Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA)

Community Services

Community Services reduce feelings of isolation, foster friendships, create experiences for young and old and offer escorted rides to essential appointments. These services include the following:

Adult Day Service
A community support service which provides supervised activities for adults to assist in achieving and maintaining their maximum level of functioning, to prevent premature and inappropriate institutionalization and to provide respite and support for caregivers. Service components may include transportation, meals, supervision, social and recreational activities, personal care, counselling and minor health care. This service is for frail older adults and adults with acquired brain injury and Alzheimer's Disease. [Top]

Alzheimer/Dementia Overnight Service
This is an adult day service that provides overnight accomodation, supervision, meals and activities for adults with Alzheimer’s Disease and other progressive cognitive disorders and related dementias. [Top]

Friendly Visiting
A support service which matches a volunteer on a one to one basis to visit an isolated senior or physically disabled adult in their home on a regular basis. The visits will generally be to the client’s home but the volunteer can also do shopping for the client, take the client on a shopping trip, banking or to a social or cultural event. Personal interviews with volunteers and clients are conducted to ensure mutually satisfying relationships. [Top]

Intergenerational Program
A program designed to facilitate healthy relationships with young people and seniors, people with disabilities, and individuals with special needs. Seniors may volunteer in elementary schools to meet with children to demonstrate a variety of creative activities and hobbies or teenagers may assist seniors with such activities as running errands, shopping and/or visiting. [Top]

Social and Recreational Services
This service provides social recreational activities such as swimming, cards and crafts. [Top]

Transportation
A support service which provides transportation to medical appointments, shopping and to participate in various social activities and programs. Transportation is provided by agency staff or volunteers using private cars, agency vehicles, public transportation or assisting the person to walk to the destination. This service is for individuals who meet the following eligibility criteria:

They are unable to access public transportation because of short or long-term physical limitations such as heart disease and arthritis.
They may be escorted during the trip because of frailty or cognitive impairment.
Parallel transit is not available or the individual does not meet the eligibility criteria
Friends and relatives are not available or able to provide transportation
They are unable to access other forms of transportation because of financial reasons. [Top]

Helping People Live at Home

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