Speech by Bengt Westerberg, chair of Swedish Red Cross and former Minister of Social Affairs, 2008. 22 years ago I met with Adolf Ratzka for the first time. I was then a politician, the leader of the Liberal party in Sweden, Folkpartiet and had welfare policy for disabled people high on my agenda. Adolf and Bengt Elmén, who also was present when we met in 1986 and who is present here today, told me about the social experiment they had initiated in Stockholm and some other municipalities to substitute the conventional social services provided by the local authorities with personal assistance.
Internationell konferensen i november 2008 för att fira 25 år av Independent Living i Sverige. Dokumentation från konferensen: Välkomstanförande, tal av Bengt Westerberg, Adolf Ratzka med mera.
Kerstin Nilsson, vice chair person of STIL welcomes the guests. I am honoured to welcome you to this conference to celebrate the Independent Living movement’s 25 years of existence here in Sweden. During these two days we should above all learn from each other, from our different experiences of Independent Living and how we as persons with different disabilities handle the challenges we meet on a daily basis.
- En film om rätten till ett själbestämt liv med personlig assistans.
Monika har ett funktionshinder och behöver assistans med allt - gå upp, klä på sig, hygien, äta, vara mormor och för fritiden. Hon bor ensam och har kommunal hemtjänst, men kan inte bestämma vilka som ska arbeta för henne. Jämnt kommer nya människor in i huset som hon måste lära upp.
“Mrs Schledermann” (Swedish language, English subtitles)
- A film about the right to Independent Living with personal assistance
produced for STIL, the Stockholm Cooperative for Independent Living,
by Bo Öhlén and Bengt Rejhed 1995
Ge oss makt inte medlidande är ett program/podcast om STIL och kampen för personlig assistans. 2004-04. Lyssna-MP3 (28:21 minuter, 26,6 MB).
Stockholmskooperativet för Independent Living är resultatet av ett litet antal individers kamp för personlig assistans i mitten på nittonhundraåttiotalet. Personlig assistans är, i motsats till hemtjänst eller boendeservice, en service knuten till den enskilde själv. Den som behöver assistans bestämmer själv vem som ska assisterar med vad; när det ska göras och hur.
Personal assistance is not available in Latvia. Today the options are help from relatives or living in residential institutions. However, Dace Rodzina, who represents the organization APEIRONS, would like to change the situation by influencing legislation and launching projects with organizations from other countries.
Ireland has the Disability Act of 2005, a demanding building law and two anti-discrimination laws. However, as yet there is no legislation for personal assistance, though various organizations arrange services without government involvement.
In Finland personal assistance became a right on September 1, 2009. However, dissatisfaction is great because municipalities can still decide how assistance should be provided.
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.
In Greece families assume a large responsibility, including for personal assistance. But society is rapidly changing, as can be seen in the streets and squares in recent times.
The population of Iceland is less than 300,000. Everyone knows each other in small towns, and even in the city of Reykjavik. Yet for now, the number of people who have assistance can be counted on one hand. Iceland is a Nordic country, but in terms of personal assistance it has not kept up with the region.
“In Flanders, Belgium, 4,000 people are waiting to receive assistance,” says Viviane Sorée, chairperson of Bol Budiv. Viviane Sorée is chairperson of the organization Bol Budiv, which helps individuals who receive assistance. They provide advice and support to 1,350 people with disabilities living in Flanders. Bol Buiv is a two-year old project that is financed by government funding.
“We have high hopes to be able to continue our work after the project ends.”
Christian Bayer’s most important issue is means-tested personal assistance. People who have a job and earn money have to pay for their personal assistance themselves. According to German law, people in need of personal assistance can get money from the State for it. Yet, unlike Sweden, the payments depend on your income and property.
Persons with extensive disabilities need assistance by other people in their everyday lives with such activities as getting bathed and dressed or going to the toilet; with shopping, preparing meals, cleaning or doing the laundry; with such responsibilities within the family as doing the practical tasks involved in raising small children or assisting one' s aging parents. Assistants help the user at work, about town and on travel. They assist in communicating or in structuring the day, as the case might be. In brief, assistants help with those activities which the user would have done by himself or herself, had it not been for a physical, sensory, mental or intellectual disability.
Social policy is typically not made by the people who are most affected by it. Up to now, we, the users of assistance, have had to accept the decisions handed down to us by other people. Since we are often considered helpless and incapable of taking charge of our own lives, the public and often we ourselves have taken for granted that it is best for us, if others, the professionals make these decisions for us.
Croatians are proud of their disability policy. A disability ombudsman who has a disability has been appointed and accessibility and legislation are on the right track. A law on personal assistance will take effect in 2010.
"Having PAs enabled me to find out who I am and now enables me to be who I am." If you are a disabled person and about to start receiving a Direct Payment to employ your own personal assistants (PAs), this book aims to give you a flavour of what it is like; the joys and the challenges. This book covers recruitment, managing, using PAs in social situations and at work, and dealing with problems. Put together by Sian Vasey with cartoons by David Shenton.
Lyssna-MP3
Social policy is typically not made by the people who are most affected by it. Up to now, we, the users of assistance, have had to accept the decisions handed down to us by other people. Since we are often considered helpless and incapable of taking charge of our own lives, the public and often we ourselves have taken for granted that it is best for us, if others, the professionals make these decisions for us. 
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