Reseachers from the Center for Personal Assistance Services presented testimony today to the Interagency Committee on Disability Research on needs for further research into issues around personal assistance services (PAS). In a testimonial paper to the Committee entitled "Unmet Need for Personal Assistance Services:What Do We Know and What Do We Need to Know?", Center researchers Charlene Harrington, Ph.D., Mitch LaPlante, Ph.D., Steve Kaye, Ph.D., and Martin Kitchener, Ph.D. describe research findings of unmet need for personal assistance services in the United States and argue for a regularly scheduled national disability survey, as well as a collection process that ensures state estimates of the met and unmet need for PAS. Robert Newcomer, Ph.D., in testimony entitled "Collecting Better Data in Supportive Housing: Industry Problems and Potential Solutions" recommends modifying existing national population surveys to provide information on resident and facility characteristics in supportive housing, expanding data collection in licensing and certification to become the basis for community level information system on supportive housing, and using administrative systems to provide trend information on quality of care in supportive housing. Susan Stoddard,Ph.D., President of InfoUse and the Principal Investigator for the Center's research project into workplace PAS submitted testimony describing the project's preliminary findings and encouraging expanded research into the newly forming issue of PAS in the workplace.

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Supportive housing testimony

Unmet needs testimony

Workplace PAS testimony