Requirement 3: Support Persons
Requirement three states that organizations and their employees must welcome support persons who are assisting customers and allow them to remain together. If you need to charge admission for the support person, provide advance notice.
What is a support person?
A support person assists with mobility, personal care, medical needs or with specific tasks like banking. A support person can be a paid personal support worker (PSW), a volunteer, a family member, or a friend. PSWs are trained professionals. Family or friends usually do not have formal training, but they often have years of experience. Many people have paid and unpaid support. For instance, a person may have a PSW present at their workplace and then go out in the evening with their partner acting as a support person.
What can you do to meet this requirement?
- Speak directly to your customer or service recipient and do not assume they cannot understand. Most people prefer to make their own decisions about what to buy or how a service may affect them.
- If the nature of your conversation or service is private, ask your client whether to include the support person. Check with your client on whether he/she prefers to discuss a decision first with the support person.
- Invite the support person to take notes if this is helpful for your client’s understanding of important information or instructions, for instance, at medical appointments.
- Avoid charging entrance admission or other fees for a support person, if possible.
- The standard requires that, if you need to charge admission for the support person, provide advance notice, for example, by advertising this charge on your website or entrance fee billboard.
