Hey,
We are Elina and Tim, a young blind couple living in Kingswood Bristol, and we are looking for a personal assistant (PA), to assist us with a range of different activities, including assisting us with walking our pug puppy and doing various activities with him, also assisting us with shopping, going to the gym, doing paperwork and long forms, going out into the community and going on long journeys. It is not necessary for applicants to have had any previous experience in this type of work, we find it is much more about the personality of an individual.
When we are with our PA, we will sometimes be doing tasks individually, and sometimes we will do activities as a couple. We are very flexible about the days and times we need support.We can guarantee 10 hours per week, but possibly more.
The week-day rate is £12.50 per hour, the evening and week-end rate is £18.75 per hour, and the bank holiday rate is £25 per hour, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The milage rate is 45P per mile.
We often like to make long car journeys, so having a car is essential.
Below is a bit about each of us.
Hey :) I’m Elina, I’m 31 years old, and I’m completely blind. I have always felt a very strong connection with nature and with animals. I’m also very creative and enjoy all forms of art including pottery, craft, music and drama. I’m also a musician, love all styles of music, and play the piano, a bit of violin and sing. I also love creative writing and love reading many different genres. I also really love going to the gym. I am very passionate about individual’s rights, and have advocated for my friends before. I really enjoy the study of psychology, and observing human behaviour; I’ve completed two and a half years of a psychology degree. I’m very much looking forward to hearing from you.
Hi, I’m Tim, and I’m 27. I am a musician and singer song-writer. I play the guitar, drums, and some keyboard. I have also released several singles which I wrote and recorded myself. Music is very important to me, and I love listening to many different genres. I also have a hobby of collecting and repairing vintage audio equipment, such as radio cassette recorders, which I would sometimes like our PA to assist me with. However, you don’t necessarily need to have any technical knowledge or experience, as I would just need the PA to be my eyes in certain situations. I also love animals, especially cats and dogs. Something else I enjoy is chatting to people about many different subjects. I also like cooking and trying food from different cultures. Thanks for reading and looking forward to meeting you.
Unfortunately, we have had some very dehumanising and unpleasant experiences in the past with support workers, and although we don’t deserve these experiences, they’ve ppl taught us some valuable lessons, and have made us very clearly aware of our rights as individuals, and of what we would want from a Personal Assistant. We now know that our basic right is to be treated with respect, dignity, equality, with compassion and kindness. The main and most important qualities that are important to us in a personal assistant are: for the personal assistant to respect us, and to respect our feelings and wishes, to treat us as equals to them, and to treat us with kindness, compassion, empathy and care.
We would like our personal assistant to respect our individuality and our individual ways of doing things, and to realise that our blindness is just a difference and not a disability. We don’t need someone to disable us or look after us,, but to support us and assist us to become more and more independent. We would like our PA not to be involved in making choices for us.
Also, our personal space is very important to us, so we would like our PA to appreciate that when they are in our home, they are in our personal space, so they would need to respect the individual ways we do things. For example, we would like our personal assistant not to try to take over or intrude, or force their ways of thinking onto us. We would also like our PA not to move anything in our space, as this would invade our privacy, and would mean that as we are blind, , we wouldn’t be able to find our belongings. We would also want our PA to remove their shoes in our house.
Also, honesty and openness is very important to us, and we would like us and our PA to have an honest and open relationship from the beginning.
It is very important to us that our PA has a real love for nature, and sensitivity towards animals, as we live with two beautiful cats and a an adorable cheeky pug puppy.
If you are interested, please feel free to send us a message by replying to our ad, telling us a bit about yourself, your interests and the reasons why you feel you would be suited to this role. We will then contact you to arrange an interview at a cafe. We will also need an up to date DBS.
Take care and looking forward to hearing from you,
Tim and Elina