Concerned and frustrated Barrhead citizens were glad to receive an informative visit from Associate Minister of Services for Persons with Disabilities Frank Oberle last week.
About 100 people gathered at the Barrhead United Church June 18 to hear Oberle speak on the recent government cuts to the Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program. This visit marked the 21st stop on a tour Oberle is making around communities in the province.
Oberle was joined by CEO at Northeast Community Board for Persons With Developmental Disabilities Dale Drummond, chair of the Northeast Alberta Community Board of Persons with Developmental Disabilities Glenn Hennig, and assistant deputy minister for the province’s disability services division Brenda Lee Doyle.
Everybody in the province has a right to hope and dream, began Oberle. Everyone wants to belong to their community, and should have the right to set goals.
“Our whole disability system should be aligned to support people in achieving their goals,” he said to the large group. “I think that in Alberta if you need support, you should get support. That’s the system we are trying to set up. That’s what we want to achieve.”
However there are currently some structural problems in the system that are preventing them from meeting that mission statement, said Oberle. Right now supports aren’t allocated based on needs.
For example two individuals both rated by the Support Intensity Scale (SIS) as a level one, the lowest level of need, can have drastically different funding. While one could be receiving just under $300,000 per year in supports, the other could receive $114 a year.
Another problem with the system, said Oberle, is that it isn’t based on outcomes. If an individual receives 12 hours of support, Oberle can report those hours to the legislature. However there is nothing in place to report what happened during those 12 hours, and whether it was productive in helping an individual accomplish their goals.
“There’s no setting of goals, aligning supports to help them achieve those goals, measuring if the goals were actually achieved, or adjusting the supports to make sure that they are achieved,” said Oberle.
“We talk about dollars and hours as being outcomes. Those are things we allocate to help a person achieve their goals, they’re not outcomes of the system.”
Oberle also touched on the difficulties of having six separate PDD boards. Because services are allocated differently between each region, it’s not easy to access services if an individual relocates.
“How can it be that you move to Edmonton tomorrow, you have a job, but you can’t take it because you can’t get service for your loved one?” Asked Oberle. “It’s just wrong and we’ve got to fix that. The policies have to be equal across the regions.”
There are a number of transitions Oberle said the government would like to make in order to improve the current system.
First is to get rid of the IQ test that prevents thousands of people from accessing supports, as currently individuals with an IQ above 70 do not get PDD support. Those who got their disability after the age of 18 also don’t receive PDD support.
Oberle said he also wants to extinguish the artificial barriers that exist at 18 and 65 years old. As a child an individual is allocated services based on need, whereas those 18 and over are allocated supports based on a diagnosis.
At 65 a PDD individual loses their age benefit. They receive Alberta seniors benefits and a health plan, however it is different and they have to apply for it.
“It’s another transition and it adds absolutely no value to the supports that you’re getting,” said Oberle. “Your service needs don’t change overnight, so why should the infrastructure that’s built up to provide your supports change?”
Oberle not only addressed issues and questions the anxious families and support service workers had, but apologized for the lack of communication the community has seen.
“I most humbly apologize for the level of communication, or lack of communication, that you’ve had to this point,” said Oberle. “We did not do a good job of rolling this out. Communications could have been different.”
The Minister went on to say the lack of communication and the current transformation has created some pressure points that have caused fear and anxiety. In most of the communities he has been to so far, Oberle said he could categorize these concerns into three categories: pace of transition, SIS assessments, and budget.
Fear about how quickly the transition process has come about is partly because of a poor communication effort, said Oberle. There was a lot of angst about what needed to be done for July 1 in regards to contracts with service providers.
Service providers are no longer required to sign a contract July 1. Although there are a number who want to sign contracts by this date, those who aren’t ready will not be forced.
“We understand we have additional conversations and additional client work to do with service contractors before they’re ready to do that,” said Oberle. “We will take an appropriate amount of time to do that.”
There is a lot of concern about what the SIS assessment revealed, and what that means for the individual. Oberle said the assessment in itself doesn’t mean that’s the level of support one will receive.
