In this family-centered service, a Service Coordinator will work with your family to assess your child and family’s strengths, outline goals and identify the services and supports that can help reach those goals. This information is compiled into a single document called a Coordinated Service Plan. It contains the priorities, needs and goals that are important to you and your child. The Coordinated Service Planning process brings together important members of your child’s life to help achieve your child’s goals. With your consent, information about your family’s needs will be shared directly with involved service providers, schools and doctors so you do not have to repeat your story multiple times.

Children and youth with multiple or complex special needs receive a number of services, often from a number of different agencies in and even outside of the Sudbury and Manitoulin Districts. Needs may be related to physical, communication, intellectual, emotional, social, and/or behavioural development.

As a result of Coordinated Service Planning, families and children with multiple or complex special needs will:

• Have one clear point of contact for Coordinated Service Planning, who is accountable for developing and monitoring the child’s Plan;
• Not have to repeat their story and goals to multiple providers;
• Have a comprehensive Plan that is responsive to the family and child’s goals, strengths, and needs;
• Experience a family-centered process that recognizes that the goals of each family are unique; that the family is the constant in the child’s life; and that they have expertise on the child’s abilities and needs; and
• Know that providers will be communicating about the needs and goals of the child and working toward a set of common goals identified in the Plan.

Children’s Community Network manages Coordinated Service Planning for the region of Greater Sudbury & Manitoulin. Contact us today to set up a meeting with a Service Coordinator to determine if you are eligible for Coordinated Service Planning.

Case resolution is a mechanism established by the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services under the “Making Services Work for People” framework to ensure that children and youth with urgent and complex needs are identified, and that appropriate service options are developed. Service providers are encouraged to be flexible within their mandates and work creatively within available resources to meet the needs of children with complex special needs.

Where the existing service system is not able to meet the needs of the child/youth, that child/youth must be referred to the local Case Resolution mechanism. Children/youth reviewed through Case Resolution are determined to be at risk, need consideration for specialized support due to the complexity of service needs, and service needs are beyond the capacity of the local service system and the family. Prior to implementing Case Resolution, community services, resources and processes must have been exhausted.

Each region of the province has a case resolution process. There are a number of prerequisites prior to organizing Case Resolution Conferencing. In the Sudbury/Manitoulin region, Level 1 Case Conferences, Clinical Community Management Table Consultations and Level 2 Case Conferences are some of the necessary steps prior to going to Case Resolution.

The Children’s Community Network takes a lead role in the process. Service coordinators at the Children’s Community Network may meet with the families, obtain the necessary consents, gather the needed information and present the summaries outlining the issue/barriers that need to be resolved and the supports required. Families/legal guardians actively participate in the process.