N.S. woman with intellectual disability recounts quest for release from hospital
HALIFAX — A woman with intellectual disabilities who languished for 15 years in a Nova Scotia psychiatric ward testified Tuesday that a plan to house her in the community was repeatedly set aside.
Beth MacLean told a human rights inquiry that caregivers at the Nova Scotia Hospital in Halifax were aware she could be moved into a smaller home one year after her admission in the fall of 2000.
Instead, she was transferred to a more restricted, acute-care unit in the same hospital, almost seven years later.
“I was supposed to (leave) after one year, and they kept me longer,” said MacLean, who has a speech impediment.