Re: Ontario rethinks complex disability reviews, May 17
Ontario rethinks complex disability reviews, May 17
In her interview with Laurie Monsebraaten, Mary Marrone of the Income Security Advocacy Centre gives us pause when she describes the process of Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) medical reviews as flawed, wasteful, and “careless with people’s lives.”
As a physician and a member of the Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions, being careless with people’s lives is the last thing Helena Jaczek, the Minister of Community and Social Services, would want.
That’s why Ontario’s registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing students urge her to simplify the ODSP application process. Right now, it is so complicated that more than half of community legal clinic cases involve ODSP appeals.
With more than half of these appeals being eventually approved by the Social Benefits Tribunal, this is not accountability but “denial by design.” We can and must be ever careful with the lives of every Ontarian, especially those most in danger due to health and disability challenges.
Doris Grinspun, CEO, Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, Toronto
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