Turnover of Personal Assistants and the Incidence of Injury among Adults with Developmental Disabilities

Relatively little is known about the incidence and prevalence of injuries and other secondary conditions experienced by adults with developmental disabilities. Understanding the risk factors for secondary conditions and strategies for their prevention is important to people with disabilities, rehabilitation providers, and public health agencies. Many secondary condition prevention strategies require direct involvement of the individual with a disability. However, the nature of some disabling conditions requires help from an intermediary facilitator, frequently known as a “Personal Care Attendant” (PCA) or a “Personal Assistant” (PA)