Sometimes it’s not what you do that’s most important, but how you do it. That applies to the way Community Living B.C. dealt with developmentally disabled teenager Katrina Lavery and her mother, Margaret.
CLBC said in April it was cutting Katrina’s at-home care from 24 hours a day to 16 — the same day Margaret rejected a group-home placement for her daughter as potentially unsafe. She told the Times Colonist at the time that she regarded the reduction in care hours as “punitive.”
Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell ordered a review by service-quality advocate Leanne Dospital, who found problems with CLBC’s actions, including its decision to reduce Katrina’s care.
CLBC denied it was punishing Margaret, but Dospital found a note indicating that CEO Seonag Macrae directed staff to provide “16 hours/day of care in the home if mom refuses” the group-home placement.
The review also uncovered an email in which a CLBC staff member, discussing Katrina’s care, tells another: “Ah yes, the usual Friday drama has begun.”
These notes hint that CLBC staff experienced frustration in dealing with Margaret, as does Dospital’s review.
“In the social-service realm, she would be considered a challenging client,” the report said. “But the determined nature of this single mom belies her vulnerability. … Based on the review of documentation and interviews, Margaret is clearly struggling and needs help to decide what exactly she wants for Katrina and in turn, herself.”
Parents of disabled people battle a lot of odds in fighting for their children. These are people whose lives are not on an even keel. These are people in constant danger of burnout. Most parents can look forward to easier times when their children grow up, but for many parents of disabled people, the stress never goes away, the worries never abate.
Under those conditions, it’s not surprising that tempers fray.
But CLBC staff should know that. As professionals, they should know it’s important that they remain calm and compassionate when it’s not easy to do so. They should not let an adversarial relationship develop, regardless of the client’s demeanour.
For they are clients, not adversaries. CLBC’s mission is to help, not hinder; to counsel and support, not to impose heavy-handed directives.
That’s not a sweeping condemnation of CLBC staff — they, too, must deal with stresses, especially trying to do so much with limited resources. They must be firm as they make difficult, heart-rending decisions.
In the case of the Laverys, the problem was not the decision, but the apparent attitude that the mother was an enemy, not a client that the agency supposedly exists to serve.
“Considering the discretionary nature of this decision, inconsistent and informal communication about how the decision was made, and the timing of the decision, after Margaret turned down [the group home],” said Dospital’s report, “it would not be unreasonable for Margaret to perceive that CLBC was not acting in good faith.”
Stilwell has ordered reinstatement of Katrina’s round-the-clock care (which CLBC had not yet cut), and the agency has committed to action on Dospital’s recommendations for remedying the situation and restoring a trust relationship with Margaret.
The agency could start by acknowledging that Margaret was bullied. Its half-hearted apology — “CLBC also regrets that Ms. Lavery has felt its actions have been punitive” — puts the blame in the wrong place.
Those who serve the public have a difficult job — people are not always easy to deal with. They can seem unreasonable and unpleasant. The challenge is to remain calm and compassionate, even when it is not easy to do so.
It’s called being professional.
