What Is IHS in Minnesota? With Training, Without Training and Family Training Explained
If you are searching for disability services in Minnesota, you may see the term “IHS” on a support plan, service authorization, provider website or list of waiver services. The abbreviation stands for Individualized Home Supports. The name sounds straightforward, but families and even experienced professionals can still have questions about what IHS includes, how the service options differ and which option may fit a person’s needs.
Those questions are especially timely. On July 14, 2026, the Minnesota Department of Human Services updated its Individualized Home Supports policy guidance and service-option resource. The update added clarification about the difference between support and training, examples for authorization decisions and guidance about service mixes for people living in their own homes or family homes.
This guide explains IHS in practical language. It is intended to help people receiving services, families, guardians, case managers and referral professionals prepare for more informed conversations. It does not replace a MnCHOICES assessment, an individualized support plan, current Minnesota DHS policy or a
lead agency’s authorization decision.
What Does IHS Mean in Minnesota?
Individualized Home Supports are services that provide support and/or training in covered areas of community living. IHS is available to eligible people who live in their own home or their family’s home.
Services can take place in the person’s home, the family home or community locations used by the general public. Depending on the person’s needs and current requirements, some IHS may also be delivered remotely.
The word “individualized” is important. IHS is not a prewritten list of identical tasks delivered to everyone. The service should connect to assessed needs, authorized outcomes and the person’s preferences. One person may need help maintaining a safe household routine. Another may be learning to use transportation, prepare meals or manage money. Another may need guidance and direct supervision while participating in community activities. A family may need training to support a child or adult consistently at home.
Minnesota authorizes IHS through three service options:
1. IHS without training
2. IHS with training
3. IHS with family training
The options are related, but they are not interchangeable. The correct option depends on the person’s age, living arrangement and whether the primary need is support, training, or support and training involving the family.
IHS Without Training
IHS without training is available to eligible adults or children who need support, assistance and direct supervision while completing covered community living activities. This option is generally appropriate when the person needs help using or maintaining current abilities rather than purposeful instruction to acquire new skills.
Support may include cueing, reminders, guidance, assistance, coordination, skill maintenance or active oversight while the person is engaged in a covered activity. The service should still be connected to an assessed need and an authorized outcome. “Without training” does not mean the service lacks intention or goals. It means formal skill acquisition is not the primary purpose of the authorized service.
For example, a person may already know the steps for preparing a simple meal but need consistent prompts to complete them safely. An adult may understand a weekly routine but need help organizing appointments and following through. A child may need direct supervision and guidance to participate safely in a community activity. Someone may have learned budgeting skills but need ongoing support to use those skills consistently.
In each example, staff support the person in carrying out an activity. They are not simply present in the home, and they are not automatically responsible for every unmet need. The support must fall within a covered IHS category and match what has been assessed and authorized.
IHS With Training
IHS with training is available to eligible adults who need both support and purposeful training in at least one covered community living category. Under the updated Minnesota guidance, support can be part of the service, but training is its primary purpose.
Training involves instruction, practice and skill-building designed to help the person acquire, retain or improve an ability. It should be more structured than simply telling the person what to do or completing the task for them. Staff may demonstrate a skill, break it into manageable steps, provide opportunities to practice, adjust teaching strategies and document progress over time.
Examples of IHS with training may include teaching an adult to:
Plan and prepare several meals safely.
Create and follow a household cleaning routine.
Use a budget and make personal purchases.
Identify community resources and learn how to access them.
Practice pedestrian safety or use transportation options.
Schedule appointments and prepare questions for providers.
Build coping, problem-solving or crisis-prevention skills.
Strengthen communication and self-advocacy.
The pace and method should reflect how the person learns. Some people benefit from visual schedules, checklists, modeling or repetition. Others may learn best through hands-on practice, short sessions or consistent routines. Training should be adapted rather than abandoned simply because the first teaching method does not work.
IHS With Family Training
IHS with family training is available to eligible adults or children who live in their family’s home when the person and/or family needs support and training in a covered community living category. The service can help create consistency between the person’s goals and the strategies used by family members who support daily life.
Like IHS with training, the main purpose is training, although related support may be included. Family training does not mean blaming a caregiver or telling a family how to parent. A respectful provider recognizes that families often hold years of knowledge about the person. The provider’s role is to collaborate, share strategies, practice approaches and help everyone support the person more
consistently.
Examples may include helping a family:
Use a visual routine that supports more independence with daily tasks.
Practice consistent communication strategies.
Support a person in building household or community skills. Recognize early signs of escalation and use agreed-upon positive strategies. Encourage choice and self-advocacy while addressing health and safet Create opportunities for the person to practice skills between staff visits.
Reduce over-support when the person is ready to do more independently.
The person receiving services remains central. Family training should strengthen the person’s outcomes and should be delivered in a culturally responsive, nonjudgmental way.
Support Versus Training: The Most Important IHS Distinction
Minnesota’s July 2026 guidance emphasizes a clearer distinction between support and training.
Support helps a person complete an activity, maintain a skill, remain safe or participate successfully. It can include cueing, guidance, assistance, coordination and direct supervision during a covered activity.
Training is purposeful instruction and practice intended to help a person acquire, retain or improve an ability. Training includes a teaching objective and an approach to skill development.
Consider meal preparation. If a person already understands the steps but needs reminders to turn off the stove, check expiration dates and finish cleanup, IHS without training may be appropriate if the assessed need and plan support it. If the person is learning to plan a meal, identify ingredients, follow a recipe and use appliances safely, IHS with training may be appropriate for an eligible adult. If a child or adult living in the family home and their caregivers are learning strategies to practice those skills consistently, IHS with family training may be considered.
The task can look similar from the outside. The difference is the purpose of the service, the person’s assessed need, who is receiving training and the outcome being pursued.
The Four Community Living Categories Covered by IHS
Minnesota organizes IHS support and training into four broad categories: community participation; health, safety and wellness; household management; and adaptive skills.
Community Participation
Community participation can include support or training related to safely accessing and engaging in the community. Depending on assessed needs, this may involve community mobility, pedestrian safety, using community resources, building informal support networks, communication, socialization, recreation planning or skills connected to transportation needs.
Community participation should be meaningful to the person. Going into the community simply to fill time is not the same as helping a person pursue interests, relationships, responsibilities and goals. The person’s preferences should guide where they go and what they work toward.
Health, Safety and Wellness
This category may include collaboration with the person to arrange health care, mental health services, social services, meaningful activities, meetings and appointments. It can also include authorized cueing, guidance, direct supervision, instruction or training connected to self-care and individualized health, safety and wellness goals.
IHS cannot duplicate eligible Medical Assistance state plan home care services. This matters when a person receives more than one type of support. The case manager, provider and care team should understand which service is responsible for each need so the plan is coordinated and billing is accurate.
Household Management
Household management can include support or training with routine household care, household safety, budgeting, money management, meal planning, nutrition, cooking, healthy lifestyle practices, chores, personal-needs purchasing and certain tenancy-related supports for maintaining the person’s current home.
Staff should work with the person, not automatically take over. If training is authorized, the activity should create opportunities for instruction and practice. If support is authorized, staff should provide the assistance needed while encouraging the person to participate to the extent possible.
Adaptive Skills
Adaptive skills help a person respond to daily demands and increase self-sufficiency. Depending on the plan, this may include problem-solving, sensory or motor development connected to functional abilities, crisis-prevention skills, positive support strategies and skills that reduce challenging behavior by increasing communication, coping or independence.
Positive change is often gradual. A person may need repeated practice across different environments before a skill becomes reliable. Documentation should capture the support provided, the person’s response and information that may help the team adjust strategies.
Who May Be Eligible for IHS in Minnesota?
IHS is generally available through Minnesota’s Brain Injury, Community Alternative Care, Community Access for Disability Inclusion and Developmental Disabilities waiver programs. Eligibility is not based solely on having a diagnosis or wanting help at home.
The person must meet program criteria, live in their own home or their family’s home, have an assessed need that fits IHS and receive authorization through the appropriate lead agency. The IHS provider cannot have a direct or indirect financial interest in the person’s housing.
Age and living arrangement affect which IHS option is available. IHS with training is for adults. IHS without training can be provided to adults or children. IHS with family training can be provided to adults or children living in the family home when the person and/or family needs support and training.
The person’s case manager or care coordinator helps connect assessment information, goals, service options and authorization. Families should not assume that selecting a provider automatically creates funding or approval. The provider can explain its services and availability, but the lead agency determines what is authorized.
What IHS Does Not Automatically Cover
Understanding the boundaries of IHS helps prevent confusion and frustration. IHS is not an unlimited staff-presence benefit. Supervision must be connected to the person actively participating in a covered community living service. IHS is also not intended to duplicate other services, replace staffing required in a residential setting or fill every gap in unpaid supervision.
IHS may not be the correct service when the primary need is routine homemaker work performed for the person, overnight monitoring unrelated to covered IHS activities, respite for the primary caregiver, medical care, transportation as a standalone service or continuous general supervision. Other authorized services may address those needs.
A strong plan clearly identifies why each service is being used. For example, a person may receive IHS for household skill-building, night supervision for assessed overnight needs and respite to provide caregiver relief. Those services should complement one another without duplicating the same activity or time.
What High-Quality IHS Should Look Like
Good IHS is active, individualized and accountable. Staff should understand the person’s plan before delivering services. They should know the person’s goals, communication preferences, health and safety needs, positive support strategies, routines and boundaries. They should arrive prepared and use
scheduled time intentionally.
High-quality IHS should include:
A clear connection between assessed needs, authorized outcomes and staff activities.
Respect for the person’s choices, culture, home and daily routines. Support that encourages participation instead of unnecessary dependence.
Training strategies adapted to the person’s learning style.
Consistent documentation of what occurred and how the person responded.
Communication with the person and authorized members of the support team. Attention to health, safety, rights and dignity.
Honest review when goals, needs, staffing or strategies change.
The provider should also know when to ask for clarification. If the plan is vague, the answer is not to improvise indefinitely. The provider and case manager should work together to define the authorized purpose and expected outcomes.
How Enriching Home Care Services Approaches IHS
At Enriching Home Care Services, we approach IHS as a relationship-based service with measurable purpose. The person’s goals guide the work, but consistency makes progress possible. We want staff to understand both what they are doing and why it matters.
Our team may support eligible people with community participation, household routines, health and safety goals, adaptive skills and other authorized activities. We focus on person-centered strategies, dependable communication and collaboration with case managers, guardians, families and other authorized professionals.
We also recognize that provider fit matters. A schedule on paper is not enough. Staff personality, communication style, reliability, relevant experience and the person’s preferences can affect whether services are successful. During referral review, we look at the requested schedule, location, goals, support intensity, behavioral or medical considerations and current staffing capacity.
If we believe clarification is needed before services begin, we ask. If a person’s needs change, we communicate. If another service appears more appropriate for a particular need, the care team should discuss it rather than forcing the need into IHS.
Questions Families Can Ask During IHS Planning
Before services begin, families and people receiving support may want to ask:
Which IHS option is authorized, and why?
What assessed needs and outcomes will IHS address?
Which activities are support, and which are training?
Where can services occur?
How many hours or units are authorized, and on what schedule?
What other services are part of the plan, and how will duplication be avoided?
How will progress, barriers and changes be documented?
Who should receive routine updates?
What should happen if staff observe a new health or safety concern?
How will the person participate in choosing goals and evaluating services?
These questions create clarity before misunderstandings become service problems.
How to Refer Someone for IHS Services in Minnesota
If a person already has IHS authorized, the case manager, guardian, family or person receiving services can contact potential providers to discuss availability and fit. Helpful referral information includes the authorized IHS option, number of units or hours, desired schedule, service location, goals, support needs, communication preferences, relevant risks and expected start date.
If the person does not yet have IHS authorized, begin with the county, Tribal Nation or managed care professional responsible for assessment and support planning. Minnesota waiver eligibility and service authorization require formal processes that a provider cannot bypass.
Enriching Home Care Services welcomes IHS inquiries from individuals, families, guardians, case managers, social workers and other referral professionals. Our team reviews each referral individually and confirms whether we have the appropriate capacity and staff match.
Frequently Asked Questions About IHS in Minnesota
Is IHS the same as PCA or CFSS?
No. IHS and Medical Assistance state plan home care services such as PCA or CFSS have different purposes, rules and authorization requirements. A person may use more than one service when eligible, but services cannot duplicate the same support.
Can a child receive IHS with training?
Under Minnesota’s current service options, IHS with training is for adults. A child may receive IHS without training or, when living in the family home and the criteria are met, IHS with family training.
Can IHS take place in the community?
Yes. IHS can be provided in the person’s own home, the family home or community spaces used by the general public, as allowed by the person’s plan and current policy.
Can IHS provide general supervision for any reason?
No. Direct supervision under IHS must occur while the person is actively participating in or completing a covered service within a community living category. IHS is not blanket supervision.
Does IHS include transportation?
IHS may include skill-building connected to transportation needs and support with community mobility when authorized. It is not automatically a standalone transportation service. The person’s plan should clarify the authorized activity and any transportation arrangement.
Who decides whether IHS is with or without training?
The lead agency uses assessment information, age, living arrangement, identified needs and service- planning requirements to determine the appropriate option and authorize services.
Can Enriching Home Care Services help me understand a referral?
Yes. Our team can review the service request, explain what information we need and discuss current availability. Formal eligibility and authorization decisions remain with the person’s lead agency.
Sources and Minnesota Resources
Minnesota DHS Individualized Home Supports policy page, updated July 14, 2026
Minnesota DHS service options for Individualized Home Supports, updated July 14, 2026
Minnesota DHS home and community-based service waivers
Enriching Home Care Services
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