Additional Resources

Depending on your child’s condition and your family circumstances, you may qualify for additional funding resources, including:

• Fee Subsidy for Child Care
• Assistance for Children with Severe Disabilities
• Special Services at Home
• Disability Tax Credit
• Registered Disability Savings Plan
• Niagara Regional Housing
  

In all cases an application process is involved. The Centre provides regular parent information sessions to inform you of the various resources that may be available to you, as well as regular workshops for families to assist them with filling out application forms. Check our website for dates or speak to one of your clinicians if you are interested in more information.

In addition to this government-supported funding, there are many charitable agencies that can provide funding assistance for families. Please speak to your clinicians for more information about charities that provide funding.

Developing a system that enables you to keep your child’s information (medical or other health information, assessment reports, therapy recommendations) organized is important.

Organizing your child’s health information not only helps you, but can help providers or other caregivers to better know and support your child.

No matter what your personal system, it should be easy to maintain and readily accessible.

Below are some resources that parents have found particularly useful for organizing their child’s health care information:

• CanChild Kit
  
• Mobile Apps: Search your mobile app store for shared care plan, personal health record and caregiver organizing apps such as Caremap, Carezone, MyMedicalApp, and iBlueButton
• Online  Web-based personal health record services such as HealthVault. MyPHR, WebMDPHR, and others can be accessed from computers or mobile devices
• MedicAlert : Provides emergency personnel with access to medical information related to your child

Families often use the Internet as a tool to become informed about their child’s condition, treatments and services that might be available for their child and family, and/or their legal rights. Parents often seek advice and support from online networking groups and forums and these can help shape your plans for ensuring your child and family get the support they need. You should always remember that while the Internet can be a great source of information, there is also a lot of information that is out of date, unreliable or incorrect.

Tips for Internet searching

• Websites set up by the government or recognized institutions – such as public hospitals or universities – usually give information that is for your benefit and often provide practical and reliable information and tips. Rather than “Google” a topic (which may give you thousands of responses), start with one of these sites and follow their links
• If possible, ask your doctor or one of your child’s clinicians for a list of reliable and relevant websites to visit
• Always use more than one website to get balanced information and to check information
• Check the source of the information – who wrote the health information? Is that person qualified to give this information or do they show proper references for information they got elsewhere?
• Check the privacy policy of the website – what information about you do they collect and if you give any personal information, what do they do with it? Some sites may share your email address with other companies so they can advertise to you
• Look for a seal of certification from a trusted organization like the Health on the Net Foundation  – this certifies that the website is accurate, up-to-date, and honest about things like its authors, confidentiality, funding and advertising. Always click to make sure that certification is still valid. You can check the certification of a website using the Honcode toolbar
• Be careful not to believe claims or promises of miraculous cures, wonder drugs and other extreme statements, unless there is reliable proof of these claims
• Never treat information found on the Internet, in a book or anywhere else as medical advice – only a medical professional can give you medical advice after consulting with you and getting details about your child’s condition