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Living with disability

NWT needs to shape up disability services, report says

Jorge Barrera
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 08/00) - The NWT is severely lacking in services for the disabled says a report released on Monday.

FACTS

According to the report titled "Living with Disability...Living with Dignity," (statistics 1999):

  • 13 per cent of the NWT population is disabled which equals 5,453 people.
  • 1,260 were interviewed for the report.
  • 44 per cent of disabled people have dependants
  • 61 per cent have less than a grade 9 education
  • 16 per cent of disabled people over the age of 15 have a job
  • 80 per cent of working aged disabled people live on less than $20,000
  • 48 per cent earn less than $10,000
  • 60 per cent of people with disabilities have more than one disability




    • The report titled, "Living with Disability...Living with Dignity," paints a stark picture of the challenges the disabled face in the NWT and suggests that current services need to improve to meet the needs of 13 per cent of the territory's population who live with a disability.

    Bill Burles uses a wheelchair, he's the chairperson for the NWT council for disabled persons and is hopeful about the report but is wary that it'll remain on the shelf gathering dust.

    "I hope it stays alive," says Burles, "but with government you just never know."

    Burles says there aren't many services for the disabled in the NWT making living tough.

    "If someone with a disability called me about moving to the North I'd tell them to stay south," said Burles.

    According to the report 80 per cent of disabled persons in the North of working age have a personal income of less than $20,000 a year and 48 per cent of those earn less than $10,000 a year.

    The report also states that 61 per cent of people with disabilities have less than a grade 9 education and for those with over a grade 12 their employment rate is 10 times higher.

    The report says that the NWT needs to step up its programs to meet increasing need, personalize services, give caregivers and parents more support and adds that the NWT is "ill equipped to respond to a growing population with disability."

    Burles lives with his parents and says this absorbs some of the costs but adds that there it's the little things that make life harder to live.

    "If I get my wheelchair tire changed at a wheelchair shop it's covered by the government," he said, "but if I get it done at a bike shop it's half price and it takes a long time to get the receipt cashed in.'

    At a press conference to officially release the report Health and Social Services minister Jane Groenewegen said the report gives her department the tools to implement change.

    "We plan to analyze and respond to the report's finding," said Groenewegen.

    When asked when the disabled population would feel the trickle down affect of the report Groenewegen could not answer. But Education Culture and Employment minister Jake Ootes said his department had implemented literacy strategies to help in the education process.

    Disability self-advocate MaryAnne Duchesne said the report is a building block toward including the disabled within the community.

    "I am disabled," she said, "and I had to fight tooth and nail to get things I needed. I hope this report will put us to work so we can be leaders."

    The federal government gave $75,000 through HRDC and the GNWT gave $20,000 through the Department of Education Culture and Employment and the Department of Health and Social Services to fund the report.

    A disabilities conference is planned for January.