ANNOUNCEMENTS OF EVENTS

Please send submissions for this news bulletin or for the OAARSN Calendar and Bulletin Board in plain text format by email to ebloomfi@uoguelph.ca with "announcement" at the beginning of the subject line.
Please provide details of the following as BRIEFLY as possible: 
 Name of Event
 Main Speakers and Topics of Event 
 Date of Event 
 City and Location of Event
 Contact information to learn more about event
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June 28, 29 and 30, in Guelph
Two Steps and a Glass of Water
Mental Health & Wellness Network is supporting and working with James Gordon and Spark of Brilliance
in this enriching and empowering production created by a unique community of people who are experiencing mental health issues, or are supporting others on their journey.
You have an opportunity to support the movement of healing and recovery through the arts ...
by purchasing a ticket to the performance and/or by sponsoring the production of this project.
Four performances (3 evenings and 1 matinee).
Please call River Run Centre Box Office at (519) 763-3000, 35 Woolwich Street, Guelph N1H 3V1
HELP SUPPORT THE PRODUCTION!
You can be an important part of this project by becoming:
Friend        -      under $250.  (your most humble contribution will be greatly appreciated)
Supporter   -      $250  (you can help with refreshments for the cast, props, etc.)
Donor         -     $500  (monies are needed for promotion and advertising)
Sponsor     -     $1000 (set design materials and art supplies)
Benefactor -     $2500 (costumes/ stage production/honoraria for the professional coaches)
Patron       -     $5000 (a documentary film that will be submitted to major film festivals and television programs)
Please make your donations payable to:  Spark of Brilliance - Two Steps Production,
and send to:
        c/o Orchard Park
        Attention:  Judith Rosenberg
        5420 Highway 6, North
        R.R. #5
        Guelph, On
        N1H 62J

Friday October 21, 2005, 9:30am-4pm 
Regional Support Associates presentation on 
"Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Mental  Health & Behavioural Issues"     
Best Western Lamplighter Inn, London, Ontario
Presenters: J. Dale Munro, MSW, RSW, FAAMR and Liliian Burke, PhD., C.Psych.
Click for more information about RSA
including its Video Conferencing service to the Southwest Region

ONTARIO ISSUES AND ADVOCACY

Ombudsman's Report: Between a Rock and a Hard Place:
Parents forced to place their children with severe disabilities in the custody of Children's Aid Societies to obtain necessary care.  Final Report
Ontario Ombudsman André Marin has released a comprehensive 44-page review of an 18-day intensive investigation into the problem by a special ombudsman response team. Roughly 90 families
were consulted. Marin found that between 100 and 150 families are on the verge of giving up their severely disabled children to get the care they need. An additional 150 to 200 families are on waiting  lists for residential services and at risk of being forced to give up their children. A significant proportion of the children and teens concerned have autism spectrum disorders.   

Some advocates have responded to the publicity around this report by pointing out that a bureaucratic change to make it possible or easier for families to place their challenging children or teens in group homes and treatment centres may not be best in the long term for either the young persons or their families. More systemic improvements, in support for families to raise their children at home, better school policies, and building more caring communities are really needed. 
Read, for example 



Lost in Transition

Home supports one of many issues addressed at Trent Symposium
Creating a deeper understanding of issues surrounding disability is the focus of an inter-disciplinary symposium that began yesterday at Trent University in Peterborough. The symposium marks the halfway point of a $2.3 million dollar research project begun in January 2003 and led by University of Alberta researcher Dr. Janet Fast. The project, entitled "Hidden Costs and Invisible Contributions: Marginalization of ‘Dependent’ Adults," involves researchers from Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Australia. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a more humane and comprehensive analysis from which new solutions and policy changes can be envisioned and implemented.

Transforming Ontario's Developmental Services
The decision of the Ontario Government to commence a process of transforming services it funds for people with developmental disabilities is an opportunity for all concerned about present inequities and, more positively, for all to plan and implement better lives in people's home communities. Click for reports and links from 2004.

No Public Inquiry by Ontario Coroner's Office into Ten Deaths at Oaklands Regional Centre
The mother of an autistic man who died after wandering away from a home for mentally disabled adults expressed bitter disappointment Friday that the facility where he lived won't come under the scrutiny of a coroner's inquest. "You fight and you fight and you fight; I've been fighting for 46 years and I'm tired," Gloria Mogridige said. "Our society is not doing right by these people, and it has to change."

A report released Friday by the Coroner's Office classified Mogridge's drowning as one of three "tragic accidents," including the death of a severe spastic quadriplegic who became trapped between his mattress and the bed rails, and an epileptic who drowned in the bathtub.   Three others died from gastrointestinal perforations. Two of them had been diagnosed with pica, a form of eating disorder common among those with developmental disabilities that leads to the chronic ingestion of non-edible items. The remaining four died from natural diseases.

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