Caregivers of adults with developmental disabilities, community members, and developmental services workers are concerned and angered by the abrupt closure of day programs by Community Living Oshawa/Clarington.
Day programs provide valuable opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities to congregate, have a good social life, get out of the house, and learn new skills. Day program closures have forced adults with developmental disabilities to be home-bound, isolated from their friends, and have left their parents and caregivers without any much-needed respite.
Dozens of parents and caregivers of adults with developmental disabilities are now stuck without any support. In many areas impacted by the day program closures, there are no similar programs that parents can turn to.
Community Living is eliminating congregated day programs in favour of limited supervised community outings, which poses many challenges for workers, parents, caregivers, and adults with developmental disabilities. The closures have resulted in:
- A dramatic reduction in support hours
- A lack of access to accessible community programming and support for adults with developmental disabilities
- Individuals in congregated residential settings are being denied access to any form of day program, despite not having access to quality, accessible programming