When Funding Stops, the Need Doesn’t

There is something deeply concerning happening to services that children, youth, young adults and families in our communities depend on — and we need to start talking about it.

Maltby Centre Mental Health & Autism Services has been an important source of support for families throughout Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.

But changes to provincial funding have had very real consequences.

Maltby Centre has previously reported that provincial funding for its legacy autism programs ended in September 2023 as Ontario transitioned toward a needs-based, fee-for-service model. The organization subsequently faced significant financial pressures and staffing reductions.

We can talk about budgets, funding models and government programs all day, but a funding cut isn’t just a number on a government spreadsheet. Behind those words are real people; a parent wondering where they’re supposed to turn next; a young person losing a professional they trusted; a family being told that a service they relied upon is changing or disappearing; and it’s an already vulnerable young adult reaching 18 and discovering that the support system available to them can suddenly look very different.

Turning 18 does not make someone’s needs disappear. Autism doesn’t disappear on an 18th birthday. Mental health struggles don’t disappear. Developmental needs don’t disappear.

A young person doesn’t wake up on their 18th birthday suddenly equipped to navigate adulthood, employment, education, relationships, finances and their mental health without help.

Yet our systems continue to create enormous gaps between children’s and adult services.

For families living in rural communities, the situation can be even more concerning. We already have fewer services close to home. Travelling significant distances for appointments isn’t always possible, particularly for families balancing employment, transportation, childcare and financial pressures.

When a local or regional service disappears, there may not be another comparable option around the corner.

And here’s the part we cannot ignore: when preventative services disappear, the need doesn’t disappear with them. It moves. It moves into emergency departments. It moves into schools. It moves into doctors’ offices. It moves into crisis response.

And sometimes it simply moves behind the closed doors of a family home, where exhausted parents and caregivers are left trying to hold everything together themselves.

We need to stop treating mental health and developmental supports as expenses we can reduce without consequences.

They are investments.

Investing in a struggling young person today can mean preventing a crisis tomorrow.

This is bigger than Maltby Centre.

This is about what kind of community — and what kind of province — we want to be.

We should be demanding sustainable funding for children’s mental health and autism services.

We should also be demanding meaningful transition programs for young adults so that reaching a particular birthday doesn’t mean falling off a cliff in terms of available support.

And our municipal, provincial and federal representatives should be willing to stand together and advocate for these families, regardless of political affiliation.

Because this shouldn’t be political, these are our children, our neighbours, our families.

These are young people who deserve every opportunity to become healthy, independent and supported adults.

We cannot keep waiting until people reach crisis before deciding they are worthy of help.

We need to start asking our elected officials difficult questions about where the funding has gone, what services have been lost, what will replace them and what is being done to prevent vulnerable young people from falling through the cracks.

Most importantly, we need to listen to the families living this reality, because when funding stops, the need doesn’t.

And when a system allows a vulnerable young person to lose critical support simply because funding changed or they reached a certain age, we should all be concerned about what happens next.

Our young people deserve better, and our community should be willing to say so.

- Krista Williams