Fourth new CLBC minister in a year won’t fix crisis if Premier, MLAs are still in denial

After months of disturbing media reports on the CLBC crisis, Premier Christy Clark finally fired Minister Harry Bloy and replaced him with rookie BC Liberal MLA Stephanie Cadieux this week.

Cadieux becomes the fourth minister in charge of CLBC in less than a year (Rich Coleman was the minister a year ago, when MOMS first started raising concerns about the impact of cuts stemming from community living's ongoing "service redesign," followed briefly by Kevin Krueger, Bloy and now Cadieux!)

A Victoria Times Colonist editorial pretty well sums up our view that this is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

"Shuffling Harry Bloy out of the Social Development Ministry because he's a poor communicator misses the point.

"The ministry's actions, particularly its failure to provide adequate support to those with mental disabilities, are the problem. Slicker messaging can't change the reality of reduced per-client funding, long waits for services and despair and fear among families.

"Bloy was inept and apparently out of touch. He insisted for months, for example, that Community Living B.C. clients weren't being forced from group homes against their will to reduce costs. They were, the government now admits. But senior managers from the ministry and CLBC were sitting beside Bloy as he made those claims in the legislature, and failed to provide accurate information.

"Underfunding that left CLBC unable to meet the "urgent health and safety needs" of vulnerable clients just five months into the year is a matter of incompetent planning or a decision not to provide needed resources, not of poor communication.

"Premier Christy Clark deserves much of the blame.... Read more

Times Colonist staff broke the first reports about group home closures and forced relocations in June 2010, and deserve a major award for their tenacious investigative reporting to expose and document the crisis in the face of govt denials and dissembling.

As the editorial notes, simply changing the Minister again won't fix the problems, if the governing BC Liberals aren't prepared to acknowledge the underlying crisis and make new funding and other consensus measures recommended by the BC CLAG network of community leaders a priority, in order to assure the safety and wellbeing of people with developmental disabilities and their families.

It was depressing therefore to hear Mr. Krueger (BC Liberal MLA for Kamloops) in the local media (CHNL Radio) this week dismissing the CLBC crisis as not a problem and nothing more than opposition NDP "fear mongering." He claimed in a Sept 27 radio interview that government was closing group homes simply because more adults were "choosing" to live with their families.

It is inexcusable, if the Premier and her governing BC Liberal party want to establish any credibility on this file, that their caucus members continue to publicly demonstrate such callous denial and disregard, after scores of media reports confirming that people have been forced from the only homes they have ever known, and into often disastrous alternate care arrangements, simply to produce a few dollars in savings.

(Krueger's views aren't unanimous -- some BC Liberal MLAs have made it clear they're as disturbed as the rest of us by the deteriorating situation, but so far, Krueger's view continues to guide prevailing govt policy.)

Krueger's comments are especially disturbing because we have fresh reports this week of more cuts to critical community living services in Kamloops and surrounding communities, along with reports that the crisis is also affecting youth services. Another MCFD-funded group home run by Prima Enterprises for teens with developmental disabilities is being closed in Kelowna this month, although as of 2 days ago, there was no alternate placement yet for these very vulnerable youth. A Times Colonist report last year revealed that MCFD was also trying to find savings by closing group homes, but we heard little further about this from families, possibly because the cuts are focussed on children in government care, who have no families to sound the alarm for them.

Please continnue to bring to our attention any new reports of cuts or closures for adults, youth or children's services around the province, particularly those where the families are not involved to advocate on their behalf, so that we can support efforts to hold government accountable. The BC Legislature resumes sitting next week, which will present plenty of new opportunities to raise concerns and demand a satisfactory government response.

We want to thank all those who have been speaking up by writing letters to government or forwarding information to support advocacy efforts - we will continue to post updates, including announcements on community initiatives and how you can support them. October is Community Living month in BC, so stay tuned!

For more news and information on the community living crisis, visit the BC Community Living Action Group website

BC government offers a cup of tea to douse a raging kitchen fire

$6 million won't stop group home closures, cuts, waitlists or growing safety risks

The BC government today announced $8.9 million in new funding to address the crisis in community living.

The announcement follows a recent statement from the BC Community Living Action Group (CLAG) , based on analysis of CLBC's own data, which showed that an immediate injection of $70 million is required just to cover the unfunded needs of some 1,400 new adults who qualified for CLBC services in for 2010 and 2011 -- a period during which CLBC's budget has been frozen.

CLBC projects a similar net increase in demands for 2012 and 2013, although its budget has been frozen by the provincial budget until 2014.

This growing funding gap explains the growing crisis in community living since 2010. Families are facing tremendous pressures and anxiety due to growing waitlists. CLBC's solution has been to "rob Peter to pay Paul" (for example by forcing adults out of group homes or clawing back services) in order to crisis-manage only the most urgent "health and safety" needs.

Back to the government announcement, actually only $6 million of that is new funding, as $2.9 million refers to previously-committed funding (the 2-year old Personalized Supports Initiative) to provide support for young adults in crisis who are not eligible for CLBC services (e.g. youth in foster care with FASD or autism who are released into the community with absolutely no support after age 19).

The province and CLBC claim the $6 million will provide "new and additional supports and services" for 540 people.

The reality is rather more stark.