Services? What Services?

While there is a dearth of resources in the developmental services sector in Ontario, there are also many services already present that other less fortunate areas of even the developed world do not have. And, more importantly, there a great many good people working to make the present system responsive to people's needs.
So now that you have managed the first hurdle of passing eligibility with the Developmental Services Ontario (DSO) office, what kinds of services are available for a developmentally delayed adult in Toronto?

Follow this link for a list of the different Categories of Services. If you follow this link, you can look at the complete list of services on the left hand side, under the "developmental services in Ontario" tab.
Broadly, services can be broken down into 5 areas:

1. Residential Supports -- These include group homes, Supported Independent Living (SIL) arrangements, individually funded placements, creative placements which rely of several individuals pooling resources funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services)
2. Respite Supports -- These include overnight stays in designated group homes, day time stays at group homes or designated day programs (Community Participation Supports), individually funded (again, by the Ministry) respite worker support paid by families directly to workers. There are supports/guidance available from the office of respiteservices.com.
3. Community Participation Supports -- This includes the use of any daytime agencies or activities for a developmentally delayed individual. Services such as attending a program with Parks and Recreation Toronto, supported or competitive employment, attending daytime programs for work, recreation and/or skill building, etc.
4. Professional and Specialized Services -- This category of services is handled by a few of the agencies in Toronto (37) in the developmental services sector. Agencies that provide clinical services (psychologists, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, behaviour therapists, etc.) do this in either in an office setting, at a day program, in a hospital or at a group home and lastly, in the "community." Community being a persons home or anywhere else that is private and appropriate to meet a person to conduct an assessment or follow through on treatment.
5. Lastly, Person Directed Planning: This is another service which is delivered by a small number of agencies with people trained to meet with and help direct a process of planning with a delayed individual and their support circle (family/friends/service providers) to help plan for the future of that individual. These plans are usually graphically based (drawn on large sheets of paper, with only the most necessary use of words) to make the plan as client directed and understandable for the individual for whom the plan is being drawn-up.
6. There are other categories of support offered but these are for a very narrow proportion of the people served in developmental services and I will leave an explanation of that topic for another post.