A Wellington County councillor representing the Town of Erin is making it known that he’s disappointed with the new direction and decisions made by Community Living Guelph Wellington.

Six centres in Wellington County have reduced their adult day program hours to the point where it's almost been eliminated. These facilities are in Harriston, Mount Forest, Fergus, Erin and two are in Guelph.

Community Living Guelph Wellington is "dedicated to facilitating opportunities for people with developmental disabilities to realize their potential and dreams in their communities," according to its website.

Ward 9 Coun. Jeff Duncan said the hours used to be Monday through Friday, for six hours a day.

“So, it’s gone from being able to have a caring place where your loved one can go, to basically being provided an hour of service, or two, a week," Duncan said. "Which does not amount to much when we live in a rural area.”

Devin Schmidt has attended the program for a decade. His mom, Stacey said there was little communication that the program was actually ending.

“It was so disgusting, like eight months went by and we had no communication from Community Living, like nothing, it was just so vague,” she said.

Stacy said Community Living just told them they were moving towards a “person-centred” approach.

“It was his life. He got up every day and that’s what he was doing, and looked so forward to going there,” Stacey said.

Devin Schmidt. Photo courtesy of the Schmidt Family.

Duncan wrote an open letter to Community Living board members because many families contacted him looking for answers in regards to their loved ones.

Duncan said families feel this move was in the works for quite some time, and it was a move not related to COVID-19.

“It’s called this person-centered approach, it sounds great, but what it results in is basically a 98 per cent reduction in the hours of service these people get," Duncan said. "It doesn’t almost mater what the new approach will be if they’re not getting the hours, how does this help them?”

Stacey said she questions Community Living’s decision about moving to the person-centered approach.

“I’m like, do you even realize we live rural?" she said. "In an hour, if you came and picked him up, you can’t even do anything by the time you drive him back home. We don’t live in a town where you can go walk to anything. And the ideas they had to provide in this hour a week for Devin, was just so ridiculous.”

Duncan said residents must remember the adult day program clients are adults in their 30s, 40s, and 50s with the primary care givers very often in their senior to more advanced senior years.

Devin’s father, Blaine Schmidt, said he was on the board that raised and self-supported the Community Living Erin facility.

“To get the construction done, and to get it all built, and it’s kind of frustrating when you’ve put forth all that effort and then they basically shut the whole building down," Blaine said. "No one’s even using it right now, after we’ve done all that work.”

Fundraising efforts for the facility brought in a staggering $1 million and it was built and opened in two years.

Blaine’s partner Stacey wants to know why Community Living couldn't come up with a plan to return to service.

“If the schools are going back and day care is going back, with 15 minimum or maximum children per class, why couldn’t we go back with, there was four of them?" she said. "We didn’t understand why we couldn’t try to work something out. It’s a very spacious building and they could social distance.”

Blaine added they would have their own bubble, just like they have in schools.

Community Living agreed to do an interview, but CICW did not hear back from them at publication date.

Stacey Katzman, Devin's mother: