PERSONAL ASSISTANCE SERVICE MODELS

A Comparative Study of Personal Assistance Service Models in the UK, Sweden and Ireland



Table of Content

The qualitative interview (Study I and Study II)3

Participants3

Sample procedure3

Instrumental design and data collection4

Data analysis5

From qualitative attributes to survey questions6

Questionnaire (Study III)7

Participants7

Ethical considerations8

References9

A Comparative Study of Personal Assistance Service models in the UK, Sweden and Ireland

The qualitative interview (Study I and Study II)

Participants

The sample consisted of 12 users who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, as previously described. Ten users lived in two different areas. The gender distribution was 4 men and 8 women. The mean age was 47 (range: from 21 to 65). The mean time for receiving personal assistance was 7 years and 10 months (range: from 1 year and 11 months to 11 years and 9 months) and the average number of assistance hours per week was 118 hours (range: from 40 hours to 224 hours4 4 224 assistant hours per week means that the user has at least two assistants during some hours.). The EAPs were distributed as follows; 3 users of municipality, 4 users of user-cooperatives and 5 users of private firms. Users qualified for personal assistance comprise three different categories of people (Bradley, 2002, 141).

Two users belong to category 1, one user belongs to category 2 and nine users belong to category 3. Considering the type of impairment, the participants represent a very heterogeneous group (e.g. people with physical disabilities only, and people with mental and behavioral disorders).

Sample procedure

Users who participated in a related quantitative study were asked to participate in an interview. The original inquiry about participation was mailed to 291 users, who were randomly selected from the total population of 474 users who received assistance according to the “Assistance Benefit Act”. A total of 27 users consented to participation in an interview and among those, 10 users were selected in order to represent the wide spectrum of users as regards impairments, EAP and demographic characters. The assumption is that users will demand assistance from society. By contrast, they have been unable to safeguard their interests and to get their needs tested in accordance with the law. The 27 users were under-representative of men and users who had a municipal EAP. In October 2006, an invitation was therefore mailed to 20 men with a municipal EAP. Four users consented to an interview and among those two were selected in order to increase the diversity among participants.

Instrumental design and data collection

The qualitative interview was conducted as an everyday conversation in which the user was encouraged to talk freely. The interview started with an overarching question: “In your opinion, what does the concept personal assistance imply?” More focused questions were; “What are important characteristics of a personal assistant?”, “What is characteristic of a bad assistant?”, “What is characteristic of a good assistant?”, “Do you find your personal assistants to be lacking in any way?”, “How do you perceive quality concerning personal assistants?” “What are important characteristic features of an EAP?”, “What is characteristic of a bad EAP?”, “What ...