What’s your IQ, Premier Campbell?

BC Premier Gordon Campbell

Last week, while I was worrying about the inflammatory comments of an ignorant and uninformed “radio entertainer” named Michael Weiner, the government of British Columbia announced a policy that would cut off Family and Community Living Supports (ie funding) for individuals with an IQ over 70. You can read this Vancouver Sun article dated July 24, 2008 for some background.

Luckily, the active advocacy community in BC is fighting this decision and its online petition located here has almost 1000 signatures as of this writing.

As a US citizen residing in Canada, I don’t know as much about Canadian politics as I’d like, especially in the current US election year. In what I’ve grown to associate with conservative US policy – cutting costs by removing certain social supports – the liberal BC government headed by Premier Gordon Campbell is attempting to yank the safety net from under adults with disabilities. You’d think a lot of consideration would accompany a decision like this and that many factors would influence who continues to receive funding and who doesn’t. After all, there are people who depend on these supports to be productive members of society.

Instead, in what is probably one of the most ill-conceived policies I’ve ever heard, Campbell’s government has decided to deny supports to those with an IQ of 70 or over. This is wrong on so many levels that I’ll keep it simple and concentrate on two.

First, the measurement of ‘intelligence’ in the form of an IQ ’score’ is often meaningless, arbitrary and can be deeply flawed in populations with developmental delays such as occur with autism. Secondly, a functional IQ score of 70 or even 80 does not mean that an individual is self-sufficient or capable of caring for him/herself alone.

The average IQ score is 100. Those with IQs of 115 or greater are considered ‘gifted’. Those under 70 are considered ‘mildly retarded’ and the lower the score, the more affected that individual is said to be. I’ve known people with genius-level IQ scores who wouldn’t know how to balance a checkbook if their life depended on it. And I’ve known people who are considered ‘mentally retarded’ who have worked extremely hard just to achieve some level of independence in life. Under Premier Campbell’s policy, those adults who are the most vulnerable – “higher functioning” if we are to trust their IQ scores, but not able to care for themselves alone – will be punished the most.

I was encouraged by the comments left on the petition by physicians, families and self-advocates. I pray and hope their poignant stories and pleas to this government will not go unheard. There are those among us who may wonder why we should support these adults at all. They might say, “If their IQ is high enough, then let them get a job and support themselves.” But a person’s IQ has nothing to do with it. 

I’ll provide an analogy here that I hope will be helpful. My son was completely toilet trained at age 6. The years leading up to that were difficult, to say the least. We worked on it for months and months, and his teachers did, too. I still don’t know why it’s so hard for many kids with autism to toilet train but I strongly suspect sensory issues and the inability to anticipate and react quickly enough. So Robert had a special program that emphasized ‘independent living’.  But the state of Florida considers only the most severely affected autistic children for therapeutic funding, and the fact that Robert could now use the toilet alone disqualified him. Never mind that there were tons of functional skills he still needed to learn or that with the right therapies his prognosis was excellent for at least some measure of independence as an adult. The fact he was toilet trained meant he wasn’t eligible for any funding.

Premier Campbell’s government is damaging individuals who need assistance and their families in two profound ways. First of all, there are thousands of parents in Canada and the US who don’t know whether their children with disabilities will be properly cared for when they pass on. For many, the fate of their kids is in the hands of government and health bureaucrats who would just as soon cut off their funding and discontinue the programs they rely on. Secondly, the government is refusing funding for the ‘almost there’s’. My son John is an ‘almost-there’. He is nearly indistinguishable from his peers and his autism doesn’t impact him the way it does his twin brother. But he still needs help and support to be successful. With support, he is bright, successful and a positive addition to the classroom. Without it, he withers on the vine. Do we want people who, according to IQ anyway, are ‘almost-there’ to lose their opportunity to contribute to society?

Or, as has been pointed out repeatedly, do we want these most vulnerable citizens to swell the population of the homeless? To become drug-addicted or resort to a life of crime? To be placed in institutions where their abilities and skills and unique contributions are hidden and buried?

And lest you think, “well, times are tough with soaring gas and food prices and sometimes these programs just have to be cut,” consider Premier Campbell’s timing. On Friday, August 8th, members of Campbell’s government received retroactive pay increases between 22 and 43 percent. You can check it out here. And if you’re a resident of BC, please consider signing the petition.

My next post will address the (incorrect) perception of autism as mental retardation and the role of the IQ score in denying necessary services.

Peace.