Opinion: Where does childhood disability healthcare go from here?

As I close out more than a decade leading Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital, I can’t stop thinking of something one parent told me: “The acute care hospital saved my child’s life, but Holland Bloorview gave their life back to them.” As the population climbs, more children and youth with disabilities and developmental differences will have complex needs for which focused rehabilitation brings the possibility of achieving their fullest potential. I’ve seen children’s hospitals and child health research transform the lives of the most vulnerable. Children who even a decade ago didn’t live past their 18th birthdays can now expect to live well into adulthood. Yet their rehabilitation–a specialty long overshadowed by acute care–is in a precarious position. For 850,000 child