The British Columbia government is commissioning an independent review of the province’s home-share program, months after an inquest into the starvation death of a woman with Down syndrome in a Port Coquitlam share home.
A statement from the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction says the review will assess safety in home-sharing arrangements, standards that promote quality of life, as well as accountability and oversight measures.
The government says it will convene an advisory body made up of individuals, families and service providers to give input for developing recommendations.
Florence Girard was 54 years old when she died in 2018, weighing only about 50 pounds in the home where she lived as part of the home-share program for people with developmental disabilities, managed by the Crown corporation Community Living BC.
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A coroners inquest jury in January made 13 recommendations including calling for better training and pay for people who share their homes and an improved system to co-ordinate residents’ needs.
Shane Simpson, chair of Community Living BC’s board, says in the statement that the Crown corporation welcomes the review and that the organization has made a number of changes to its processes and oversight since Girard’s death.
The government says the review is expected to be finished in the fall.
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