S. Stewart- Letter to Government

Honourable Mary Polak, Minister
Ministry of Children and Family Development
P.O. Box 9057 Stn Prov Govt
Victoria BC V8W 9E2

Dear Minister Polak

I am a physiotherapist who has worked with Infant Development Consultants in the lower mainland as well as in northern British Columbia, in homes and in a tertiary diagnostic clinic for the past 22 years. I am extremely concerned about the recent closure of the Provincial Infant Development Office. As a physiotherapist who works with Infant Development Consultants from across the province, I feel this decision will have dramatic detrimental effects on direct early intervention services.

The Provincial Infant Development Office
- Develops and maintains standards of practice for infant development workers. See 288 page policy and procedure manual. This manual is a fluid document requiring coordinated revision by multiple stakeholders.. http://www.idpofbc.ca/IDPManual_rev0305.pdf
- Organises continuing education by providing twice yearly in servicing and summer institutes. These programs are essential for the ensuring best practise for IDP consultants.
- Collaborates with numerous provincial and regional agencies in education, health and social service areas,
- Collaborates with experts in early intervention nationally and internationally. Utilises these relationships to bring innovation and best practise in the field of early intervention to British Columbia.
- Provides support directly to families and assists in finding appropriate supports in their community. This is extremely important as often a diagnosis may be very rare in some of our communities. The provincial office can link these families with resources and consultants who do have experience with these more unusual conditions.

The Provincial IDP office has developed an excellent infrastructure for early intervention services for children with special needs and children at risk for developmental delays over the past 34 years. The office has excellent regional teams to work with but the overall standards and continuing education for the infant development programs must be led provincially. We work with the most vulnerable of our children in British Columbia in the most impressionable age of life and this decision will affect the direct service to these children.

It is unclear as to why the Ministry would want to change a direct service that is working so well for such little annual expenditure. Could the Ministry share their plan as to how these many responisibilties will be carried out, along with a cost benefit analysis comparing the new plan with the old, with all stake holders before proceeding any further?

Respectfully

Susan Stewart
MRSc, BScPT
Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC

Cc Premier Campbell, Lesley Du Toit, Maurine Karagianis