FAQ

No, we do not have a wait-list. It is our goal that families should have an Intake meeting with a Regional Manager within one to two weeks of their initial phone call to us. After this “no-charge, no-obligation” Intake Meeting, services will begin within one to two weeks. There will likely be some time spent “waiting”, as different aspects of the program are created, and our Lead Professionals score assessments, draft tailored curriculum and pull together a team; but we are designed to NOT hold a wait-list so that services are always moving forward for each family we serve.

The best way to begin is to complete the “Request a Meeting” form in the footer below. This is the fastest way to ensure your information reaches the Regional Manager closest to you.  Alternatively, you could simply call the free local area number closest to your home as listed on our Contact Us page. These are centralized phone numbers that serve all of our regions of the Lower Mainland, Thompson/Okanagan, Vancouver Island and Coastal communities. All lines dial into out phone system, so you can select the extension of the person you are looking for… or zero to reach us directly. This phone is answered 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Monday – Friday (excluding stat holidays). The same information is collected in that first call as via the online form, and will be passed to the Regional Manager in the family’s region.

Different services have different rates per hour and every family requires a slightly different collection of services. Pivot Point is priced very competitively in comparison to other service providers throughout British Columbia, and parents are encouraged to make sure they compare our prices to those of other similarly structured workers, i.e., based on Contractor or Employee status of each worker. For example, Behaviour Interveners that are “employees” cost quite a bit more than ones hired illegally as independent contractors (see more about this in our “Why Pivot Point” section). It is also important to know that Pivot Point is committed to billing only for the services we deliver; so if it doesn’t directly relate to us working towards a family’s goals, they don’t pay for it. And no, we do not charge any administrative or “set up” fees. It is best to discuss the individual hourly costs, and how many hours go to each person, in the Information Session with the Regional Manager so that the full context of each service can be properly explained.

As per Workers Compensation Board, Revenue Canada, and Employment Standards Act of BC, our frontline Behavior Interveners, Child Care Workers, Tutors, and Program Assistants are employees of Pivot Point. Most of our Behaviour Consultants, Counsellors, Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists and Bio-feedback technicians are Professionals who work on a contractual basis to provide their services on behalf of Pivot Point (see more about this in our “Why Pivot Point” section).

Every family has its own unique set of circumstances and sometimes unforeseen factors arise that result in a family needing to leave our program: Some families move, some want to try other service providers, and sometimes families want to take a break from regular service. Regardless of the reason, we will do our best to resolve any issues and work hard to repair our working relationship so that services may continue, or so that families can end services on good terms. In nearly every situation, it is best for the child and family to have Pivot Point conduct a brief discharge assessment and to draft a Discharge Report that summarizes the work accomplished and the specific progress made. This report is invaluable to other service providers and schools that may be supporting the child and family after their time with Pivot Point, and helps hold Pivot Point accountable to our mandate of producing observable change. A family may ask us to prepare their account for closure at any time, and once this discharge assessment and Discharge Report are complete (usually within 2 or 3 weeks or request), and their account is paid up to date, a family is free to terminate services anytime without penalty.

Historically throughout Canada, most “Social Services” have been paid for through global contracts between the Government and large service agencies. In that system, the clients are placed on waitlists, and have relatively little control over what types of services they receive, and the manner in which those services are delivered. Public school, hospitals, and publicly funded medical clinics provide other examples of globally funded services; the client or patient has only marginal “say” in when and how they are served and by whom. In contrast, Pivot Point caters to the client who pays directly for their services. In keeping with trends throughout North America, many Social Services throughout British Columbia are changing from globally funded programs to fee-for-service programs, where the government gives the money directly to the client or patient and requires them to make their own decisions about where to spend this resource. The vast majority of clients at Pivot Point are children and youth who have a diagnosis of Autism, and as such, qualify for annual funding from the Provincial government… which they use to purchase services here. Because Pivot Point does not receive ANY other funding from the government, ALL of our staffing costs and business costs must be accounted for in our hourly unit costs. Despite this, Pivot Point is still very competitively priced, and in many situations is less expensive than many of our competitors.

Our commitment to families is to bill for only up to 100% of the actual work provided to or for their case. In addition to direct face-to-face time, this may include travel time for staff to get to and from a client’s home, phone calls and email, session prep time, meetings with other team members about the case, scoring assessments, and preparing reports. Put another way, “Fee-for-Service” at Pivot Point, means literally that clients only pay FEES for SERVICE: not statutory holidays, not days missed due to sick staff or clients, not for staff training or administrative time that is not directly related to a specific case.

Generally speaking we provide “home-based” services. For children below the age of six, as well as for our tutoring program, the work is often more structured and usually takes place in the family home. However, when a suitable location within the home is not available we search the local community for other locations (e.g., daycare or another community facility) where we can conduct our therapy sessions without interruption. With clients who are school age, the goals of our work often require heading out into the community setting. For example, many teens are working on “social skill development”, “life skills”, and “career prep” which are best achieved outside of the home in real life settings. Our Community Classrooms are most often held within our own classrooms around the Province. 

No, we do not conduct diagnostic assessments. However, we are able to direct clients to a number of different private and public organizations which are able to do this work.

Pivot Point has Behaviour Consultants and family counselors who are able to work with parents on many issues. Parenting ANY child can be very challenging, even more so if that child has behavioural or emotional struggles, or a more pronounced childhood disability such as autism, ADHD, Anxiety, Depression, Down’s Syndrome, etc. So whether it is part of the program, alongside intensive intervention services for a child, or family support IS the focus of the program (i.e., supporting the parents towards improved coping and the development of effective parenting strategies) we can help… as much or as little as each family needs… .when they need it.

Yes, we have a sibling support group that runs as an eight week program attended by the siblings AND at least one parent, designed to help families strengthen their commitment, cohesion, and overall health and functioning as a team. For more information go to www.siblingSUPPORTgroups.ca. Similarly, all other services at Pivot Point can also be devoted towards the needs of siblings and parents of children with special needs. For example, counselling, parent-teen mediation, family counselling, functional assessments of siblings, behavioural programming for siblings, and parent coaching regarding the sibling can all be delivered “on their own” or “in addition to” other services for children with special needs.

It means that we are always working towards observable meaningful change. While many recreation or leisure based programs may be fun, they are often not intensive enough nor specifically tailored to the learning needs of each child. As such, many children do not learn essential skills that will forever improve their quality of social interaction, independent living, or ability to learn from other settings. In contrast, Pivot Point aspires to maintain an intensity of training with each child that will result in substantial life-long learning and growth. We believe that each child CAN learn and grow, regardless of the developmental and learning disabilities they face… and we believe it is our job to help each client to achieve this potential one “therapeutic shift” after another!

Best practice in the field of “autism therapy programs” recommends approximately 20 hours per week. While the Autism programs of BC may not provide enough funding for parents to purchase 20 hours of direct therapy, there are many ways that each child can receive this amount of therapy each week. For example, Pivot Point typically provides about 12 hours of direct therapy each week. By training and supporting parents in adding 1 hour a day, this can easily become 17 or 18 hours of ABA based, data driven therapeutic support. Furthermore, many children are ideal candidates for augmentative ABA therapy via TeachTown: An online digital ABA program proven to be equivalent to “human ABA”. Pivot Point provides this computer based program, at a discounted rate compared to purchasing it directly, so that our clients can increase their amount of intensive therapy time by a few hours each week.

The management and service staff of Pivot Point (160 members +) have extensive experience and training in delivering and managing social services with children with special needs; particularly around the fee-for-service “autism industry” that has emerged in British Columbia since 2003. In contrast, most families are already busy enough with their children, work, and other responsibilities: Taking on the tasks of interviewing, hiring, training, and managing an “autism intervention team” may simply require too much time and learning, not to mention added stress.

Then there are all the issues of complying with the Workers Compensation Board, Canada Revenue Agency, Employment Standards Act of BC, and the Autism Programs of BC! These include, but are not at all limited to: maintaining WCB policies, identifying and maintaining safe work environments, processing injury claims, paying all employees twice each month, matching and remitting their EI and CPP, paying 4% vacation pay, tracking and remitting their income tax, submitting records or employment, ensuring that all invoicing is compliant, processing all other required paperwork for the AFPU such as justification forms, and on and on. Letting Pivot Point manage the team of service providers lets parents focus on the needs of their child and family… rather than on the parents becoming employers. And from our truly client centred management style (where parents are considered to be as much a part of the team as our staff members), parents will always feel they have the power and control to manage how all of their services are delivered; as long as they are therapeutic.

As mentioned, we consider the parents to be as much a part of the team as the Pivot Point Staff members. As such, from the intake meeting forward, parents are consulted regarding every aspect of our service deliver, from service or intervention types, to long and short term goals, to the location and timing or our services. Furthermore, we believe that each family member can become one of the most “therapeutic elements” in a child’s life; that means that we encourage and support active participation from siblings, parents, family members and family friends who may all play significant roles in maximizing learning and growth. In contrast, our experience mirrors research that suggests that the “medical model” (where the child is “dropped off” to be “fixed” by the professionals) is not nearly as effective as treatment models that include professionals and family members working together.

As many of Pivot Point clients are children with ASD, they have access to the Invoice Payment and Direct Funding methods available through the Autism Funding Programs of BC. Similarly, many of the adult clients we serve receive funding in support of their various Diverse Abilities through Community Living BC; as such, the Province typically disperses funds via direct deposit according to each contract.

Many of our clients receiving Educational Services, Mental Health Services and Transition Planning Services prefer to make payments of their monthly invoices through cheques, money orders, bank draft, or through email E-Transfer. It is quite common for parents to increase the annual resource available by contributing private funds in addition to Provincial funding (MCFD or CLBC)… though this is not required.  All of the above payment options are available to people using private funds to pay their portion of monthly invoices.

Pivot Point has pioneered one of the most advanced accountability management systems in the Province. This lets parents monitor every timesheet entry submitted by each staff member on the case, in real time, so they are free to keep an eye on things anytime!

Our Client Services Manager at Head Office can provide troubleshooting and assistance to families over the phone. Simply call us at 1-866-531-4544 (toll free) or email us at Client.Services@PivotPoint.ca to discuss your unique situation and needs. 

Timesheets, invoices, and other administrative tasks are managed by our administration team at our Head Office in South Surrey, BC. However, a Program Assistant is assigned to each client family to oversee all paperwork and to ensure that parents fully understand all of their rights and choices. Because we are a “family centred” agency, we easily accommodate many changes to the program throughout the year.

As required, all of our early intervention Behavior Consultants are listed on the on the Registry of Autism Service Providers (RASP), as either “A” or “B” level consultants. Our Program Supervisor & Board Certified Behaviour Analysts oversee their work and professional development following the standards of the Behaviour Analytic Certification Board – an international organization that sets training and practice standards for Behaviour Consultants in over 50 countries around the world. So not only do we have great consultants, we work hard to train and develop great consultants too!

Our Behavior Consultants perform many case related clinical tasks that REQUIRE their specific training in ABA and their skill in working with children with ASD. These include primarily conducting assessments, creating written behavior support plans, evaluating data and the quality of intervention provided by the Behavior Interveners and Child Care Workers they supervise, and creating written Progress Reports. The difference between Behavior Consultants at Pivot Point and those from other agencies or hired privately is that our BC’s do not need to do many of the case management and family support tasks that do not require their level of training. Instead, the BC’s and senior management support our Program Assistants in providing these management services to each case, as this is far more cost effective than paying a BC to do non-clinical work. As with all Pivot Point services, Behaviour Consultation services may be hired hourly as either a stand-alone service or as part of a larger program of services.

For more information, please view our “Behaviour Consulting” section under the “Our Services” tab.

Yes. Families may retain their privately hired staff, as Pivot Point can easily incorporate them into the team we develop for that family. In fact, many families request that Pivot Point hire their private staff to become employees of Pivot Point so that the family can keep the workers they know, yet pass the management burden over to Pivot Point. Either way, this can work well for the child as there is more consistency in the frontline staff and our team will learn about the child more quickly from the experience of others. There can be some drawbacks, however. Namely, if the privately hired staff member is a Behavior Consultant and this person is not producing curriculum equivalent to our needs, then it becomes unethical for Pivot Point to remain involved, as we will not let our own front line staff provide service that is not based on quality programming. We will always work closely with the family, their friends, and any privately hired staff towards creating the most therapeutically valid plan possible.

Most of the Behaviour Interveners and Child Care Workers at Pivot Point come to us with university training in ABA, early childhood education, and/or Child and Youth Care degrees… in addition to most having related experience working with children with ASD. Once through our screening process (which filters on Education, Experience, and Personality… and of course, Criminal Records and references), all new hires are provided an orientation to ABA and intensive behaviour intervention at Pivot Point; they attend multiple “shadowing shifts” (where they watch our current staff members work with existing clients in real life settings); they attend family based “Case Review Meetings” (every 4 to 6 weeks for Early Intervention cases) where there is child-specific training and role playing; they attend monthly staff meetings to remain abreast of best practices in ASD services; and their raises are based on their efforts to improve their clinical competency by accessing supports both inside and outside of Pivot Point that can help make them great at what they do.

General staff management is performed by our local Regional Managers who work hard to ensure that each staff member is meeting the expectations of the agency and our clients served. Clinical supervision is provided by our Program Supervisors who read and approve EVERY treatment plan (ISP) and Progress Report, as well as provide direct mentorship to individual staff members in their work. This application of highly experienced Program Supervisors is another example of how Pivot Point provides VERY competent supervision to its staff, and ensures HIGH quality ABA programming for all clients, while doing so at a cost-efficient manner.

The role of the Speech-Language pathologists (SLP’s) is to identify, assess, evaluate, treat, manage, educate and help to prevent language, speech, voice, fluency, cognitive, and other related communication disorders, as well as swallowing problems. At Pivot Point, our SLP’s may work alone or as part of a team to help our clients of all ages to communicate effectively, and to eat and swallow safely. Typically, SLP’s at Pivot Point are independent contractors who provide assessments and consultation on behalf of the agency; this “assessment, report, and ongoing support” usually requires between 8 to 12 hours per year of SLP time – assuming the BI’s and CCW’s are implementing basic treatment recommendations. When a client’s speech or language deficits require more complicated therapeutic intervention, some of our SLP’s are available for ongoing treatment with individual clients. But this is often not required if there is good quality team work. As with all Pivot Point services, SLP services may be hired hourly as either a stand-alone service or as part of a larger program of services.

For more info about SLP’s, their training, and codes of practice, please viist www.bcaslpa.ca

While some of our SLP’s work in client homes to meet children and conduct assessments, others work primarily from their own speech therapy clinics. Either way, the writing of the Speech Therapy Assessment Report will be done from their own office, and a copy of the written report will be provided to parents and Pivot Point staff. There are advantages to each approach, such as the convenience of home-based assessments vs. the cost-savings from not paying for added travel time when clinic based. Parents are asked to check with the Regional Manager in their area about the SLP’s and OT’s that work with Pivot Point.

In most cases, yes. Sometimes our SLP may need to travel a bit in order to get to some locations, but we make every effort to find professionals who are experienced and living locally in each family’s community.

The primary goal of occupational therapy is to enable people to participate in the activities which give meaning and purpose to their lives. Occupational therapists have a broad education in human physiology, kinesiology (movement), neurology, and human development that provides them with the skills and knowledge to work collaboratively with people of all ages and abilities that experience obstacles to participation. These obstacles may result from a change in function (thinking, doing, feeling) because of illness or disability, and/or barriers in the social, institutional or and physical environment. (Adapted from the World Federation of Occupational Therapists, 2004). At Pivot Point, Occupational Therapists are typically independent contractors who provide assessments and consultation on behalf of the agency with respect to Developmental Coordination Disorders, as well as regarding many of the sensory processing disorders often co-occurring with children with ASD and other developmental conditions. This “assessment, report, and ongoing support” usually requires between 8 to 12 hours per year of OT time; unless the client requires more intensive ongoing treatment.

For more into go to www.bcsot.org

While some of our OT’s work in client homes to meet children and conduct assessments, others work primarily from their own OT clinics. Either way, the writing of the OT Assessment Report will be done from their own office, and a copy of the written report will be provided to parents and Pivot Point staff. There are advantages to each approach, such as the convenience of home-based assessments vs. the cost-savings from not paying for added travel time when clinic based. Parents are asked to check with the Regional Manager in their area about the OT’s and SLP’s that work with Pivot Point.

In most cases, yes. It may be a case of the OT needing to travel a bit in order to come to your home but we make every effort to find professionals who are closest.