There are two topics I would like to discuss today, and I welcome everybody to listen.
Topic number one on the web page was, what specific federal tax and/or program spending measures should be implemented?
Program spending on brain injury rehabilitation will ensure that those disabled with a brain injury are as healthy as possible. It means they are not unemployed and are not suffering from undue stress and depression due to a lack of rehabilitation and a lack of retraining that is necessary for them to rejoin the country as productive members of society. Warehousing people, who could be gainfully employed, in nursing homes or jails is not in this country's best interests.
A previous study by the Ontario Brain Injury Association found that there are over 46,000 people who suffer brain injuries each year in this country. An overwhelming majority of those people either never return to work or remain underemployed for the rest of their lives.
An extra 23,000 potential employees per year, to take 50% of that number, would benefit Canada's employers immeasurably. A reduction in the number of people on social assistance as well, both for federal CPP disability and the provincial disability assistance programs, would also provide the country with more freed-up dollars, plus there would be increased economic activity, spending, etc., by those new wage earners.
The other topic I would like to mention is number three: What specific federal tax and/or program spending measures should be implemented to ensure that our nation has the infrastructure required by its citizens and businesses?
A national brain injury act, akin to the acquired brain injury act in Australia, would provide Canada's citizens with the infrastructure that survivors and their families or caregivers need.
If a spouse or a child suffers a brain injury, assuming it's a two-wage-earner family, then one of those persons must quit his or her job to care for the survivor. If it was the spouse who was injured, then both earners are out of the job market.
There are currently brain injury associations in most or all of the provinces, along with the fledgling national association, the Brain Injury Association of Canada. Because of the different ways in which each province classifies brain injury, there is no consistency among the provinces in rehabilitation or in core funding.
A brain injury is a physical disability. It can result in physical and/or mental and/or cognitive deficits, repercussions, and disabilities. Some provinces categorize brain injury as a mental disability. Some provinces see it as a mental or a physical disability, depending on what the effects of it are, while others do not classify it as a disability at all.
Nova Scotia falls into the latter category. In Nova Scotia, for provincial disability assistance, a brain-injured person is either classified as mentally challenged or mentally ill. There is nothing in the act that says they are brain injured.
Nova Scotia's provincial Brain Injury Association receives no operational core funding money from any government. It instead relies entirely on public donations, with the occasional project-specific grant. They provide the only brain injury rehabilitation in this province.
A petition was read in the House of Commons in February 2005 asking that a question about brain injury be added to the next national census in order to provide a national database to correct this classification inconsistency.
Brain injury is surely a federal matter. Treatment of the brain injured in this country violates the Charter of Rights because of discrimination against one particular disability. The Canada Health Act says treatment should be universal across the country, as well as being accessible to all and portable from province to province. This is not the case with brain injury rehabilitation.
Federal impetus is needed to provide a clearly defined continuum of care for brain injury nationally, using Australia's acquired brain injury act as a model.
Two, standardize medical protocols across this country regarding brain injury.
Three, provincial brain injury associations need stable operational core funding.
A national, federally funded re-education program for brain injury survivors is necessary.