The Role of Personal Assistants in Disability Support

Improve working relationships between disabled people and personal assistants

Disabled people can now receive funding from their local authority to employ a personal assistant. While this gives them more personalised care in their own home, it also turns them into an employer.

This online course explores the role of personal assistance, and the risks and opportunities associated with it.

The course will encourage you to discuss ways to avoid and/or manage personal conflicts, whether you’re a disabled person or a personal assistant. It’s based on new evidence about the close working relationship between disabled people and their support workers – and how to improve it.

This course is designed for disabled people, current or prospective personal assistants, and anyone else who’s interested in disability support and how this new role has evolved in the UK and other parts of the world.

• Personal assistance training
• Introduction
• Orientation/re-orientation
• What working relationship do you want?
• Avoiding conflict
• How can conflict arise?
• Avoiding ‘practical’ sources of conflict
• Avoiding ‘personal’ sources of conflict
• Avoiding ‘proximal’ sources of conflict
• When conflict erupts and conflict resolution
• When conflict erupts
• Conflict resolution
• Workplace Personal Assistants
• Introduction
• Workplace Personal Assistants
• Values and behaviour
• Helpful Tips
• Winding Up