PVA Publishes Consumer Guide on Managing Personal Care Assistants
 

The Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) has published a consumer guide giving general advice to those seeking personal care assistants in their home.

Entitled, "Managing Personal Assistants: A Consumer Guide", this guide gives helpful advice on recruiting, hiring, training, keeping and firing personal assistants. It also gives advice on funding sources and tax information, and provides samples of a variety of forms that may be necessary when dealing with personal assistants.

"Personal assistance services for a person with a disability can make the difference between living a full and productive life or merely existing," stated Homer S. Townsend, Jr., PVA national president. "This manual has been designed to help those with a disability, along with their families and friends, to develop and manage a personal assistance service to meet individual needs."

PVA believes it has become increasingly evident that many people requiring help with activities of daily living could benefit from training in how to recruit, hire and manage personal assistants. Very few programs teach these skills, and those usually require that the person with a disability attend formal classes.

"This guide has been designed as a 'how to' book for a person with a disability to learn, at their own pace, the skills to establish and operate a personal assistance program," Townsend said.

"Managing a personal assistance services system is like running a small business," Townsend said. "Most of us receive some on-the-job training to do our work, but there aren't many opportunities to learn the skills it takes to handle personal assistance services needs. Therefore, PVA has created this comprehensive guide."

The manual is available for $11.95 by calling the PVA Distribution Center at (888) 860-7244.

The Paralyzed Veterans of America, a veterans service organization chartered by Congress, has for more than 50 years served the needs of its members, all of whom have catastrophic paralysis caused by spinal cord injury or disease. To find out more about PVA, visit its website at www.pva.org.