The Centralized Wait List

Toronto now has a centralized wait list system for people who have indicated that they need a residential placement (group home, supported independent living, etc.), a structured day setting of some sort (known as Community Participation Supports or day programs) and a need for a Family Services Worker (also known as a case manager, a case coordinator or other similar titles).  All the services which one can access through the centralized list are funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

Toronto has long wait times for all of the above services.  This is because none or very few new spots are being funded in day programs or housing.  As people in the children's sector of developmental services become adults, they are assessed by the DSO and then put on the wait lists.  Additionally, when people with developmental delays move to Toronto, they are also placed on the wait lists.  The only way that spots in residential settings or day programs become available is either when a current resident/participant passes away or if they move out of town or, in the case of day programs, they quit attending.

The centralized wait list was known as the Resday list.  It is now known as the Community Needs List (CNL).  Fortunately, when it comes to housing, the List is prioritized based on a client's needs and not on a first-come-first-served basis.  This means that a person who is living with his elderly parents could be somewhere in the middle of the list for a long time.  However, if his elderly parents passed away tomorrow, there is a way for the list to take this changed situation and need into account and consequently, the person's name would move towards the top of the list.  So the needier a client is for supports, the higher their name goes on the list.  This is a simplified explanation of the wait list system because it is only a part of the equation which matches an individual to a residential or day program opening.

The other side of the equation is that, not only does a client have to have a demonstrated need for a placement, but a client must also be a good match for the spot that has opened up.  In other words, putting a client who is vulnerable by virtue of being confined to a wheelchair and being non-verbal, in a group home with one or more aggressive clients would not be a good match as it would leave the person in the wheelchair open to being the target of aggression.

In order to make the matching of clients to vacancies as fair as possible, there is a scoring system or matrix which assigns a certain number to each relevant piece of information in the client's personal profile which informs the List.

In order to check the details of a profile or to update information of a profile, a person needs to call their lead agency and ask for their, or the profile of the person under their care, to be updated.  Keeping the information on the profile which informs the list up-to-date is the job of the lead agency.  Most agencies probably don't get around to updating this profile as often as they should due to a large number of clients for whom they are responsible and a shortage of staff to complete such a large task.  So, it is better for you or a family member to update the profile with the help of your lead agency once a year or when a significant change takes place.

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.