2024-25 Services delivered: Out of Home Care for Children and Youth with Complex Medical Needs
Component: Complex Special Needs
Legislation: Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017
Service description
The Transfer Payment Recipient will deliver an integrated service delivery program providing out-of-family-home care and respite services to support children and youth with complex medical needs.
People served
The program will serve children and youth who are under 18 years of age and have complex medical needs, whether they are technology-dependent, have a physical, developmental, or neuro-developmental disability and:
- Cannot be adequately supported in the family home or service system due to the complexity of their needs
- Are at risk of a family breakdown or other crisis, or
- Are at risk for admission to hospital due to a lack of another appropriate setting to support the children and youth’s needs
Program/service features
The supports and services will include:
- Intake and assessment
- Individualized service planning
- Nursing and other regulated health professional services (e.g. occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy)
- Behaviour services (including implementation of behaviour plans by support workers)
- Social work, including counselling for parents, and
- Discharge/transition planning to support the child/youth’s return home and/or community, transition to adult services
Specific service provided
An integrated service delivery program for short stay (overnight respite) or long-stay out-of-home care (residential placement) for children and youth who have complex medical needs.
The service model will involve the following, as necessary or appropriate for each child or youth:
- Individualized plan of care for each child/youth’s unique needs, beginning with a detailed assessment to understand the child/youth’s care needs
- Regulated health professional services including nursing and rehabilitative care
- Collaboration with Coordinating Agencies and Child and Youth Mental Health Lead Agencies and other early intervention supports for service planning, referrals, and transitions
- Collaboration with parents, school boards and principals, as well as with the local Home and Community Care Support Services organization, as appropriate, to coordinate supports such as transportation and nursing supports
- Collaboration with hospital staff when transitioning the child/youth to or from hospital, including maintaining an ongoing connection with hospital staff following transition, and
- Implementation of behaviour management plans, as appropriate
Program goals
The Transfer Payment Recipient will provide an integrated service model for care outside of the family home to support the following system priorities:
- Reduce involvement of child/youth with complex needs in the child welfare system when there are no protection concerns
- Reduce the need for Complex Special Needs (CSN) individualized funding
- Support the well-being of children and youth with complex medical needs and their families, and
- Enable seamless transition of the child/youth to their home/community or to adult services
Ministry expectations
Services are child and family centred and support the diverse needs of families in a way that is culturally safe, promotes equity, anti-racism, and anti-oppression.
Respite care shall be the first option considered if the child/youth can be adequately supported in the family home or foster care environment, and family breakdown or other crisis can be prevented with additional respite.
As determined by the community, children and youth shall be prioritized for long stay out of home care (residential placement), when they are:
- unable to be supported in the family home
- at immediate risk of family breakdown or other crisis, or
- at risk of hospital admission due to lack of other appropriate settings to support the child/youth’s needs
Reporting requirements
| Service data name | Definition |
|---|---|
| # of individuals served (unique): respite services | The unique number of children and youth who received short-term overnight respite services in the Funding Year. |
| # of individuals served (unique): long stay out of home care) | The unique number of children and youth who received long stay out of home care (residential services) in the Funding Year. |
| Ministry-funded agency expenditures | Total ministry-funded expenses for the Transfer Payment Recipient to administer and/or deliver this service in the Funding Year (cumulative). |
A supplementary report providing additional information about these services may be required (reporting templates and dates to be provided separately).