CILSWKS: Personal Care Attendant Information & Resources


	Personal Care Attendant Information & Resources

About PCA Work

What is a Personal Care Attendant?
What is a Payroll Agent?
What does a Personal Care Attendant do?
Duties of a Personal Care Attendant?
Who can be a PCA?
What makes a good PCA?
Do you enjoy working with people?
How to find an employer looking for a PCA?
As a consumer, I need some information about Self-Direction?

What is a Personal Care Attendant?
A Personal Care Attendant (sometimes called a Personal Assistant or PA) supports people with disabilities to live independently in the community. Personal Care Attendants are accross disability and age and are employed often by home health agencies and individuals who self-direct their services.
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What is a Payroll Agent?
The Center for Independent Living Southwest Kansas is a payroll provider for consumers who Self-Direct their care. This means CILSWKS pays the appropriate employer taxes for the consumer who is the Employer. *CILSWKS is not the employer; rather you will be hired, dismissed, and trained by the person using services.* They may request assistance in any of these processes from CILSWKS or any other individual. However, the individual choice to manage the PCA with or without help is their decision to make.
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What does a Personal Care Attendant do?
They are employees of people with disabilities. People with disabilities hire PCAs to assist with task that they would do for themselves but because of the disability are unable to do or it is very difficult. In some ways the PCA can be thought of as filling in the "gaps" so that a person with a disability can do what everyone else does. The PCA may be the hand to drive, eat, and bathe, the eyes to read, the voice to communicate, or the feet to run an errand.
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Duties of a Personal Care Attendant?
Every persons needs and preferences are different. So, what one person requests for PCA to do could be very different from the next. This list is only exampls: Driving Housekeeping Eating and Cooking Bathing and Toileting Transferring Running Errands
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Who can be a PCA?
Anyone 18 years of age and older. Someone with an interest in working with people and who wants to support other people in living independently in the community.
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What makes a good PCA?
Dependable Flexible Patient Honest Trustworthy Good Sense of Humor Able to Follow Directions Willing to Learn
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Do you enjoy working with people?
Do you want to do something that is really important? Do you want to meet new people and have great experiences? Do you want a job with flexible hours? If you answered "Yes", you may be just the person to become a Personal Care Attendant
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How to find an employer looking for a PCA?
Contact a Center for Independent Living Check the Newspaper Contact a service provider or payroll provider for HCBS waivers
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As a consumer, I need some information about Self-Direction?
Please contact your local Center for Independent Living office. If you have the time, we would also like you to take a look at the Self-Direction Toolkit provided by the Kansas Personal Assistance Supports and Services program. You can find it at http://www.cilswks.org/kpass/.
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