Living with MS
Help at home with multiple sclerosis
MS does not hold still. Support that only works on your good weeks is not support — it has to hold up on the bad ones too.
Most people are diagnosed with MS between twenty and fifty. That is the detail that shapes everything on this page: you are probably working, probably raising a family, and almost certainly have been told that home care programs are for older people. For two Pennsylvania programs, the opposite is true.
What help usually looks like
What is needed varies enormously between people and, in the same person, between one month and the next. Common ones:
- Mornings. When fatigue and stiffness are worst, and when the whole day can be lost to getting washed and dressed.
- Safety with mobility. Especially when balance or vision is affected during a relapse.
- Meals and household work — the things that quietly consume the energy you wanted to spend on something else.
- Heat management. Many people with MS get noticeably worse when overheated, and a caregiver who understands that plans the day around it rather than pushing through.
- Transportation to infusions and appointments, particularly when driving is not safe that week.
- Extra help during a relapse, scaled back when it passes.
Energy is the currency. The point of good help with MS is not that someone else can do the task — it is that you keep the energy you would have spent on it, and spend it on your work, your kids, or simply on not being exhausted at four in the afternoon.
Care that changes with the disease
Because MS moves in relapses and remissions, a fixed schedule set in January is often wrong by June. We plan for that: hours can go up during a relapse and back down afterwards, without starting the whole arrangement over.
Our twenty-hours-a-week minimum is about keeping one consistent caregiver rather than a rotation. If your needs sit below that between relapses, tell us at the assessment and we will be straight with you about whether we are the right fit or whether you would be better served elsewhere.
Who pays
If you are between 18 and 59 — which covers most people living with MS — two Pennsylvania programs may apply:
- Act 150 — state-funded, for a physical disability diagnosed by a physician and expected to last at least twelve months, where income is too high for Medicaid. A sliding weekly fee, capped at the cost of services. Details.
- The OBRA waiver — a Medicaid waiver for a severe physical disability requiring an intermediate care level of support. Details.
Enrollment for both starts with the Independent Enrollment Broker: 1-877-550-4227. If there is long-term care insurance or the person is a Veteran, those are separate routes worth checking — see our guide to paying for home care.
A family member may be able to be paid
If your sister, your adult child or a close friend has been picking up the slack for years, that can potentially become paid, trained work through the same programs. Not a spouse, legal guardian or power of attorney — but most other relationships qualify.
Working with us
One caregiver, not a rotation. English, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian and Farsi. Serving Lehigh, Northampton and Monroe counties — Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, Stroudsburg and the surrounding towns.
Call 610-466-5715 and tell us what a bad week looks like. That is the week we plan around.