Personal assistance for people with physical disabilities: Consumer-direction and satisfaction with services

Objective: To determine whether people who receive consumer-directed personal assistance services (PAS) are more satisfied with the services they receive than those receiving PAS that are not consumer-directed. Design: A quasi-experimental survey comparison of long-term outcomes among people receiving consumer-directed PAS in Virginia and persons on the waiting list to receive those services. Surveys were conducted by mail and telephone, Setting: The general community in Virginia. Participants: Ninety-two Virginia residents with physical disabilities living in the community. Sixty individuals were receiving consumer-directed PAS, and 32 were on the waiting list for consumer-directed PAS and were receiving paid personal assistance that was not consumer-directed. Main Outcomes Measures: The Personal Assistance Satisfaction Index (PASI); chi(2) and t tests were conducted. Results: People receiving consumer-directed PAS scored significantly higher on the PASI than the waiting-list control group and were consistently more likely to report high levels of satisfaction on the majority of individual PASI items. Conclusion: Consumer-directed PAS are associated with high levels of satisfaction relative to PAS that are not consumer-directed. Individual PASI items related to control over PAS and flexibility of services showed the greatest differences in satisfaction. (C) 1998 by the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.