BCCL’s Submission to the Select Committee on Developmental Services

Read Brampton Caledon Community Living’s submission to the all-party Select Committee on Developmental Services. The Committee’s mandate is to report to the House its observations and recommendations with respect to the urgent need for a comprehensive developmental services strategy to address the needs of children, youth and adults in Ontario with an intellectual disability or who are dually diagnosed with an intellectual disability and a mental illness. Read more…

2012/2013 Annual Report

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

To read the 2012 report Click Here

BCCL Staff Recognized at Community Care Access Centre Heroes In The Home Award Ceremony

BCCL’s Kim Jessup-Stoddart (left) and Marissa Browne (right) accepting the Heroes award from Noemi Amero (middle) of the Community Care Access Centre for their work with Caledon families. Kim and Marissa said it was an honour to accept the award and humbling to hear the stories of other award recipients.

“Ending the Wait”

An “action agenda” report from the Housing Study Group on the supportive housing crisis facing Ontarians with a developmental disability and their families.

To Read More Click Here

Intellectual Disability and Stigma: an Ontario Perspective

The Clinical Bulletin of the Developmental Disabilities Division

Intellectual Disability and Stigma: an Ontario Perspective

Introduction

DSM-5 has introduced the term “intellectual disability” replacing “mental retardation” to refer to individuals with significant impairments in intelligence and adaptive functioning that onset before age 18 (Paris 2013). Mental retardation now joins a number of earlier nosologic terms like oligophrenia, amentia and mental deficiency, terminology carefully documented by Leo Kanner (1964). Over time any term selected by nosologists for this population eventually assumes a stigmatic connotation that stimulates requests for an alternative. What is the nature of stigma associated with this category of mental disorder? Are there particular issues that need to be addressed apart from renaming it from time to time?

The read the full article click here.

Huronia Regional Centre lawsuit ends in $35M settlement

The Ontario government has reached a $35-million settlement in a class-action lawsuit with former residents of the Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia, a former institution for people with disabilities that was accused of humiliation and abuse.

Plaintiffs had alleged that abuse was doled out almost daily at the centre operated by the province for 133 years. They had been seeking $2 billion.

Letter for Families Supporting Select Committee

MPP Christine Elliott’s office has prepared a letter template for families wishing to show their support for her Private Member’s Bill calling for the creation of a Select Committee on Developmental Services. Families can add their name and contact information to the letter and send it to:

· Liberal Premier Wynne – [email protected]

· NDP Leader Andrea Horwath – [email protected]

For the letter template, go to http://oasisonline.ca/top-stories/letter-for-families-supporting-the-select-committee-on-developmental-services/

The Hateful Letter That Has Inspired a Chain Letter of Compassion

The Hateful Letter That Has Inspired a Chain Letter of Compassion

That now infamous anonymous letter delivered to the home of the grandmother of a thirteen year old child with autism has not only stirred shock throughout Ontario but throughout Canada as well. From letters to newspaper editors and the comment sections in digital media to television and radio interviews of ordinary citizens, people have expressed outrage at the hurtful, if not hateful, comments made about an innocent child with a disability. What the letter has also stirred, however, has been an outpouring of compassion. Ontarians and Canadians instinctively understand that people with a disability are valued human beings who are deserving of the dignity and rights accorded to others in our society. The letter has become a chain letter of compassion and we must continue to pass on the message that everyone, including people with a disability, is welcome in our communities. Pass it on!