People with disabilities lose hopes, skills in psych hospital, inquiry told
HALIFAX — Leaving people with intellectual disabilities in a Halifax psychiatric hospital has created “an unnatural setting” where skills and hopes fade away as years go by, a behavioural therapist told a human rights inquiry Thursday.
Nicole Robinson, a behavioural therapist who works in an acute care unit of the Nova Scotia Hospital, testified that seven of nine patients she treats have been medically discharged but are in limbo because of the lack of supported housing in the community.
She said one of the men has been on the ward for about four decades.
The inquiry is examining a 2014 complaint by 46-year-old Beth MacLean and 45-year-old Joseph Delaney that the province has violated the Human Rights Act by failing to move them from a hospital-like setting into a community home.