Letter J. Grant to M. McDiarmid, MLA, Vancouver

Hon. Dr. Margaret McDiarmid, MLA
#104-1245 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC V6H 1G7

Dear Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid,

You will probably not remember me but you came to my condo and later spoke to me by phone before the last election. I was impressed by your consideration of issues even when you knew that you would have to spend time studying further. I was very sorry to hear about your illness and hope that you are recovering well.

I am writing today to let you know how I feel about the closure of the Infant Development Program Provincial Office. I am enclosing an editorial, which I think says much of what I believe. Having worked professionally in health care for over 30 years with children, adolescents and families, I know that there needs to be a balance between front line work and good planning, innovation and support for staff. Staff cannot give families the knowledge and support they need if the staff themselves have not been adequately prepared and monitored.

I have known Dana Brynelsen, the provincial advisor for this program and the quality of her work, for 36 years. I suspect that the cost of running the Provincial Office is very small in comparison with the preventative gains made to 8000 families a year in this province. Having been a consumer of the Community Living BC program on behalf of my daughter, I know what it is like when poorly thought out programs are foisted on the public and parents are left to make the best of it under the assumption that more ‘direct service’ is championed. Both poor quality of service and lack of professionalism by the staff undermine any hope of a positive contribution by either the child or the parents to society.

The letter to the editor of the Vancouver Sun this week by Mary Polak, the Minister for Families and Children puts an offensive government spin on the decision to cut the IDP Provincial Office by encouraging the public to think that only direct service work is valuable. If that were the case, universities would get out of research and only teach to the students, an unlikely scenario.

The families who use this program have neither the time nor the energy to advocate strongly on their own behalf. I hope that you, as a considerate member of the government, will help your colleagues to see the fallacy of their decision. If the BC government can afford to put a $485 million new roof on BC Place, I think they can first of all invest in the development of children and families under their jurisdiction.

Sincerely,


Joyce Grant
Vancouver, BC