TAYSIDE COMMUNITY RESIDENTIAL AND SUPPORT OPTIONS
Families with family members with Intellectual Disabilities:
Waiting list are Growing across the Province:
These families need Support: Their story should be told
- More than 12,000 people are waiting for support to live in a decent home in Ontario. 427 Families are on the waiting list for residential care in the South East (SE) Region of Ontario. One hundred more families than were on the list in 2008.
- No new applications have been accepted in four years for SSAH. (Special Services at Home…..programs with a $10,000 cap to assist parents to support their intellectually disabled family members at home). 7,000 Ontario families on a waiting list for Special Services at Home (SSAH). The current funding is spread so thin that the Ontario average allocation to families is $4,200 a year. That translates into $350 per month or approximately 8 hours of support a week. …. 518 families in the South East Region off Ontario are on the SSAH waiting list. Many of these families have been on the list for more than four years. This is 120 more families, in the SE Region than were on the list in 2008. In fact there are 70 fewer families receiving SSAH than in 2008 in the four counties of the SE Region..
- In the S E Region there are 231 families on the waiting list for day supports…..110 more families than in 2008.
- 4,000 people on a waiting list for Passport funding in Ontario. This funding is vital to assist those who need support to be involved in their community….. But you cannot receive SSAH and Passport support at the same time
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In a random sampling of ridings across Ontario, over 1,450 parents over the age of 70 are still providing primary care to their adult child or family member: (CLO: Ontario)
3% of parents are over the age of 90
17% of parents are over 80, and
80% of parents are over 70.
- The Death Watch: The only new capital funding for group homes for the severely disabled built in the last 7 years has been directed to accommodate the closing of the institutions…..families on the waiting list for group home spaces before the closures are still on the waiting list. They must wait until someone dies before there is a space.
- Being Pushed of the Cliff : Financial help disappears when the child reaches 18, even though their needs become even more complex when they are adults. The right to special education disappears at age 21,
Six years ago, Ontario’s Minister of Children and Youth Services promised to help parents obtain services for their severely disabled children without giving up rights. “Parents, in the year 2005, in one of the richest countries in the world, should not be giving up their children,” said Marie Bountrogianni. Shelley Page, Ottawa Citizen February 10, 2009. The Children With Complex Special Needs (CCsD) Program was established to financially support families
We saved the Government millions of dollars by caring for our children and family members at home but when we need their help they push us off the cliff but…… those children and individuals who were given to the province or institutions were funded: Those children who were given to the Children’s Aide Society (TAY: Transition Age Youth) are guaranteed funding to meet their needs when they become adults but those families that cared for their children all these years are told you must wait and fend for yourself . Those families that did not put their children in institutions but need residential care for their family members when they pass on or are too old to provide the care…are told too bad…….the folks that were in the institutions are guaranteed funding but you are not .
The Bureaucracy is mind numbing:
Families have to go through an excruciating process of application after application just to be told they will have to wait.
SSAH…………. separate application process distinct eligibility (Waiting lists )
ODSP…………. separate application process distinct eligibility (funding is a right)
Passport………… separate application process distinct eligibility (waiting list)
CCsD …………… separate application process distinct eligibility
Residential and other Support Services……. separate application process distinct eligibility (Waiting Lists)
100 Wilson Street East, Perth Ontario, P.O. Box 707, K7H 3K5, Phone: 613-264-0953, Fax: 613-264-1930, Tayside@tayside.ca
SIS…………………… New system ………… Yet another, application process distinct eligibility (waiting lists)
Special education……..Separate Application process distinct eligibility (a right under the Education Act)
Intensive Early Intervention Program for Children with Autism………
Assisted Devices Program (ADP)…………. separate application process distinct eligibility (waiting list)
Infant Development Program…………… separate application process distinct eligibility (waiting list)
Preschool Speech and Language Program….. separate application process distinct eligibility (waiting list)
Respite Services………………….. separate application process distinct eligibility (waiting list)
Enhanced Respite Funding…………………. separate application process distinct eligibility (waiting list)
Behaviour Management Program…………………….. separate application process distinct eligibility (waiting list)
Link to CBC Local Coverage:
http://www.cbc.ca/ottawamorning/2011/05/11/no-place-to-go/
- South East Region is four Counties ( Lanark, Hastings Prince Edward, Leeds Grenville, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington)
100 Wilson Street East, Perth Ontario, P.O. Box 707, K7H 3K5, Phone: 613-264-0953, Fax: 613-264-1930, Tayside@tayside.ca