Essay Example on Social Justice: Access, Equity, Rights, and Participation

Introduction

Social justice is purposed to create fairness and equity in how the rights of all people are considered (Townsend & Marvel, 2013). Social justice mainly earmarks the disadvantaged and marginalized groups of persons in the community. Social justice principally covers access, equity, rights, and participation. Occupational injustice is a type of social justice that was developed by an Australian called Ann Wilcock together with a Canadian by the name Elizabeth Townsend, who are occupational therapists and social scientists. Wilcock and Townsend (2013) described occupational justice as, "the right of every individual to be able to meet basic needs and to have equal opportunities and life chances to reach toward his or her potential but specific to individual's engagement in diverse and meaningful occupation." Occupation, health, well-being, and justice are all inter-related. These two social scientists termed occupational injustice as when someone is denied opportunities that can aid in fostering his/her well-being, therefore, causing to outcomes like occupational imbalance, occupational alienation, occupational deprivation, and occupational marginalization. (Chaturvedi, 2013)

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While occupational injustices are on the rise, social and health divisions in Ontario, Canada have chipped-in to tackle the occupational injustice for persons living with a physical disability. The social and health divisions of Ontario province have developed a program called Direct Funding Program that is aimed at legislation, and funding adults living with physical disabilities in the province, in a view promote occupational justice. (Townsend & Marvel, 2013)

Direct Funding Program is a 21-years old innovative program that enables persons with physical disabilities in Ontario province employ and self manage their attendants. The attendants are directly employed by the disabled person and help them with their day-to-day living activities like bathing, meals taking, grooming, and medication taking. The program enables its members to conveniently manage their lives by enabling them to choose the attendants of their own choice and those relevant to their schedule. These people living with physical disability are given the chance to flexibly control their lives by hiring attendants wherever they please, may it be at work or home. Direct Funding program fully covers the four major principles of social justice. By being employers and self-managers, these people living with disability in Ontario are provided access, equity, participation and has rights as the other people. The program is administered by the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto (CILT) and is funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health via Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network. (CILT, 2019)

History of the Direct Funding Program

Direct Funding program became a fully-fledged program in 1998 when the Ontario government increased the program funding to $18.7 million and transitioned it from a pilot program having acquired 700 participants. Increased funding experienced in 2011 has increased the program participants. The history of the program can be dated back to about six decades ago. Students living with disability and who require services related to disability (consumers) developed the philosophies and principles of the direct funding program while attending the University of California. The students postulated that the consumers are neither sick nor need any cure. They formulated principles of self-sustained living related to attendant services as:

• Integration of consumers to the communities should be made fully,
• The needs of the consumers and how the needs are met are well known by the consumers themselves, and
• Comprehensive programs are the only ones that can successfully fulfill the needs of the consumers. (CILT, 2019)

These principles and philosophies led to the creation of federal government-funded Independent Living Resource Centre's (ILRCs) across North America and globally. Currently, there are 28 ILRCs in Canada with 12 of them based in Ontario. In the 1970s and 1980s, consumers in Ontario were only restricted to only two options for them to access attendant services. That is; use of attendant outreach services or living in supportive housing. This limited variety of attendant services prompted consumers to strategize on better ways that could enable flexibility, more choice, and control. A consumer-driven partnership was fronted, that was aimed at provincial governments funding directly to the consumers. This was aimed at flexibility and more control over the scheduling and services received for the consumers. (CILT, 2019)

During this strategizing, a report on the government review of Ontario's attendant services recommended the importance of direct funding program in 1988. In 1993, the Ministry Community and Social Services Act (Bill 101) was legislated and direct funding became a pilot program. In the mid-1990s, the Ontario Minister of health indicated that the pilot program would be run by the Centre for Independent Living in Toronto (CILT) together with Ontario Network of Independent Living Centre. The pilot programs start with 102 participants and a budget of $4.4 million with an additional $750,000 provided by the government later. After the programs become fully-fledged, the provincial Ministry of health and long term care transfers the direct funding program to the current body that runs the program (Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network-TCLHIN) in 2011. (CILT, 2019)

Services Offered by Direct Funding Program and the Eligibility Criteria

For a person to be eligible for the Direct Funding program, he/she should be a resident of Ontario province. The person has to be an adult (over the age of 16 years) and living with a permanent physical disability. The program enables the consumer to have control of his/her life. In a way that he/she can schedule when to receive attendant services, and by who. He/she also gets the chance to train the employee on the way they want the attendant services to be administered. Through the self-management system, the participant is enabled to stay well in their homes and the community. He/she can also get the chance to go to work, go to school and raise children because the attendant services he/she receives ease pressure in their day-to-day life and they can manage to participate in other life activities. (Law Commission of Ontario, 2012)

CILT sets out the regulation that stipulates how one can become a participant for direct grants to cater for attendant services. Besides being an adult and a person living with a physical disability, an applicant should be a recipient of attendant services listed in the Ontario Regulation 367/94 (bathing, grooming, clothing, catheterization, etc.). Additionally, the attendant services to be received should have shown signs of stability over one year, and the applicant care services can be possible to be done at home. Furthermore, the applicant should be able to train or arrange training and supervision of the attendant worker. Besides, the person should be able to undertake the responsibility of an employer, that is, hiring, recruiting, and firing the employers if need be. They should also possess the capability to manage and account for all the funds disbursed by the program. Finally, the applicant should be able to attend the interview scheduled by the agency to determine his/her eligibility. (Law Commission of Ontario, 2012)

Advantages and Disadvantages of the Direct Funding

Direct Funding enables persons living with physical disability in Ontario to get super quality attendant services meaning that they are better supported and thus live a better independent life. The program has numerous advantages as explained below.

Firstly, Direct funding program, provides freedom and flexibility to maneuver personal schedule. Self-management, as enabled by this program, enables the participant to have control of their schedule such that he/she can receive attendant services at a particular schedule and get a chance to participate in other occupational activities of their lives some other time. Secondly, the program improves the overall health of the participant. The capability to hire professional attendant workers means better attendant services are offered meaning the health of the participant improves leading to more energy being channeled to other self-building activities. Thirdly, direct funding helps in reducing financial burdens to the families of the participant. Attendant services catered by personal funding is an expensive burden that can normally lead to debts in some cases. This can lead to stresses and some bad images which are being eliminated when the program is factored in. fourthly, the program improves the welfare of the family. Having a scheduled and consistent attendant worker frees the family from the burden they could have had of tending to the disabled person. This means that the Direct Funding program raises the atmosphere of every family member because most are not worried about the seemingly difficult situation since it is being taken care of expertly. (CILT, 2019)

The program also has its shortcomings. The main disadvantage of the program is the inequality and oppression subjected to an attendant worker. In many cases, the attendant worker is not afforded employment benefits like other occupations. When an attendant misses work, it is regarded as a mortal sin. The program should strive to look into the emotional demands of the job and incorporate some sick days for the workers. Additionally, most of these jobs demean women by coercing them to provide attendant services. Besides, the attendant work exhibit inadequate funding gaps. The funding doesn't cater for some other forms of services like working longer than the specified shift while helping a disabled person finish his/her dinner, or when an attendant goes to work when his/her colleague doesn't show up for one reason or another. (Fritsch, 2017)

References

Chaturvedi, A. (2015). The Concept of Social Justice. International Research Journal of Commerce Arts and Science, 6(12), 100-104. Retrieved from http://www.casirj.com

CILT. (2019). Self-Managed Attendant Services in Ontario. Retrieved September 19, 2019, from https://www.dfontario.ca/

Fritsch, K. (2017). Review of Disability Politics and Care: The Challenge of Direct Funding. Disability Studies Quarterly, 37(1), 220-228. doi:10.18061/dsq.v37i1.5400

Law Commission of Ontario. (2012, September). V. Applying the Framework: The Law and Access to Attendant Services. Retrieved September 19, 2019, from https://www.lco-cdo.org/en/our-current-projects/the-law-and-persons-with-disabilities/persons-with-disabilities-final-report-september-2012/v-applying-the-framework-the-law-and-access-to-attendant-services/

Townsend, E., & Marval, R. (2013). Can professionals actually enable occupational justice? Cadernos de Terapia Ocupacional da UFSCar, 21(2), 215-228. doi:10.4322/cto.2013.025