Home Care in Pittsburgh’s East End: Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, and Shadyside

Pittsburgh’s East End — Squirrel Hill, Point Breeze, Shadyside, Regent Square, Swissvale — is home to established neighborhoods with significant populations of older adults aging in homes they’ve lived in for decades. These are communities where families stay, where neighbors know each other, and where the thought of a parent leaving for a nursing facility goes against the grain of how these neighborhoods function.

Home Care in Pittsburgh’s Southwest Zone

Pittsburgh operates in the CHC Southwest Zone, with three MCOs: AmeriHealth Caritas, PA Health & Wellness, and UPMC Community HealthChoices. The same
Participant-Directed Services pathway that works in Philadelphia works here — a family member can be hired and paid as a caregiver through Agency with Choice.

UPMC CHC is the distinctive MCO option in Pittsburgh. For East End families who already receive medical care through UPMC — and many do, given UPMC’s dominance in the Pittsburgh healthcare landscape — having home care services coordinated through the same system can streamline communication between medical providers and home care coordinators.

What We See in the East End

In our experience, Squirrel Hill’s large Jewish community has strong traditions of family-centered elder care, with adult children often living within a few miles of aging parents. PDS aligns naturally with this dynamic. Point Breeze and Homewood border each other with very different demographics but share a common pattern: families providing intensive daily care without knowing compensation is available.

The East End’s hillside terrain and older housing stock — three-story homes with narrow staircases, uneven sidewalks, homes built before accessibility was a consideration — create physical challenges for home care. Home modifications through the CHC care plan (stair rails, grab bars, first-floor bathroom conversions) can address these issues. Raise them during the assessment.

Local Resources

The Allegheny County Area Agency on Aging at (412) 350-5460 serves the East End and all of Allegheny County. The Jewish Family and Community Services in Squirrel Hill provides aging services and caregiver support for the local community. UPMC Senior Services offers programming and referrals relevant to East End families.

Contact CareChoice →Pennsylvania team

Written by Sophia Aloia, Content & SEO Manager | CareChoice