Navigating Support Systems: Insights from Community Living Mississauga

In this episode of Community Living Out Loud, host Peter Reynolds chats with Steve Zomolsky-Shupak, Manager of Service Coordination and Administrative Services at Community Living Mississauga, about the crucial role service coordination and administrative services plays in supporting people with intellectual disabilities and their families.

Steve discusses the goal-oriented and family-directed nature of these services, the different levels of support available, and the challenges faced by families in accessing resources. From crisis support to resource coordination, join us find out how families are getting the help they need in Mississauga.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube
https://youtu.be/lMFMLxwQUvM

If you'd like more information on either of these programs or any other services Community Living Mississauga provides, please contact:

Head office (905) 542-2694 

You can also watch this episode on YouTube
https://youtu.be/_LSiybwxSI8

If you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to subscribe. We'd also love to hear any episode suggestions you may have.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Community Living Out Loud
• 0:39 Importance of Service Coordination
• 1:02 What is Service Coordination?
• 2:33 Levels of Service Coordination
• 4:01 Active Support vs. Resource Support
• 6:01 Number of People Supported
• 6:23 Types of Services Provided
• 7:44 Crisis Situations and Support
• 10:04 Challenges faced by families
• 12:44 Eligibility Requirements
• 14:24 Administrative Services Overview
• 16:27 What is Passport Funding?
• 17:40 Accessing Administrative Services
• 18:17 Real World Example of Support
• 21:51 Final Thoughts
• 23:20 Closing Remarks and Thank You

Transcript

Community Living Out Loud
Episode 11
Navigating Support Systems: Insights from Community Living Mississauga

Peter Reynolds:
00:00.429 - 01:13.388

Welcome to Community Living Out Loud, brought to you by Community Living Mississauga. I'm your host, Peter Reynolds. On this podcast, we celebrate the lives of people who have an intellectual disability and the incredible work being done to advocate for them and their families. Through conversations with experts, advocates, and people with lived experiences, we hope to inspire and educate listeners on the importance of building strong, supportive communities. Let's get loud. Service coordination. It's a crucial part of Community Living Mississauga, connecting the people they support and their families to essential supports and resources. Today, we'll explore how these services help families navigate complex systems and access the care they need. We're joined by Steve Zamolsky-Shupak, Manager of Service Coordination and Administrative Services, who will shed light on how these programs work and the impact they have on our community. Steve, welcome to Community Living Out Loud.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
01:13.388 - 01:16.250

Hi, Peter. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Peter Reynolds:
01:16.250 - 01:25.417

So Steve, I guess for our audience, people that don't know, what is service coordination and what are sort of the main functions of this support?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
01:27.558 - 02:05.611

Absolutely. So yeah, so service coordination kind of in a nutshell is a goal-oriented and family-directed service that supports people of all ages who live with a family member in Mississauga. The purpose of the service is to help guide families through the developmental sector. So our team supports families to be aware of what services are available in the community and to complete referrals to access those services. We also help to educate families on how to navigate the sector and how to advocate for their family members. So it's all about supporting families to understand the system better and know what's out there and get connected.

Peter Reynolds:
02:05.611 - 02:18.060

So they may have services supported by Community Living Mississauga, but of course, within Mississauga, there are other support services out there and you help basically coordinate that system.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:

02:19.358 - 02:29.330
Exactly, that's right. So, yeah, it could be Community Living, Saga's other services and programs, but also, yeah, other programs that are offered elsewhere. We have information about that as well.

Peter Reynolds:
02:29.330 - 02:31.453

Fantastic. Are there different levels of support?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
02:33.448 - 04:24.975

Yes, so service coordination has two levels of support, which exist as sort of a flow through model. So families are either connected to what we call active support or resource support. So active support is time limited and goal oriented. Families work collaboratively with the service coordinator to address specific goals. So once all of those goals have been addressed, then active support does come to an end. This might mean that the person is now connected to everything that they need or that they've completed all the applications and they're on waiting lists and there's kind of nothing left to be done. Then at that point, rather than ending our connection with the family altogether, we've decided to keep them in a lower level of service that we call resource support. So this allows them to remain connected to Community Living with Saska and also to easily reach out to us for support if they need it again in the future. So then resource support is a lower level of service. Families can remain connected to resource support indefinitely, so it's not time limited. As long as they're still eligible, they can remain connected. families receiving resource support are typically in a place where they're able to manage their situation on their own. So, you know, they've learned how to navigate by this point. They've got either, again, either everything they need is already in place or they're waiting for all the appropriate things. And all these families have one contact here, a community living in Sasaga, who they can contact if they do need resources or information or support. So at the resource level, families initiate contact with us if they need anything, as opposed to an inactive support where there's more regular communication kind of back and forth, there's more ongoing contact. If a family connected to resource support reaches out because there's new goals or the situation has changed in some way, then there might be an option to reconnect back to the active support if necessary. So kind of two levels that flow back and forth.

Peter Reynolds:
04:25.976 - 04:44.117

That's terrific. So it, it's really this sort of safety net that even though you may have, uh, reached the goal that you wanted to, things change, life, you know, can get complicated, it can get messy. And if something comes up, uh, they can easily go back to you and don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
04:45.678 - 05:10.333

Precisely, and that's why we chose to structure ourselves that way. You know, the other option would be to simply kind of, you know, end our file with someone when we're done, but we thought it was sort of more kind to people to just keep them with us and it would be easier in the future so they don't have to, yeah, start from scratch. Because they may be able to be back with the same person who supported them a couple of years ago who already knows their story, right?

Peter Reynolds:
05:12.255 - 05:29.804

Absolutely. I can imagine, you know, having to start all over again and retell your story. And again, having that single point of contact, which is sort of with you, um, throughout your entire journey, you know, is something that's not only helpful, but sort of reassuring.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
05:31.250 - 05:56.984

Absolutely. Yeah. And, and certainly families, um, have to tell their story a lot of times already with different services that they've given, you know, kind of get involved in. They probably do feel like they have to repeat themselves, but at least, you know, if they have changed levels here, we still have their history. So, you know, we can either, either, either it'll be the same person who supported them before, or they can at least read the notes and, and be kind of caught up on the history and not have to start totally from scratch.

Peter Reynolds:
05:56.984 - 05:59.645

How many people are supported by service coordination?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
06:01.723 - 06:21.442

So Service Coordination kind of overall supports about 1,750 people, which includes about 400 children and teens and about 1,350 adults. Of the people we support, about 30% are currently receiving the active support, and then the remaining 70% are connected to resources.

Peter Reynolds:

06:23.823 - 06:34.392
Can you give us some examples of the types of services that Service Coordination supports families with, both within Community Living Mississauga and outside?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
06:36.027 - 08:12.298

Yeah, definitely. So service coordination, you know, we can support families to connect with a lot of different kinds of services, kind of depending on what the person, their family are looking for, what their goals are. So it's a really broad range. Some common examples would be day supports, employment supports, life skills programs, respite services, seasonal programs, social recreational programs, transportation services. applying for direct funding, behavior services, health services, support through any challenges that might be occurring with the school system if people are still in school. as well as assistance in that transition period from children's services to adult services and the transition period when someone is finishing at high school. So in all of those services, some are services that Community Living Chicago offers itself. So for example, day supports, we would help them connect to our own day support programs, but we'd also help explore other options if ours were not a good fit or based on geography, there was a different program that would be more convenient to them or whatever. We help kind of explore both types of options. internal or external to us. We also support families to help them get stabilized during a period of crisis. So service coordination itself is not a crisis service. However, we frequently collaborate with crisis services when people and families we are supporting find themselves in that type of situation or in need of that type of support. We will work collaboratively with crisis services because, again, we may already have a history with the family, so we can help them kind of tell their story and help figure out what can be done with a crisis service.

Peter Reynolds:
08:13.662 - 08:18.964

Can you give an example of a crisis situation?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
08:18.964 - 09:18.761

Definitely. So, you know, there's a lot of people that we're supporting that are struggling because of lack of funding, for example. So if the person that we support has a lot of complex needs, complex behavioral needs and challenges, and the family doesn't have enough funding to afford programs, they sort of have them at home and they're struggling to cope. So families may be having a hard time just managing the day-to-day life of dealing with behavioral concerns and not being able to afford the support that they need. So that's a pretty common type of crisis. So it would be all about finding, are there creative solutions? Are there some affordable options? And crisis services might help the family members themselves with their taking care of themselves and how to cope. you know, how to be safe and those types of things. So we would, again, we would kind of refer out or work collaboratively with crisis workers.

Peter Reynolds:
09:20.409 - 10:01.843

I'm really struck, this is a phrase that we use often, a holistic approach that Community Living Mississauga takes to the people they serve. Because of course, things are going to change, crises are going to come up. And I can just imagine somebody, you know, their child is in high school, for example, and they need day support services. So they go to you, everything is set up, all is well, but of course, They're going to graduate from high school. They're going to move on. They're going to need more services. They don't have to start again. They just drop from that to that second level and then they could pop back up to the next level. It all depends on what they need and they're not put in a box.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
10:04.071 - 10:33.898
Exactly. And that's what we try to do with our, you know, as much as we have these kind of the two levels of service and, and this sort of, uh, certainly lots of, uh, processes and guidelines and things like that. We, we try to be as flexible and, and yeah, person centered, holistic as possible. Um, well, and you know, for example, you know, I say active support is time limited. We doesn't mean we have an X number of days. It's more just sort of like we go with the flow and see how things are going. Cause we might finish one goal and then something new has come up. So we'll continue. We don't kind of cut people off. Um, because again, we're trying to look at the whole picture.

Peter Reynolds:
10:35.782 - 10:41.775

What are some of the challenges that are faced by families supported by service coordination?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
10:44.221 - 12:08.215

Definitely. Yeah, so at the moment, the most common challenges kind of in a nutshell would come down to limited resources. So there's a significant lack of funding for people. There's a shortage of affordable day support programs for specifically for adults with kind of higher support needs. There's a shortage of day support programs. There's limited resources for support in the school system, you know, not enough in-classroom EA support or things like that. There's also a lack of available resources to address mental health and behavioral concerns. You know, of course, there's also a major need for residential resources and many people waiting for a residential resource to become available. In addition, the families and people that we support have been significantly impacted by the pandemic in the same ways that everyone else has in terms of the impact on people's health, mental health, and economic issues that have come about in the last few years for people. It certainly affects them just as it does everybody else. You know, I'm proud to say that we have a very skilled, knowledgeable and passionate team in service coordination that does excellent work supporting families to be creative with what is available and to be sympathetic, you know, a sympathetic ear to family that is struggling. However, yeah, unfortunately, the reality is a lot of families in the community are really struggling right now because of the kind of widespread systemic lack of resources.

Peter Reynolds:
12:10.320 - 12:21.569

I'm just wondering what are, so for those people obviously listening, you know, who this is something that, that interests them, what are the eligibility requirements to, to access your services?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
12:22.693 - 13:08.663

Yeah, definitely. So everyone that we support lives in Mississauga and lives with a family member. So often it's parents, but it could be a sibling or an aunt or any kind of family member who is acting as a primary caregiver. And again, only in Mississauga. For people who are ages 18 and up, the person must also be deemed eligible for services by Developmental Services Ontario. across the board, all of commuting services, that's a guideline. And for children and teens and service coordination. So DSO has not come up for them yet, but we require some documentation that confirms that they have an intellectual or developmental disability. New referrals also need to come with a goal that service coordination could assist with. So something that we're actually able to work with them on.

Peter Reynolds:
13:10.233 - 13:20.735

So if someone has determined their, their, the family has determined that they are eligible, how do they reach out? How do they, they connect with, for more information?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
13:20.735 - 13:50.990

Yeah. So, um, our, our new referrals come from central intake mechanisms. So for adults, it's through Developmental Services Ontario. They would just, they would just call the DSO and they would ask for a service coordination referral and have a conversation about what their goals are and what they're looking for. For children and teens, there's also a central intake mechanism in Peel called Kids Pathways Peel. So again, they would call there, they would say, you know, these are my goals. They would have to provide documentation of their disability. And then we receive referrals from both of those sources.

Peter Reynolds:
13:50.990 - 14:02.319

Terrific. I'd like to shift gears for a second and talk about administrative services. Can you talk a little bit about that and how that might be helpful to families?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
14:04.409 - 16:48.340

Definitely. So yeah, in addition to service coordination, I also manage a team called Administrative Services, which administers special services at home and passport funding for people and families. So admin services kind of acts like the bank, if you will, for funding. So families submit invoices to us and then we pay their service providers directly. for them. We also help families to determine which services are and are not eligible expenses under these funding programs. So special services at home being a funding for children and teen, passport funding being a funding for adults, and kind of different families that we're administering funding for might call and say, oh, I want to purchase this. Is that something that's covered? Or I want to access this service. Is that covered? So we would help them figure that out. Before they go and spend any money, we make sure that it's something that's eligible. Administrative Services is a smaller team than Service Coordination, but also very skilled at processing invoices, very knowledgeable about when it comes to funding programs about what is and is not covered. Some families find it helpful to administer their funding through us. One big factor is that because we can pay providers directly, so a lot of funding sources will require families to pay up front and then wait to be reimbursed, with some families about in a position to do that. So, they come to us and instead we can just pay their workers directly and they don't have to worry about kind of having a gap in waiting for their money. In addition, for example, with passport funding, people who are accessing our day support programs or other services choose to have us administer their funding for convenience because it's already here and we can just sort of pay the program directly. They don't have to pay and get a receipt and get reimbursed. It's all just kind of convenient to do it all place. What is passport funding? So Passport Funding is a direct funding source for adults. It's a provincial program for all of Ontario. It's for people who are eligible under Developmental Services Ontario, so ages 18 and up, and it pays for things like community participation, so day support programs, social recreational programs. There are some eligible kind of miscellaneous expenses, like some equipment that can be purchased with passport funding. As well, some people use it to pay for a private rest of the worker to support them, if that's sort of a better option for them, as well as overnight out of home respite, anything kind of community based or respite for caregivers can be paid for with passport. And then again, like I said, there are a few kind of miscellaneous types of expenses and equipment that are also eligible.

Peter Reynolds:
16:49.361 - 16:51.984

Terrific. Thanks for the clarification.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
16:51.984 - 16:57.910

Yeah. Yeah, of course. Sorry. Sometimes we just roll these off and don't realize that people haven't heard of them necessarily.

Peter Reynolds:
16:57.910 - 17:04.437

Excellent. Excellent. So with regards to administrative services, how can this be accessed by families?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
17:06.038 - 17:43.877

Yeah, so anyone who is receiving special services at home funding or passport funding and lives in Mississauga is welcome to just call our office and ask for administrative services and they'll help get them connected. So it's very good. We're already approved for the funding. Um, so often special services at home and passport, when they kind of send out an approval package to someone who's receiving it for the first time, they'll include information in there about their options to have it administered. But, um, sometimes families maybe don't notice that or, or later on down the line, they've changed their mind and they would like to have us administer it and that's fine. They would just have to call us directly and we would help them set it up.

Peter Reynolds:
17:43.877 - 18:01.427

Fantastic. I'm wondering if you could give a real world example of a family that was struggling in one area and then came to your department to service coordination and you were able to help them get to a certain point. Do you have a specific example you could share with us?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
18:03.537 - 21:17.019

Yeah, definitely. So a few years ago, kind of the first example that comes to mind, certainly there are many, but a few years ago we received a new referral for someone who is an older gentleman who had never been connected to services before. So somehow or other he had sort of kind of slipped through the cracks and he had never received any kind of services or funding. Um, and he was living with his, um, with his elderly mother. Um, so they were both kind of, you know, aging and, um, the, the person that we supported was not accessing anything. Um, and would just kind of stay at home all day, every day. Um, his relationship with his mother was not great because they had just been kind of alone together all the time. And, um, their, their dynamic had, had become sort of strained over time because they had just didn't have anything going on in either of their lives. They were just sort of together. So we received this referral eventually from Developmental Services Ontario, and we were starting from scratch. They'd never accessed it. So we were able to sort of support them to make sure that he was able to receive passport funding, make sure he sort of went through that process. We supported him to find a day support program that he could go during the day that was able to come and pick him up at their apartment. take him to the program and then bring him back to their apartment because that was one of the barriers was transportation. We were able to also that same provider. This was a sort of an external agency that we were dealing with. That provider also offered weekend overnight respite. So we were able to start that to kind of allow this person to have some time away from home, allow his mother to have a bit of a break. And over time, we were able to heal the relationship a little bit just by giving them more space. and giving the person himself more to do with his day. It also allowed him to build more skills, make some friends. Again, they were very, very isolated. And then also, while the person we supported was at his programs, his mother was able to, for herself, get out more. So she was able to connect to a senior's social group. She was able to make some more friends, get errands done, and just get a better quality of life for herself as well. And then over time, because of their ages and they were kind of, you know, even at its best, it wasn't the most sustainable living arrangement because of their ages. So we were able to kind of through some advocacy, able to make sure that he was considered a very high priority for residential placement. And fortunately, eventually, a group of resource opened up that he was selected for. Wasn't at Community Living Mississauga, it was in another organization, but that was a great success for us because we were able to see from start to finish. He was able to move into the home. It was a great fit. He was very happy. And his mother was very happy. The rest of his siblings were all very happy. And his mother was able to kind of move into the next phase of her life in terms of hiring a community. And again, overall have just a kind of a better quality of life for both of them. So that was that one situation that certainly we're very proud of.

Peter Reynolds:
21:17.925 - 21:33.097

It's a wonderful story. Absolutely wonderful. He may have fallen through the cracks early in life, but you know, he was able, you know, obviously to benefit, uh, in his later years. So, uh, and not only him, but his entire family. So what an incredible story.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
21:33.097 - 21:35.799

Yes. Thank you. Yeah.

Peter Reynolds:
21:35.799 - 21:40.043
Steve, any final thoughts, uh, words to the audience that you'd like to, to share?

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
21:45.418 - 22:44.470

Again, I think I would emphasize that there's a lot of challenges in the community right now, and I would encourage families that are struggling to seek support, either through service coordination, crisis services, getting out there, or if you prefer exploring on your own, I would encourage people to put themselves out there and look. As I said, there's certainly a lot of a lot of limitations in the community and in the sector, but there are also some options out there. So I would always encourage people to look and see what's out there because you don't know what you don't know. And I would encourage those families to look for help. And I would again kind of want to acknowledge all the excellent service coordinators that work in my department and administrative services that work in my department do. They all work very hard. As I said, they're all very dedicated, very passionate, and just want it known that their efforts are appreciated.

Peter Reynolds:
22:46.483 - 23:05.377

Steve, thank you so much for sharing your insights today. It's clear how crucial service coordination and administrative services are in supporting people who have an intellectual disability and their families to access the resources they need. It's been a great conversation. Thanks again.

Steve Samolsky-Shupak:
23:07.328 - 23:18.092

Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. And thank you for doing this to kind of this, this podcast in general, to showcase all the, the great work, all the, all the teams at Community Living Mississauga are doing. This has been great. Thank you.

Peter Reynolds:
23:18.092 - 23:43.603

And of course, thank you to our audience. Your continued support means everything to us. And remember where the, whether you're watching this on YouTube or listening on your favorite podcast app, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. We love to hear your thoughts. So, for Steve, and everyone here at Community Living Mississauga, I'm Peter Reynolds, you've been listening to Community Living Out Loud, and until next time, stay loud!