Campaign: Don't ship away developmentally disabled adults

Parents of adult children with developmental disabilities are raising awareness about the need for housing supports and more choice when it comes to deciding where their children will live.

“We represent the first generation of parents to raise children with developmental disabilities in our family homes,” said John Preston of Dundas, Ontario, parent of 27-year-old Jenni.

“They were integrated into schools and now are adults with rich active lives, rooted in their local community. As parents age and are no longer able to provide care, we need support for a dignified, planned transition to new homes that maintain those community linkages. Currently we have a regional system based on crisis management.”

Preston is chair of the Dundas Living Centre, which is launching a provincial campaign called Unshippable.

The campaign's name plays on words thousands of Ontario families with adult children who have developmental disabilities dread to hear: “you're being shipped.”

Campaign organizers have said Ontarians with developmental disabilities and their families deserve to make the decision on where and with whom they live, when they can no longer live in the family home.

“The needs of 14,000 adults waiting for residential services and funding are being ignored or overlooked in favour of existing programs that are not keeping up with demand, are restrictive and exclude new, viable options,” said a campaign press release.

Before the spring election 2014, the province announced a proposal to spend $810 million over the next three years to address the backlog of more than 12,000 adults with developmental disabilities who are waiting for residential funding. Some have been waiting more than 20 years.

But the Unshippable campaign has said there is no funding to plan for a respectful transition from family home and home of choice in the community. This means more than 1,450 Ontario parents over the age of 70 are still providing primary care to their adult child.

“The funding must address the current reality that when adults with developmental disabilities are ready to leave home, or lose their parents and caregivers to illness or death, they are put on a ‘crisis list’,” campaign organizers have said. “This means that they will very likely be shipped away from their home communities with no choice, no voice and no regard to the lives they leave behind.”

In an effort to raise more awareness around the issue, Unshippable Week will run from Monday, May 25 to Saturday, May 30.

For more information visit unshippable.ca.