Healthy Babies, Healthy Children program needs additional funding: MOH

Healthy Babies, Healthy Children is an important program that requires more funding, says Haldimand-Norfolk’s acting medical officer of health.

“This program has been around for a long time but it has suffered somewhat because there hasn’t been an increase in funding in quite some time,” Dr. Joyce Lock said.

Speaking at a Monday meeting of the Haldimand-Norfolk Health and Social Services advisory committee, Lock said the program identifies families and children who are at high risk of “adverse” childhood experiences.

“These are situations which are called toxic stress situations, where a child is continuously under stress due to multiple factors,” Lock said. “Multiple studies over the years have shown that continuous exposure to toxic stress ends up changing the way the brain develops.”

Lock said many people think a child who has had a negative childhood will get over it if they are moved to a more positive environment later in life.

“But they don’t because the way their brain developed in those critical early years has changed the way it responds to stress,” Lock said.

High levels of stress lead to social, emotional and cognitive problems and adoption of high-risk behaviors such as substance use. That is followed by health issues heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic obstructive lung disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and suicide.

Lock made the comments prior to a presentation on the program at the advisory committee meeting.

The health unit will spend $967,200 on the program this year with most of the funding ($892,100) coming from the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services. The balance of $75,100 comes from local taxes collected by the two counties.

There were 1,045 babies born to families living in the two counties in 2022. Of those, 93 families consented to participating in the voluntary and free program which includes regular visits by public health officials.

In a report prepared for the advisory committee, Nicky Los, a program manager at the health unit, said the program hasn’t had a funding increase since 2015.

Citing the lack of a funding increase, combined with increased costs and demand for services, Los said the health unit needs more funding to ensure sustainability.

Norfolk County Councilor Linda Vandendriessche said she well remembers discussions years ago about the importance of giving children a good start.

But while some progress has been made, Vandendriescche said more needs to be done.

“Where I don’t think we’ve made any progress is with the school boards,” Vandendriescche said. “I think the school boards have a particularly important role to play in this.”

Vandendriessche said new schools should include daycare centres. The centers would put the children in a positive environment earlier and there is a need for daycare in both Haldimand and Norfolk.

Meanwhile, Lock said she could bring the issue to a group called the Council of Directors of Education and the Council of Medical Officers of Health.

“There is a group from across the province of some of the directors of education from across the province and some medical officers of health who meet and they do work collectively to move issues of common interest forward,” Lock said. “The school nutrition program is something that they’ve worked on continuously for a long time.

“I could bring this issue to them as well.”

The medical officers of health also have a ‘healthy kids’ working group and Lock said she can also bring the issue to their attention.

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