Ontario to overhaul its developmental disability services using SIS
A major review of developmental disability services is underway in Ontario, and over 2,000 self advocates and families, and twelve agencies across the region are currently participating in a pilot study of a new application for service using the Supports Intensity Scale. The goal? To create a new, standardized application system that provides equitable supports and services to the 40,000 adults with intellectual disabilities receiving services from this largest province in Canada.
Six months into the pilot, all stakeholders are giving the Supports Intensity Scale a thumbs up. Monica Neitzert, Policy Manager for Ontario’s Developmental Services Branch explains, “So far, the people involved in the pilot confirm that we are moving in the right direction, and that implementing an assessment system based on the Supports Intensity Scale would be worthwhile for people with intellectual disabilities living in Ontario. Agencies and families feel that the SIS assessment is very informative.”
Equity in services—who gets what services and how many dollars worth of services—was one of the concerns revealed through a broad consultation on Ontario’s developmental services system. Creating a standardized approach was also a priority. Ontario has 9 administrative regions and currently, communities in each region use different application forms to access various services and support programs. The lack of a common approach means that families have trouble understanding how services and supports are allocated.
The Supports Intensity Scale was chosen as the assessment of choice for determining service and resource allocation decisions after a comprehensive review of eight existing tools. Ultimately, it’s the philosophy of SIS that won over various stakeholders, explains Neitzert. “The Supports Intensity Scale was perceived as looking at support needs directly rather than adaptive behavior or functional capacity. All stakeholders felt that the tool will permit the development of an equitable resource allocation system.” Further, it was felt that storing information in electronic format as part of a database consisting of other demographic and personal data would contribute to better quality and accuracy of the data collected on the client. SISOnline, the web-based version of the Scale, allows data to be stored centrally while also enabling users to aggregate data and produce a variety of reports.
Along with the Supports Intensity Scale, the province has customized the assessment system to include additional items deemed necessary to make service and support decisions on the individuals. This includes demographic information, informal and natural supports information, risk factors, etc.
Assessment data collected so far from the pilot is being reviewed from various angles. Neitzert explains that answers from the following key questions will be used to make the assessment system more robust:
*Are the questions worded in a way that generates accurate answers?
*Are all the questions required to get the necessary information?
*Does the combination of SIS and other questions provide enough information to make service and support decisions?
*What additional information is required by interviewers during the assessment process?
*Does the application package gather information in a consistent format?
It is anticipated that the pilot study will be completed by the end of 2007, and so far things are looking very hopeful and positive. Neitzert says, “We completed a major milestone with the completion of a pre-test with 200 applications, and based on what we see so far, we are very confident that Ontario will have an equitable resource allocation system using, in part, the Supports Intensity Scale.”
