The good-natured atmosphere of this 21st Dr. Julien Foundation on Saturday stood in contrast to the words of its concerned founder at the end of a third week of teachers' strike in Montreal, which he described as “dramatic” for children.
Posted at 12:09 p.m.
About twenty young people fight for the ball on the basketball court in the Oliva-Pelletier Park in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, which has been converted into a soccer field for hockey shoes for the occasion.
The game takes place under the encouragement of dozens of parents gathered with hot chocolate and coffee in hand: one of the many activities organized near one of the 46 collection points across the province.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Gilles Julien
On the sidelines of the game, while the choir prepares, Dr. Gilles Julien nevertheless paints a bleak picture of the situation of several vulnerable children who are cared for by the Community Social Pediatrics Centers (CPSC) affiliated with his foundation.
“The pandemic has affected everyone, including adults, and here we are facing a school strike that is dramatic for many of these children who lack resources and a lot of things and who have not managed to get out of it yet,” he said complains.
We're bringing back another signal from society that maybe they're not that important.
Gilles Julien, speaker and founder of Dr. Julien Foundation
School, an essential service
Furthermore, Dr. Gilles Julien difficult to explain why school is not considered an essential service, which would require school service centers to keep them at least partially open. “You don't close the school, you keep a few important people, in the gym, in the library, a group of teachers who distribute books to the children,” he suggests.
The doctor is also concerned about the safety of some children who are left to fend for themselves at home due to a lack of resources or contact from their parents. “Some tell me they spend 12 hours a day in front of screens. Where are we going? “, he sighs.
And Dr. Gilles Julien knows something about this, while the foundation's large annual donation in his name allows its affiliated CPSCs to raise money to fund their mission: helping at-risk children.
“Social pediatrics is about collecting children who are escaping the system and living in toxic environments or great vulnerability and relying on our bond with that child to develop their children, to encourage them to go to school and not to consume,” explains Dr. Julien.
Growing needs
The care provided by these centers includes medical, legal, psychosocial, psychoeducational and educational follow-up care, as well as innovative therapies (art therapy, occupational therapy and music therapy) and specialized services (speech therapy, psychology, child psychiatry and neuropsychology).
However, he confirms that needs are growing, “with fewer and fewer resources”. What Dr. sees as particularly deficient is Julien addresses the field of mental health.
For example, he reveals that young people referred by CPSCs to certain hospitals for suicide attempts are sent back there because there is a lack of resources to care for them.
“We're compensating in a way for what we don't want to do. We want them to come to us and then bring them back into the system, but there is so little accessibility,” he laments.
The Dr. Julien Foundation says it helps nearly 12,000 disadvantaged children across Quebec every year.