N.S. misses deadline to halt admissions of people with disabilities into institutions

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s failure to meet its deadline to halt new admissions of people with disabilities into large institutions has left some disability advocates feeling betrayed.

After a landmark 2021 legal victory that found systemic discrimination against people with disabilities who are seeking housing in the community, the provincial government accepted a proposal to help people move out of institutions.

Part of the five-year plan released in April 2023 called on the province to end new admissions to the facilities, known as adult residential centres and regional rehabilitation centres, by March 31. But that hasn’t happened.

“What this demonstrates is that we can’t trust this government to do what it says it’s going to do,” disability rights advocate Vicky Levack said in an interview Wednesday.

“If I could speak directly to the premier, I want him to know that I trusted him to do the right thing. He betrayed that trust,” she added.

The plan, which was accepted by the Department of Community Services, recommended moving 652 of the 870 people in institutions — three-quarters of the total — into housing in communities by 2025, and to close large institutions entirely by 2028.

Maria Medioli, executive director of Nova Scotia’s disability support program, said in an interview Wednesday the new target date to stop admitting people with disabilities into the facilities that are slated for closure is Jan. 1.

She said the additional time is needed to hire staff to support people with disabilities in their new homes and to adjust the funding model so money is tied to the individual person and not the facility where they’re living.

“We have a number of pieces of support that we need to put in place to support those individuals who have no alternative but to go to an institution right now,” Medioli said, adding that the Department of Community Services is working to hire more than 70 new staff this year.

Medioli called the plan a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to affect change” and said the department is committed to seeing it through. “The resources have been made available to us to affect the change, but it is a complex change,” she said.

The recommendations in the 2023 report were the result of a marathon legal battle launched in 2014 by three people with disabilities who were kept in a Halifax psychiatric hospital for years, despite medical opinions that they could live in the community with appropriate supports. 

Their human rights case went to a board of inquiry and eventually the province’s Court of Appeal, which ruled in their favour. It found that people living with disabilities were being subjected to discrimination in their inability to obtain social assistance, including housing, support and services.

Levack, who since 2021 has been living in an apartment in Halifax with access to 24-hour care, previously spent almost a decade in a nursing home.

The 33-year-old who has cerebral palsy said living in a nursing home throughout most of her 20s often “felt like a prison.” She said being in an apartment where she can host friends and socialize while having a support worker nearby means she now has a far better quality of life and greater autonomy. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2024.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press