It's now the MAB-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre

By P.A.Sévigny, October 17th, 2012

As of last Thursday afternoon, the MAB (Montreal Association for the Blind) and the city's well-known Mackay Rehabilitation Centre made it official when they joined their forces (and considerable resources) to create Montreal's MAB-Mackay Centre.
During an impressive tour of the building's facilities, a number of working therapists demonstrated how the renovated centre is now equipped to provide services for the deaf and the hard of hearing as well as for its clients who are blind or otherwise visually impaired.
“Like any move,” said Valerie Shannon, “…this one was complicated.”
As the new centre's Chairman, she admitted that there was a lot of anxiety associated with the efforts to unite the two facilities, “…but in the end, it's going to make a big difference because now we can provide services for both the hard-of-hearing and the visually impaired under one roof.” Shannon further described the centre's new facilities as a big improvement for its elderly clients as their age often makes them susceptible to both afflictions. As public transport is often a problem for people (especially the elderly) with visual and auditory problems, Shannon said the new centre can now offer its patients treatment and rehabilitation services in a single location rather than sending them on to a separate location.
While it was a splendid day for both the centre and its patients, Shannon and other MAB-Mackay Centre officials made a point of mentioning how the centre also offered its services to children with assorted impairments or communication disorders along with people who are profoundly deaf, hard-of-hearing or who have a visual impairment. As of last year, over 4,200 clients received much-required rehabilitation and treatment services from the centre.
While most of the Mackay centre's pediatric services were moved from what many believed to be its overcrowded Décarie Street facilities, Chantal Paul, the new centre's media contact, told The Suburban that approximately 140 special needs children would continue to go to school in the Mackay Centre's Décarie Street facilities which will continue to be independent of the centre's rehabilitation services in much the same way as they were before the move.
“Bringing our services for the deaf and hard-of-hearing to the MAB site is the first step in our overall vision to regroup all rehabilitation services under one roof,” said Christine Boyle who is the executive director of the new rehabilitation centre. “We will now be able to serve this population in facilities that are truly suited to their needs.”n