The long history behind BC’s group home cuts
NOTE: Please visit our new Group Home Cuts Web page for more news and information on this issue
Background
There has been constant and often intense pressure to close professionally-staffed group homes for adults with developmental disabilities and reduce the role of unionized care arrangements since the BC Liberals took office in 2001.
There are good reasons to offer alternatives, as group homes are not right for everyone. But for government at least, the primary motivation all along has been about reducing spending. A major shift from group homes towards more informal and affordable adult care arrangements was to be a key component of the community living restructuring that led to CLBC. At the outset, BC Liberal insider/CLBC architect Doug Walls promised that this and other proposed reforms would reduce community living costs by 20%. But community push-back against efforts to close group homes to produce the bulk of the promised savings has led to a constant battle since that time.
In 2006, when CLBC was under the Ministry for Children and Families, the Minister ordered a $2 million survey called the Residential Options project, which required CLBC to interview every single one of its almost 3,000 group home residents to see if they'd consider moving to a less formal arrangement. The answer was an overwhelming No! - despite repeated government assurances that this was about offering more choices, not about saving money.
Disabled adults fighting back to save their homes
The Victoria Times Colonist has been covering a nasty fight taking shape as Community Living BC has been strongly pressuring agencies to close group homes in an effort to find more than $20 million in savings.
Agencies and group home residents are complaining about strong-arm bully tactics by CLBC, as developmentally disabled adults are forced out of their homes, and with officials then lying to the public to cover up what's happening.
Here is a link to a U-Tube video: Save Our Group Homes
And some recent news coverage:
Victoria Times Colonist: BC government agency accused of duping public about group homes
BCers want more early intervention!
Here is some good news for a change - but will BC's government listen?
Poll shows support for increasing early childhood spending
Tom Sandborn
April 28, 2010
More than 70 per cent of B.C. residents underestimate how many of the province's children enter school developmentally vulnerable, an Angus Reid poll released today shows.
And most of those polled expressed strong support for increased public spending once they learned how many B.C. children are at risk and how low Canadian investment in early childhood education and daycare is in contrast to other wealthy countries. Read more
Youth hits black hole at 19, MCFD seizes siblings
This has to be one of the most heartbreaking stories I've heard. CBC News readers have reacted with an outpouring of outrage, but whether this has any power to move Ministers Coleman or Polak remains unclear:
Children taken because of mentally ill brother
Kamloops parents say lack of government help for son put other children at risk
April 27, 2010
A couple in Kamloops had their three youngest children removed by the B.C. government after they gave shelter to their violent, mentally ill adult son, who had been turned away from government care.
"We were backed into a corner," said the children's mother, Leah Flagg. "We had to choose between the well-being of one child or our other children."
Leah and Steve Flagg have four children, aged 11 to 20. Leah said her oldest son, Trevor, has brain damage and has been diagnosed with several types of mental illness. She said he can be paranoid, obsessive and violent.
When he was 13, he beat his mother badly, she said, so the parents placed him in the care of B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD). He had also harmed his younger siblings.
"He does really well when he's on medication and the medication is working. When he's not stabilized, conflict can become a physically aggressive situation in seconds," said Leah.
Nowhere else to go
Trevor was living in a secure youth residence, with 24-hour supervision, when he turned 19. At that point, because he was an adult, the ministry was no longer responsible for him. His parents said they could find no other government agency or community agency to take him in. Read more
MOMS ACTION: Summary of cuts
Tell the BC government that investing in children is a top priority . (Deadline for 2010 Budget input: Oct. 23)
(Please distribute widely, with apologies for cross-postings!)
Vancouver, October 13, 2009
Premier Campbell's forgotten promise:
BC government's 2006 - 2009 Strategic Plan: 5 Great Goals for the Golden Decade:
Goal #3: 'Build the best system of support in Canada for persons with disabilities, those with special needs, children at risk, and seniors.'
Three years later, the BC government has forgotten all about about Great Goal #3. We've seen no improvements in supports for children and youth with special needs. Existing systems are being dismantled and services cut, with no effort to resolve long-standing service gaps:
- Intensive intervention programs for autism axed, despite overwhelming need & evidence these programs work well & expert advice that direct funding is not an effective alternative for many.
- Parents who effectively manage autism funding forced to switch to Ministry-administered payments. This will create new problems, including delays and higher costs
- Provincial offices that provide direct services including oversight, coordination, training and standards for community Infant Development Programs and Aboriginal IDPs to be axed.
- Axing of the provincial Supported Child Care office, which was recently created to resolve problems from the lack of oversight, coordination, training & consistency in local SCC programs.
- URGENT NOTE: A month's notice won't allow SCC staff to properly transfer roles. Pls. urge govt to at least extend these roles to March 2010 to permit an orderly transition.
Cuts, Gaps & Impacts
Provincial Groups Protest Cuts to Children’s Services:
BC FamilyNet and the BC Coalition for People with Disabilities have both written to Minister for Children and Family Development Mary Polak regarding cuts to children’s services. BC FamilyNet’s letter states:
BC FamilyNet Society, a provincial organization which promotes effective and readily accessible supports and services for people with disabilities and their families, is deeply concerned about the short-sighted elimination of programs which provide invaluable long term benefits to children who face extraordinary challenges, their families, and society as a whole.