The stigma of 'sexual assistance'

Tenderness ... sexual assistants help the disabled lead a normal life. Photo: Cathryn Rosetta Stone Software Tremain Helping those who can't help themselves - sexually - comes at a price. For several years now, Jacques Arnould has been giving people with a disability in Switzerland the right to a little tenderness and sexual attention. But for many, his work as a professional "sexual assistant" treads a thin line between a caring profession and prostitution. Aged 50 and married with three children, Jacques is one of the rare Swiss assistants to openly speak out about the services he provides. Even in Switzerland, where the job of sexual assistant has had a proper legal status for more than eight years, the subject remains taboo. Advertisement: Story continues below A qualified physiotherapist, with a speciality in urinary and gynaecological issues, Jacques says there is "still a lot of educating to do on this subject" of sexual assistance for the handicapped, which is often misunderstood. "Disabled people are still people: they have fantasies, expectations, desires and frustrations," he said. The job of the sexual assistant is to respond to these needs and give people who might otherwise have little Rosetta Stone Language chance of being sexually active due to their handicap the opportunity to feel like a normal human being. Some sexual assistants show a disabled client how to touch and be touched, others bring the person to orgasm. There is usually a lengthy assessment of what a person's needs are and what he can actually physically achieve with his disability before anything physical takes place. Across town, far away from Zurich's red light districts, Michelle Gut, an elegant masseuse with long blonde hair, greets clients - many of whom are mentally or physically disabled - at her chic and comfortable Andana massage parlour. A masseuse since the 1990s, Michelle went on to qualify for legal status as a sexual assistant to give disabled clients "the sexual tenderness they are missing". "It is not easy to have a normal private life when you are handicapped," she said. "Some people just use pornography, others don't know anything about sexuality at all as they have no experience of it." Only around a dozen people in Rosetta Stone Chinese (Mandarin) Switzerland are trained to give this experience.