Vaughan's Vitanova Foundation to get makeover with help from Ontario government

Grant offered through Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund will go toward modernizing facility as well as other improvements, upgrades

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 8, 2023
Brian Capitao

The Ontario government understands more needs to be done in addressing mental health, Vaughan-Woodbridge MPP Michael Tibollo said.

On Feb. 3, Tibollo, who is associate minister of mental health and addictions, addressed a small room at the Vitanova Foundation in Vaughan to announce that funding to support critical existing infrastructure is underway.

Tibollo told the room that Vitanova would receive about $110,000 to support its capital structure.

Currently, only three per cent of Ontario’s health budget covers mental health and addiction care, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association.

“We spend on our health-care budget about three to four per cent on mental health and addictions. We should be spending closer to 12 per cent,” said Tibollo, confirming the percentage.

“As we go forward and we increase the amount of beds that we're creating in the province, we can't forget the infrastructure that exists. So that's the reason that I'm here today, is because part of the bigger vision that we have is to make sure that the infrastructure that exists is supported properly, and that we're able to ensure that it doesn't start to fall apart and doesn't start to decrease its viability as a place to help individuals, because a place has to be safe, but it also has to be modern, it has to be up to date so that the people coming in feel safe and comfortable,” said Tibollo in a presser.

Places like Vitanova Foundation provide refuge to those struggling with addiction. The grant offered through the Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund will help modernize the facility and provide funding for improvements or upgrades to roofs, windows, backup generators and other urgent infrastructural needs.

The foundation was started back in 1987 by Franca Carella, deceased wife of former city councillor Tony Carella.

“This grant from the Ministry of Health is going to help with some repairs we need to the building,” said Tony Carella, director of community relations at Vitanova Foundation. Carella now works for the foundation after volunteering for 35 years.

Some people have benefited immensely from the program. Carella shared an anecdote of someone who became a board member after being a client 20 years ago.

“He came by four months ago with his daughter, happily married, having children, working, etc. ... And all of that might not have been possible if he hadn't encountered Vitanova,” said Carella.

Vitanova offers wraparound and holistic services, including family support to families with children in addiction, according to Carella.

Carella explained how clients will often come into the program thinking they can’t be helped but in a residential setting their beliefs about themselves can be challenged for the better.

“The government has made a smart move. And Minister Tibollo deserves a lot of the credit. What this bed-base funding is doing is it's allowing us to put in place, once again, an approach that sort of got dismissed in the last 30, 40, 50 years; that residential settings can -- managed the right way -- have a terrific therapeutic impact on people because it's a microcosm and they can see how they interact with the rest of the world,” he said.