Sander L. Hitzig and Kirstin E. Yuzwa
Issues of Accessible Housing Influencing the Health and Wellbeing of Persons with Disability: Where do we go from here?
Date and time
Tuesday October 15, 2024 (12-1 p.m. ET)
Session Description:
Access to appropriate and affordable housing is a human right, which is critical for promoting health, dignity, safety, inclusion, and community participation. Unfortunately, many people with disabilities face challenges with their housing situations due to a lack of appropriate home modifications, which puts them at risk for poor housing outcomes. Enacting solutions for accessible housing, however, are stymied by lack of awareness, attitudinal barriers, poor research evidence, unenforceable housing standards, and a general lack of cohesion in the field. To help address these issues, our team worked to identify a national set of accessible housing priorities to stimulate new partnerships, generate new evidence, and to obtain consensus on ways to make a collective impact towards influencing Canada’s approach to accessible housing. This presentation will provide a high level overview of key issues faced by persons with disabilities and accessible housing, the impact of inaccessible housing and health and wellbeing, and a co-created set of accessible housing priorities aimed at stimulating action for making improvements in the field.
Speaker biography:
Sander L. Hitzig is a Senior Scientist and the Program Research Director at the St. John’s Rehab Research Program (Sunnybrook Research Institute). He is also an Associate Professor (status-appointment) in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences Institute in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Hitzig’s program of research is focused on understanding factors that influence the long-term outcomes of persons recovering from life-changing illness or injury, and works to develop approaches to optimize health and wellbeing in the community.
Kirstin E. Yuzwa is a Research Associate at St. John’s Rehab Research Program (Sunnybrook Research Institute) and an Occupational Therapist on the in-patient trauma, burns and complex care unit at Sunnybrook St. John’s Rehab Hospital. Kirstin’s research focuses on understanding barriers and facilitators to inclusion, engagement, and participation in meaningful activities and understanding the health and well-being impacts of in/accessibility in the home environment.
