Province, city announce site for provincial autism centre – families’ voices ignored
Outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell made his final public appearance today, with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, Children's Minister Mary Polak and Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid, to announce ( CORRECTION: Contrary to the announcement, we're told it's actually a property bordering ) Sunny Hill as the site of the proposed new Pacific Autism Family Centre (PAFC). The project is the long-time dream of Campbell's close friends and political funders, hoteliers Wendy and Sergia Cocchia, who along with the Aquilini family and others were charged with establishing a foundation to advance the project after Campbell's 2008 promise of $20 million in capital funding to help build a provincial residential school/centre of excellence.
No needs assessment
The Premier's commitment was made with no public consultation with families or professionals, no needs assessment, no competitive bidding and no public policy rationale offered by any provincial ministry. The promised provincial funding applies to construction costs only. Proponents have cited a long list of possible improvements to services in promoting the project. What they have not mentioned is that there is no funding to any of those things. Any of the centre's activities would have to be funded privately or by diverting funds from existing programs. The foundation promises to raise $14 million with the help of major supporters like the Canucks and other sports teams to help cover construction costs, but the total raised so far was not revealed.
The Province has to date never consulted with families or professionals, instead advising stakeholders to work with the PAFC proponents, whom the Province has charged with developing plans for the new centre. The strategic plan for PAFC would see the centre taking over responsibility for all autism services currently managed by the Ministries of Children, Health, Education and CLBC.
CLBC, agencies farm out disabled adults on Craigslist, Advocate can’t intervene
A long list of ads has been running for months on Craigslist, some offering “Free Rent!” and salary to anyone willing to share their home with people with developmental disabilities ("You get to live RENT FREE" - and collect a salary! - "no special training or experience required!").
CLBC is forcibly moving adults who can't speak up for themselves from group homes where they have lived happily in some cases for over 20 years and farming them out on Craigslist to students and other opportunists seeking free rent or a mortgage helper who won't talk back.
Unlike professionally staffed group homes, which are licensed, inspected and subject to independent oversight, home share contractors are not subject to any independent oversight. A series of reports commissioned by CLBC have confirmed that the potential for abuse and risks are significant and that such placements are not appropriate for all adults.
What's perhaps most alarming, however, is the lack of any independent oversight, investigation or reporting mechanism to provide the necessary checks and balances.
Just today, BC’s Advocate for Service Quality responded to growing community concerns by refusing to intervene or offer advice on the risks involved, stating that her mandate only permits her to offer advice to the minister in response to specific complaints about service quality if an individual files a formal complaint. She referred the concerns about CLBC's actions to CLBC's CEO, Rick Mowles. The Advocate for Service Quality answers to Minister Rich Coleman (the minister who ordered the cuts).
Read the Craigslist home sharing ads here
More about the group home cuts, forced relocations and other community living cuts here .
Public Forum on Community Living Cuts
- Date/Time: Monday, October 25, 2010, 7-9pm
- Location: Ukrainian Orthodox Centre (Auditorium), 154 East 10 th Avenue (between Main & Quebec Streets)
Wheelchair access: the venue and restrooms accommodate wheelchair users.
Parking : In garage (access at front of bldg) + outdoor lot on southeast side. Wheelchair access at front doors only. Also, limited street parking.
Co-presented by: British Columbia Association for Community Living (BCACL); BC Coalition of People With Disabilities (BCCPD); BC Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU); Developmental Disabilities Association (DDA); Moms on the Move (MOMS); United Community Services Co-op, BC FamilyNet
Moderator: Tim Beachy, United Community Services Co-op
Panellists:
- Jane Dyson, BC Coalition for People with Disabilities
- Faith Bodnar, BC Association for Community Living
- Alanna Hendren, Developmental Disabilities Association
- Dawn Steele, Moms on the Move
- James Cavalluzzo, BC Government and Service Employees' Unions
More information about group home closures, community living cuts and concerns about forced relocations on our Group Home Advocacy page
UPDATE: Group home cuts
We continue to receive extremely disturbing reports from families, staff, agencies and other community advocacy groups about what's being described as a "vicious" and "clandestine" cost-cutting push to close group homes and relocate current residents to less costly, informal living arrangements.
Three particularly disturbing aspects have emerged: 1) There appears to be great urgency on CLBC's part to accomplish as many moves and closures as possible over the summer months before families and the public even realize what's going on; 2) CLBC is ordering service reductions with far-reaching implications based on a draft policy that has not even been formally approved or announced, raising questions about potential legal challenges; and 3) MCFD has a similar cost-cutting process underway to close children's group homes and relocate youths with very complex needs to foster care.
See a report revealing the children's closures from the Victoria Times Colonist : Ministry closing children in care homes
Long history behind BC’s group home cuts
UPDATED - July 31: Please visit our new Group Home Cuts Web page for more news and information on this issue
Sign the petition urging the province to halt the group home cuts and forced relocations !
Background
There has been ongoing and often intense pressure to close professionally-staffed group homes for adults with developmental disabilities in the province since 2001, when the BC Liberals took office.
While MOMS strongly supports personalized choices and efficient spending, the government's current actions are clearly not driven by the best interests of adults with developmental disabilities. BC's latest push to reduce quality, close group homes and forcibly relocate residents against their wishes poses grave risks to their safety and wellbeing, prompting growing alarm among families and community living advocates.
There are good reasons to offer alternatives, as group homes are not right for everyone. But despite government's protestations to the contrary, it has always been clear that the desire to reduce costs supercedes concerns about the risks of abuse, safety and individual wellbeing, and that both Community Living BC and the Province have repeatedly failed to be forthright about a series of initiatives aimed at reducing group home capacity.
Adults fight 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, 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.