(Joliette) “Take me to the hospital and turn me off. »
Posted at 5:00 am.
Lucie Bellerose says it bluntly. If she has to leave the L'Arche Lanaudière house where she has lived for 20 years, the 62-year-old woman does not want to end her life in a CHSLD.
She would rather die. Because L'Arche is “his house”.
Like the ten other adults with intellectual disabilities who live in this home, returning to his family is not an option. Some people just don't have it anymore. Others have parents who are now too old to care for them.
In general, Lucie has an “extraordinary joy of life,” assures the director of L'Arche Lanaudière, Frances Bourgouin-Brunelle.
When we visited Joliette's house at the beginning of January, we quickly noticed: Lucie is a cheerful sixty-year-old who gives out hugs and multiplies her outbursts of laughter. She warmly welcomed La Presse representatives by offering them “good coffee” and Phentex slippers.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Lucie Bellerose, resident of L'Arche Lanaudière
But when this woman, who lives with a mental disability, met her MLA recently to beg him to save her 'house', she started crying.
Then she said this terrible sentence that suggests the desperation that residents and their families are falling into today.
According to L'Arche Canada director Louis Pilotte, the continued existence of the 24 houses of the Association des Arches du Québec – which has a presence in eight regions of the province – is at risk due to a lack of sufficient government funding. A total of 135 adults with intellectual disabilities are at risk of forced relocation.
The two houses in Lanaudière, including the one where Lucie lives, are struggling with the most precarious financial situation. You risk closing first; until December.
The core of the problem: public financing per place. It equates to $85 per day for room and board in L'Arche houses in Quebec. This is significantly below average, especially compared to the budget allocations for new projects aimed at this type of clientele (mentally disabled) or at least similar target groups (autistic adults without serious behavioral problems), explains Valérie Roy, responsible for development at the Association of the Arches du Quebec.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
The core of the problem lies in public funding per place: $85 per day for room and board is well below average, estimates Valérie Roy, development officer at the Association des Arches du Québec.
Ms. Roy gives the example of the Véro & Louis houses, whose public funding is significantly higher ($291 per day per adult accommodated) for a clientele that a priori has the same problems.
“Would we like a speedboat?” [pour être mieux financés] ? » asks the political attaché of the former PQ MP Véronique Hivon, disheartened.
The director of L'Arche Canada, Louis Pilotte, asks himself the same question: “To get funding in Quebec, is it better to do show business instead of social work?” »
Financing is better elsewhere in Canada
The international organization, which has a presence in 38 countries, is also much better funded in other Canadian provinces, where its houses receive three to four times more money per person housed than in Quebec, he notes.
“The problem” is not what the Véro & Louis Foundation receives, says the director of L'Arche Canada. “That’s what it costs,” he said. This is because the same amount is not allocated to all community resources that provide long-term accommodation to similar client groups, Mr. Pilotte points out.
L'Arche complains that it has not received a “coherent” response from Quebec's Ministry of Health and Social Services. “The ministry refers us to the CISSS/CIUSSS and the CISSS/CIUSSS refers us to the ministry,” complains its director, Mr. Pilotte.
If the Arches were better funded, they could even “expand” their space, as they currently have dozens of available spaces that sit empty due to a lack of money to hire additional staff.
As the people staying at L'Arche age, their needs increase and more staff are needed. For example, due to an accelerated deficit of $10,000 per month caused by the hiring of four “day assistants,” L'Arche Lanaudière's reserves will be depleted in December. In addition to the ten people accommodated, around thirty other visitors to the day care center are also affected.
Furthermore, in alternative homes – which are modeled after retirement homes but are intended for clients with a physical disability, mental disability or autism spectrum disorder – a place “costs” the state five times more than a place in one L “Arche home,” emphasizes Valérie Roy from the Association des Arches du Québec.
An emergency fund was called for
To avoid closure, L'Arche Lanaudière is asking the local CISSS for an emergency fund and is also ensuring an agreement is made that meets its needs. The organization also appeals to the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant.
At the Ministry of Health and Social Services, we say that we “recognize that the needs of adult clients with intellectual disabilities are important and that community organizations in the various communities of Quebec provide them with valuable support, as does the Network.” the arches.”
When asked about the consequences of such a closure for disabled adults and their families, the CISSS de Lanaudière states via email that “discussions have already taken place and more are expected soon,” without providing further details.
Johanne Forest can't imagine what will happen to her 42-year-old daughter Patricia when L'Arche closes. “She is far too young to end up in a CHSLD and I don’t have the energy to take her back,” said the very concerned mother. I'm past the age where I can take him sliding and snowshoeing. »
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Johanne Forest is worried about her daughter Patricia: “Don’t take away the place where they are happy and fulfilled,” she pleads.
Here, her daughter “doesn’t spend her days rocking out in front of the TV,” she emphasizes. Patricia does all sorts of stimulating activities, including dance therapy with a teacher from Grands Ballets Canadiens. She also participates in workshops with inmates at Joliette Prison. “We talk about our emotions,” Patricia explains to us. She [les détenues] Live tragedies. »
“Assistants” accompany Patricia and the other residents of the resource, including on “work platforms” at the local CEGEP and in a food bank, where they carry out simple tasks that are valuable to them.
“Don’t take away this place where they are happy and fulfilled,” Ms. Forest pleads.
Unequal funding from one CISSS to another
The Association des Arches du Québec is calling for a “standardized” funding program for all community organizations that provide long-term housing. Currently, the 8 L'Arche communities (24 houses in total), present in as many regions (and therefore as many CISSSs), do not receive the same funding from one region to another (hence the average of $85 per person and day). The CISSS de Lanaudière finances the two houses in the region with 40 US dollars per person per day. “The day we close, users return to the health network; a network in which there is no place for them; the same network that is forced to buy places from the private sector because there are so few of them,” affirms Valérie Roy of the Association des Arches du Québec, while the state has been insisting for years on the importance of a partnership with them in its action plans the same community environment.
Sex scandal surrounding its co-founder
According to a report published in January 2023, L'Arche co-founder Jean Vanier subjected several women to sexual violence during his decades-long work at the charity, including in Canada, France and India. Research commissioned by the organization identified 25 women who, at some point in their relationship with him, “a situation involving a sexual act or an intimate gesture” in a context of “control,” “abuse of authority” and “more generally “ of “confusion of the spiritual, emotional and sexual spheres”. “. The attacks happened between 1952 and his death in 2019. Could the scandal have damaged L'Arche's public funding? Although the report did not find evidence that Jean Vanier abused people with intellectual disabilities, the international organization and the Canadian branch have taken steps to improve reporting and reporting procedures, assures L'Arche Canada director Louis Pilotte, pointing out his difficulties Attempts to obtain adequate public funding in Quebec go back far before the scandal.