Letter from S. Anson, Neonatal Follow Up Program -BCCH- Ambulatory Clinic

Honorable Mary Polack, Minister Children and Family Development Minister.MCF@gov.bc.ca

Lesley Du Toit, Deputy Minister, Children and Family Development MCF. DeputyMinisterOffice@gov.bc.ca

Premier Gordon Campbell premier@gov.bc.ca



Date: October 5th, 2009

Dear Ministers,

Re: Proposed closure of the office of the Provincial Advisor of the Infant Development Programme

It was recently brought to my attention that there are plans to close the office of the Provincial Advisor of the Infant Development Programme. As a physician and a mother, I would like to add my letter of concern to the collection.

I work as a Pediatrician in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the Neonatal Follow-up Programme at BC Children’s Hospital. We service families from all across the province. Our babies and families are survivors, who have gone through a lot in the first few months of life. We send them home with lots of hope, but also lots of worries about long-term neurodevelopmental issues.

The Infant Devleopment Programme plays a very important role in the follow-up and support of these children. We rely on them to share their child development expertise with families, and to identify children who need further services (ie. Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, etc.). The IDP consultatns help families navigate a very complicated support network for children with disabilities.

I do not understand how any professional body can work without leadership. The IDP consultatnts are certainly professionals in the field of child development and they deserve the support of a Provincial Advisor. This is important for education, for maintaining standards and for keeping sight of the vision of the program.

In my work in the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic, I have realized that there are vast inequalities in the services for children with disabilites in our Province. Children in different communities and with different disabilites receive varying levels of support. It is critical to maintain our Provincial bodies and to strive to give all children equal and optimal opportunities.

As a mother of 2 young children with profound hearing impairment, I have also had personal interactions with the Infant Development Programme. Early Hearing Screening recently became universal in our province. Since that time, the IDP consultants have added one more group of children to their caseload. The IDP consultants received extra training to enhance their knowledge about this special group of children. Without Provincial coordination, this would not have been achieved.

I sincerely hope that you reconsider this decision.



Yours sincerely,




Shelagh Anson, MD, FRCPC
Neonatal Follow-Up Programme, C&WHC BC.