New disability data shows New Brunswick had the highest increase in disability rates in Canada between 2017 and 2022. More than a third of the province has a disability.
The data, released by Statistics Canada last week, indicates that New Brunswick’s rate rose by 8.6 percentage points, compared to the national average of 4.7 percentage points. The province has the second highest disability rates in the province, now only 2.6 percentage points behind Nova Scotia.
The director of Ability New Brunswick, Haley Flaro, said she’s concerned.
“More than ever before we’re seeing people choose options such as Medical Assistance in Dying because of the failure of disability support programs, the failure to get adequate home support, the failure to get, being able to recruit workers, or not having accessible transportation to go to medical appointments,” she said.
Ability New Brunswick serves people with mobility difficulties. Flaro says the number of people reaching out for support has increased by a third in the past few years.
“With disability comes a variety of issues, accessibility issues, income support. People that have a disability and single parents are the two most impoverished populations in this province,” she said.
Seniors, mental health-related disorders contribute to rise
According to the Statistics Canada data, an aging population contributed to the national rise in people with disabilities. Flaro said Ability New Brunswick used to primarily serve adults between 20 and 50 years old, but now 50 per cent of the people she sees are over the age of 55.
“With age does come disability, and we’ve had to pivot our services so that we have services that are developed by seniors, for seniors,” she said.
The amount of youth with disabilities grew seven percentage points in Canada, the highest change among the age ranges. That’s something Flaro also observed.
“It’s difficult to say whether we’re just promoting our services better or if this is an increase in diagnosis, but I can tell that we are seeing more and more youth being diagnosed with conditions such as cerebral palsy in their youth or rare neurological conditions,” she said.
Mental health-related disabilities increased the most nation-wide since 2017.
“We’re also seeing a significant increase in mental health distress among our population — adjusting to disability, difficulty navigating programs and services,” Flaro said.
She said the province isn’t preparing well enough for the increase in people with disabilities, as the population continues to age.
“The increase in disability in New Brunswick is going to have an impact on the health system, it already is,” she said.
In an emailed statement, a Department of Social Development spokesperson said the new data will help determine how to meet the needs of people in New Brunswick.
“All policy makers should be tuning into the statistics update, and the fact that a disability lens has to be placed on all economic and social policy,” Flaro said.
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