Disability Services functions under the Social Sciences umbrella, however, is often involved heavily in the clinical sciences due to the situations we deal with each day. This leaves disability services in a very opaque role within the Health System. 

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Disability Service Agencies can either be private or public run organizations that receive private or public money. Agencies can then decide which services they provide, including things like day programs (focusing on senior access or employment training), residential supports (24/7 care out of someones home based on their needs), community supports (often working with dual-diagnosis transient population), or respite (planned or emergent short term care). Furthermore, agencies then can specialize clientele they support (Developmental Disability, Physical Disability, Complex Behaviour, Complex Medical etc.). This leaves a wide range of agencies providing a wide range of support (in the Southern Alberta Zone the number tallies 30). 

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In terms of my role I will focus on the agency I am currently employed by; a private agency with a publicly funded contract providing Group Home Support (although the agency also provides the other programs I am responsible for the residential care program)  to clients with variety of disabilities and levels of complexity. 

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As a private agency we have a contract through Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD), a sector of the government that completes assessments and provides public funding to successful applicants, for supports in the areas they deem necessary. In order to maintain this contract agencies must go through accreditations every 3 years (various bodies complete these external audits however the one we utilize is Alberta Council of Disability Services (ACDS)). This process, deemed Creating Excellence Together (CET), entails three components, 1. Quality of Life; 2. Quality of Service; 3. Organizational Framework, organized into 47 standards that review all aspects of an agency to make sure they are providing the best support as well as changing with government and societal values as time progresses.

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Outside of the governmental audit and contract the role of disability services influences many sectors within the health care system. Just as, in our personal lives, we visit any number of parts of the health care system, so to do disability services. As our staff function as advocates to support our clients in all aspects of life, they are there at every meeting with doctors, specialists, nutritionists, dentists, counsellors, psychiatrists ect. ensuring concerns are properly communicated and solutions are properly enacted in order to provide the best quality of life to those we support. The consequence to this, often, is many health care professionals, see us as clinical components in someones care plan; able to be a driving force in the success or failure of each treatment, procedure, prescription etc. In reality, although our staff are heavily trained, their medical training is extremely limited (medication administration and First Aid are often the limit of their expertise), and instead, our training focuses on social science (Trauma Informed Care, Abuse Prevention and Response, Intercultural Intelligence, Mental Health First Aid, Harm Reduction, Disability specific training). It is support staffs job to get people connected to the resources they need (health or otherwise), ensure the proper information is communicated between both, and build social networks and natural supports within the community to make for easier return visits.  It is often this disconnect between perceived and actual roles that leads to misunderstanding of duties between the Health Care System and Disability Services.  It is my hope, that with continued exposure, education, and research into disability supports, that these gaps and miscommunications between systems can be eliminated and a prosperous, professional relationship can be built for the mutual benefit of those that may not have the ability to speak for themselves.

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Below I have included a link to the Ministry of Community and Social Service for the Government of Alberta; to which the Disability Service Sector belongs.

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