VICTORIA - Stephanie Kleckner’s condition didn’t substantially improve from July 2010 to January 2011.
But Community Living BC suddenly deemed the developmentally delayed 31-year-old able to live almost independently after being forced out of the Maple Ridge group home she’d lived in for almost 10 years.
No one was more shocked than her mother Carol, who was struck by the juxtaposition of two assessments, the second of which was presented as an explanation of why Stephanie’s access to care had been cut.
It took months of fighting bureaucracy, but Carol ultimately met with officials from CLBC, who sought to justify changes in assessments that, she says, dramatically under-represented her daughter Stephanie’s disability.
An initial report assessed Stephanie as a “four” on a scale of five, requiring a high level of supervision. A later report identified her as a “two,” or relatively self-sustainable.
“When I saw that [initial] report, I was ready to go across the table and strangle them,” an emotional Carol said in an interview Wednesday.
The initial July 2010 assessment concluded that while Stephanie was independent in many areas, she required “significant support with major care, health and safety matters.”
By contrast, the second report — which was completed this January — found that while Stephanie makes unsafe choices, she has a “high level of independence.”
Where the first report found Stephanie required “regular guidance to make day-to-day decisions independently,” the second found that she “independently makes all decisions about routine, daily matters.”
The first report found Stephanie needed “full support to safely access the community.”
The second found she “independently accesses many locations in the community,” and that she “requires minimal or intermittent support to safely access the community.”
Citing privacy issues, CLBC said on Wednesday it could not discuss the details of Stephanie’s case. Speaking generally, however, interim CEO Doug Woollard said it is very unusual for assessments under the organization’s Guide to Support Allocation to differ by as much as two points in just six months, as happened here.
“Speaking in a general sense, that would be quite unusual. There is sometimes change in people’s capacity over time, but in that time period, that would be unusual,” he said.
New Democratic Party critic for social development Nicholas Simons said the case underscores the need for an independent review into CLBC.
“They’ve just decided to assess a person based on whether they have money to provide the services or not,” Simons alleged. “Somehow [Stephanie] was targeted as someone who would be leaving the group home and suddenly her assessment was a two.
“This shows that CLBC has lost its way in how it provides services.”
Woollard noted the amount of funding a person will receive is not tied directly to the score they’re given under the GSA.
“There are no dollars tied directly to those levels. It’s just a level of capacity that the person has,” he said. “Sometimes the dollars are different. What it costs us to provide one is somewhat different from the other.”
On Wednesday, Carol said the August move from the Maple Ridge group home — and especially the removal of some services — has been disastrous for her daughter.
“She was moved into a basement suite where she was all by herself. There was no other socialization that happened for her,” said Carol. “She was depressed, she was crying, she just didn’t know what to do.”
Carol said she pushed CLBC after the move to justify why some of the services Stephanie had come to rely upon had been cut, especially since Carol had been given repeated assurances the level of care would not change.
CLBC officials met with her on Jan. 17, 2011, Carol said, and they gave her the second report as an explanation. She said she was immediately suspicious, given the report was signed and completed on the same day, Jan. 17.
Carol said she pushed to get a copy of the original report, adding it took two weeks for officials to hand it over.
She said officials explained the delay by telling her a case worker had taken the original report home and put it into his personal files. Carol added that after her January meeting, officials agreed Stephanie needed a higher level of care, and they granted some extra funding for a life skills worker.
Carol said the original understanding at the meeting was for about eight weekly hours of counselling, but the level was dropped to about four hours once it took effect.
She added that those life skills counselling hours were clawed back entirely on Oct. 1, when Stephanie moved into a new homeshare — one that she hopes will be much better suited to her needs.
Carol said she has already begun pushing for those services to be restored.
“Stephanie is a four and she’s entitled to that extra funding regardless. Why isn’t she getting it?” asked Carol. “I just can’t believe it. She’s such a happy-go-lucky type of a person, and to see her almost destroyed to that point of depression — she didn’t even want to get out of bed.”
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