Executive Summary

Through the Ontario Ministry of Health’s Assistive Devices Program (ADP), the Ontario Government provides funding for mobility devices, including power wheelchairs and positioning devices, for community-dwelling individuals. These devices are fundamentally important for Ontarians with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities who live at home across the province. They help people with disabilities live the life they choose despite overwhelming challenges. And, because they are at home and not in a hospital or long-term care home, they reduce the financial burden on our health care system. People with disabilities, however, need other basic devices to perform mobility-related activities of daily living that the Ontario Government chooses not to fund. These include therapeutic support surfaces, which are designed to prevent or manage pressure wounds, as well as transfer devices (floor and ceiling lifts), which allow caregivers to transfer individuals without manual lifting. Both therapeutic support surfaces and floor and ceiling lifts are covered by the B.C., Alberta, and Quebec Governments but not in Ontario.

Moreover, mobility aids such as seat-elevate devices and standing wheelchairs can either facilitate safer and more independent transfers, or they can help users meet a variety of medical and functional needs. They should be covered, too. If the Ontario Government helps ensure that people with disabilities have the right mobility device, the right support surface, the right transfer device, and the right bathroom equipment, it would not only go a long way to providing these Ontarians with the equipment they need to live the life they choose, but also decrease Long-term Care (LTC) home waitlists and reduce the number of Alternate Level of Care (ALC) patients who are unnecessarily occupying hospital beds today. In many cases, it would save costs that are currently incurred by the province’s health care system needlessly. This policy paper examines therapeutic support surfaces, transfer devices, seat-elevating devices and standing wheelchairs, including their rationale, the research associated with their use, and what other jurisdictions are doing. In each section, it provides specific recommendations as it relates to government funding.