Hi,
We have been researching the possibility of emmigrating to Nova Scotia for a few years now and due to one thing and another it has took longer than expected. We are now just about ready to start making themove but i believe have come across another big stumbling block. We have 3 children and the oldest who is nearly 16 has Aspergers Syndrome, a form of Autism. Up until a couple of years ago he was in main stream school but couldn't cope and now attends a school which has the resources. His condition has now deteriated and we are beginning to resign ourselves to the fact that he wouldn't pass the medical or would be seen as a strain on NS resources. Does anyone have a definitive answer to whether i need to forget about Canada or if there is a chance?

Thanks for reading this

Mark

Use the search facility, there have been many threads on this subject.

Not that I would encourage anyone to bring an autistic child to Canada but,

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=685867

Only the immigration officer can give you this based on your application. Other than that, weigh up the pros and cons and you take a chance.

Good luck.

[QUOTE=dbd33;8931268]Not that I would encourage anyone to bring an autistic child to Canada but,

can i ask why you would not encourage anyone to bring an autistic child to canada?? is it down to the child having the condition or a problem with the way canada deals with children with the condition?

thanks

Sorry to sound abrupt, but try a search on forum posts. dbd33 has been through the wringer on this one a million times.

Give him a break. OK?

You DO sound abrupt.
The previous poster is new to the boards and likely knows nothing about the dbd's circumstances. Not everybody finds the search function intuitive, especially when they are new. I don't think it was an unreasonable question anyway.
Give them a break!

To Mark; there are other people who post on here who have children with autism spectrum disorders. If they don't reply directly to this thread, you will find them by clicking on search in the bar above, and select "advanced search" to narrow it down to Canada etc ...

Good Luck.

Mark

From my own experience (and I stress that yours may be different) following the medicals you'll probably be flagged as an 'excessive demand' and CHC will send you a 'Procedural Fairness Letter' saying that your child will costs 'x' amount and will likely need 'x' social services etc. You'll then get 60-days to argue your case and send in a plan of how you intend to cover the identified needs and costs.

It's not all bad news though......

Provided you have the funds you could propose going down the same road as zippy666, who I believe has also settled in NS:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showp...8&postcount=33

I'm guessing that this is the school they chose, which caters for children with special educational needs:

http://www.churchillacademy.ca/AboutUs.aspx

Hope this helps

JP

Oh, no problem there. Dealing with autism gives one a thick skin, not that I think I would otherwise have been delicate.

As I see it:

Canada and, even more so the US, is a relatively easy place to deal with a disabled child. In hundreds of visits to restaurants, bars (the rest of the family has to live, can't stay at home because one child's odd), swimming pools and all the rest, with an obviously autistic person, I can recall only a couple of really unpleasant incidents. Otherwise people were friendly and curious, how many times I heard "is that autism? My nephew...".

But, Canada and, even more so the US, is a difficult place to deal with a disabled adult. In Ontario the government provides a stipend, in the order of $1,000 a month and that's the extent of its involvement. For that $1,000 the family of the disabled person must provide a place to live and whatever care might be required. Not so much "care", as monitoring in the case of an autistic person.

The issue of what happens when the parents die or are incapcitated looms large. The dilemma is the extent to which it is appropriate to pass on responsibility for the autistic person to his or her siblings. Assuming, of course, that they're up for full time care and don't intend to take on a partner who is not. This is very different from the European model in which the government assumes direct responsibility for the disabled person.

to dbd33, my intentions were not to be rude in any way... the reason i ask is that my son has just been diagnosed with aspergers & my husband and i are battling with our feelings on what the best action is regarding PR and i was very much interested in why someone would say they don't encourage to come to Canada.... Thank you for your reply and your insight to what the future could hold for any parent/family in this situation....

to Alberta_Rose.. thank you for your support.. yes you are correct I am new and this is i think my 4th post! I am finding the forums very informative and will continue to use and ask questions i feel are needed, isn't that the point?
Thanks again

Understood.

Asperger's is, of course, at one end of the autistic spectrum and is now widely diagnosed, it may come to nothing or it may result in personality traits that are slightly different than the mainstream, traits that wouldn't make a person "disabled", in my view. In practical terms it's not the same as a diagnosis stated as "autism". Then again, the outcome could be worse. The problem, I think, is that there's no way of knowing. My considered opinion, after visiting autism professionals in several countries over an extended period, is that they know very little about the condition and any good faith guess they make in terms of prognosis is just that.

I think you have to exclude the Asperger's from the emigration decision making process, it can't be a factor because there are too many unknowns related to it. Unknowns specific to the condition and unknowns about the state of the countries involved in twenty years time.

Good luck whatever you decide to do.

Here in NS once your child has been in a public school system and they have a diagnosis and an IPP you can apply for the funding that would have been used for public school to be put towards private schools, Churchill Academy is one of the schools recognized by NS government.

Here is the link to the NS Gov website with more info.

http://tuitionsupport.ednet.ns.ca/

A friend of mine has a child that attends Bridgeway Academy, which is supposed to be a very good school for children with special needs.