What Covid Has Taught Me About Hiring Personal Care Attendants

It's been a most unusual season as most of you know. are. For me, it has been in the area of obtaining care to assist with my every day life. If you are new here, I was born with Spinal muscular atrophy and have used a wheelchair for about 40 years. As well, I  have been a  self manager of my Personal Care Attendants for twenty five plus years. My husband lives with a physical disability as well and he helps me wherever he can. Getting in and out of bed is one area I require the assistance of others. Hiring Attendants during a world wide pandemic has taught me some important things. Watch my below as I share my midnight thoughts...

Watch Below 

Living Independently At Any Age

Hi guys! Hope you are all having a great weekend! I just want to share this with anyone who wants to

know about Self Directed Care or about being a "Self Manager" of your own personal care attendants or Personal Care Assistants. For about twenty years I have been blessed with being able to hire and

Illustration of me,  by me :o), Anita Harris Berglund

manage my own, thanks to the program in the video below about the program in Ontario, Canada.
Click here to see a previous article about my personal experience hiring and managing my own care.

There are programs available in some countries that have such services to enable independent living. It is perfect for those of us who want to have a say in who enters our home to provide care and assistance and who do not mind carrying out the administrative aspects. In fact to be a self manager under the Ontario D/F program, the applicant must be able to recruit, hire, train and administrate their own employees.

Watch Below: Direct Funding - Ontario, Canada

Prior to hiring my own PCAs, I was enabled to live independently in an S.S.L.U. apartment building for eleven years. That may be an option for you or someone you care about. Support Service Living Unit means, there were on site 24hour PCAs. When I needed a hand, I just phoned. Emergencies
were answered to with a paging system. Now it means possibly waiting because they work for all who require their assistance. It worked adequately early on. I was thankful to be able to live on my own. Only trouble, not all PCAs are kind, caring, respectful and compassionate. But if you needed a hand say to go to the washroom, and someone who may cause discomfort or uneasiness is working, you have to press through it or hold "it" in. And that isn't good for your body.  Until the Ministry of Health developed Direct Funding, it was my only way to live alone.

There are people who have insurance settlements from accidents and such or plans that enable them to hire and manage their own care. In Canada we can receive tax credits/deductions for any funds used to hire someone to assist with daily living.

Then in many places as in Ontario, there are agencies that offer homecare assistance. You may not get to choose or even know who will be coming into your bedroom in the morning to help you up, but, it is better than being stuck in a hospital. We have met friends who had to live in a hospital for a year or two after rehabilitation from an injury or life altering illness, waiting for a wheelchair accessible apartment/home.

The Aging Population and Independent Living
Because of the Baby Boomer population, there is a high population of dear citizens who are entering stages of life when they require more physical assistance. Without assistance, it may be too dangerous or just physically impossible to live alone. Many of us have spouses and family/friends who lend a loving hand to enable aging and residing our home. However some do not and they want to live out their life in their own home and not a home for the aged.
What is Available for Me?

 If you are getting older, like my husband. Our Province (an maybe where you reside) does have

There're always dear little friends 

who lend a hand!

agencies that provide in home care services. CCAC, Community Care Access is the one stop "Shopping" for receiving assistance. If you aren't sure, Please check with your family Doctor what options are available.
My Mom just informed us that we apparently can call Red Cross to have volunteers come to shovel our snow for seniors. We will be calling to check on that service.
What If I Need Nursing Care?
If you require care that only can be administered by a medical facility than please follow your physician's care plan for you. However, if you are able to have you health issues managed at home,  there are places where in home nurses are available. Depending on your preferences and needs. Personally, if I had healthcare needs such as medication administered or a wound cleaned and dressed,  I would simply train my own PCAs to provide that care. However exercising discretion and wisdom to seek out medical professionals if my situation had no other choice.

If you have any questions please comment below or email us at walkingwayoverrated@gmail.com
Hope this was helpful :o)

MY PERSONAL CARE ATTENDANT ADVERTISEMENT

drawing by me, Anita - That is supposed
to be me hanging in the hoyer lift.

For about 20 years now, due to my physical disability, I have been a Direct Funding,  Self Manager. Hiring and training people without and with, previous experience to be my “arms and legs,” Personal Care Attendants, giving me a hand with the physical aspects of daily living.

 

What I require help with is getting into and out of bed, getting dressed, transferring to my wheelchair with a mechanical lift, range of motion physio (training provided), assistance with personal care, hygiene, various aspects of housekeeping, yard work, errands and other tasks as needed.

 

If you are interested in knowing more about the PCA position in Thunder Bay, (for me) just click the video above to learn more. :o)

REQUIREMENTS

-Be willing to be trained 

- Able to follow detailed directions well.

-Be a non-smoker (I am severely allergic)

-Because I am a female, I prefer female PCAs

-Must have valid drivers license, vehicle

-If no vehicle, must live very close to Dufferin Street, Thunder Bay

-Must be physically strong, caring, flexible, trustworthy and understanding.

Due to the personal nature of a PCA, thought it would help if those interested wanted to know more about the position and me, the person in need of a hand. I have had some PCAs work for us as long as 8 years! It is a great job for someone who is seeking something with short shifts to work around another position, classes or make some extra money and receive great pay, $19.00 an hour. 

ON THE JOB TRAINING

Applicants, don't require any diplomas or certificates. What matters most to me (aside from the basic requirements) is someone who wants meaningful employment, willing to be trained on the job, is caring, and able to follow directions. Without the assistance from my PCAs, I wouldn't be able to go to or get out of bed. Super important role.

INDEPENDENT LIVING: Becoming A Self Manager Of My Own Care

A Work in progress, my unfinished drawing of me and 

one of my great my Personal care assistants! 

by Anita Harris Berglund

If you follow WWO at all, you would know that I hire my own personal care assistants. Some other titles for this position that I am familiar with are Personal Care Attendants or Personal Support Worker.
Big Decisions To Be Made
It has been about twenty whole years since I was blessed, when our Ontario government decided to begin a pilot project to enable folks like myself, to be able to hire and self manage our own personal care.
Initially, our entire province began with only 80 recipients. I got to be on the interviewing committee that was to select Direct Funding applicants from my region of the province. The main qualification was and is, that you are able to manage and direct your own employees.Direct Funding covers the administrative expenses such as hiring bookkeepers if we choose to not do our own bookkeeping, and other related costs.
To also interview, an administrator from the then pilot project came to our northern Ontario community, along with some other admin folks and "consumers" like me, and we met together for three days (if I remember correctly) in a row.
On My Own
At that point, I had lived in what is called a Support Service Living Unit. What is that you ask? When I was seventeen, I was able to move into my first fully wheelchair accessible bachelor style apartment,  where there were Personal Care Assistants in an office, on site, 24 hours a day. It was a thrill to be able to live on my own, after spending six years in an 18 bed residential institution for children with physical disabilities. It was fun for year one, but as I matured into a "cool" teenager :o) doing my own thing reigned supreme. What 17 year old wouldn't want to live all on their own! Well it mattered to me.
The guys who had lobbied and fundraised, to build and manage the first SSLU in Canada, allowed me to move in a year under the "legal" age in good faith. I was only seventeen and in grade twelve. I will never forget how wonderful and free I felt my first day in my own apartment, all on my own! Wish I could say I was on my best behaviour. Freedom came at a price and to make a really long story short, Jesus Christ saved my life from self destruction. But that is another story for another day.

A favourite PCA I got to work with when I lived in Winnipeg,
Canada for a college internship in 1990ish.

So to be clear, an SSLU is a wheelchair accessible apartment unit that has 24 hour personal care assistants on site for a number of tenants living with physical disabilities. We are assessed according to levels of care needed and then the number of employees working at one time was assessed accordingly. Sadly I have heard about funding cuts and present tenants are not getting the care they would like, when they would like it. As with all not for profit, government funded organizations, budgets are tight and must be followed. To me, it was better to have to wait for someone, living independently,  than to live in the institution I had been or live at home with my folks. I love them, but at seventeen I thought I knew it all and wanted to be on my own as soon as possible.
Do I? Don't I?
During the Direct Funding interviewing applicants time, I was asked if I wanted to apply for myself. Because I had been so use to being able to access assistance fairly fast if I had say, a bathroom emergency, I was too nervous to say yes. So, initially I said no. As the three days passed, I changed my mind a couple of times and ended up submitting my application. (Did I tell you I was diagnosed with ADHD about ten years ago! Hence the ping pong ball bouncing brain effect)  
What changed my mind was ongoing issues with some not so nice PCAs, who worked for the SSLU company where I resided. Don't get me wrong, during my six years as a tenant in three different SSLU apartment buildings with 24 hour PCAs, there were some wonderful assistants. Sadly though, it only takes one or two folks who can really intimidate you and make getting care very uncomfortable. Not ever having the option of who would meet my physical care needs, it was (I think) Divine intervention during the three days of interviewing, that I experienced one of the most

I got to go on a trip to our capital city thanks to Direct funding
 enabling me to bring along one of my first, favourite PCA's, Randi!

negative moments ever with a PCA, that prompted me to apply for Direct Funding.
However, fear of the "what if's" over took me and I withdrew my application within those three days. And then something else happened with her, so my frustration escalated, pushing me over the top. Immediately, I resubmitted my application for Direct Funding the next day.
It helped that the manager of my SSLU offered a back up emergency plan, so I could hire my own PCA's and have access to the on site PCA's with an emergency pager,  should a bathroom emergency arise. With apprehension I agreed to push on and follow through with my application process. It was so meant to be, because out of my entire province, only eighty people would be accepted for the pilot project and I became one of them!
Experience, An Asset...
Thankfully it helped a lot that I had a lot of experience directing my care in my home, with employees that I didn't get to choose per say, yet sort of. During my SSLU years, I had began helping with hiring PCAs for all of us in our building, by sitting in on interviews, offering my opinion, whether to hire them or not.
Flying!
Experience interviewing, equipped me with knowledge that most don't get to have first.  My original employees blessed me beyond words. In fact, all my fears about having bathroom emergencies diminished, when once, I had to press my emergency pager (arranged by the manager of my SSLU) one day, to go to the washroom. The very same PCA, that had sparked me to frustration enough, to apply for Direct Funding in the first place. She just happened to be the one who responded to my call. She came to my door and asked if I could wait 20 minutes? The arrangement I had made with the manager prior was, that I would pay a monthly fee, to access their employees incase of an emergency. Then pay per hour if actually needed. I told her "No, it is why I pressed the pager!"

I think it was it was meant to be, that the very person who upset me so many times, was the one to respond to my call in that manner. Why? Because it helped me to learn to hold it in, with all my might (my bladder that is) and wait for my own PCAs to make it to my apartment. The frustration and uncomfortable feeling was not worth enduring ever that again. So I cancelled my back up emergency service plan, cutting the safety net and flew out of my nest! Thankfully, I believe the Lord provided the option.

Because of D/F I have been able to live
where my dear husband and I want to.

Freedom
Never again, did I not have a choice of who was to provide my personal care. It also meant that I would be able to move out of the SSLU building and live wherever I wanted to. Of course it had to be wheelchair accessible. But until Direct Funding was available, we all had/have to live wherever the 24 hour PCAs on site were. Of course the SSLUs are a great system for many who want to live independently, but do not want to fuss with recruiting, hiring, managing, and training their own personal care. And it was a huge blessing for me for six whole years. The ability to live independently because of the ability to be assisted with other people's "arms and legs" so to speak, is an incredible experience.
We know some folks who have been hit with sudden physical disabilities, accidents or aneurysms and then had to live in the hospital for 2-4 years, waiting for an accessible apartment (SSLU) with 24 hour, on site personal assistance.
So Thankful
In our country, we often take for granted services that are available for persons living with various disabilities, that in other countries that would never even be considered a possibility. We have a friend in Peru who has no funding sources for his wheelchair, personal care and other related supports. He told us he would be dead if he was unable to work full time. Now working full time is wonderful, if you are able, but this fellow physically, has a progressive weakening like I do (Spinal Muscular Atrophy 3) and working full time for him, is a huge deal. I know for me, there are days when a small task, can drain most of your energy for the day.

Working is the only way he could scrape enough money to pay for the basic needs for his life. Literally gathering any last bit of energy to work in order to save his life. A totally different mentality than many have in our continent. And even then, he was unable to afford a new battery for his power chair, (here they are about $500-600 CDN) and he primarily had depended on his family assisting him. But his family was aging, and his primary care giver, his dear mother passed away. Needless to say,  he was experiencing fear and serious concern regarding how to obtain actual people to help him out and fund care for his daily living needs. Hearing his story,  helped to open our eyes to see just how blessed we are to live where we do.

http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/joni-and-friends-agoura-hills?select=Eywp_vu2FgZq9VCRU__1xw

Taking For Granted What Others Can't Even Consider
In many countries never mind receiving personal care, owning a wheelchair is something not possible. Joni Eareckson Tada's Wheels For The World, do all they can to provide mobility devices to places where physical mobility may be sliding around on the ground using your arms or attaching some wheels to a plank like a skateboard, or never being able to leave your bed. I can't ever imagine that. I am so thankful to God for the abundant blessings in my life.
Valuing Life
We know depending where you live in this world, living with a physical disability can mean lives opposite to our lives in North America. In some countries where having something like a hearing issue, a child can end up abandoned, living in an orphanage. Some countries, like I mentioned, there is no access to personal care, unless it is family, or mobility devices. And tragically, in a continent where we have many supports and access to equipment and care, even if it has to be in a hospital, there are North Americans who choose to actually abort pregnancies when they discover their baby has a genetic disease, such as mine. So even though we have access to care other countries don't know of, some ignore those blessings including the blessing of life regardless of abilities and make tragic choices.
It is by sharing our stories that hopefully, we can help those who take so much for granted, to treasure life no matter how their bodies are being affected by disabilities and illness. For me, it is the ability to hire and manage my own Personal Care Assistants so I can live alone with my husband. Not to mention the ability to receive funding assistance for our wheelchairs, cushions and healthcare. Be thankful Canadians!
Share Your Story, Questions, and Thoughts below. We'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for stopping by!

New Arms and Legs....

PCAs or PSWs? What's the Difference?
It's time again. Time to hire a new Personal Care Attendant/Assistant. Sadly, one of my regular girls are moving away.
Personal Care Attendants, or Personal Care Assistants and Personal Support Workers, essentially all carry out the same duties. Yes, duties may vary depending on the company one works for, or in my case, the individual you work for. Being hired by an individual, self manager or by family members to assist one individual, is far different than being hired by a company to provide care for many clients.
Over twenty years ago, I was involved with assisting in interviews to hire for the company I

originally used the services of. They used the job title Personal Care Attendant and later changed it to,  Personal Care Assistant. It worked for me, and either of those titles are what I choose to call my girls.
Personal Support Worker or Not?
When I first became a self manager about twenty years ago, one of my first employees signed up to take the very first Personal Support Worker program at our local college. She and I initially laughed, wondering why folks would have to pay to learn something that you could learn on the job. That is how she came to work for me and how I still hire, no special certificates required. She signed up for it because her school fees were being covered by her other employer, a large home care company. As she worked through the first PSW program, she did affirm that they didn't really learn anything worth paying hundreds of dollars for. She was an exceptional individual, only 19 when I hired her. She was one of the most responsible, level headed, caring individuals I ever was blessed with, to have as a PCA. She went on to use her natural skills to continue being a care giver and become a manager for a company that provides supportive housing.
When it comes to the validity of the PSW programs that are throughout North America these days, I must say, I have learned why it it was created. Well, no one told me, I base this on what I have learned since way back then. This program was created so care giving companies, such, as seniors care homes, could have a standard when hiring. It is much easier to state that applicants must have a specific diploma. It levels the playing field and they could have a foundation to start from, knowing that all applicants would know the basics. As well, the PSW program has definitely evolved into  much more, offering more healthcare skills and knowledge that was not in the original program. It makes sense to me now, even though it didn't in the beginning.
That being said,  I still choose to consider all applicants, those with or without any healthcare training. In fact, in over twenty years, I must say that the majority of my employees have not been PSWs. It hasn't been intentional. I have had a lot of wonderful ladies of all ages, who are just interested in helping me out. They are willing to learn, able to follow directions well and are just plain great employees. My employees have been college and university students, be it Out door Recreation, Nursing, Environmental Studies...the point being when you hire your own PCAs, you can set the terms you prefer. So for me, I have hire standards, in that I seek out not certain papers, but those who are trustworthy, dependable, willing to be trained, flexible, kind and compassionate. It is what works for me.

Why do I not require PSW certificates? 
Because I have found based on my eleven years with a company that did the hiring and managing, (more on that in part two to come.) that they didn't have any set standards. It was all about the interview, about the personality, their references, the ability to learn and the desire to lend a hand and listen to the tenant's directions or needs. Carrying out tasks as if it were the person, like me doing it, enabling people again, like me, to live independently. I did criticize that this company didn't have any foundational standards or requirements and that was the reason why there were often issues with employee behaviour. After all, to me, it made sense that when you hire for many tenants or clients, that you would want to have a base requirement, hoping to obtain the best quality care possible. But, since hiring my own PCAs, I choose to go by each individual, rather than seek paper work, just the way they do/did it.

Set In Stone
My experience has been that those who already work for care providing companies, instead of individual/private hire, or those who have PSW certificates, they often are set in a pattern. Some are set in stone and some not. It makes sense that when one pays and enrols in a program such as the Personal Support Worker one, you are seeking to learn and follow the directions they give you. The ultimate goal, to obtain a job in that field. No doubt, most of those who take a program like that have a specific target. Some just want to be in charge, carrying out tasks as they were taught, and even as they want to. Many of these positions, require the initiative of the employee and not the wishes or direction of the client. This is an entire different focus and when someone like me is interviewing someone with a back ground like that, I have learned to ask the right questions. I need to discover if they would be able to handle my direction, and let go of what they have been taught. It is important that I let them know that I will need them to be my arms and legs under my direction. It may sound rather odd to some, but trust me it has been an issue. Statistically, many who are trained to work in insttuions and such, get offended when you ask them to do things in a specific way. It isn't their fault, it is just how they are wired or how they were taught.

This doesn't mean PSW certificate people don't work out for a private hiring self manager like me. It means, I just need to let them know what my expectations are and to really be specific in the interview, it is usually pretty easy to know if someone needs to be the "boss" in a sense, and just wouldn't be a suitable fit for my needs.

I don't know what it is, but, nursing students and nurses are wonderful employees. Even though they too are trained to do things a certain way, they "get" that I need them to carry out tasks the way I like.  They aren't offended if I ask them to make the bed the way I like, doing it how I would if I could....

Experience Or Not?
The question then remains about hiring PCAs, should they have experience in health care or not? Well, based on what I have experienced, it sometimes helps make the initial training period more comfortable. Only because you are physically unclothed for some tasks and it is easy to feel uncomfortable at first. Knowing they have seen it all before, makes it easier. But then, not necessarily. Seriously, it seems to be all about the personality. If someone is kind, friendly and open to giving you a hand, understanding why you need them...then being naked and depending on their help, becomes more comfortable than you realized. So the answer is, yes and no. It depends on each person. Whatever works for you, works. I can only talk about and offer advice, with what I have experience with.
Thank You To All Who Have Graced My Life
I want to say that because of so many wonderful personalities, willing hearts to help and understanding of what it means to be my "arms and legs," the physical aspect of my life has been able to happen. I am blessed by God to be able to live independently because of great ladies who make it possible. Because of their smiling faces and helpful attitude, never offended by one particular request, my life is extra blessed. :o)