Northern health needs ignored

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Funding for new facilities and services for the developmentally disabled will not make life any easier for Aboriginal communities in northwestern Ontario. On March 10, the Ministry of Community and Social Services announced it would provide $24.4 million in capital and operating funds to create 178 new facilities. The funding goes to 27 communities in southern Ontario: Toronto, Sudbury, York, Ottawa, Wellington, Hamilton, Manitoulin Island and Six Nations of the Grand River.

"The health authority in Sioux Lookout has identified 413 persons with developmental handicaps, but we have no residential services, no in home support, no clinical assessment or day programs ... this is another southern Ontario initiative that ignores the hardship and suffering of families in the North," said Stan Beardy, grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation.

The ministry's northern regional office delivers programs such as the Special Services at Home and Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities to First Nations. Beardy said that does not make up for the lack of facilities in the North that makes it difficult for families to visit relatives who require special care.

"What (the ministry's) talking about is the administration office there that provides some funding to assist with the disabled. But regardless, we're talking about the isolation factor here, remoteness of the maybe 400 kilometres, 500 kilometres, There's not much we can do. The only option that is open for us is that if we cannot look after our own relatives when they are in that condition, they get shipped out to the nearest institution. We're talking isolated communities, they have very little infrastructure to work with," said Beardy. "We are removing the disabled from their own environment, from their family, from the culture, everything else. They're totally removed and place in institutions. They don't know anybody; they cannot relate to anybody. They are already mentally challenged and you add burdens on them. You're almost sentencing them to death," said Beardy.

Roy Sakchekapo of the North Caribou Lake First Nation is familiar with the scenario that Beardy described. Sakchekapo has an 18-year-old son who is developmentally disabled. Because of the lack of services on or around the reserve, Sakchekapo's son now lives in Kenora. It costs Sakchekapo between $1,000 and $1,500 to visit.

"I get to see him four times a year, or if I happen to be travelling through the town he's in then I'm able to drop in and see him for a few minutes," said Sakchekapo. "There's nothing north of Sioux Lookout for my son. The government did absolutely nothing for them. That's why he left seven years ago to get those services."

Last year, the North Caribou Lake First Nation submitted a funding proposal to the Ministry of Community and Social Services to build a facility on reserve.

"I was informed by somebody that there won't be any announcement until April, so when the announcement was made I was kind of surprised. I felt really disappointed that nothing west of Sault Ste. Marie was approved ... we were developing a floor plan for the building. The First Nation has basically spent a lot of money on trying to get this facility happening here," said Sakchekapo, who worked on the proposal.

According to the ministry, communities that received money for expansion of facilities for the developmentally disabled were assessed based on the demand on services and the capacity to expand services for adults with developmental disabilities.

"We live in Ontario too, and if there's any funding made available to the residents of the province, we expect those services (that) those other residents of the province take for granted. As far as the allocation of resourcing is made available for construction of facilities to assist the disabled, it only goes as far north as Sudbury, which is only a few hours drive from Toronto, and as far as Toronto is concerned, nothing really xists really beyond Sudbury," said Beardy.