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| GOVERNMENT-FUNDED RESOURCES FOR ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES |
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More than 300,000 Ontario adults have difficulty expressing or acting upon their wishes because of a disability, medical condition, communication problem or advanced age. Government-funded resources and supports may be available through many ministries and programs. To help people find what may help them, the Ministry of Culture, Citizenship and Recreation produced a useful web-based guide. To reach it, click on http://www.gov.on.ca:80/MCZCR/english/citdiv/disabled/oda8.htm Resources that might help persons with autism and their families are stressed in this summary, but there is useful information also for people with other disabilities.
SUMMARY
OF GOVERNMENT-FUNDED RESOURCES
(Funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services through local and regional agencies)
INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT SUPPORTS http://www.gov.on.ca:80/MCZCR/english/citdiv/disabled/oda8.htm#Income 1. Ontario Disability Support Program ODSP is a needs-tested program that provides income support for people with disabilities and ongoing supports to employment for people who want to work.
2. Employment Supports Program: The Ontario Disability Support Program also includes employment supports to help people with disabilities prepare for, obtain or maintain employment. These include:
For more information about income and employment supports, contact:
SUPPORTS FOR PEOPLE WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES Various community-based support and residential services may be provided through local agencies which are approved and funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS) to help children and adults live with their family or in their community, and to promote independence and interdependence. Community agencies may offer or co-ordinate some combination of the following services:
You may find more in general about these services on pages of the MCSS website: http://www.gov.on.ca/CSS/ Most community-based
agencies, which are approved and funded by the Ministry to serve people
with any developmental disabilities, are now affiliated with one or both
of two provincial umbrella organizations. Their websites provide contacts
for specific agencies in various regions and communities:
1. Long-term Care involves almost 1,200 community-based agencies across the province and a variety of services, such as therapy, personal care, homemaking, meal programs, adult day programs, and social and recreational programs. Long-term care services:
2. Long-term Care Facilities include nursing homes and homes for the aged to support people who cannot stay in their own homes and who need 24-hour nursing care. 3. Home Care provides people with disabilities with professional services such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech/language pathology, nutritional counselling, and palliative care. Home Care also provides homemaking services to people unable to perform daily household tasks because of a short or long-term disability. 4. Attendant Services/Outreach promote independent living by helping someone with a permanent disability perform their daily household chores, such as homemaking, cleaning, cooking, laundry, toiletting, personal hygiene and other services. 5. Acquired Brain Injury Services offer community services to people with acquired brain injury, including day programs and respite for family caregivers. Long-term care services include personal support, behavioural therapy, cognitive retraining and psychosocial training. Services are delivered through home care and community living programs. For more information about the services above, contact the Community Care Access Centre in your area.
HEALTH-RELATED SERVICES -- OTHER 1. Children's Treatment Centres provide rehabilitation services to children and youth up to age 18 who have physical disabilities and communication disorders. There are 14 community-based and four hospital-based centres. Core services include: physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech pathology. Social work services, nutrition services, nursing, medical supplies and equipment, and diagnostic services are also provided, mostly on an out-patient basis. 2. Direct Funding Pilot Project allows people with disabilities to independently arrange and manage their own attendant care needs and services. Funding is given to individuals with disabilities to purchase services, instead of an agency managing services on their behalf. For more information about this program, contact the Centre for Independent Living in your area. 3. Assistive Devices Program: helps Ontario residents with long-term physical disabilities pay for selected and prescribed equipment and supplies. Devices covered for individuals of all ages are: prostheses, wheelchairs/mobility aids and specialized seating systems, ostomy supplies, hearing aids and respiratory equipment, orthoses (braces, splints), vision and communication aids, enteral feeding devices, burn-scar and vascular compression garments and lymphedema pumps. The program pays an annual grant for incontinence supplies for Ontario residents born after July 1, 1963. 4. Diabetic equipment and supplies are covered for selective age groups either through direct payment to individuals or through a grant to the Canadian Diabetes Association, Ontario Division. 5. Home Oxygen Program (HOP): financially assists Ontario residents with chronic illness requiring long-term oxygen therapy for independent living. One hundred per cent of the cost of home oxygen is covered for Ontario residents over age 64, or people on social assistance, home care or residing in a long term care facility. HOP pays 75 per cent of the cost for all others. For more information about these programs, contact:
6. Community-Based Mental Health Services provide alternatives to in-patient services, reducing the frequency and length of admission to psychiatric facilities, and reintegrating discharged patients into the community. For more information about these services, contact:
EDUCATION -- COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 1. Special Needs Allocation Program provides funding to post-secondary institutions to accommodate students with disabilities. The Ministry of Education and Training funding is used for counselling and consulting/diagnostic services; technological support, including specially-adapted computers and software; tutors; sign-language interpreters; note-takers; and readers. For more information, contact the disability office located at all universities and colleges in Ontario. 2. Bursary for Students with Disabilities provides money to post-secondary students with disabilities to help them with disability-related educational expenses. To be eligible, students must qualify for funding under the Ontario Student Assistance Plan. The program is administered by the Financial Aid and Special Needs Offices of Ontario colleges and universities. For more information about the Bursary for Students with Disabilities, contact the Financial Aid and Awards Office at all Ontario colleges and universities. Or, contact the Ontario Student Assistance Plan Office at: (807) 343-7260.
EDUCATION -- SKILLS TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT PREPARATION 1. Literacy and Basic Skills Program offers adults who are uncomfortable with a traditional classroom a different setting to improve their literacy skills. The Ontario Community Literacy (OCL) program funds more than 160 community-based literacy programs designed to meet each community's needs. The OCL program supports four literacy streams for English, French, Native and deaf persons. 2. Job Connect
is a career and employment preparation program that includes information
and referral services, employment planning and preparation, and on-the-job
training. Job Connect services are delivered by agencies such as community
colleges and not-for-profit organizations in more than 110 Ontario communities.
Service deliverers that receive funding must either offer their programs
in an accessible building or develop a plan to accommodate people with
disabilities in an alternate location in the community.
OTHER PUBLICLY FUNDED SUPPORTS AND RESOURCES 1. Disabled Persons Parking Permit is a portable parking permit giving drivers designated parking spaces and exemptions from municipal traffic control and zoning by-laws. To be eligible for the Ministry of Transport a person must be unable to walk safely more than 200 metres without assistance. The permit may be used when the permit holder is a driver or a passenger. For more information about Disabled Persons Parking Permits, contact your local Drivers and Vehicles Licence Issuing Office, Ministry of Transportation. For more information about Municipal Parking Programs/By-laws for Permit Holders, contact your local Municipal Office. 2. Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities gives money to families who have a child with a disability to help meet the extra costs of significant special needs. Children must be under 18 years of age and living at home with their parents. There is an income limit for claiming extraordinary expenses, as well as a monthly maximum subsidy. 3. Child Care provides subsidies to families in need who have children with a developmental or physical disability. Resource teachers are available through centre-based and in-home programs. Other supports include transportation and adapted toys to support integrated child care programs. For more information about these programs and services, contact your local Ministry of Community and Social Services Office. 4. INFOline at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is available Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This multilingual public inquiry unit provides toll-free, one-window access to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ministry of Community and Social Services. Contact numbers are:
INFOline began in November 1999 to answer calls ranging from general inquiries on ministry programs and services to complex problem inquiries - for example, Trillium Drug Program, Photo Health Card, Assistive Devices Program, Ontario Hepatitis C Compensation Assistance Program, the Ontario Disabilities Support Program and the Ontario Works Program. Information and referral for vulnerable adults were to be added, and calls from vulnerable adults, service providers, caregivers, or family members should be answered. The earlier InfoAbility, providing comprehensive information and referral services for vulnerable adults, their families, and caregivers, is no longer active, but its website is still posted at www.infoability.org 5. Workplace Equal Opportunity Project offers valuable resources such as the Gateway to Diversity Web site, for getting and sharing ideas, experience, and information on equal opportunity in the workplace. Resources include a resource library; examples of organizations' initiatives; information for persons with disabilities on workplace access and integration; listings of diversity-related newsletters and publications; and links to a disability-in-the-workplace services directory. For more information on the Gateway to Diversity Web site, contact: The Equal
Opportunity Project
HOW TO REACH GOVERNMENT-FUNDED HELP FOR AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS Finding helpful information may not be straightforward and the process of determining eligibility and obtaining help may be slow. Finding help that is appropriate to autism spectrum disorders is also a bit harder than for general developmental disabilities. These are ways of trying to reach information about services funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services.
CRITIQUES AND ALTERNATIVES From Asylum to Welfare by Harvey G. Simmons is a history of Ontario’s social and public policies on "mental retardation" from the 1830s to 1980. What it reveals of official attitudes to the handicapped in past times horrifies us. But we may still encounter echoes and shadows of these attitudes and policies today. In the 1970s and 1980s, it seemed as if Ontario social attitudes and public policy were moving towards more adequate Government funding for people with disabilities. Universal medicare, introduced in the 1960s, was one model. Compulsory special education from 1982, with support for children with special needs within regular schools and classrooms, was another. Strong efforts by parents of disabled children managed to obtain funds for community-based group homes and sheltered workshops, though never enough for all who needed residential and daytime support services. Special Services at Home funding, available from the 1980s, effectively helped families to continue caring for their disabled children at home, but demand has always been much greater than the supply. In the 1990s, hopes of increased public resources to support people with disabilities to live with dignity in their home communities have been dashed or put on hold. Budgets of the Ministry of Community and Social Services have been drastically cut by the Harris Government. Families and advocates generally approved the closing of large institutions during the 1990s but have been dismayed that only part of the funds saved were used for community services. All people with disabilities are affected, but those with autism are perhaps most vulnerable because their disabilities are so pervasive and often so severe, and also because so few appropriate services had been designed for their needs before the current cutbacks.A few specialized autism programs serve only a tiny minority of affected adults in Ontario. These programs came into being through very special circumstances and connections rather than because of a widespread recognition of the distinctive needs of people on the autism spectrum. The Ministry of Community and Social Services, especially in the 1990s, has resisted efforts to create more services and supports designed for people with autism, insisting instead that they should be accommodated in generic programs for all people with developmental disabilities. The ideals of the community living movement, expressed as normalization and integration, and its avoidance of disability labels, may have been good for most adults with disabilities and for the larger community. But disregarding their distinctive differences—and forcing them to conform to group settings and programs they may find unbearable—does not help adults with autism. We recommend the following web pages and sites for their alternative views of policies and resources for people with disabilities.
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