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How the KFLA Maltby Centre helped such children in the Kingston area.

 
Founded in 1996 as Pathways for Children and Youth, for the Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox & Addington (KFL&A) area, The Maltby Centre employees 130 staff spread over five communities in the region: Kingston, Napanee, Sydenham, Sharbot Lake and Northbrook.
 
The name was changed to honour the organizations founding director JoAnne Maltby. Today Maltby is the lead agency for child and youth mental health and those with autism.
 
Our May 16th, 2022, speaker Karen Fleming assumed the Executive Director’s chair in March 2020 just as COVID struck society. Fleming titled her talk “Creating Healthy Communities” a major feature of The Maltby Centre’s mission statement. Their vision is to create “acceptance, inclusion and a life without borders” for children and youth with mental health issue and/or autism. They are the leading team for the FLA Ontario Health Team (OHT)
 
 
 
 
To create “healthy communities” Fleming emphasized the importance of partnerships. She provided this graphic of some of the partners with special reference to the inclusion of the BGC South-East, the newest partner.
 
 
The Maltby Centre functions on a budget of $18,000,000 with the majority coming from the Government of Ontario. Three key major corporate sponsors who supplement the government funds are the RBC Foundation, The United Way, and the Tyler Lambert Foundation. The RBC & UW funds are applied to young people between 18 and 24 years, whereas the Lambert funds are going to providing healthy sports activities for needy youth.
 

The Impact of the COVID Pandemic on our Youth

Karen Fleming also described the many ways the pandemic affected the mental health of our youth.
She listed10 impacts, however, she also described “the lack school nutrition services, school rehab services, speech language pathology, occupational therapy, and extra-curricular activities which support that cognitive neuromuscular development through sports and music.” In addition, Maltby staff, particularly missed the surveillance role of the schools in reporting children in neglect or abuse.
 
To address the significant impact of inequality which the pandemic, revealed, The Maltby Centre also supplied laptops, cell phones and day sticks to permit those children they serviced who were without such electronic supports to learn virtually and maintain contact with their peers. They even gave them access to their Wi-Fi systems in their cars in their parking lots.
 
Fleming closed with six recommendations. Three long-term ideas at the Provincial policy level were: incorporate child impact assessments in their studies, monitor their investments, especially for inequality, and reduce the unacceptable wait lists. Three areas requiring immediate investment are: expand the range of services, augment crisis support and improve our health resource planning.
 

Watch and Listen to Karen Fleming's Talk