16 Women, Disability & Jobs
Description
This article is from the Essays on the topic of Women and Disability.
16 Women, Disability & Jobs
Income and Social Support for Older Women With Disabilities
With Enough Money, We Can Arrange for the Rest!
by Carole Miles-Tapping
Twenty years' experience and a client-centred approach to
rehabilitation has made me skeptical about the role of formal
"social support" versus income in the lives of women with
disabilities. 1 My own experience coming to terms with
progressive disability has provided many incidences which
reinforce my skepticism. Social support, defined by
professionals as having someone to provide emotional support,
keep an eye on things and provide help in emergencies, is an
imperfectly understood concept. Quantitative studies in some
populations have shown that formal social support is able to
"protect against," "ameliorate the effects of," and even to
"buffer" the bad effects of poor health. However, the exact
definitions of support vary with the investigation.
People who become sick or disabled think first about their
income. Worries about economic security of self and dependents
are foremost among the "what if" questions when one becomes ill
or disabled. Formal, organized social support is a nice extra,
but if it is missing, women can usually get by. One woman who has
asthma says: "If I'm sick, don't worry about how much social
support I have, just get me the oxygen and drugs to let me
breathe...give me enough money and I will take a cab to the
hospital."
A major Manitoba study conducted by the Centre on Aging
(Chappell) shows that for people age 60 and over, income is by
far the most important factor in their own assessment of their
quality of life. Social support contributes to well-being only
when people are poor or disabled, but the choices that money
brings are important for everyone. Financial security is much
more powerful than organized social support in alleviating the
effects of disability on wellbeing. For everyone age 60 or over,
regardless of age, sex or level of disability, the amount of
monthly income is directly related to the person's well-being.
The Centre on Aging study focuses on living arrangements,
primary care, and how each relate to the use of formal health
care services. Researchers conducted personal interviews with
1,284 people aged 60 and over, living outside institutions in
Winnipeg, Manitoba. Fifty per cent of those interviewed reported
some disability. Over half (58 per cent) of those interviewed
were female. Fifty-six per cent of those studied were aged 60 to
69, 31 per cent aged 70 to 79, and 13 per cent aged 80 and over.
Respondents rated their own health, finances, family relations,
friendships, housing, living partner, religion, self-esteem,
transportation, and life as a whole. Reports of difficulties with
functional activities--walking, dressing, feeding, washing, using
the toilet, cutting toenails, taking medications, reading,
housekeeping, transportation, household maintenance, food
preparation, grocery shopping, personal business, and
telephoning--indicated respondents' level of functional
disability. Those who reported difficulty with any of the
activities above were considered "disabled" while those who
reported no difficulty were considered "non-disabled".
The study also asked if the respondents had someone to provide
emotional support, someone to keep an eye on things, and someone
to help in emergencies in order to assess their level of social
support.
Finally, respondents were asked about their monthly income, and a
poverty line was set at the level paid by the level paid by the
Canadian Government Guaranteed Income Supplements (GIS); $750 per
month in 1986. Anyone who had income of $750,
regardless of the source (private or employer pension plans, paid
work, payment from a spouse, or other sources) was
considered well-off (rich) while people who depended solely on
OAP and GIS were considered poor.
Only 42 (four per cent) of those with disabilities were in the
highest income bracket (receiving $1750 or more a month)-- the
higher the income, the higher the satisfaction reported with
life. Disability is associated with lower well-being regardless
of income but poverty and disability occurring together (which is
often the case) is even more deleterious to well-being. The
effect of disability is stronger at the bottom of the income
scale, and being well-off has such a strong positive effect that
the presence of disability is less significant.
Poverty among people with disabilities is not surprising. It
confirms the pattern already shown by the Canadian Health and
Disability Survey. The lower average income of people with
disabilities most probably stems from inability to amass assets
during their working lives. Although it has been suggested that
poverty causes disability, disability often causes unemployment
through loss of a job and added expenses.
Disabled elderly women form a majority. As single and widowed
women outlive their spouses (and lose income and support from
them and other sources) they must cope alone with the strains
imposed by diminishing ability to perform the ordinary
activities of everyday life.
Government policies and action can reduce barriers to
employment, provide adequate financial support to women and
people with disabilities, and remove the barriers to full
participation in society. Full participation means labour force
participation and adequate income. Government legislation,
despite the current government's emphasis on "family values,"
cannot provide elderly women with disabilities with social
support in the form of kin (particularly female kin) to keep an
eye on things, help in emergencies, and act as confidants.
Removing the barriers to full participation in society (for women
and persons with disabilities) will enhance our ability to
provide ourselves with "social support."
Without doubt, an adequate income is vital for enhancing well-
being. Government presently channels money into formal social
support systems. To some extent, these systems ameliorate the
lives of women with disabilities. However, they are no
substitute for a decent income. If much of the money would be
used instead to supply women with disabilities with a reasonable
income, our quality of life would improve substantially. We would
be able to reach out to friends and create our own social
supports. If our incomes were high enough, we could hire a
housekeeper or personal attendant. We could buy power mobility
aids, alarms, cellular telephones, and monitoring systems to
improve our own health and security.
For older women, disability exists. Money ameliorates it.
Poverty turns it into a socially-created handicap.
Carole Miles-Tapping is an Occupational Therapist in the
Rehabilitation Services Department of Victoria General Hospital
in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
1 Data for this study was collected through a grant from Health
and Welfare Canada to N.L. Chappell, Centre on Aging, and C.
Powell, Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of
Manitoba. Support for this analysis was provided in part by a
post-doctoral fellowship from Manitoba Health Research Council to
the author.
References
Chappell, N. and C. Powell. "Living Arrangements, Primary Care,
and Their Relationship to Use of Formal Support Services by the
Manitoba Elderly." Manitoba: Centre on Aging.
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