More CLBC Group Home Closures

Group home had to close, operators say
NDP releases letter citing budget cuts; B.C. still says it was 'mutual decision'

Lindsay Kines and Jeff Rud, Times Colonist
Published: Thursday, March 06, 2008.

The operators of a Victoria group home for special-needs children say the B.C. government has forced them out of business, contrary to claims by Children's Minister Tom Christensen that it was a "mutual decision."

In a letter to parents and caregivers, Corner House director Joy Moncrieff and manager Val Harrison said government cut the home's budget so drastically "that we had no choice but to agree to a closure of the facility."

"It has been a fulfilling eight years for us at Corner House, getting to know so many wonderful children and their parents," Moncrieff and Harrison say in the letter, a copy of which was released yesterday by the NDP. "Writing this letter has been one of the hardest things we have had to do."

Parents who needed a break from caring for a child with complex needs were able to leave their son or daughter at Corner House for short periods of time. The group home, which served 19 clients, will close at the end of April.

Christensen told the media on Tuesday that the home's operators reached a "mutual decision" to end its $260,000-a-year contract with Community Living B.C., the government agency that services children and adults with developmental disabilities. He stuck by those comments yesterday despite the letter from Moncrieff and Harrison. "I haven't seen any letter," he said. "I've been advised that CLBC had worked with Corner House."

But NDP children's critic Nicholas Simons ridiculed Christensen's version of events.
"You can't come to someone and say you've got a choice between the noose or the electric chair and then say that they've got a choice," he said. "The fact of the matter is government's cut funding to children needing services and their families."

Christensen said government can deliver the same respite service to four times as many families by shifting the money to a cheaper model. Families will now be able to have a caregiver come into their home, or let their child stay with the caregiver for a day or a weekend, he said.
"I think, on balance, this is good news in that we're going to have more children and families in the Victoria area who now have access to respite," he said.

The families who use the Davie Street facility, however, say the decision is anything but good news for their children.

"It devastated my son," said Mary Japp, a single parent of two autistic children. "Because as a child with autism he struggles socially. And for one weekend every month, he could go to Corner House and he could just be a regular kid.

"Everybody there has a challenge and it's just normal to have a challenge, and so it wasn't something that made him feel like the odd man out. He finally felt like he had a place where he could just be himself. So he's losing that social connection which, for a child who's socially disadvantaged, that's a big blow.''

Annetta Orrick said she doesn't want a different type of service. Her 14-year-old daughter with autism, cerebral palsy and an intellectual disorder has been going to Corner House one weekend a month for seven years.

Orrick will now have to hire an individual caregiver for brief periods of respite, she said.
"It's very difficult to find people to do these small jobs," she said. "It's never their real job. It's something they're picking up. They're generally a student or it's something that they're doing for an extra bit of pocket money. So they do not look at it as a career or a professional service. It's glorified babysitting."

Orrick said it's also up to her to assess the reliability and qualifications of the caregiver. "There's no accountability," she said.

lkines@tc.canwest.com
jrud@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008

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I fail to see how this will achieve Mr. Campbell's great goal for people with special needs:

Goal #3 - Build the best system of support in Canada for persons with disabilities, those with special needs, children at risk and seniors.

Perhaps Minister Christensen and Premier Campbell can provide some concrete evidence to prove that the failed experiment that is CLBC has improved the lives of at-risk populations and their families? Lois Hollstedt, the Chair of CLBC seems to think otherwise, when she publically stated that they still don't have actual waitlists to see just how many children in the province aren't receiving any services yet. And, more importantly, Ms. Hollstedt stated that CLBC hasn't been given the budget to allow them to meet the province's great goal for people with disabilities, or the goal of the legislation that created CLBC. A pretty important statement for the head of the CLBC board to make publically. It seems to contradict the government's position.