'This is not babysitting'
Respite program is like a buddy-system for people with special needs
Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Like any teenager, ensuring 17-year-old Emma Moorhouse is active in the community and away from electronics is highly important to her parents Peggy and Nigel.
Moorhouse has a rare condition called coffin-siris syndrome, which makes her developmentally delayed, meaning she processes information slowly for her age. Emma's family has been one of the most consistent to take advantage of the ever-growing respite program provided by the Yellowknife Association for Community Living.
Lynn Elkin, executive director for the Yellowknife Association for Community Living, said the Moorhouses are among a growing number of people taking advantage of the program since 2015. At this time last year there were 28 families involved. There are now 40.
The program is essentially a buddy-system where a person with special needs is teamed up with a person without special needs to spend a few hours a week together doing every-day activities.
Often the service is promoted to relieve families from the emotional and physical "wear and tear" of caring for a disabled family member. With the Moorhouses, however, the program has offered something more.
"When it first came out, I didn't apply to use it because I felt I didn't need a break from my child," said mother Peggy Moorhouse, who has used the program since 2008. "Emma is not an extremely high needs person, unlike others who might be wheelchair bound or (requiring other help). But in the end I decided to use it so that she could get social skills outside of the house from someone other than her family."
Funding for respite services are provided to the association and a number of other associations and non-governmental organizations every year from the Department of Health and Social Services. The association has received about $250,000 every year for most of the last decade. The money provides the association the ability to hire social workers to work with people of various special needs and disabilities for a few hours a week in order to provide additional support to families.
How respite services are applied varies from client to client, as disabilities are very diverse. In Emma's case, once a week she goes with a support worker for two and a half hours to the NWT SPCA to walk a dog. She also engages in other activities such as going to the library or for a drive.
Peggy Moorhouse said even though it wasn't initially her intent, she and her husband have ended up planning around Emma's respite schedule to go on dates themselves, like heading to a restaurant for drinks.
Elkin said having the program is critical for supporting mental health in the community because it socializes disabled people and promotes their individuality without stigma, while at the same time supporting families by giving them a break now and then.
"If families didn't get that kind of break, I would be very concerned for them," Elkin said.
Elkin said because the program can be applied to anyone with a perceived disability, the program has grown quickly, particularly over the last two years as its benefits have spread by word of mouth.
"In the last 18 months somehow the word is out there a little bit better," she said of the benefits of respite. "Somehow people are getting the message and I think our workers talk it up with families who are not accessing it but could."
Elkin said in recent years there have been anywhere from 32 to 40 families using the service. Last year, 40 families used the program and received 4,845 hours of support time from fewer than 30 part-time workers. Five years ago, 29 Yellowknife families received 6,370 hours of care from 26 part-time workers and one full-time co-ordinator.
While hours have dropped, Elkin said this has been due to the decision by the association to support part-time workers with better wages. The program doesn't require high technical training as anyone with an interest in helping can come in with a resume. After an association committee reviews an applicant's background and assigns them a family, they put them through a training program to meet the needs of the family client.
"About five years ago, people were getting paid the equivalent of entry level jobs at fast food establishments," she said. "I personally believe, and our association believes, that if someone is going to have someone's life hours in their hands and working one on one - some of whom have incredibly high medical or physical needs - (that they are) paid appropriately (based on the) responsibilities.
"This is not babysitting."
