FutureLearn

The Role of Personal Assistants in Disability Support (FutureLearn)

Offered by University of East Anglia,
The Role of Personal Assistants in Disability Support (FutureLearn)

Find out about the new role of personal assistants in disability support, and how to improve working relationships in the area. Improve working relationships between disabled people and personal assistants. Disabled people can now receive funding from their local authority to employ a personal assistant. While this gives them more personalised care in their own home, it also turns them into an employer. This online course explores the role of personal assistance, and the risks and opportunities associated with it.

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The course will encourage you to discuss ways to avoid and/or manage personal conflicts, whether you’re a disabled person or a personal assistant. It’s based on new evidence about the close working relationship between disabled people and their support workers – and how to improve it.

What topics will you cover?

  • Introduction to Independent Living and Personal Assistance
  • Recruitment: finding the right fit
  • What sort of personal assistance relationship works for you?
  • Understanding potential difficulties in personal assistance relationships
  • Understanding and managing practical difficulties
  • Understanding and managing personal difficulties
  • Understanding and managing process difficulties
  • Understanding and resolving conflict
  • Moving forward with personal assistance relationships

Learning on this course
You can take this self-guided course and learn at your own pace. On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

  • Assess the working relationships between personal assistants and employers
  • Debate your own personal views about the personal assistance model
  • Develop your skills as a personal assistant or employer
  • Reflect on what a good working relationship looks like
  • Identify how you would resolve conflict in a working relationship

Who is the course for?
This course is designed for disabled people, current or prospective personal assistants, and anyone else who’s interested in disability support and how this new role has evolved in the UK and other parts of the world.

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