For families
Sitters for adults with intellectual/developmental differences
If you care for an adult family member with an intellectual or developmental disability — a sibling, an adult child, a partner — the daily reality is that finding a qualified sitter is harder than it should be. Public programs require qualifying paperwork. National marketplaces assume you are hiring for a kid.
Our sitters include Direct Support Professionals who work with adult IDD clients during the week — at day programs, in residential settings, in supported-employment placements. They know the routines. They know the autonomy questions. They know the difference between offering help and taking over.
What to expect
- Sitters who treat your adult family member as the person they are. The voice is direct. The questions are about today. The answer is whatever your adult family member actually wants.
- Comfort with the routines of adult life with IDD — meals, the show, the puzzle, the time on the porch. Sitters do not push for novelty.
- Realistic about what the booking is for. Sometimes that is companionship while you go to dinner; sometimes it is overseeing a quiet evening while you sleep. The sitter follows your written brief.
- Continuity. Adult IDD bookings work best with a small handful of trusted sitters. Favorite them. The system surfaces favorites first.
What we don't do
- The sitter is sitting, not delivering professional services. They do not run a behavior plan, do not chart sessions, do not perform any task that requires a license they do not have.
- We do not bill Medicaid or the DD Waiver. Cash pay only. If you self-direct your DD Waiver and want to hire one of our sitters through your fiscal agent, that is a private arrangement outside our platform.
- We do not administer prescription medications. The sitter can hand a routine dose to your adult family member per your written house routine, but they do not measure, calculate, or document.
- Full personal-care attendant work — bathing assistance, transfers that require professional training, ongoing wound care — is out of scope. Those tasks belong with a licensed home-health aide.
Booking tips
- Write the day's routine in the profile. Step by step. The sitter follows what you wrote.
- List adaptive equipment by name and model. Sitters who have used it will say so before accepting.
- Tell the sitter how your adult family member prefers to be addressed and which topics are off-limits.
- Favorite the sitters who fit. The right sitter relationship for an adult is a long-term thing.
Common questions
- Do you sit for adults living independently?
- Yes. Many of our IDD bookings are at the adult's own apartment or supported-living residence, with another family member or supervisor present at the start.
- Will the sitter help with personal hygiene tasks?
- Within reason and with your adult family member's consent. Write the routine in the profile. Full personal-care attendant work — daily bathing assistance, ongoing wound care — is the scope of a licensed home-health aide.
- Can the sitter help with medications?
- The sitter can hand a routine dose to your adult family member per your written house-routine instructions, but they do not measure, calculate, or document. For complex medication regimens, an on-call nurse is more appropriate.
- Is this also for adults with autism?
- Yes — there is overlap. See /for-families/adult-autism-sitter for the autism-specific page.
- How is this different from the DD Waiver?
- The DD Waiver is a public program — Medicaid-funded, paperwork-heavy, with specific eligibility. We are private-pay, no insurance, no Medicaid. Many families use both. Our /guides cluster has a longer plain-English comparison.