Caregiver Spotlight: Faith W.

NY CDPAP Personal Assistant

Faith W. is a personal assistant (PA) for her brother Jeffrey. She is also fiercely protective of him. “He’s my blood relative so I want to make sure that he’s well taken care of,” she said of her 2017 decision to become Jeffrey’s PA through New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP). “I’d rather take care of him than have someone else that I don’t know.”

Jeffrey lives with physical disabilities and has been in a variety of assistance programs since birth. He needs a lot of help with daily living activities like bathing, eating, and moving, Faith explained. Having a family caregiver rather than outside nurses or aides gives her brother consistency, which is important to his wellbeing. “There’s always someone in the house to care for him,” said Faith, adding that knowing that Jeffrey is safe is a huge benefit of CDPAP.

She’s also seen big improvements in her brother’s motor skills and appreciates CDPAP’s flexibility. “If I want to do something, I can take my brother along with me and we can do it together and create memories.”

Faith registered with PPL at a Manhattan registration event in March. “The registration process was seamless, they got me in, asked me if I wanted coffee and got me set up,” she said.
The session was part of a large, three-day event that spanned three NYC boroughs to transition thousands of consumers and PAs to PPL, the new statewide fiscal intermediary for CDPAP.