The best care is about more than medicine. It’s about understanding what families carry. For families who experience bias and discrimination, non-health factors like income, race, geography, and education can play a significant role in their child’s health outcomes.
“Many families have to decide between paying the rent or putting food on the table,” says Lyndsay Tchegus-Veiga, Senior Director of Client & Family Integrated Care. “When we invest in families in our communities, we can improve health outcomes. If we don’t, then we continue to perpetuate disparities that disproportionately impact people with disabilities.”
The everyday realities of rising costs of rent, groceries and transportation mean many families at Holland Bloorview are stretched thin. That’s why Holland Bloorview is redefining care and accelerating disability inclusion and equity. Because every child with a disability deserves access to care.
Jessica Reid, a social worker and Team Lead at the hospital’s Family Navigation Hub, hears from parents stretching budgets, rearranging work schedules, or leaving jobs to support their child. “This really impacts their ability to access and pay for something like standard housing.”
And housing is just one piece. Getting to the hospital can feel like its own challenge. Parking fees climb quickly. Transit can mean multiple transfers with strollers or medical equipment in tow or long waits for accessible rides that don’t always arrive.
Seeing the full picture of care
When stories like these come forward, they paint a fuller picture of what families are carrying — and how much of that happens outside the hospital walls. It’s part of why families are now asked a few brief screening questions during registration. Using a social determinants of health lens, the hospital’s screening tool helps identify where families might need additional, non-medical support, such as legal aid, income supplements, and more. It also helps identify where families might be falling through the care gaps.
As Joanne Maxwell, Vice President of Experience, Transformation and Social Accountability, explains, “If we serve clients who don’t speak English as a first language, and we’re providing all of our materials to them in English only, then we’re marginalizing a whole group of people.”
Simple details like language, income, or neighbourhood can reveal pressures families may be facing at home. And when this information is paired with what researchers are learning, it helps shape new ways of offering care, suggesting approaches that can improve access, reduce wait times, and provide inclusive care for underserved communities.
These insights also guide the supports already in place at Holland Bloorview. The Family Support Fund helps with equipment, supplies, and home accessibility needs, while the Emergency Transportation Fund helps make travel to and from care more affordable.
But programs like these are only part of the picture. Food insecurity comes up just as often. Joanne has spoken with parents who skip meals or rely on whatever is cheapest.
“If we can help them navigate other resources, it will help them to attend their appointments, seek and receive the services they need from us, and allow them to follow up on recommendations that will improve outcomes,” she says.
That’s why a new food security program at the hospital is being developed to help close that gap. This new program will provide for more healthy and culturally diverse meals, as well as grocery and meal vouchers for our inpatient and outpatient families, and workshops that support food planning on tight budgets.
Families deserve the care they need, whenever they need it, no matter who they are. When we dare to be inclusive, the possibilities are endless.