Thank you so much.
You're absolutely right. We do not have a rare disease strategy. For many of these kids who we have, their conditions have been diagnosed. I speak for individuals with medical complexity and rare disease.
Many of these kids were never expected to become adults. That's what I'm grappling with every day. Like I said, these kids were given a home for life in Safehaven when we started, 35 years ago.
You can see medical technology.... We have kids on ventilators. We have kids who are on G-tubes. We're really able to sustain life with a lot of medical technology. These kids are set up to actually live into adulthood.
The issue is that they require a life of care. The transition from childhood to adulthood is incredibly difficult. There is no well-established system. When you talk about rare disease and medical complexity, we need to have a very well-thought-out transition program and a safety net.
That's one thing I'm proud of. We just introduced a new program to enable 14 adults to successfully transition from childhood into adulthood. That was supported, actually, by the Ontario government. I would say it is not very usual across the country.
I think it's really important that we think, when these children are born, that they can potentially go into adulthood. What does that look like? How can we support them? We also need to make sure they have a home. You cannot think of good health in the absence of a home for these children.
I hope I've answered your question. For sure, we definitely need a very comprehensive, well-developed strategy from childhood to adulthood to support children with medical complexity and rare disease. I'd love to be a part of that and see it happen.