Personal Assistance Network

Disability Rights Defenders Newsletter September 2023

DRD-Logo Welcome to this fall edition of the newsletter for the network of Disability Rights Defenders. The newsletter is a collection of articles on personal assistance in Europe with both the understanding of personal assistance, development and hinders in development. Accounts have been given by members of ENIL - the European Network on Independent Living.

Personal Assistance - What should personal assistance look like? - Teodor Mladenov
Peer support and independent living - Alessandra Grotta and Kamil Goungor
Establishing a Nordic Competence Centre on Personal Assistance - Egil Gullestad Skogseth
The history of the adoption of the Personal Assistance Law in Bulgaria and its subsequent controversial effect - 2009-2023 - Mitko Nikolov
PA: What's the current situation in Finland? - Sanni Purhonen
The Development of Personal Assistance in Malta: Moving closer to independent living through a practical and phased approach - Mauro Farrugia
The struggle for a PA law in Poland - Lukasz Orylski
Disability Defenders Network’s Newsletter - The development of personal assistance in Scotland - Jim Elder-Woodward
Sweden PA in Sweden - Jessica Smaaland
DRD thanks - Jamie Bolling

Read more about Disability Rights Defenders Newsletter September 2023

Westberg, Kenneth. 2011. Norway: “The upcoming legislation will be a disappointment”.

In Norway, JAG Assistanse has four users to date, but after gaining approval as a BPA provider (Brukerstyrt Personlig Assistanse or user-controlled personal assistance) from 15 municipalities, operations manager Sidsel Maxwell Grasli expects strong growth. At the same time, she fears that JAG’s target group will be let down by the upcoming Norwegian legislation for user-controlled personal assistance.

[Anonymous]. 2011. Swedish EU parliamentarians urge more personal assistance in Europe. GP.

The October 1 2011 article Dismantle Europe's inhumane institutions in the daily newspaper Göteborgsposten urges European countries to provide people with disabilities with personal assistance and assistive devices, rather than relegating them to institutions.

According to the Swedish Members of the European Parliament at least 1.2 million people live in institutions in the EU and Turkey, which they consider to be contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Erdtman, Emil. 2010. Spain - Assistance - available in Spain by law, but not in reality.

Spain has had a law declaring personal assistance to be a right since 2006, but the law is not applied in practice. Instead there are various pilot projects. Catalonia has two such projects, one at the regional level and one operated by the Independent Living movement in the city of Barcelona.

Westberg, Kenneth. 2010. Attitudes to people with disabilities are negative in Russia - Interview with Sergey Kiselev, Chairman of Apparel.

In Kaliningrad there are no home help services, people who need practical help but cannot get help from relatives or friends live in institutions. Sergey Kiselev, Chairman of the Apparel would like to see personal assistance introduced in Russia.

Erdtman, Emil. 2008. Spain - Spaniards are fighting for more personal assistance.

Independent Living—or Vida Independiente, as it will be called in this article—has grown in Spain via the internet and is now running a pilot project with personal assistance in several urban areas.

Disability Rights Defenders Newsletter September 2023

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