Letter from Haida Gwaii IDP - K. Larocque

Haida Gwaii Infant Development Program Northern Health Box 619, Masset, BC, V0T 1M0 Tel: 250-626-4716 Honorable Mary Polack, Minister 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 November 23, 2009 Dear Ministers,
Re: Form Letter Response from Minister Polak regarding termination of contract to the Office of the Provincial Advisor for Infant Development Programs.
I am deeply concerned over what I feel is a lack of respect and consideration towards the issues I raised in my letter dated October 6, 2009 around the impact that the termination of the contract to the Provincial Office will have at an individual program level and ultimately a family and child level. Your letter did not address any of the concerns I raised. Therefore I will ask you specific questions that I hope you can provide answers to. You assured me in your letter to me dated November 5, 2009 “that direct services to children will not be reduced as a result of the decision to discontinue the advisor positions.” Direct services to children may not be reduced but I worry that the quality and integrity of these services will be at risk as a result of the loss of the services provided by the Provincial Office to IDP.
In your letter to the Editor in the Monday, November 16th, 2009 Vancouver Sun you state, “While the advisor position may be ending, the work of the office will continue with no loss or interruption in either infant development or child development services”. How will there be no loss or interruption in direct services to families and children who access IDP when the below mentioned services that the Provincial Office to the IDP carries out will be cut away? a) Answer parent questions around any number of issues and topics relating to special health care and developmental needs of infants and children. b) Train new IDP consultants on assessing infants’ development as well as keep up to date on new research based best practices on issues such as Cortical Visual Impairment or supporting the development of Infant s who have Down’s Syndrome or Turners Syndrome. c) Maintain the up to date IDP Library. Send updated and research-based, information on a wide variety of medical and developmental issues and conditions to IDP Consultants, parents, and community service providers who are caring for a child who has a specific diagnosis or condition. d) Maintain critical links and relationships around the province, country and world with researchers, teachers, and developers of the most up to date, evidence based programs for families and children who have special needs. e) Research, coordinate and implement ongoing In-service training and Summer Institute at UBC for IDP Consultants across the Province. f) Be the advisor to both IDP Consultants and Parents who are working together to make every day experiences for a child who has special needs and or special health care challenges more meaningful, more integrated, more comfortable, and more supportive. g) Link IDP consultants who are working with families and children who face rare and complex issues to specialists in the field as well as link parents with similar issues. The Provincial Office to IDP provides the above mentioned services that are vital to direct services to children. This system has been terminated by your Ministry and you state that “While the advisor position may be ending, the work of the office will continue”. I can only conclude from this statement that the Ministry has a plan to give this very important work to another body, office, or person within the Ministry of Children and Family Development. If the Minister does intend to replicate some or all of the above mentioned services then how will that happen? Who will do the work? Will the replication of services mentioned above cost more or less than the $300,000 budget that funded the Provincial Office? If there is a budget set aside to replace the services then why was there no consultation with those affected around possible reduction of the Provincial Office budget instead of an abrupt termination of contract?
Given the negative impact this decision will have on IDP program functioning and therefore direct services to families and children I trust you will be able to respond with thoughtful and informative answers to these 5 questions I have asked. Sincerely,
Kimberley Larocque, BA, HSD, CYC
Haida Gwaii Infant Development Program Coordinator