Philosophical Statements: Referral Services
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PROGRAMS AND SERVICES MANUAL
POLICY
PHILOSOPHICAL STATEMENTS: REFERRAL SERVICES
Like other programs and services at the AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT), Referral Services takes its direction from the 1996/97 Strategic Plan. In it, we state that:
We provide information provision, assessment and referral for all people infected with or affected by HIV and AIDS.
We are committed to connecting all people and organizations who come to ACT with the resources they need, whether here, or at other organizations, and to making this service better known and more accessible.
ACT will live up to our responsibility to provide service to all people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS through more and stronger partnerships with other AIDS service organizations and service providers. Recognizing that if we can't always provide direct service, we must work with others to ensure that someone can.
In reference to Referral Services, our Mission and Values statements add that:
ACT values and affirms the right to informed individual choices about health care, sexuality and reproduction.
ACT plays its part in providing leadership in the fight against AIDS in the Toronto region, by working cooperatively with other agencies, sharing experience and resources, and ensuring that needs are addressed in appropriate, sensitive and efficient ways.
ACT recognizes the process of "hooking up" people to services as a complex social process. As the Hooking Up to Social Services report identifies:
People with HIV/AIDS follow different courses of action to "hook up" and face different barriers in accessing social services depending on their class, race, ethnocultural background, age, gender and sexual orientation.1
ACT is committed to breaking down as many barriers as possible to effectively hook people up with the services they need.
ACT strives to make both its Referral Services and referral information better known and
more accessible. We maintain a community referrals database that tracks services related to HIV/AIDS for service users and service providers, and that makes this information available through our World Wide Website and through various issue-focussed community resources including:
- Anonymous HIV Testing Sites
- Complementary Therapists
- Community Events Listings
- Community Links (A to Z)
- Counsellors and Psychotherapists
- The Living Guide: Services for People in the Toronto Area Living with HIV or AIDS
- Primary Care Physicians Group
- Support Groups and Workshops
Sharing these resources is one way ACT provides appropriate support to AIDS service organizations and service providers.
People approach ACT for referral information because they assume we have done some background work, and that the service providers we refer them to will treat them with respect, will meet their needs in an appropriate manner, and will be knowledgeable about HIV-related issues.
Therefore, the information contained within the referral and event listings must go beyond a simple name and phone number. To make informed decisions about who to approach for help, clients must have sufficient background information including: the agency providing the service (how did the agency make it on ACT's list?); the service itself (what is it, where is it, who is it for, and how is it delivered?); a "consumer-education" narrative describing barriers and issues related to each service category; and the options available if clients are not satisfied with the service they received through ACT's referral.
The referral lists must accomplish all of the above for the client without creating a need for our direct intervention (i.e., external services that clients do need our help hooking up to should not be on referral lists).
As guiding principles to the information found on any ACT referral list, the service providers and event information listed are:
APPROPRIATE
- We make sure service providers know and want to be on ACT lists.
- We ask questions about their qualifications.
- We ask questions about their approach to service delivery.
- We ask questions about their knowledge of HIV-related issues and comfort serving HIV-positive people.
- We ask questions about their personal relationship to HIV/AIDS as well as their relationship to communities affected by HIV/AIDS.
- We clearly explain to service providers and to clients what we consider appropriate service to be.
ACCOUNTABLE
- The information is developed in partnership with ACT's peer agencies.
- We have done our background research to the best of our abilities.
- We have presented clearly defined and consistent criteria that service providers need to meet in order to be listed.
- We do not set ourselves up as a consumer watchdog.
- There is a process of complaint here at ACT and at the service providers end.
- There is a commitment at ACT to help clients find new services if the original service we referred them to does not work out.
ACCURATE
- The information is maintained through a process that allows additions, deletions and changes to happen easily.
- The information does not misrepresent service providers.
- The information does not create unrealistic expectations.
ACCESSIBLE
- The information's language and design is presented in a way that acknowledges and respects the multicultural diversity of our clients.
- The information is constantly available through our website and frequently available through published documents.
- The information is available across Metropolitan Toronto. (We do not require clients to come to ACT to get the information.)
Reference:
1. Hooking Up to Social Services, "A Report on the Barriers People Living with HIV/AIDS Face Accessing Social Services," Eric Mykhalovskiy and George Smith, 1993.
