Mary Polak, Minister of Children and Family Development
Minister.MCF@gov.bc.ca
Lesley Du Toit, Deputy Minister, Children and Family Development
MCF.DeputyMinisterOffice@gov.bc.ca
Premier Gordon Campbell
premier@gov.bc.ca
Maurine. Karagianis, NDP Opposition Critic for Children and Families
Maurine. karagianis.mla@leg.bc.ca
Carole James, Leader of NDP
carole.james.mla@leg.bc.ca
I am writing to voice my concerns and objection to the proposed closing of the Provincial Office of the IDP. I worked for over 15 years as an Infant Development Consultant in the Provincial IDP program in the isolated areas of Alert Bay, Port McNeill and Port Hardy and during this time the Provincial IDP office was a life line to me and the families that I worked with.
Direct services that the Provincial Advisor’s office provided to families that I worked with included:
• 1st telephone contact for many parents searching at a desperate time for information, help, support , and understanding of their baby’s/young child’s condition.
• Referral and contact information to IDP program in the family’s area
• Recommendations for books and other resources on specific disabilities and/or conditions
• Referrals to family support groups for specific disability or conditions
• Referrals and recommendations to other Provincial resources and programs
• Sharing of new research in the field for specific conditions
• Linking families with child having rare conditions to other like families
• Family friendly website with resources and information
• Open family friendly office to discuss any concerns, requests for further information/resources, or needs for support
• Early intervention conferences with presentations from internationally recognized specialists
Education and guidance provided from the Provincial Office to IDP Consultants included
• Quick, easily accessible telephone call or email to recommended resources
• Regular in-service trainings regarding latest research and best practices in the, provision of family-centered early intervention services by world acclaimed early intervention researchers in the field of providing family-centered practices.
• Regular trainings for furthering skill development in assessing the development of young children
• Opportunity to discuss specific cases with knowledgeable, up to date on the latest research, Provincial Advisor
• Provincial Advisor’s access to and relationships with a world-wide consortium of early intervention leading experts in the field allows for her phenomenal insight, support, and link to latest research and resources that she brings to her support and guidance of Infant Development Consultants and the families that they work with.
• Development of Summer Institutes at UBC leading to a Diploma in Early Intervention for furthering the professionalism and standardization of services provided by Infant Development Consultants
• Early intervention conferences addressing “best practices” in the early intervention field with internationally recognized presenters sharing latest research
• IDP Website containing resource information, linkages to other Provincial programs, newsletter, training announcements etcetera.
• Open and encouraged communication and support between Provincial Advisor, Regional Advisors and IDP consultants.
I remember when I first started working in the Provincial IDP program how very impressed I was with the organization of the program with the support, guidance, training and resources that were available directly to families and to the non-profit organizations that administered the Infant Development Program locally and the IDP consultants. I had never worked in such a well organized supportive organization where I had access through regular communication with the Regional Advisors and Provincial Advisor by way of in-services, newsletters, website and conferences to the latest researchers in the field and their “best practices” research.
It was when I went to work as the Early Childhood Coordinator for the new Government of Nunavut, (1999) and brought with me what I had learned about developing quality early intervention programs from BC that I truly started recognizing the overall quality of the BC Infant Development Program and attribute my success in that position due to my prior training and experience in the BC program.
Later, in my work with Hawaii’s Healthy Start Program, I realized immediately how advanced BC’s IDP program was in providing “best practices” family centered early intervention services then the State of Hawaii. As well, it would frequently come to my attention on how behind many of the State’s early intervention programs were in comparison to B.C.’s IDP. B.C.’s Infant Development Program became my measuring stick from which I informally evaluated all early intervention programs that I read about, discussed with others or had contact with by either working in the program, reading about other US programs or in discussions with other early intervention staff at conferences and/or meetings.
Currently I am living in Japan and working as an Early Childhood Special Educator in a U.S. Navy Base’s early intervention program. When I applied for this position I was personally called by the company’s director who oversaw the hiring of all early intervention staff for every US Force Base in the world. She told me that the reason she had called me directly was that she was most impressed with both my educational background and knowledge in provision of family-centered “best practices” early intervention services and they had not had applicants very often with such a strong background. On the spot she offered me a job in a number of different locations around the world.
I attribute all the success I have had working in the early intervention field to the preparation, training, support and guidance that I received while working in the BC IDP. I can not say enough how integral this program is to providing early intervention services to BC families and supporting the work of infant development consultants in the field. The BC Infant Development program is truly a World Class Program and as such needs to be recognized as probably one of BC’s most ongoing successful programs.
Having a “World Class” program does not happen easily. It took the efforts of many people over thirty years to develop this highly successful program model involving thousands of hours. The development, ongoing monitoring and program improvements included the active and past efforts of the Provincial Office, Provincial Advisor, Provincial Steering Committee, Regional Advisors, Ministry Officials , Provincial agencies, hospitals, universities, educators, research units, specialists, parents, infant development consultants, non-profit agencies, researchers and others.
In summary, I think the best I can say is that instead of removing the foundation of a fabulous, and highly successful IDP program which will surely weaken and erode the program’s overall services to young children and their families instead refer to the recommendations from BC’s Infant Development Program Review Final Report, November 2006 : 5.0 Recommendations: 5.1, 5.1.1 & 5.1.2
5.1 Retain What is Most Valued about the Program.
5.1.1 Maintain the core principles and features of IDP, i.e., a flexible, voluntary, home-based, family-centred, community-based early intervention visiting program that promotes the child’s best interest and development within the family context.
This is a joint responsibility of IDP, MCFD and sponsoring agencies and should be reflected in the IPD Policy and Procedures Manual and service contracts.
5.1.2 Maintain the current provincial program structure that provides province wide expertise, regional support, networking and the necessary professional development opportunities in order to meet the demands of a small but complex and constantly changing program for infants with special needs and their families in a consistent manner province wide. This is a responsibility of the MCFD Provincial Office in collaboration with the IDP Provincial Office to facilitate alignment between the Provincial IDP structure and a decentralized regional system of service delivery.
Final Report - November 2006 Consultant Team: Zena Simces and Sue Ross 23
Sincerely yours,
Jayne Dator-Freeman
Early Childhood Special Educator
Education Developmental Intervention Services
Command Fleet Activities Sasebo, Japan
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