Toronto, ON, March 26, 2024: Kids’s Psychological Well being Ontario welcomes new funding within the 2024 Ontario Finances introduced in the present day for 5 new youth wellness hubs and investments in supportive housing, but it surely doesn’t meet the necessity for pressing and sustained funding to deal with the well being human useful resource disaster and the lengthy wait occasions for providers throughout the neighborhood little one and youth psychological well being sector.
With out pressing stabilization funding within the 2024 Ontario Finances, kids, youth, and households searching for psychological well being care will face rising wait occasions and elevated obstacles to accessing community-based care.
The Ontario authorities laid the groundwork for system enchancment in 2023 with its dedication to little one and youth psychological well being, however extra is required as a result of our youngsters and households can’t wait.
CMHO’s pre-budget submission outlined that the neighborhood little one and youth psychological well being sector wants an funding of $140 million over 4 years and to work with the province to make use of the funding to assist scale up the kid and youth psychological well being workforce and the packages that may have the best influence for teenagers and their households.
Like hospitals, dwelling care, and the long-term care sector, there’s a human well being useful resource disaster impacting frontline psychological well being and habit staff and the communities they serve. It is a vital time for Ontario’s little one and youth psychological well being sector, with elevated wants amongst kids and youth dealing with psychological well being challenges mixed with important employees shortages of psychological well being professionals.
Excessive turnover, burnout, and an getting old workforce are having a major influence on the community-based psychological well being sector. As nicely, the numerous wage disparity between community-based little one and youth psychological well being and hospitals and training, with wage gaps as excessive as 50 per cent, implies that along with dealing with rising demand for providers, the kid and youth psychological well being centres are dropping employees to different sectors.
A scarcity of psychological well being professionals contributes to lengthy wait occasions for providers, and when households lastly get entry to care, due to excessive turnover, they typically have to repeat their story with a change in clinicians. The impacts of the well being human useful resource disaster are even larger for underserved areas and equity-deserving populations, who we all know already face larger obstacles to accessing care.
We urge the Ontario authorities to proceed to construct on the investments from this previous yr and on this funds, as they’re vital steps ahead. The neighborhood little one and youth psychological well being sector is able to work with authorities on pressing stabilization for providers, beginning with growing a workforce technique for the sector that features addressing wage gaps, in addition to vital system-building initiatives to advance high quality, fairness, and entry. With the correct assist and continued investments, we will guarantee a future the place all infants, kids, youth, and households get the psychological well being care and helps they should thrive.
