Disability Income: The Experiences of Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences of unemployed women with multiple sclerosis with three income support programmes, the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan, long term disability insurance and social assistance. Findings are based on ethnographic interviews with 23 women. Difficulties experienced with these programmes include the low level of benefits of two of the programmes, the earnings-based component of two of the programmes, and requirements in eligibility criteria that applicants be defined as permanently unemployable. The occupational consequences of disability income policies are mediated by marital and socio-economic status. For some, policies mean lives of poverty and marginalization, for others they mean lack of freedom to change jobs, to work part-time or hesitance to return to the work force. The ways in which social policies shape the individual experience of disability should inform occupational therapy intervention at the individual level. Therapists are also challenged to help create policy environments that will enhance client function.