Quality Support

Today I was speaking with a woman who has been living with a disability and trying to get out of a troubling situation. The woman was having difficulties expressing her independence around her family; specifically, she had been fighting with her family for years about who would support her and under what conditions. Her story was hard to hear, especially the parts where she would be stuck with an abusive support worker, not be believed by her loved ones, and be denied a say in her own support. Fighting tears, the woman said she felt she had nobody to talk to about her situation and very little hope for the next support worker. 


This experience is just one example of a common problem for people with disabilities. In my own experience, I have found it very obvious when a support worker is working with me to receive a pay cheque, or when they sincerely care about the people that they work with. There is an alarming lack of quality support when people hire support workers who are merely working to clock in their hours; these people come in (rarely on time) and work the required hours, but spend little time getting to know who you truly are and what you care about. Additionally, they may be more inclined to do what they want to do, such as leaving to run their own errands for hours or making the person join them against their will. Quality support is important because it can lead to abusive or harmful situations for people who don't have 100% autonomy or say in their lives.




Instead, quality support first involves a support worker working for people with disabilities because they truly care about the people whom they work with. When this is present, support workers will go out of their way to get to know the person beyond their disability. They are supports, friends, family, and generally people who you can turn to whenever you need to. These people will go out of their way to make sure your goals and interests come before anything else. We definitely need more people like this in the social services sector to ensure people with disabilities are being advocated for and not oppressed. 

Disability Services Across Alberta

Good day everybody,

I hope everybody had a good summer. I am writing a blog on the province of Alberta and all the services that they provide to people who have disabilities. I live in Calgary, but when I was growing up, I lived in a little town called Airdrie 15 minutes away from Calgary. They didn’t have any programs for me when I was growing up. When I was 18, I moved out to get more opportunities in my life. That’s why I wanted to research the cities around Alberta to see what they’re offering. Note that this is not an exhaustive list.

Airdrie: Airdrie is outside of Calgary and it is a city now. They don’t have anything there for people who have disabilities.

Olds: Olds has some programs for people with disabilities. They are…

Accredited Supports to the Community (ASC)

Padnoma Support Services

Red Deer: Red Deer has some programs and they are…

EPSS (Employment Placement and Support Services)

Learning Disabilities Red Deer

Cosmos group of companies

Aspire

Living Independently For Equality

Grande Prairie: Grande Prairie has some programs for people who have disabilities. They have a lot of community service organizations and employment.

Disabled Transportation Society (DTS)

Accredited Supportive Living Services

Canadian Mental Health Association

Community Life Acceptance Independence Resources (CLAIR)

Signature Support Services

Medicine Hat: Medicine Hat has some programs for people who have disabilities. There is also an Advisory Committee on Disability Issues with the city of Medicine Hat.

REDI Enterprises Society

Next Step

There are also a lot of little cities and little towns all over Alberta, and I will be researching them in the near future, and make comparisons for what’s out there for people who have a disability. The next city I will research is Lethbridge.