LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Editor, Almost every day for three weeks, an elderly man in a wheelchair has passed along the street I was on. He would be over 80 years old if he’s a day. Usually a woman is pushing him as he sits quietly in the chair.
Low cost, heavy wheelchair
Today he went by without anyone helping. His hands made the smallest of motions on the wheelchair rims. His weak arms were inching the chair painfully forward.
This is a picture of human determination. Despite losing his wheelchair attendant for the day, he was determined to get to his destination no matter how long it took.
Then it occurred to me. Why doesn’t this senior with a disability have a proper wheelchair? The government has failed Island seniors with disabilities. The previous government excluded them from the Disability Support Program and the new government failed to keep its promise to include them.
Randy Snow in modern lightweight wheelchair
What would this gentleman get from the DSP? He would get at least a manual wheelchair that was easy to self-push. The one he was using is a cheap and inefficient model that I would not be able to push around a grocery store let alone a city street.
Or he would have what he really needs which is an electric chair that only takes his hand on a joy stick. Surely to God at this stage in his life, this senior doesn’t need the abuse of a cheap manual wheelchair.
I feel guilty that I have an electric chair when this man does not. I use it all day long to help me get things done. Lots of non-seniors have power chairs. What makes us special? We are not 65 which is the government’s arbitrary cut-off age for help.
The government set up the DSP services review committee to fix these problems. It heard from the Seniors Federation, Council of the Disabled, Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Disability Alert and dozens of other organizations and individuals who said with one voice: include seniors in the DSP.
Graham Burke in electric scooter suited for seniors
The latest Statistics Canada study tells us that 1,600 seniors on P.E.I. need help purchasing an assistive device like a wheelchair.
When will the government wake up to its promise and responsibility to look after them? I hope it’s soon.
Stephen Pate,
P.E.I. Disability Alert
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