Community Services deputy minister Lynn Hartwell testified all day today at the human rights inquiry into the lack of community living options for people living with disabilities. We learned that very little has been accomplished since the department published its disability roadmap some four years ago. She’ll be back at it tomorrow, and so will the NS Advocate.
The mother of a man who lives at Quest Regional Rehabilitation Centre in Lower Sackville told a human rights tribunal today that the institution is the right place for her son, who lives with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. “Joey is happy at Quest. He has a beautiful room, a beautiful yard. It’s quiet. He goes on outings,” said Betty Rich. “Small option homes aren’t a good solution for Joey. It may well be that small options works for others, but I am the mother, and I must make my own calls.”
Alex Kronstein on the unspoken assumption that caregivers, parents, etc. always have the best of intentions for those they are responsible for, no questions asked. Also how this manifests, and what to do about it. A great article with lots to think about. We’re so pleased to have Alex write for us and offer us his unique perspectives on these matters.
For years and years Community Services didn’t make an effort to find Joey Delaney a place away from the locked psychiatric ward at the Nova Scotia Hospital, even though there was no medical reason for him to be in that awful place. More testimony from the human rights enquiry.
When I have time I have been attending the Nova Scotia Human Rights enquiry into the lack of supportive community housing options for people with disabilities. These are the bits and pieces that I learned.
For me, the testimony by Louise Bradley, CEO of the Mental Health Commission of Canada, was one of the highlights of this week’s proceedings at the human rights inquiry. That’s why I was pleased when she was willing to be interviewed. We talk about mental health, the harm of living in an institution, stigma, and the benefits of community living. Louise was at one time heavily involved in the East Coast Forensic Hospital in Dartmouth, and we also talk about the folks there who have been conditionally discharged but can’t get the supportive housing they need. So they just stick around, sometimes for many years.
Kendall Worth, in his third open letter to Community Services minister Kelly Regan,makes a strong case for a disability allowance.
Today’s update on the NS Human Rights Commission’s enquiry into the lack of supportive housing for people living with disabilities. We learn that their former supportive housing provider wanted the folks languishing at Emerald Hall to come home, and we hear one parent talk about her worries that at some point in time she will no longer be able to take care of her son.
Another day at the NS Human Rights Enquiry into the lack of supportive housing for people with disabilities. We learned that people conditionally discharged from the East Coast Forensic Hospital can’t leave because Community Services cannot provide them with the supportive housing options that they require. Waits can be longer than six years, averages are around 840 days.
I attended day 14 in a lengthy NS Human Rights Commission inquiry into the lack of supportive housing for people who live with disabilities. The main witness was disabilities studies professor Catherine Frazee, and I learned a lot.