The following is testimony by Linda Lolli, MPOWER Board Member, at the Olmstead Initiative Hearing held in Worcester, MA on October 28, 2009.  The Supreme Court’s 1999 Olmstead decision affirmed that people with disabilities have the right to live and receive services in the community.

The Olmstead Act and the PCA with Lived Experience

I have been asked to speak a few minutes on the obstacles for a person with a psyche diagnosis to work as a personal care assistant (pca).  The greatest barrier to anyone with a mental health problem is stigma.  The attitude prevalent in the work force which feels that a “mentally ill” person will not take their pills and thus be bad employees prevents many good candidates from working.  Most people who are ready to work are stable and far into their recovery so that this argument is a complete fallacy and discriminatory.  Every organization allows for people to take a leave of absence for physical or mental problems.  This is called a medical leave.

There is a great need for pca’s to help people with mental health issues.  According to Olmstead law, the purpose is to keep the person who suffers from trauma out of hospitals and group homes so they can live in the home of their choice.  The difference between a pca who helps the elderly or physically disabled people is that the pca helps the person with his feelings of trauma through relationship building.  They encourage the person to goal set and take very small steps toward him being more Independent.  Together they work on building self esteem and getting out into the community to make connections.  Also, the pca teaches the basic home skills so that one day that the person will be able to be completely on his own.

The best person to support someone with trauma or lived experience is a peer or a certified peer specialist.  This person models recovery to their peers that are still deep in their suffering.  This “modeling” approach gives a person suffering from trauma hope and the feeling they can recover, too.  Being a pca for anyone, gives someone who has experienced the mental health system and unique opportunity to give back to someone in a meaningful way no matter what disability he or she is helping.

By Linda Lolli,  a pca      patches1956@aol.com