In our last blog on the 23 initiatives, we will look at the current
status of social support for people with FASD in the province of Ontario. As seen by the Ontario roundtable report on FASD, the key
elements to success already exist. They
just need to be more purposeful with a clear vision and strategy. With a clear overarching FASD strategy,
general knowledge within our province, regular conversations among all parties
and eligibility for all necessary supports, the province of Ontario could
easily lead the way in creating an inclusive, compassionate and accessible
society for everyone.
The Rural FASD Support Network sees its niche
as being the people with lived experience that gets the conversations started. We know we need the help of the Ontario
Legislative Assembly to be the one that creates the clear overarching strategy
among all ministries and all ridings similar to the one proposed in the U.S.
Congress and the province of Alberta. Expert knowledge comes from our training
partners like Citizen Advocacy, Kids Brain Health Network, and CanFASD. The Rural FASD Support Network and other
support groups with their media partners create the regular conversations. Finally, the positive models of support with
access to existing services come from our service partners. The province of Alberta conducted an
evaluation of the effectiveness of their strategy after just seven years and
discovered they saved $97,000 per person with their program. When you consider supporting people with FASD
will bring positive outcomes such as less health needs, higher employment
rates, larger tax base, greater contributions to our society and less policing
and justice requirements, it only makes sense.
As stated before, successful outcomes for
people with FASD happen when they have a community, purpose and support from
all. Within MCCSS, we are extremely
thankful for the current support, but need access to other current supports,
starting with Developmental Service eligibility. MCCSS states there
is a new definition for developmental disability which will be applied fairly
and consistently. However,
FASD is rarely understood as a developmental disability and so the rejection
rate for our adults with FASD is extremely high. And because our Social Inclusion Act of 2008
states it is a privilege to receive services and not a right, we are finding
this obstacle to literally be life-changing for adults with FASD and their
caregivers. With the elimination of the
children to adult transition through the new MCCSS, the FASD support worker
should also be eligible to continue working with their clients instead of
having to stop at age 21. However, we do
recognize that would entail additional workers who would need to have adult
support backgrounds. These proposals already exist within our Indigenous
partners support system. The Ontario
Federation of Friendship Centres has completed their pilot project on their Nutrition
program within four sites and has seen the benefit of the program after just
three years. What is important to note
is eligibility only requires self-declaration and they receive health and
mental health support, employment support, and access to a support group,
education and a worker.
The Rural FASD Support Network Indigenous members are not able to
access this program as well due to the fact it is only located in four urban locations.
For us, though, if there was one thing that
could be done right now, it would be to renew Ontario’s membership with the
Canadian FASD Research Network which has currently expired. Just like the Kids Brain Health Network,
CanFASD is the key partner in our national strategy development, the main
source of FASD online training for provinces, and watchdog of all FASD research
within the world. If an FASD champion at
Queen’s Park wanted to make an immediate difference, we would ask you to
contact Kathy Unsworth at kathy.unsworth@canfasd.ca to find out what
CanFASD could do for Ontario.
In our final two blogs before we gather
together on Feb 24, you will get to meet our youth with FASD who will be
joining us on this momentous day.
