Restructuring Human Services in Canada: Commodification of disability

Abstract

The human service system in Canada has undergone significant changes as a result of the dismantling of provisions that were once in place to ensure access to services by society's more vulnerable citizens. This paper draws on a cross-Canada examination of services to adults with developmental disabilities to report on the response of service providers in this time of turbulence. Qualitative analysis provides insight into the ways in which services have responded to shrinking budgets. Without leadership and lacking a social policy framework from senior levels of governments, the changing face of human services has been accompanied by the arrival of a new market-orientated service provider group that has deepened the commodification of disability. The examination concludes with the introduction of an approach to support which resists the trend toward commodification and re-establishes the social good, allowing the individual with a disability the right to participate more fully in community life alongside other members of society.