Multi Focal

Program Opens

Residential

Community

Dr. Baum realized that only an actual demonstration of her innovative and progressive methods would eventually bring about public funding. She decided not to wait for public funding and opened the Children's Treatment Centre as a private school. Her objective was to provide treatment to those challenging children who had been rejected by the regular school system as a result of the severe manifestations of their complex handicapping conditions.

In 1979, Dr. Baum opened Thera Studies, a private school for children with multiple developmental disabilities with three staff members and seven students. At that time, students had to pay tuition for their treatment because no public funding was granted. Thera Studies stands for therapy and study, which are at the foundation of the educational and treatment approach used at the school.

Within only one year of its inception, in 1980, Thera Studies had acquired a reputation as a children's treatment centre that successfully provided treatment to the most difficult children in Metro Toronto. With this recognition the number of students grew to 16 and the Ministry of Community and Social Services started to provide funding to some of the students on a purchase of services basis. However, some families were unsuccessful in their efforts to secure Ministry funding for their children and had to continue paying tuition fees.

Dr. Baum strongly believed that every child, regardless of his/her race, religion or financial situation, is entitled to receive the education and treatment he or she requires. Thus, in 1980, she established the Muki Baum Association, a charitable organization with a sole and limited function of raising funds to pay for the treatment of the children who did not succeed in securing Ministry funding.

The school's reputation grew. Its continuous success in treating the most challenging children and adolescents in Metro Toronto and vicinity brought more students requiring services and treatment. By 1983, the school already had 36 students who came to it desperate and without hope. Thera Studies was a last resort for most of these children. Now they were being referred not only by their parents, but also by other agencies and school boards. Even the Special Need Unit at the Ministry of Community and Social Services utilized the school to find treatment solutions to their most complex and challenging cases.

In 1984, with the forthcoming proclamation of Bill 82 - the Educational Act, the Ministry of Community and Social Services became concerned that no additional Ministry rehabilitation funding would be granted for the purchase of services in private schools.

This lack of funding meant that the challenging students treated by Thera Studies would once again have no treatment program suitable for them and therefore become cases on the case load of the Special Needs Unit in the Ministry.

In order to secure the continuous education and treatment of these hard to serve children, through a unique and unprecedented move, Dr. Baum was asked by the Ministry of Community and Social Services to turn Thera Studies into a publicly funded agency.

In September 1984, Thera Studies became a publicly funded agency, and the name "Muki Baum Association", which was never intended to be more than the name of a small fundraising charitable organization, become the operating name of the agency.

Finally, five years after the inception of the Thera Studies Treatment Centre, children and their families were able to receive the treatment they needed at the Muki Baum Treatment Centre without worrying about paying or securing the funding for tuition fees. The service was given free of charge.

The funding for the Muki Baum Children's Treatment Centre was shared by two Ministries: The Ministry of Community and Social Services covering the cost of the treatment aspect of the centre, and the Ministry of Education via the North York Board of Education covering the cost of the educational aspect of the centre.

The centre grew in leaps and bounds during the following three years. Many children in dire need for this specialized treatment applied and the number of students from all over Metro Toronto and vicinity served at the Muki Baum Treatment Centre grew to 60. The number of staff increased to 42 including special educational teachers, educational assistants and therapists.

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The Multi - Focal Approach

Since the school's inception, art, creativity and psychotherapy have been fundamental elements utilized in the treatment of the students. The school was one of the only treatment centres in the world for children with developmental disabilities and severe emotional or psychiatric disorders, i.e. dual diagnosis, using art therapy, music therapy, dance therapy and Sandplay Therapy in the treatment of these children. Dr. Baum's revolutionary Multi-Focal Approach provided the therapists and the classroom staff with the in-depth, humanistic treatment framework within which these expressive arts therapies and creative classroom teaching techniques were used.

The children, who experienced constant failure before coming to the centre, started to flourish and for the first time in their lives, experienced success. With the improvement of their self-image, they no longer needed to use aggressive behaviours to communicate their needs and to push their human environment to take care of them.

Kids grow up and become adults. A need for an adult treatment centre emerged upon the forced graduation of the first group of young adults. In 1987, as a result of negotiations between the two funding Ministries, the Ministry of Community and Social Services took upon itself the responsibility to solely fund a separate Adult Program. It also made a commitment to provide to the Adult Program, annual expansion funding for the graduates of the Children's Program. This commitment was kept until 1994 when it was cancelled due to Ministry cutbacks and budget restraints.

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Adult Program Opens

The Muki Baum Treatment Centre for Dually Diagnosed Adults was opened in September 1987, with the 16 adults who had graduated from the school and seven staff members. During the 1987/88 school year the Adult Program was housed in one room at the Children's Treatment Centre.

The struggle to provide the people served with the environment suitable for them propelled the negotiations with the Ministry. Dr. Baum was able to convince the Ministry of Community and Social Services that to have 16 adults and seven staff members in one room was too crowded and stressful, and thus was negatively affecting the quality of their treatment. Additionally, Dr. Baum explained to the Ministry that Adults need to learn to function in an Adult Environment, so that they will be able to develop an adult self-image and adult life skills rather than see themselves as children who attend school.

In 1989, as a result of Dr. Baum's efforts, the Muki Baum Treatment Centre for Dually Diagnosed Adults moved to its new quarters and has since expanded to serve 60 adults with 38 staff members.

The Multi-Focal Approach provided the treatment foundation to the Adult Program as well. Through this use, expressive arts therapies proved to also be efficient in the treatment of adults with dual diagnosis. Similar to the Children's Program, the Adult Program soon became the program that accepted the most challenging cases in the system. The Adult Program manifested the success that can be achieved if proper in-depth, creative psychotherapy is provided in addition to the use of a humanistic training program, which focuses on the teaching of vocational, social and life skills.

It is the normal course of human development that adults eventually leave their parents' home to establish their own independent life opportunities. As Dr. Baum advocates, such life opportunities should also be available to adults with disabilities. However, public funding is needed so that this development, which is natural to people without disabilities, will also be available to adults with disabilities who want to move to their own homes.

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Residential Program Wins Support

Throughout Muki Baum's history, dreams and plans for new programs became a reality when the need for solutions to challenging situations emerged in the system. Thus, an opportunity presented itself and the expansion trend continued. In the later part of 1991, the Ministry of Community and Social Services approached the Muki Baum Association and asked that a High Support Residential Program be developed for 10 adults who lived in an institution. This was exactly the opportunity that Dr. Baum was waiting for. Through negotiation, the Ministry agreed to add money to the funding of these 10 adults in order to serve five additional individuals whose parents did not place them in institutions but rather took care of them at home all these years. These five adults from the community formed the third house, which the Association built in 1992. To provide these 15 adults with high quality of life content, an extensive High Support Residential Program was developed within which these new concepts were implemented.

The same thorough approach used in the development of each of the previous programs, Dr. Baum and the Association developed the new program. The three houses were specifically designed to create the suitable physical environment for the residents. The physical design incorporated concepts of space, color and light to enhance a therapeutic, healing environment which proved to be efficient in supporting the establishment of the residents' improved quality of life and their emotional well-being.

The development did not stop with the Residential Program. The Association continued to grow and venture into new areas. The realization that people with developmental disabilities and emotional/psychiatric disorders have artistic talent came through the experience gained through the therapeutic work, which is one of the corner stones of the treatment approach used throughout the Association. In expressive therapy, the end product of the creative act is not judged according to artistic standards but is perceived as the by-product of the therapeutic process. Nonetheless, the artworks created revealed that some children and adults served by the Association have artistic talents. In 1993 The School of the Arts emerges with the Ability Beyond Disability Project. With Dr. Baum's leadership, research and guidance, innovative art teaching methods were developed. In 1995 the School of the Arts has officially opened its doors. It provided the students with an opportunity to learn how to create high quality art and strive to achieve a life direction for themselves. This art education program provided an opportunity the School of Art students to exhibit their work in the community in various shows and presentations.

The School of Arts had 5 full time students served by six full-time staff. It served students from the Children's Program and adults from the Adult Day Program. In addition, the realization that there might be other people with disabilities in the community who have artistic talent, motivated us to expand our services in 1997 and offer art instruction in an Outreach Program to people from the community and other agencies.

For Dr. Baum and the Association, the School of Arts, which was a unique and innovative program, was an essential component in achieving the goal of improving the quality of life of the people served. For the Ministry, however, art and art education are not considered to be essential to the lives of people with developmental disabilities. As a result the Ministry of Community and Social Services had not provided funding to the School of Arts nor to its Outreach Program. Rather, the school had been supported by the fundraising efforts of the Association.

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Community Living Initiative

While the Ministry did not cover the cost of the programs at the School of Arts, it had funding available for the development of programs for the repatriation of people who lived for many years in institutions and who were re-integrated into their communities of origin. The Muki Baum Association became part of this Community Living Initiative (CLI) and in 1997 opened its high support sixplex apartment program. The funded move of these CLI individuals enabled some of the more veteran residents of the Muki Baum Association, who came from the institutions to the Association in 1992 and 1993, to move to a more independent life in the sixplex apartment program. The new, more needy, CLI individuals were able then to receive a higher level of support in a group home residential setting. In total, the Association integrated 12 new residents through the CLI initiative.

Three of the CLI individuals were integrated into the Muki Baum Association's newest adult resident. A group home that was purchased at the end of 1997 with the funds raised by five families who worked for more than five years to develop a high support residential solution for their high needs, challenging adult sons and daughters. The house was opened in February 1997.

Obtaining funding for the operational dollars needed for the house was a different matter. Through the Ministry's Quality of Life Project, three of the five families were able to secure partial funding for their adult children. The families of the other two high needs, challenging individuals were not successful in obtaining any funding from the Ministry. To offset the large deficit of the operational cost of this high support group home, three individuals from the institution who have been fully funded by the CLI program were integrated into the house. The remainder of the annual operational deficit of this group home has been covered through the fundraising efforts of the Association.

In 1997, in a letter to the Ministry of Community and Social Services, Dr. Baum developed a concept of a therapeutic, high support treatment group home for children. At that time the Ministry rejected the request. However as the Muki Baum Association's history has shown, a situation occurred in the system in which the need for such a treatment house became urgent. The Muki Baum Association was asked to submit a proposal for this program and in November 1999 the first Muki Baum Association Children's High Support Treatment Group Home, with a capacity of five beds opened its doors, to date three children have moved in.

By no means is this the last Muki Baum Association program approved for funding by the Ministry. Toward the end of 1999, Dr. Baum was able to obtain funding approval for the creation of a new Section 19 Children's Day Treatment Program in York Region. The Program opened at Holy Family School in York Region, September 2000, with 18 students.

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