[homeles_ot-l] ODSP

[Reuel Amdur]

    Reuel Amdur, M.S.W., R.S.W., A.C.S.W.
                               41, chemin Lavoie                   

Val-des-Monts QC J8N 7N2    

                                    August 20, 2012

To : Members of Ottawa City Council

Re: Hospital records and ODSP

This is to protest the cancellation of the long-standing practice of Employment and Financial Assistance of assisting lawyers handling appeals for clients seeking benefits under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).  The assistance in question is the ordering of hospital records.  Such records come to EFA without charge, while to lawyers operating under Legal Aid they come at a price.  

Lawyers become involved when legal clinics are overloaded and refer cases to Legal Aid.  Lawyers anticipate reimbursement by Legal Aid, but there is a cash flow issue as Legal Aid is slow in paying.  As well, it is not clear that Legal Aid will reimburse in all cases.  Let me give an example where that could have been a problem if the City had not ordered the records.

John was sexually abused by his newly-widowed mother.  Consequently, as an adult he suffered serious emotional difficulties, including alcoholism, homelessness, and transience.  His application for ODSP was turned down.  The key reason given was the absence of hospital records to verify the problem.  We ordered records from across the country, some ten or a dozen.  His appeal was successful.  If we had not been able to order the records through the department, the cost would have been in the thousands.  As it was, the cost was nothing.  It is quite doubtful that Legal Aid would have been willing to reimburse the amount that would have been incurred.

There is good reason for the City to order hospital records for appeals, beyond the clear benefit to the client.  Every Ontario Works client who is transferred to ODSP saves the city money, as OW benefits are cost-shared, while ODSP benefits are paid by the province in full.  It is not surprising that Dick Stewart, a former head of the Department, said, “I am sad to hear that the City would take this position.”

In justifying the reversal of this practice, Dr. Aaron Burry states that ordering the records “has not been the practice for several years now.”  He is simply wrong.  I have been ordering records through the department since I began working with lawyers on appeals, going back to the turn of the century.  Dr. Burry is apparently unaware of what has been going on in EFA.

Both Dr. Burry and Mary Jane Coburn, in charge of Issues Management, Stakeholder Relations, to whom Dr. Burry assigned this matter, allude to a time when, in his words, “we had a more involved role in the ODSP application process.”  She referred to the time before the Rae government abolished the layman’s medical, a form that workers completed, concerning the functioning abilities of clients, to accompany the application for disability benefits.  I was a supervisor in the department at that time, and it is simply false that the layman’s medical or its elimination had anything to do with the ordering of hospital records.  In fact, hospital records are still being ordered by EFA specialists working on ODSP referrals.  As one of the specialists told me regarding the new refusal, “That’s crazy.  I order hospital records all the time.” It is okay before rejection, not apparently for appeals.

Dick Stewart sums up the problem this way: “The folks in charge now have no history and no appreciation for the client benefits of getting to ODSP.”  His comment about appreciation may allude to Dr. Burry’s lack of experience in social assistance.  

To the issue of a time when the department was more active on the ODSP file:  there has never been such a time, though the current attitude at the top may mean that there will be a shift.  EFA is more involved on the ODSP file today than it has ever been.  Each office has staff assigned to seeking out and assisting clients needing to apply and to follow through to appeal if rejected.  In addition, the City funds Centre 454 for an outreach program that I instigated to help people apply.  The results have been sufficiently positive that, in these times of tight money, the City increased the funding for this program.

The one question, asked over and over, is why the change?  No answer has been given.  No reason, it appears.  It is just departmental policy.

Ordering hospital records is of benefit to the clients of EFA.  In these times of tight budgets, it is also just good stewardship.

On a supplementary note, I attempted to raise this concern with two advisory committees, Health and Social Services and Poverty Issues.  Departmental staff prevented the matter going to the committees.  It is, they argued, outside their mandate, which is to advise Council.  The mandate of the Poverty Issues Advisory Committee is “to provide advice to Ottawa City Council, through the Community and Protective Services Committee, and its Departments, on issues that impact and address poverty in the City.”  Presumably, Council could seize itself of this matter.  However, your bureaucracy has forced onto the advisory committees a narrow interpretation of their function.  Committee members might well want to consider if they are wasting their time.  
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