PERSONAL ASSISTANCE FOR PEOPLE WITH PHYSICAL-DISABILITIES - CONSUMER-DIRECTION AND SATISFACTION WITH SERVICES

Objective: To determine whether people who receive consumer-directed p ersonal 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 o n the waiting list to receive those services. Surveys were conducted b y mail and telephone, Setting: The general community in Virginia. Part icipants: Ninety-two Virginia residents with physical disabilities liv ing in the community. Sixty individuals were receiving consumer-direct ed 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 co nsumer-directed PAS scored significantly higher on the PASI than the w aiting-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 s atisfaction relative to PAS that are not consumer-directed. Individual PASI items related to control over PAS and flexibility of services sh owed the greatest differences in satisfaction. (C) 1998 by the America n Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Phys ical Medicine and Rehabilitation.