Media Release

As the world continues to adjust and adapt to our new normal in the wake of COVID-19, people across communities still face much adversity and uncertainty. For children and youth with disabilities and their families, the effects of the pandemic are far more exacerbated and devastating. The British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth’s December 2020 report, Left Out, revealed how COVID-19 disproportionally affected families of children and youth with special needs. The report reinforced the need to keep disabled children not only physically safe, but also look after their psychological and emotional wellbeing.

For 67 years, Grandview Kids has provided specialized programs, outpatient clinical treatment, and support to thousands of children and youth and their families with physical, communication and developmental needs and their families. We see first-hand, every day how crucial early and continuous intervention is to help these children and youth live life to their full potential. When COVID-19 forced our society to shut down in March 2020, Grandview Kids worried about the impact on clients we serve. For many families, Grandview Kids is a lifeline, there to support and guide them during challenging and emotional times throughout their child’s development.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) laid out on a table for Grandview Kids staff to access — PPE laid out for staff to use at the Grandview Kids Main Site in Oshawa.

We closed our sites in March 2020 when little was known about the COVID-19 virus. We nimbly responded, moving services online to offer clients virtual appointments. Dedicated teams worked to secure Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and supplies for staff, while also implementing a series of evidence-based Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) protocols to keep clients, families and staff safe when we were ready to re-open for in-person services.

Some Grandview Kids clients with complex needs continued to receive safe, effective in-centre care from our committed clinical and medical teams early on in the pandemic. In September 2020, we safely re-opened five of our eight locations for in-person appointments. Some sites could not accommodate our enhanced pandemic protocols, so they remain closed.

When planning to re-open, Grandview Kids’ top priority was safety, but we could not discount the risk to families the longer we stayed closed for in-person services. We acted quickly to make sure we could be there to fill some of the significant gaps in in our clients’ lives, which had been created by the pandemic.
Lorraine Sunstrum-Mann, Chief Executive Officer, Grandview Kids

Grandview Kids staff member posing and smiling at desk while working from home — Grandview Kids staff member working from home.

Maintaining a routine induces a sense of discipline as well as safety in children, which is important for their psychological and emotional development. Making adjustments to routines, such as experiencing school closures, social distancing and/or confinement to home, can prove to be a real struggle for children with physical and mental disabilities (Bartlett et al., 2020). Disrupting access to these children’s Grandview Kids therapists and services would only aggravate the problem.

When considering the populations Grandview Kids serves, challenges of online learning coupled with a lack of at-home recreational activities can prove to be frustrating for children with physical disabilities. Furthermore, developing social skills and social interaction is one of the hardest issues for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Hills, 2020).

We have witnessed many families in crisis since COVID-19 took over our lives, as supports for their children were impacted while service providers figured out a response plan. While the fallout continues, the adverse effects on children’s health and wellbeing increases every day, making access to agencies like ours even more critical.
Dr. Carolyn Hunt, Medical Director, Grandview Kids

Grandview Kids’ safe-re-opening strategy means that these families were once again connected to the life-changing care they had come to rely on. It has been a learning experience for Grandview Kids teams, but they are united in a shared purpose to continue offering the quality, compassionate care that families have come to know and expect from Grandview Kids.

Physiotherapist with mask and screen stretching a child on a ball. Safety measures of physiotherapists in the Covid-19 pandemic. Osteopathy, therapeutic chiromassage — Child receiving physiotherapy treatment.

Grandview Kids continues to innovate its service delivery approach in response to COVID-19. We offer virtual sessions across programs and disciplines, as well as in-person appointments, appreciating some families and children prefer face-to-face interactions, while some therapies and assessments are not conducive to telepractice.

Despite the pandemic, demand for our paediatric medical and rehabilitation services continues to grow across Durham Region, exceeding 19,000 children and youth every year. Backed by the ongoing support of our local community, Grandview Kids remains committed to delivering exceptional services to families who need us, especially as we look ahead to beginning construction on our new Centre of Excellence and headquarters in Ajax.

References:

Bartlett J.D., Griffin J., Thomson D., 2020. Resources for supporting children’s emotional wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Child Trends. Retrieved from: https://www.childtrends.org/publications/resources-for-supporting-childrens-emotional-well-being-during-the-covid-19-pandemic

Charlesworth, J., Representative for Children and Youth (2020). Left out: Children and youth with special needs in the pandemic. Retrieved from: https://rcybc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CYSN_Report.pdf Hills F. The Atlantic; 2020. The Pandemic is a Crisis for Students with Special Needs. Retrieved from: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/04/special-education-goes-remote-covid-19-pandemic/610231/

HOPE, CELEBRATION, DISCOVERY, BELONGING

These four words guide the planning and development of the NEW Grandview.

Recently during a Zoom project planning meeting, Family Advisory Committee member Marilyn Robitaille had to turn off her camera. “I am sorry I had an emotional moment; I didn’t suspect when I was doing that rally years ago that I’d end up in a meeting planning the layout of the NEW Grandview. I realized just how much work went to get to this meeting, it’s surreal”, Marilyn expresses.

There is so much emotion and passion for the project that is evident when discussing the NEW Grandview Children’s Centre. It could be easy to get caught up in the “work” of all the planning for the new Centre, however, Grandview Children’s CEO Lorraine Sunstrum-Mann says the planning team makes a point to anchor every meeting and conversation to hope, celebration, belonging and discovery. “These words were deliberately selected as they resonate the most about how the children, youth and families we serve are reflected in the work of Grandview and how we intend to bring the strategic plan of Grandview, and importantly the values that have guided Grandview and been cherished by the community for 67 years, forward into the new facility”, Lorraine notes.

Meetings are occurring regularly and consists of members from Infrastructure Ontario, the Government of Ontario, Expert Consultants from B+H Architects and Colliers Project Leaders and Grandview Children’s Centre. The Project Management Team meetings open with the sharing of a “Grandview Moment”. These moments outline the stories of the children, youth and their family’s life experiences and the impact Grandview has had in their lives. This helps to ground all parties in the reason this new facility dream is so important to Durham Region families.

The Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is a very significant milestone. At the end of this RFQ process, Grandview will have selected three teams to receive a Request for Proposal (RFP) and ultimately, one of those three will be selected as the finalist to complete the design and construct the new Grandview. This is a P3 project, which means the building of the new Grandview is guided by Infrastructure Ontario, partnering with the Government of Ontario, Grandview Children’s Centre and ultimately the selected team. Those who have been following the project funding will know the Government of Canada, and of course, many citizens, businesses and organizations across the Durham community and beyond are also key partners and supporters in funding the project.

There are several milestones ahead of us. The first is evaluating all of the potential teams that respond to the RFQ and then narrowing it down to the three most qualified to be able to design, build and finance this project. Those top three teams will then respond to a Request for Proposal (RFP) targeted to be released at the end of March 2021. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it is going to take a village to build the new Grandview. There are many people, companies and organizations involved in this project. Grandview has requested that the team awarded the final contract to build the new Grandview source labour locally whenever possible for this project as we recognize the employment needs, and we are so grateful to so many in our community.

To summarize the timeline of this project, the RFP will be released at the end of March 2021 and throughout approximately six months following that, the design teams will put together their bid. Decision for teams will take place in Fall 2021 with this process closing in likely early 2022. Groundbreaking TBD. Fall 2021 will be RFP open period and unless it is purely ceremonial, it should be delayed. Construction is projected to start between January 2022 and March 2022, and that is followed by a two-year construction plan with a substantial completion between January 2024 and March 2024.

Although seemingly a major challenge to face, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided helpful insight regarding any required new infection prevention and control precautions to be considered into the planning of the facility. Lorraine mentions that “[working through a pandemic] has allowed us to review our project and make sure that the new Centre can flex, when we encounter another pandemic or health emergency and can avoid having to interrupt our services where possible”. In addition to flexible space, the new building will provide adequate physical space to do group work and other large gathering activities.

When asked to reflect on this RFQ release milestone in the life of Grandview as the CEO, Lorraine says, “I think that this is one of the most significant moments in Grandview’s journey in terms of watching this project move from a dream to a reality… [this milestone] is signalling to the market that it’s time to let Grandview know if you’re interested in being the team that bids to build the new Grandview… we are getting very close to handing the detailed planning over and asking someone to convert the words and our story into a final design”.

Hope, celebration, belonging and discovery are lifting and guiding us as we inch ever closer to the goal.

Foundational family services are tailored to children’s needs and stages of development

TORONTO — Ontario is providing families in the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) with services to support their child’s ongoing learning and development. Foundational family services such as family and peer mentoring, caregiver workshops and coaching will be tailored to the unique regional and cultural needs in different communities. These services will build on existing virtual and remote options introduced during the COVID-19 outbreak. The first phase of foundational family services is part of the ongoing implementation of the new needs-based, sustainable and family-centred OAP.

“Feedback received through public consultations and the OAP Advisory Panel highlighted the importance of having ongoing capacity-building supports available to families,” said Todd Smith, Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. “That’s why family supports that put children at the centre of care are a key element of our new needs-based Ontario Autism Program. We know having virtual services as an option during this challenging time has become critical to families and service providers.”

The first phase of foundational family services is launching on August 7, 2020. Services will be offered at no cost in a variety of formats with individual and group supports and virtual and in-person sessions. Options may vary during the first phase of implementation as providers continue to expand their services and as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted. For example, families may participate in an online group workshop to learn strategies to help toilet train their child and then receive one-on-one clinical follow-up afterward, or they may access coaching sessions to help with managing challenging behaviours. The services are based on a family’s changing needs over time and their child’s needs, strengths and developmental stage.

“In these unprecedented times, the needs of children and youth on the autism spectrum and their families are greater than ever,” said Marg Spoelstra, co-chair, OAP Advisory Panel. “It is encouraging to see the new foundational family services being implemented province-wide as recommended by the panel and now through the sustained efforts of the OAP Implementation Working Group.”

Families can contact select Ontario Autism Program service providers to learn more about the types of supports currently available in their community.

“Ontario’s publicly supported providers are ready to increase their offerings for this essential component of the new OAP,” said Jennifer Churchill, CEO of Empowered Kids Ontario – Enfants Avenir Ontario. “Building on the system that is in place aligns with the recommendations of the OAP Advisory Panel. The government is responding and that’s good news.”

Since announcing the new needs-based Ontario Autism Program in December 2019, the ministry has:

launched a variety of interim early years supports focused on younger children on the waitlist to help build skills in social communication, engagement, speech and language and emotional regulation;
made it easier for families to receive funding by streamlining and reducing administrative steps;
begun development of a new user-friendly family website, the future one-stop-shop to register for the OAP, apply for funding and get updates on status in the program.

“We are working extremely hard to implement an Ontario Autism Program built by the community, for the community that supports the needs of families and their children,” said Minister Smith. “This significant transformation will lead us to a sustainable, needs-based program that will provide all families access to supports and services no matter where they live in Ontario.”

QUICK FACTS

Foundational family services are one of many service pathways that families will have access to in the new Ontario Autism Program.
These pathways include accessing: Core services like Applied Behaviour Analysis, speech language pathology, occupational therapy and mental health services; Early intervention and school readiness services to help young children access critical services when they will benefit most, and to prepare them to enter school; and Urgent and complex needs services to support children and youth who are in service, or are waiting for service, and have significant and immediate needs.
In July 2019, the Ontario Autism Program budget was increased from approximately $300 million to $600 million annually to help ensure it is both needs-based and sustainable moving forward.

LEARN MORE

July 27, 2020

Architectural firm and project manager named for new Grandview Children’s Treatment Centre Redevelopment Project

The site for the new Grandview Children's Centre in Ajax, Ontario

The Grandview Children’s Treatment Centre Redevelopment Project has taken an important step forward with the selection of B+H Architects as the planning, design and conformance (PDC) team and Colliers Project Leaders as Grandview’s project manager.

B+H Architects will prepare project documents, including output specifications that will form the guidelines and performance requirements that the successful building team must meet when preparing the design. The team will also monitor construction progress and provide coordination and oversight during commissioning, completion, and transition to the new facility.

Colliers Project Leaders will support the management of the project on behalf of Grandview Children’s Centre by providing advice on the output specifications, procurement, contract administration and post-occupancy stages.

The vision for the new Grandview Children’s Centre is to support the seamless and coordinated provision of family-centred care for children and youth with physical, communication and developmental needs and their families. It will be an open, welcoming and inclusive community-based paediatric facility supporting an integrated mix of rehabilitation, medical and clinical services, education and research activities.

The new Grandview Children’s Centre will include:

Centre-Wide Therapy Services: occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech-language pathology, recreation therapy, audiology, infant hearing, blind low vision, social work;
The Ontario Autism Program and services
Developmental Paediatric Medical Services including specialist medical clinics,
Campbell Children’s School
Family resources services,
School-based rehabilitation services, and,
Preschool outreach program.

Once complete, Grandview will consolidate the existing main site in Oshawa and multiple satellite locations into one purpose-built site at 1465 Harwood Avenue North, Ajax. Grandview will maintain three satellite locations to reduce extensive travel times for some clients and their families

Grandview Children’s Centre will be working closely with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services and Infrastructure Ontario to deliver the project under the public-private partnership model.

As the next major step, Grandview Children’s Centre and Infrastructure Ontario will issue a request for qualifications (RFQ), inviting teams to submit their credentials to design, build and finance the new facility. The RFQ is expected to be released in late summer 2020.

For more information, visit: https://infrastructureontario.ca/Grandview-Children%E2%80%99s-Centre-Redevelopment/.

About Grandview Children’s Centre:

Grandview Children’s Centre provides expert paediatric assessment, treatment and rehabilitation services to children and youth with physical, communication and developmental needs. Grandview’s main facility in Oshawa was built in 1983 to serve 400 children. Grandview’s demand has now reached over 19,000 kids with more than 11,000 waiting for services. As the only children’s treatment centre in Durham Region, Grandview’s work has broad impact in our community, changing lives daily.

For more information about Grandview Kids, visit: http://grandviewkids.ca/.

For updates, follow @GrandviewKids on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Media Contact:

Avori Cheyne
Director, Strategic Communications, Partnership and Engagement
905-728-1673 ext. 2240
Avori.Cheyne@grandviewkids.ca