Personal Story: Living Life with having to depend on Personal Care Attendants!

I have lived in Minnesota for over 30 years, coming from ND and I lived in many institutions in my time. Some institutions were very bad and some not so bad.

My dream was always to live independently, but had so many people against it. Some were afraid that I couldn’t live by myself or they knew I could do it, but were afraid I would be bored and hate it and I would have to wait for a while to get back into an institution again.

Much to people’s dismay, I loved living independently and loved my own independence.

I couldn’t have done it without the help of the Personal Care Attendant Program. Without this wonderful program a lot of people would be stuck in some type of nursing home.  

Now my husband and I live together and we use shared PCA services.

My husband, Jim built our home from ground up in 1996. We both have very involved cerebral palsy. although we are very active people. We can be very active because of our Personal Care Attendants. Without these people, we would not be able to live in the community. We would be in nursing homes rotting away and costing taxpayers a lot more money.

Many of us (people with disabilities) are taxpayers, too. Having these attendants is not a luxury, it is a necessity! If the state starts cutting our hours you are taking away our willingness to live!

This Personal Care Attendant Program allows us to be a part of society in which we live in. We are able to work, go on vacations and all that a person would do if they didn’t have a disability.

~Claudia Carlisle