Chicago - Finding PCAs for Travel
Finding a personal care assistant when travelling
A recent update to the website of Accessible Chicago has a user recommendation for travellers needing personal care assistants; general info on PCAs from miusa.org.
Catherine Marsden of Accessible Chicago has added a few new items to the Accessible Chicago website.
One of Accessible Chicago's members sent in a recommendation for a personal care agency which is available to travellers.
"sschulman" in October 2006 recommended Addus Healthcare Services and mentioned that they have temporary personal care assistants available. The PCAs cost $16.00 per hour (at the time of writing), for a minimum of two hours.
The Addus Healthcare Services website depicts the company as a national (U.S.) business, with locations in various states. In the description of "Services", the Addus people don't mention hourly care or personal care services for travellers. Intuition suggests that it would be a good idea to contact Addus ahead of time in order to make sure the service is available rather than assuming it will be there on short notice, particularly as it doesn't seem to be a service they are promoting.
Currently on the Accessible Chicago website, there is an open question up for community members to reply to, again looking for recommendations for personal care assistants for travellers in Chicago.
It's very likely that the open question on the Accessible Chicago website will bring forward more suggestions for getting a personal care assistant while visiting Chicago.
For another perspective on finding a personal care assistant while travelling, the miusa – Mobility International USA – website has a tipsheet called "Personal Assistants on International Exchange Programs". While the information is directed at finding personal care assistants when travelling, for international travellers, there are some excellent questions and answers about the basics of personal assistants (or personal care assistants, PA or PCA).
For example:
- What is a Personal Care Assistant?
- What do Personal Care Assistants do?
Reading through these questions might help someone who is relying on family and friends for help with daily living to decide whether extra assistance will be needed when travelling.
The links for "Books and Articles on Selecting and Working with Personal Assistants" look particularly promising. It could be that travel is the trigger which causes one to need a PCA for the first time. To build a good working relationship, it's important to have an understanding of what the PA job includes, and what the PA expects. Particularly when the PA is only going to be working for you for a short time, clear communication of what they are to do is very important.
Returning to the Addus organization in Chicago, one advantage of dealing with a large agency like that is that they have experience with a wide variety of personal care needs. You, the traveller, should not have to spend a lot of time training the PA in basic procedures (as you may have to if you rely on friends and relatives at your destination). That means more time to enjoy your trip.
