A Foundation or Association Needs to be Created for People with Misunderstood and Invisible Disabilities

 

By Kendall Worth!

I’d like to start off with a little bit of background info about the title of this BLOG.

Since my first article was published July 12th, 2016, and until the Nova Scotia Advocate Folded in 2021 (my final article was published September 16th, 2021),  I have on several occasions reported on various issues impacting the Disability Community in Halifax.

 

Throughout all of this reporting, in the Nova Scotia Advocate and beyond, I keep thinking about people like myself who have an Impulse Control Disorder and people who are neurodivergent. Keep in mind that in this current BLOG post, I am reporting on what specifically is needed right here in Halifax.

This Link shows information on what is available in different places across Canada for people with various disabilities. In Halifax, we do have a local office of the Canadian Cancer Society as well as the Lung Association for people with lung issues. Also, we have the Autism Center for those who are on the Autism Spectrum.

However, what I am getting at is that it seems like there is little support for people in Halifax with Impulse Control Disorders like OCD, and learning Disabilities.  I have written about these disabilities back in my days of writing for the Halifax Media Coop, like Here and Here.

I have been learning over these past few months that, in addition to those other disabilities mentioned above, Halifax has a population of people who are neurodivergent. And from my experience, I find some neurodivergent symptoms are reasonably similar to OCD symptoms.

What Halifax needs is to develop Support Groups and Organization for this community. People I have been having conversations with lately have been saying that people with these misunderstood disabilities are getting the same stigma as regular income assistance recipients have always had. What needs to be understood is that people with OCD, learning disabilities and people who are neurodivergent may face many psychological challenges that the general pubic doesn’t always understand.

One of my other topics I report on is social isolation. Sources tell me that one of the programs offered through the Autism Center on Spring Garden Road is a social group that meets once a week where people with autism can socialize with each other. A social group like this is needed for those who have these other types of invisible disabilities. Something else I advocate for through my BLOG is a Social Prescribing organization to get up and running here in Halifax.
 
People I have been having conversations with lately who specifically have OCD, learning disabilities and who are neurodivergent have told me that, because of the stigma, they are not comfortable socializing in mainstream ways these days.  

What this type of social group and social prescribing have in common is that they both provide safe socialization.  As I talked about in this BLOG post here and here, I have done the research on what kind of money it would take to start a foundation. A person would basically need to win the lottery.

Still, there is nothing for people with OCD, learning disabilities, and people who are neurodivergent. With a Foundation, we could be creative in how we support people, just the Cancer Society and the The Lung Association. The stigmatization of people with individual disabilities needs to stop. I believe a foundation or association could be a part of the answer we need.