By LINCOLN DEPRADINE
Programs for seniors and youth in the Black and Caribbean community will benefit from a $1.5 million investment from the Ontario government.
“Our population is aging and we need care for things like diabetes, foot care and even just community connection,” Michelle Tremblay, chair of the board of directors of TAIBU Community Health Centre, said in a recent interview with Share. “And our youth need support and programming for things like mental health.”
Tremblay was speaking at TAIBU’s headquarters in Malvern during a visit by an Ontario government team led by Sylvia Jones, the province’s health minister and deputy premier.
Jones announced that government is investing more than $14 million in 11 “new and expanded inter-professional primary care teams”.
Two of the teams are Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities (SCHC) and TAIBU, which has been providing a variety of programs and services to Canadians of African descent since 2008.
TAIBU, SCHC and the nine other funding recipients “will connect up to 49,000 Ontarians with primary care teams and provide services”, according to an Ontario government news release.
The $14 million, the release said, “is part of Ontario’s $110 million investment to connect up to 328,000 people to primary care providers, bringing the province one step closer to connecting everyone in Ontario to primary care”.
The Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford, in the words of Jones, “is making record investments to ensure everyone who wants to have a primary care provider can connect to one”.
Of the $14 million announced by Jones, SCHC is getting more than $1.3 million.
“This funding will make a significant impact to improving the health and wellbeing of marginalized and vulnerable communities, with timely access to primary care” providers such as family physicians, dieticians and mental health professionals, said Avnish Mehta, an SCHC family physician, who has also been associated with the Scarborough Health Network. “And, it will have the additional benefit of helping take some of the pressures off our emergency departments.”
Mehta applauded the Ontario health ministry “for recognizing the importance of community healthcare”.
The funding underscores the provincial government’s “commitment to bridging gaps in healthcare access and improving the well-being” of residents, said Scarborough North MPP, Raymond Cho, who is also minister of seniors and accessibility. “Health is wealth and healthy residents are the greatest asset Scarborough and Ontario can have.”
Cho was one of four Conservative MPPs who accompanied Jones on the visit to TAIBU.
The others were Vijay Thanigasalam, MPP for Scarborough-Rouge Park; Aris Babikian, MPP for Scarborough-Agincourt; and Scarborough Centre MPP, David Smith.
“I want to thank TAIBU Community Health Centre and the Scarborough Centre for Healthy Communities for their steadfast approach in meeting the growing demands for primary care in Scarborough and beyond,” said Smith.
“TAIBU and SCHC, as core organizations, have always been at the forefront of ensuring that residents of Scarborough can rely on these professional services to cope with their family needs and concerns.”
While “there is still more work to be done”, the government “will continue to expand and create new primary healthcare teams”, Jones said.
“We will continue to take action to ensure that everyone who wants to have a primary care provider will be able to connect to one, and we will get it done because we have excellent partners like TAIBU,” she added.
TAIBU’s funding will assist with such things as the addition of “new mobile and satellite locations to make primary care more accessible” to people in need, Jones said.
The newly received funding is a “significant” investment, said TAIBU’s executive director, Liben Gebremikael.
“Significant because it continues to help us to do the work that we need to do to provide services that are truly culturally appropriate to our community, knowing that the Black community faces major barriers when it comes to health and other social outcomes,” he said.
“There’s more to be done; we require more resources to do more. But I think we have a good foundation, where we’re truly developing a model that is going to meet the needs of those particular communities that are facing barriers.”
Gebremikael said he was grateful for the confidence shown in TAIBU by the government, while Tremblay expressed thanks for the “remarkable contribution” to the organization from the province.
“We’re always looking for support for TAIBU and we’re happy that we have it,” she said. “It makes a lot of sense to have communities take ownership of the programs and services that their communities need.”
Tremblay, in a comment to Share, explained that apart from investing in senior and youth programs, TAIBU also has a demand for more Francophone services.
“We have lots of folks coming from African nations that are French-speaking and also from Haiti. They are asylum-seekers and we need services and support for them,” she said.
