David Brock's Blog

The government is failing to provide adequate long-term care for adults who are severely physically disabled (medically challenged) such as myself. Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees took on the issue in the legislature today and afterwards posted a press release on his website.

Local Health Integration Network Failing York Region
http://www.frank-klees.on.ca/Newsroom/LHIN_BrockOct25_2010.htm

“(Queen’s Park) Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees took the case of 28 year old David Brock to the floor of the Legislature today and in doing so, called into question the competency of the Central LHIN, the organization charged with the responsibility of assessing and planning for local health services…”

My previous blog entry is a reposting of an article I wrote back in May 2009 about long-term care for the medically challenged. It will provide background to this important issue.

Young adults who are intelligent and medically challenged have a right to live independently within their community. However, the government is not adequately facilitating this right, choosing to ignore this obvious need. They currently have no appropriate long-term care accommodations for the medically challenged. I’m a young adult with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (a condition that causes progressive muscle weakness), in a wheelchair and require 24-hour non-invasive mouthpiece ventilation. I depend others to provide my physical care and monitor my well being at all times. It’s discouraging to know that if I choose to live independently or if my parents were to become ill or sadly die; the government has nowhere suitable for me to live.
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Last month, on the eve of the paralympic opening ceremony, the Canadian parliament ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This convention is the first international treaty recognizing the rights of disabled people. It is comprehensive and recognizes very specifically the rights the disabled should enjoy in all areas of their daily lives, including living within their local community. Read the rest of this entry »

The new Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), which was passed by the Ontario Liberals 5 years ago, is certainly not an ambitious piece of legislation given their commitment to make Ontario fully accessible by 2025! It turns out that not only is it lacking ambition, but the standards created so far, fall considerably short of being strong and effective. This unfortunately means even the government’s own chosen date of 2025 (which is legally binding) to make Ontario completely accessible will not be met. Read the rest of this entry »