Personal Assistance Services on the Job

Personal Assistance Services on the Job

By Diana M. Hinton

"This information brief is for anyone who interacts with youth with disabilities and would like to know about the programs under the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The brief provides background on those parts of the Workforce Investment Act that cover service to youth so that youth, families, and service providers can better connect to the workforce development system."

Personal assistance services (PAS) help people with disabilities do tasks that someone could perform if he

or she did not have a disability. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), some of these services allow

employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to help disabled employees achieve employment goals.

Similar accommodations would include job-related services, such as reading, business-related travel, communication and similar tasks.

Services for the personal benefit of the individual with a disability, such as help with eating, using the restroom, taking medicine or similar activities of daily living, generally are not considered reasonable accommodations. But not having extra help with these basic daily tasks at the workplace can create a significant barrier to employment for some people with disabilities.

Personal Assistance Services States and employers are working hard to find ways to use public and private resources to provide a broader range of personal assistance services in the workplace. In addition to meeting their reasonable accommodation requirements, employers may provide services if they choose, through their health insurance plans or as part of medical

spending accounts.

Several states are seeking to expand public coverage of personal assistance under Medicaid. Medicaid personal assistance services have typically been limited to the home setting. Many

states have broadened traditional PAS programs with a range of home and community-based waiver services — meal preparation, grocery shopping and the like — to support the community residence of the elderly or youth with disabilities.

Waiver services are distinguished from state plan services by being available for a specific group of people rather than for all Medicaid beneficiaries. But while waiver services are designed to support independence and community integration, they typically have not been designed for service to people in the workplace.

Since jobs have become a larger part of the lives of people with disabilities, several states are adapting their existing Medicaid personal assistance programs (and often their waiver programs as well) to workers with disabilities. This often involves amending medical eligibility requirements, outlining new types of services or assistance and identifying appropriate providers for the workplace. At the same time that they are extending Medicaid PAS service, 26 states have crafted more generous financial eligibility rules for working persons with disabilities through the Medicaid Buy- In Program.

Economics and Workplace PAS

Among the many issues affecting people with disability, the socio-economic factors have a major impact on PAS. With a greater understanding of socio-economic factors, policies and access to PAS services can be improved as well as providing greater information for PAS planning.

For many working-age people with a disability, there are many barriers that prevent working or returning to work. Lack of PAS at work is one key barrier. There is little public funding for workplace PAS, and the ADA does not require employers to provide PAS.

PAS in the workplace are typically construed much more broadly than just help with personal care ADLs, such as eating and toileting. At the PAS Center, we have defined “workplace PAS” to also include “task-related assistance at work, such as readers, interpreters; help with lifting or reaching; re-assignment of non-essential duties to co-workers”. Job-related PAS is, in effect, the equivalent of receiving assistance with instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) at home, in that it enables the person to fulfill his or her role, either of maintaining the household or performing the job. At the workplace, some forms of job-related PAS could reasonably be requested as a job accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but it is generally understood that non-job-related PAS (e.g., for personal care) could not.

To help provide a better understanding of the socio-economic factors effecting PAS, the Center is looking into the two areas of research.

First, this research activity will analyze the relationship between employment and employment supports, the use of technologies, and PAS. Five separate research activities will be conducted.

• Analyze the relationship between workplace PAS and AT job accommodations and employment outcomes. This study is being conducted by Stephen Kaye.
  
  
• Collect and analyze primary data on workplace PAS, AT, and employment supports. This study is being conducted by Stephen Kaye.
  
  
• Analyze barriers to employment among Medicaid PAS beneficiaries. This study is being conducted by Wayne Anderson and Josh Wiener.
  
  
• Analyze whether AT lessens the need for PAS among older persons with disabilities. This study is being conducted by Marc Freimanand Josh Wiener.
  
  
• Understand the complexity of the economics of PAS differences by age in paying for PAS in the community. Study conducted byMitchell LaPlante.

Second, this research activity will analyze the role of tax laws that affect reimbursement for PAS. Although tax policies are one way to improve assess to PAS and provide economic support to family caregivers, current federal and state policies offer limited assistance and these are typically in the form of tax credits and deductions. This will involve two projects.

• Examine federal tax policies related to reimbursement for PAS. Study conducted by Michael Morris and Steve Mendelsohn.
  
  
• Collect and examine state tax policies related to reimbursement for PAS. Study conducted by Michael Morris and Steve Mendelsohn.

PAS Related Events Calendar

June

June 08, 2010
Assistive Technology Update
Hosted By: JAN
Location: Webcast, 2 pm eastern
http://www.jan.wvu.edu/webcast/

June 08 - June 10, 2010
APSE National Conference
Hosted By: APSE
Location: Atlanta, GA.
http://www.apse.org/training/lead.cfm

June 14, 2010
Liability And Safety In Family Support Navigation
Hosted By: Easter Seals and Wayne State University
Location: Webinar 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. EST
http://sabeusa.org/?catid=204

June 20 - June 23, 2010
2010 National ADA Symposium
Hosted By: Network of DBTAC ADA Centers
Location: Denver, CO.
http://www.adasymposium.org/

Barriers to Use of Personal Assistance Services (PAS) in Workplace Settings

eri, M., Wong, A., & Harrington C. (2010). Draft. Barriers to Use of Personal Assistance Services (PAS) in Workplace Settings. Center for Personal Assistance Services University of California. Retrieved 15th May from http://www.pascenter.org/documents/IHSS_FINAL_Report_043010.pdf

Abstract

Draft. Barriers to Use of Personal Assistance Services (PAS)
in Workplace Settings

California’s In Home Supportive Services (IHSS) is the largest and fastest-growing publicly-funded home and community-based services (HCBS) program in the state serving over 400,000 elders and people with disabilities. The program provides assistance for activities of daily living for low income individuals who are eligible for Medi-Cal and who meet the program’s need criteria. In 2002, California passed the Workforce Inclusion Act to allow the IHSS program to provide services to obtain, retrain, or return to work in order to increase the employment rates of persons with disabilities.

The goal of this study was to examine the implementation of the Workforce Inclusion Act of 2002. Specifically, the study examined the use of IHSS in the workplace and barriers to workplace IHSS, estimated the number of individuals using IHSS in the workplace, and summarized recommendations on how to increase access to IHSS in the workplace. Because the survey occurred after a number of state IHSS budget cuts and program changes were made for fiscal year 2009-10, the study also collected information on the impact of these changes on the IHSS program and on providing IHSS in the workplace.

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ABILITY Jobs - Affirmative Disability Action - Employment for People with Disabilities

ABILITY Jobs - Affirmative Disability Action - Employment for People with Disabilities

VSA Announces Festival Lineup

More than 600 artists, performers and educators from around the world will be appearing at the 2010 International VSA Festival, in Washington, D.C., from June 6-12.

Highlights of the festival — one of the premier events for artists with disabilities — range widely, and include art installations by Dale Chihuly; performances by R&B great Patti LaBelle and jazz singer-pianist Diane Schuur; comedy by Last Comic Standing winner Josh Blue; and “Revealing Culture,” an exhibition of more than 130 works by 54 artists with disabilities.

The festival “will highlight excellence and ability,” said Soula Antoniou, president of VSA — an organization formed 35 years ago to provide arts and education opportunities for people with disabilities. “Our festival will be a celebration that ensures that all people participate in the arts.”

In addition, the VSA Education Conference will feature nearly 70 workshops, panels and lectures on inclusive education, 21st-century learning skills, and pathways to employment for people with disabilities.

Cityzen Toby

"The first thing you'll probably want to know about Tobias Forrest is where he was raised, whether his childhood was really lousy, how he broke his neck and all that what-doesn't-kill-you-makes-you-stronger kind of crap. There's a lot of that. But first, some random coincidences: 1. Toby's dad, Alan Olsen, who is in fact his uncle, had been working with the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and knew founder Barth Green, the neurosurgeon, two years before Toby got hurt. Dr. Green later treated Toby. "What's even spookier," says Alan, "is that the cervical plates used to stabilize his neck came from a surgeon I knew and a company I founded." 2. Toby's sister, Nikki Olsen (really his cousin), once followed Toby off 60-foot cliffs. She wrote a class screenplay about a guy who got injured jumping off canyon walls into water pools. Shortly after she handed it in, Toby made his quad-ifying swan dive off a rock in the Grand Canyon. 3. To nearly the day on Memorial Day weekend, Toby and Christopher Reeve share a traumatic anniversary, three years apart; Toby credits Reeve's audio version ofStill Me for getting him through rehab. Later Toby received a $5,000 scholarship, funded and presented by Reeve himself, to study acting in Los Angeles. 4. His middle name is Easy, to commemorate his difficult birth, and for us to speculate on the weight of tragedy and trauma on a man's life. "

(click the link for the rest of the story!)

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