How to protect rights and increase control for people with intellectual disabilities: a webinar by Community Living Ontario.
The story behind my involvement and my sister Teresa’s in this webinar goes back forty-five years, right up to the present day in 2024! Pretty amazing!
In 1979, Teresa was featured in a documentary called Exploding the Myth. It aired on television all across Canada. The goal of the documentary was to debunk false myths and expose pervasive negative social attitudes that limited the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities.
Teresa’s role was to be the face of inclusion
Teresa lived at home. She went to a regular school (the same girls’ school I went to), and she knew how to read and write. In the film, she also performed a gymnastics routine where she demonstrated how she exercised with a red Swedish ball. That sounds like a pretty good life for girls her age, but it was revolutionary for people with intellectual disabilities. Many of her peers were still being institutionalized: 4,000 names were on the waiting list in Ontario! But my parents were part of the deinstitutionalization wave. They spoke on camera about their decision to raise Teresa at home, and give her all the love and opportunities that their other six kids (including me) enjoyed.
One of the intriguing facts about this documentary is that Community Living Ontario produced the original 1979 film and is hosting this webinar now!
Speed forward to today, and Teresa is still a symbol of inclusion, but with a scary twist. Eleven years ago she lost her freedom and was put into a nursing home. She had to fight for her right to live in the community—a civil right that most people take for granted. We’ll be talking about my memoir Freeing Teresa: A True Story about My Sister and Me. And we’ll be explaining how we helped Teresa get out of forced care and regain her decision-making rights.
Stephanie Dickson, from PooranLaw, will talk about empowering individuals with disabilities; the dangers and drawbacks of guardianship and alternatives to guardianship; people’s right to refuse a capacity assessment and all people’s right to be represented by legal counsel; how to support people in times of uncertainty and transition; and how to support them in expressing their own will and preferences. What do they want?
Join us and Community Living Ontario. Register for the Zoom webinar here: https://bit.ly/ProtectingRightsandIncreasingContro
Date & Time: May 23, 2024, 09:00 AM Pacific Time, 12 noon Eastern
Speakers:
- Stephanie Dickson (Partner, PooranLaw)
- Franke James and Teresa Heartchild (Authors of Freeing Teresa: A True Story about My Sister and Me)
- Nicole Flynn (President, Council of CLO)