Disability supports have been identified by persons with disabilities across the country as the highest priority issue to be addressed by all levels of government. One of the fundamental components of disability supports is home care/ home support.

This project will build on the work of the Home Support Action Group in Victoria conducted in collaboration with Dr. Kari Krogh. This work found that home support provision had direct links to the health, work and general citizenship participation for people with disabilities. Challenges related to the lack of user involvement in policy design and implementation were identified. The proposed project will involve consumers with disabilities from across Canada in identifying home support policy issues and in promoting solutions. The project will identify variations in home support policy through the collection of standard information related to eligibility, assessment procedures, levels of service and levels of consumer control from each province or territory. This information will be entered into an on-line data base to enable one to make comparisons across regions. Additional activities will include a literature review, interviews (or on-line surveys), a face-to-face focus group in each province/territory and on-line discussions. Videotaped clips that illustrate the role of home support in the lives of individuals with disabilities and that relate to the selected ‘hot topics’ will also be collected. An accessible interactive website will facilitate the participation of people with disabilities from all regions of Canada.

There will be four outcomes: a) a data base of HC policies across Canada; b) a multi-media report of the central issues; c) a HC policy recommendation report; and d) a participation in policy-making report. In dissemination, we will assist organizations in building links to the reports on-line from their websites, provide the reports in accessible formats and support public sharing at local and collective levels. Near the conclusion of the project, there will be a meeting(s) of project representatives, including people with disabilities requiring Home Care, with policy makers. Products of the project, especially the multi-media report, will be promoted to those who conduct professional training and academic teaching.