Archive for category: News

At its August 7 meeting, the NOHT-ÉSON’s Planning Table endorsed Bethesda as a new member of the network. This marks an important step in ensuring the needs of individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities are meaningfully included in regional health planning.

For over 85 years, Bethesda has been the region’s largest provider of services for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. With a broad range of programs spanning childhood through adulthood, the organization is rooted in person-centred care, evidence-based and trauma-informed practices, and collaboration across systems.

“Bethesda supports individuals and their families from birth through to end of life,” said Paul McGowan, Chief Executive Officer. “We offer clinical services for children, youth and adults, supported living, supported independent living, day programs, and respite supports for adults and children — all designed to help people live meaningful and fulfilling lives. Our work intersects with health care every day, and joining the NOHT-ÉSON gives us an opportunity to ensure people with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities’ needs are meaningfully included in regional planning.”

Comprehensive Supports Across the Lifespan

Bethesda provides services through three major streams:

• Children and Youth Services, including autism programs, school-based supports, and community services.

• Adult Clinical Services, offering behavioural therapy, speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, and intensive programs for individuals with complex behavioural needs.

• Supported Living, including group homes, supported independent living, day activities, and a unique family home (home share) model.

With over 620 staff and more than 175 individuals supported in residential settings, Bethesda plays a critical role in supporting Niagara’s most vulnerable residents. Its partnerships extend across sectors, including close collaboration with Niagara Health, the justice system, local school boards, and post-secondary institutions like Brock University and Niagara College.

A Voice at the Table

A key priority for Bethesda in joining the NOHT-ÉSON is ensuring that individuals with developmental and/or intellectual disabilities are fully represented in health system conversations.

“People with developmental disabilities are people first — and their health needs are often more complex, but no less important,” McGowan noted. “By having a seat at the table, we can help reduce system barriers, prevent unnecessary hospitalizations, and create smoother care transitions.”

Bethesda already collaborates with many NOHT-ÉSON partners, including participation on the Mental Health Working Group. The organization also has a dedicated social worker supporting individuals with developmental disabilities experiencing prolonged hospital stays and Alternate Level of Care (ALC) needs — a shared priority with both the NOHT-ÉSON and Ontario Health.

The NOHT-ÉSON looks forward to working alongside Bethesda to strengthen integrated care, improve outcomes, and ensure the voices of people with developmental disabilities are represented in planning and service delivery across Niagara.

Click here to learn more about Bethesda.

Speakers at the Niagara Falls Community Health Centre’s Primary Care Expansion announcement. From left to right: Terica Larmond, Chair, Board of Directors, NFCHC; Wayne Gates, MPP for Niagara Falls; Laura Blundell, Executive Director, NFCHC; Tara Galitz, Executive Director, NOHT-ÉSON.

Niagara Falls, ON – Today, the Niagara Falls Community Health Centre (NFCHC) announced $2.696 million in new funding from the Government of Ontario. The funding will expand its staffing to provide primary care and wrap around services to attach an additional 3,800 people with a focus on equity-deserving individuals. It will also work closely with the Niagara Ontario Health Team – Équipe Sante Niagara (NOHT-ÉSON) and its partners the Niagara Medical Group Family Health Team and Niagara North Family Health Team to attach an additional 2,500 residents in the first 12 months.

“Meaningful attachment to primary care is a fundamental component of an effective health care system,” said Laura Blundell, Executive Director of the Niagara Falls Community Health Centre. “NFCHC has built an interdisciplinary, community-based model of care focused on keeping people with unique needs well. We’re extremely grateful to the Government of Ontario for this investment, which will enable us to provide our services to more individuals.”

“For far too long, families in Niagara Falls have struggled to find a family doctor or access timely, consistent health care,” said MPP Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls). “This funding is an important step toward closing that gap and making sure no one in our community is left behind. I’m proud to see nearly $3 million coming directly to the Niagara Falls Community Health Centre to help thousands of residents — especially those who need care the most — finally get the support they deserve. Primary care is the foundation of a healthy system, and I’ll keep fighting to ensure every person in Niagara has access to it.”

“The NOHT-ÉSON values the Ministry of Health’s commitment to providing the much-needed support to interprofessional primary health care in Niagara,” said Tara Galitz, Executive Director of the NOHT-ÉSON. “This funding is essential in enabling greater access and attachment to health professionals, ensuring people who face barriers to health can access the comprehensive care they need from interprofessional teams in their community.”

If you or someone you know doesn’t currently have access to a primary care provider, call the Niagara Falls Community Health Centre at 905-356-4222 to get connected.

On June 21, the Niagara Ontario Health Team – Équipe Santé Ontario Niagara (NOHT-ÉSON) proudly joins communities across the country in honouring National Indigenous Peoples Day—a time to celebrate the vibrant cultures, enduring languages, and diverse traditions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples. This is also a time to reflect on our relationships with each other, the Treaties between our peoples such as the Two Row Wampum and commitment to respecting them.

Taking place on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, this day holds deep cultural and spiritual meaning for many Indigenous Peoples. For generations, the solstice has marked a period of renewal, connection, and celebration—a sacred time to gather, reflect, and honour ancestors, teachings, and the enduring strength of Indigenous identities.

This year, we mark National Indigenous Peoples Day with both celebration and genuine reflection.

As devastating wildfires continue to sweep across regions of Canada, we extend our thoughts and solidarity to the thousands of Indigenous evacuees who have been displaced and are now in Niagara Falls and other parts of Canada, away from their home communities. Their forced displacement, due to the climate crisis and compounded by historical and systemic inequities, reminds us of the urgency of culturally responsive emergency response, trauma-informed care, and environmental stewardship grounded in Indigenous knowledge. We also recognize how important it is for Niagara partners to come together in a coordinated fashion to offer support, which has happened in many ways since early May.

We are committed to continue working together across Niagara to ensure that those who have been displaced feel supported, respected, and cared for in ways that recognize their dignity, traditions, and autonomy.

Here in Niagara, the NOHT-ÉSON is committed to actively supporting the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples through relationship-building, community-led engagement, and sustained efforts to decolonize health and social services. Since the inception of Niagara’s OHT, Indigenous Peoples have been identified as a priority population, and our work continues to evolve with humility, guided by the knowledge and voices of Indigenous community members and leaders.

Over the course of 2023 and 2024, the NOHT-ÉSON was privileged to support the development of a community-led Indigenous Health pillar—now a cornerstone of our Strategic Plan. This process, guided entirely by Indigenous voices, culminated in a strategic goal and set of objectives that reinforce our shared commitment:

Strategic Goal

To ensure that our health and social care services reflect Indigenous values, prioritize Indigenous voices in decision-making, and integrate Community perspectives into all levels of planning.

Among the key priorities are:

• Ensuring care is identity-affirming and culturally safe;
• Eliminating mistreatment and premature death;
• Prioritizing holistic care aligned with Indigenous values and traditions;
• Upholding Indigenous data sovereignty; and
• Creating integrated community services that honour language, land, and culture.

We acknowledge that truth must come before reconciliation, and that reconciliation is a long-term, ongoing responsibility. It begins with listening deeply, acting with accountability, and standing in solidarity—not only in moments of celebration, but especially in times of adversity.

On this National Indigenous Peoples Day, we renew our pledge to centre Indigenous voices in everything we do—from governance and planning to service delivery and evaluation. We raise our hands in respect and gratitude to the Knowledge Keepers, Elders, youth, and leaders who continue to guide this work.

May this day be a reminder of the resilience, brilliance, and beauty of Indigenous Peoples and the work ahead of us to ensure there is cultural safety across our systems and improved health outcomes for all.

St. Catharines, ON – The Niagara Ontario Health Team – Équipe Santé Ontario Niagara (NOHT-ÉSON) is very pleased to announce the appointment of Tara Galitz as its new Executive Director, effective April 14, 2025. Tara succeeds Sabrina Piluso, who has led the NOHT-ÉSON through a foundational period of collaboration and innovation.

With over a decade of experience in the community health sector, Tara brings with her a deep passion for health equity, system integration, and strategic transformation. Her professional journey includes impactful leadership roles such as Lead for Policy and Stakeholder Relations with the Alliance for Healthier Communities, Director of Primary Care at the Centre de santé communautaire Hamilton/Niagara, and most recently, Senior Director of Clinical Health Services at Lamp Community Health Centre in Etobicoke.

Tara is no stranger to Niagara. During her time with the Centre de Santé, she was actively involved in early conversations around the formation of the NOHT-ÉSON and participated in shaping the submission that led to its approval. “In a way, it feels like I’m coming back home,” Galitz shared. “I was able to gain so much connection and understanding of the reality on the ground that led to the development of what is now the NOHT-ÉSON.”

Her return to the region is driven by her strong belief in planning, interconnectedness and the need to remove the barriers to care in the health and social systems. “I’m very passionate and dedicated to the whole concept of planning and interconnectedness—being able to look at the health and social services system as a whole,” she said. “I strongly believe there cannot be a one-size-fits-all solution. We must apply a health equity lens intentionally, not just as an afterthought.”

Tara is eager to demonstrate that Niagara has an efficient, integrated, and responsive health and social care system. “With the creation of the NOHT-ÉSON, there is both an opportunity and expectation—from the community, the Ministry of Health and Ontario Health—to prove that this is an organized ecosystem that functions in a coordinated, high-performing way,” she explained.

Frank Ruberto, Co-Lead of the NOHT-ÉSON Planning Table, extended a warm welcome to Galitz on behalf of the network’s leadership. “Tara brings a wealth of experience in community health and system integration, along with a deep commitment to equity and collaboration—values that are at the heart of our shared vision for Niagara,” said Ruberto. “We are excited to have her leadership as we continue building a more connected and responsive health system.”

Ruberto also expressed great appreciation for Meredith Maxwell, the NOHT-ÉSON’s Project Manager for Population Health, who stepped into the role of Interim Executive Director during the transition. “We are incredibly grateful to Meredith for her steady and thoughtful leadership over the past few months. Her dedication has been key to maintaining momentum and ensuring a smooth handover, helping to set the stage for continued success.”