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Help coming for those on home-care waiting list
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Feb 10 2012
Facing continued criticisms about 10,000 people on waiting lists for home care, Health Minister Deb Matthews says changes are coming to get help to more people…. Money from home care filters down from the health ministry to local health integration networks and then community-care access centres that handle requests for care from the public before funding gets to agencies with nurses, personal support workers and other staff providing services to patients… administrative and case management costs totalled 30 per cent of the home-care budget…
Tags: budget, disabilities, Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
ORNGE air ambulance service now run by Ontario deputy minister
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Jan 11 2012
… top executives at ORNGE, which gets $150 million in taxpayers money a year, had set up a warren of for-profit companies in what they described as an attempt to “leverage” the public assets of a service that was created to fly sick and injured Ontario residents to hospital. Meanwhile… ORNGE was late to some emergency calls and failed to provide proper coverage in certain parts of the province… executives of the for-profit companies were called into boardrooms and told their services would no longer be needed.
Tags: budget, Health, privatization
Posted in Health Delivery System | 2 Comments »
Affordable housing deal between Ottawa and Queen’s Park finally signed
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Nov 08 2011
A new $481 million program to bring new or renovated affordable housing units to about 7,000 Ontario families will only put a dent in the problem, but is nonetheless welcome, a Toronto city councillor said Tuesday… Housing advocates say about 152,000 Ontario households are on waiting lists for affordable housing and an estimated 20 per cent of tenants are paying more than 50 per cent of their income on shelter.
Tags: homelessness, housing, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Liberals promise ‘summer school’ for primary grades
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Sep 01 2011
Children in Grades 1 to 3 who are struggling with reading, writing and math could go to summer school next year if the Liberal government is re-elected… The voluntary $9 million program would create spaces in 250 schools across Ontario for 7,500 pupils who rank below the provincial average in their test scores. The tutoring would last two weeks and be offered free of charge. Teachers will help get kids “over the hump” with more solid skills on the basics as they move to higher grades.
Tags: standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
More Ontario JK students will get eye exams, free glasses
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
June 20, 2011
In partnership with optometrists and makers of eyeglasses, a program that waives about $300 in fees to get glasses on junior kindergarten pupils needing them will expand… the program that started in 2009 [is expected to be] rolled out province-wide by 2015. The problem is that although eye exams by optometrists are covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan for children 19 and under, about 80 per cent of kids starting school have never had their eyes tested — and statistics suggest up to one-quarter of them will have vision problems that can be corrected
Tags: Health, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Ontario mental health system faces overhaul
Thursday, December 30th, 2010
December 29, 2010
Ontario is going to change the way its “fractured” $3 billion mental health system works so that people get steered to the help they need… follow(ing) a report from an expert advisory panel slamming the bureaucratic maze of agencies and government ministries offering a patchwork of services that often reach people too late — after they’ve had a breakdown or ended up in jail. The result is that the justice system and hospital emergency rooms get swamped with cases that could have been dealt with more effectively — and at less cost to taxpayers — in community programs.
Tags: Health, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Ombudsman charges G20 secret law was ‘illegal’
Tuesday, December 7th, 2010
Dec. 7, 2010
It was “illegal” and “likely unconstitutional” for Premier Dalton McGuinty’s government to pass a secret regulation that police used to detain people near Toronto’s G20 summit of world leaders last summer, says Ombudsman Andre Marin. In a scorching 125-page report entitled Caught in the Act, Marin said the measure “should never have been enacted” and “was almost certainly beyond the authority of the government to enact.”
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Parties unite on mental health push in Ontario
Friday, October 8th, 2010
October 7, 2010
In a bid to boost mental health services in Ontario, opposition parties are teaming up with former Ontario health minister David Caplan on a private member’s bill to streamline the system from childhood to adulthood. His bill would shift responsibility for children’s mental health efforts to the health ministry from the ministry of children and youth services…. The problem is that, with different ministries in charge, adolescents “get lost” in the system and need to be re-evaluated as they pass from one level to the next…
Tags: disabilities, Health, mental Health
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
$45M dental-care boost protects poorest children
Friday, October 1st, 2010
October 1, 2010
Ontario is expanding free dental services for poor children to include preventative care such as check-ups, cleanings, X-rays and fillings… The free services will be available immediately through Ontario’s 36 public health units, but parents must first fill out applications and meet eligibility rules — having an family net income below $20,000 and no access to other dental coverage. Details are available at www.ontario.ca/healthysmiles.
Tags: mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Working poor shut out of dental cash
Friday, June 11th, 2010
June 11, 2010
Deb Matthews said the province doesn’t have the resources to keep a promise of providing a dental plan for Ontario’s impoverished adults. Instead, the $135 million earmarked three years ago for affordable, routine care for adults struggling to pay the pricey fees of licensed Canadian dentists, will go to their children… Thirty two percent of Canadians do not have dental insurance and 17 per cent of residents across the country avoided seeing a licensed dentist last year because of cost, according to a recent Health Canada report.
Tags: Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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