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Adult, Family and Children's Services
Services Focused on Assisting Adults, Families and Children
The Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Department of Social Services offers several programs and services which assist adults, families and children.
For programs and services which more specifically assist individuals and families to meet their financial and basic needs, visit the Financial and Basic Needs Assistance page. For housing assistance, visit the Housing Assistance page.
Adoption Programs
Adoption programs focus on providing permanent homes for those children in the custody of the agency who are unable to be reunited with their birth families and whose parents' parental rights have been terminated by the court. The program provides supervision and complete home studies, when ordered by the court, in stepparent and parental placement adoptions. Social Services partners with the Children's Home Society is a local adoption agency, who recruits, trains and completes home studies for prospective adoptive parents. For additional information, please call 804-748-1100 and ask to speak to a permanency supervisor.
Adoption Searches
Social Services also conducts searches on behalf of adult adoptees, over the age of 18, whose adoption was finalized in Chesterfield County or the City of Colonial Heights. These searches are initiated upon the submission of an application for disclosure to the Virginia Department of Social Services. For further information, please call:
- Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Social Services: 804-748-1100, ask to speak to a permanency supervisor
- Virginia Department of Social Services: 800-552-3431 (toll-free) or 804-726-7000
Resources
Adult Protective Services
The Adult Services team provides a variety of supportive services designed to empower our customers to achieve their full potential. Medicaid is a resource to assist with nursing home and community-based care costs.
Investigative Services
Adult Protective Services provides investigative services to:
- Individuals age 60 and older
- Incapacitated persons age 18 and older who are at risk or have alleged to be abused, neglected or exploited
Examples of abuse, neglect and exploitation include but are not limited to:
- An adult who is physically restrained as a means of punishment or for the convenience of the caregiver
- The caregiver or person responsible for managing the adult's finances uses the money for his or her own purposes without the consent of the adult
- A caretaker who refuses to or fails to take the adult to a medical appointment
- Causing intentional pain or injury
- Emotional abuse such as yelling, belittling, or threatening bodily harm
- Sexual abuse, which includes any form of sexual contact (intercourse, exposing body parts, touching, etc.) without consent
- Withholding or failing to provide medication, food or water
Guardianships and Conservatorships
The purpose of guardianships and/or conservatorships is to protect incapacitated persons or their assets from abuse, neglect or exploitation. These services are for persons who lack the capacity to make decisions concerning their health and well-being.
Report Suspected Abuse
Please call 804-748-1100 from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and select option 5 for Adult Protective Services. After hours, or on weekends or holidays, please call the Virginia Department of Social Services State Hotline at 888-832-3858. Please note that reports may be made anonymously.
Christmas Mother Program
The Chesterfield-Colonial Christmas is a program designed to assist families in need over the holiday season. Please visit the Christmas Mother program website for more details regarding applying for assistance, upcoming events and ways to help.
Child Protective Services
The goal of Child Protective Services (CPS) is to identify, assess and provide services to children and families in an effort to protect children, preserve families whenever possible, and prevent further maltreatment. Local departments of social services are responsible for:
- Conducting investigations to determine the validity of the CPS reports
- Preventing further abuse and neglect to families and children
- Providing services that enhance child safety
- Receiving reports of abuse and neglect
Make a Report
Reports can be made to the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, by calling 800-552-7096 or 804-786-8536.
Companion Services
Companion Services is a program available to income eligible elderly and disabled adults who need help with basic daily living activities such as light housekeeping, meal preparation, medication monitoring and shopping.
Foster Care and Resource Parents
The Foster Care Program provides for the temporary placement and supervision of a child or children placed in the custody of this agency by the court. While in foster care, a social worker will work together with the child or children’s family to address the family’s needs that brought the child or children into foster care. It is the goal of the Foster Care Program to provide permanency to children by:
- Adoption or independent living, for older youth
- Placement with an appropriate relative
- Returning the child or children to the parent or prior custodian
Family services specialist recruits, trains and approves resource foster homes for temporary placement of children placed in the custody of Social Services.
For additional information, contact the program supervisors at 804-717-6826.
Become a Foster or Resource Parent
We believe in the power of family and community. The need for resource homes is ongoing and especially needed are foster resource parents for siblings (pairs and groups), teens and older children. Stay-at-home parents are also very beneficial.
Resource parents provide a safe, alternate family care to children temporarily placed outside their home as a result of abuse, neglect or serious family problems. Requirements to become a resource parent include:
- Must be at least 21
- Must be able to provide a safe, secure, structured, happy home
- Have sufficient income to meet their own needs
- Commit to meeting the individual needs of children
- Be willing to work in partnership with children, birth parents and our agency to provide permanency to children
- Complete PRIDE training
- Complete a mutual family assessment (home study process which provides an opportunity for the worker and family to decide if becoming a foster, adoptive or resource provider is a viable option for the family)
To help support resource parents caring for a child in foster care, our resource parents receive:
- A stipend for room, board, clothing and related expenses
- Ongoing training and support including workshops, social events and a foster parent support group
- Occasional respite services for the foster child
- Day care services for working resource parents
- State Medicaid for medical expenses for all foster children
- WIC for infants and toddlers
- Support and contact from the family development specialist
For more information or to become a foster or resource parent, contact the lead family services specialist at 804-717-6212 or begin the inquiry process at Family Match.
Resources
Foster Care Prevention
Senior family services specialists for children and families in need of supportive services provide court ordered assessments, service planning and coordination of services. For more information, please call 804-748-1100 and ask to speak to the coverage worker for family preservation.
Independent Living
The Independent Living program seeks to assist foster care youth between the ages of 14 to 21 years of age by helping them to develop the basic skills needed to move from foster care to independence. For additional information, please call 804-748-1100 and ask to speak to the permanency coverage worker.
Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP)
The Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (CFCIP) ensures federal funding to increase services for youth to achieve self-sufficiency. Youth are either likely to remain in foster care until 18 years of age or are 18 to 21 and need extra support in their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency. Some of the services offered include daily living skills, education and vocational training.
Long Term Care - Adults
Commonwealth Coordinated Care Plus (CCC+) Waiver
The types of services offered include adult day centers, nursing facility, personal care (agency and consumer directed) and program of all-inclusive care for the elderly (PACE). Assessments are provided for those who are age 65 or older, who are disabled adults, who are children who need community-based care or who require 24-hour care in a nursing home facility. Assessments, provided at no cost, are completed by a family services specialist and a health department nurse and are used to determine the individual's medical need for care, including for assisted living facilities.
Adult Day Centers
Adult Day Centers offer a variety of health, social and support services in a day center. These centers offer therapeutic activities, meals and snacks and health screenings. Many also provide transportation. The services and staff vary from center to center. To enroll in Adult Day Centers, participants must choose a center certified by Medicaid. An Adult Day Center list will be provided at the long term services screening.
Nursing Facility
A nursing facility admission may be necessary for those who can’t be cared for at home and need 24-hour care. To compare nursing facilities, please visit the Medicare website.
Personal Care Aides (PCA)
Personal Care Aides (PCA) provide non-medical services in your home. A PCA assists with activities of daily Living skills (ADLS) including bathing, dressing, eating and toileting. A PCA may also provide assistance with instrumental activities of daily living (IADLS) including laundry, light housekeeping and meal preparation.
Personal Care
Personal care can be provided in two ways, agency directed or consumer directed.
Agency directed services are provided by and controlled by an agency of your choice that will hire and train staff to assist an individual who needs services. For agency directed, choose and confirm any agency from the list that will be provided at the long term services screening.
Consumer directed personal attendant services (CDPAS) services are controlled by the client or by someone acting on their behalf. The consumer hires and trains their own personal attendant, supervises services provided and signs off on the timesheets. To use CDPAS, you must choose a facilitator from the list that will be provided at the long term services screening.
Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE)
The program of all-inclusive care for the elderly (PACE) is available to individuals ages 55 or older. PACE provides all necessary health services to participants in their home and at the PACE center. There is one PACE provider in the Greater Richmond Area. Services may include in-home support, meals, medical and specialist visits, occupational therapy, personal care, pharmacy, physical therapy, social activities, and social work.
Applying for CCC+ Waiver
Step 1 - Apply for Medicaid
Apply for Medicaid by contacting CommonHelp (855-635-4370) or CoverVA (855-242-8282). If you already have Medicaid (any type), you do not need to re-apply. Make sure your Medicaid worker is aware of your approval.
Step 2 - Request Screening
To request a screening, call Social Services at 804-748-1100 and select option 5 for Adult Services and Adult Protective Services, Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Step 3 - Decision Letter
You will receive a decision letter approximately 10 to 14 business days following your screening.
Step 4 - Choose Provider
Please read the entire decision letter. If you are approved, you will receive a list of providers which will include names and phone numbers for personal care/CD-PAS agencies, adult day health care centers and nursing homes.
You may choose a provider from the list. You may also go to Department of Medical Assistance Services for a complete list of providers. Contact the provider that you chose. Let them know that you have been approved for long term services and supports and that you want to start services. For nursing home placement, ask if there is a “Medicaid funded bed” available.
If you choose PACE, additional information is provided for you to access those services as well.
Step 5 - After Choosing a Provider
The provider of your choice needs to contact the health department at 804-751-4908 to request the uniform assessment instrument (UAI). A faxed request to the health department should be on the provider’s letterhead. Fax the request to 804-706-2016. The UAI is medical information and will only be released to authorized persons.
Beginning Long Term Services and Support
Long Term Services and Support should be started as soon as possible after receiving your letter. Please keep in mind, you must be approved for Medicaid benefits to start receiving care.
If services have not started after six months, an update must be completed by the health department. A telephone update may be scheduled by calling 804-751-4908.
If services have not started after one year, your screening has expired. You no longer have Long Term Care services. If you still want services, a new screening must be requested. You may request a new screening by calling Social Services at 804-748-1100 and selecting option 5 for Adult Services and Adult Protective Services.
If you have started services and will be in the hospital or in rehab for three weeks or more, speak with a hospital case manager, social worker or discharge planner to request a new screening before you are discharged.
Long Term Care - Children
Long term care options and resources for children while on the developmental disabled (DD) waiver list and not eligible for the Commonwealth Coordinated Care Plus (CCC+) waiver include: