Pandemic reveals funding challenges for early childhood development
Manisha Willms says watching kids and families suffer as a result of the pandemic has been the most difficult challenge she has faced in her almost 30-year career in early childhood development.
The executive director of the OSNS Child and Youth Development Centre says it was heartbreaking to have to temporarily close down all programs and services in the middle of March when COVID-19 took hold in B.C.
Not only did the centre have to close its doors for a few weeks and lose all its government and fee-for-service funding from various agencies, but the children who benefit from the developmental, psychological, neurological and physical programs offered were left without assistance, said Willms.
The shutdown also resulted in numerous casual staff having to be laid off.
After some very dark days, the good news is the core team of full-time staff is now back at work and continuing the efforts that have had such a profound impact on thousands of children and their families since OSNS first opened its doors 40 years ago.
Located next door to Penticton Regional Hospital at 550 Carmi Ave, the OSNS is a multi-service child development centre focusing on children and their families. The centre draws clients from Summerland south to Osoyoos, as well as across the Similkameen Valley and north to Princeton.
Programs include family support, early mental health direct support, early intervention treatment, developmental assessment, autism treatment, social-emotional early years support, extended family support groups, early childhood education, speech and language pathology, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. There is also a popular child-care centre.
The team of employees include specialized clinicians in the areas of speech and language, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychology, social work, behaviour and family support.
Whether children need assistance with routines such as eating and dressing, communication, movement or getting along with others, specialists are there to help.
“Our core service is to provide support for children who are struggling with development,” said Willms.
When the current home for OSNS first opened in 1995, staff assisted about 180 children annually. The number skyrocketed to almost 1,700 in 2019.
“Some children come for only two or three visits … there are others who come three or four times a week for six years,” said Willms. “Our primary focus is for children from birth until school-entry age, but we also offer programs for those in school, particularly those diagnosed with autism.”
The federal government finally recognized about 40 years ago that child development was not best served through hospitals, but rather in separate child development centres like OSNS, so dozens were constructed and opened across Canada, said Willms.
Contracts between the provincial and federal governments and not-for-profit societies like OSNS were designed to allow centres to bill for each of the services it provides.
One problem: “What happened with the pandemic is all of our in-person services ceased,” she said, “so all of our fees for independent services just stopped.”
Attracting and retaining talented, specialized professionals is difficult and employment security is a big part of attracting professionals and having to lay off so many good people and ask those who remain to make significant changes as a result of the pandemic has been difficult, said Willms.
The entire team agreed to work reduced hours for several weeks, and only recently returned to fulltime hours.
“In this day and age, it really was an incredible thing for an entire team to do,” she said. “I remain completely impressed with the grace in which they did it with. As a result, we were able to hang on to all of our young therapists.”
Staff did move some programs and services online, but not every client family can access the internet.
Emergency services were provided to families about three weeks after shutting the doors and more services have returned with each passing week. The combination of virtual sessions and in-person visits for programs and services will continue for the foreseeable future, with home and community visits still prohibited unless there is a compelling reason for it, said Willms.
“We are working at probably two-thirds of our treatment capacity here at the centre, which we are very happy with considering the circumstances,” she said.
The ultimate goal for the child development sector is to access guaranteed, longterm core funding from the senior levels of government to eliminate the fee-for-service model that causes stress and uncertainty for staff and clients, said Willms.
Turning aside children and families on waiting lists due to financial concerns is heartbreaking and must change, she said.
“We are very sad to have waiting lists for pediatric treatment services, there is no other way to slice it.” said Willms. “Seeing a growing number of children waiting for treatment that would be instrumental in their life trajectory is not cool. The allocation of priorities has to change … There is no viable excuse for not helping children. We are asking the government to look at the fragile system of providing funding and looking at doing things differently.”
For more information, contact the OSNS Child and Youth Development Centre by calling 250-492-0295, emailing info@osns.org or visiting: osns.org.