Re/Moving Care from the Ontario Direct Funding Program: Altering Conversations among Disability and Feminist Scholars

Abstract

This article enters into conversations about “care” among feminist and disability scholars through a qualitative study on the Ontario Direct Funding program. In some ways, the findings reflect Independent Living perspectives as the program and interactions between attendants and self-managers are positioned as “not care.” Yet, there are areas that remain care, including associations with oppression, professionalism, medical and intimate needs, and people with intellectual disabilities. This alters theoretical conversations by demonstrating that Independent Living does not eliminate care, but rather moves it in attempt to highlight institutionalized histories, reduce oppressive potentials, and transform its meanings with varying degrees of success. Attendant services do NOT include: professional services such as nursing care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, respite care, physician services, “care” or taking responsibility for the person with a disability. (“Centre for Independent Living in Toronto,” 2010, emphasis in original). Well, it is care though. Personal assisted care. Um. Taking care of me. That’s all there is to it.—Cheryl, self-manager Scholars note the increasing commodification of care and privatization of home care in Canada and elsewhere (Armstrong 2001), and these processes are especially pronounced in direct funding arrangements (Ungerson and Yeandle 2007). Direct funding arrangements transfer public funds to individuals who then hire care workers or attendants to assist with daily needs. Service recipients or their guardians become employers (in varying respects) of the attendants, and take on administrative duties traditionally in the purview of nonprofit organizations or governments. This policy approach is considered a potential solution to the home care crisis linked to shifting demographics, but it raises a number of questions related to the regulation of the workers, quality of the