INDIVIDUAL SERVICE PLANS MUST SATISFY FAMILIES:
RUNCIMAN
Severely disabled residents should
not be moved until current services guaranteed
QUEEN’S PARK –
Not one severely disabled resident should be
moved out of specialized facilities such as
the Rideau Regional Centre until the Ministry
of Community and Social Services has presented
their families with individual service plans,
said Bob Runciman, MPP for Leeds-Grenville.
In a statement presented today in the Legislature,
Runciman implored Ministry officials that before
moving any resident they provide individual
service plans that will satisfy family members
who believe their loved ones are now receiving
the best care available.
“I believe that family members are in
the best position to access the care model that
meets the needs of their loved ones and their
beliefs should not be ignored,” said Runciman.
The Leeds-Grenville MPP said that Minister
Sandra Pupatello is determined to close the
three remaining facilities that are home to
over 1,000 adults with severe developmental
disabilities.
“These are centres the Minister has declined
to tour and has forged ahead with a cold and
calculated decision driven solely by financial
concern,” he added.
While the Minister has claimed her government
was simply following through with the “de-institutionalization”
program, Runciman said the closure of three
facilities – regional centres at Blenheim,
Huronia and Rideau – had been brought
to a virtual standstill by the previous Progressive
Conservative Government and for good reason.
“That good reason was a determination
that in the cases of the most severely disabled,
the ones who are still in these excellent facilities,
their needs are best met in their current environment,”
said Runciman.
In her defence of the closures Minister Pupatello
talks about the provision of community services
but Runciman notes there are thousands of Ontarians
already waiting for those services to materialize.
“That’s why I believe that there
be no closures and no one moved until the Minister
can demonstrate to the families that community
services are in place to provide the same level
of services their loved ones now receive,”
he said.
Media Contact:
Bob Runciman
(416) 325-1522
