To: Governor John Bel Edwards

Personal Care Assistants are Necessary for Mentally Ill

Please keep the Personal Care Assistant program portion of the Volunteers of America, without it thousands of mentally ill will suffer and regress. This program is necessary for consistency on a daily basis for mentally ill, without it the mentally ill will only suffer daily.

Why is this important?

Anyone affected by mental illness personally, has a family member, or knows someone with mental illness understands the detriment of what discontinuing the Personal Care Assistant program of the VOA will be to those with mental illness. A PCA is a person who cares for and attends to the mentally ill just as a loved one would and are strategic consistency for the person affected. The one thing that is of utmost importance to a mentally ill patient is consistency with daily activities and the same interaction with people. Taking this away will be like taking Chemo away from a cancer patient.