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Community Living B.C. receives $36-million boost from province

The Crown agency that oversees services for adults with developmental disabilities will get an extra $36 million from the province this year to deal with its growing caseload.
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Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell said Wednesday that the increase will help Community Living B.C. manage a caseload of nearly 19,000 and allow it to add more clients.

The Crown agency that oversees services for adults with developmental disabilities will get an extra $36 million from the province this year to deal with its growing caseload.

The money includes $12 million announced in Tuesday’s provincial budget in addition to $24 million promised previously.

Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell said Wednesday that the increase will help Community Living B.C. manage a caseload of nearly 19,000 and allow it to add more clients.

CLBC’s service plan shows its caseload growing by more than six per cent a year.

“I’m fairly confident that with the increased budget lifts that CLBC has seen over the years — multiple years now that they’ve seen an increase in their budget — that they are now managing their clientele caseload quite well,” Stilwell said.

Seonag Macrae, the organization’s chief executive officer, said the boost to its nearly $900-million budget will allow the agency to provide new services to about 2,600 people. Of those, about 900 will be youth transitioning into adulthood, while the remainder will be people needing additional supports or seeking help for the first time.

“I think, in particular, when you’ve got challenging economic times, we’re really pleased with the government’s response to the growth that we’re seeing,” Macrae said. “I think that’s an example of where we were able to demonstrate caseload growth and the government responded very positively to it.”

The agency attributes its rising caseload to a number of factors, including:

• Advances in health care that allow people to live longer.

• More requests for services by young adults leaving the family home.

• Aging family members who need extra help caring for adult children.

Macrae said one of the biggest factors behind the caseload increase is the number of youth transitioning to adulthood.

“I think as we are able to provide great lives and good communities, people just come to us and are more aware of services,” she said. “So almost all of the individuals who transition into adulthood, who are qualified for CLBC services, will actually approach us and look for some level of support.”

Faith Bodnar, executive director of the advocacy group Inclusion B.C., called the budget hike “significant” and said it will go a long way to assisting new people coming into the system.

“We’re pleased to see CLBC being supported in a manner that reflects the actual needs of community,” she said.

But she said Inclusion B.C. remains concerned about a “backlog” of people who have been waiting years for help.

“I think that accounts for the increase in the contact we’ve had with families who are in absolute desperate circumstances — having been put off and put off and put off until they absolutely are ready to fall apart,” she said.

Macrae said CLBC tracks requests for service and uses tools to help prioritize where people have the most need for services and supports.

“I’m confident that we are managing that well and that we have a good handle on what people are looking to us for,” she said. “Clearly, there’s always going to be a few individuals that we’d like to do a bit more for and maybe [we] can’t do everything, but we certainly try to do something for them.”

Macrae also noted that CLBC is focusing on finding employment for people with developmental disabilities, since research shows that having a job leads to a better quality of life, increases independence, creates friendships and helps people feel more included in the community.

“It’s not always about just adding more and more services every year,” she said. “It’s also about looking at what is it that people really want. In particular, transitioning youth are really keen on the idea of working and having some level of independence.”

lkines@timescolonist.com