Woman denied home-care funding
MARGARET PHILP
Globe & Mail
Wednesday, June 20, 2001
The Ontario government has turned down a disabled woman's plea for
funds to live at home, leaving her in the children's institution where she
has been for 21 years.
At 27, Dani Harder has lived at Toronto's Bloorview MacMillan
Children's Centre longer than anyone in the institution's history.
She is a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy, unable to speak, her twisted
frame confined to a wheelchair that she powers by tilting her head. But
her mind is untouched by disability, and she wants to be discharged to
live in a condominium apartment owned by her mother, Karen Harder.
The province is willing to foot the $185,000 bill to keep her in the
children's institution but is refusing to pay the $120,000 the Harders are
requesting to hire round-the-clock caregivers that would allow Dani to
live in her own home. The province says it is willing to pay just over half
that amount.
In a letter signed by Health Minister Tony Clement and Social Services
Minister John Baird, Ms. Harder was informed this week that people
with disabilities are "a real priority for our government" but that it could
not pay the lofty price of the care required for Dani to live in an ordinary
home.
The reality, the letter says, "is that governments do not have unlimited
resources. Although we are prepared to provide support for your
daughter, we cannot provide 24-hour in-home care 365 days a year for
an indefinite period."
For years, Ms. Harder has rejected offers to place her daughter in
group homes, which often cater to people with mental disabilities, or in
institutions such as Riverdale Hospital in Toronto, which have more frail
seniors than handicapped young adults.
"Essentially what they're saying is the average shoe size is 6, so
everybody gets a size 6. I don't care if you've got a size 9 foot," Ms.
Harder said. "I mean, it's not a dress. The fact is, Dani is a higher-needs
person."
Group homes and institutions that provide less care than Dani is now
receiving cost the province about half the amount of money that Dani is
requesting, but Ms. Harder insists they provide only a fraction of the
care her daughter requires as someone unable even to feed herself and
offer no choice of meals or daily routines that ordinary people have.
"In my opinion, the government is coldly and callously forcing her into a
retirement facility," Steve Peters, the Liberals' former disability critic,
said.
Gord Haugh, a spokesman for Mr. Clement's office, said the province
is offering the Harders the maximum amount of money that it provides
any family looking after a physically disabled person at home.