TORONTO —MukiBaum Treatment Centres’ founder psychologist Nehama Baum has been helping children and adults with developmental disabilities and emotional disorders for more than three decades.

MukiBaum Treatment Centres founder Nehama Baum stands next to a painting that will be featured in the Inner Treasures, Outer Expressions annual art exhibit opening March 3.

With eight group homes, an adult day treatment centre and a children’s day treatment centre, MukiBaum serves about 175 people who cope with a combination of developmental disabilities and emotional and psychiatric disorders, such as autism, Down syndrome, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

Baum said that over the years the centre has helped hundreds of people. While some people stay with MukiBaum all their lives, others eventually gain enough independence to be integrated into the school system, or get a job.

“Since I was young, I was interested in kids who are different from us, kids with disabilities,” said Baum, adding that when she was a young woman living in Israel, she volunteered at an organization that helped children with cerebral palsy.

In 1958, Baum obtained a social-work degree with a specialization in therapy for families who have a child with cerebral palsy.

Just a year later, Baum’s professional  and family life collided when her son, Michael (Muki) Baum, was born deaf and with cerebral palsy.

In an effort to provide her son with the best care, she decided to move to Canada in 1976.

After only a few years, her son became completely independent and eventually lived in his own apartment. Although Muki recently suffered a cervical spinal cord injury, which confined him to a wheelchair and forced him to move back in with his parents, he continues to contribute his time and effort to raise funds for the centre that bears his name.

Since Baum founded the organization, she has implemented the multi-focal approach she developed, which is based on the belief that you must evaluate the person as a whole, rather than just focus on the behaviour.

“One of the basic principles of the multi-focal approach is that we are not trying to fit a round peg into a square hole,” Baum said. “Our job is to really figure out what is underneath the behaviour.”

 She added that the centres were structured to fulfil the needs of the MukiBaum community. For example, the adult day treatment centre provides its members with a 53,000-square-foot space that houses sensory, vocational and art programs that provide therapy through music, art, drama and sports.

“Another thing that is very important is that we don’t look at the disability. I always say, ‘We see the person, not the wheelchair… We look at the human being who is there. This really fits into everything we are doing.’”

She hopes that the annual art exhibit, Inner Treasures, Outer Expressions – which features art produced by members of the MukiBaum community – will help people appreciate that even those who cope with disabilities and disorders can be talented, contributing members of society.

“This is an opportunity to showcase their talents. We had tremendous success last year,” Baum said, adding that more than 30 paintings from last year’s exhibit hung in Lt.-Gov. David Onley’s office at Queen’s Park for months.

“I want people to realize that even people who are non-verbal can have tremendous talent. That, for me, is the mission of the art exhibit,” Baum said. “It’s beyond raising awareness – it’s about appreciation.”

This year’s art exhibit opens on March 3 at the Centre for Ability Art Gallery in the adult treatment centre and it runs until the end of May. She said she hopes people from the art community will visit the exhibit and recognize the value of the art program.

Although MukiBaum is a government-funded institution that allows people to benefit from the centres without having to pay a fee, Baum said that most of the funding goes to paying the salaries of the professionals working at the centres. Funding for many of the programs come from private donations, most of which are raised at an annual fundraising gala. This year, The Possible Dream Gala will be held April 9 at the Riviera Parque Dining Banquet Centre in Concord, Ont.

“We cannot take everyone that really wants to come [to the centres]. It depends on whether we have the space or if there is funding,” she said, adding that it costs about $12 million a year to run the centres.

For more information about ­MukiBaum, visit www.mukibaum.com.