Services for the intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder and physical

Requests for short-term nursing services (under 3 months) must be sent through the regular first-line intake.

The goals of this single access point are to:

• Improve the flow of access to services. 
• Simplify access. 
• Decrease the number of staff involved in each case. 
• Provide a consistent response no matter what program or service is required. 
• Facilitate communication between users and health care partners. 

The access point for users and their families is through Info-Social 811, option 2. Info-Social professionals receive these requests and refer users to the right access point.

Health care professionals can refer to the  Employees and doctors section (in French only).

The goal of these services is to help people develop, thrive, and improve their personal well-being. Another goal is to minimize their situations of disability so that they can perform socially rewarding activities and roles. These services include:

• Performing a functional assessment of all the person’s skills and habits. 
• Providing professional assessments from different disciplines (psychology, speech therapy, occupational therapy, sexology, psychosocial development), based on the person's specific needs. 
• Identifying the person’s major functional impairments (development and situations of disability) in relation to their life goals. 
• Implementing adaptation and rehabilitation services and suggesting changes to the person’s environment to minimize impairments (personal/environmental). 
• Determining a service or intervention plan based on the person’s life goals and creating a suitable support plan given the context.
• Reviewing the various plans.

Workplace integration services help people develop their workplace skills and functional independence. In this case, they get the social and professional services from other sectors (employment services, vocational training, etc.) that they need to enter the job market if they want to. Our institution provides the following specialized employment services:

• Assessment of the person’s social and professional interests. 
• Assessment of employability. 
• Development of skills, interests, attitudes, capacities and social skills so that they can integrate as easily as possible into the workplace or keep a job.  
• At the workplace, develop attitudes and strategies to help the person integrate and participate socially.

Our institution’s community integration services include services for both individuals and the community.  The goal is to educate, inform and support the person’s community to increase familiarity of the person living with an intellectual disability or autism spectrum disorder and to help people connect with this person. For the individuals themselves, these services help them:

• Develop interests and learn new things through activities in their different environments (e.g., daycare, school, recreation).
• Develop skills and a lifestyle that lets them socially integrate as much as possible into their different environments.
• Help them get involved as much as possible and participate socially through contacts in the community.
• Help the person become more aware of their environment.
• Help the person discover, experience and explore different environments through sensory and other approaches.

Residential integration means providing people with alternative environments that meet their needs, such as family-type resources, intermediate resources, or housing with graduated support. For adults, these environments often become permanent. The person must have both physical and psychological safety in this environment along with the opportunity to make decisions.

Depending on the level of service intensity required, residential services include:

• Intensive adaptation and rehabilitation services in specialized residential resources
  For this service, health professionals evaluate and work intensively with the person to stabilize their situation and find an environment most like their home situation.

• Specialized residential services in an alternative environment
  This service is for people with needs that require ongoing and permanent services in an adapted and specialized residential environment.

• Residential services in an alternative environment
  This service provides an alternative residential environment that is as close as possible to the person’s home situation. This community-based environment is chosen based on the person’s age and needs.

Specialized support services for families include home-based educational assistance for the person. The goal is to provide direct and ongoing help to parents for any learning or supervision activities that the person needs. These services aim to:

• Recognize and reinforce the family’s skills, stimulate the person’s development, and foster behaviour that helps the person integrate. 
• Help siblings and other family members understand and relate to the person. 
• Support the family as they integrate the person into different environments. 
• Help the family develop their support network. 
• Assess, analyze and fulfil the family’s requests for specialized respite, assistance, and crisis and emergency situations. The goal is to prevent placement in a foster home and keep the person in their home environment by providing residential or social and professional services adapted to the person’s needs and the family’s goals.

To truly integrate the person into their environment and give them tools to participate effectively in society, our institution works closely with different educational, social and health partners. These services aim to:

• Support the development of skills of different environments or partners to stimulate the individual's development. 
• Support communities to help them integrate the individual. 
• Support these environments as they adapt their services.