Consumer Directed Community Support

Consumer Directed Community Support (CDCS) is a service option available to children, adults, and seniors. CDCS gives a person flexibility in service planning and responsibility for self-directing their services, including hiring and managing support workers. CDCS can include traditional waiver services and self-designed goods and services.

Eligibility requirements

Consumer Directed Community Support is a service option available to people who already receive services through, or are eligible, for one of the following home and community-based services (HCBS) programs:

Alternative Care (AC) program
Brain Injury (BI) Waiver
Community Alternative Care (CAC) Waiver
Community Access for Disability Inclusion (CADI) Waiver
Development Disabilities (DD) Waiver
Elderly Waiver (EW)

The person or their legal representative must also:

Be able to direct and purchase their own care and supports or have a designated legal representative to purchase, arrange and coordinate care on their behalf.
Qualify for Medical Assistance or MA-TEFRA to fund the plan. Some traditional waiver services will be billed to the formal waiver and paid by Medical Assistance.
Live in a natural home setting and cannot receives services in a licensed or registered setting such as licensed residential services, foster care, and housing-with-services registered by the Minnesota Department of Health.

A person is NOT eligible for the program in any of the following scenarios:

The person or their legal representative is on the Minnesota Restricted Recipient Program. The person is not allowed to use Consumer Directed Consumer Support while in this program. Search the U.S. Office of Inspector General Exclusions Database to verify eligibility.
Exits the waiver or Alternative Care program more than once during the service plan year.

Online orientation

The Department of Human Services designed the online learning module CDCS: Is it right for you?. This course is for people who receive services or are interested in learning how to self-direct their services through CDCS. The course is intended to help people on waivers or Alternative Care (AC) understand this service option and decide whether it's right for them.

Prior to starting the program, a participant or managing party must complete orientation.

You can also leave a voice mail at 651-554-6485. Please leave the following information in your voice mail:

Your first and last name
Phone number
Email address
Name of person eligible for CDCS
Birthdate of eligible participant
Case manager's name

How the amount of support is determined

For the Community Alternative Care, Community Alternatives for Disabled Individuals, Traumatic Brain Injury, Elder Waiver or Alternative Care waiver, the amount of support is based on the most recent long-term care consultation or reassessment. For Developmental Disability, the budget is based on the most recent full team screening.

Developing a plan

One Consumer Directed Community Support (CDCS) the person is responsible to:

Select a financial management services (FMS) provider
Develop their CDCS Community Support Plan
Select their support workers and service providers
Submit the completed CDCS Community Support Plan to the county

If the person needs help in writing the support plan, they can choose to:

Spend some of their CDCS budget to hire a certified support planner who can help them write the plan

A certified support planner can be found by searching “Support Planner" at Minnesota Aging and Disability and in the Support Planner Directory.

Receive guidance from their county case manager

What funds can be used for

For goods and services to be approved on Consumer Directed Community Support (CDCS), they must:

Be for the direct benefit of the person
Be included in the person’s CDCS Community Support Plan
Be necessary to meet one of the person’s assessed needs
Be related to the person’s disability and/or condition (Brain Injury, Community Alternative Care, Community Access for Disability Inclusion, and Development Disabilities only)

For questions regarding this program, send a question to Social Services or contact Team C at 651-554-6000. Interpreters are available.

For more detailed information about the program, go to the Minnesota Department of Human Services website.