The Conservative Party of Canada has again demonstrated a huge lack of leadership and insight with the proposed changes to the mandatory long form census. The Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS), formerly the Health and Activity Limitation Survey, is being done away with. This has been the Cadillac information source for disability statistics for the past twenty years in Canada and now it will be gone.
With concerns growing daily that the aging baby boomers are going to overwhelm Canada’s health care system, is now a good time to be doing away with an important planning tool like the PALS? To me common sense would say no but then I am working from the assumption that common sense exists within government. I see too many examples that indicate the contrary within all levels of government.
How do you effectively plan for a new direction in health care if you don’t have a sampling of the stats required to begin building? In a country where we can see our health care system crumbling, the importance of projections cannot be easily rejected. PALS is a major tool (not the only tool) for this type of planning and should not be subject to discontinuation. Read More »
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This is probably the most personal blog I have done to date. This ones about me more than an advocacy rant. My first grandson was born two weeks ago and needless to say I am one proud grandpa. I am also an amazed grandfather.
When I was 13 my doctor recommended sterilization to my parents for me . That was not uncommon in the 60’s and if you were a behavioural problems it was even a bigger recommendation. And I did have behavioural issues but that was because I was more of a juvenile delinquent then a cognitively impaired individual. I carried a hell of a chip on my shoulder because of my crutches but the majority of the medical profession saw it as a behavioural issue. For some reason persons with disabilities aren’t expected to experience normal developmental behaviours. And this little belief still exists.
So much of our health care system is so focused on the disability that they ignore normal development. If you act out, as many teenagers do, but you have a disability then it’s your condition that is the problem. Well I hate to disappoint the medical profession but many kids with disabilities experience some of the same issues that any other kid does. The system is too quick to rule out the “normal teenage development issues”.
Puberty, for example, manifests itself in a person with a disability the same as it does for non-disabled kids. Read More »
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An 18th century poet named Thomas Gray wrote a short poem known as “Ode to a Distant Prospect of Eton College” which is most famous for the quote “ignorance is bliss”. He closes with the line “tis folly to be wise”. I have been giving that a lot of thought these days in relationship to advocacy. I have been questioning myself of late on my effectiveness as an advocate.
All of my work is with ESL families. I put a lot of time into educating families on their child’s disability and the opportunities their child could have with the right therapies. Quite often this goes against generations of cultural beliefs associated with disabilities. In many cultures a child born with a disability is seen as a curse or embarrassment. This does not take away from the parents love for that child but it can certainly stigmatize the family in their ethnic community. Many new Canadians keep this secret until their child reaches an age where they have to interact with society. And for many that is when the child enters the education system. This usually results in 3 or 4 years of lost therapy time. Read More »
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I tried to give a basic breakdown of difference between a peer support person and an advocate in my last post. I spoke of the importance of an advocate being aware of the policies and regulations they need to understand in order to be effective. That was a very simplified version.
In reality an effective advocate also needs to understand what other policies and regulations that can have an impact on what they are trying to achieve for the person they are working with. Because I work primarily with the ESL community it is imperative that I also understand human rights and immigration regulations. I have yet to discover any regulations that stand alone and are not impacted by other regulations. The government department I deal with most of the time would prefer to work in a silo environment while ignoring other legislation. Legislation the average Canadian, let alone a new Canadian, understands. You need to understand the linkages. Read More »
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Well it has been a crazy summer and I haven’t really put much time into my blogs so here I go again. Blogs, like so many things in life, are all about wording and clarity. Since I tend to be over-inclusive on so many things I do have to put a lot of thought and planning into the point I am attempting to make.
I have understood the importance of words for some time now and usually assume others know as well particularly my peers. When I returned to Calgary two years ago a long time friend of mine contacted me to see if I would do some advocacy work for some of her clients. Advocacy is something I have been involved with for over 30 years so I agreed. It’s something I have always enjoyed but also a process I understand very well. What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was actually being asked to be a peer support person since this was what so many of these families were use to.
There is a world of difference between peer support and advocacy. Read More »
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I attended a workshop today regarding culture and disability. This had been promoted to me as being a workshop of value and a big step to acknowledging cultural competence. I have no doubt that the people who produced and presented the workshop meant well however I may have higher expectations than I should. After all, I’m back in Alberta and the concept of cultural competence is relatively new in this province. I keep forgetting that. I grew up in Alberta but moved to Vancouver Island in 1990. BC is much more advanced in recognizing the need for cultural competence in part because they have experienced an influx of visible minorities much earlier than Alberta. The rapid change in Alberta didn’t really take off until the mid 90’s.
I returned to Alberta two years ago and the changing demographics were much more apparent to me following an 18 year hiatus. Since my return I have been very active within the ESL community with families with children living with disabilities. This is a community that has lost out on a wide range of treatment for their children, primarily autism, due to a lack of understanding of the Canadian system and lack of English understanding. We have a government system here where if you don’t ask the right questions the information regarding services is not always volunteered by caseworkers. Read More »
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Creating Fear with Rhetoric
Fear the great motivator and controller which nobody uses better than the governments. I cannot, with any certainty, say it is deliberate or if they really don’t realize what they are doing. Government not knowing what it is doing never surprises me however I find much of their rhetoric scripted and laced with words designed to develop negative responses.
The latest issue to raise my ire is regarding the Tamil refugees. Vic Toews, the Federal Minister for Public Safety, was quick off the draw to begin spouting the words terrorists and human smugglers . I think Mr. Toews needs to brush up on some facts and put them in perspective especially considering the province he is from. Read More »
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