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Equity in the health care system in Ontario has been a barrier to our health care system due to the size of our province and the ability to provide the same level of care to an individual that lives in a remote area as we would to the urban community. The same holds true for access to mental health and rehabilitation services. In this week's discussion we are looking at an article that deals with autism services and the inability for our provincial health care system to provide quick access to these services. Access to these services is difficult even in the urban areas and logically it would be even more of a barrier in our more remote areas of the province. Virtual care has shown great promise in providing medical care to remote areas and this avenue can be used for social services to provide behavioural support for parents that have children with autism.

Some barriers to virtual care can be access to technology, internet service in rural areas and IT knowledge. In the case of behavioral modification techniques, virtual care would not allow the therapist to have one on one time with the autistic child, but they would be able to health teach the parents in these therapeutic techniques which would leave the success rate more in the hands of the family. Virtual childhood autism therapies would increase the equity of care and would assist to provide these therapies to those who live in rural communities in Ontario who would otherwise not have the availability of these programs.