186784 France: The law of February 11, 2005

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 3:30 PM

René I. Jahiel, MD, PhD , Community Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT
The law of February 11, 2005 is a very comprehensive disability law conceptualized about 2000 under the influence of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and passed in 2005. It is now being implemented. Its features include: 1) A single agency, the CNSA, that finances all services (financial, housing, medical, social, education, training,employment, etc). 2) Services are integrated in an individual life plan developed by the person who is disabled in conjunction with providers.3) Each of the 100 French departments has a maison départementale that greets and assista people with disabilities in developing their life habits in the community, and educates the community about disability. 4) The law provides full access to medical and social services and preparation for employment; incomes of persons with disabilities who work or are on welfare are in general higher than in the US. 5) Disability rights are as in the ADA. Detailed charts explaining details of the law will be presented. On the negative side, France is less advanced than the US in removing environmental barriers, and, during implementation, there have been significant difficulties in changing providers' habits. This law is well worth study by Americans who wish to develop new disability policy ideas.

Learning Objectives:
At the ennd of this presentation the particpants will be able to state the main components of this new, comprehensive French disability law and compare its features with those of the US set of laws on disability.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have an MD and a PhD, I have done research on disability and homelessness for the past 25 years. I have several publications in disability, mental disorder and homelessness, including ''Jahiel R. Homelessness: A prevention-oriented approach. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992'' I am a member of the editorial board of the new ''European Journal of Disability Research''. I have visited France several times in the past two years to research the new disability law that is the subject of this abstract. I have conceptualized, developed and written this abstract.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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