Teresa Heartchild is an artist, poet, author, and self-advocate, who has Down syndrome. Teresa has shown remarkable resilience and courage. In 2013, an Ontario government social worker declared her “incapable,” and frighteningly, she lost her right to decide where she would live. Teresa was put into a nursing home by two of her older siblings. However, Teresa did not have any medical need to be in long-term care. Within days, her father, her sister Franke James, and her brother-in-law, Bill James, helped her get discharged. Then Teresa had a new capacity test done that determined she could decide where she lived, and who would take care of her. In March 2014, Teresa moved across the country with the Jameses to British Columbia, where she started an online petition asking for an apology. In the Change. org video, Teresa said it was wrong to put her in a nursing home. On behalf of Teresa, the BC Civil Liberties Association wrote to the Ontario Minister of Health, saying, “We are gravely concerned that the government, through its actions, appears to condone the forced placement and mistreatment of developmentally disabled adults.” With further publicity and after two years of campaigning, the Ontario Minister of Health publicly apologized to Teresa. In 2016, Teresa published an illustrated poetry book, Pretty Amazing: How I Found Myself in the Downtown Eastside. In 2018, she followed up with her second book, Totally Amazing: Free to Be Me. She has had solo and group art shows, and won arts awards including two Canada Council grants to travel to art events in Boston, MA and Merida, Mexico. Teresa’s successful activism for disability rights was honoured by the British Columbia Human Rights Commissioner, who named Teresa a “Champion for Change” in 2019. In 2023, Teresa is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of her rescue with the publication of Freeing Teresa. She lives with Franke and Bill in Vancouver, BC.Read more about this authorRead less about this author