Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Merrilee Fullerton joined Bay of Quinte MPP Todd Smith Tuesday morning at the Quinte Children’s Treatment Centre in Belleville to announce the province is investing $240 million to expand supports for children and youth with special needs.
Minister Fullerton says the funding will be spread out over four years.
“We see time and time again the value of early intervention and how it leads to better outcomes for children and families. And that’s why, as part of today’s announcement, $60 million in new funding will be provided annually starting this year.”
Quinte Health Care President and CEO Stacey Daub says that includes nearly $1.1 million for the local facility at Belleville General Hospital.
“So it’s for preschool speech and language therapy services. It’s also for physiotherapy, occupational therapy. We’re actually in 56 schools across Prince Edward County and Hastings so we have quite a large catchment and a large group of kids to service.”
As the former minister of the portfolio, Smith says the funding recognizes the incredible work done by staff at the Quinte Children’s Treatment Centre, and at Children’s Treatment Centres across the province to help young people reach their full potential.
Mary Hills, whose daughter Tirzah is almost two and has been supported by the Quinte Children’s Treatment Centre for the last 18 months following a surgery to control seizures, is ecstatic about the announcement saying the Centre is a world full of people they never would have met otherwise.
“Finding out that there is more funding that’s gonna come in, that wait lists won’t be as long. We were expedited on our wait list but I know some kids that wait 18 months for speech and language assessment and they’re three and by the time they get in they’re four-and-a-half. If you can have the funding to bring in more speech and language pathologists to cut that waiting list down.”
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Minister of Children, Community and Social Services Merrilee Fullerton and Bay of Quinte MPP Todd Smith speak with Mary Hills and daughter Tirzah.
(Photo: Quinte News/Alana Cameron)
Daub says COVID may also have delayed some diagnoses but she says there are supports for families concerned about their children’s progress.
“What about those families, you know, you have a newborn, you’re perhaps not seeing your primary care physician as regularly. You’re a new mum, new dad, you might not know development. My advice to all those parents out there is to ask questions. There’s lots of provincial associations and other resources that are really helpful to make sure that kids get into the system as quickly as possible to get the supports that they need.”
The funding will enable providers across the province to serve up to 10,000 more preschool-aged children with speech and language needs and up to 47,000 more children and youth with rehabilitation needs annually.
