Personal Assistance

In Flanders all personal care assistants are employed by the people they assist. 5500 people are queuing to get personal assistance in the Belgian region of Flanders. A little less than 1800 have so far been granted personal budgets to employ their own assistants. There are organizations that provide administrative support and advice for those that want it.

Spain has had a law declaring personal assistance to be a right since 2006, but the law is not applied in practice. Instead there are various pilot projects. Catalonia has two such projects, one at the regional level and one operated by the Independent Living movement in the city of Barcelona.

The experience of two people using a direct payment to employ a Personal Assistant. ‘Direct Payments’ is a generic term used to describe the provision of funds by the State, directly to people with disabilities, for the purpose of purchasing a range of supports and services. These services typically include personal assistance, therapies, and aids and equipment. Direct payments enable people with disabilities to employ individuals, directly or indirectly, to assist them with their everyday tasks.

Arthur Klimchenko lives with his parents in the Russian city of Kaliningrad, he would like to leave home, but says that it is not possible because of his finances and his disability. When personal assistance is described for him, he sees the benefits, but he is also afraid that the assistants would decide over him, because of how persons with disabilities are viewed in Russia. He is also afraid that many disabled would stop doing what they are capable of doing and just exist, eating and sleeping.

In Kaliningrad there are no home help services, people who need practical help but cannot get help from relatives or friends live in institutions. Sergey Kiselev, Chairman of the Apparel would like to see personal assistance introduced in Russia.

In most European countries the most common assistance for people with disabilities is provided by relatives, we can easily understand that this system has weaknesses. The trustful relationship makes it work but : -family members, especially parents, are getting old and can't help eternally their child or relative with disabilities -children that help a parent with disability have to handle with too much important responsibilities and too young -relationship partners can't sacrifice their career for the other and can't fear to sign for a life-long 24hour job -assistance with filial feelings most of the time leads to unequal relation -hiring external assistants is considered as an abandonment if relatives worked before as assistants