“Personal Assistant for the Disabled”: Meeting of Mitsotakis with Stelios Kympouropoulos and gold Paralympians

“A request of the disability movement, especially of people suffering from severe disabilities, is finally being implemented”, noted the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for the pilot program “Personal Assistant for People with Disabilities”, in the meeting he had at noon at the Maximos Palace MEP Stelios Kybouropoulos, the golden Paralympians in the boots of Grigoris Polychronidis and Anna Denta and his manager Cultural Center of the Municipality of Peristeri and Municipal Councilor Babi Danube.

Referring to this important program, which is being instituted and implemented for the first time in Greece, the Prime Minister stressed: “I remember our first discussions with Stelios Kybouropoulos on the issue of the Personal Assistant and had made me aware at the time of the need for substantial government intervention to address this backlog and to be able to have state-funded support that would allow you to meet your basic needs, to be autonomous and creative. And you are all very creative people and you have proved that you can overcome even the most difficult obstacles, which to us may seem insurmountable “.

“Today is a very important day, because in general it is a first step for independent living”, pointed out the MEP Stelios Kimbouropoulos, noting that “the Personal Assistant is the first, one of the main pillars for the disabled to overcome the obstacles that society has built towards him and to have a life as he dreams, as he wants it, with his own choices, with his own desires and with his own needs to be fulfilled. “As every citizen does in a democratic country.”

Mr. Kimbouropoulos added that from previous governments only promises were made that were not fulfilled. “There were words, words, words. “That ‘will happen’, ‘yes we want it’, ‘yes we will do it’ but when the governments came the ‘would’ never become an act”, he stated characteristically.

“I think the biggest obstacle, which we are overcoming, because I think that the perceptions of Greek society have changed, it is often in people’s minds. “It is in the stereotypes, in the mentality as you said”, the Prime Minister pointed out during the discussion. “It’s changing. And it changes from the young children as well “, he noted.

With his family and his child of just a few months by his side, the Paralympic gold medalist Grigoris Polychronidis spoke about the “dream” that came true. “As President of the Paralympics, what I can say is that both as Paralympians and as athletes with severe disabilities, we have a great need for the Personal Assistant, who will be able to take us even higher. “And we now have the Paralympic Games in Paris, in which, some athletes, if we have a Personal Assistant, we will have wings to compete even better and it is an urgent need of course”, he noted.

“For me, honestly, the Personal Assistant, as an institution, is equivalent to life itself. A person who has a disability, when he can and there is a need to make use of the Personal Assistant, is really the path for him, the way that will be able to integrate him into society, “said the head of the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Peristeri and Municipal Councilor Babis Danavis who gives his own battle to help the disabled in his Municipality.

In the context of the discussion on the prospects for further utilization of the program, Kyriakos Mitsotakis assured that where there are difficulties these will be addressed. “I believe that this discussion and your personal stories and their promotion have an educational dimension because they allow us to put the problems we face in their proper dimension,” said the Prime Minister.

“The important thing is that we have the top, which gives us direction. And it is a direction which is inclusiveness, diversity “, underlined the Deputy Minister of Labor Domna Michailidou, assuring her from her side that any problems that will be identified in the first phase of the program will be corrected.

An essential social intervention

The institution of “Personal Assistant” is being implemented for the first time in Greece and in its pilot phase will include 2,000 people, aged 16 to 65, without being limited to cases of mobility disability but also covering the mental, developmental, mental and sensory .

It is an intervention that is part of the broader framework of social policy and actions for equality, with the aim of substantially supporting and improving the lives of people with disabilities.

1,000 people from Attica will participate in the first phase of the pilot implementation. In the second phase, from January 2023, an additional 1,000 people from other Regions of the country will be added. In 2024 the service will be expanded nationwide, with secured European resources.

Those interested will be evaluated by special interdisciplinary committees, which will consist of a social worker, occupational therapist and psychologist. The evaluation will take place at the home of the interested party, on a day and time that he will choose, while he will also be able to choose the Personal Assistant of his choice. At the same time, a Register of Personal Assistants is created.

The pilot program was included in the Recovery and Resilience Fund, a fact that contributed to its rapid activation with resources of 41 million euros, while for the subsequent nationwide implementation, 320 million euros have been secured through the NSRF.

The program, which is a long-standing request of the disability movement, was designed after an extensive and constructive dialogue with ESAmeA.

The entire introductory position of the Prime Minister

Welcome. I am very glad to welcome you today at the Maximos Palace and it is really an important moment for you, an important moment for us as well, as we can now say in the most formal way that a request of the disabled movement, especially of people suffering from severe disability, it finally becomes an act.

I remember our first discussions with Stelios, on the issue of the Personal Assistant and he had then made me aware of the need for a substantial state intervention to address this backlog and to be able to have state-funded support that would allow you to to meet your basic needs, to be autonomous and creative. And you are all very creative people and you have proved that you can overcome even the most difficult obstacles, which to us may seem insurmountable.

So, we proceed to the implementation of this institution, in the first phase -as we have- pilot from Attica, but with rapid expansion to four more Regions of the country. It is an initiative funded not only by the NSRF but also by the Recovery Fund. I say this because we often hear criticism that the Recovery Fund only affects a few large companies, a few in any case. You are the best proof that it concerns all our fellow citizens, especially those who are most in need.

And I think we have also organized a process that is fast, it is transparent, it is a process that visits will take place in your home and not elsewhere and I will look forward to when the first Personal Assistants get a job, to you can share your experiences with us and see how, moving forward, we can further improve this important institution.

It is only one aspect of a comprehensive policy that we have for people with disabilities, we have discussed it many times, it is a horizontal action that we develop here at the Secretariat of the Government under the Minister of State, Mr. Gerapetritis, who coordinates all the Ministries .

But I would also like to thank the Minister, because she put a lot of energy and effort into the implementation of this institution and we are going for more. So again thank you very much.

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