CANADA NEWSWIRE VIA COMTEX
June 16, 2008

Children's Treatment Network of Simcoe York awarded $100,000 Prize for Creating Integrated Homecare Model

SickKids Foundation announces winner of the 2008 Rotman Award in Paediatric Home Care Innovation

SickKids Foundation announces winner of the 2008 Rotman Award in Paediatric Home Care Innovation

SickKids Foundation has announced that Children's Treatment Network of Simcoe York (CTN) will receive the prestigious Rotman Award in Paediatric Home Care. This award will help CTN expand its highly successful services delivery model for children with multiple needs in York Region and Simcoe County.

Created by SickKids Foundation and generously donated by Janis Rotman, The Rotman Award in Paediatric Home Care Innovation recognizes the need to focus on and encourage excellence in paediatric home and community care programs as almost 15 per cent of all home care recipients are children and youth. The largest award of its kind, this is the third year of the award. Previous winners include, Capital Health Edmonton Area Home Care Children's Services in 2007 and the Intensive Care Service (IACS) at The Montreal Children's Hospital in 2006.

"What really stood out to the National Selection Committee was how successful the CTN program was in Simcoe County and York Region and how their treatment model is broadly applicable to other settings where collaborative care is needed," said Joanne Kviring, Director, National Grants, SickKids Foundation. "The selection committee felt it was important to support further development of this program and to enable others learn from this evidence-based family centered model of care."

Spanning a service area that reaches from Steeles Avenue in the north of the Greater Toronto Area to Georgian Bay, and providing support to families from urban, rural and multicultural backgrounds, Children's Treatment Network serves more than 4,500 children - from birth to age 19 - with multiple disabilities.

Each multi-needs child requires a complex schedule of therapeutic support services such as physiotherapy, occupational and speech therapy, as well as nutrition services. Parents often struggle to navigate the healthcare, education and community systems in order to find the rehabilitation services and support their child needs. They are often faced with long waitlists, traveling long distances for services not available locally, having to brief numerous therapists on their child's history, and coordinating services from multiple service providers.

The CTN is the first home care delivery model to link over 45 healthcare, education, recreation and social services agencies including hospitals, school boards and rehabilitation providers so they can take a team approach to each child's care. The impact of a single point of contact for a coordinated continuum of care has had dramatic and positive effects on the multi-needs children from the region.

"Support in paediatric home care is critically needed," said Bob Morton, CEO, Children's Treatment Network of Simcoe York. "With continued cooperation with our partners and support like the Rotman award we will be able to expand the range of treatment and services available in the community, while removing access barriers to help kids with physical, developmental, and communication needs progress and participate fully in daily living, school and play."
"The CTN treatment model is scaleable and can be translated from region-to-region across the country," added Kviring. "This is exactly the kind of sustainable and collaborative thinking that the Rotman Award in Paediatric Home Care Innovation was created for."

About Children's Treatment Network of Simcoe York

Children's Treatment Network of Simcoe York is a new not-for-profit service delivery model for children with multiple disabilities and their families in Simcoe County and York Region. This unique integrated network model builds on the strengths of existing service providers, including healthcare, recreation, education, social and community resources, to create a revolutionary new system that provides a single point of contact and single plan of care for children and youth from birth to age 19 who have special physical, developmental, and communication needs. Children's Treatment Network is funded by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services. For further information, please visit www.ctn-simcoeyork.ca.

SickKids Foundation

SickKids Foundation was established in 1972. Its mission is to inspire its communities to invest in health and scientific advances to improve the lives of children and their families in Canada and around the world. Its vision is: "Healthier Children. A Better World."

In addition to its support of The Hospital for Sick Children, the Foundation has a mandate to support children's health on a national basis. SickKids Foundation invests $4 million annually across Canada in paediatric research, focusing on issues important to children's health which have not been addressed elsewhere.

Home and community care for children, youth and families is an area where research was virtually non-existent, and, as the shift of care to the home increased, answers were needed with increasing urgency. For more information, please visit www.sickkidsfoundation.com.