This action plan is an important step to ensure equitable support and services to some of the population’s most vulnerable people, including children with medical complexity and disabilities like those that we directly serve at Holland Bloorview.

As Canada’s largest hospital dedicated to the care of children and youth with developmental and physical disabilities, we have been aware, and have been advocating for, additional support for the disability community from the onset of the pandemic, with a particular emphasis on children with disabilities and children with medical complexity and their families and caregivers. We applaud the government for the measures outlined in the plan that will begin to help address some concerns and provide some immediate relief to families who have been impacted disproportionately by the COVID-19 crisis.

Holland Bloorview was pleased to see specific measures including:

• $20.4 million in increased funding for Special Services at Home to support an additional 4,700 children with special needs;
• Extended deadline for families to spend their Ontario Autism Program Childhood Budget by 6 months;
• $40 million to support organizations that provide residential services for children and youth, people with developmental disabilities and other vulnerable groups;
• Expanded guidelines for COVID-19 testing to group homes; and
• Enhanced partnership with Ontario Community Support Association to launch Ontario Community Support Program to expand Meals-on-Wheels service to reach people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups across Ontario.

We look forward to continued partnership with the provincial government to identify and address the needs of some of the most vulnerable children and their caregivers in our province.

See COVID-19 Action Plan for Vulnerable Peoplefor additional details.