| The Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services has announced plans to close Huronia (Orillia), Rideau (Smiths Falls) and Southwestern (Chatham) Regional Centres, home to people with developmental disabilities, many of whom have multiple diagnoses and severe medical problems that cannot be met by the resources of the community alone.
The closing of these centres will have a devastating impact on the long-term residents with developmental disabilities, their families, the developmental services sector, and the economies of the local communities.
Ontario could use the professional staff and facilities of these centres to further extend their specialized services, their support, and their professional training for the disabled. Ontario could easily transform these facilities into "Centres of Excellence".
The families of the disabled residents, the Ontario Public Services Employees Union, and local residents of the three areas are fighting to keep these centres open. At the very minimum, we should expect the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services to have a written plan for each disabled resident before any such closures occur.
The massive upheaval of people's lives and the resulting loss of highly experienced health-care workers are not in the interests of the communities or of the people of Ontario. We at CSANews believe the closures are cost cutting without regard to the consequences. We need to expand our health services to be more proactive and responsive to the needs of our people, not to close hospital beds, shut down facilities and drive our health care workers away when we need them most.
Where is the vision? Can we not turn these facilities into state of the art health care centres of which we can all be proud? We have the staff, we have the equipment and we have the locations – now all we need is the common sense. Can you help? Sure you can. Please...
- Send an e-mail
- Write a note
- Make a phone call |
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