The independent advocate in charge of helping adults with developmental disabilities navigate B.C. government supports says his office often hears about home-share providers who are exhausted and constantly in “crisis mode.”
Cary Chiu, the province’s advocate for service quality, says more money needs to be paid to those offering care in their homes for people with developmental disabilities to both preserve the integrity of the program and revitalize the quality of its pool of providers.
Chiu was the last person to testify in the coroner’s inquest into the death of Florence Girard, a 54-year-old woman with Down syndrome who starved to death while living in her caretaker’s home in October 2018.
Girard weighed about 50 pounds when she died while living with Astrid Dahl, as part of a program funded by the provincial Crown corporation Community Living B.C. and contracted out to the non-profit Kinsight Community Society.
Dahl, who was convicted in 2022 of failing to provide the necessaries of life for Girard, told the inquest she received around $2,000 a month from the home-share program to care for Girard, as well as some money to pay for respite if she needed help.
After a week and a half of testimony, the jury has been asked to come up with recommendations for how to prevent similar deaths in the future.
Chiu said the needs of people being cared for through home-share arrangements are becoming more complex.
“The home-share program, evidence has come out [about] how vital that program is to [Community Living B.C.’s] arsenal of housing options for individuals. My office hears about home-share provider exhaustion and burnout and constantly being in crisis mode,” he said.
“I would recommend that in order to preserve the integrity of the program and to really revitalize the pool of home-share providers, that the rate to the providers needs to be increased.”
A coroners inquest into the death of a woman with Down syndrome in government-funded care began Monday. We’ll hear from her sister, and an advocate about what they hope to see come out of the inquest.
Earlier in the week, Tiffany Wickham, a manager with the Crown corporation, acknowledged that the money provided to caregivers “has not kept up with the rate of inflation and housing costs.”
Wickham told the jury that the corporation “would not be able to maintain the services” it offers if the pay was increased to meet inflation under its current budget.
Community Living B.C.’s website says its budget for the current fiscal year is $1.66 billion, which it uses to support 29,000 eligible people. About 4,200 people are in a home-share arrangement.
Chiu also recommended that the Crown corporation continue to improve its monitoring capabilities as well as review its home-sharing standards.
