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Biography & Autobiography People With Disabilities

Making a Home

Assisted Living in the Community for Young Disabled People

by (author) Jen Powley

Publisher
Fernwood Publishing
Initial publish date
May 2023
Category
People with Disabilities, People with Disabilities, Immune System
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781773635958
    Publish Date
    May 2023
    List Price
    $24.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781773636184
    Publish Date
    May 2023
    List Price
    $23.99

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Description

In some Canadian provinces, people with severe physical disabilities are simply warehoused in nursing homes, where many people, especially in the age of homecare, are in the final stages of their lives. It is difficult for a young person to live in a home geared for death; their physical assistance needs are met, but their social, psychological and emotional needs are not. Jen Powley argues that everyone deserves to live with the dignity of risk.

In Making a Home, Powley tells the story of how she got young disabled people like herself out of nursing homes by developing a shared attendant services system for adults with severe physical disabilities. This book makes a case for living in the community and against dehumanizing institutionalization.

About the author

Jen Powley was born in Alberta, moved to Halifax for university and stayed. An author by circumstance, she wrote Just Jen: Thriving Through Multiple Sclerosis, which won the 2018 Margaret and John Savage First Time Author Nonfiction Book Award. Powley has completed a BA and an after degree in journalism, as well as an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction at the University of King’s College.

Jen Powley's profile page

Excerpt: Making a Home: Assisted Living in the Community for Young Disabled People (by (author) Jen Powley)