OASW’s Response to the 2019 Pre-Budget Consultations
This year, OASW made both an oral and written submission in response to the Honourable Minister Victor Fedeli’s invitation to participate in 2019 Pre-Budget Consultation. When planning for the 2019 Budget, we recommended that government:
(1) Immediately increase rates of social assistance and at a minimum, reinvest any savings found in reducing the red tape in these programs back into such an increase.
(2) Implement a publicly funded, structured psychotherapy program provided by social workers and other non-physicians;
(3) Place social workers in all hospital EDs to prevent unnecessary, and avoidable mental health admissions;
(4) Provide funding to school boards to hire more School Social Workers to improve the mental health of children and youth, and;
(5) Create 30,000 units of supportive housing for vulnerable populations over the next 10 years and increase funding for the provision of consistent, wrap-around supports attached to these units.
For full details, please see PDF attached.