IGNACE – Thanks to extra funding from the Ontario government, the Mary Berglund Community Health Centre is expanding children’s services.
As part of provincewide funding increases for pediatric services that the government announced last year, the Berglund centre is receiving annualized base funding for the needs of younger residents of the Ignace area.
The funding is from a Ministry of Health program to fund “interprofessional care” for children, Heidi West, the centre’s executive director, said by email Wednesday.
“Funding was chosen to be given to particular health centres across Ontario,” West said. “We were one of the recipients in an underserved area.”
The community health hub says this funding will benefit children and their families by enabling faster access to care when they need it.
A news release from the Berglund centre says the funding will be used to:
- Hire an additional social worker.
- Expand nurse and physician hours to include on-call weekend coverage.
- Hire an early childhood development specialist with community partners.
- Increase children’s rehabilitation services, including clinical psychology and physiotherapy.
- Partner with obstetrics/gynecology physicians as well as a pediatrician.
“This funding will have a tremendous impact on children and their families, ensuring equitable access to care despite being located in a small rural northern community,” West said.
“We are ready and excited to put this significant investment to work and are so grateful to see that we have been acknowledged and the needs of our children prioritized.”
The Ontario government announced last July that it would invest an additional $330 million in annual funding to pediatric health services across the province.
Premier Doug Ford said the new funding “will provide our frontline health care partners with the tools they need to immediately provide more children with the care they need close to home.”
Located on the west side of Ignace near the corner of Highway 599 and the Trans-Canada Highway, the Mary Berglund Community Health Centre delivers a wide range of services in primary care, mental health, physiotherapy, breast cancer screening and more. It can be reached at 807-934-2251.
