Veteran Directed Care: A VA Program Most Families Haven't Heard Of

We've written about Aid & Attendance and VA respite care already — this is a third, genuinely different VA program, and it's one of the least-known ones out there. If your loved one is at risk of needing nursing home care but wants to stay home, this is worth understanding before that decision gets made by default.

What Veteran Directed Care Actually Is

Veteran Directed Care (VDC), formerly called Veteran-Directed Home and Community Based Services (VD-HCBS), gives an eligible veteran a flexible monthly budget instead of a fixed service package. The veteran — or someone they authorize to act on their behalf — decides what mix of goods and services to spend it on, and hires and manages their own care workers directly. In some cases, that can include paying a family member or friend who's already providing care.

This is a meaningfully different structure than Aid & Attendance, which pays a pension enhancement directly to the veteran with no employer relationship involved. VDC is closer to being the veteran's own small care budget, with support from an assigned options counselor to help set it up.

Who's Eligible

Generally: veterans of any age who are enrolled in VA health care, considered at risk of nursing home placement under VA's criteria, and able to direct their own care (or have someone authorized to do it for them).

It's currently available at select VA medical centers, though the VA has been actively expanding it — adding new sites through 2026 specifically to reduce nursing home placements and support aging at home.

In Utah, this program is active and administered locally — Weber Human Services Aging is one of the agencies coordinating it here, working with referrals from the VA Medical Center.

How It Works Day to Day

A VA Medical Center refers an eligible veteran to a local Aging and Disability Network agency, which assigns an options counselor to help build a care plan and set the monthly budget. From there, the veteran (or their representative) can use those funds to hire caregivers, including potentially family members, and to pay for other services or goods that support living independently — not just personal care hours. Fiscal management support is included, so the veteran isn't handling payroll paperwork alone.

How This Connects to Home Care

We're a non-medical home care agency, and for a veteran using VDC funds who'd rather work with a professional agency than manage individual hires directly, that's exactly the kind of care this program is built to fund.

If you're exploring VDC and want to know whether working with us fits within your specific budget and plan, that's a conversation worth having with your options counselor and with us together — we can tell you what our care looks like; they can tell you what your budget allows.

Our 7th Week Guarantee

No long contracts. If you don't feel the difference after six weeks of care at 20 or more hours a week, your seventh week is free — the same guarantee regardless of how your care is funded.

Get Started

Call us at (801) 401-3515 if you're exploring VDC, Aid & Attendance, or just trying to figure out what VA options exist for your family. We'll help you think through it honestly.

Learn more about our veterans home care services, VA Aid & Attendance, and VA respite care benefits.