Clark pledges much- needed infusion of cash to CLBC
Premier commits $ 40 million to help adults with developmental disabilities
VICTORIA — After months of criticism about her government’s treatment of the developmentally disabled, Premier Christy Clark announced a new plan Thursday that she said will ensure such people get the support they need.
“My government is absolutely committed to supporting individuals with developmental disabilities and their families,” Clark told a news conference.
“We will provide services based on what they need — the services that they want — provided to them in the way that they feel is best for them,” she added, pledging $ 40 million to three separate funds.
The amount falls well short of the up to $ 65 million that Community Living BC — the government agency that provides services to adults with developmental disabilities — last year said would be necessary to clear a backlog in its services.
As well, of the $ 40 million announced by Clark, CLBC has direct access to only $ 30 million. Of that, $ 18 million is a permanent extension of a temporary increase the government gave the agency last September.
But Clark said CLBC based its $ 65- million estimate on information that a government review has proven to be unreliable.
“It wasn’t an accurate assessment of what the needs were today, and it wasn’t even an accurate assessment of what they might be in the future,” she said of the CLBC analysis.
Last October, CLBC said more than 2,800 people with developmental disabilities were waiting for services across the province, and that 750 of those had received no help at all from the organization. It said it needed $ 51 million to $ 65 million to clear the backlog.
Clark said this assessment often included overlapping and outdated requests.
“They didn’t as an organization fully understand what the needs of the population they were serving were going to be.”
Clark’s announcement follows a massive public outcry about CLBC services from clients and advocates, many of whom shared their stories with The Vancouver Sun.
They said services were being cut back, people were being forced out of group homes and young people lost much of their support when they became adults.
Disabilities advocate Dawn Steele said the new funding “is better than nothing, but it’s not enough to address the existing backlog. We have an additional 850 clients coming into the CLBC system in 2012 and another 850 for 2013.”
New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix said he is happy more money will be going to people with developmental disabilities.
But he said reports released by the government Thursday confirm CLBC has failed people significantly, adding the internal reviews by government are not enough for him to be confident the problems will be solved.
“This is a failure of significant proportions that’s hugely affected the lives of many families.”
He said the review was done by the same people who have been involved in the system all along. ” It’s elites talking to elites and telling families what the solution is. And I think what’s required, and what I believe is required, is an independent review.”
But Clark said the review was thorough. “We got a good close look at this, because we didn’t just want to fix it for today, we wanted to fix it for a long time,” she said, adding her government is also making changes to increase CLBC’S responsiveness to clients.
“We are moving away from a one-size-fits- all model and we’re moving to one of individualized care that will ask people what we can do for them, and that’s why CLBC was created in the first place,” she said, adding the government is introducing measures such as a permanent appeal mechanism for families and clients who have concerns about their services.
In her news conference, Clark said the $ 40 million she is committing will break down the following way:
• $ 18 million directly to CLBC each year. This makes permanent a temporary relief grant to the organization last September. At that time, Clark gave CLBC a one- time $ 8.9 million for the last six months of the 2011- 12 fiscal year. A report released Thursday shows the organization used that money to provide new and additional services for about 540 people, with the priority going to those with urgent health and safety needs.
• $ 12 million each year in a contingency fund for CLBC to use for “anticipated caseload increases.” Government officials say they have yet to determine exactly how that money will be distributed.
• $ 10 million for the Ministry of Social Development for programs outside CLBC. These will include day and employment programs for people with developmental disabilities.
Dix said he’ll keep up the pressure for an independent review.
“The fact that the government has finally acknowledged what it had denied is a good thing,” he said.
“The fact there are some new resources is a good thing, but if there is any lesson to be learned from this experience, it’s that we need to keep the pressure on because there’s too much at stake for families.”
Reports released by the government also show the internal review found 13 of CLBC’S 440 full- time staff were in a conflict of interest, as they had contracts outside their full- time jobs to provide paid services to clients of CLBC. The report said these contracts were home- sharing agreements ranging from about $ 15,000 to $ 59,000 per year.
The report urged CLBC to strengthen its policies and procedures to ensure any such conflicts of interest are eliminated.