Poorly designed subsidies discourage disabled people from living independently, violating international law, members of the Taiwan Community Living Consortium said yesterday.
They made their remarks during a hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei organized by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chieh-ju (陳節如).
“There are very few community living programs, because funding is extremely inadequate and there currently is no policy supporting their continuous operation,” Taiwan Community Living Consortium president Chen Mei-ling (陳美鈴) said. “At a time when the government cannot make a firm policy promise, nonprofits are afraid to operate the programs and parents are afraid to entrust their children to us.”
She said that the programs allow disabled individuals to lead richer and more normal lives compared with institutional care by allowing them greater freedom, adding that the programs also cost less, because they do not require permanent facilities to be purchased and maintained.
The consortium’s members condemned the current subsidy scheme for mainly funding institutional living.
“Currently, no institution will turn [a disabled person] away — everyone is accepted, because there are subsidies — but that money is not available to those who want to live in a community living program,” National Yang-Ming University professor of health and welfare Chou Yueh-ching (周月清) said.
She said that only 0.03 percent of disabled people in the nation live in community living programs, compared with 6.8 percent who live in institutions, adding that the remainder live independently or with their family.
The advocates emphasized that choosing where and how one lives is a right for the disabled under the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which Taiwan has ratified.
“Community inclusion is a human right and institutional living must stop,” Harvard Law School Project on Disability senior researcher Janet Lord said.
“There is a very clear evidence base that institutions are diminishing of human rights, that they create cycles of dependence; they are isolating, oppressive and they create conditions in which human rights violations flourish,” Lord said, adding that the institutions increase the likelihood of violence, sexual abuse and exploitation, while reducing the opportunity for a quality education and meaningful activities.
Chiang Hsiu-chu (蔣秀珠), a resident of a community living program in Taichung administrated by the Maria Social Welfare Foundation, said she liked the arrangement better than institutional living, because she can decide when to sleep, can go to work by herself and is also able to go to a nearby park to exercise.
Social and Family Affairs Administration Deputy Director-General Chu Chien-fang (祝建芳) said that the government supports making it easier for disabled people to choose community living because of the increase in the quality of life allowed.
While in the past subsidies were capped because there were only trial programs, there is now a legal foundation to allow for caps to be lifted and subsidies distributed in the same manner as assisted-living institutions, Chu said.
She added that the main roadblock to expansion has been the failure by local governments to draft relevant fee schedules, preventing subsidies from automatically being distributed to community living programs.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS