New Brunswick
Programs and Services
In New Brunswick, employment services to people with disabilities are provided primarily through the departments of Training and Employment Development, Health and Wellness, and Family and Community Services. Each of these departments has a variety of programs and services for disabled people who want to work, ranging from job referrals to wage subsidies to workplace training.
Service Delivery
Training and Employment Development
People with disabilities who want to work may benefit from employment counselling, job referrals, client assessment and support service coordination. Job referrals are done through the Visible Abilities Databank which lists the names of clients with disabilities who are looking for employment.
The objectives of Employment Services for Persons with Disabilities is to help people with disabilities obtain employment; to identify their skills and abilities; to provide links to employers and opportunities for people with disabilities to make the transition to employment; to provide unemployed people with disabilities a chance to acquire work experience; and to raise awareness about issues related to employment and people with disabilities in New Brunswick.
The Visible Abilities registry creates links between people with disabilities and potential employers. Financial incentives are provided to employers through two wage subsidy programs: Equal to the Job and Job Action.
Health and Wellness
Mental Health Services provides acute services for clients with a mental illness requiring only short-term contact with a therapist, such as a person experiencing stress that affects job performance. Mental Health Services also provides long term services for clients with a longer term, chronic mental illness. Training and education, employment preparation, job finding strategies and rehabilitation supports are often required for these clients.
Objectives include: to assist individuals with mental illnesses further their training and education, enter the labour market, and maintain employment; to provide rehabilitation supports; to advocate for mental health clients; and to develop partnerships with community agencies who offer vocational programs.
Employment-focused services are provided through 13 Community Mental Health Centres. Clients are assessed individually by counsellors and therapists to identify a mental health diagnosis. When employment is a key factor in addressing a client's mental health diagnosis, services described above are offered.
Through its Addiction Services, the department works to reduce the human and economic costs to individuals, families and communities resulting from the inappropriate use of alcohol, other drugs and problem gambling. It also promotes healthy lifestyles and increased workforce participation. Addiction Services calls for an integrated continuum of prevention and treatment services to meet the needs of all New Brunswickers at risk, or those already affected by substance abuse and/or problem/pathological gambling. Staff of Addiction Services are committed to maintaining individuals in their current employment or restoring their ability to gain or regain employment.
Addiction Services helps clients - those with disabilities - prepare for, find and maintain employment by developing and implementing prevention and treatment programs, including detoxification, rehabilitation, out-patient counselling, and research.
Objectives include: to provide detoxification services in a safe and secure environment for dependent clients; to provide a series of outpatient services for dependent individuals and their families; to provide short-term (three to four weeks) intensive addiction treatment in a residential setting; and to provide long-term (six months) residential care for dependent clients who lack community supports and resources.
Family and Community Services
The Training and Employment Support Services program provides training and employment development services that enable people with disabilities to achieve an occupational goal, obtain employment or resume employment when it has been interrupted. The principle objectives are to decrease the barriers faced by persons with disabilities so they may be as competitive as the non-disabled population in their search for employment, and to assist persons with disabilities make the school-to-work transition by providing training and employment services.
Training and Employment Support Services are delivered at the local level. Persons with disabilities requiring services can call or visit a local office to have their needs determined and potential services identified. Case managers, career consultants and placement coordinators are often consulted during the development of a client's individualized case plan.
|
Program Results |
||
| Results Indicators | 1999 - 2000 | 2000 - 2001 |
|
9,309 | 10,979 |
Number of people completing programs |
3,309 | 2,388 |
|
939 | 1,196 |
|
3,516 | 5,940 |
Number of people on waiting lists for services |
Not applicable | Not applicable |
- Some people may be counted more than once as a result of having participated in more than one type of intervention and/or program during the year.
- The results-indicator on
waiting lists cannot be reported on at this time but will be considered
within the context of evaluation.
Expenditures
| Program or Department |
Provincial
Contribution
|
Government
of Canada Contribution
|
Total
Expenditures
|
|||
|
99-00
|
00-01
|
99-00
|
00-01
|
99-00
|
00-01
|
|
| Health and Wellness, Addiction Services | $3,958,879 | $4,560,102 | $3,111,660 | $3,111,660 | $7,070,539 | $7,671,762 |
| Health and Wellness, Mental Health Services | $2,213,621 | $2,523,051 | $1,348,240 | $1,348,240 | $3,561,861 | $3,871,292 |
| Family
and Community Services, Training & Employment Support Services |
$898,099 | $928,981 | $734,100 | $734,100 | $1,632,199 | $1,663,081 |
| Training and
Employment Development, Employment Services |
$84,681 | $51,326 | $80,000 | $80,000 | $164,681 | $131,326 |
| Total | $7,155,280 | $8,063,460 | $5,274,000 | $5,274,000 | $12,429,280 | $13,337,460 |
Consultation with the Public and People with Disabilities
A working group was established to provide a forum for dealing with issues related to programs and services under the Canada-New Brunswick Agreement on Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities. Called the Employability Assistance for People with Disabilities Stakeholders Consultation Group, its primary objectives were to identify employability issues within the context of the agreement and act as a vehicle to address these issues; to report on actions taken to address issues; and to exchange information on initiatives at the federal, provincial and local level.
The consultation group was comprised of representatives of the Government of Canada, provincial government, non-government agencies, advocacy groups and service providers.
Provincial Contact
Department of Family and Community
Services
Policy and Federal-Provincial
Relations Branch
P.O. Box 6000, 520 King Street
Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 5H1
Tel.: (506) 453-2001
Fax.: (506) 453-7478
E-mail: www@gnb.ca
Internet site:
http://gov.nb.ca/Fcs-sfc/Index-e.htm