Protection & Advocacy, Inc.

Advancing the rights of Californians with disabilities

 

 LEGISLATION &
PUBLIC INFORMATION UNIT
1029 J Street, Suite 150
Sacramento CA 95814
Telephone: (916) 497-0331
Fax: (916) 497-0813
www.pai-ca.org


Personal Assistance Principles

Amended 12/6/2003

These principles cover all forms of personal assistance from all sources including but not limited to California's In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) and Personal Care Services (PCS), attendant care services funded through regional centers, and home health aide services through home health agencies.

  1. Persons with disabilities, including children and seniors, have the right to receive services in the most integrated setting possible, in a manner which maximizes their personal autonomy and independence. This means that:

a) Persons who need personal assistance shall have the right to select, hire, fire and direct a personal assistant. Regardless of what other alternative delivery systems may be available, persons with disabilities have the right to receive services via personal assistance providers where the consumer is the employer or joint employer.

b) Consumers shall have the right to maximum flexibility in managing their services, including participating, if eligible, in programs such as "Cash and Counseling" or Advance Pay. These programs allow consumers to pay providers themselves, assuming the consumer is capable, with or without assistance, of handling her own legal or financial affairs. Such programs give the consumer needed flexibility in managing personal assistance services.

c) Personal assistance services should be available to the person with the disability wherever he or she may be during the day – home, day program, school and work.

d) Personal assistance services should be delivered using the social model versus the medical model approach.

e) Personal assistance services should available to a parent with a disability to assist him or her with parenting tasks such as feeding and diapering.

  1. Persons with disabilities shall have the option of help in the administration and management of personal assistance providers, including care management services and help in recruiting, screening and training. Consumers and others should have a means for reporting abuse or problem situations. Such training or management assistance or complaint processes shall be independent of any agency actually delivering personal assistance services.

  2. Personal assistance shall be an equally available alternative to all levels of out-of-home care. Home-based care should be the norm or default; out of home care the exception, provided only when the consumer chooses it. Consumers shall retain the right to opt for in-home care, regardless of where their care is currently received.

    3. The current scope of services in the IHSS and PCS program shall not be reduced and efforts will be made to expand those services in areas relevant to the needs of persons with disabilities including but not limited to psychiatric disabilities, developmental disabilities, traumatic brain injury and sensory disabilities including low vision and blindness, who wish to live independently. Allotment of personal services should be based on functional assessments and actual needs, not on assumptions or stereotypes about disabilities.

  3. Eligibility determinations and assessments for personal assistance need shall be performed by entities other than those who are delivering personal assistance services. Counties or other entities performing assessments to determine level of need for personal assistance shall not have financial incentives to deny types of services or benefit financially if persons with disabilities receive services out of their homes.

  4. To insure stability in personal assistance services programs and to avoid inappropriate or unwanted out-of-home placement, funding needs to be secure. Every effort should be taken to maximize federal funding when doing so does not adversely affect consumers' personal autonomy rights and scope of program benefits.

  5. Delivery of personal assistance services by family members -- and particularly family members who have been excluded from the regular workforce because of the disabled family member's care needs -- has been key to enabling persons with disabilities to remain in their own home. Every effort should be made to maintain the option for family members to be the provider of personal assistance services.

  6. Persons with disabilities have a right to hire from a competent and stable workforce of personal assistants. The compensation for personal assistants should be sufficient to develop and sustain such a workforce.

  7. Any personal assistance program should insure the involvement of consumers and their family members in determining program policy and should have a built-in mechanism for communicating with consumers.

  8. Administration of personal assistance programs should be culturally and linguistically responsive to the diversity of persons with disabilities who need personal assistance.

 
PAI #1007.01                      

Adopted 5/21/1994, Amended 12/6/2003