Government claims unprecedented spending to support children & youth with special needs, adults with developmental disabilities and families.
Yet since we started MOMS a decade ago, families around BC have reported an erosion of supports, growing waitlists, reduced standards and no accountability.
This places a crushing burden on families, and is taking a significant human and economic toll:
These problems can be resolved, if the political will exists to address: 1) Funding and 2) Accountability.
Read the rest of the MOMS brief to the Standing Committee on Finance & Government Services.
Find out how you can have your say on BC's 2012 budget priorities
Join us on Facebook to discuss what we can do to restore critical services for children & youth with special needs and adults with developmental disabilities at Moms on the Move
]]>"For immediate release: August 31, 2011: The BC Community Living Action Group (BC‐CLAG) strongly urges Premier Christy Clark to act immediately to approve $70 million in new provincial funding to stem the province’s growing community living crisis.
"A BC‐CLAG analysis of Community Living BC (CLBC) projections shows that at least $70 million is needed immediately to address the existing support backlog. Each year, hundreds of youths with developmental disabilities reach the age of 19 and turn to CLBC as they age out of supports funded by the Ministry for Children and Families. Despite this fact, CLBC’s operating budget to serve this population has remained static from 2010 through 2014 at $681 million annually..." Read more
The announcement follows more troubling news reports on the risks and devastating human impacts for adults with developmental disabilities and the aging families trying to support many of them without critical supports. The reports contradict assurances from the BC Premier and Minister Harry Bloy that no one would be forced to move from their home under CLBC's "service redesign" program, which is seeking to reduce care costs to cover the provincial funding shortfall.
BC CLAG and its partner groups have been appealing to Premier Christy Clark to take urgent action for months now. In addition to resolving the funding shortfall, CLAG and its partners have repeatedly urged the Premier to establish independent provincial oversight to monitor and report publicly on the health and safety of adults in government care. There is particular concern over the lack of monitoring to assess the impacts of CLBC's cost-cutting efforts, such as closing group homes and forcibly relocating adults to lower-cost, unlicenced private foster arrangements.
When Christy Clark became BC's Premier, she promised to listen and to put families first. Despite hundreds of letters from desperate families and appeals from the public, the NDP Opposition and the news media, she has so far failed to do either.
If you haven't yet added your voice, please consider writing the Premier at [email protected] and ask her to take immediate action by investing $70 million to restore the devastating cuts in community living.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
]]>After weeks of pressure from families, advocacy groups and opposition MLAs, CTV's "Investigators" confronted Premier Christy Clark on Friday with more undeniable evidence of the plight of families denied critical supports for adults with developmental disabilities, forcing her to finally admit that the crisis facing families and adults who rely on CLBC-funded supports is "not acceptable."
In two reports that led the 6 o'clock news on Friday, CTV's Mi-Jung Lee and Jim Beatty reported that Clark promised action to address the concerns raised by two families via CTV in the past week. One of the families has waited eight years to access services. Watch a replay of the two CTV news reports here (Click on the link "Correspondents on services for the disabled" to watch full details of both stories).
The reporters suggested that negative media publicity and a possible upcoming election may have been a key consideration in the Premier's decision to back down from her insistence just a day earlier in the BC Legislature that a focus on growing the economy was the better way to help families impacted by CLBC's funding crisis.
The premier did not say whether other families facing waitlists or cuts would also see similar relief.
MOMS, along with other community living advocacy groups, is therefore urging other families who are waitlisted, who have been denied CLBC services or who have had their services cut to immediately contact the Premier to request that she intervene similarly on their behalf.
To encourage a prompt response, please feel free to copy your request to any or all of the following:
If you don't get an appropriate response and wish to contact CTV's Investigators, email [email protected] or call 604-609-6333
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
]]>The Pacific Autism Family Centre initiative has started to publish minutes of its advisory council meetings for those interested in following the progress of this inititiative: Read them here. After reading the minutes of their April 15 Advisory Council meeting, some comments and questions come to mind:
1) Priorities: With all due respect to well-meaning friends and colleagues, desperate families around BC are pleading with government to address the funding crisis that is tearing apart families, destroying hope and creating enormous risks. So why are autism "community leaders" and professionals sitting around discussing spending $20 million in scarce tax dollars on rooftop gardens, north shore views and i-Pad equipped waiting rooms??
If Premier Christy Clark really wants to put families first, why isn't anyone asking why she is spending $20 million on a vanity project for wealthy political contributors while telling families there is no money available to provide vital services or to respond to the crisis??
2) Participants: The list of attendees at PAFC's recent meeting includes a who's-who of the Lower Mainland autism/ABA establishment, but very few from outside the Lr Mainland, except Autism Kamloops. There were also no professionals who deliver non-ABA treatment and no BCACDI members, who deliver many autism supports/services in outlying communities.
While the Premier and her Ministers keep telling us this is not their baby, but a "community-driven" initiative, the whole agenda is very clearly being driven by senior ministry staff (Karen Bopp, Ian Brethour) and their ministry-funded consultants. The minutes indicate that invitees are basically just being asked to shape and endorse the cosmetic aspects of core decisions that have been politically-driven from Day 1, and from no less lofty a source than the Premier's Office.
MOMS was asked to participate and we have declined until the province is willing to debate the fundamental premise of investing in a costly building instead of re-directing any available dollars to the urgent needs that families around the province have indentified, both in our polling and in PAFC's own consultations.
3) Elephant on the table: After MOMS published leaked ministry documents in March, the Minister wrote us insisting that this project would not impact funding for existing autism services (and conversely, would not fix any of the serious funding gaps for those services!). She reiterated what we had been told in an earlier letter from Minister Rich Coleman, who said government has committed capital funding (i.e. construction costs, not ongoing program/operating expenses) for the building to be constructed in East Vancouver.
The April 15 PAFC meeting discussed PAFC's recent consultations (which were run by Ministry consultants and which highlighted gaps in program/operating funding for services across the province as families' top concern). The meeting also included an update on the East Van building design. The elephant on the table, which no one at the meeting seems to have addressed, is how government's $20 million capital investment to build the East Van building addresses any of the major concerns that PAFC identified in its own consultations?
This continues to represent the fundamental flaw in this project. Premier Christy Clark remains committed to giving away $20 million to a politically-connected group for a capital project that does nothing to fix the priorities and concerns that families have identified across the province. We will continue to ask that question until someone can show us how constructing a $34 million high-tech building in East Van helps families in Cranbrook, Fort St John or Parksville who can't get the support and therapy their kids need every day in their own communities? Or how a perfectly-designed therapy room with a delightful view of the north shore mountains helps the family next door who can't afford the therapy itself??
4) Hub and spoke model: A good part of the meeting was devoted to discussing the role of volunteer community advocates in towns like Kamloops, and the support they provide for families locally. There appears to be much interest in PAFC taking over and beefing up this role, to address the complaint that what families need is local program support, not a Vancouver building. It was even suggested that PAFC go ahead and implement this "spoke" component of a hub and spoke model before constructing the East Van building.
Now it would be great to retire and have a program that provided paid professionals to take over the support role that we and other families have been struggling to offer on a volunteer basis over the years (e.g. the amazing work done by Betty Ann in Kamloops, Karen in the Fraser Valley, John Tsang with the Chinese speaking parents, Rachelle and Yuko with the transition families, local FSI reps, Chris in Victoria, or the ABA Support Network/FEAT families provide in their respective communities).
Maybe it's just our linear "autistic" thinking, but it still doesn't explain to us why we need to waste $34 million on an East Van building to do what we've all been doing for free in our respective communities?? And if a key part of the PAFC concept is to take over and professionalize this parent support role, that's not a capital project, it's an ongoing program, so where is the ongoing operational program funding for that going to come from? And do the folks around the table realize that when you take over and professionalize our role, what you get is a social worker, and we already have those, funded by MCFD, in every community. So are you suggesting that PAFC needs to morph into a social worker training program or a program to replace the MCFD staff already in place?
5) Governance: The meeting also raised this touchy issue, and participants did raise some of the concerns around this, although there are no answers yet. When PAFC takes over all these important roles, whoever is in charge of the provincial organization in East Van will be calling the shots and spelling out what services are delivered (or not) and how, whether you're accessing them in East Van or Terrace. Is that what communities really want? Another Vancouver-based monolith like CLBC where high-priced execs tell them how to run their lives or what they can and cannot get??
If PAFC's steering/advisory groups wish to listen and speak on behalf of families, they will hopefully demonstrate more interest in steering this project around 180 degrees, turning it into another decentralized, virtual program like POPARD or BCAAN that simply directs funds and resources to outlying communities to help them address their own needs, instead of a centralized organization with an exorbitantly expensive Vancouver office.
The key to that is to persuade Premier Christy Clark that if she wants to invest $20 million of our tax dollars in improving the lives of families living with autism, spend it on boosting access to and quality of services, not on a ridiculously expensive building that most families will never see! Unfortunately that doesn't provide a nice ribbon-cutting Photo Op to stroke the vanity of politicians or to reward those who fund their political campaigns -- but this is supposed to be about kids with autism, not about the politicians, right? There's no harm in putting that on the record at your next meeting!
UPDATE: To add some further perspective, we want to share these comments from the parent of a child who has Down Syndrome, not autism, and thus is arbitrarily excluded from accessing the BC government's funding for early intervention therapy.
"I know this is supposed to be a communication forum for all of us and I know most of the parents involved with MOMS have children (or supported adults) on the Autism Spectrum. I am glad that you have funds to be able to access at least some of the supports you need, be they books, memberships or materials for your child/adult.
"I still find myself with the occasional pangs of grief and resentment, knowing that my daughter (and our family) can't get the same level of support because her disability isn't considered important enough by this government. It's a waste of time to feel jealous, I know. It fuels my fire to keep working on behalf of those who don't have Autism, but still struggle with similar disabilities. I'll dry my eyes and bring myself out of my pity party, now.
Keep up the good work, folks! Your battles are important. Please just every now and then, remember those of us outside the Autism spectrum community."
- From a parent in the MOMS network
MOMS, along with other groups, and the BC Representative for Children and Youth, have all stressed the need to address this inequity as a top priority, and to provide the necessary funding to do so in a way that does not rob Peter to pay Paul:
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
This past week, the Developmental Disabilities Association, one of BC's largest agencies serving people with developmental disabilities, became the first CLBC-funded agency that has dared to step forward to publicly contradict the official claims that group homes are not being cut, in an update posted on the agency's website.
These reports provide more evidence that Premier Christy Clark, Minister for Community Living Harry Bloy, and the CLBC CEO Rick Mowles have all been lying to British Columbians with their repeated insistence that group homes and other services are not being cut.
Meanwhile, we continue to hear from more distraught families all around the province whose adult or minor children meet all eligibility criteria but either had existing services cut or are being denied desperately needed supports. But while many continue to be intimidated and afraid that speaking out will cost them the few services they've managed to secure, too many are now speaking out for political leaders to pretend all is well.
Opposition MLAs have also been helping to highlight the concerns of families in their constituencies, both in the media, and during Question Period, with more questions posed directly to Premier Clark today (scroll down to line 1410).
And this Channel A News report illustrates the absurd lengths to which the Minister is going to deny the cuts (Hmm - hands up everyone who thinks a cut is not really a cut when it's a "change").
Many other agencies have been telling us "off the record" of similar or far worse cuts than DDA's, with shocking accounts of thuggish tactics that senior CLBC staf have been using to enforce cuts and intimidate agency staff and families involved into keeping quiet about them.
Exhausted families are telling us that dealing with CLBC and other government officials in their efforts to maintain or access services has become the most stressful part of their roles in suporting an adult or child with complex special needs. How unfair is that - to pile more stress on families who are already stretched to the hilt when you're supposed to be helping them?
Premier Christy Clark returned to the BC Legislature this week, 7 years after she tabled the legislation to create CLBC, promising it would bring a better life to people with developmental disabilities and their families. But she wasted no time ramming through a decision to shut down the BC Legislature, to deny further opportunity for the Opposition to hold her and her government to account for its failed promises and her own empty commitment to put families first.
Seven years ago, MOMS and other family groups pointed out that all the experts were warning the BC Liberal government that CLBC would not be able to live up to the rosy promises being made unless govt resolved the budget challenges in community living before devolving governance to CLBC.
Those warnings have unquestionably been realized, but instead of offering change, Christy Clark is endorsing the appalling neglect, intimidation, harrassment and betrayal of the BC families appealing for her help.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
]]>MOMS will join a delegation of BC-CLAG reps and families at the BC Legislature on May 18 to mark a key milestone in CLBC's history and remind the BC Premier and elected representatives that families have been waiting for seven years for their promises to be honoured.
On May 19, 2004, then Deputy Premier Christy Clark introduced legislation to create Community Living BC, promising that:
" ...This legislation gives British Columbians with developmental disabilities and their families better options and more opportunities in their communities. They'll be able to look forward to a safer, healthier and better quality of life."
Today, Premier Clark''s 2004 promises remain unfulfilled, with fewer options and opportunities, cuts, denial of support and growing alarm over the safety, health and quality of life of vulnerable adults and families.
The anniversary coincides with Ms. Clark’s mandate to return to the Legislature as British Columbia’s new Premier and MLA for Vancouver Point Grey. Despite promises to listen and to put families first, Premier Clark and her Minister for Community Living have so far not agreed to meet with or respond to the concerns and reccomendations shared by families and community living stakeholders through BC-CLAG. Read the BC-CLAG press release
The Victoria Times Colonist has a story here and an excellent letter to the editor on the concerns about cuts in adult community living and how the Minister misrepresented the increasingly vocal concerns voiced by community groups.
In the Fraser Valley, meanwhile, parent groups were also instrumental in helping to generate a series of reports in the local papers highlighting the dire challenges facing families who find thmselves in a "black hole" with all supports cut off once their children turn 19.
But Minister Harry Bloy responded that there would be no help forthcoming until provincial revenues increase (this despite revelations that the supposedly "revenue neutral" HST is actually bringing in millions more in revenues to Provincial coffers).
Last week we asked families to come forward with their stories, and we want to thank everyone who contacted us - we were overwhelmed by the stories of enormous hardship and the brave efforts of families who continue to fight on. We will keep the contacts of all those who connected with us so that we can let you know of any further media opportunities.
The power of telling these personal stories is enormous and we therefore suggest below some alternate avenues for those of you who may not yet have shared your stories directly with elected officials and/or local media:
1. Local media: Consider taking your story directly to your local newspaper, TV, or radio news. They may not have the clout of the big provincial news organizations, but informed communities provide a critically important source of grassroots pressure on local elected officials to take a stand to support their constituencies. As the Chilliwack stories show, local media are often the best avenues for sharing the human impacts and they can reach all the way to Victoria to hold teh Minister himself accountable.
2. Contact your MLA: Ask for a meeting in person to share your personal experience and concerns. Politicians of all parties are human, so if you can establish a human connection AND make a sound case for action, you can create a powerful ally. In addition to sharing your personal experience, you can present a copy of the recent BC CLAG report and recommendations, along with other background information on the BC CLAG Website to help build a case for action.
2. Opposition: Share your stories with the Opposition MLAs responsible for CLBC and its Ministry. Since the Legislature resumed sitting last week, the Opposition has brought intense pressure on the Provincial government by citing real cases of real families and real hardship to counteract the Minister's claims that there are no cuts and no problems.
After days of stonewalling, Minister Bloy was finally forced to admit last week there was a problem, after BCACL took him to task for his denials (see the Times Colonist story above). But more such cases are needed to hold the Minister's feet to the fire and ensure that he goes beyond admitting to the problem and starts accepting the responsibility for offering solutions.
Contacts for Opposition Critics:
We will continue to press government to act on this issue, along with our BC CLAG partners and will keep you informed of further developments. Meanwhile, please continue to share your stories and information with us, to help guide our own advocacy.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
]]>BC CLAG wrote to Minister Bloy six weeks ago asking to meet with him to discuss issues and concerns in community living. He has not yet acknowledged or responded to that request. Had Minister Bloy demonstrated some interest in listening to families, self-advocates and community groups, he might not be so shockingly ignorant of the issues and challenges that fall within his responsibility for community living.
Below are some of the false or misleading statements made to the Legislature today:
Minister Bloy stated:
"CLBC has a budget of well over $700 million a year."
"In fact, we have increased our budget every year."
FACT: According to CLBC's Service Plan CLBC's budget is less than $700 million a year. CLBC's Operating Budget has been frozen at $681 million since 2010 and the Provincial budget calls for it to be frozen at that level until 2014. Between 2002 and 2004, the community living budget was cut by 12%.
Minister Bloy stated:
"Self-advocates continue to express their support of the redesign and changes that we've done within this ministry."
"No one has ever been removed from a group home in the province of British Columbia without their explicit choice."
If Minister Bloy genuinely believes that, he has not been doing his job!
FACTS: The BC Coalition of People with Disabilities wrote directly to the Minister last fall expressing concern about forced moves. BCCPD is a partner, along with all the other major partner groups in community living, in the BC CLAG report, which was submitted to Minister Bloy and Premier Clark yesterday, raising serious concerns about service redesign and documenting cases where residents have been forcibly moved from group homes. Numerous media reports over the past year have documented case after case where people have been forcibly removed from group homes.
Minister Bloy's responses today seriously challenge Premier Christy Clark's claims that her leadership reflects real change whithin the BC government. Not only did Bloy callously dismiss the concerns and advice of families and self-advocates, but he seriously misled our elected representatives in the Legislature with his responses.
The Opposition BC NDP Caucus immediately issued a media statement denouncing the minister's responses and drawing attention to the issues and proposed solutions in the BC Community Action Group report, which was the product of broad community dialogue and which has been endorsed by all the major partner groups in community living.
If Premier Clark is serious about her promises of change, she needs to make it clear to families that Minister Bloy's responses were totally unacceptable.
]]>QUESTION: "Does CLBC allow outside (CLBC Quality Control) non-partial investigations into abuse and if so how do I make a request for one? I requested an investigation by CLBC Quality Control but was told I couldn’t access the results. They also have not done a proper investigation because they have not contacted anyone directly involved (ie: witnesses). Any ideas would be appreciated."
MOMS RESPONSE: I discussed your question with staff at the BC Association for Community Living, who have a better understanding of the legal & policy requirements than we do, and here is the response:
“My experience with investigations of abuse is that the third party should be the RCMP or local police. Once there is the involvement of police all other processes should stop pending the outcome. If you feel that the CLBC investigation has not been sufficient and you have concerns about harm done and/or safety of a person then involving the police is appropriate. The involvement of the police is not a matter of choice for CLBC or any other body, agency or service provider.”
UPDATE: Here's some additional advice from another veteran service provider:
"Although the advice to call the police is good advice, the problem is that many situations that could be considered abusive within the caregiving context – neglect, belittling, humiliating, punishing – may not meet the test of a criminal offense. Only situations of major abuse – sexual, physical – have a criminal justice system remedy. This is why we need someone like Mary Ellen, who can factor in all the elements of a person’s treatment to determine whether or not some abuse has taken place. Expediting a response is also important because the longer you leave someone in an abusive situation, the more pain will be caused. In addition, many of the people we support are non-verbal and cannot self-report, so even more reason for a watchdog. "
Other complaints: We continue to hear many of the same concerns that have been raised in ongoing advocacy campaigns:
There is unfortunately nowhere to review and resolve many of these complaints in a manner that would instill confidence in the system, although we encourage anyone with concerns to review the options below and to use whatever is most appropriate/effective in their particular situation.
Independent safeguards/advocacy & review
One of the key issues that has come to the forefront in the community living advocacy campaign that we launched with a broad coalition of other partner groups in the fall is the lack of an effective independent voice to provide oversight & safeguards, to launch independent investigations & respond to complaints, provide public reporting, etc. The structure of existing complaint resolution/service quality assurance mechanisms is simply not working in far too many cases and this has emerged from our community forums and other feedback, such as the complaint above, as a critical gap.
In contrast, the establishment of BC's independent Representative for Children & Youth, a key recommendation of the Hughes report, provided a "one-stop shopping" access point for families, children and others to bring forward issues and concerns, plus provincial oversight, investigations and public reporting.
Providing independent safeguards, advocacy and oversight for adults was a commitment when Canada signed on to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 12.4):
"States Parties shall ensure that all measures that relate to the exercise of legal capacity provide for appropriate and effective safeguards to prevent abuse in accordance with international human rights law. Such safeguards shall ensure that measures relating to the exercise of legal capacity respect the rights, will and preferences of the person, are free of conflict of interest and undue influence, are proportional and tailored to the person’s circumstances, apply for the shortest time possible and are subject to regular review by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body. The safeguards shall be proportional to the degree to which such measures affect the person’s rights and interests."
BC and CLBC are clearly failing to honour that commitment in the case of adults with developmental disabilities.
MORE INFO ON COMPLAINTS RESOLUTION OPTIONS
Below are some links to the mechanisms that currently exist, which may provide relief, so we still encourage families to utilize them, while recognizing that (as with appeals in the education system) at the end of the day, the final decisions are up to the same administration that's responsible for the problems in the first place:
CLBC has information on complaints resolutions processes and policies on its Web site (Although you'd need to do some sleuthing to find it on your own - Seriously, why isn't "Got an issue or concern we can help you resolve?" not a nice bold button on their home page? Another problem is the info is fragmented, bureaucratic and confusing: Does an issue fall under Adult Guardianship, Critical incident reporting, CLBC's complaint resolution policy or is it an issue for the Advocate for Service Quality? What do you read first? Which policies apply?)
If others have additional resources, comments and suggestions, we'd appreciate you sharing them so that we can pass them on.
Dawn & Cyndi, MOMS
]]>"Clay Knowlton is 64. His wife, Susan, is 61. Their daughter, Erin, is 32. Erin, who is autistic, is classified as low-functioning. Time, for the Knowltons, is an enemy.
"Clay and Susan have just so many years left to make sure their daughter will be taken care of after their deaths. She'll need housing. She'll need supervision. The Knowltons need the assurance that when they're dead, their daughter will be safe.
"The Knowltons are not alone. There are thousands of families in B.C. who feel the same anxiety, and who worry over the same question: After we're gone, then what?
"The Knowltons cannot entertain the idea of Erin living on her own. Nor do they like the idea of her going into the government's home-sharing program -essentially, foster care for young adults with disabilities. The quality of that care, they felt, could not be assured." Read more
This story highlights the unintended but predictable failures of the CLBC experiment, particularly the key underlying commitment to "personalised" supports. When that philosophy butts up against the reality of underfunding, you're left with endless waitlists or forced moves to lower-cost adult foster care with inadequate oversight. The result is ever more desperate families turning to solutions like this - to the horror of CLBC's architects who see a full circle back to institutionalization.
The experts warned BC to stabilize budgets before creating CLBC & we "ranted" about that too -- ad nauseum, but sadly to no avail, so here we are.
It's also important to remember, before too much time passes, that we can and did do better. The tireless families who pioneered deinstitutionalization (like North Van's Anita Dadson) created an entire system of community living from scratch: non-profits, group homes, day programs, etc and made BC a world leader. They showed it could be done, and British Columbians paid the costs. While far from perfect, there were real choices, a province-wide system of residential options that worked, and some doable fixes that could have addressed the worst gaps.
But this is as much a failure of policy and good governance as it is of funding. For example, the Province/BC Housing does have the money needed for projects like this - as illustrated by the $20 million that BC Housing is offering to help construct a "state-of-the-art" building to house a new provincial autism centre, despite no needs assessment ever having been undertaken to identify this as a "need" -- particularly when stacked up against very real needs such as the lack of adult residential options, for example. Similarly, providing the necessary choices and safeguards around options like home-share to restore families' confidence is to some extent a policy issue, not just a resourcing question - so these things are not unsolveable!
We commend the families' initiative in looking at out-of-the-box solutions to mitigate the looming crises. Many of us find ourselves similarly confronted, simply having no other choice. But let's also not forget that many less fortunate families can't even dream of having the financial means to pursue options like this. And with severe new cuts to day programs and respite forcing more parents to give up working and become permanent caregivers (plus ever-rising housing costs), the ability to even consider the kind of investment needed will increasingly be out of reach for many.
So after they're gone, then what?
Is the same society that pioneered community living really unwilling to pay the costs? If that's indeed the case, do we need to consider income testing relatives so that those who really do have no other choice can also go with some peace of mind? Because for every family like the ones in this story who at least still have some hope, there is another family whose time and options and hope have all already run out.
What do you think?
]]>MOMS applauds BCACL's leadership and strongly endorses the concerns, which reflect the feedback from our provincial family network.
Last year, the BC government, through CLBC and MCFD, undertook a major "service redesign" program that cut funding to group homes serving adults and youths with developmental disabilities, forcing many individuals to be moved against their will into cheaper private foster /home share arrangements. Moms and other groups urged the Province to reconsider the cuts in light of the significant risks to these highly vulnerable individuals, especially after revelations that students and others were being recruited to provide care via Craigslist ads offering free housing and/or easy money to caregivers.
A key concern, which was echoed broadly at two public community meetings hosted by a coalition of community groups last fall, was the lack of an independent ombudsman or representative to ensure that the interests of individuals were protected as the Province continues to severely cut back existing service contracts and support levels to address growing waitlists.
MOMS is part of an unprecedented consensus among community living groups that have been continuing to meet to develop a coordinated response to the funding challenges, with more details expected to be released shortly.
Link to BCACL Press Release: "Foster care system failing youths with special needs"
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