The executive director of the Olds-based Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC) said she has not seen any of the disrespectful language the Wildrose Party has raised concerns about in assessments used to determine the needs of people with develop
The executive director of the Olds-based Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC) said she has not seen any of the disrespectful language the Wildrose Party has raised concerns about in assessments used to determine the needs of people with developmental disabilities.
On April 17, Kerry Towle, the party’s human services critic, issued a media release stating some of the questions asked of people with disabilities during the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS) assessment are "personally humiliating and need to be changed to show more respect."
The release included examples of some of the questions the party is alleging the assessors ask such as "If you were to participate in post-secondary education, like regular people, would you need help to do so?"; " Are you sexually active?"; "Are you safe when sexually active?"; "Do you ever sexually assault others?" and " Do you steal?"
Towle stated in the release that she obtained the questions from a "whistleblower who wishes to remain anonymous."
In a telephone interview on April 25, Towle said she received the questions, which she described as an excerpt of an SIS assessment, by email from a person working for an agency that sits in on assessment interviews.
The whistleblower, Towle added, told her there were "far worse" questions included in the assessment but the whistleblower did not want to pass them along out of fear she would be identified.
Towle said the majority of families and service providers she has been in contact with during informal conversations and tours of the province regarding the SIS assessment have told her they have heard these types of questions during assessment interviews.
Although, she added, some assessors will change the wording of questions they feel are offensive to be more respectful despite the reported threat of discipline from their employer.
When the Olds Albertan provided the party’s release to the ASC’s Linda Maxwell, she said she had not sat in on any SIS assessment interviews but she did speak with ASC employees who have and showed them the release.
"They said their experience was that the questions were given in a very respectful manner and they weren’t worded that way," she said, adding the employees she spoke with felt that whenever they sat in on an assessment interview, the person carrying out the assessment for the province "was very aware of being respectful."
Maxwell said, however, that if such questions are being asked, they "could offend people."
"When I look at these questions, if someone was asking them that way, I would not want to be asked that question. I wouldn’t want my loved one to be asked a question like that either. But this sounds to me like that’s not how it’s being directed."
The province’s Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program began using the SIS assessment tool last year as one way to measure the needs of people with disabilities and to determine the amount of government funding required to meet those needs.
The province has contracted the American Association on Intellectual and Disabilities Association, which developed the SIS assessment 10 years ago, to carry out the assessments and, according to the province, so far assessments have been completed for 97 per cent of the more than 10,000 clients PDD serves.
Kathy Telfer, a communications director for Alberta Human Services, said the assessment measures needs in 85 areas such as home living activities, employment activities, health and safety activities, supplemental protection and advocacy and behavioural supports needs.
She added a trained assessor carries out each assessment with a client in a confidential and respectful manner with family members and service providers often present.
"These (assessors) are all been through training and they receive updated training on a regular basis to have a very thoughtful and respectful session with the individual."
An eight-page SIS form provided to the Albertan that Telfer described as "very similar to the ones used in Alberta" does not include questions but instead calls for assessors to score a client in various areas.
For example, the assessment asks for the assessor to measure how often a client engages in "loving and intimate relationships" as well as the daily support time and type of support needed in that area.
In the section focused on "Behavioral Supports Needed," assessors are required to score in the range of "No support needed" to "Extensive support needed" in areas such as "Prevention of sexual aggression," "Prevention of stealing" and "Prevention of nonaggressive but inappropriate (sexual) behaviour."
Telfer said questions about sexual activity are included as a part of a "risk assessment."
"But that would be an exceptional situation. Not every person would be asked that because you’re talking about a range of people who are going through these SIS assessments," she said. "Nothing that would be asked that would be inappropriate."
The circumstances under which such questions would be asked, Telfer added, depends on a person’s "understanding of appropriate activities" and "their appreciation about the implication of sexual activity."
"Because we’re talking about vulnerable people and sometimes they’re very innocent, caring people."
Ultimately, Telfer said, those people carrying out the assessments would not use the language included in the Wildrose Party’s media release.
"The assessors and the trainers, the master trainers do not prep people or train people to ask questions in that manner."
The Albertan did request an interview with someone who has carried out SIS assessment interviews but that request was not fulfilled before press time.
Towle brought up the issue of the alleged inappropriate questions in the legislature on April 17, asking Naresh Bhardwaj, Alberta’s associate minister of services for persons with disabilities several times if he could explain "why he is demeaning clients with developmental disabilities by asking them to compare themselves with regular people?"
Bhardwaj responded that the SIS is a tool "which is used to make baseline assessments right across the province so we can deliver consistent services" Despite repeated calls from Towle for him to address the "offensive and demeaning" language allegedly included in the SIS assessments, Bhardwaj offered the same response each time.
Towle brought the issue up again in the legislature on April 22 but Bhardwaj did not address her concerns about the questions.
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