Poste - Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children

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C A N A D I A N C O A L I T I O N F O R T H E R I G H T S O F C H I L D R E N Voices Coalition Questionnaire: I love spending time with my family. If they’re away, I have other people around me who help me feel better and also I always know they’re coming back. —Vanessa, 14 years of age, Ontario, has a developmental disability Community Care, there is no coherent coverage of continuing-care services in the community. 69 According to Lesley Larsen, former executive director of the Canadian Home Care Association, “there is no effort to create standards or even to define basic services so the public knows what to expect.” 70 There is no reliable data on comparing home care services across the country so it is difficult to assess service provision. 71 Home care spending varies widely across the country. Ontario spends the most per capita and offers nurses, physiotherapy and homemaking without a means test. “Community-care access centres” coordinate care provision from agencies but do not have minimum standards or guaranteed access. The demand for services in Ontario has been growing by approximately 20 percent a year. 72 Quebec’s per capita spending is one-third that of Ontario. 73 A national project on home-based care by the Canadian Association for Community Care found that all parents want greater access to respite, especially parents with children with psycho-social problems and that children who have a combination of health and social problems or diagnoses such as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, also have more problems accessing the home care system. 74 This association recommended national standards for home care and support services for children with special needs. 75 In 1997, the National Forum on Health recommended a universal, publicly-funded home care system with a wide range of professional services, supplies and care to ensure that the burden of care does not overwhelm family members. 76 62 Violence Against Children with Disabilities: 77 • In November 1998, a Niagara Falls woman was accused of attempting to kill her six-yearold daughter who has cerebral palsy. Relatives said the child lives in constant pain. • Robert Latimer of Saskatchewan killed his 12-year-old daughter who had cerebral palsy in October 1993. He is appealing his two-year sentence. • Cathie Wilkieson killed herself and her 16year-old son who had cerebral palsy and was partly deaf and blind in Hamilton, Ontario in 1994. Her suicide note said she was too tired to go on and could not leave her son behind. • In November 1996, Danielle Blais drowned her six-year-old son who had autism in Montreal. She survived her suicide attempt and expressed frustration in getting school authorities to understand the boy’s condition. She received a 23-month suspended sentence for manslaughter. Catherine Frazee, former chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, said that the situation of children with disabilities is often imperilled by popular sympathy for their parents. She stressed that society has a duty “to help to support the people who find themselves in these situations of intense suffering in trying to deal with their children.” 78 Alternative Care Alternative care, which includes group homes and foster care as alternatives to institutionalization, is funded by provincial and territorial health and social service departments. It is available in every province and territory. Group homes for persons with disabilities exist across the country, except Newfoundland. 79 Associate family fostering programs are available in British Columbia, whereby natural and foster parents share caregiving responsibilities for a child with a disability. 80 It is not known how many children with disabilities live in the care of the state. In a 1997 Alberta report, surveys of 2,618 children who were in care in Edmonton and Calgary found that:
• 64 percent were identified as having one or more disabilities or diagnoses; • 35 percent had developmental disabilities; • abuse (39 percent) and neglect (42 percent) were the main reasons for being taken into care, while seven percent were in care as a direct result of the disability; • Aboriginal children were two-and-a-half times as likely to have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal Alcohol Effect compared to Caucasian children, while Caucasian children were 50 percent more likely than Aboriginal children to have Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or to be mentally ill. 81 Among the recommendations for future planning, the report called for better training of child welfare and protection workers about the specific needs of children with disabilities and the need to make Aboriginal children a priority. 82 Aboriginal Children with Disabilities According to Statistics Canada’s 1991 Aboriginal Peoples Survey, 31 percent of Aboriginal Canadians have a disability, which is more than twice the national average. 83 The disability rate among the Aboriginal population between the ages of 15 to 34 was 23 percent, compared to eight percent among the general population. 84 Reasons for this disparity include unsafe living conditions, poverty, pollution and contaminants in the food chain. 85 The federal government provides services to status Indians on reserve and to the Inuit, while the provinces provide services to Indians living off reserve, non-status Indians and Métis. There is also some service provision by community organizations, such as Alberta’s three Aboriginal disability organizations. 86 Despite the large number of Aboriginal people affected by disability, service delivery is consistently poor or non-existent in Aboriginal communities. 87 Many Aboriginal people live in rural or remote areas, so access to community-based services is even more difficult. 88 Jurisdictional issues also complicate health and social service delivery to Aboriginal children with disabilities. Provincial governments have refused to provide services to Aboriginal people on reserve and the federal government does not provide all the necessary services. 89 In 1992, the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development admitted that it is not doing an adequate H O W D O E S C A N A D A M E A S U R E U P ? 63 job in this area and that the demand for services is expected to increase. 90 In 1993, the federal Standing Committee on Human Rights and Disabled Persons observed that both levels of government appear to have forgotten the needs of Aboriginal people and that the “lack of clear departmental responsibilities, an absence of strong program structures, fragmented service development and inconsistent standards are all too evident, despite sincere intentions.” 91 The Committee also expressed concern about a lack of federal attention to the people most affected by its programs. The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development did not consult Aboriginal people about its five-year National Strategy for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities, which was launched in 1991. 92 The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples recommended major structural changes to facilitate the participation of Aboriginal people in its 1996 report. 93 The Federal Task Force on Disability Issues also recommended that the Canadian government: ...recognize the ways in which it has contributed to jurisdictional complexities that prevent Aboriginal Canadians with disabilities from gaining access to the supports and services they need and begin to work in collaboration with provincial governments and Aboriginal communities to provide flexible, client-centred services and supports to Aboriginal Canadians with disabilities. 94 The Standing Committee on Human Rights and Disabled Persons says that in addition to the transfer of administrative responsibility for health and social services from federal authorities to reserves, Aboriginal community leaders must have information about and prioritize the needs of persons with disabilities in the reserve community. 95 Access to Services Services that promote the independence and participation of the child with disabilities include education, training and preparation for employment, health care and rehabilitation, and play and recreation. Education In the 1994 Salamanca Statement on Principles, Policy and Practice in Special Needs Education, international
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THE UNCONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF T
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C A N A D I A N C O A L I T I O N F
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articles 13, 14 and 15 (cont’d)
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Lack of appeal mechanism C A N A D
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Process and Protocols PROCESS: Key
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Positive Factor C A N A D I A N C O
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Concern C A N A D I A N C O A L I T
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This is aproject of the CanadianCoa
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Poste - Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children

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