The woman who cared for BC woman Florence Girard before she died of starvation in 2018 told a coroner's inquest that Girard was prevented from getting help before she starved to death by policies that respect the rights of people living under their share-sharing arrangement. .
Astrid Dahl also says she was “in denial” when she saw Girard's rapid weight loss in the months leading up to his death.
Dahl says she first noticed Girard's significant weight loss over the summer, a few months before her death, about 50 pounds.
But she says Girard would go into a “meltdown” every time he had to go to the doctor or seek medical care, and that influenced Dahl's decision to keep Girard at home instead of taking him to the hospital as his condition worsened.
Girard lived in Dahl's home under a program for people with developmental disabilities overseen by the Kinsite Community Society after being contracted by provincial Crown corporation Community Living BC.
A coroners' inquest opened on Monday into the death of a woman with Down syndrome in government-funded care. We'll hear from his sister and a lawyer about what they hope will come out of the inquest.
Dahl spoke of her curiosity about seeing things differently now, given Girard's death.
However, because of Girard's strong reaction against going to doctors, as well as policies that respect Girard's rights, Dahl did not get her medical help.
“She didn't want to go,” Dahl testified. “And I was told if Flo says no, she has the right. And she can say no, she doesn't want to do it, and I can't force her to do it. That's what it says in their manual.
“I've had time to think about these things and what I could have done differently a long time ago, and there are a lot of things I could have done differently,” she said. “And that will be one of them.”
Dahl, who was convicted in 2022 of failing to provide the necessities of life, said she reported Girard's outbursts and denial of medical care to managers at Kinsite but received no resolution.
The inquest, which began Monday, is scheduled to continue until Jan. 22, when a jury is expected to deliberate on possible changes to the care system to prevent similar incidents in the future.
“Because of his hatred of hospitals and doctors, I just thought that if I could take care of him, he would come back,” Dahl testified Tuesday.
“I was in denial. I clearly know now.”
As Dahl's condition worsened, she decided it would be better to keep Girard at home rather than let him die alone in a hospital due to his health condition.
“I've known him for 30 years,” Dahl said. “I'm not going to let something terrible happen to him at the end of 30 years. Why would I do that? Why would I love and love someone for 30 years and then go back, 'Oh, who's going to put him in hospice.'
“It didn't make sense to me then. It still doesn't make sense to me.”
Dahl told the inquest of their first meeting with Girard in 1990, when she began working with Kinsite's predecessor in a group-home setting, saying they “hit it off” because of a shared “sense of industry.”
Dahl said Girard had challenges socializing with others in the group home, eventually leading to a home-sharing situation in 2010.
Additional funding support required: Advocate
Girard's sister told the inquest on Monday that she would have cared for her sister if she had received some form of financial support.
Earlier in the day, the president of a Down syndrome advocacy group in British Columbia told the inquiry that more funding support is needed for parents and caregivers to avoid tragedies like Girard's death.
Tamara Taggart says parents and caregivers are under enormous financial pressure to provide services like speech therapy, which can be life-changing for people with Down syndrome.
Taggart, whose organization was launched in 2021 in direct response to Girard's death, says her family had to pay $12,000 a year for treatment to help her son learn how to eat solid food, and that the province would not provide any assistance in her case or in other similar situations. .
She says her family is in a privileged position to be able to pay and live in Vancouver to access that care, but other families are excluded from similar care for their loved ones due to high costs and access.
