The Voice - Janzen Consulting interviews VAD Program & Services Manager

Join VAD as our Program & Services Manager is interviewed by Janzen Consulting about AISH and ADAP and VAD services.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello and welcome to Bridging Barriers. I'm so glad that you joined us today. And my name is Susan Janzen and so happy to be here with my beautiful guest. She's someone who truly lives what it means to support an advocate for others in a meaningful and a hands-on way. So my guest today is Teresa Makarewich. And she's been the voice of Albertans with Disabilities, which is an organization here in Edmonton, Alberta, and she's been with them since 2017. She brings with her 20 years of administration experience, and but more importantly, she has a deep commitment to people. And in her role, she works directly with clients, offering support, offering guidance, and helping individuals navigate really important systems like age, CPPD, and the disability tax credit, just to name a few. So these are services that can truly change lives when people know how to access them. So behind her and beyond her professional work, Teresa's Heart for Community, it just shines even brighter. She's been a dedicated volunteer for over 30 years with the Edmonton Folk Music Festival here in town, and where she coordinates the raffle crew volunteers and talk about commitment and leadership. That's a big job. So Voice of Albertans with disabilities in itself. We have a short name for that here in Edmonton called VAD. It has been doing incredible work since 1973. It advocates for accessibility, for equality, for equity, and for inclusion. And it ensures that individuals with disabilities across Alberta have not only have the support that they need, but are truly heard. I had the pleasure of meeting Teresa through a BNI networking group, and I immediately knew that she was someone that our community needed to hear from. So today we're doing we're diving into real work beginning right now about specifically challenges that families face navigating this system and the support that's available out there. Some people don't aren't even aware of what's out there, so that's why we're here today. So because this conversation is all about breaking down barriers and we want to make sure that no one feels alone. So Teresa, I'm so pleased that you're here today. Thank you for joining us and for shining a light on all the AISH D TCs and the CD B and all that stuff. I'm glad you're you're welcome.

Speaker 2:36

Thank you for having me today.

Speaker 1 2:37

Thank you. And so, Teresa, just to just to let our audience know exactly who you are more than what I said in the bio, just share with you know, like your passion, why you're doing this, and who you are, just a little bit of a more of a bio to give them more information.

Speaker 2:52

Yeah. Sure. So yeah, my name's Teresa Mak.arewich I'm the program and services manager at Voice of Albertans with Disabilities. Uh, like Susan said, I've been here nine years. I'm the longest-standing employee. My journey here at Voice of Albertans with Disabilities started as the practicum student. I went from there to Office Admin, from there to office specialist, administrative specialist, and then now to program and services manager. So I've worked my way up the chain. So I've learned a little bit about everything that the Voice of Albertans with Disabilities does.

Speaker 1 3:29

Wow.

Speaker 3:30

And yeah, we help a lot of people do a lot of paperwork.

Speaker 1 3:35

So much for digital digital age, right? Yeah, sure, they told us, yeah, sure, there's going to be less paper, right? Right.

Speaker 3:43

Yeah, most of our clients are not technical savvy, so we we do it old school.

Speaker 1 3:50

I guess that's probably the best, right? I mean, that accommodates more people. So that's and that's being very sensitive and thoughtful, too. That's great. Yeah. So, you know, we were chatting off the screen earlier and just about uh a few things. Like our our audience are parents of children with adaptive needs, but I know that a lot of our parents out there have children that are like 16, 17, 18, like then the higher teenage years. And so, what can you tell us about what how you guys help in that transition to adulthood?

Speaker 4:23

Sure. Uh turning 18 is really exciting for youth, but if you have a disability, it also comes with a complex system to navigate. So that's where we step in, we guide, support, and reduce overwhelming paperwork. Adulthood shouldn't mean losing your support, it should mean gaining your independence. So we work with youth age 17 and a half and up, and we tell everybody don't wait until you're 18. Start when you're 17 and a half for the AISH paperwork. Once you turn 18, you're gonna lose your school-based supports. There'll be a lot of confusion around eligibility for the different programs, and some people find the paperwork overload. Uh, so we offer the one-on-one guidance, we do step-by-step application support, and we do self-advocacy assistance when barriers come up. We walk along families, so they're not trying to figure this out alone.

Speaker 1 5:15

That's huge. What when you mention barriers, like what are some examples of those, if you don't mind me asking here?

Speaker 5:22

Usually it comes down to things like not understanding the paperwork, not having a doctor, transitioning from pediatric to adulthood, the different criteria that's needed. Just a lot of little things that people don't realize that need to be done until it's time to start.

Speaker 1 5:42

Right. And that's why that advice to start the year earlier is really wise, just to kind of get on it, because it does take time, I'm sure. It doesn't just happen.

Speaker 5:52

A minimum of six months. I would say 80% of people who apply get denied the first go-round as well. So there's the denial process that takes a quite a while on top of that. So we say six months to a year. So if you start at 17 and a half, the concept being that at 18, AISH would kick in for those children who are now adults.

Speaker 1 6:16

Right. Wow. Has this changed? Like uh our son was diagnosed with schizophrenia way, I won't even way back before you were probably even born. Um, so but it's been since, you know, since the 80s, late 80s. Um, so what like not in a nutshell, can you tell me like what's changed? Like, what's the biggest change? Is it a positive change or like a negative in the I guess in the sense of just getting the paperwork done and getting everything done that you need to do?

Speaker 6:45

Biggest change would be that you don't have those school-based supports, and if you're with FSCD, that stops. You've gone from having a supportive environment your entire school life to now there's nothing. Wow. That is the biggest change. So parents have had family support, FSCD support, PDD that they're getting ready for, all these different programs, and the the person turned with a disability turns 18, all those supports are gone.

Speaker 1 7:17

Wow.

Speaker 7:18

So it's just kind of like turning off the tap and then starting again new. So there's the AISH program, assured income for the severely handicapped, the disability tax credit, which you now have to have mandatory with the AISH program to apply for that, which leads to the disability or the Canadian Disability Benefit, which is a federal program. And getting the disability tax credit also allows people to get the registered disability savings plan. So there's quite a few things that kind of transition once once you're turning 18. A lot of a lot of the families will already have the disability tax credit in place and need to transfer that to the the child becoming an adult.

Speaker 1 8:03

So there's lots of paperwork to get done, and that's why you're there. I mean, that's why we're really grateful that you're there to so somebody can pick up the phone and say, I don't even know what to do next. And my son is 17, or my daughter's 17, what should I be doing today? So that's why you're there to help people, right? In that vein, right?

Speaker 8:23

Yeah, and we work with uh 17 and a half to 64-year-olds, so we cover quite a gamut of people. Awesome. All all lifestyles, all economic situations.

Speaker 1 8:37

Wow, right?

Speaker 8:38

It doesn't take anything. 20% of people who have a disability have received it from birth. The rest are usually from an injury. So it's something that's ongoing in life, right? You're you've been a roofer your entire life and you get hurt at work, you need AISH . You've been on disability your entire school life, you turn 18, you need AISH. Right? It's the primary income support for adults with disabilities in Alberta, but it's also changing to become an ADAP program, Alberta Disability Assistance Program. Okay, and that will happen in July.

Speaker 1 9:15

July. Okay, I need you to. That's a let's dive in there because that's right now in our news here in Edmonton, it's like I don't, I'm sure it goes a lot wider than here, but there's a lot of talk and a lot of misinformation and disinformation. And so set a straight, please.

Speaker 9:34

So as of January uh July 1st, 2026, AISH is moving everybody to ADAP. And so the ADAP program, Assured Disability Assistance Program, is there to help individuals who need financial and medical assistance but are able to work. So the concept being that everybody's gonna move from AISH to ADAP, and then they will have employment supports to help them find work. Couple things with that AISH is 1940$ as of July 1st, ADAP is 1740$. The price, the amount of money that's the amount that you get each month. So it's an automatic $200 less, and somebody on ADAP can earn up to $700 before AISH will start doing a clawback. Whereas current current pardon ADAP, whereas currently on AISH, the client could earn $1,072 before they did a clawback.

Speaker 1 10:34

This is not sounding very positive. Is this a uh is this a positive move?

Speaker 10:40

Like I like it's a terrifying move. We have a lot of people really worried. How are they gonna survive? It's less money, that's their medication, that's their food budget.

Speaker 1 10:53

Food, yeah.

Speaker 10:54

Right? So there's a lot of people who are really worried about it right now. The government says it will be a great benefit because they're gonna be bringing in employment supports. One of the things that we are worried about is where are the barriers going to be taken out of the employment so that there's 40,000 jobs available to people with disabilities.

Speaker 1 11:14

And I think when we were chatting on off-screen here, I think you were saying that like when our son was diagnosed, he had to go through the medical uh situation, he was referred to as psychiatrist, and then he was the one who deemed him chronic schizophrenia, like that was his diagnosis. So, so now people are going to have to go, because I I've got two questions now. My my brain is like already swirling. So, and I and I'm and I'm in this certain like I'm in, like I talk about this a lot, and I'm my brain is still swirling, so it's this is not easy, like this is not I can't imagine the the feelings of the people who are actually on AISH. I mean, I'm just a caregiver or a supporter of not I don't care for my son anymore, but we are always there, we do you know this stuff for him. But so what was my question? Okay, so and so they claw back them the money is different, and then they have to apply to make that 200$ come back. Is that correct? Is it called something else?

Speaker 12:12

Well right now with the AISH program, they've made it a mandatory process that everybody has to apply for the disability tax credit. And the reason they're doing that is so that once you've applied for it and been approved, you can apply for the Canadian Disability Benefit, which is a $200 federal benefit for people with disabilities. AISH in Alberta, we're the only province in the country doing this right now, is taking that $200 and not giving it to the individual with disabilities. So you will receive $200 less from AISH, and you'll receive $200 from the federal government to offset that. So the money amount doesn't change, just the process. But moving to ADAP, it will be $200 from the government, federal, uh $1,740 from AISH minus the $200 you're getting. So it'll be $1,540 that you get from AISH, $200 from the federal government.

Speaker 1 13:19

Okay. And just the fact that we're going from provincial funding to the federal, you know, just that alone. I know uh in my personal experience, we were informed just actually about three days ago that my husband had to reapply to show proof that he is actually the guardian, like as we have guardianship and trusteeship for our son. But they're saying to the dad, Oh, sorry, we don't have that paperwork, you need to reapply to show us to prove who you are. Like who yeah. Anyway, so okay, so what other questions should I be asking now? Like, what else do you want people to know about this?

Speaker 14:07

Let's talk about some of the different things that we do outside of those three. So we do AISH, uh the assured income for the severely handicapped, uh, we do Canada Pension Plan Disability for those that have worked, we do the disability tax credit, Canadian Disability Benefit. We do low income taxes for free, we do old age security for those transitioning from adulthood to seniors, and we do Alberta Adult Health Benefit Form for those that don't qualify for AISH. So there's a lot of different programs out there that we work with. Most of them require a medical report to be done. So for the AISH, there's the medical, financial, and then a general report. So they check your medical eligibility to see if you're eligible. They check your financial eligibility to see if you're eligible. Then they do an overall general eligibility check to make sure everything is correct. Then once you're approved, they'll have someone call you for a commencement if you're approved. If you're denied, you'll get a letter saying you have 30 days to do an appeal or a year to submit more information. Over and above that, the disability tax credit can be used for the person with a disability or their caregiver support person. So you yourself could apply for the disability credit tax credit on behalf of your son and use that tax credit to offset the cost of medical needs.

Speaker 1 15:38

And that tax credit that's over and above the 200 from the federal and the 1700.

Speaker 15:45

It's it's a tax credit against your income. So it just lessens the amount of tax that you would pay based on the income you've made.

Speaker 1 15:54

Right. Thanks. Okay. Yeah. So I guess you know that's really helpful because you've listed about four at least four different. We have to do a map. I need a map and a board saying, okay, these are all these. But the the good thing about being here today with you, Teresa, is just that there are a lot of things out there that are uh accessible for the for people to help them with who have a disability. And then so, and we need to know to call you. I mean, this this is what it's so important to say. And if you have a question, then this that's who you call. Because I love that your support, you know.

Speaker 16:30

We also have our case managers who do self-advocacy assistance. So if you need someone to phone a landlord or an employer or a school and work with you on your your behalf to get a situation fixed or work through, they're really good at that as well. So if you wanted to call the office, our number is 780-488-9088, or you can email us at vad at vadsociety.ca.

Speaker 1 16:59

Cool. And that'll be in the show notes as well. So people you don't have to worry about kind of jump grabbing your pen here. So we want to make sure that they know how to get in touch with you. So yeah, there's just there's just so much. I'm just trying to think of other things. And you had mentioned earlier, like that the the RDSP is any age, but then over after 18 is this uh Canadian disability benefit, right?

Speaker 17:26

No, so the RDSP can be from birth until the age of 49 that you can put money in and the government will match. It's like a for every dollar you put in, they put in three up to $3,500 a year. So up to the age of 49. From 49 to 59, you just get the compound interest building, and then at the age 60, they can start taking it out because it's a disability savings plan for retirement.

Speaker 1 17:53

Okay, so that's it. So that would so the RDSP is re-reg how does what's that stand for?

Speaker 18:00

Registered Disability Savings Plan.

Speaker 1 18:03

Okay, so that's this is specifically savings. So this is to when you're thinking ahead, because you the parents who have children now, I mean, they can start putting money into that right away. And then they can, but that it's there for their child when they're gone.

Speaker 18:18

Absolutely. So my daughter has uh an acquired brain injury, and she puts in $50 a month out of her AISH check, and by the time she retires and we've passed, she'll have enough to live on not extravagantly, but comfortably to make it through her retirement years when AISH is no longer available and she would have to go through Alberta Seniors and the OAS program.

Speaker 1 18:44

Right, because that's another big transition. We're talking two transitions here from childhood to the 18 and then seniors, and that goes way faster than you think it's gonna go.

Speaker 18:55

It does.

Speaker 1 18:58

Personally, I've experienced that. It's like, what the heck? It was just Tuesday yesterday, and it's Tuesday again. Like, what is going on? Absolutely, it's so crazy how that works. So, okay, so that's really that had actually I did not know that earlier. I had not heard of that. I thought I was in the know, and that's something that I was unaware of. So that's super cool that you do that, and that you help people.

Speaker 19:23

Do they contact you to get the forums to help with that, or they can just we have a lady that we work with who does all the RDSPs for us, so we give out her information and refer to her, and then she's she's amazing. She helps people understand what it means, help them understand the grant process, helps them get it set up, and she helps look at your finances to see if there's something to make it flow more better.

Speaker 1 19:53

More better. Okay, well, that's wonderful. Just the fact that you can actually talk to somebody to try to understand all this.

Speaker 20:01

Yeah, she's she's really good with RDSPs.

Speaker 1 20:04

Mm-hmm. So there's so many. What are other instances like things that pop up that you get the phone call about that is either unusual not that often, or that's important for us to know?

Speaker 20:16

Currently, Aish is giving everybody our phone number to have us help them. So if you're phoning Aish for anything right now, they seem to be giving out our number. And so you'll be calling us. I hope that they're paying.

Speaker 1 20:31

I hope that they're paying you the service fee for that.

Speaker 20:34

No, no notice, no, no consultation. Um, so we're helping with everything from filling out the disability tax credits. We had 4,000 of them in one month that we needed to do. We're helping with the Canadian Disability Benefit, which is only about 10 questions online, but some people get really confused. Systems are pretty complex. So the more help you can get and the more support you have, the better off you are.

Speaker 1 21:01

Well, that's exactly why you're here. This is so great. This is so great. And so, yeah, I'm just trying to think of other I had a I had a bunch of questions, and and this is actually sometimes you you have a topic that is so complex that it's like you're so broad. So, and again, our primarily our audience are parents of children with adaptive needs. So, you know, they're probably thinking, all this, you know, worry about that down the road, right? But it is really important to just get a little handle on this just so that so that you're aware that this is coming, you know, down the down the pipe here for sure.

Speaker 21:40

Yeah, so my advice would be to reach out early before they're 18 to start the process. Don't wait if you're struggling with an application, give us a call or an email, and we'll help you with support. Like I said, we have the self advocacy assistance, we have the form assistance, we go out into The community, we do presentations about AISH and ADAP and about VAD. And you know, if you're unsure where to start, reaching out to us is exactly where you should be.

Speaker 1 22:12

Okay, cool. I know that we have a mutual friend and Zach Weeks. Uh, he's been on my podcast quite a few times over the years, and uh, and also on yours. So, I mean, the um the advocacy is so important, and we have to be our own uh, you know, the advocacy, we have to be our own advocates for our children and the people in our lives who rely on these kinds of supports.

Speaker 22:35

So Yeah, Zach is actually our vice president of the board. He's pretty involved with us. He just did a podcast for us about accessibility and accommodations and what they mean and how the rights are for individuals. So that's something parents can always check out as well how to ask for accommodation in a school setting. Yeah, everyone deserves access support. So all it takes is the right guidance to get people there, and VAD's here to help with that.

Speaker 1 23:03

Exactly. Well, this is so great, Teresa. And anything else, just like a last brilliant thought that you want to share with us, just with the audience, just to close off today?

Speaker 23:15

Like anything that we left out that nothing really big that comes to mind about the programs will help with pretty much anything if you give us a call. If we don't know what to do, we'll find somebody who can re- we can refer you to. But on a side note, Voice of Albertans with Disabilities is having a free barbecue for the public on June 6th at Borden Park. So that's open to everybody. Though silent auction and a free barbecue.

Speaker 1 23:44

Wow. Mark that in your calendar, and then you can actually have that opportunity to talk to some people there and to find Teresa for sure. So that's wonderful. Teresa, you're a beautiful guest and you're so informative. I'm just glad that that I I can't repeat all that, and I don't know that stuff as well as you do. So thank you so much for taking the time and for being here with us today. And I just want to uh this conversation really highlights something that we have to talk about, and that and the things that we talk about on this podcast, and just that you're not alone. There are people and organizations and resources out there to help, and so that's why we're here, just to kind of make that connection for you. We want to make sure that everybody feels like, no, I'm not in this alone. I can ask, I've got people to go to to ask. If today's episode spoke to you, I just encourage you to connect with Voice of Albertans with Disabilities and learn more about the incredible support that they provide across our whole province, right, Teresa? You're not just an Edmonton.

Speaker 24:40

We are completely across the province. We do phone appointments and in-person appointments.

Speaker 1 24:46

Right. And we will definitely have all that information on the show notes for you today. And if you're a parent or caregiver, someone supporting a loved one with the adaptive needs, we invite you to come and just be part of our community at Jansen Consulting Group. So this is exactly why we created it. It's a place, it's a hub, it's a place where real conversations happen, where resources are shared, and where we're reminded that you don't have to figure this out on your own. So that's our most important message to you today. And if you found value in this episode, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. And thanks to Teresa again for her time to share with us today. And that's we just want to continue to reach out to families and to make a bigger impact together, not alone, not separate. So thank you for joining us here on Bridging Barriers. And remember, every step forward is a progress. So again, it's just something that you need to know. You're not alone, we're here. We're here. Teresa's here. Please get in touch with us. Okay. So everybody, thanks for joining us, and thank you, Teresa. I loved having you on today. Thank you.

Speaker 25:47

Thank you.