I want a thread where I can post articles that deal with issues that face people because of our society's inherent ableism. I am not sure what to name this thread so for now I will name it after my favourite advocacy group.
People First
Fri, 2019-02-22 12:48
#1
People First
Fri, 2019-02-22 12:52
#2
Here is a good article about health care outcomes in Ontario. I suspect that it would be similar in the ROC.
People with developmental disabilities are more likely than the non-disabled to encounter problems with Ontario’s health-care system regardless of age, sex or class, a new study suggests.
...
Health-care professionals are not trained to recognize developmental disabilities and provide appropriate care in adulthood, she said, adding they often expect their patients to show symptoms and behaviours based on stereotypes they’ve long grown past.
But stigma also plays a role, she said, adding people with invisible disabilities may not be willing or able to communicate their situations in environments they’ve found unsupportive in the past.
“I don’t think we’ve been as accommodating as we can to give that message to people that says, ‘we want to know about what your unique needs are so that we can accommodate them,” she said. “Some people, at least, are thinking, ‘I’m going to be treated worse if I make it obvious that I have this disability, or I’m not going to get the care that I need.’”
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/02/21/new-study-finds-the-devel...
Tue, 2020-02-04 23:32
#3
Disability Etiquette Lessons From A Campaign Encounter Gone Wrong
“I felt like he talked down to me. And I was mad that he touched my face. Because I have a disability and use a Tobii communication device, he was perceiving me differently than another 20-year-old. As not being smart.”
“We are cute but rarely serious; inspiring, but rarely powerful. He doesn’t need to lobby for our vote because we’re never seen as citizens with a duty to participate in the political process, but children needing to be taken care of.”
Thu, 2022-03-24 17:27
#4
Thousands are forced to live in long term care facilities—some are fighting to live in community
When Vicky Levack was 21, the government of Nova Scotia told her that because of the “complex” needs of her cerebral palsy, she had no choice but to live in a long-term care facility.
Being institutionalized turned her into an activist, fighting for dignified living conditions. Many aspects of Levack’s life have been dictated to her at Arborstone Enhanced Care—from her meals to her schedule—for the last 10 years. “My life is outside of these walls,” Levack said in an interview.
In August 2021, after a decade of advocacy, she learned that she will be able to live in community as a part of a provincial housing pilot project that will move four disabled people out of institutions and into condos with the help of a 24-hour support worker. For Levack, the move means regaining her autonomy: “I will get my personhood back.” She’s not asking for much, just her own apartment where she can host her friends and eat “anything that isn’t potatoes.” For her inaugural meal, she wants to eat three-cheese tortellini with pesto and goat cheese.
Levack is hoping her new home can also serve as a meeting space for community groups she organizes with in Halifax. She’s planning on running for city council in the next couple of years and accessible organizing spaces are hard to come by. Once she gets the keys to her new place, she’s excited to tell her fellow organizers to “come down to my house!”
quote:
Before the pandemic, Levack spent most of her time outside of Arborstone—meeting up with friends and organizing with disability justice groups. But living in a long-term care facility during the pandemic has been isolating. The Nova Scotia Department of Public Health placed all residents of long-term care facilities under lockdown again in December due to the Omicron variant, and measures were only lifted on March 7. For more than two months, residents were only allowed to leave the institutions for medical appointments. If they wanted to leave for any other reason, they had to contact the Chief Medical Officer for permission.
Levack describes the treatment as patronizing. She says that as a disabled person, she’s acutely aware of the dangers of Omicron, but the government is stripping her of control over her life. “I feel like I am under surveillance,” she said.
Levack is one of 13,580 people under the age of 65, including 230 children, living in over 2,000 long-term care facilities across Canada. Like many others, she never wanted to move into a long-term care facility, but has been left with no other choice since the Government of Nova Scotia has denied Levack social assistance and at-home care services.
quote:
‘There’s no data’
Levack’s decade in a long-term care facility points to the larger issue of the ongoing institutionalization of disabled people across Canada, particularly in Nova Scotia. In October 2021, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeals found that “Successive governments of all political stripes simply ignored everyone over decades and condemned our most vulnerable citizens to a punishing confinement.”
The finding was a result of a 2016 human rights appeal filed by Beth Maclean, Sheila Livingston and Joseph Delaney—all people labelled with intellectual disabilities who had been forced to live in psychiatric institutions. Maclean was stuck in a psychiatric institution for 15 years despite pleas from public servants for her to be released. In his decision, board of inquiry chair Walter Thompson declared that “the Province met their pleas with an indifference that really, after time, becomes contempt.”
The use of long-term care and psychiatric institutions in Nova Scotia as permanent homes for people with disabilities is not unusual in Canada, according to disability researcher, policy analyst and DJNO organizer Megan Linton. In fact, long-term care facilities represent one site among a complex web of institutions disability justice organizers say are “warehousing” disabled people in Canada.....