Questions and Answers

People supported are encouraged to choose their peers and friends, and if they want to do a group activity. Their choice, both in the activity, and in the group who they participate with, is a person-centred approach to support. However, we can understand why this is confusing. There was a time when 4 or more people would go out together, for an activity, because staffing limitations restricted each individual choosing what they wanted to do (or if they wanted to do the activity with their peers). They went out as a group, because the only other choice might have been not participating at all. This was not a person-centred approach to support, as each person was not given the opportunity to choose what they wanted to do, and who they wanted to participate with.

We have continued to declare vacancies and admit people into Community Participation Support, from Developmental Services Ontario. We have supported some new admissions directly from their home with a community-based approach, while others were a blend of coming into a Community Living Centre, and from their home.

Community Participation Support admissions are not the same as admissions that were tied to the Sheltered Workshops.

Using Personal Outcome Measures interviews, we can identify people’s quality of life 'outcomes', plan supports, and gather information and data about individual outcomes. The reason we conduct these interviews is to demonstrate the linkage between personally defined quality of life excellence in person-centred services and the importance of data in planning and making change.

From January 2019 through to February 2020, 100 people we support participated in Personal Outcome Measures interviews. These interviews are certified and designed to identify what a person values in their life. By defining what they value, we can get clearer on what increases their quality of life, and what will help them to feel like they are living a full life.

In 2021, the interviews will be focused on people receiving Day Services support. This will aid in personal planning, as well as collecting valuable data regarding quality of life.

Citizenship is about experiencing human rights, responsibilities and opportunities.

For many people, including persons with disabilities, citizenship experiences may be limited. Not everyone is allowed the same opportunities and sense of belonging. CLGW is working to ensure that being a full citizen also means belonging for those with a developmental disability.

When full citizenship exists, persons with disabilities will have access to the social, recreational, volunteer and employment opportunities open to others. To achieve this, a Direct Support Professional provides support that enables the experiences, exposure and education to each situation.  We educate people about their rights and their responsibilities. People don’t always choose what we think is “right” however we walk along side and continue to support and educate.

What full citizenship means, is also something uniquely decided by each person. The things about our life that we find the most value in, contribute to what full citizenship means.

Full citizenship is also a moving target. There won’t be a specific day in the future, when a person feels they’ve fully arrived at their definition of full citizenship. As people have experiences and opportunities, take up their rights and responsibilities, what they value will also grow and change.

Full citizenship is now in CLGW’s mission because we understand that it’s not a finite destination, or a specific point in time. It’s a continuous attempt to see each person we support experience human rights, responsibilities and opportunities, and to continue to determine what they value in their life.

COVID-19. On March 16, 2020, CLGW immediately suspended many of its services, including Day Services, because of COVID-19.

Many other service providers followed suit, as Day Services were not deemed an essential service during the pandemic.

Instead of temporarily laying off Direct Support Professionals connected to the suspended services, we re-deployed them to our residential services, which was deemed an essential service by the Government of Ontario.

A number of COVID-19 specific factors have since impacted our staffing resources. Emergency Orders restricted staff employment options. Legislation offered staff a temporary leave of absence due to childcare issues or taking care of family members with compromised immune systems. The reality is that CLGW has been experiencing an ongoing reduction in the number of DSPs we have available to provide support. At any time, 60-100 staff have been rightfully unavailable to provide support and we respect them for the difficult decisions they have had to make.

These re-deployed staff have ensured that our residential services could continue to meet the support needs of the people we support, while also trying our best to meet all of the demands of providing support during a pandemic. It’s been challenging, but our entire DSP team has been doing a great job keeping people safe and healthy.

Most of the redeployed Day Services and Passport staff have remained in residential services, while we continue to fulfill our expectations as an essential service provider. We have recently redeployed some staff from residential services, to help with community-based supports like Passport and EmployMEnt Options. We have also resumed recruitment, in an effort to increase our staffing resources. We will continue to take strides to restore suspended services, while balancing our expectations as an essential service provider.

We have been offering a combination of services, both exclusive and inclusive/community-based for many years. We believe this is the next step in our process. We foundationally believe that every single person can fully participate in their community. They may need varying levels of support depending on what they want to do and where.

It is important to put our focus and energy into inclusive supports, and to provide more opportunities for people to choose from.

Direct Support Professionals will work collaboratively with each person and the people who are important to them to foster and grow their existing friendships and also to explore new friends and relationships.

While individually planning, we’ll continue to ask the question: “who are you missing” and “are there activities you would like to do with some friends?” As support continues to progress, it will focus on the specific person, and they can direct that they want to do an activity with people who are their peers and friends.

We are also going to continue to look at events and opportunities, in partnership with P4P, other organizations, and even just hosted by our own organization, where community can come together.

As you can gather from Why are Day Services closed right now? re-opening Day Services requires us to redeploy staff from our essential service - residential. It also requires us to meet all public health requirements to host Day Services, including limitations on how many people can attend, disinfecting protocols, required equipment, policies and compliance, and more. We’re currently in the planning stages for all of this, as well as getting a firm timeline on when we can effectively redeploy staff to provide the support needed for Day Services. Once we have confirmation of timelines, we will be communicating those to families, along with what to expect, the challenges we face and asking families to help problem solve those challenges.

Our announcement about temporarily re-opening Day Services is available here.

No, this is not a new idea. Each and every person we support in Day Services has been participating in community-based activities in some way.

Regardless of whether they were attending Guelph’s ADS or ARC (Day Options), Erin, Fergus, Harriston or Mount Forest, each person did not spend their entire week inside the building. In many cases, people did not spend their entire day in the building. We have been progressively and continually moving schedules in Day Services to see each person we support participate more and more in their community, whether that’s volunteering, participating in inclusive opportunities, and experiencing more options.

We understand that many people have taken the term segregated as a negative.

What is the opposite of inclusive? It’s segregated (exclusive, limited, specialized, selected, and restricted).

A community centre is often an inclusive space. Inside the community centre, a number of activities and services are offered that are available to anyone, regardless of gender, religion, age, ability, sexual orientation, and more.

However, our Day Services buildings offer exclusive, disability-specific services. The services in these buildings are not on offer for anyone in the community to join. They are, in essence, a special space specific to people with disabilities.

That by nature, is exclusive, and segregated.

Making our services community-based, offers the opportunity to move our services to an inclusive environment, where the people we support can participate alongside whoever their peers might be, their neighbours, and fellow community members, regardless of ability.

Choosing to attend a space that’s specific to a culture, a religion, an age group, is absolutely a choice for many. By choosing these spaces intentionally, you might find yourself among a community of people who have something in common. But you chose to be there, and share in your commonality.

We’re not discounting that there are people we support who absolutely want to be known and be friends with other people with disabilities.

We’re also not saying that exclusive spaces are bad.

However, CLGW is taking a strong stance in the services we provide, to offer as much choice as possible. That includes choice in who you spend your time with, where you spend your time, how we support you, the activities you do, and so much more.

We fully expect that there will be people we support who want to spend time with other people that they attended Day Services with. That’s a reality that DSPs want to make happen, all the while, enabling each person to make their own choice along the way.

This is unique to each person. However we will share a few post COVID-19 potential examples. Please keep in mind the support given is flexible, could be any time of day/evening and any day of the week.

Example 1: A DSP picks up the person supported or meets them at a location/activity for the morning (of course, depending on the person’s independence). This could be a volunteer placement, attending a class, attending a club, going swimming, library, church service, yoga, gym – the possibilities are endless and will be specific to that person. The support they receive may be on-going, or supports are in place until the person feels comfortable. Then, they meet up with their Passport Direct Support Professional to do another activity/job, etc. Their Passport DSP would then drop them off at home by 3pm.

Example 2: Monday/Tuesday – Hopewell Homes Respite Support. Wednesday – Day Options DSP picks up the person and goes swimming, and then drops them back off at home for the afternoon (either because they have support at home, or they only have a certain number of days/hours of Community Participation Support funding) After dinner, their Passport DSP picks them up from home, to go to Special Olympics bowling. Thursday/Friday – attending Community of Hearts.

We are currently in the early stages of planning with each person. Each person’s week/day looks different depending on how they want it to look, based on everyone’s unique circumstance.

Day Services in a Community Living Centre will be 9-3pm, weekdays only.

Community-based Day Services – flexible. This could be daytime, weekend and/or evening activities, based on what the person wants to do.

Prior to announcing the temporary re-opening of Day Services, we had discussed gaps when people were out with a Direct Support Professional doing individualized supports.

Now, people will have the option to attend the day service when not out with their DSP. During the time spent in the building, we will plan with people to explore new opportunities in their community.

DSPs will also plan out a schedule during the day, for people to participate in while inside the building.

You may have read in media articles that this change means you’ll only receive 1-2 hours of support. That’s not the case. However, while still impacted by COVID-19 restrictions, Day Services hours have been significantly reduced because Day Services were not deemed to be an essential service.

'There may be gaps' was first discussed in our Day Services Fact Sheet, which is available here. The Fact Sheet is no longer up to date, as it was shared before we announce the temporary re-opening of Day Services.

That is one of the questions we’ve been asking in our calls to families and the people we support. When it comes to respite – what do you need? Often times, that points to how structured or how flexible a person’s support schedule can be.

For a family or caregiver who has a more flexible schedule, we can explore interests and opportunities in the morning, afternoon, evening or even on weekends. We really can have that flexible approach to their support.

For a family or caregiver who needs a more structured schedule, we’ll still look at providing support in those core hours. However, we also recognize that 9-3pm might not have been the most ideal for your schedule either.

All of those questions are great to bring up in the planning conversations, and when looking at schedules for support with a DSP.

Some people choose a routine with a few familiar activities, while others will choose a life of variety and spontaneity. That choice remains individual to each person

We want to provide each person the opportunity to try new things and let us know what they like and don’t like.

Some people choose these opportunities with their words, others by their body language. Regardless of how they communicate, they do let us know.