Milestone’s 3 Days Attendant Service Training
22nd August to 24th August, 2022
Ashar Virk, Milestone, Lahore
Milestone Society for the special persons arranged 3 days Personal Attendant Service training at Milestone office, Lahore from August 22 -24, 2022 where training participants were provided with the personal attendant service training concerning how to attend a person with disability in general and persons with severe disabilities in particular.
Mr. Mehmood Ahmad Shah is a professional and qualified Personal Attendant in Pakistan who has adopted attendant service as a profession and extended this service by providing training to other individuals who provide this service to severe persons with disabilities at their homes.
Mr. Mehmood Ahmad is qualified attendant from Japan who is providing this service to severe persons with disabilities at their homes.
The training was incepted with the recitation from the Holy Quran, and then the participants formally introduced themselves and their passion to learn the techniques of personal attendant service.
Mr. Mehmood Ahmad, Mr. Ali Hamza, Mr. Shafiq Ur Rehman, Mr. Iqbal and Ms. Anam Saddam delivered lectures on attendant service and later and provided professional practical training how to attend a severe person with disability.
Definition of Attendant Services
Attendant Services can be defined as physical assistance, by a trained attendant, with those activities of daily living which one cannot perform because of the limitations or impairments resulting from a permanent physical disability. Consumers take responsibility for the decisions and training involved in their own assistance.
Attendant services include bathing and washing, personal grooming and hygiene, dressing/undressing, toileting, transferring and positioning, meal preparation, assistance with eating, essential communications, light housekeeping, nurturing assistance.
Attendant Services do NOT include: professional services such as nursing care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy or physician services; respite care; supervision; “care” or taking responsibility for the person with a disabilities.
Mr. Ali Hmaza (a person with severe disability) explained the following:
- Defined the history of attendant service
- How many kinds of disabilities?
- Explanation about shifting a person with disability
- Safety measures and which things are necessary to attend a person with disability
Attendant Services Overview
Ms. Anam Saddam presented the attendant service overview to the training participants and educated them what kind of services women with disabilities receive from the female attendants.
Historical Background of Attendant Service
Mr. Shafiq Ur Rehman unfolded the history and background of attendant service to the participants. He said that attendant services developed with the growth of the Independent Living Movement in the 1960s and are based on the Independent Living model of service rather than the medical/rehabilitation or charity models of service. The movement began in Berkeley with a group of students with disabilities at the University of California. The Independent Living Movement quickly spread throughout the United States and Canada.
Attendant services evolved out of the desire and the need of persons with disabilities to lead independent lives. They are a unique form of service which enables people with disabilities to live in the community.
Before the advent of attendant services, most people with physical disabilities would have remained in chronic care hospitals, lived in institutions, or been cared for by family members long after the age when most non-disabled people would choose to live independently.
Practical Attendant Service Training
The participants were provided with the practical attendant service training where they were taught the following services techniques:
- How many types of shifting?
- How to shift from wheelchair to bed and bed to wheelchair
- How to shift from wheelchair to bathroom commode and bathroom commode to wheelchair
- How to cleaning of a person with disability
- How to give shower a person with disability
- How to exercise the body of person with disability
- How to remove and wearing their cloths
- Which is the right way to push a wheelchair
- How to give him/her food
Certificate Distribution Ceremony
Closing ceremony was observed where Certificates were distributed among the trainees after completion of the training successfully.
