People with disabilities may soon have their own personal assistant to support them live an independent life, according to Aġenzija Sapport CEO Oliver Scicluna.
Unlike a home carer, the personal assistant’s recruitment and training would be controlled by the person with the disability – or their guardian, in the case of intellectual disabilities – who would train the assistant according to his or her needs.
Scicluna said that Aġenzija Sapport – the national agency that provides services for people with disabilities – is working on introducing the new concept and moving away from the current system as recommended by the European Network on Independent Living.
As things stand today, the government allocates and pays for carers for eligible people with disabilities.
New concept to help them reach their potential
“Personal assistance is a new concept whereby a person with a disability is given an assistant to help them reach their potential. From basic needs like cleaning their home and shopping for groceries, to assistance in the place of work,” said Scicluna.
At the moment, carers are recruited from agencies that often specialise in elderly care. Personal assistance would be more empowering. It would require the creation of a new job title so that the right people could be recruited through JobsPlus, Malta’s public employment service.
Scicluna noted that people with disabilities who applied for a personal assistant would be assessed to understand if and how frequently they would need this service. They would then be involved in the recruitment and training of the assistant with whom they would have a personal relationship.
This forms part of an overall drive to move towards encouraging independent living.
'Adopting a person-centred approach'
“We are adopting a person-centred approach because the needs of Joey are not the same as Michael’s and this is not because they have different disabilities. Different social backgrounds make a big difference. We have a number of clients who have the same disability but, whereas one has lots of support from a family who believed and pushed him, the other was overprotected by a family who gave up on him.”
These are the barriers that need to be challenged. People with disabilities are not to be overprotected, he said.
“It’s not just about therapies, education and employment… We need to tackle people in a holistic manner. It’s not just about putting a roof over their head but about looking into their social needs, emotional and even sexual needs,” he said adding that the agency was working on programmes focused on sexuality and reproductive rights.
“It’s important that we don’t provide services just to tick a box. We are to offer a good service and this is why we are holding this conference,” he said referring to the conference organised by the agency and the European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities.
Titled Quality of Life and Support Services: From Words to Action it will bring together international experts, service providers and service users to discuss a range of subjects including inclusive socialisation, digital accessibility and the quality measurement of services.
The two-day conference will take place on October 13 and 14 with a pre-conference training workshop on digital accessibility on October 12.