The long wait times Island families face waiting for a child to be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or a learning disability came under scrutiny in the P.E.I. Legislature Friday.
The current wait time for Island children to receive an assessment from a psychologist within the school system is about three years, according to government.
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Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé released a report this summer titled Nowhere to Turn. It came with the sub-title: “Investigation into the Ministry of Community and Social Services response to situations of crisis involving adults with developmental disabilities.”
by Jeff Pearson’s son is 22, and like many people in his 20s he’s keen to move out and live on his own, his father says.
But when Pearson was told last year his son, who has an intellectual disability, would have to wait up to eight years for supported housing through the province, he started contemplating a different approach — Kijiji.
by A family in Rigaud is moving to Ontario to access services for their autistic son because of long waiting lists in Quebec. As Anne Leclair reports, several stakeholders claim it’s a growing problem faced by many English-speaking families.
by Mary Archer went into hospital an expectant mother, full of dreams for the future — she came out three and a half years later, severely brain damaged, unable to walk on her own and struggling to speak.
“It’s been like a nightmare that you never wake up from,” says Heather MacDonald-Archer of her daughter’s devastating injuries suffered in the wake of a fall at St. Michael’s hospital in 2009, in the hours after she had surgery to replace a shunt at the back of her skull.
Now, after seven years of anguish, uncertainty over living arrangements, and thousands of dollars in care costs, her family is finally getting some relief — supportive housing for Mary.
by A Liverpool, N.S., man with an intellectual disability says he’s living in a men’s shelter in Halifax because affordable housing is too hard to find in his South Shore hometown.
by All day, almost every day, they pass the hours sitting on a white carpet on the laminate floor of a North Burnaby apartment, unable to move.
They are two sisters from Syria, Hoda and Maha Al-Sidawi, who are 24 and 23 respectively. Since about age 10, they have suffered from a neurological condition that makes their muscles extremely weak.
by Some parents say they are struggling to pay for support workers and housing once their child becomes an adult and several provincial supports they relied on disappear.
Ontario offers about 18,000 spaces in publicly funded group homes for adults with developmental disabilities, but more than 6,000 people are currently on waiting lists.
by Seventy-four-year-old Marg MacPhee says caring for an adult son with Asperger’s syndrome can mean moments of joy, but the time has come for the Nova Scotia government to ensure he has his own place.
The mother was one of several parents attending a government information session Tuesday night who said their worries are growing over waiting lists for housing of adults with disabilities.
by The family of a New Brunswick woman with ALS is calling on the provincial government to streamline a program designed to help retrofit homes for people with disabilities.
Ruth Holt, a 64-year-old mother of two from New Denmark, was waiting for funding to make her bathroom wheelchair-accessible when she went in with her walker instead and fell on May 9.
She has been unable to walk since then. Now, she must be given sponge baths and lifted onto a commode in the family farm house.
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