Personal Assistance for Children and Adolescents (0‐18) with Both Physical and Intellectual Impairments

Studies urgently needed to assess effects of Personal Assistance for children and teens with physical impairments. Personal assistance is here defined as paid support of at least 20 hours per week for people with impairments. This review investigated the effectiveness of personal assistance versus any other form of care for children and adolescents with physical impairments. A literature search identified no studies that met the inclusion criteria. This review is part of a series of reviews; evidence from related reviews about different populations might be informative to researchers and practitioners. Abstract Background There is a high and increasing prevalence of impairments among children and adolescents in the West. Many countries offer personal assistance in the form of individualised support for people living in the community by a paid assistant other than a healthcare professional for at least 20 hours per week. Objectives To assess the effectiveness of personal assistance for children and adolescents with both physical and intellectual impairments, and the impacts of personal assistance on others, compared to other interventions. Search methods Electronic databases including CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, ERIC, Dissertation Abstracts International and a variety of specialist Swedish databases were searched from 1980 to June 2005; reference lists were checked; 345 experts, organisations, government bodies and charities were contacted in an attempt to locate relevant research. Selection criteria Children and adolescents with both physical and intellectual impairments (0‐18 years) living in the community who require assistance to perform tasks of daily living (e.g., bathing and eating) and participate in normal activities due to permanent impairments. Controlled studies of personal assistance in which participants were prospectively assigned to study groups and in which control group outcomes were measured concurrently with intervention group outcomes were included. Data collection and analysis Titles and abstracts were examined by two reviewers. 130 full papers were examined. None met the inclusion criteria. Results No eligible studies were found. Authors’ conclusions Research in this field is limited, though one related review provides some evidence of the effectiveness of personal assistance for children and adolescents with intellectual impairments. When implementing new programmes, recipients could be randomly assigned to different forms of assistance. While advocates may support personal assistance for myriad reasons, this review demonstrates that further studies are required to determine which models of personal assistance are most effective and efficient for particular people.