N.S. family relieved after son with fetal alcohol disorder approved for disability funding

WARNING: This story mentions suicide.

Two months after Jeremiah Dixon and his family spoke out about a mental health crisis that led to hospital staff sending him to a Halifax homeless shelter, the 19-year-old has been approved for disability funding that will allow him to move into his own apartment with one-on-one support. 

His mother says the decision is a “huge relief,” but it also took years of advocacy, letters from doctors, support from community organizations and speaking publicly about their situation before Dixon was finally accepted into Nova Scotia’s disability support program.

“We’re not alone anymore and he’s going to have support, and we don’t have to remain in this …crisis in our family,” said Kim Dixon, who lives in Dartmouth, N.S.

But Kim said being an advocate on top of a caregiver for Jeremiah, who has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and borderline personality disorder, has been draining. She worries that other caregivers don’t have the capacity for such efforts. 

“I knew I had to do it to save him,” she said of her son, who has made multiple attempts to end his life and often disappears at all hours of the night while experiencing mental-health crises. 

“Caregiving is hard enough, and so to be able to then take on that battle … for a lot of people, this isn’t possible.”

Through the disability support program, Jeremiah will now receive funding to pay for an apartment, utilities and groceries.

He’s also been approved to hire a support worker for 106 hours per week to help keep him safe while he works on improving his mental health, finding a job and participating in activities within the community.

The program is described by the province as servicing people with “intellectual disabilities, long-term mental illness and physical disabilities in a range of community supported living options and day programs.” 

The program is currently undergoing a transformation to adapt to recommendations from a human rights board of inquiry. Now participants receive individualized funding and have the opportunity to use that money on the service providers of their choosing.

Jeremiah has chosen to work with New Vision Care Homes, a group that his mother said has a comprehensive understanding of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) — a condition that’s largely misunderstood and overlooked.

Families like the Dixons, along with the non-profit Fetal Alcohol Nova Scotia, have been pushing for the province to provide better support for people living with FASD.

Kim said the family had applied for Jeremiah to receive disability support program funding at least twice in recent years, but it was not until he received the comorbid diagnosis of borderline personality disorder that he was considered an eligible candidate.

‘Find your village’

She said families should not have to reach their breaking point before the challenges of FASD are recognized.

The Department of Opportunities and Social Development has previously said that while there is not a dedicated pot of funding toward FASD in Nova Scotia, the province has formed a working group to improve the co-ordination of support across government departments.

Kim said the next challenge will be finding Jeremiah somewhere suitable to live, but for the first time in a while she feels hopeful that her son will get the help he needs to thrive. 

She said families facing similar situations should keep pushing, and find people who can help carry some of the load along the way.

“It can get really lonely, and you can feel really hopeless and defeated. But we had a lot of kind people cheering behind us, and checking in with us and willing to help advocate with us,” she said. “Find your village.”

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