Programs & Services > Options > Bill 77

FST Options Submission on Bill 77

Bill 77 - Services for Persons with Developmental Disabilities Act

For over a decade, Options, at Family Service Toronto, has administered and demonstrated the success of individualized funding. We have supported initial and ongoing person directed planning for people with developmental disabilities living on their own, with their families and in group homes.  We have also been involved with the process of supporting people to leave provincial institutions and move into the community.  We have seen people thrive with these changes.

People labeled with intellectual disabilities are citizens who live in community and are entitled to full community inclusion as a human right.  In order for this to continue to become a reality for more and more people, there are concrete and proactive steps which must be taken. The proposed legislation has a very significant role to play. We commend the move the ministry has taken to close the institutions.  History proves that large institutions disconnect people from community, and deprive the community of important diversity and opportunities to learn and benefit from the contributions of people with disabilities.  With the closure of large institutions, many alternatives have emerged that are preventative, cost effective and promote greater dignity and respect for the human rights of people labeled with intellectual disabilities.

At Options FST we have provided a wide range of choices, encouraged and strengthened natural supports and helped to develop community connections.  This work has been done cost effectively, with funded and unfunded individuals, and has resulted in reduced dependency and isolation and increased community involvement for the people whom we support. Our lengthy experience administering funding and facilitating supports for people to pursue both traditional and creative options gives us a unique agency perspective.  We are grateful for this opportunity to share our position and expertise, and to convey our support of Bill 77. In our many years of successful service delivery, we have experience with a wide range of people and have developed the necessary systems for accountability required to administer direct funding. As such we have valuable insights that we hope will be helpful to the process of Bill 77 at this time. We have also identified some aspects of Bill 77 that may require further elaboration, and these have been included for your consideration.  We hope that our perspective will also shine some light on some of the current opposition that the Bill is facing.

We support the spirit and direction of Bill 77. We feel strongly that it has the potential to enhance efforts and improve the quality of people’s lives. Similar to the goals of Bill 77, we at Options have sought to listen to and respect the voice of individuals and connect them to opportunities for success in the community.

Options, as part of Family Service Toronto, work from and upholds an anti-oppression framework.  We believe in equal citizenship: each individual’s right to live free of discrimination, poverty and abuse; each citizen’s right to the dignity of risk, the right to make mistakes without fear of revocation of our capacity for citizenship and our right to choice; and each citizen’s right to self-determination.  We believe in a person’s basic human right to participation and relationships, and uphold our work to support citizens in their communities.  Citizenship is the principal.  Inclusion is the outcome.

The Options position on Bill 77 is presented in the following seven subsections:

1. Flexible Funding
2. The new assessment tool
3. Equal access to personal planning supports for all assessed persons
4. Administrative funding
5. Secure, annualized funding
6. Creation of a new, unprotected labor force
7. Poverty, oppression, isolation and abuse as underrepresented topics in Bill 77

Flexible Funding

Fair and just flexible funding reflects the needs of people’s day-to-day lives.  These needs include (but are not limited to): yearly appreciation (as indicated by the bank of Canada), respectful supports that facilitate a person’s contribution to the community and participation in leisure and recreational activities (including concerts, movies and trips to the museum), a healthy nutritious diet and complimentary healthcare.  Fair and just flexible funding will also consider cost of living in accordance to each individual’s geographic location.

Access to funding is critical and makes a huge difference in peoples lives. Programs such as SSAH, Options, Family Service Toronto and Passport demonstrate the need and desire people have for self-determined choices: control of how and by whom they are supported to pursue activities of their interest.  The necessity and demand for options and flexibility grows. Bill 77 holds the far reaching potential to better equalize access to the types of funding and supports that gain momentum and open up many new opportunities for people, whether their support needs are minimal or highly complex. 

The proposed legislation will strengthen community inclusion so far as it is able to reflect the many ways that flexible funding can sustain and strengthen organic networks and supports.  The development of regulations pursuant to Bill 77 will also determine whether the assessment and application processes become less restrictive. A transparent process with clear appeal procedures would consider the range of family circumstances and support options, diverse communities, geographic location, consumer defined quality of services, annual cost of living appreciation and each citizen’s right to inclusion, self-determination and self-directed definition of needs.

The new assessment tool

We understand that the new assessment tool will work as a functional assessment.  As function is inherently contextual, a well-designed and efficient new functional assessment tool will include, and take into account, each client’s local living conditions, geographical cost of living, cost of qualified support workers, opportunities for leisure and recreation, further education, options for literacy development and comprehensive complimentary healthcare.

A holistic assessment tool would identify client needs through each assessed individual’s (or family’s) self-determination of quality support and quality of life.  As such, we suggest that each assessment will work as a flexible, individualized tool to support the changing needs of each person’s life. A constructive and useful tool would elaborate on a person’s holistic support needs rather than something solely based on quantifying levels of disability. Furthermore, the Bill’s regulations should incorporate safeguards for the assessed individual to have control over the process.

It is Options’ hope and understanding that this new assessment tool will work in conjunction with person directed planning support.  In accordance with a value based, socially responsible, respectful and economically just policy of service, such supports should be offered, free of charge, to each assessed person.

Equal access to personal planning supports

Because some families lack the experience and/or resources to manage allocated funds towards their best and most productive outcomes, we suggest that Bill 77 enable equal access to person directed planning, and that this should be optional and free of charge. Our experience at Options has shown that successful person directed planning requires additional funding for administrative supports directly related to “hands-on” planning as well as hiring, training and sustaining support worker retention, and co-ordination of the wide variety of possible supports that families and/or individuals require. This includes actionable goal planning, clarification of self-determined support needs, and person-directed input towards a self-determined quality of life. Personal planning facilitation is clearly directed by individuals and when applicable, their families.  The role of planners will further provide much needed assistance with the ongoing work of hiring, training and retaining quality, individually matched and appropriately qualified personal support workers.  Additional planning supports would also be able to assist people with advocacy and community networking. These should be provided, free of charge, to families and individuals, and offered separate from each person’s funding/allotted amount.  Each region should be able to provide personal planning supports, directed by families and individuals that are respectful, accountable, responsive and self-reflective.

Administrative funding

Options believes that inclusion of administrative funds is imperative to the function of any organization.  An organization cannot restructure, in a fair and equitable way, without proportional supportive funding within its infrastructure.
Additional administrative funding is imperative. Such administration includes (but is not limited to) budget management, assistance with clarity around funding requirements, infrastructure and clerical support.

Secure, annualized funding

Secure, annualized funding that reflects the cost of living, and meets the growing client demand for flexibility, and greater consumer control of existing programs and services must be offered alongside options for transitional, temporary and life-long individualized support.  Through Bill 77 there will be a growing demand for direct funding options, and it is our hope that programs like Passport, and SSAH will be allocated sufficient funds for the individuals and families in need.

Creation of a new, unprotected labor force

Although the expanded labor force of personal/community support workers, created through individualized funding, should take advantage of existing mechanisms to assist and legitimize its practices, additional funding will also be necessary for new worker benefits and protections.

Each support worker’s role must reflect a client-directed approach.  The role of the support worker (the employee), must be focused on meeting an individual’s (the employer) personal, communication, and community involvement support needs. A worker’s personal experience, background and interests, the unique qualities they bring, any relevant professional training, values and previous work experience should all correspond with criteria that a client deems necessary for his or her support worker. 
It is the position of Family Service Toronto, that low cost of service pays a disservice to all stakeholders, including workers and their employers (otherwise considered ‘DS’ clients).  As such, individual support workers must receive wages and benefits equal to other professionals in the DS sector.

The regulations to proceed from Bill 77 must take the cost of worker benefits and equal-wage-for-equal-work into consideration.

We are also concerned that standardizing the requirements for support workers would limit possibilities and diminish the creative potential of the support role and therefore limit an individual’s ability to determine for themselves, who their ideal support worker would be.

Poverty, oppression, isolation and abuse as underrepresented topics in Bill 77

Transforming the forces of oppression reaches beyond legislation. Oppression is about the disparities in cultural, social, political and economic support for individuals to live their best possible lives, lives rooted in self-determination, freedom of choice and freedom from poverty, abuse and isolation. The closure of large institutions conveys the message that people with disabilities belong in typical communities alongside the rest of us.  This is a commendable shift, the broad reach of which still remains to be achieved. Grounded in the promotion of human rights, Options believes that poverty, oppression, isolation and abuse require further acknowledgement in the body of Bill 77 and its pursuant regulations.

Recommendations

1. Pursuant to the passing of Bill 77, the process to develop regulations will be transparent, welcome community input and prioritize the involvement and contributions of individuals, families and others with experience and demonstrated success delivering person centered planning.
2. Support workers should be paid on a par with other professionals in the DS sector.
3. The assessment tool should respect the whole person and not be limited to measurements of functional capacity.
4. Personal planning supports must be directed by individuals and centered on their own goals and vision for their life.
5. Planning supports should be free to individuals and their families.
6. Administrative funding should be fair and equitable to ensure proper infrastructure to support person directed planning.
7. Funding should reflect the real cost of living for individuals.
8. A widely publicized appeal process for those denied funding should be put in place and made available to people.

The Staff and Management of Options, Family Service Toronto
August 11, 2008

 

If you would like to receive service from Options, please call us at 416-971-6326

Back to previous page