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Kenora Association For Community Living Central Office, 501
Eighth Ave. S. Kenora, Ontario, P9N 3Z9 Tel. (807) 467-5225 On-line
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Community
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Summary Report on Residential Options
Policy Forum:
Background
The Ministry of Community and Social Services hosted a
policy forum on innovative residential options and living arrangements for
adults with a developmental disability on December 3, 2004.
The purpose of the day was to provide the Ministry with advice and ideas on successful residential arrangements for adults with a developmental disability.>The input from the day will inform the development of a long-term plan to meet the needs of the next generation of persons with a developmental disability. Approximately 165 participants attended the forum representing individuals, families, frontline staff, agencies, associations, parents' groups, self-advocates, province-wide organizations and representatives from various provincial ministries.
Overview of the day
The day included presentations from panelists, feedback from respondents and small group discussions. In the morning, a panel presented on various models of service being delivered in different jurisdictions.
Flory Ericksen provided an overview of the range of services offered by Partnerships in Community Living Inc., an Oregon based agency. This non-profit organization uses a brokerage model to help individuals and families develop residential accommodations. Living arrangements include a paid companion model, non-disabled live-in roommates, family purchased homes that are rented to the agency housing one or two other individuals with staff support in the family home. Most arrangements include a combination of paid and non-paid supports. The agency has the ability to provide staffing support in a residential setting of choice.
Helen Dionnedescribed Deohaeko Support Network, which is an intentional community in Ontario. She indicated that it is not considered a 'residential option', it is considered home.This community was planned by families and is a cooperative housing living arrangement. Helen outlined her view of essential factors in the success of Deohaeko, including having a vision, developing principles, families working together, individualized funding, availability of a coordinator/facilitator, and a fully individualized plan (which does not translate into people receiving 100% paid supports).
Michael Kendrick shared some of his experiences in working with many different organizations in promoting choice and full citizenship in the fields of disability, mental health and aging. He spoke of the core ingredients necessary for quality in residential options and also of the evolution that has allowed us to move forward in considering innovative approaches.
Three individuals responded to the panel presentations.
Manuela Dalla-Nora of Vita Community Living Services in Toronto reflected on hearing some consistent themes including the need for principles to guide the work, the need for flexibility, and making the effort to celebrate accomplishments. She also emphasized the need for some discussion around the definition of "individualized" as there seem to be many different perspectives on its meaning.
Peter Park,an international speaker and self-advocate, shared some personal experiences and passed along a simple but important message: "Each person needs a home."
John Lord, a human service researcher and consultant, spoke to 3 phases in a transformation: dialogue, strategic thinking and policy development. As the process moves through the phases he encouraged the participants to think about a number of things including the opportunity presented by facility closures to practice some innovative approaches, de-linking housing and other supports, reviewing the results of the individualized funding pilot projects and building on existing work.
Participants broke into small groups to discuss three questions posed by the Ministry:
What improvements can be made to living arrangements for adults who have a developmental disability?
What are the roles of families, agencies and government increating living arrangements?
How can the changing residential support needs of persons who have a developmental disability be met?
What follows is a synopsis of the discussions which occurred during the December 3 forum. Although there were 3 different questions asked within the small groups, the discussion generated by the questions was similar. Therefore, the synopsis is being provided by theme rather than question.
Themes
Characteristics of the System
Throughout the day, there were many references for the
need for a clear vision: at a systems level, an organizational level and a family
and individual level. Although this
forum was focused on residential options, there was discussion about the vision
needing to be much broader and including the principle of full citizenship and
inclusion. Throughout the day, there was support for the notion that services
for individuals need to be individualized and person-centred. It was also
suggested that there needs to be a range of services and types of living
accommodations to achieve flexibility, choice for the individual, portability,
seamlessness, ability to respond to changes in need, and access to specialized
resources and supports. Although the
concept of individualized supports and individualized funding was expressed,
there was not a common understanding of what those terms actually mean.
There was considerable interest in finding ways to
deal with transitions across life stages in a more holistic fashion. There were concerns expressed regarding the
differences and barriers created at these transition periods.
As the focus of the day was on residential options,
there were many comments about the importance of home. Related to this was the concept of de-linking
housing from other supports. Potential home ownership was discussed together
with tax changes and other tools that might be available to assist families in
planning for the future of their family member.
Underlying the discussion was the view that whatever the system looks like,
it needs to be accountable and fair. There were several suggestions regarding how that might be achieved
including a review of and improvement of access mechanisms, implementation of
consistent assessment tools and adoption of quality assurance systems.
Roles and
Relationships
The topic of relationships ran throughout the day
including the need for partnerships and the recognition that all parties have a
role to play in improving the service system. Throughout the day, many expressed the view all groups have a role to
play, as do all citizens of society and it is only through working
cooperatively that positive steps will be achieved in system re-design. Participants identified the following roles:
the government has a leadership role to play in dealing with conflicting
government policies, barriers to full inclusion, tax incentive changes, etc.; families
have an important role to play as well, in planning with their family member
and also for remaining involved in that family member's life; service providers
also play an important role providing staff support regardless of the living
arrangement and helping families with planning and navigating residential
options. Jointly, all parties have a role in the continuing education of the
broader community and in building strong, healthy and inclusive communities.
Resource
Issues
Another theme was that there are currently
insufficient resources within the system to provide adequate supports. There were participants who suggested that
there be consideration given to the concept of entitlement for some basic
funding i.e. mandated services. There were many comments regarding potential
changes to ODSP and the tax system to encourage families to plan for their
family member and allow home ownership, etc. Several agency representatives
spoke of the need for a 'real' budgeting process that looks at needs and tries
to appropriately allocate funds based on these needs.
Some concern was expressed regarding existing waiting
lists and the impact on wait times that might result from facility closures.
Several people expressed the opinion that there should not be a waiting list
for SSAH.
Other
Comments
There were many references to the
need for public education and awareness and general attitudinal changes. It was expressed that everyone has a role to
play in changing the public’s view regarding inclusion. Some ideas about ways to do this included
incentives for communities to become welcoming, public education initiatives,
and changes that could be made in community college and university course
curriculums.
There was also some discussion of the
need to improve information collection. Currently, there seems to be a lack of information about services
required, true waiting lists, tracking of services provided, etc.Additionally, participants felt that there
does not appear to be a good mechanism for sharing information on best
practices across the province and resources are not in place to evaluate
services and/or approaches. Some suggested that there are many jurisdictions
which have no institutions and/or have some form of individualized funding from
which to learn.
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Aboriginal Policy Paper |
A group of people
concerned with aboriginal issues gathered informally at the conference in
London last week and discussed the idea of striking a Community Living Ontario
task force on aboriginal issues. The group will be holding a conference
call on June 9 to continue that discussion and to prepare for an upcoming
meeting that the Minister has offered us to discuss aboriginal issues.
News Release
Community Living Ontario: 240 Duncan
Mill Road, Suite 403, Toronto, Ontario M3B 1Z4
Contact: Richard Van Dine, Communications:
416-447-4348, ext. 224; cell - 416-414-3979
Ombudsman’s report
enthusiastically endorsed;
Government should provide support in
ways that maintain family setting
Community Living Ontario
enthusiastically applauds the report of the Ontario Ombudsman demanding that
the government end its arcane practice of forcing parents to give up custody of
their children who have severe disabilities to the Children’s Aid Society in
order to gain access to essential supports.
"It is gratifying to see
such a priority placed on this issue, given how critical it is, especially for
the families involved," said Garry Cooke, president of Community Living
Ontario.
“This timely and thorough
report leaves no doubt that the government must act now and do what is right in
providing proper support for families who have children with severe
disabilities. It is shameful that loving parents are forced by their own
government to, in effect, declare themselves as inadequate and neglectful when,
in fact, their actions demonstrate that they are the very opposite.”
But while endorsing the
report, Community Living Ontario urges the government to find – and properly
fund – solutions that enable the family to remain together rather than look to
external residential placements that remove children from their natural home.
Mr. Cooke noted that the
report’s relatively narrow focus on external residential placements likely
stems from the fact that those parents who lodged complaints with the Ombudsman
felt that their family situation had deteriorated to the point that external
residential placement was the only solution.
“The urgency for those
families certainly points in that direction,” said Mr. Cooke. “But we believe
that the preferred choice, whenever possible, should be one that enables the
family to remain together.”
Providing appropriate
supports in a timely manner in the family setting – rather than waiting for
situations to reach a critical breaking point for families – in most cases
could preclude the need to separate children from their families, said Mr.
Cooke.
Community Living Ontario
supports the return to Special Needs Agreements as a response to the specific,
essential needs of some families. But, even more critically, families need
support in the home before external placement becomes the only option.
——
More than 12,000 people
belong to Community Living Ontario through their membership in 100 local
associations. Community Living provides
direct services and support to individuals who have an intellectual disability
and helps communities build the capacity to welcome and support all people.
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Estimate of 2006 deficit based on
annualized budget: $250,000 |
The Kenora Association for Community Living commenced
Community Living in Kenora Month by holding its annual meeting on Thursday,
June 2.
Annual Financials statements were presented by
Claudine Cordeiro of BDO Dunwoody. Total expenditures for programs of the
Association rounded out at $6.5 million.
After transfers to cover non-government funded capital expenditures the
Association was left with an excess of revenue over expenditures of $19,431
down from a deficit of $100,869 the year before. While net assets of slightly
less that $450,000 were somewhat small for the size of the Association’s
operation Ms Cordeiro praised the Association for the financial management and
stewardship and indicated the Auditors had no concerns for the financial
viability of the Organization
Recognition was given to staff of 15 years including
Greg Heath, Carey Heron, Jackie Fernandez, and Marlene Kilfoyle. Executive Director James Retson was
recognized for 20 years of service.
Board members elected to a 3 year term included Russell Havill, Marion
Jackson and Lucia Melnick.
Greetings from the local Kenora People First
membership was brought to the Association by Robert Gordon who read from a
prepared text he had written using his literacy training received from the
Association.
Guess speaker for the annual meeting was Colleen Neil.
Ms Neil in a most informative report on trends in recreation and the story of
the local Recreation centre entitled From Recreation to Wellness -
A Shift in Delivery“suggested that KACL was facing many of the same experiences.
Quoting from “The future of Parks and Recreation
Dec 2001, a presentation and research by Brian Johnston, president of
Professional Recreation Consultants Ltd…..
She indicated, “We are in the Business of Building
Citizens, Families and Communities”
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Trends identified 10 trends facing both the population
at large and the Consumers and families served by Demographics: (1) Aging
Population, (2) Widening gaps between the “haves” and “have nots” (3)
Increasing diversity; Psychographics: (4) Experiential Hedonism, (5)
Spiritual Quest - or what life is all about, (6) Declining Trust in (BIG)
Institutions; Leisure Behaviour: (7) Structured to Informal (Activity),
(8) Declining volunteers, (9) Activity Levels in Children Declining and (10)
Facilities….more popular but in decline.
She reviewed the extensive research that went into
getting the new rec centre off the ground. The Project goals for the rec centre
included a focal point for family and community activities, promotion of health
and wellness, something for everyone – a multi-purpose facility responding to
the needs of the community and changes in program delivery. Consumers and
families were kept in sight through out the planning process.
In both the introduction to the guest speaker by
Executive Director and in the Thank you delivered by KACL Board member Doug
Keshen Ms Neil was thanked for her contributions in ensuring that consumers
were included in the community and recreation activities.
Parent Lil Bergman speaking impromptu spoke of her
disappointment with Premier McGuinty. She deplored the lack of funding for
seniors, the disabled and persons with special needs. She encouraged members to
send in letters protesting the lack of funding.
Events for the month include the Official opening of
the new toddler program on June 9, the opening of the new Community Mental
Health Support Services office on Thursday June 16 and a community picnic on
June 24 at Anicinabe Park.
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Kenora Association for Community Living
501 Eighth Avenue S.
807 -
467-5225
807 - 467-5247
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