More than 120 full-time posts added to disability support program in new provincial budget

Nova Scotia's Community Services Department is in the midst of a major hiring drive as it works to overhaul services for people with disabilities in an effort to help them find living arrangements and thrive in the community.

The 2024-25 provincial budget tabled by the Tory government last week shows an increase of 128 funded full-time staff for the disability support program. The program's executive director said about 70 of those are people moving from other parts of government while the rest are new jobs.

The increase is in addition to 77 new positions approved last year for the department in connection with a human rights settlement intended to end discrimination against people with disabilities.

Maria Medioli said job postings are out now for senior level positions, with more job ads to follow. Medioli said the aim is to have all of the positions filled this year.

"There's a lot of interest in these new jobs because it's a new way of delivering service," she said in a recent interview.

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The movefollowsa protracted legal battle based on people with disabilities being forced to live in institutionalized settings because there have not been enough spaces and supportfor them to live in the community.

It includes a five-year plan to close all institutionalized care and get people into new, supportive living situations. That plan, which was developed by two experts and accepted by the Disability Rights Coalition and provincial government last year, recommended that three-quarters of the 870 people in institutions be moved into housing in communities by 2025 and that large facilities be closed by 2028.

Medioli said the majority of the new jobs would be working directly with people with disabilities to ensure they have what they need to live a good life in communityas this process plays out.

Community Services Minister Brendan Maguire said this approach will allow the departmentto take theneeds of each person into account.

"I think what's going to happen here and the change that people are going to see is that the system is finally going to be about them and not the other way around," he said in an interview at Province House.

Among the changes, Maguire said there would be a focus on ensuring people are living close to family. The minister said he knows of some examples now where people are living an hour or more away from family because that is all that's available.

The government's budget contains$102.3 million for work connected to the court-ordered remedy. That includes an increase of $300 per month through a new disability supplement to about 15,000 people, or 60 per cent of income assistance recipients who have been deemed unable to work.

Although the new supplement was not mandated as part of the five-year plan, Maguire said the government decided to create it based on the recognition that people on income assistance who are living with disabilities needed more money to get by.