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Since her car accident in 1990, Katie Banister has had plenty of experience hiring—and firing—personal care attendants (PCAs). “Your body is a business,” Banister counsels, and a successful business depends on having a plan. This book is a guide to developing your business plan.

Draw Up Your PCA Plan
Attendants can come in many forms: through home health agencies or private hiring, or from your group of family and friends. However you organize your schedule, you’ll need to be an expert in training and managing your attendants, and Banister offers plenty of useful advice on this score. She emphasizes that clear, consistent instructions and expectations are essential to managing your personal care routine.

Understand What PCA Personality Type Works for You
Along with considerations like communication and conflict resolution that any business owner has to keep in mind, managing personal care attendants requires special attention to matching personality types. Banister relays some of her own experiences in this area as a cautionary note. Beware the Controller, the Moocher, and the Dramatic Hero! The chapter on being a good attendant might be required reading for these types.

PCA Forms
Appendices include a telephone interview worksheet, a duty spreadsheet, an application and references form, and a police background check authorization form. The section on tax filing is helpful although limited because of the differences in the tax code in each state.

PCAs for Children, Elderly, Spouses
Banister includes sections on caring for children, the elderly, and spouses. Several of her acquaintances provide their perspectives on using and being personal care attendants, which will ring true with many readers, although the large amount of personal material Banister throws in, including the story of her own accident and several of her introspective poems, might seem a little out of place to some readers.

Questions from PCAs
One of the weakest points is Banister’s list of suggestions for “inquisitive yet caring” questions a potential attendant might ask a person with a disability, which appear more intrusive than professional. “It must be frustrating having a disability” and “I’m sure using a wheelchair wasn’t something you expected” are almost as patronizing as some of the attitudes Banister deplores in attendants and suggest that disability is almost always the result of an accident.

Despite these minor faults, however, this is generally a helpful guide to a familiar if sometimes challenging situation.

Banister, Katie Rodriguez. The Personal Care Attendant Guide: The Art of Finding, Keeping, or Being One. Demos Medical Publishing. 2008. 145 pages. ISBN 978-1-932603-28-6.