Community Living Victoria

3861 Cedar Hill Cross Road
Victoria, BC V8P 2M7
Phone: (250) 477-7231
Fax: (250) 477-6944

accreditation at clv

Community Living BC has an expectation that all contracted services that receive over $500,000 per year must become accredited in order to receive contracts.

The purpose of accreditation is to provide a mechanism for organizations to review, develop, implement and maintain systems and safeguards for consumers.  Further, it promotes continuous quality improvement and accountability to our stakeholders.

In 2003 CLV embarked upon this journey to ensure our agency met the high standards and expectations set out by accreditation bodies.  We chose CARF (the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) as our team of independent reviewers due to their long history and work in related areas.  Many other agencies also are using CARF, therefore sharing and partnering with them was more possible.

Going forward with accreditation has motivated us to implement new or revamped tools and resources such as:

• Person Centered Planning and goal setting for each person we provide support to

• Comprehensive consumer binders that are consistent in layout and content across CLV

• A regularly reviewed policy manual complete with easy to use forms and now available on our website

• Consistent look and content in our procedure manuals across all homes and programs

• Emergency manuals, annual training and regular drills that provide staff with easy to use information in the event of any emergency situation

• An enhanced employee orientation manual and process

• Regular satisfaction surveys (consumers, families, employees and stakeholders)

• Increased emphasis on rights, process and information for our consumers in resources such as the consumer handbook and self advocacy meetings

• Implementation and tracking of clear measurable, person centered outcomes across all programs at CLV.  These results are part of our annual Measurable Outcomes Report

• Consumer emergency profiles that are stored in an electronic data base allowing us to collect stats and maintain and easily access current and emergency information

Responsibility for the development of all the documents and resources lies with the management team.  However meeting and maintaining the accreditation standards is the responsibility of all CLV employees.  By participating in Person Centered Planning, following up on set goals, following policies, filling in data collection sheets, and providing real day to day examples of how the standards are being met, we are all contributing to maintaining our status as an accredited organization.

At the end of the accreditation process, we receive a survey report that identifies the many strengths of our organization as well as recommendations in areas where we can improve. This feedback becomes our Quality Improvement Plan. This survey report is available by contacting our Executive Director, Ellen Tarshis at etarshis@clvic.ca

Our goal to be accredited was first met in 2004, and again in 2007. We are very pleased to announce we have received our 3rd, three- year accreditation award following our on-site CARF survey from January 10-12, 2011. This award extends our accredited status to 2014. Thanks to everyone , at all levels of the organization, who contributed to making this survey a success.