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The Honourable Sandra Pupatello
Minister of Community and Social Services
6th Floor, Hepburn Block
80 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 1E9
Dear Ms. Pupatello:
My name is K-ran McBride. I am a community-based social worker who works in Toronto with individuals who live with
mental health and developmental challenges. I am also the youngest sister of Janice McBride, who has been a resident
of Huronia Regional Centre for more than 40 years.
My sister Janice began living in Huronia in the early 1960’s. Janice is considered profoundly developmentally
challenged, a diagnostic category which applies to only 2% of the most severely affected of the developmentally
challenged population. Many of the people at Huronia Regional Centre have been living there since the 1970s. In
addition to having severe or profound developmental and mental health challenges, a number of residents have vision
and hearing impairments, and behavioral difficulties. Many are in wheelchairs. Some residents suffer from epilepsy,
heart conditions, Alzheimer’s, dementia, and others cannot speak.
In September 2004, I received a letter from James Duncan, the administrator at Huronia Regional Centre, informing me
that my sister Janice would be evicted from the only community and home she has ever known. This, I was told, was part
of the Provincial Liberals’ promise to close down Huronia’s state of the art facilities and their community residences,
and to relocate each remaining resident in a new home somewhere else. I understand that on the same day you made
an announcement to the public, via the media, about the planned closures of Huronia, Rideau, and Southwestern
Regional Centres.
I have many concerns and objections regarding this plan, and I can only guess that it is the well intentioned ignorance
of the Ontario Liberals, or else an example of staff within your Ministry undervaluing, or not understanding individuals
with profound and severe developmental and mental health challenges, which seem to be leading the Liberal
government to act in blind determination to see such a plan carried out.
As a dedicated community-based social worker, I have an excellent understanding of what Community Living Ontario
staff conceptualize as “community living.” What I probably understand better than your staff, is how Huronia delivers on
the vision of community living for the residents who live at the Centre. After the Tories announced their intention to
close Huronia in 1987, renovations were completed to transition existing buildings into family home type settings.
These beautiful homes complimented the on-site supports within the Huronia Centre, such as central services,
kinesiology, psychiatry, recreational and social programs, summer camp, and access to outside community activities.
This solution was perfect for the severely and profoundly developmentally challenged people living at the Centre who,
like my sister, have been able to live in and benefit from a community living setting in an environment that is
comfortable and familiar, with specialized and skilled staff to care for each person.
The Community Living Ontario and the Liberal government’s rationale, as I understand it, is that Huronia is an
institution, and institutions, in name and practice, are bad and oppressive. By moving my sister out of the only familiar
environment that she can sense, and away from every person she has ever known (her doctors, her caregivers, her
friends), as well as from her in-house light therapy sessions, and then moving her into another (not yet determined)
house type setting in a foreign environment (maybe a new city), that this will enable her to become more independent,
will improve her quality of life, and will enhance and enrich her connections to the community where she lives.
Although this concept might sound progressive on paper, when one looks at the simple but ignored fact that the
developmental sector is heterogeneous, then a “one solution fits all people” plan to move residents out of Huronia
Regional Centre does not make a bit of sense. Community Living Ontario solutions are not solutions for all people. This
is no solution for Janice.
The physical, psychological, emotional, social, and support needs and goals of individuals with profound and severe
developmental and mental health challenges are not the same as those of individuals who function with developmental
challenges in the mild to moderate range. You can’t even compare the two diverse populations. There is a lack of
skilled front line workers outside of Huronia who are equipped to work with this high needs population. Individuals at
Huronia are actually receiving long term care services of a highly specialized nature in a community setting, services
which are not presently available in the developmental sector or in existing supportive residences. To try to build or
modify group homes to meet the aging long term care needs of seniors with severe and profound developmental
challenges is neither realistic, honest, nor affordable. This is the very reason that specialized services have been
developed on site at Huronia.
At present time very few, if any, residents are leaving Huronia Centre for the community. Their health requirements are
so difficult that few adequate and affordable placements can be found for them. Many residents, like Janice, may be in
their 50s at the time of having to move. Care facilities for seniors with complex mental health and developmental
challenges have not been developed, and are not yet available in other communities. I know, because I can’t currently
find these services or supports for my clients. Huronia residents, through a distance move, will not have the benefit of
having Orillia Soldier’s Memorial Hospital to help to meet their needs. Doctors there receive frequent referrals to meet
the needs of the community, and have the specialized skills to provide high quality care, which is in short supply for
this population.
If the Liberals are to close the remaining three Regional Centres for people with complex developmental disabilities,
mental health, and chronic physical health needs, the results could be devastating for all the individuals and families
directly affected. In the Metro Toronto area there are more than 2,500 crisis situations (as of 1993!) where aging parents
with developmentally challenged adult children are in dire straits because there age is making it difficult to care for
their children. There are few resources to help these families. Wait lists for group home and residential services for
individuals with developmental challenges are 5 to 7 years long, or even longer, than the affordable housing wait lists
currently are in Toronto.
It is clear to me that the demands on the system have only grown, and that publics’ and governments’ investment in
housing, services, and resources to meet the needs of individuals living with severe and profound developmental
challenges has not kept up with these demands. The Liberal government has insisted that it will not place people from
any of the three Regional Centres into existing residential and crisis wait lists, rather, the government will build all the
services and resources needed for the 1,040 individuals being evicted, by March 2009. I know from professional
experience that it will take many more than 5 years to build up the basic infrastructure of resources, services, supports,
and skilled professionals, in alternative home settings, given the level of financial neglect the sector has experienced
since 1987. Given the length of wait lists that already exist in this sector, I cannot understand why you would choose to
further cut services to individuals with severe and profound developmental and mental health challenges, by
destroying a resource rich community which is now thriving at Huronia Regional Centre.
I cannot accept your announced plans to close Huronia Regional Centre, and I will not agree to have my sister evicted
from her home and community. Huronia Regional Centre must remain open! To rob the residents and the professional
sector of such a valuable asset would be unconscionable.
Respectfully yours,
K-ran McBride