CLBC staff testify on underfunding for caregivers for vulnerable disabled people

A coroner's inquest into Florence Girard's starvation death heard that the province does not adequately fund caretaking services for people with disabilities.

At a Coroner’s Inquest into the starvation death of Florence Girard, a 54-year-old woman with Down Syndrome, a manager from Community Living BC testified the agency frequently gets reports about caregivers being underfunded.

“We’ve heard pretty consistent feedback from caregivers and agencies that it isn’t sufficient funding for the services they’re providing,” Tiffany Wickham, a CLBC service area manager told the inquest.

Girard lived in the home of Astrid Dahl, a paid caregiver, when she died of starvation in 2018.

The inquest has heard that Dahl was paid almost $3,000 to provide round-the-clock care to Girard. Of that money, $1779 came from CLBC and the agency also provided an additional $440 in funds Dahl could use to hire people to look after Girard when necessary for respite.

The remaining $716 came from money available to Girard through the Persons with Disabilities benefit and was intended to cover room and board.

Down Syndrome BC president Tamara Taggart, who has a 17-year-old son with Down Syndrome, has attended every day of the inquest so far. She told CTV News the issue of inadequate compensation has come up frequently in her conversations with caregivers.

“They get no vacation time, no benefits, no cost of living raises, nothing like that happens,” Taggart said. “So, that’s a huge problem. But we know this isn’t a secret.”

CLBC provides funding for home share providers by distributing it through contractors.

In Girard’s case, the money for her care went to an agency called Kinsight Community Services which contracted Dahl to be the caregiver.

Prior to her death, Girard had not seen a doctor in more than four years. No staff from Kinsight had seen her in the six months before she died, despite a requirement to check in on her every three months.

Wickham testified CLBC does not directly monitor the work of home share providers like Dahl – who worked as a contractor for Kinsight.

Instead, CLBC makes an annual visit to the offices of contractors, such as Kinsight, and reviews a random sample of client files. It does not examine the files of each individual in a contractor’s care.

“For home share providers who are hired as contractors, our role is to monitor the agency that is monitoring the contractors,” Wickham said when asked how CLBC monitors individual home share providers like Dahl.

The inquest has heard a CLBC employee was in Dahl’s home two months prior to Girard’s death for a meeting regarding a potential new placement of a developmentally disabled adult in the home.

Although Girard, who spent the last months of her life confined to her bedroom, was home, the CLBC employee made no attempt to see her.

The idea that nobody from CLBC, a Crown corporation overseen by the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction, is checking on vulnerable clients does not sit well with Taggart.

“It’s a huge problem. If I hear one more time someone else from CLBC say, ‘We monitor the monitors,’” Taggart said. “You have a $1.7 billion budget! You monitor the monitors?”

There is one more day of testimony scheduled in the inquest. After that the jury will be charged with identifying ways to prevent similar deaths in the future, but may not find fault or blame with any person or organization.

Following Girard’s death, Dahl was convicted of failing to provide the necessaries of life. She received a 15-month sentence but managed to avoid serving any time behind bars.

Kinsight Community Services was also criminally charged in the case, but the BC Prosecution Service later stayed those charges.