Three-member panel agrees with parents that system favors physically challenged over mentally challenged
RON RYDER – The Guardian – The system set up to award aid to disabled Islanders favours the physically challenged over the mentally challenged, a human rights panel has ruled.
In a decision made public Wednesday, a three-member panel of the Human Rights Commission agreed with parents that the functional independence measurement (FIM) questionnaire used by the Disability Support Program had the effect of making more aid available to claimants whose disabilities are physical.
Four families of disabled persons filed rights complaints alleging discrimination by the program set up to provide families with financial assistance in dealing with disabilities.
The panel held up a second ground of appeal, saying that it was unfair to test the means of families of disabled minors before determining how much assistance to give them.
The panel discarded a third avenue appeal, saying that the DSP’s monthly funding ceilings and lifetime limits on certain services were not a form of discrimination because they were evenly applied.
The panel’s rejection of the FIM questionnaire goes to the heart of the Island’s disability supports.
DSP workers use the 18-question questionnaire to assess the level of assistance someone can claim, award a numerical score from one to seven for each question and use that to set a limit on how much support one person can receive. Depending on the score, a person can get $300, $700, $1,500 or $3,000 in support per month.
But panelists found that since 13 questions focused on physical disabilities and just five focused on cognitive challenges, it favoured one group over the other, especially in cases where someone was severely disabled in one sphere but not the other.
“The 38 per cent level of functioning would entitle the most highly physically disabled person to a maximum monthly support of $1,500,” they wrote in their decision.
“The 76 per cent level of functioning would entitle the most highly mentally disabled person to a maximum monthly support of $300.”
Carolyn Bateman, whose 25-year-old son Adam has both mental and physical challenges resulting from autism, said she was happy to see the DSP sent back for re-examination.
“My understanding is that once a program has been found to be discriminatory government has to stop,” she said.
“Five years ago — as soon as they announced this program we could see the problems with it. It began when they were announcing the implementation plans but we’ve had deaf ears ever since then.”
Bateman said the autism advocacy group Stars for Life is hopeful of meeting with Premier Robert Ghiz and Health Minister Doug Currie to discuss ways of improving services to the autistic and to families of disabled people generally.
“We made some progress today, it’s a shame we couldn’t have achieved the same thing by sitting around a conference table,” she said. “Of course government could always appeal this and then we’d have to really consider what to do.
“Parents of disabled children work with them 24 hours a day. I think when someone is able to take on this fight, there are a lot of parents who say, ‘Thank God because we just don’t have the time or money’.”
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