The sister of a British Columbia girl with Down syndrome who starved to dying in a Port Coquitlam residence in 2018 says she believes extra folks will die if systemic adjustments aren’t made to how folks with developmental disabilities are handled.
A coroner’s inquest into the dying of 54-year-old Florence Girard begins Monday in Burnaby, B.C., the place a jury will hear the circumstances round how she died weighing solely about 50 kilos.
Her sister, Sharon Bursey, described Girard as humorous and sarcastic, and somebody who cherished spending time together with her household.
Bursey stated that since her older sister’s dying, folks have reached out to share comparable tales of abuse in opposition to members of the family.
“It is horrible, and I do know it is going to occur once more, and we have to know why. How is it occurring? Like, that is Canada,” she stated in an interview Friday.
Girard died whereas residing within the residence of a lady named Astrid Dahl as a part of a program for folks with developmental disabilities, after her group residence was shut down.
In 2022, Dahl was convicted of failing to supply the necessaries of life to Girard. Her preliminary 12-month conditional sentence was elevated to fifteen months in jail by the B.C. Court docket of Attraction.
The Kinsight Neighborhood Society oversaw the home-sharing service in Girard’s case, after being contracted by the provincial Crown company Neighborhood Residing B.C., underneath the Ministry of Social Growth and Poverty Discount.
Court docket paperwork say Girard required round the clock care in nearly each side of her every day life, together with being supervised whereas she ate.
The paperwork say 2012 data confirmed Girard was wholesome and weighed an applicable 120 kilos. They are saying her urge for food modified within the months resulting in her dying, however Dahl didn’t organize for her to obtain any medical consideration. When she died in October 2018, she weighed about 50 kilos.
The paperwork say Girard’s final medical appointment for any evaluation was in March 2014.
Bursey stated the final time anybody with the group in command of the home-share program noticed her sister was eight months earlier than she died.
“I do know there’s all of those protocols and handbooks and guidelines, nevertheless it does not look like any of them are being adopted. My sister hadn’t seen a dentist in 5 years, a physician in 4 years,” she stated.
‘Systemic failures’
Tamara Taggart, the president of Down Syndrome B.C., an advocacy group created after Girard died, stated there must be transparency across the systemic failures that led to her dying.
“How did this occur? How does an individual in authorities care starve to dying when there are supposedly safeguards in place, and checks and insurance policies, and every kind of individuals, which are presupposed to be monitoring people who’re residing in residence shares?” she stated in an interview Friday.
“So I actually hope that we will learn the way this occurs, the place the failures have been after which we will transfer towards altering coverage, or at the least suggestions, in order that this by no means, ever, ever occurs once more to anybody.”
Coroner’s inquests don’t assign blame, however juries are requested to make suggestions for learn how to stop comparable deaths sooner or later.
Taggart, who has a son with Down syndrome, is anticipated to testify within the inquest.
She stated folks with developmental disabilities are handled very poorly and people assigned to take care of them aren’t handled very effectively both.
“We’ve systemic failures right here on each stage. You possibly can’t shut an establishment after which say, effectively, we will simply throw folks in group houses and never fund them correctly and never verify on folks, or we will put them in folks’s houses and never practice home-share suppliers correctly,” she stated.
“There is no commonplace of care. They’re going to verify and be sure to have a fireplace extinguisher on each ground of your own home, however are they opening the door to say hi there to any person?”
Taggart stated there are about 4,200 folks in B.C. residing in home-share settings however details about the Crown company and government-funded organizations in command of the applications is commonly not made public.
“You possibly can’t have it each methods. You possibly can’t be getting tons of of tens of millions, a billion {dollars} actually, to take care of a gaggle of individuals after which not be clear about how they’re being cared for,” she stated.
“As a result of we do not understand how many individuals die in care.… We do not hear about it until a member of the family comes ahead. My solely motive right here is [to] discover out what occurred and establish the systemic failures and ensure that it by no means occurs once more, in order that Florence’s dying will not be for nothing.
“Her legacy needs to be systemic change.”
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