Successful Accreditation May 2006 CARF Survey

Once again Accreditation for Garth Homer Society was passed with flying colours. The Society has recently received a three-year accreditation for its employment services and its community services. It is accredited by CARF – The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.

Summary of CARF Report

The Summary Report for the survey completed in May 2006 informed the GHS that the society had earned a three-year accreditation. On balance it was noted the Society has clearly made a commitment to continued quality improvement and to conform to CARF standards.

The Society received two commendations for exemplary conformance to the standards.

1. Business Improvement Plan – The GHS Business Improvement Plan brought together business improvement needs and improvement data to form a comprehensive continuous improvement plan.

2. Supported Work Handbook. Both staff and clients were involved in its development. The handbook was commended for being user-friendly and for serving as a valuable tool to orienting persons served to the Society’s Supported Work Service.

As well as the specific commendations, the survey referred to many of the organization’s strengths. Some of the strengths identified included the following:

• The Society’s Board demonstrates active and enthusiastic involvement in setting directions and policies for the organization.
• The organization has recognized there are major gaps in supports to adults with developmental disabilities who are aging. It is actively engaged in developing specialized supports for this client group.
• It is evident the organization has put a lot of attention into developing a large array of services and supports such as the art program, computer resource centre, music and drama to better enable clients to reach their potential and have meaningful life experiences.
• The organization is a leader in its approaches to providing supports in the community. It takes the process of moving individuals in supported employment very seriously.
• The organization has created an active foundation to seek funds to meet identified needs.

The foundation has recently, in collaboration with the University of Victoria’s Assistive Technology Team embarked on a project to develop state of the art distance learning applications.

The organization has implemented well designed financial practices The Society is developing an implementation plan in response to recommendations for improvement, these include:

• Developing a continuous program of biannual safety inspections
• Implementing an annual driving record review of all staff members
• Implementing annual performance evaluations for all of the Society’s personnel

These recommendations about improvements will be responded to within ninety days in the Society’s quality improvement plan.

The Society’s next survey will occur in May 2009.



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