Child Treatment Sector
A message from the desk of Deb Gordon, Chair of the Child Treatment Sector of
OPSEU
The
upcoming provincial election could play an important role in funding for
Children’s Mental Health Services
To all OPSEU members working in the Child Treatment Sector:
As you probably know the provincial election is scheduled for
October 10. This provides us with a great opportunity to educate the
politicians about the important need for increased core funding for children’s
mental health services so we can better meet the needs of our clients and attend
to the many who are stuck on waiting lists.
People who have chosen to work in children’s mental health show
their commitment to improving the lives of Ontario’s children and youth, their
families and our communities every day. I’m writing to ask for your help by
taking that commitment a step further.
Whoever is elected in October will be making decisions on
whether to increase, cut or maintain funding to our agencies and will decide
whether to flow the dollars as stable core funding or targeted, one off project
funding.
Your OPSEU Sector Executive has been working hard since the last
election to educate MPPs and Ministry officials about the need for increased
funding and the serious problems with targeted funding that doesn’t cover the
overhead and administration costs and forces agencies to cut important
programs. I’ve included a copy of the most recent leaflet we’ve been using in
our lobby efforts.
We’re hoping you can join our efforts by attending one of the
all candidates meetings in you community to ask all of the candidates for their
position on services for children’s mental health. I’ve included a sample of
the kind of questions that would be useful to ask. Also included are copies of
the pledge we are asking all candidates to sign. We have had great success in
getting signature from the candidates we’ve been able to meet with, but we need
your help in reaching everyone. Please fax a copy of your signed pledges to
OPSEU head office at 416-443-1762. We’re keeping track as to what candidates
support Children’s Mental Health Services!
If you have any questions or successes to share please don’t
hesitate to email me.
Thank you so much for your commitment to the children and youth
we support.
Sincerely,
Deb Gordon
Chair,
OPSEU Child Treatment Sector
dagordon@rivernet.net
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