Managing relationships as an employer
The Personal Assistant Users Club, PAUC, addressed challenges that formal assistance schemes often overlooked. These included recruiting staff, setting boundaries, confidentiality and resolving disagreements. Participants could discuss the emotional demands and power relationships involved in employing someone who supports their everyday life, drawing on each other’s experience. [1]
Monthly meetings continued in 2023
ENIL’s annual report records monthly online meetings throughout 2023, led by Grotta and attended by about ten disabled assistance users from different European countries. Recruitment, advertising and conflict resolution were among the subjects. A September discussion examined whether peer counselling for assistance users needed common standards. [2]
A wider discussion followed
ENIL later developed Personal Assistance Watch as a follow-up to PAUC. The monthly format also welcomes people seeking assistance, disability organisations, researchers and providers. Its topics include needs assessments, assistants’ working conditions and moving between countries, extending the discussion from daily employment relationships to access to support. [3]