Village council agreed to write a letter of support to help preserve the current model of integrated family support services (family programs) practiced at the College of New Caledonia (CNC).
The letter was requested by Joan Ragsdale and Julie Daum, representing the Lakes District Family Enhancement Society (LDFES), during a council meeting on Oct. 13, 2015.
The letter is in response to the decision by the CNC executive in Prince George to cancel all family programs currently running by March 2016.
“It’s a very unusual situation,” Ragsdale explained. “We had very functional provincially recognized programs on the ground working, but the CNC executive has chosen not to have those programs anymore; so it’s in a transition phase where it’s back to those contractors, who also live out of our community, to make those decisions on what services will look like.”
Ragsdale elaborated that the ball is now in the funding agencies’ court.
“It goes back to the contractors to decide what services will remain and how they will look in our community, so a loss and change in services may potentially happen, and if those services aren’t retained in our community you’re going to be looking at… a significant increase in vulnerability in families.”
Ragsdale and Daum further explained that their hope is that funders may be encouraged to keep contracts together and to entrust them to a local community-based organization. In response to a question from councilor John Illes, Ragsdale added that in terms of who could take on these contracts, she believed that LDFES is a solid candidate.
“Lakes District Family Enhancement Society has a really strong directorship that understands families and services,” she said.
In response to a question from councilor Chris Beach, Ragsdale described their hope for the best-case scenario, where it may be possible for the college to then rent out the same space to whoever held the contracts. This would allow for seamless transition of services with little impact on day-to-day services for local families and the professionals facilitating these programs.
Daum then took the opportunity to clarify how family programs work at the college, explaining how a range of programs – including the Ashurst Children’s Centre Daycare, the Early Intervention Services team (comprised of Occupational and Speech therapists, and a Rehab Assistant) as well as family support programs like Healthier Babies, Brighter Futures – are funded through contracts with agencies such as the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD), and all depend on what they referred to as the “hub model.”
“What is at risk is the hub model that took all those years and all those professionals to develop services may be split up; if that happens, families will fall through the cracks and [there could be] erosion of services to the area,” said Daum. “If funding is in little pockets here or there, it doesn’t have the same impact as it would if it was in one place.”
The hub model at the college has progressed over the last 25 years and was even recognized by the late Clyde Hertzman (described by the Globe and Mail as a world leader in early childhood development), who called the family programs at the college in Burns Lake as “One of the most sophisticated and highly implemented hub models in the province.”
Ragsdale referred to the early intervention services team (EIS) as emblematic of how the hub model functions by describing how each therapist at the college currently has a caseload of 125 clients – 90 clients over the provincially recommended caseload of 35 clients per therapist.
Ragsdale also explained how the large caseload demonstrates the huge need in our area.
“The reason why it’s possible is because EIS sits in a hub model approach; it’s able to utilize other professionals and family support workers [at the college],” she said. “That kind of case load is only possible with integrated services.”
