Support Broker and Self-Direction FAQ

A Support Broker helps people who self-direct their OPWDD services with Budget Authority. That includes explaining your options, building your Circle of Support, turning your goals into a self-direction budget, helping you hire and manage staff with your Fiscal Intermediary, and adjusting your plan as your needs change.

Your Care Manager, from a Care Coordination Organization, writes your Life Plan and coordinates all of your services. Your Support Broker focuses on Self-Direction: designing your self-direction budget and helping you run it day to day. The two work together.

Support Brokerage is an OPWDD waiver service funded through Medicaid, so families do not usually pay out of pocket. Brokerage during the start-up phase is funded separately and does not count against your Personal Resource Account. After that, ongoing brokerage is paid from your Self-Direction Budget, and you and your Circle of Support decide how much of the budget to use for it. Your Care Manager can confirm the details for your situation.

People who are eligible for OPWDD services and enrolled in Medicaid and the OPWDD HCBS Waiver can choose Self-Direction. A parent, guardian, or other trusted person can help direct services when needed.

Start with your Care Manager. Tell them you want to self-direct, and they will help you request it and connect you with OPWDD's Self-Direction information. Our step-by-step guide walks through the whole process.

It varies. Eligibility, waiver enrollment, and budget approval can each take weeks to months. Starting early, especially before school services end at age 21, makes a big difference.

Often, yes. With Employer Authority you recruit and hire your own staff, and many people hire someone they already know, including some relatives. There are limits: a parent or legal guardian of an adult generally cannot be paid to provide services, except in extraordinary circumstances approved by OPWDD, and a Live-in Caregiver cannot be related to the person by blood or marriage. Your Support Broker or Care Manager can explain what applies to you.

Yes. You choose your Support Broker, and you can change if the fit is not right. Your Care Manager can help with the switch.

We are based in Clifton Park and focus on Saratoga County and the Capital Region, including Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Warren, Washington, Columbia, and Greene counties.

Not yet. We are preparing to offer Support Brokerage and welcome families and Care Managers to join our interest list now, so we can reach out as soon as we can begin.