Partners in Personal Assistance

Consumer Self-Determination Statement

Partners in Personal Assistance was founded and is run by and for people with disabilities. From the beginning PPA.s purpose has been to provide a means for people with disabilities to control their own lives by directing the care and assistance they need to live independently. This is an important way of ensuring that no one pushes people with disabilities into institutions or forces them to live under conditions they do not want. PPA.s work and mission incorporate these fundamental principles of self-determination:

• Freedom to make and exercise decisions about one.s own life.
• Freedom to live where, under what conditions and with whom one wants.
• Control over one.s own body.
• The right never to be restrained or restricted involuntarily.
• Control of one.s own care and the assistance one receives.
• Freedom to spend one.s money as one chooses, go where one chooses, and associate with whomever one chooses.
• Freedom to vote and fully engage as a citizen in our society.
• The right to be treated with dignity and respect.
• The right to safety.
• The right to have his/her private information safeguarded and to determine if, how and with whom this information may be shared, in accordance with HIPAA.
• The right to give only informed consent and to refuse any service, document or survey, and the right to live with the consequences of those decisions.
• All the rights naturally and legally entitled to all human beings and citizens of the United States.

Passed by a majority vote of the Board of Directors 11/11/2013