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• News
• March 16, 2018

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One-Stop Health Care Access for Children in Eastern Ontario

Ontario Commits Funding to Integrate Mental Health and Special Needs Services at CHEO

Today Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the government is supporting the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) to bring its mental health and special needs services for children together under one roof. This will provide better care for patients and reduce stress on their parents and families.

The government will invest $105 million for a new expansion at CHEO to build a new Children's Treatment Centre facility. This investment will help create an integrated and modern facility and allow the hospital to consolidate services and provide more customized support for developmental, rehabilitation, behavioural and mental health in one space.

Bringing these services together under one roof means children with multiple health care needs can access the right care under a single health care team. The new facility will reduce wait times and improve comfort, while providing more privacy, safety and accessibility for patients and their families.

This investment is part of the upcoming Budget, which will focus on the supports and services families in Ontario need right now -- including investing more in hospitals, mental health, long-term care and child care across the province.

The new six-story, 230,440 square-foot facility will bring together 11 separate services -- including mental health services, the Autism Program of Eastern Ontario, applied behavioural analysis and the Blind-Low Vision Program -- currently spread across eight different locations throughout the National Capital Region, into one building. The new building will be located on the CHEO-OCTC campus, adjacent to the main building on Smyth Road, which incorporates both CHEO and the Ottawa Children's Treatment Centre.

Increasing access for children to mental health and special needs services in Eastern Ontario is part of Ontario's plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.

 

• CHEO-OCTC is a pediatric health and research centre, which provides rehabilitation services for children and youth with special needs, including specialized programs for eating disorders, autism, psychiatric mental health, sexual assault, telepsychiatry and early language development.
• CHEO is one of only a few stand-alone pediatric hospitals in Canada, and has more than 6,900 admissions, 7,800 surgeries and 168,800 clinic visits each year. It also has one of the busiest pediatric emergency rooms in the country, treating more than 72,100 patients a year.
• Ontario is the first province to provide free drug coverage to all children and youth under the age of 25, saving families the high cost of life-saving drugs. More than 4,400 drugs are covered, including asthma inhalers, diabetes test strips, birth control and many others.