Where is Developmental Healthcare on the Children’s Health Continuum?

November 24, 2025

Check out the latest SPARK podcast to find out

Two Ontario leaders discuss developmental healthcare on Children’s Healthcare Canada’s latest SPARK podcast. (Season 5 – Episode 18.) Jennifer Churchill, EKO President & CEO and Alison Morrison, CEO of Pathways Health Centre for Children in Sarnia, get together with Dr. Katharine Smart, pediatrician and former president of the both the Yukon and Canadian Medical Associations, to discuss the vital role of community-based developmental health providers in the children’s healthcare system—and how to integrate this sector with acute, ambulatory, mental health, and well-being—into an updated system for cooperation and collaboration.

In other words, what does it take to right size children’s healthcare?
Sustainable development starts in the early years. Developmental healthcare, delivered by specialized allied health professionals and developmental pediatricians, is provided at critical moments in a child’s development.

As many as one in six kids has a disability or developmental need; Ontario’s Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services estimates about 30 per cent of all kids starting school need clinical care delivered by developmental health professionals.

Developmental health providers are essential partners to primary and hospital care. Yet children’s healthcare is fragmented—it’s not seen as a continuum or a system. That means opportunities for early intervention for kids’ health are not always included in children’s health planning and funding, even though investing in systems, policies, and clinical care during this time can change the trajectory of a child’s life while providing the bedrock for human capital development and economic growth. Health system leaders and policy makers need to see child health as a continuum that moves between community and hospital (for those that need this care) and then back into the community.

Churchill and Morrison share some fundamental facts about developmental healthcare in Ontario:

• The sector is experiencing a surge in demand that significantly outpaces supply: for every two kids who move into care, agencies across the province receive on average, five new referrals.
• Developmental healthcare in schools is delivered to 80,000 kids every year. Another 58,000 are currently on waitlists for care in schools, and those kids are waiting more than 480 days.
• Referrals have increased by as much as 149% in the past few years, despite the sector’s efforts to increase care.

How do we integrate and right size children’s healthcare? Check out the SPARK podcast to find out!

 

You can also listen to the podcast at this link.