Residential Alternatives
Supports 120 individuals throughout the community. Individuals live in shared living alternatives, support homes or individually. Staffing support for residential Alternatives varies from a few hours each week to 24-hour supports.
Access to Residential Alternatives is through Developmental Services Ontario- 1-877-376-4674.
www.dsontario.ca
Shared Living
People living together in homes in various neighbourhoods with supports.
Supported Independent Living
An individual who lives alone or with a friend, and chooses the type of supports they want.
Support Home Living
An individual or family who welcomes a person into their home. This is a contractual arrangement with various responsibilities that are related to the
interests and desires of the person who chooses this type of home.
Potential home providers or individuals looking for more information on the Support Home Living program should contact Leslie Monger, Supervisor of Adult Services at (905) 735-0081 ext. 239.
Supports provided through Residential Alternatives are individualized to the persons needs and wishes based upon the development of an individual lifestyle plan. Examples of supports include:
- Enhancing abilities (Cooking, Banking, Budgeting, Personal care, etc.)
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Communication and relationship building
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Community connections
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Recreation and Leisure
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Health and Well-being
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Advocacy
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Objectives
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To provide accommodations and supports that enable the individual to participate in the community with dignity and respect
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Physical and social inclusion
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Advocacy for individuals to assist them in obtaining appropriate supports
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Solicit direction from the individual and their families or guardians to ensure that needs are being met and supports provided are determined by the person's choices
Day Supports
Residential Alternatives offers some daytime activities for individuals who are already affiliated with Community Living Welland Pelham, based at 535 Sutherland Avenue.
Social interaction and recreational activities are the focus.
To access day supports please call Developmental Services Ontario- 1-877-376-4674
*There is a wait list for residential placement.
Employment Services
Assists people in locating and maintaining competitive employment. Job Developers work with people to discuss career choices, find employment and provide on-the-job support as long as required. Job Developers work directly with the employers and their staff to ensure a comfortable working atmosphere.
Ontario Disability Support Program - Employment Supports
Employment Services is an approved service provider for the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) for the region of Niagara and has been successfully operating since 2001. This enables us to broaden our base to those facing any type of employment barrier and work region wide. This program is individually based and seeks out only competitive employment opportunities.
Competitive employment is defined as a person being able to perform the duties of a job at the same rate of speed, and with the same quality as anyone else that would apply for the job, whether they require the support of a job coach to do so or not. Employment Services has proven expertise in matching potential employees to employer needs.
Often families and individuals fear that working will jeopardize the ODSP income support that they receive. In fact, aside from the psycho-social benefits one achieves by being employed, the Ontario Disability Support Program recognizes that the incentive to work is not there should they "claw back" supports when someone earns a wage. Therefore, ODSP has made it more advantageous for someone wanting to work. For a complete breakdown of the financial benefits of working while receiving ODSP income supports, please contact Community Living Welland Pelham Employment Services.
Ontario Disability Support Program - Employment Supports may be accessed directly without a referral from Contact Niagara. Applications can be found at any of the Service Providers throughout the Niagara Region, or on the ODSPES website. Should you require assistance completing the application, Community Living Welland Pelham Employment Services will provide that service to you, free of charge.
For more information about Employment Services, please contact:
Supervisor of Adult Services
Glenda Morabito
Tel: 905-732-1023
Fax: 905-735-0528
E-Mail: glendamorabito@cl-wellandpelham.ca
Welland Packaging
Is a sheltered work environment where the people who attend choose how to spend their day. A group of individuals has determined that they prefer to participate in traditional work opportunities within a sheltered work environment. This group has organized themselves and formed the "Labour Power Group" and has the last say in which contracts they will take on and how they share the revenue from those contracts. There are also a few other people that create their own work. None of these people make a competitive wage, but are very content in the decisions that they have made.
There are a number of other people who still want to come to the Hagar Street location, but choose to do minimal or even none of the "contract work". Support staff assist these people to explore their community based on their individual interests. Some of these people find satisfaction volunteering with a variety of other not for profit organizations as they contribute to their causes.
We regularly check in with all the people that come to Welland Packaging to ensure they continue to do the things they want to do to fill their day with meaningful activity.
Young people looking for these types of supports with our agency tend to look towards competitive employment or the more leisure type approach to day time supports. There have been no new faces at WPA since 2007.
The values of the agency suggest we encourage young people to explore their community and competitive employment rather than congregate. We have learned that when individuals enjoy more inclusive environments, other members of the community get to know the people we support as individuals and their abilities as opposed to stereotypes.
Leisure Interests
Is a program that provides people with opportunities to get involved in different activities. Groups of no more than three people are created, matching people with similar interests and encouraging connections within their city. Some activities that people choose are: ceramic classes, swimming, attending concerts, horseback riding lessons, shopping, fishing, exercise classes, sporting functions, city events, and interest courses.
People wanting to join a group may do so by contributing dollars through their Special Services at Home dollars. Often this gives people more support hours during the week.
Some people use their Passport dollars to purchase 1:1 supports. These dollars are received from the Ministry. A referral and intake process occurs through Contact Niagara to apply for these dollars.
For more information about the Leisure Interests Program and the referral process, please contact:
Grayce Bonacacio at 905-735-8220 or email graycebonifacio@cl-wellandpelham.ca
Respite
Respite provides temporary relief to primary caregivers of adults with an intellectual disability. This relief is creative, flexible, and responsive to the
individuals need. There are private respite providers available to provide this support as well as Ministry of Community and Social Services funded
respite providers.
For a list of respite options contact your Family Support coordinator.
There may be a fee for this service.
Resource Programe
Has been in operation since 2002 and supports individuals, families, and staff affiliated with Community Living Welland Pelham in a range of areas. Requests and referrals are generally submitted when there are issues related to sexuality, social skills, and/or dual diagnosis. However, this program is not exclusive to these specific domains.
As well, non-profit agencies providing services to individuals with intellectual disabilities across the Niagara Region can access resource information when it is related to a social or sexual nature in a consultative or training capacity for the staff of the requesting agency. It is the position of this program to provide individualized services in an effective and timely manner after a request or referral has been presented.
The following are services currently available:
Services Available to Community Living Welland Pelham
Counseling
If people are interested in individual and/or couples counseling a request can be done by the individual, support staff, family member, or supervisor to Debbie Richards.
On occasion an assessment may be required. In those cases a Social Sexual Knowledge and Attitudes Testing (SSKAAT-R) would be completed prior to the counseling sessions. These assessments often predict the success of the counseling.
Group Sessions
Groups are typically made up of 5 – 10 people and are designed around a specific topic.
Some of the group sessions that take place are Social Skills Groups, Healthy Sexuality Education Training, Sexual Abuse Prevention, and Ladies Social Groups. These are tailored to meet the needs of the people.
Staff Training
In-service training can be made available upon request from staff, supervisors or directors.
Training in the past has included sexual abuse prevention information; training on “Guidelines and Practices for Reporting Sexual Assault for People with Intellectual Disabilities” (a document that was developed among several Niagara agencies in 2000), supporting someone who has problematic sexual behaviour; or a general discussion on sexuality, working with people who have a mental health condition, orientation training, and staff team building.
Services Available to Persons Who Have an Intellectual Disability and Agencies within the Niagara Region
Sexual Behaviours Clinic
By using a bio-psycho-social assessment and treatment approach the Sexual Behaviours Clinic supports individuals who have a dual diagnosis, specifically an intellectual disability and a sexual condition. The clinic provides services to people in the Niagara Region who have a primary diagnosis of intellectual disability. Each person or their representative can do an intake with Contact Niagara at which point the referral will be sent to Community Living Welland Pelham – Resource Programme for review. Once an intake is completed with the Clinical Coordinator by a phone call as well as a follow up “in person” visit, it is determined whether or not an appointment in the clinic is the next step. Clinic consultations are in the format of a team approach which includes the forensic psychiatrist, clinical coordinator, the patient and their support network which often includes family, support workers, community supports, etc. By using this type of trans-disciplinary approach there is a collaboration between service delivery systems and therefore the patient has a greater rate of success.
Clinic Coordinator: Debbie Richards – Manager of Specialized Services
Clinic Psychiatrist: Dr. Paul Fedoroff - Director of Sexual Behaviours Clinic, Royal Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ontario
Staff Training
If a community service agency supporting individuals with intellectual disabilities in the Niagara Region requires in service training around sexually related issues, arrangements can be made with Debbie Richards to set up a date and time.
In the past, such training has included; Sexual abuse prevention; training on “Guidelines and Practices for Reporting Sexual Assault for People with Intellectual Disabilities” (a document that was developed among several Niagara agencies in 2000), supporting someone who has problematic sexual behaviour; how to teach social sexual education, or a general discussion on sexuality.
Research
Currently, we are conducting research on decreasing the risk factors for males with intellectual disabilities who have problematic sexual behaviour. This research is funded through an IMHR research grant at Royal Ottawa Hospital.
Past Research
In 1994, along with Brock University we were funded by a grant to look at the factors that could potentially decrease the likelihood of people with intellectual disabilities being sexually abused. From this research we were able to develop a “board game” called “The Empowerment Game”. This game is fun AND exciting for the participants and is utilized in several of the group settings that are social skills, relationship building and sexual abuse prevention based.
Grants
In 2008 Dr. Dorothy Griffiths and Debbie Richards were able to film a documentary titled “Living My Life” which tells the stories of three ladies who lived in institutions and then moved into their home communities. They have a message to tell their audience and the clip below depicts the essence of their very important stories.
For more information, please contact:
Manager of Specialized Services
Debbie Richards
Tel: 905-735-0081
Fax: 905-735-9431
E-Mail: debbierichards@cl-wellandpelham.ca