Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

David B. Gray, PhD, Holly H. Hollingsworth, PhD, and Kerri A. Morgan, MSOT OTR/L. Program in Occupational Therapy, Washington University, Campus Box 8505, 4444 Forest Park Ave, St. Louis, MO 63108, 314-286-1658, grayda@wustl.edu

A focus of one study under the RRTC on Full Participation in Independent Living was to examine how consumer based (Center for Independent Living: Paraquad) personal assistance services provided under Missouri's Medicare waivers plan influenced the community participation of people with disabilities living in the greater St. Louis area. A repeated measures group design was used to assess pre- post-test differences in participation by 98 people with disabilities who received consumer directed personal assistance services. The Participation Survey (PARTS/M) and a demographic survey, the Core, were used to assess participation, environment, and personal factors respectively. Prior to the onset of the consumer directed program, the participants had 15 hours of paid personal assistance and 25 unpaid hours per week of personal assistance for a total of 40 hours. During the consumer directed program, they received 33 paid hours of PA per week and 22 unpaid hours per week of PA, a total of 54 hours of PA per week. The participation in several community activities increased both in frequency and in their positive evaluation. The presenters will describe participation characteristics including time taken to prepare for several major life activities, evaluative reports, assistance used, and attribution for limited participation. In addition, duration, type, satisfaction, choice and importance of personal assistance will be presented. Participant survey responses may provide feedback on the service providers in the strengths and weakness of the personal assistance services in changing the participation in activities they deem to be of importance.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the role of participatory action research in studying the effects of personal assistance services for people with disabilities.
• Describe features which contribute to measuring outcomes for services provided by Independent Living Centers.
• Recognizing the value of assessing participation as it relates to personal assistance services.

Keywords: Disability, Personal Assistance

Related Web page: enablemob.wustl.edu/

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation