Peer Counseling

Peer Counseling is always conducted by disabled persons with disabled persons as they are the best people to understand the challenges faced by each other. Peer counselling encourages disabled persons to come to realise their past distresses, find solutions to overcome it, set goals to achieve Independent Living and move on with life.

The goals of Peer Counseling are:

1. Recovery of self worth
   • Peer counseling allows disabled persons to be aware of our own feelings, abilities and regain confidence.
   • To learn about our wants and needs.
   • To be aware of and understand the obstacle to attain those wants and needs.
   • To fully express feelings (emotional discharge).
   • To conduct re-evaluation after achieving goals and to see whether those goals need to be changed or to explore other possibilities.
2. Rebuilding human relationships
   • Renewal of self-image.
   • Reconsideration and re-evaluation concerning relationships.
   • To build a positive supportive relationship with a counselor, and then build relationships with others.
3. Social reformation
   • Going back to live in the community to change attitudes, perceptions and environment.
   • Demonstrates that life is more meaningful when lived through mutual support.

Personal Assistant Service

Personal Assistants (PA) are integral to the Independent Living movement. In this context, the disabled person is referred to as a client. PAs assist a client with his daily routines according to needs. That includes feeding, personal hygiene and toileting. Communication between a PA and client is important. Clients must be able to provide clear instructions to enable the PA to carry out the tasks effectively.

Centre for Independent Living

The Centre for Independent Living provides services that support disabled persons living independently in the community or planning to live independently in the near future. To qualify as a centre in the USA and to be able to receive federal grants, centres must fulfil a set of criteria:

1. At least 51% of the board members must be disabled persons
2. Key decision making positions must be occupied by disabled persons
3. At least one staff must be a disabled person
4. Centre for Independent Living must provide the following services:

i) Information provision and referrals (services, housing, personal assistants)
ii) Peer counselling (conducted only by disabled persons)
iii) Independent Living Programmes (independent living skills)
iv) Advocacy (accessibility, equalization of opportunities)

Apart from that, Independent Living Centres are encouraged to provide other services such as accessible transportation. These centres must serve all types disabilities and not limited to only one kind of disability.