Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and ODSP Applications: Towards a New Model of Partnership with Community Legal Clinics
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Hay: Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and ODSP Applications: Towards a
Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and ODSP Applications: Towards a
New Model of Partnership with Community Legal Clinics
NICHOLAS HAY*
Lorsqu'ils remplissent une demande du Programme ontarien de soutien aux personnes
handicap6es (POSPH) pour leur clientle A faible revenu, les m6decins et les
infirmier. re.s praticien.ne.s sont confront6s A la tfche difficile de mettre en
correspondance les problkmes de sant6 uniques de leur clientle et un critre juridique
qui leur est 6tranger. Par cons6quent, un nombre anormalement 6lev6 de demandes aux
POSPH est refus6 d'entr~e de jeu parce que les renseignements foumis par les
professionnel.le.s de la sante dans la demande sont insuffisants. Alors que certains jettent
le blame de cette lacune sur les m~decins, des entrevues r~alis~es par l'auteur auprbs de
professionnel.le.s de la sant6 r6vlent leur version des faits et proposent des pistes de
faqons dont les cliniques juridiques communautaires peuvent collaborer avec les
professionnel.le.s de la sant6 pour am6liorer les services juridiques et m6dicaux offerts
aux patient.e.s d faible revenu. L'auteur affirme que, afin d'arriver d une solution d long
terme, un modle de coop6ration entre les professionnel.le.s juridiques et m6dicaux est
indispensable, id6alement sous forme de partenariat m6dico-l6gal (PML).
When completing the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) application for their
low-income patients, physicians and nurse practitioners are met with the difficult task of
mapping their clients' unique medical conditions onto an unfamiliar legal test.
Accordingly, an inordinate number of ODSP applications are denied at the outset
because the information healthcare professionals provide in the application is
insufficient. While some blame physicians for this shortcoming, interviews conducted by
the author with healthcare professionals reveal their side of the story and offer insights
into how community legal clinics can work with healthcare professionals to improve the
legal and medical services low-income patients receive. The author argues that in order
to facilitate a long-term solution what is required is a model of cooperation between
those in the legal and medical professions, particularly in the form of medical-legal
partnerships (MLPs).
THE ODSP APPLICATION, replete with boxes to be checked and blanks to be filled in,
inscriptively characteriz[ing] bodies crudely as either disability eligible, or not,1 leaves
physicians and nurse practitioners with the unenviable task of mapping the unique ways that
disability is embodied in the everyday lives of low-income individuals onto an unfamiliar legal
test. ODSP is one of Ontario's social assistance programs. It provides income and employment
supports to Ontario residents who have disabilities and are in financial need, helping to pay for
* Nicholas Hay is an articling student at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General's Crown Law Office -
Criminal and would like to thank Dr. Sean Rehaag for his invaluable guidance and advice, as well as all of the
healthcare providers who generously gave their time to be a part of this study. The views expressed in this article are
those of the author and do not reflect those of the Ministry of the Attorney General.
I Ernie Lightman et al, 'Not disabled enough': Episodic disabilities and the Ontario Disability Support Program
(2009) 29:3 Disability Studies Q 1 at 2.
Published by Osgoode Digital Commons, 2018](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jlsp29&div=5&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and ODSP Applications: Towards a New Model of Partnership with Community Legal Clinics
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