OASIS Feedback to MCSS re Facility Closure Initiative

June 27, 2006
A) We at ***** have 1 person for whom we are planning. That person has very recently moved into a Long Term Care facility because of her medical/feeding requirements – and the fact that she is the only person.

We are planning to provide some day program activities. What is interesting is that the person has moved and now we are being asked for a proposal with regard to dollars to support her during the day. Since the person is partially blind, is tube-fed, and does not travel well, and since there is no suitable transportation in ****** – she will not be going far!!!!

So hope that is helpful. We await word from the ministry on approval of our proposal.

B) Dave the process is ridiculous and I blame the court decision, it would seem that the wishy washy judgement of the courts has given license to the unions and the nay say families to obfuscate the process. I have been involved in several closures, Oxford Regional Centre and Mid-western and have never witnessed anything like this. The cost in delays and I speak as a tax payer is offensive. Families need to be helped but not pandered to, especially when I believe this is union driven. I do not blame the Ministry people at all in fact they have my sympathies, I?d a choked somebody by now if I were in their shoes.. So what is my recommendation, I don?t have one really, again I blame the courts, they have tied our hands and in the long run have done families and family members a disservice. The unions are getting satisfaction through their self serving pound of flesh. My god what a mentality, we will inflict pain and suffering if it means we can keep jobs or revenge for loss of same. How do they look themselves in the mirror? Perhaps this is more of a vent. Perhaps I should choke the judge, what was their name anyway? Second thought maybe a drink would be better, choking a judge wouldn?t be good for me in the long run.

C) Hello. Just a few comments from our experience here in *****:

We should get to know people before building houses. We are being asked by the Ministry to build/purchase homes before families/individuals even select us as the service provider. You end up either over designing for the needs of people or under-designing because you have no idea what the needs or wishes of the people who will ultimately live there are.

There should be more community\agency involvement at the facilities and less facility control of process. There is a lot of facility control on when people are introduced into the planning, how and when families are introduced, etc.

We are being required to submit budgets before we truly even know the person or have had enough opportunity to truly determine their needs.

It would be great to slow down a bit?.if there wasn?t such a rush, plans for people would unfold in a better way. Given the pace at which the process is being driven, there is no room for creative options to be developed for people leaving the facility. As a result, I?m sure most people will end up in the traditional group living arrangements and that is not necessarily the best for everyone or the most cost efficient.

D) Our experience so far has been alright.

We would like: profiles sooner; Capital funding seemed a little “ad hoc” – we had to negotiate amounts on the fly – is there a set amount available for the house?; is there additional $ available for accessibility items?; etc…

E) Our biggest frustration to date with the facility initiative was that they waited way too long to apply for Old Age Security so a woman was here for over 4 months until she was approved and to date still no $$.

F) There is a need for an ?ombudsman type position? for after the departure from the facility. In **** there was a situation where an agency stepped in to assist in serving an individual who had come into contact with the correctional system. However several months later, there has been no updated plan created for this person & the agency is not able to refer back to the placement facilitators to develop an updated plan. The agency has stabilized the crisis, however now has ?inherited? the case management role when that was not part of the agreement to assist in stabilizing the situation.

G) There is a very serious concern amongst community agencies regarding staff recruitment province-wide. Although the Ministry is reported to have had a ?Human Resources? committee regarding the closures, there has been no communication from this committee with ds organizations in the community that we are aware of. This seems to be an obvious human resource issue that may benefit laid off staff at the facilities & agencies.