Common Abbreviations and Acronyms

Abbreviations and Acronyms                                         Updated Feb 2016

 

ABI................ Acquired Brain Injury

ACTT............. Assertive Community Treatment Team

ADL............... Activities of Daily Living (residence is hospital or treatment bed-blocked)

ADSS ……….Application for Developmental Services and Support Interview

ALC ………...Alternative Level of Care

ANS …………Adult Neurodevelopmental Service

ASR …………Application Summary Report

APSW............ Adult Protective Service Worker

ASD............... Autism Spectrum Disorder

AWOL........... Absent Without Official Leave

BT.................. Behaviour Therapy/Therapist

CAIR............. Collaborative And Individualized Resource

CAMH........... Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

CCAC……… Community Care Access Centre

CLT………… Community Living Toronto

CNL............... Community Needs List

CNSC............ Community Networks of Specialized Care

CPI…………. Crisis Prevention Institute (or NVCI = Non-violent Crisis Intervention)

DD................. Developmental Disability

DDx............... Dual Diagnosis

DSO............... Developmental Services Ontario

DSTO............. Developmental Services Toronto

DSO-TR......... Developmental Services Ontario - Toronto Region

DSTS……….. Developmental Services Temporary Supports

ESR................ Effective Specialized Responses

FASD............. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

FOPS............. Forensic Outpatient Services

FST................ Family Service Toronto

GCSN............ Griffin Community Support Network

HSJCC........... Human Services and Justice Coordinating Committee

IOTA............. Intensive Observation, Treatment and Assessment

KPAS............. Kerry’s Place Autism Services

LHIN............. Local Health Integration Network

LTC …………Long- Term Care

MCYS............ Ministry of Children and Youth Services

MCSS............ Ministry of Community and Social Services

MH................. Mental Health

MOHLTC...... Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care

NADD ………National Association for the Dually Diagnosed

NCR............... Not Criminally Responsible

OADD ……… Ontario Association on Developmental Disabilities

OASIS……… Ontario Agencies Supporting Individuals with Special Needs

OPADD …….Ontario Partnership on Aging and Developmental Disabilities

ORB............... Ontario Review Board

OT.................. Occupational Therapy/Therapist

PDP................ Person-directed Plan

PECS............. Picture Exchange Communication System

PRN............... As needed (used for medications – from the Latin: pro re nata)

RHPA……….Regulated Health Professions Act

SIL................. Supported Independent Living

SIS................. Support Intensity Scale

S/LP............... Speech/Language Pathology/Pathologist

SNT................ Special Needs Team

SPC................ Surrey Place Centre

TDSA………. Toronto Developmental Services Alliance (formerly MARC)

TNSC............. Toronto Network of Specialized Care

TPADD ……..Toronto Partnership on Aging and Developmental Disabilities

UR………….. Urgent Response

 

Other terms:

Snoezelen (therapy room)

 

Note:  Cota is not an abbreviation or acronym – it is the name of the agency.

Autism Parent Resource Kit for Ontario

The Autism Resource Kit for parents and caregivers of children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

This web-based kit provides information and resources to support families of children and youth with ASD at all stages of their child’s progress and development.

THE KIT INCLUDES INFORMATION ABOUT:

• Diagnosis and treatment
• Strategies for daily living
• Services and assistance available in Ontario, including information on financial support
• School support, extra-curricular and recreational activities
• How your child develops, including sensory, physiological and social development
• Health care
• Parenting and family support

"Q&A" from StoryCorps

Backgrounder on Proposed Funding to Eliminate Waitlists

Source: Ontario Ministry of Finance

Helping Thousands of People with Developmental Disabilities

Through a proposed $810 million investment over three years, the Ontario government would build on the funding announced in the 2013 Budget and continue the transformation of developmental services so that people with developmental disabilities can live as independently as possible in communities across the province.

1.               Eliminating waitlists for direct funding programs
Passport helps adults with a developmental disability to develop work, volunteer and daily life skills and participate better in their communities. It also provides respite for caregivers. Approximately 9,000 adults are waiting for direct funding through Passport. The government's investment would serve those currently on the waitlist and the 4,000 more expected to apply for Passport over the next four years.

In addition, the proposed investment would also serve the approximately 8,000 children currently waiting for Special Services at Home.  Special Services at Home helps families pay for services in or outside the family home for children with a physical or developmental disability. 

2.               Supporting important life transitions
Planning properly for important life transitions - leaving school, moving out of the family home or getting a job - is critical for all Ontarians. The government's proposed investment would help more than 4,200 adults with a developmental disability and their families find the supports they need to navigate these changes and build a life in their community.

3.               Better residential supports
Ontario's investment plan would provide residential care for more than 1,400 adults who are on waitlists or in children's group homes.

4.               Promoting innovation and community partnerships
Ontario's investment would increase support for innovative community partnerships that provide greater community inclusion. It would:

• Expand the Host Family program. This program matches an adult with a developmental disability with a family that wants to share its home. By expanding this program more adults with a developmental disabiltity would be given a safe and secure place to live in a family setting.


• Expand the Supported Independent Living program to enable more adults to live in their own accommodation with some onsite support.


• Provide support for employment opportunities such as pre-employment training and employer awareness as young adults leave school and look to enter the job market.           


• Promote and support innovative partnerships that lead to shared community living solutions and cost efficiencies that help address growing service needs.

5.               Supporting front-line workers providing community services
People with developmental disabilities rely upon the hundreds of agencies across Ontario for a wide array of safe, high-quality services. Nearly 80 per cent of the funds invested in community agencies support salaries for more than 30,000 workers in the developmental services sector in Ontario. Many front-line workers are part-time and lower paid.

Ontario's investment strategy would help agencies continue to provide high-quality services and keep qualified staff, which means better support for the people they serve.

A Start on Autism Resources

The Ministry of Children and Youth Services has a Resource Kit for parents with children who have Autism.  The kit includes sections on:

•       Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis and treatment

•       Everyday living

•       Common transitions

•       Health care

•       Parenting and family support

•       Tools to track assessments, diagnosis information, treatment planning and subsequent progress

•       References to current services in Ontario and up-to-date research

The Autism Speaks website also has a large number of resource kits: Examples of a resource kit are the "100 Day Kit" which was created specifically for newly diagnosed families to make the best possible use of the 100 days following their child's diagnosis.  Other kits you find on this page include an Advocacy Tool Kit, an Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism Tool Kit, a ATN/AIR-P Autism and Medication: Safe and Careful Use tool kit and others. 

 

OMazing Kids is a page with links to visual resources available online.

Surrey Place Centre (Toronto) has a great page of individual links to documents from the Tools for Primary Care of Adults with Developmental Disabilities.  There are resources for family physicians and for caregivers.

In the column to the right are links to a list of all the agencies funded by the provincial government to deliver developmental services in Toronto.  Some of these agencies offer services specifically for people diagnosed with Autism.  Agencies such as the Geneva Centre, JVS Toronto, Surrey Place Centre and Kerry’s Place Autism Services.

Pinterest is a great source for visuals like this social story board page. Search for autism or social story or whatever you are searching for on pinterest especially if you are looking for visuals.

The Autism Speaks website has a searchable index of apps for various platforms (not just Apple products).  The search appears to be updated and maintained, so it's a great resource to return to time and again.

Fundraising Need

Nicole Flynn is a lovely, talented, and determined young woman from Scarborough and amongst her many triumphs is the Gold Medal she won in swimming a couple of years ago in Italy. It was very costly for her working class family to pay for her to have that opportunity to win that honour for Canada!

Nicole has Down syndrome. 

So this time we are asking for financial assistance to send Nicole and her coach to the Down Syndrome Swimming Competition in Mexico in November of 2014 through crowdfunding. 

Nicole is an actor, a poet, a dancer, a photographer, an athlete, etc. so, if you are a person who feels it's important to show the abilities of our country's differently-abled, please go to this link and support Nicole!

http://www.pursu.it/campaign/48

Mandate of the Select Committee on Developmental Services - Ontario

That a Select Committee on Developmental Services be appointed to consider and report to the House its observations and recommendations with respect to the urgent need for a comprehensive developmental services strategy to address the needs of children, youth and adults in Ontario with an intellectual disability or who are dually diagnosed with an intellectual disability and a mental illness, and to coordinate the delivery of developmental programs and services across many provincial ministries in addition to the Ministry of Community and Social Services; and

That in developing its strategy and recommendations, the Committee shall focus on the following issues:

· the elementary and secondary school educational needs of children and youth;

· the educational and workplace needs of youth upon completion of secondary school;

· the need to provide social, recreational and inclusionary opportunities for children, youth and adults;

· the need for a range of available and affordable housing options for youth and adults;

· the respite and support needs of families;

· how government should most appropriately support these needs and provide these opportunities.