The Law on Personal Assistance (PAA) was adopted in Bulgaria in 2018 after a long struggle by several groups of people with disabilities. An initial initiative was the Center for Independent Life (CIL) - a non-governmental organization of disabled people with over 20 years of expertise in protecting the rights of disabled people and their empowerment. In 2009, a group of people with severe physical disabilities, with the support of lawyers, studied the European and world experience and, especially that of Sweden and Norway, and developed a draft of the PAA. In it, they combined the best practices from the experience of other countries and complied with the current Bulgarian legal norms.
Nordic independent living organisations join forces to systematically exchange documentation and the development of the situation of personal assistance in each country. This way trends and threats can be identified in order to organise counter activity.
Iceland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway have similar welfare states, and have all ratified The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). In the Nordic Council and other fora, Nordic politicians exchange ideas on political reforms on issues such as personal assistance (PA). Governmental investigations and policy papers on PA in Norway and Sweden compare PA in the Nordic countries.
What is Peer Support and why is it important in the context of Independent Living
Peer support is one of the pillars of Independent Living and an essential element for the self-determination of disabled people.
Peer support can be described as the help and support that people with lived experience can give to other individuals in a similar situation. For example, it can refer to support provided by someone using personal assistance (PA) to another person using a PA. Or, to somebody who has lived in an institution in the past to other people still living in institutions. This support may be social, emotional or practical (or all of these), and can be life changing.
Personal Assistance - What should personal assistance look like?
Teodor Mladenov, Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee and Coordinator of ENIL’s Independent Living Research Network
Introduction
This article is part of a special issue on Personal Assistance (PA) of the Disability Rights Defenders Newsletter published by the Independent Living Institute.
Independent Living Institute (ILI) works to promote opportunities for persons with disabilities for more personal and political power, self-determination, full participation and equality through information, education, advocacy, and project activities. In 2022, ILI carried out several projects in pursuit of its goals and visions, described in this document. All major projects have their own webpage, Facebook page, and published newsletter.
Independent Living Institute (ILI) arbetar för att främja möjligheter för människor med funktionsnedsättning till mer personlig och politisk makt, självbestämmande, full delaktighet och jämlikhet genom information, utbildning, opinionsbildning och projektverksamhet. Under 2022 verkade ILI via flera projekt för att uppnå sina mål och visioner som beskrivs i detta dokument. Alla större projekt har egna webbsidor, facebooksidor och ger ut nyhetsbrev.
Den femte maj firas varje år Independent Living Day och 2023 uppmärksammades detta bland annat med en konferens i ILIs lokaler i Farsta utanför Stockholm. Det var ett tjugotal åhörare som samlades för att lyssna på föreläsningar, ställa frågor och diskutera ämnet avinstitutionalisering i Sverige.
