October 10, 2000 For Immediate Release

Health Canada has funded a new Centre of Excellence that will allow Lakehead University in Thunder Bay and the University of Northern British Columbia to focus on improving the quality of life for special needs children and adolescents living in northern communities.

The Centre will conduct research and evaluate programs around the world in an attempt to develop and implement local solutions to the problems faced by special needs children and adolescents. More than 40% of Canada's children and teenagers live in communities with fewer than 100,000 people and 72% of young aboriginal people live in small, rural, and remote communities. The children with special needs who live in these communities face unique challenges: limited professional services, large distances to access services, limited local awareness of services, etc. "This population of children and adolescents is extremely under-served and their needs simply can not be addressed when policy is developed in metropolitan centres," says Max Blouw, UNBC Associate Vice-President for Research. "This Centre of Excellence will review current practices and suggest models of service provision that can be implemented in northern and rural areas across the country."

Special needs children include those who have developmental disabilities, such as brain injury or Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

"This Centre will contribute to ensuring that regardless of where young people with special needs live in Canada, programs for promoting their optimal development will be accessible, available, and linguistically and culturally appropriate," says Stan Dromisky, Member of Parliament for Thunder Bay - Atikokan.

The Centre of Excellence for Children and Adolescents with Special Needs will be supported by more than $500,000 per year over the next five years. Lakehead is the lead institution for the program in partnership with UNBC, Mount St Vincent University in Nova Scotia, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the Government of Nunavut.