Friday, September 15th, 2006 from 11am to 2:00pm

Co-Chairs: Carol Stinson, Gerry Juzenas

Minutes – ALLIANCE for Community Living (Formerly the Coalition)

1.Introductions conducted

2. Agenda reviewed and revised: Added items regarding Woodlands Class Action, CLBC Eligibility, BCACL Youth Transitions Meetings, Disability Benefits and Volunteer Incentive...

3. Class Action: A member reported that they attended a hearing on September 5, 2006 at Supreme Court of BC – before Judge Nancy Morrison. Poyner Baxter and Public Trustee were both represented.
Poyner Baxter: http://www.poynerbaxter.com/Woodlands.htm - also, full text of claim available online: http://www.poynerbaxter.com/Woodlands/statement%20of%20claim.htm

 – proposed settlement discussed – Between William Joseph Richard and WHM as plaintiffs and the Queen (defendant)…
Poyner Baxter – trying to remove WHM as a plaintiff.
Arishenkoff – October 2005 – states that Crown is not liable for actions of employees before August 1, 1974. Leave to appeal this to Supreme Court Canada has been denied.

Poyner Baxter confirmed that for 10 months they had met with Attorney General to develop settlement but had not consulted with his clients because he had signed a confidentiality agreement with government. Plaintiffs wonder who PB is working for?

Divide the class to two groups – those discharged before August 1974 and those discharged after August 1974.
BC Coalition of People with Disabilities has asked Klein Lyons to step in.
Klein Lyons has agreed to act on behalf of a group of plaintiffs – hoping to represent entire group – two principles:
- equal restitution
- no exclusions

Poyner Baxter settlement requires assessment based on 8 levels of abuse that people may have experienced. Points are assigned to abuse and compensation would be based on total points.
Next hearing is Tuesday, September 19, 2006 at 10am at 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver. People are invited to attend to show their support.

2. New Minister – BC Family Net has meeting with Minister Christensen on September 22, 2006. As well, they are meeting with Lois Hollstedt, chair of CLBC and one of their staff and board members (hopefully a family member) on the 19th of September. As well, BC Family Net has met with NDP critic for MCFD.

3. Family Focus Conference – October 20, 21, 22nd 2006. Please circulate to people who might be interested. Pre-Conference date on October 20 addresses inclusive education and is available to teachers looking for a professional development opportunity as October 20, 2006 is a province wide professional development day for all teachers.

4. Eligibility: Government is appealing ruling that strikes down using IQ of 70 as a cutoff. The following is CLBC's current definition of developmental disability:
CLBC Annual Report - 2006 - Page 12:

What is a developmental disability?
It is defined as “measured intellectual functioning of approximately 70 IQ or lower, with onset before age 18, and measured significant limitations in two or more adaptive skill areas.” Eligibility criteria reflects the internationally accepted definition of a developmental disability including IQ measurement of 70 [with a standard error of three to five points] and the key role adaptive skills play in both the definition and determination of eligibility for services.

5. Disability Benefits: Persons with Disability benefits can also get a $100 monthly incentive payment for volunteering in the community. There are questions about whether a married couple could each receive the $100 monthly volunteer incentive payment. Carol will follow up with the BCCPD to see what they know about the issue and the policies.

6. Institutional Legacy Trust Fund - $510.00 cheques have been sent to everyone known to have lived at Woodlands, Glendale, Tranquille and Endicott Centre. If people know of someone who has not received a cheque and has lived at one of the above institutions, please forward them to:
- anita.nevistic@gov.bc.ca or call 1-888-387-3354 – and provide the following information:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Current Address and Phone Number
- name of institution where the person lived and when they lived there.
 

7. Residential Options Project: Presentation by Jacinta Eni, Project Manager, now working for CLBC – temporary position. The other project manager is Andrea Baker, formerly employed by North Shore Association for the Mentally Handicapped, also a temporary CLBC employee. A one page overview of the project was distributed.
- the project is primarily about choice – about ensuring that people in residential services have the opportunity to express their satisfaction with their current living arrangement. Many people in residential services found their current residence based on what was available, not what they wanted or preferred. These people will get the opportunity to express their satisfaction with their current services. Many agencies actively communicate with the residents and their families and regularly provide opportunities for expression of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. Other agencies do less consultation and residents and families have not had opportunities to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
- 2,800 people live in staffed residential settings. The number of people is the reason that only people in staffed residential settings are being interviewed first.
- Process:
- Agencies will be visited first – Residential Options staff will ask the agency about the best way to contact individuals and families served by this agency.
- Agency will be asked by Residential Options staff if each person served is, in their opinion, well placed or would like to consider a change.
- Each individual and family will also be met with by Residential Options staff. The preference is that Residential Options staff meet with individual and family without the agency present. Individuals and families have expressed concern that by expressing a desire for a change, they will experience a backlash from the agency.
- Families have expressed concerns about this “agency first” process but Jacinta explained that by contacting the agency first, the Residential Options staff are able to be given alerts about sensitive situations (residents with 90 year old mothers who have expressed their desire to have their family member remain in a stable situation and do not want to be upset unnecessarily).
- In talking with agencies, there may be folks who do not have immediate families. Residential Options staff will work with agencies to develop trusted advisors who can assist the individual to feel supported while being interviewed.
- Another product of the project will be a detailed summary of where everyone lives, how satisfied they are with services and how many are willing to explore alternative services.  This information is needed to satisfy Treasury Board that CLBC has been rigorous in reviewing its current services for any potential savings due to moving people from to less expensive models of support.

A question was asked about legislative authority to conduct this project.  In the legislation that creates CLBC:

8. Transition Issues for Young Adults: Families have been gathered together for meetings in Langley and Vancouver. Many stories were shared about the challenges families of young people face when they come to the end of their school career. They are asked to make complex plans and proposals which then get rejected by CLBC. Either the plan is missing some piece of information or the plan is rejected on the basis of lack of funding available. Many families are forced to quit jobs to stay home and care for young adults. BCACL is coordinating additional meetings to facilitate families connecting and working together. They would like to support families to meet with MLA’s to identify the need for more Community Living funding. CLBC is responsible for the services, but the government is responsible for appropriate funding for CLBC.

A number of actions were agreed upon at the BCACL Meetings. Families agreed to file a complaint with CLBC where appropriate, noting that Waitlists is an area of concern to be listed under Details of the Complaint on the CLBC complaint form (available at: http://www.communitylivingbc.ca/complaints.htm). The need to connect with MLAs was also discussed. Since we met in July we know of two families meeting with MLAs to discuss their concerns.

As well, the Provincial government is consulting right now on next year’s budget:

link to meeting dates: http://www.leg.bc.ca/cmt/38thparl/session-2/fgs/5-38-2-4-4.asp

9. Legislation as a mechanism to ensure access to services. Laney (BCACL) forwarded the article and research from 2003. The article is linked here.  We will discuss this at next Alliance meeting.

9. Mental Health supports – Tertiary Care – Provincial Assessment Centre (PAC) – is there an update on what CLBC is planning for this function across the Province? We will attempt to get an update from Doug Woollard at CLBC and perhaps he an attend the next meeting. (We could ask Doug to cover an update on Individualized Funding as well).

Next Meeting – November 17th 2006 11am to 1pm (Happy Birthday, Gerry! - Nov 17, 2006) - Education Room - Burnaby Association for Community Inclusion (BACI) - 2702 Norland Avenue, Burnaby, BC