Hyundai Canada is donating $500,000 to the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation in Ontario, a move that kicked off a $3.1 million fundraising effort to support the construction of a new child and adolescent mental health inpatient unit.
That unit, which will have six beds and is an expansion of the existing outpatient services, will be located at the Oak Valley Health’s Markham Stouffville Hospital (MSH). It is meant to fill a gap in child and youth mental health support in the York and Durham region. The project has been in the works for the past 10 years due to fundraising difficulties.
“Since the pandemic, there have been more kids in crisis than I have ever seen in my career. I can’t think of a family in this day and age that hasn’t been impacted,” said Dr. Rus Sethna, Chief of Psychiatry at Oak Valley Health, in a statement. “The need for this unit at MSH is something we have to address as our community gets bigger.”
In a news release, Hyundai said the need for paediatric mental health beds and the services that support this has significantly increased across the Greater Toronto Area in recent years. As a result, the Eastern York Region North Durham Ontario Health Team, which serves 18 communities, does not have acute care services for children and adolescents. The admission wait time is 10-18 hours just for placement.
“Supporting today’s youth for their success tomorrow is one of the core tenets of Hyundai’s larger ethos of ‘progress for humanity,’” said Kirk Merrett, Hyundai Canada’s Director of Human Resources and Administration, in a statement. “Every child deserves to be able to access the support they need within their local community.”
