When Ramona Price started working with people with severe disabilities, she thought she’d do it for the summer and go back to university in the fall.
But she fell in love with the job of helping some of the weakest and most vulnerable people in our society, and today, 30 years later, she still finds the work enriching.
Over the decades, severely disabled people were moved out of big institutions into community group homes to be closer to their families. And Ramona, an AUPE Local 009 member, came with them.
“I started years ago just to work with children with Down syndrome and it evolved from there. I just love my job, and so do most of us. We love working with these individuals,” says Ramona, an Individual Support Worker at Graduated Supports, a group home in northwest Calgary.
The six people she helps tend to every day are among about 9000 ‘Persons with Developmental Disabilities’ (PDD) in Alberta, people with severe mental and physical disabilities like cerebral palsy, seizures disorders, Down syndrome and autism.
Ramona and her colleagues at the group home help get people up and dressed in the morning, cook their meals, help them eat and in some cases get them out the door to special day programs. They also take these individuals – many with major behavioural issues – out into the community, to the movies, the park or the mall.
Ramona and her colleagues have vehicles to drive people places instead of relying on getting them a seat on a Handi-Bus, which is difficult at the best of times.
“I have driver’s training and take lots of courses throughout the year, some on how to handle different behaviors,” says Ramona. “I have taken courses in first aid, crisis intervention, self-defence and drug administration. You need a lot of knowledge to really help these individuals.”
Quality care is possible, and affordable
Ramona’s agency, Graduated Supports, has won the Premier’s Award of Excellence several times over the years in recognition of providing a superior standard of care and a better quality of life for the men and women they tend to.
The highly skilled front line workers in the province-run group homes make only about $22 an hour. But they make an incredible difference in the lives of the people they help.
“We know their frailties and their families,” says Ramona. “We don’t come and go, we offer these people stability over many years. We become like their family.”
Despite the excellent quality of service they deliver, there are only about half as many AUPE members working with PDD in Calgary as there were a decade ago. Ramona is one of 113 left, down from 210.
At Red Deer’s Michener Centre, Penny Bates has seen more than 200 of her AUPE colleagues lose their jobs.
She is one of the workers who helps take care of hundreds of individuals who either live at or visit the centre, a job she’s been doing with pride for 32 years.
“I truly enjoy the camaraderie with the clients and I ensure they have the best quality of life,” Penny says. “Due to the amount of recording and accountability we do, there is more consistent care and delivery of services for individuals; we take on those people who have multiple afflictions or challenges.”
Government contracts out its accountability
The province started contracting out PDD services to not-for-profit and other agencies in the early 1990s. As the number of unionized workers has shrunk, the number of agencies taking care of people with developmental disabilities has ballooned, all the way to 220.
“I am glad that we have other providers interested at giving these individuals care,” says Penny. “But with so many providers there isn't consistency. It’s hard to maintain standards as not everyone has same education or expectations.”
It’s also hard to account for the funding.
Every year, Albertans pay about $597 million to help support 9,300 disabled individuals across the province. That’s about $60,000 per person. Except much of that money isn’t going to the people who need it.
More than 20 percent of it is going to the administration and management of the 220 agencies and toward running the six regional boards that oversee the delivery of all PDD services across the province.
Government figures show PDD funding has increased by about 20 percent since 2005, while the number of individuals needing support has increased by only about 2 percent.
“There are too many people running everything and too much money is going to the managers and administrators across the province and I don’t know whether that’s in the best interests of the individuals with disabilities,” Ramona says.
Seniors and Community Supports Minister Mary Anne Jablonski appears to agree.
In June, she ordered a review of the internal administrative operations of the PDD program. The review will include the administration costs of the 220 agencies and the six PDD regional boards, as well as the facilities they operate directly, such as the group home where Ramona works.
“I want to make sure as much money as possible from the PDD budget goes to front-line services,” Jablonski said in the news release announcing the review. “We all share the same goal of an effective and efficient program for the benefit of those supported by it, which is why I’m initiating a review of administration costs.”
Jablonski also formed a PDD Advisory Committee and asked the six PDD regional boards to get input on how to improve the process of awarding contracts to agencies.
AUPE welcomes the scrutiny.
“I guess this should have happened a long time ago,” says Ramona. “We would have assumed the government was watching this and there shouldn’t be a need for a review.”
Funding doesn’t add up
Independent consultants KPMG will report to Jablonski this fall, but Ramona and her colleagues have already done the math.
Take the 42 different agencies delivering PDD care in Calgary alone.
“That means that there are 42 managers and 42 administrators and they are so top heavy it’s ridiculous. We do the same service for the same individuals, but managers get a whole lot more than the front line workers do,” Ramona points out. “More money goes directly to caring for the individual where we are.”
By reducing the number of agencies delivering PDD services and returning it to the more efficient government-run system, there would be an increase in the flow of taxpayers’ money to disabled people while also guaranteeing excellent care.
Several government group homes that are sitting vacant could be reopened, and highly trained, dedicated and experienced employees like Ramona could help train new people to deliver quality care much more efficiently.
“The government is ultimately responsible for these people,” she says of the disabled men and women she helps get through the day, every day. “We have to take care of them.”
