J. Bloom - Nicola Valley Assoc. for Community Living

Nicola Valley Association for Community Living
P.O. Box 997
Merritt, B.C. V1K 1B8

November 16, 2009

We are writing to protest your Government's recent decision to eliminate the Provincial Advisor Offices of the Infant Development Program

The provincial office promotes and provides best practices, research, training, leadership and vision in the area of early childhood development, connecting families with each other and providing them with the best information available. The loss of the Provincial Office is a shocking blow to families, consultants and youngsters with special needs.

We find ourselves in agreement with the comments made by Melinda Heidsma, Executive Director with AiMHi - Prince George Association for Community Living which provides Infant Development Program services in the North Region. She notes, "In rural communities … we often visit with parents whose children have isolated diagnoses. No other parents around them are experiencing similar challenges. For many families - taking away the Provincial Advisor essentially means taking away that family's connection to other families who are also working hard to support all of their children to live good lives.”

In our valley we have the same issue. For the Minister to say that the Provincial Office of IDP is an unneeded bureaucracy does not make sense. The Provincial IDP Office is a lifeline not only for families, but also for IDP Consultants all over the province: to share the most up to date information, and gather new skills, while providing the best services and supports to families. With the cancellation of this office, there will be no structure to train new consultants. This is of particular concern as our IDP consultant approaches retirement…we cannot send an untrained and unsupported new consultant to work with families dealing with the birth of a baby with a disability or with the painful diagnosis of a developmental delay. This decision by government simply does not make sense.

You may recall that the NDP did much the same thing with the nurse and laboratory technologist training programs when they were in power. Rather than cut services, they cut training and that is what has left us in the terrible quandry we find ourselves in presently with the replacement of those professionals. Short-term gain at the cost of long term loss.

The provincial offices are the reason B.C. has such high standards in early childhood development. When research shows that every $1 invested today in quality early intervention saves us approximately $7 in the long-run, a $300,000 cut to early intervention is false economy.

We urge you to reconsider this ill-advised decision.

Sincerely,



Jeff Bloom, president
Nicola Valley Association for Community Living