The Four Walls of My Freedom by Donna Thomson Read Free Book Online Page B

unwittingly went about identifying and creating the circumstances of human freedom for their children with disabilities. The PLAN model is very much a Capability Approach model — it is least restrictive, but most supportive. But at the moment, despite the efforts of those involved with advocating for measures to encourage active and caring citizenship, the issues relating to a good life for people with disabilities are of little interest to those unaffected by disabling conditions.
    People may read in the papers about another tragic case of a parent who, being overwhelmed, takes the life of a son or daughter with disabilities. But they won’t read this story and relate it to the care of their own aging parent. The fact is, in the years ahead, all people with a need for care in the community will be in competition for ever-scarcer resources from the public purse. And in a climate of limited resources for care, everyone needs friends.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Eldercare
    Like other baby boomers, I worry about my elderly mother. I am fifty-five years old and my mother is eighty-eight. I live in England and my mother resides in a Montreal seniors’ residence. Luckily, my sister lives in Montreal. But last year, when my mother became seriously ill, I flew home to help. Long-distance caring is turning into the norm for contemporary families.
    My mother has savings that allow her to live in her own apartment, with help available, if she needs it. Some of her costs are covered by Canada Pension benefits combined with a small work pension, and those benefits combined with her personal savings cover her living costs. There is no doubt that her circumstances are more than adequate to meet her needs and aspirations. What will be the future of my generation?
    In the next twenty-five years, the population of Canada will double. According to Statistics Canada, 18.4 percent of all Canadians have “moderate to poor” functional health, likely necessitating some form of assistance for daily living. 6 Fully three-quarters of a million Canadians (22 percent of seniors) require intensive care due to a chronic health problem or a physical disability. And increasingly, to be old in Canada means to live out one’s final years in poverty. The combination of a rapidly aging demographic and the reluctance of governments at all levels to launch new social programs spells continuing suffering and neglect for the most vulnerable seniors of today, and even greater hardship down the road for many Canadians now in early middle age. 7
    The novelist Martin Amis made the news in the British papers when he picked a fight with the grey power of the UK ’s aging population, calling for euthanasia “booths” on street corners where the elderly can terminate their lives with “a martini and a medal.” Never shy of controversy, the author asserted that in Britain, there is a civil war coming between the young and the old. “They’ll be a population of demented very old people, like an invasion of terrible immigrants, stinking out the restaurants and cafés and shops,” he said. Amis admitted that his remarks were “satirical,” but otherwise defended his pro-euthanasia stance. 8
    There is no doubt that care is headed for the dubious distinction of being a rare commodity. Like energy, clean air and water, there won’t be enough to go around.
    But I disagree with the premise of Martin Amis’ argument. I don’t believe that this looming crisis will pit young against old or the elderly against the disabled. We love our relatives who require care. No loving son or daughter could conceive of promoting the early demise of their parent. And Amis has failed to grasp one more crucial point — there is money to be made in the new growth industry of care provision. There is gold in all that silver.
    Jim Maxmin and Dr. Allan “Chip” Teel developed a practical and innovative solution to ensuring the