BCIFV home > Media Releases > February 28, 2000

For Immediate Release
Contact: The Person Within Project at (604) 669-7055
February 28, 2000

Families of children with disabilities
bring attention to children's unmet needs

Whether or not they succeed in eliminating waiting lists for services,
they are successful in shining a spotlight on a pervasive problem

A recent item in the Vancouver Sun noted that two families of children with disabilities are trying to use BC's Recall and Initiative Act to force the government to cut waiting lists for medical and social services for children with disabilities. This act allows individuals to propose legislation for consideration in the legislature.

'The BC Institute Against Family Violence is not in a position to comment directly on the action of these families,' says Executive Director Penny Bain. 'But we can comment on what we believe are the attitudes underlying the problems so many families of children with disabilities have in obtaining services for their children.'

If parents of physically and developmentally able children had to put their children's names on months-long waiting lists to receive treatment for chronic asthma, ear infections, or swollen tonsils, the public outcry would be enormous. Yet perhaps because parents of children without disabilities have not experienced how crucial these services are to their children's well-being - precisely because they have never been forced to watch their children deteriorating physically and emotionally due to lack of services - there is no enormous outcry.

There are only the crying-out voices of the minority of parents whose children have disabilities and are chronically denied services that would allow them to lead better, more productive lives. And their voices are easily missed, or ignored.

'This is indicative of underlying attitudes in our society toward all people with disabilities,' says Bain. 'This attitude is especially difficult to tolerate when it relates to children, whose potential to become contributing members of our society can't be realized unless they are supported to do the best they can - which they can't do while sitting on waiting lists for the services they need.'

It was with the intent of beginning to change these attitudes that the BCIFV produced The Person Within. Consisting of a video, workshop, and handbook, The Person Within teaches participants about the symptoms and consequences of emotional abuse of children with disabilities. The project concept originated with Sally Rogow, a retired UBC professor of special education and a pioneer in the struggle to advance human rights for children with disabilities.

Abuse of children with disabilities includes but is not limited to incidents of children being tied in wheelchairs and left for hours - or as was reported recently about a boy with ADHD, being taped and tied to a desk. In fact, most abuse of children with disabilities is emotional abuse - overlooking that children with disabilities have the same developmental needs as children without disabilities, and failing to fulfill those needs.

This kind of abuse is more subtle and easily missed than physical abuse, but research increasingly shows that it can be equally damaging. It is no less so to children with disabilities than children without them - yet it's often rationalized by those who work with children with disabilities as part of their treatment plans.

'Physicians, social workers, teachers - many people who spend time with children with disabilities become so focused on children's disability-related needs for medication or physiotherapy that they overlook the emotional and social needs that must be fulfilled if children, with or without disabilities, are to grow into contributing members of society,' says Rogow. The Person Within is aimed at that group of people, including in its intended audience seasoned professionals as well as novices in the field.

'The two families invoking the BC Recall and Initiative Act have a long road ahead of them,' says Bain. 'But as families of children with disabilities, they are probably accustomed to advocating for their children in a society that rarely understands their concerns.

'We wish them them best of luck in their endeavours,' she says. 'But whether or not they win this fight and the legislation they seek is passed, they are already successful. They have succeeded simply by bringing this issue into the public eye and causing people to revisit their own attitudes toward people with disabilities.'

For information on The Person Within, contact Penny Bain, executive director of the BCIFV, Sally Rogow, project director of The Person Within, at (604) 669-7055, www.bcfiv.org, or reception@bcifv.org.