Today marks the date when Canada adopted
the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Simply put, the UNCRC is a treaty that
outlines the basic human rights for children and youth.
Among other rights, the UNCRC outlines
“survival and development rights” which are explained as “the basic rights to
life, survival and development of one’s full potential”. Looking into this a little deeper, Article 23
under the “survival and development rights” states:
“Children
who have any kind of disability have the right to special care and support, as
well as all the rights in the Convention, so that they can live full and
independent lives.”
So, how is Canada ensuring that the rights
of children with disabilities are being fulfilled? Of course, we have public healthcare which
provides children prompt access to medical attention. But Article 23 goes beyond this. It also includes the right to services – therapy services perhaps - that children
with “any kind of disability” should be able to access such that they can
become independent adults and experience a fulfilling life.
While Ontario offers plenty of publicly
funded early intervention services for children with disabilities (based on the
availability of twenty government-funded children’s treatment centres across
the province), how are the outrageous waitlists for some of the most valuable
services offered in these centres acceptable?
For example, last year the Toronto Star surveyed nine of the government-funded
treatment centres and found average waitlist times ranging from one to FOUR
years for a child to receive intensive behavioural intervention (IBI) therapy.
So how does this follow the guidelines of
the UNCRC? Honestly, it doesn’t. Simply
having a service available to a child
with a disability is not enough. The
service needs to be provided. Long waitlists do not allow children to “live
full and independent lives” but in fact can stifle a child’s development by
denying access to programs that are most effective as “early
intervention”.
Therefore, while we celebrate how far we
have come to secure the rights of children, we need to look ahead and aim for a
brighter future for those children that may need some extra support – sooner
rather than later. An example of
striving for a brighter future comes from the parents of one of my clients who devoted
their time to being their child’s advocate when “he didn’t have a voice”. After this young client was denied services by
one of the government-funded children’s treatment centres in Ontario, his
parents scheduled a meeting with their local Member of Provincial Parliament
(MPP) to advocate for their son’s dire need for early intervention
services. As a result of the advocacy
skills of my client’s parents, the MPP ordered the treatment centre to complete
a reassessment and the child was granted the early intervention services that
he absolutely deserved and required. During
a conversation with the mother of this client, she stated, “It is my job to be
make my child’s life better”. This
statement is heartwarming, and perhaps we should view it as a challenge. A challenge for all of us – therapists,
health professionals, teachers, citizens, governments
– to truly make it our “job” to ensure children are given the best life
possible. So take the challenge and
advocate for our children – ask more questions, get second opinions, research
the available charitable funding, schedule meetings with your MPP, school board
trustee, and don’t take no for an answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment