“There is no justice without disability justice.” Some 100 people gathered at Province House earlier today to remind the government (and voters) that the Liberal government did not meet its commitment to stop warehousing people who live with physical or developmental disabilities in institutionalized settings.
The Disability Rights Coalition and its allies will be holding a rally at noon on Friday, August 13th outside the Provincial Legislature. The rally will demand that whatever Party forms government end the warehousing of persons with disabilities in segregated institutions and provide support for all persons with disabilities to live with dignity in the community.
DIsabilities activist Vicky Levack gave Liberal leader Iain Rankin a piece of her mind last Sunday. There’s a stark contrast between what a video shows happened, and how the Liberals tweeted about it.
Judy Haiven about a Liberal announcement on its health platform. “While Rankin had about 12 people in his camp, including his manager, a campaign team and a van with several men, there were also two women in wheelchairs and about a 15 people holding homemade signs demanding action on housing for people with disabilities.”
A new report by the Disability Rights Coalition shows that earlier commitments to do away with large institutions and provide supports for community-based living are being abandoned. It’s not too late to turn things around though.
Media release: In 2013, the current government committed to closing institutions and providing community based living supports for all persons with disabilities within 10 years—by the end of 2023. With just over two years left, today’s DRC report makes clear that not only has progress toward inclusion been glacial but, in several respects, there has been serious back-sliding on the Province’s commitment.
27 institutionalized residents of Harbourside Lodge, an adult residential centre in Yarmouth, will move into community settings. We speak with Donnie MacLean, president of People First Nova Scotia, and Patricia Neves, executive director of the NS association for Community Living to rejoice while also putting this move in perspective.
“The way that we’re looking at it, regardless of whether there’s four residents or 40 or 400, you’re taking children away from their families. What the press release says is that it will house children from two to 18 years old. No two year old should be removed from their family. No parent wants to have their child sent to live somewhere else, they will only agree when there are no alternatives provided, says Patricia Neves, Acting Executive Director of the Nova Scotia Association for Community Living.
With so many people on a waitlist for community-based living opportunities, the eight small option homes the government has committed to just don’t cut it, writes Wendy Lill of the Community Homes Action Group.
“The current government adopted the Roadmap Report and a 10-year time frame for significantly increasing community-based supported living options while decreasing reliance on large institutions. So far, however, the allocation of resources from government needed to create community capacity has been woefully inadequate. Wait lists for services continue to grow – from 1100 in 2015 to 1300 in 2017 to nearly 1500 last year. This is because the badly needed investments by government have not been forthcoming.”