Global-Report-Living-Colour-dr2-2

Inclusive Communities = Stronger Communities
GLOBAL REPORT ON ARTICLE 19: THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND BE INCLUDED IN THE COMMUNITY
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‰ Disability supports and services tied to housing
When a person with an intellectual disabilities decides
that he/she would like to move out of their family
home or when their family is no longer there
to care for them, the residential options
available to them are significantly limited by
the fact that the supports and services which
they need are only available in certain settings
such as care homes (group homes, seniors
homes etc.). Having access to services and
supports which could be used in the
residential setting of their choice would
significantly change the way in which people
are included in the community.
‰ Access to inclusive services
Families reported that even when they have the
finacial resources (personal or funded by
government) to purchase services, the range of
appropriate and reliable services available is
extremely limited. From a public policy perspective
this may be a result of the fact that government
funding is heavily weighted towards the supply-side
and the service agencies have not been forced to be
accountable to what people with intellectual
disabilities and their families are demanding. For
example, government funding to sheltered
workshops, group homes and day programmes
means that people with intellectual disabilities who
would chose to work in the open labour market or to
live on their own or volunteer in the community often
cannot access the supports they require to do so.
We learned that in many cases the lack of access to
inclusive services stems from a misunderstanding of
what “community based” should mean. Governments
and those who deliver services believe that the
location of services in the community in itself means
inclusive services as is the example from a provincial
government in Canada;
CANADA “Across the province of
Ontario, there are 23,000 people with
a developmental disability languishing
on waitlists for services – 12,000 of
those individuals are waiting for
residential supports. 44-year-old
Hamilton resident, Akhil Agarwal, is one
of them. His 70-year-old father, Naresh
Agarwal, is worried that families like
theirs have to go into crisis to get the
supports and services they need.” 4