Message from the President and Executive Director
It is customary to dedicate this space in an annual report to an enumeration of an organization’s successes over the past year. And, to be sure, there were a number of achievements this past year that served to strengthen our supports to individuals and their families and our association. We are proud to be recognized for our commitment to excellence and accountability and providing high quality, valued-based supports.
This year, however, we dedicate this space to call upon you, your family and friends and community members to engage directly with provincial representatives and decision-makers to raise awareness about the acute needs of Ontarians with a developmental disability and their families and the crises that many of them are experiencing.
Over the past year a number of national media outlets, including CTV, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and the CBC, featured heart-wrenching stories of loving, caring families in Ontario who could no longer care for their disabled family member and families languishing on ever growing waiting lists for services that have been chronically underfunded for decades.
In November of 2012, against the backdrop of these stories and in response to hundreds of complaints from families across the province about the lack of services, the Provincial Ombudsman of Ontario, André Marin, launched an investigation into developmental services.
“We have heard heart-wrenching stories from aging or ill parents whose adult sons and daughters need constant care that can’t be provided at home — but they have nowhere to turn,” Marin said. “Some of these caregivers are on the brink of emotional and physical breakdown. We have investigated past cases where people with these severe disabilities have been sent to shelters and even jail. What is particularly troubling is that our complaints have only gone up, despite new legislation and changes made by the ministry in recent years.”
Yet, despite widespread media coverage, alarms being raised at the Ombudsman’s Office and warnings about the toll years
of chronic underfunding have taken on families and the sector, Ontarians with a developmental disability and their families see no reason to believe that things will change.
Families are losing hope.
If not embarrassing front-page stories or red flags being raised by Ontario’s watchdog, families ask, then, what is it going to take?
Those of us who are concerned with the plight of vulnerable Ontarians with a disability and their families must make our provincial representatives understand that their well-being is as much a priority with them as health and education—sectors that resonate with the electorate and, not coincidentally, with elected representatives.
There will be a tipping point when the status quo as regards public resources and policy concerning families and individuals who are vulnerable because of a disability will be seen as unacceptable by the general public. This tipping point may be prompted by what we anticipate will be a scathing report from the Provincial Ombudsman’s Office.
What will it take? Surely, the answer cannot be jails or shelters or families having to disclose their personal stories to newspapers or elderly infirm parents having to leave their loved ones in hospital emergency rooms.
We must not lose hope. Ontarians are compassionate and have a keen sense of social justice.
Sean Travis, President and Jim Triantafilou, Executive Director
To read the Full 2013 report Click Here
Financial Statements