is a pension supplement for wartime veterans who need regular help with activities of daily living. Call the VA Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274 or your local County Veterans Service Commission.4

Personal services contracts

If your family member is private pay or planning ahead for Medicaid, a personal services contract is a legal agreement under which you, the family caregiver, are paid an hourly or weekly rate for documented care, with hours tracked, taxes withheld, and a written caregiving agreement that survives Medicaid's five-year look-back review. This is not a program; it is a planning tool used with an elder-law attorney. See How to Get Paid as a Family Caregiver in Ohio for the structure and the Ohio Medicaid Estate Recovery implications.

Respite care programs

Respite, a real, planned break that someone else pays for, is the most underused benefit in the Ohio caregiver toolkit. Most families discover respite only when burnout has already happened. Ohio funds respite through at least five distinct payors in 2026, and they stack.

Title III-E NFCSP respite

The National Family Caregiver Support Program, authorized under the Older Americans Act, flows federal Title III-E dollars through ODA to the 12 AAAs. Each AAA sets its own NFCSP voucher policy and respite hours within ODA's allocation. There is no statewide voucher dollar amount; ask your AAA what your county offers in 2026. Eligibility is generally caregivers of adults 60 and older (and a separate stream for grandparents raising grandchildren). No income test.

Ohio Alzheimer's and Dementia Respite line item

This is Ohio's flagship state-funded respite program for dementia caregivers, and most families have never heard of it. Ohio's state budget appropriates funds for Alzheimer's and Other Dementia Respite, distributed to the 12 AAAs, with each AAA required to pass a portion through to its local Alzheimer's Association chapter. Funds cover in-home respite, adult day, family-directed respite, education, support groups, and personal care. It is separate from NFCSP and separate from PASSPORT respite hours; eligible families can stack all three.

PASSPORT, Ohio Home Care, and MyCare respite

Every Ohio Medicaid HCBS waiver includes a respite benefit. PASSPORT, administered by the Ohio Department of Aging through the Area Agencies on Aging, provides home and community-based services including respite care and adult day services; MyCare Ohio likewise covers respite care, adult day, and personal care. Talk to your waiver care manager about authorized days and delivery options.5

VA respite, 30+ days per year

The VA provides Primary Family Caregivers in its comprehensive program at least 30 days of respite care per year, delivered as in-home respite (a paid worker comes to the home), Community Living Center or VA-contracted nursing facility respite (a short inpatient stay), or Adult Day Health Care respite. Call your VA Caregiver Support Coordinator or the VA Caregiver Support Line at 1-855-260-3274 for current copay information.6

Lifespan Respite Care

Ohio has historically been a federal Lifespan Respite Care grant state, with the Ohio Respite Coalition as the historic state lead. Current grant status as of 2026 is being verified; ask your AAA whether a Lifespan Respite voucher is available in your region.

Adult Day Services

Adult day is the most overlooked layer of the Ohio caregiver stack. A daytime program covers six to ten hours of supervised care, meals, activities, social engagement, and (in higher-acuity programs) nursing oversight, and it usually costs less per hour than in-home care.

Regulator and service levels

Adult day in Ohio is certified (not licensed) by the Ohio Department of Aging, the same agency that oversees Ohio's community-based long-term care providers. ODA certifies adult day providers at two service levels.

• Enhanced is the social model, supervision, activities, meals, and basic personal care.
• Intensive adds skilled care: medication administration, nursing oversight, and more complex functional needs.

Intensive-certified providers may also deliver enhanced-level service; the reverse is not true. This is the closest Ohio analog to the "adult day health (medical) vs. adult day care (social)" distinction found in other states, but in Ohio it is one regulator at two service levels, not two licenses.

How to find a center

AdultDayOhio.org is a public-facing statewide directory of ODA-certified centers. Use it to find centers in your county, compare services, and read profiles.

Typical 2026 cost

Ohio's adult day private-pay rates vary by county and service level. Contact centers directly for current 2026 pricing. Costs vary by metro; the carescout.com Cost of Care tool publishes MSA breakouts for Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Dayton.

Medicaid coverage

Adult day services are a covered benefit under PASSPORT, the Ohio Home Care Waiver, the MyCare Ohio Waiver, and DODD's three waivers, which fund adult day habilitation and adult day support. The PASSPORT waiver covers adult day health as one of its home and community-based services. For dementia families, the state Alzheimer's respite line item can also pay for adult day, sometimes without a Medicaid eligibility step.2

Support, training, and dementia resources

Caregivers of someone with Alzheimer's or another dementia carry a different load. The slow loss, the personality changes, the question of whether to drive, the question of whether to keep your mother at home, all of it adds up. The Alzheimer's Association projects that about 250,000 Ohioans were living with Alzheimer's disease in 2025, and Ohio has built more support around dementia caregiving than any other condition. Most of it is free.7

Alzheimer's Association chapters serving Ohio

Six Alzheimer's Association chapters serve Ohio. Each offers free care consultations, support groups, education, the early-stage social engagement program, and care navigation, plus the state dementia-respite vouchers routed through the AAAs.

• Greater Cincinnati Chapter, Southwest Ohio. alz.org/cincinnati
• Miami Valley Chapter, Dayton metro and Miami Valley.
• Central Ohio Chapter, Columbus and central Ohio. 614-457-6003. alz.org/centralohio
• Cleveland Area Chapter, Cleveland to Strongsville, Lorain to Ashtabula. 216-342-5556. alz.org/cleveland
• Greater East Ohio Chapter, Akron-Canton, Summit, Mahoning Valley. alz.org/eastohio
• Northwest Ohio Chapter, Toledo and Northwest Ohio. 419-537-1999. alz.org/nwohio

The Alzheimer's Association 24/7 Helpline is 1-800-272-3900, free and confidential, in English plus more than 200 languages.8

Ohio's state dementia infrastructure

The Ohio Department of Aging coordinates dementia policy through three distinct mechanisms.

The Ohio Action Plan on Alzheimer's and Other Dementias, developed by the Ohio Alzheimer's Disease and Dementias Task Force. Priorities include public awareness, access to quality care, dementia-capable workforce, dementia research and data, and funding.

The Alzheimer's and Other Dementia Respite line item, state-funded and distributed through the 12 AAAs with a required pass-through to local Alzheimer's chapters (described above).

The Golden Buckeye Center for Dementia Caregiving at the Ohio State University College of Nursing in Columbus, partnered with ODA on dementia caregiver support. It offers in-person and virtual caregiver programming and dementia training, and partners with AAAs on a dementia-screening and referral tool.

The Ohio Council for Cognitive Health

The Ohio Council for Cognitive Health is the state lead for the Dementia Friends Ohio program, an independent 501(c)(3) headquartered in central Ohio. It runs Dementia Friends training (free, one hour, in-person or virtual) and certifies dementia-friendly communities. Separate from ODA, the Alzheimer's Association, and the Golden Buckeye Center.

Caregiver training

ODA's Caregiver Support Series offers structured training through the 12 AAAs (curriculum names vary, often Powerful Tools for Caregivers, Savvy Caregiver, or REACH II). Free to family caregivers. Ask your AAA which series is running in your region this year.

Regional caregiver networks

• Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio Caregiver Assistance Network (CAN), the regional caregiver-resource program serving Hamilton, Clermont, Butler, Clinton, and Warren counties. Since 1996. CAREline: 513-869-4483. Support groups, respite, Powerful Tools for Caregivers, 1:1 resource consultation.
• Jewish Family Service Association of Cleveland (JFSA) runs Caring at Home, a Medicaid-certified and private-pay in-home care program.
• JFS Columbus and JFS Cincinnati both offer aging and caregiver services in their metros.
• Disability Rights Ohio is the statewide protection-and-advocacy organization for adults and children with disabilities, useful for DODD waiver navigation.
• Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging (Cleveland) is a long-running research and direct-service organization focused on dementia care.

Your local Area Agency on Aging

Ohio's twelve Area Agencies on Aging are the operational core of the non-Medicaid caregiver-support system. The Ohio Department of Aging and its Area Agencies on Aging are the front door for caregiver counseling, support groups, training, and respite, funded in part through the federal National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP). Each AAA is also the Aging and Disability Resource Network lead in its multi-county region, adding options counseling, benefits screening, the state dementia respite line item, OSHIIP Medicare counseling, the Long-Term Care Ombudsman, and warm hand-off to PASSPORT enrollment. If you do not know where to start, start here.8

Statewide warm-transfer line: 1-866-243-5678 (ODA routes by ZIP).9

General ODA line: 1-800-266-4346.

How to use an AAA when you are first starting out

VA caregiver benefits in Ohio

Ohio has five VA Medical Centers: Louis Stokes Cleveland VAMC, Cincinnati VAMC, Chalmers P. Wylie Columbus VAMC, Dayton VAMC, and Chillicothe VAMC. Caregivers of veterans enrolled at any of these systems can access three federal VA programs.

Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC)

PCAFC is the most generous federal caregiver benefit in the country. The 2026 monthly stipend starts from the OPM General Schedule GS-4, step 1 annual rate for the veteran's locality, divided by 12, and that base is then multiplied by a factor set at 38 CFR 71.40(c)(4)(i). Which factor applies turns on how the veteran qualifies, not on one single VA determination:6

• Current program (the veteran meets the criteria at 38 CFR 71.20(a)): the factor is 0.625, or 1.00 if VA determines the veteran is "unable to self-sustain in the community."
• Legacy participant or legacy applicant (71.20(b) or (c)): the factor is set instead by the sum of the veteran's 2019 clinical ratings, at 1.00 for a sum of 21 or more, 0.625 for 13 through 20, and 0.25 for 1 through 12. No "unable to self-sustain" determination is required on this route, so a legacy household with a high rating sum reaches the full 1.00 factor on the ratings alone.
• Qualifying both ways: a caregiver who meets both sets of criteria is paid at whichever of the two factors is higher.
• The legacy floor: the caregiver of a legacy participant under 71.20(b) cannot be paid less than the amount they were eligible for the day before October 1, 2020, for as long as the veteran stays at the address VA has on record.

The legacy apparatus lapses on October 1, 2028. Contact your VA Caregiver Support Coordinator for the current Ohio locality rate. The program also includes CHAMPVA health coverage, mental health counseling, respite, and travel benefits. Eligibility (post-PACT Act, all eras): veteran with 70%+ service-connected disability, in need of 6+ months of in-person personal care, and an in-home eligible family caregiver.6

VA Veteran-Directed Care (VDC)

VDC is the VA's consumer-direction program, run in partnership with the local AAA. The veteran receives a monthly budget to hire family caregivers (spouses generally excluded), purchase supplies, and arrange respite. Cincinnati VAMC partners with Council on Aging of Southwestern Ohio; Dayton VAMC partners with AAA PSA 2; Cleveland VAMC partners with Western Reserve AAA. Ask your VAMC social worker.

VA Aid and Attendance

Aid and Attendance is a pension supplement (not a stipend) paid directly to the veteran or surviving spouse to help cover the cost of care. Net worth limit $163,699 applies; confirm current 2026 Maximum Annual Pension Rates at VA.gov. Apply through your County Veterans Service Commission, every Ohio county has one, never pay a "pension consultant."10

Ohio Department of Veterans Services and Ohio Veterans Homes

The Ohio Department of Veterans Services coordinates state-level veteran benefits and operates two Ohio Veterans Homes (Sandusky and Georgetown) with skilled nursing and domiciliary beds for Ohio-resident veterans. State benefits include emergency financial assistance through the County Veterans Service Commission and the Veterans Bonus program.

VA Caregiver Support Line and coordinators

The federal VA Caregiver Support Line is 1-855-260-3274, Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET, Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.4 Each VAMC also has a Caregiver Support Coordinator who is the right local point of contact for PCAFC applications and VDC enrollment.

Ohio legislation and estate recovery

Two caregiver-specific bills are pending in the 136th General Assembly as of May 2026. Neither has been enacted; do not plan around either, but watch the 2026 session. Estate recovery, at the end of this section, is the opposite case: it is settled Ohio law, and it is worth planning around now.

HB 279 / SB 205, Family Caregiver Tax Credit

A non-refundable Ohio state income tax credit for qualifying caregiving expenses. Eligibility criteria, expense categories, and credit amounts are defined in each bill.

• HB 279 is in House Ways and Means Committee.
• SB 205 is in Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Both bills are pending as of May 2026 and have not been enacted.

What Ohio has NOT enacted

The 136th General Assembly has not passed a broad paid-family-caregiver expansion of the kind some other states have adopted. Ohio's paid-spouse pathway remains the narrower conditional rule at OAC 5160-44-32. Ohio also has no state-paid family medical leave statute.1

Ohio Medicaid estate recovery, and its limits

Ohio elects expanded Medicaid estate recovery, which is worth understanding before you sign a personal services contract or move into a parent's home. After death, the Ohio Attorney General, acting on behalf of the Ohio Department of Medicaid, seeks recovery of all Medicaid benefits correctly paid, including managed care capitation payments, from the estate of a person who was permanently institutionalized at any age, or who was age 55 or older and not permanently institutionalized (OAC 5160:1-2-07(C)). The "estate" Ohio reaches is broader than the probate estate: it also covers property that passed to a survivor or heir by joint tenancy, tenancy in common, survivorship, life estate, or living trust (ORC 5162.21(A)(1)), an expansion federal law leaves to state option.11

That is the breadth. The limits that ride with it are the part families never hear, and more than one of them protects exactly the person reading this guide.

• Medicare Savings Program help is not recoverable. On the age-55-or-older track, recovery excludes benefits paid on or after January 1, 2010 under Ohio's Medicare premium assistance programs, meaning QMB, SLMB, and QI (OAC 5160:1-2-07(C)(2)). Federal law carves out the same Medicare cost-sharing at 42 U.S.C. 1396p(b)(1)(B)(ii). On that track, recovery also reaches only benefits paid after the person turned 55.
• An adult child who kept a parent out of a nursing home can block recovery against the home. Where recovery is sought against a permanently institutionalized person, no recovery may be made against the home while a son or daughter lawfully resides there who provided care that delayed the institutionalization, resided in the home for at least two years immediately before admission, and has resided there continuously since. You document it with a level-of-care assessment, the attending physician's statement, and supporting care records (ORC 5162.21(C)(2); OAC 5160:1-2-07(D)(3)).
• A resident sibling is protected by residence alone. That same bar applies while a sibling lawfully resides in the home who resided there for at least one year immediately before admission and continuously since. The recovery bar asks nothing about whether that sibling owns any share of the home. An equity interest is required only for the separate pre-death lien bar at ORC 5162.211(C)(3), so a sibling who lived in the home without ever holding an ownership stake is not left unprotected here.
• There is an undue hardship waiver, and it runs on a 30-day clock. ODM's director may waive recovery case by case where there are compelling circumstances, and an heir, a potential heir, or a person with an interest in the estate's assets may request that waiver within thirty calendar days after the Attorney General's office mails notice of the estate recovery claim (ORC 5162.21(E); OAC 5160:1-2-07(H) and (I)). The window is short, so open the mail.
• A non-liquid asset does not have to be sold to satisfy the claim. When the person responsible for the estate asks to pay without selling it, the Attorney General's office may establish a payment schedule, a promissory note, or a lien instead (OAC 5160:1-2-07(F)). Separately, if your family member used a qualified state long-term care partnership policy, the resource amount disregarded when eligibility was determined is disregarded again during estate recovery (OAC 5160:1-2-07(G)(1)).

Know which of these is a delay and which is an ending, because families plan around the wrong one. A surviving spouse, and a surviving child who is under 21 or blind or permanently and totally disabled, defer recovery rather than cancel it: recovery may be sought only after the surviving spouse's death, and the child protection ends when that child turns 21 (OAC 5160:1-2-07(D)). The two home protections above hold only while that adult child or sibling still lawfully resides in the home. The one genuine extinguishment in the statute is narrow and applies to a pre-death Medicaid lien, which dissolves on the recipient's discharge from the institution and return home (ORC 5162.211(E)).11

If you are paying yourself as a family caregiver under a personal services contract, estate recovery is the back-end risk to plan around with an elder-law attorney, and these limits are what a good one will work with.

A quick note on taxes

Two tax facts shape what your caregiver compensation actually looks like at the end of the year.

Ohio moved to a flat income tax, effective January 1, 2026

For tax year 2026, Ohio is scheduled to move to a flat 2.75 percent income tax on income above $26,050, with no tax on the first $26,050. For caregivers paid as W-2 employees through a fiscal management service, Ohio income tax withholding will reflect the flat rate starting with the 2026 tax year. Confirm the current rate and bracket details at the Ohio Department of Taxation or with a tax preparer familiar with Ohio law.12

IRS Notice 2014-7 difficulty-of-care exclusion still flows through

Ohio is a federal AGI conformity state, IT-1040 starts from federal adjusted gross income, then applies Ohio adjustments. Because IRS Notice 2014-7 excludes qualified Medicaid waiver payments to live-in caregivers from federal gross income, those payments never enter federal AGI in the first place, and they never enter Ohio AGI either. No additional Ohio adjustment is required.

This is a meaningful tax break for live-in family caregivers paid through PASSPORT, OHCW, MyCare, or DODD waivers, but only if the federal conditions are met: the caregiver and the care recipient share the same home as the caregiver's primary residence, and the payments are qualified Medicaid waiver payments under IRC §131. The exclusion does not apply when the care provider maintains a separate home where they regularly reside. Consult a tax preparer familiar with Medicaid waiver caregiver compensation before relying on it.13

No Ohio state caregiver tax credit yet

The pending HB 279 and SB 205 would create a non-refundable Ohio state income tax credit for qualifying caregiving expenses, but as of May 2026 neither bill has been enacted. Ohio does not currently offer a state-level caregiver tax credit. The federal Credit for Caring Act (also pending in Congress) is the federal counterpart.

Common misconceptions

A few things families consistently get wrong about Ohio caregiver programs.

"Medicare covers long-term care." Medicare covers a defined set of post-acute services: up to 100 days of skilled nursing facility care after a qualifying three-day hospital stay, and intermittent home health for homebound beneficiaries who need skilled care. It does not cover ongoing personal care, custodial nursing-home stays, or paid family caregiving. Medicaid does.

"My loved one has too much income for Medicaid." For its long-term care pathways, Ohio uses a Special Income Limit of 300 percent of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) federal benefit rate, which is $2,982 per month in 2026; applicants over that limit route income through a Qualified Income Trust (Miller Trust) to qualify. Talk to your AAA or an elder-law attorney.2

"You cannot pay a spouse in Ohio." Mostly true, but the narrow exception at OAC 5160-44-32 permits spousal employment as a caregiver when no other willing-and-able provider is available, with agency or FMS employment.1

"The ADRN has its own phone number." Ohio's Aging and Disability Resource Network is decentralized through the 12 AAAs. There is no single statewide ADRN line distinct from 1-866-243-5678 (the Ohio Department of Aging's statewide line, which connects you to the Area Agency on Aging serving your community) or your local AAA's intake number.9

"Adult day care is just babysitting." ODA-certified adult day at the Intensive level provides medication administration and nursing oversight; many programs run dementia-specific curricula. It is one of the most effective ways to keep a person at home longer.

Useful phone numbers, all in one place

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The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.