Find answers to many Step By Step Care frequently asked questions below:

1. What are Community Support Services?
2. How much do the services cost?
3. Can you work with my child at his/her school?
4. Do you offer Community Support Services to Adults too?
5. How do I sign someone up for services?
6. Can I decide how much time the worker spends providing services?

1. What are Community Support Services?
A community based rehabilitative service that provides interventions necessary to treat individuals who have been diagnosed as having a mental health, behavioral and/or substance abuse illness. The fundamentals of services are to establish individualized goals and work with the individual on a one-on-one basis within the home, school and/or community. These goals will be established based on the diagnostic and clinical needs of the person and put into a Person Centered Plan. This individualized plan will define and address the best ways in which to assist the individual, as well as his/her parents/guardians and/or other caregivers, with helping the individual build resiliency, skills and coping mechanisms needed to live a more fulfilled life.

2. How much do the services cost?
Services we provide to children and their family are of no charge to them, however, the agency does file a claim through their insurance for reimbursement for services fees. Therefore, active NC Medicaid or Healthchoice insurance is required to be eligible for our services.

3. Can you work with my child at his/her school?
Yes. Community Support services can be provided for a child at his/her school if it has been deemed medically necessary and documented in the child’s Person Centered Plan and determined to be in the best interest of the child by the child’s parent/guardian, school officials, and any other professional supports that have assessed the child’s individual needs. However, Community Support can only provide minimum services in a school environment due to the fact that schools generally offer similar services themselves. Your child’s Community Support clinical team will make every effort to work with school officials in order to provide your child the best care possible.

4. Do you offer Community Support Services to adults too?
Yes. Step By Step Care, Inc. is endorsed to provide Community Support services to children and adults. SBS also provides Individual, Family and Group Outpatient Therapy services and they are available to both children and adults.

5. How do I sign someone up for services?
Any person may make a referral for themselves or someone they are legally or professionally responsible for. Referrals may be phoned in to our office, at which time general information about the individual being referred, will be gathered and an Intake Screening will be conducted. If deemed necessary based on the information provided, an appointment will be scheduled for the individual to obtain a clinical assessment by a Licensed Therapist to establish eligibility for services.

6. Can I decide how much time the worker spends providing services?
No. Once an individual has been determined eligible for the service, a Person Centered Plan is developed based on their individual needs. That plan along with a request to provide services, is then forwarded to a state contracted agency, who then makes the approval decision for services, based on medical necessity. If services are approved by the state contracting agency, they will then authorize a select number of units, or hours in which Step By Step may deliver services, within a specific time period. Once that time period has elapsed and/or all units or hours used, a new request for service must then be submitted and additional information provided to establish need for continued services. The maximum time usually allowed to provide services to a child is up to 8 hours per day and up to 32 hours in a week and up to 4 hours per day for an adult and 16 hours in a week.