Richmond Society for Community Living
2006 Information Management &
Performance Improvement
Outcome Results Report
Contents
Executive Summary 3
Demographics Summary 9
Richmond Society for Community Living
Programs:
Program Overview
Demographics
Outcomes
Data Results
Analysis
Recommendations
Supported Child
Development 14
Program Overview
Demographics
Outcomes Data Results
Analysis
Recommendations
Program Overview
Demographics
Outcomes
Data Results
Analysis
Recommendations
Program Overview
Demographics
Outcomes
Data Results
Analysis
Recommendations
Program Overview
Demographics
Outcomes
Data Results
Analysis
Recommendations
Program Overview
Demographics
Outcomes
Data Results
Analysis
Recommendations
Family Resource Coordinator 36
External Stakeholders 38
Outcome System management
Recommendations 40
Appendix
Index of Graphs and Charts
Survey
Cards
City of Richmond Hot Facts
Executive
Summary
RSCL has produced an Outcomes
Management Report each year since 2003. This is our 4th Report which
tracks the results of our programs and services. We use this information to
improve our programs and services. The 2006 report shows positive results and
high satisfaction with our programs. It also highlights some areas identified
for performance improvement.
For this report, we gathered
information in seven different programs:
Ø Infant Development Program for
families with babies and toddlers (0-3 years)
Ø Supported Child Development for
families with children and youth using child care (0-19 years)
Ø Preschool & Daycare (3 - 5
years)
Ø Day Programs for adults, children
and young adults with extra support needs (19 and older)
Ø Residential Services for adults
with developmental disabilities (19 and older)
Ø Respite for adults with
developmental disabilities and children/youth with special needs (all ages)
Ø Family Resource Coordinator for all
families with a family member with a developmental disability (all families)
For each of these program areas, we
set goals and collected information about:
Effectiveness – how well things work
compared to the results we expect
Efficiency – how well we make
use of the resources we have
Service Accessibility – how
easy it is for people to get the services they need
Satisfaction – what the people using
our programs think about the services they receive and RSCL
We gathered information by sending
out surveys, interviewing people and reviewing files. The surveys were
translated into three languages - English, Punjabi and Chinese. We also
interviewed Self-advocates who were able. These interviews were done by someone
who was not part of our agency, but with whom the individuals felt
comfortable. We tried something new this
year with our surveys; we gave each family the option to fill out their survey
online through the RSCL website. Some
families chose to do this, but the majority of those who responded still mailed
in their surveys. Our response rate was
slightly higher from previous years at 35%.
We also asked external stakeholders
about their satisfaction with RSCL programs and services. Stakeholders are
individuals and organizations we work with – including agencies that provide
funding to RSCL and caregivers, service providers, professionals, and organizations
that make referrals to our services.
Here are the highlights of our
results for 2006:
Infant Development
Program (IDP)
Our IDP consultants supported 349
families during 2006, although the program receives funding to support 125
families at a time. There were 44 more boys than girls, living in families from
a wide range of ethnic backgrounds.
96% of the families who responded
to the surveys indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with the
services provided. A highlight from the survey results was that 98% of families
reported an increase in knowledge about supporting their child.
Supported Child
Development
Supported
Child Development (SCDP) consultants worked with 273 children and youth in
2006. Consistent with last year’s figures, 74% were boys. About one-third were
from Caucasian families, and about two-thirds from other ethnic backgrounds
including Asian, Chinese and Punjabi. 2006 was our first full year providing
with SCDP and we saw a tremendous amount of growth.
Of
the 42 families who responded, 74% indicated that they were satisfied or very
satisfied with the support received in the childcare centre. The childcare
providers who responded also indicated that they were satisfied with the
support received from the SCD program, to a moderate, great or very great
extent. This response from families and childcare providers represents an
increase in satisfaction levels, compared to last year.
One
childcare provider indicated that they were satisfied to a small extent because
they find the number of children for each consultant is too high. Currently,
SCDP Consultants support more families, children and childcare providers
(caseload) than is recommended in the Provincial Supported Child Development
Program Practice Standards. In spite of this, the time between referral and
delivery of service has improved, and is within target this year. Highlights
from the survey responses were that 92% of families indicated satisfaction with
their consultant, and over 500 people attended information and training
sessions put on by the program.
Preschool &
Daycare
Treehouse
is an integrated childcare centre for children age 3-5 years old. Of the 46
children who attended in 2006, nine children had special needs. 100% of
Treehouse families who responded said they were satisfied with their childcare
service as well as with the communication from the staff.
The
families of children who need extra support to attend Treehouse said their
children had opportunities for growing and developing. In 2006, the daycare and preschool maintained
a 93% - 98% capacity. A highlight for Treehouse was that 100% of families
reported satisfaction with communication.
Day Programs
Youth Connections, Avenues,
Community Options, 2nd
Avenue and Transitions are
the RSCL Day Programs. In total, there were 96 participants in 2006.
We reviewed the files of the
participants and are pleased to report that over 93% of goals identified in the
participants’ plans were achieved/attempted with the individual. Satisfaction with our Day Programs is high,
with 95% of both participants and families or caregivers who responded
indicating that they were satisfied or very satisfied. Also, in 2006, participants responded much
more favorably when asked if their choices were honored. This was an area we
had identified to work on from last year’s survey. A highlight this year is
that our Day Programs provided over 800 hours of additional hours of support
during the year.
Residential Services
RSCL supports 35 people (14 men and 21
women) in a variety of living arrangements. 93% of the individuals and families
who responded said they were satisfied or very satisfied. 86% of goals identified in the residents’
plans were achieved or attempted with the individual.
In addition, with residents aging, we
wanted to know how well we are responding to people’s changing needs due to
aging, health conditions etc. All the families who responded told us they felt
we were responding to the changing needs of their family members; for example,
we purchased an accessible van and a bathtub lift, and installed a wheelchair
ramp outside one of the residential homes. A highlight for Residential Services
in 2006 was that 92% of families reported that individuals receive personalized
supports.
Respite
Respite caregivers provide families
of children and adults with disabilities a break by caring for the child or
adult in their home and in the community.
There were 60 participants who received respite in 2006, 15 adults and 45
children/youth. 37 were males and 24 were females. 87% of families surveyed indicated that they
were satisfied or very satisfied with the services.
In 2006, 83% of families felt their
respite needs were met. However, a few people indicated their respite needs
were not met. It appears that these
concerns relate to the ability to recruit appropriate caregivers in a timely
manner. The difficulty in recruiting
appropriate caregivers is a problem that RSCL is experiencing throughout the
organization. A severe shortage of
qualified caregivers is a wide spread problem throughout the community living
and other service sectors in the province.
This was worsened by the lower than average rate of compensation paid to
respite providers. We keep track of the time it takes to match each family with
a caregiver. Last year, on average it took 69 days, which is slightly longer
than in 2005.
A highlight for the Respite Program
in 2006 was that 100% of the families indicated they choose their own
caregiver.
Family Resource
Coordinator
The Family Resource Coordinator
helps families find the information they need and provides support to access
other community supports for themselves or their family member. All the
families who answered the survey said they were very satisfied with the support
they received. In 2006, our Coordinator sent out 600 ‘Family News’ newsletters
and 560 people came to family-focused workshops or meetings, including the
Family Focus Conference that RSCL co-hosted.
The Family Focus Conference was a huge success and families felt that it
was a great opportunity for learning. A highlight for this program was that
over 500 people attended information and workshop sessions.
External Stakeholders
We sent out 26 surveys to external
stakeholders and 16 completed surveys were returned. External stakeholder respondents continue to
be highly satisfied with our safety practices for persons served, staff, and
volunteers; our accessibility efforts; our communication about events and
changes; our respect for the rights of people served; and our use of resources
to meet our mission and mandate. Satisfaction with our advocacy efforts and
responsiveness of our staff and leadership was also very high – reflecting an
improvement over the previous year.
What We Have Learned Over The Past
Four Years
RSCL began formally collecting
program outcome information four years ago, in preparation for the first
accreditation survey. Since that time, we have refined our surveys, and other
ways that we collect information and feedback about our programs and services.
We have learned how to improve our communication with families, individuals,
and external stakeholders. We have also learned how to enhance our services by
asking people what works and what doesn’t. Over the past five years, we have
developed a better understanding of the demographics of the people who access
our services. This has helped us reach out to different ethnic and cultural
groups.
As a result of the information
gathered and analyzed, we have made program decisions such as new directions
for day support services, advocating for the expansion of early intervention
supports for families, and changes to how we provide family support and
resources.
What We Are Working on This Year
At RSCL, we are very proud of our
accomplishments this past year, and we believe we are making a positive
difference in the lives of many people in the Richmond
community. Based on the results of the 2006 Outcomes Management Report, we are
working on the following improvements this year:
1. Follow up with each family who indicated they
did not receive service in the language of their choice, to investigate whether
options exist to respond to their request.
2. Explore the impact of higher
consultant/family ratio than provincial practice guidelines in Supported Child
Development.
3. Explore options to increase consultant hours
in order to address the growth in the Supported Child Development Program.
4. Develop a new outcome/indicator to measure
the actual family/consultant ratio vs. provincial practice standards in
Supported Child Development.
5. Follow up with each family who indicated they
were not satisfied with their childcare setting to investigate options to
increase their level of satisfaction.
6. Explore different ways to increase the number of families
responding to our surveys, including children that leave the program mid-year
and at annual survey time.
7. Continue to develop the HandyCrew Cooperative
to provide opportunities for individuals to participate in paid work.
8. Explore other opportunities to support individuals
to find paid work.
9. Increase use of space outside of business
hours. Explore rentals, program expansion, and group sessions.
10. Follow up with the individual and family who
indicated an overall dissatisfaction with the service, to ensure that changes
made to residential situation have lead to an improvement in their level of
satisfaction.
11. Enhance data collection methods to include
documenting extenuating circumstances.
12. Explore new options for recruiting appropriate
caregivers in a timelier manner.
13. Advocate with CLBC for increased respite
funding for some families.
14. Develop an outcome/indicator to measure the
level of satisfaction with workshops provided to families.
15. Explore different methods to increase input
regarding adult and children’s services.
16. Tailer the external stakeholder satistfaction
survey questions to the specific stakeholder group.
17. Inform external stakeholders about continued
efforts with advocacy, RSCL staff responsiveness, accessibility, and
communication.
18. Ask external stakeholders for suggestions about
improving efficiency and effectiveness of RSCL services in the future.
Introduction
The Outcome Management System is designed to provide
essential information to the Richmond Society for Community Living’s management
and Board
of Directors in order to monitor and make improvements to service delivery. It is expected that the outcome results will
assist the Richmond Society for Community Living to be more responsive to the
needs of the children, youth and adults with a disability and their families
who are served by the Society.
The Outcome Management System was developed using a
self-assessment process which identified areas of strength, weakness,
opportunities and possible threats to the services provided by the
Society. This is the fourth Outcome
Management Report in a series of annual Outcome Management Reports.
This Outcome Management Report addresses seven program
areas:
Ø Residential Services,
Ø Day Programs (including
after-school care),
Ø Respite,
Ø Infant Development Program,
Ø Preschool/Daycare (3-5 years),
Ø Family Resource Coordination, and
Ø Supported Child Development.
Each program area has identified measures for
effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility and satisfaction. In addition, an eighth area has been added
that addresses and explores Stakeholder Satisfaction. Stakeholders are defined as the organizations
and professionals that interface with RSCL programs and staff on a regular
basis.
The Board of Directors will review the outcome results
and approve the recommendations that arise from the analysis and results. The outcome results will also be reported in
the Executive Director’s Annual Report to the membership and be included in the
agency’s newsletter. Finally, the
recommendations from the Outcome Management process will be included with the
recommendations from the following reports to form the Business Improvement
Plan for the year:
Ø
Risk
Management Report
Ø
Compliance
Report
Ø
Staff
Reports
o
Human
Resources
o
Service
Delivery including, critical incidents and formal complaints
o
Health
& Safety
o
Training
Ø
Accessibility
Plan
Ø
Technology
Plan
Ø
Strategic
Plan
Three different methods were employed to gather information
regarding services provided by the Richmond Society for Community Living.
Survey
Surveys were developed to
solicit the opinions and perspectives of parents, relatives and/or long-term
caregivers who were involved in the life of a child, youth or adult with a
developmental disability who was receiving service from the Society. In order to solicit the input from as many
people as possible, all surveys were translated into three languages (English,
Punjabi and Chinese). To review the
surveys, please see the Appendix.
A separate survey was also
developed to solicit specific input regarding Stakeholder Satisfaction from
professionals and organizations that interface with RSCL programs and staff on
a regular basis.
The Richmond Society for Community Living sent out a total
of 654 surveys - 228 completed surveys were returned (response rate of 35%). This return rate was higher than last year’s
response. RSCL mailed 137 additional
surveys this year and the total number of returned surveys increased by 70. Last year the percentage of return was 31%
(2005) compared to a 38% in 2004 and 43% in 2003. In an attempt to increase the response rate,
RSCL developed the surveys online through the www.rscl.org
website. This change gave families the
option to complete the survey online or to mail in their responses. 68 people chose to answer their survey
online, with the majority coming from the Supported Child Development
Program
as they had a broad email mailing list of their families. RSCL continues to try to increase its survey
response rate, however the low rates that RSCL receives, they are consistent
with non-profit research.
Hagar (2002) suggests
that researchers who study non-profit organizations draw on a wide range of
empirical research methods, with the survey research method commonly employed.
He further acknowledges that a substantial portion of mail survey recipients
fail to respond to the invitation to participate and considerable debate
continues to exist regarding what constitutes acceptable return rates.
Therefore,
given the return rate, the survey results must be viewed as possible trends,
but not conclusive results.
The response rate for the overall agency and for each
program is displayed below.
Graph 1
|
Survey Response Rate
|
IDP: 30%
SCDP: 24%
SCDP
childcare providers: 40%
Treehouse: 45%
Day
Program: 45%
Residential: 58%
Respite: 30%
Family Resources: 48%
External
Stakeholders: 62%
TOTAL: 35%
|
Interviews
All self-advocates that were able to indicate their
preference, verbally or by using any other communication system (e.g. pictorial
symbols) were interviewed. The
interviewer was not employed by the Society but was contracted by the agency to
perform this specific task.
File Review
Existing documentation within the organization was used in
some situations as the sole measure and in other cases as an additional measure
in conjunction with a survey question.
Although the process was
designed to solicit input from a broad range of people in order to capture the
opinions of a representative group, it is important to mention that some people
may not be well represented in the final report. Specifically, individuals who are not able to
speak or communicate in ways that can be clearly understood by others do not
have a strong voice in the final report.
In order to help mitigate this difficulty, the opinions of their
families and caregivers have been solicited.
A second group of people that are not well represented in
the final report are those individuals that do not have family involvement - especially
if the individual is also unable to communicate in ways that can be clearly
understood.
Lastly, although the process adopted methods and practices
consistent with empirical research methods, the process and report do not
conform to the stringent guidelines of empirical research practices. The final conclusions contained in the report
are based largely on information and opinions gathered from the surveys,
interviews and a review of specific documentation. That said, given that three stakeholder
groups where consulted by way of survey or interview and three methods were
used to obtain information, the writer is confident that the results and
conclusions do represent many commonly held beliefs and opinions of
self-advocates, families and other stakeholders regarding services provided by
the Richmond Society for Community Living and, therefore can be used to inform
the Society of practices that successfully respond to the needs of the people
we support and highlight areas that require some improvement.
Demographic
Summary
The City of Richmond’s estimated population February
2006 is 182,424 (this estimate is based on the number of dwelling units and is
a measure used by the City in years when a census is not taken). Richmond has undergone enormous change over
the last several decades, with significant growth in the early 1990's. Today, Richmond is a dynamic, multi-ethnic community. Much of the recent population
growth has been made up of Asian immigrants. People of Chinese
or South Asian ancestry now represent nearly sixty
percent of Richmond residents (City of Richmond website).
According to the City of Richmond, the top three ethnic (single)
origins in Richmond are Chinese, East Indian and Caucasian. In addition the City of Richmond “Hot Facts” on ethnicity indicate
that in 2001 Chinese (59,920) and East Indian (9250) are the most frequently
reported ethnic (single) origins in Richmond.
In addition to the large number of individuals reporting to
be of East Indian and of Chinese ethnic origin, many people also report to be
of Philipino origin. This is also
reflected in languages spoken in the community.
In Richmond, 44% of the residents indicated English as their mother
tongue, 35% indicated Chinese, 3% indicated Punjabi and 3% indicated Tagalog.
According to the City of Richmond “Hot Facts” on Languages, Tagalog
(Philippines) is more often reported as a
person’s mother tongue than Punjabi (India).
This is an increase of 48.77% from the last census. This appears to be a trend that is worth
watching in order to ensure RSCL is reaching out to all ethnic communities in Richmond.
Over the last four years increasingly the participants in RSCL
programs have begun to more accurately reflect the ethnic breakdown of the
community.
Each year RSCL’s Accessibility Plan has addressed the need
to reach out to the different ethnic groups in our community. In order to achieve this goal RSCL has:
- translated
brochures and other orientation materials into Chinese and Punjabi,
- included
translated material on the RSCL website,
- conducted
focus groups and interviews with people from the Chinese community,
- Hired
staff that belong to different ethnic communities,
- Created
awareness and information posters translated into English, Chinese and
Punjabi.
Based on the changes observed over the last four years, continued
effort to reach out to different ethnic communities should be a priority for
RSCL.
Chart 1
