hi all

just in process of selling a house.

hubby is a trucker and eager to move to Cananda, I will be with my special needs daughter, aged 7 and my son aged 18 months.

We are looking forward to a new way of living but just wondering where is the best place to receive some support from other UK families?

basically which areas would you recommend we move to?

Many thanks for any advice x

What kind of special needs?

Hi,
my daughter has language and communication delay, basically she is 7 but is educationally a couple of years behind. You would never know if you met her.

thx deb x

If she is likely to need professionals, such as speech therapists, you may have a problem with immigrating in the first place. I was concerned that she might need something more specialized that might not be available, or might not be government funded, in Canada. I'd suggest avoiding Alberta as it has comparatively ungenerous healthcare provision.

do they not have special needs children in Canada then?

They do. In fact I have one myself. They just don't have much in the way of state funded provision for them and what they do have varies by province, so the programs and facilities available locally might be important to your choice of location. Note also that most programs are very locally administered so participation is a barrier to moving within a city, never mind across the province or country.

How did you overcome the barriers?

That, I think, genuinely begs a couple of questions. If you mean, how has her autism been overcome?, the answer is that it hasn't, she's non-verbal and requires help with the most basic actitivies.

If you mean, how were the hurdles to accessing government funded programs overcome?, the answer is that after a long struggle, we receive a payment of $1100 a month from the government so long as her legal address is a specific suburb of Toronto. The school system is legally required to provide a place for disabled students until age 21 (they can make it difficult though, they can transfer the student to a school fifty miles away) but, that's the end. There are no publicly funded residential facilities of any kind available to the severely disabled here in Ontario; generally the parents and then siblings keep such disabled adults at home or pay privately for a assisted living, group home, or similar place.

My understanding is that despite the grim state of affairs here (the legacy of one Mike Harris), it's worse in Alberta (the legacy of one Ralph Klein). Plainly then if you are dealing with a severely disabled person you're better off in the UK. You say that your daughter is not so severely handicapped and so it's less of an issue for you, nonetheless you should be aware that there is not the culture of government funded support programs here, in Ontario, that there is in the UK.

Of course, this isn't the only consideration in such a drastic move, where have you thought of going?

I am not sure it is worse in Alberta, in fact it could be a great deal better.

We have friends who have a developmentally delayed daughter they have over the years received quite good care and services for her, all government funded.

As an adult she now lives with a "care family" and her cost of care care is subsidized by the province I believe to the tune of around $2,000 per month. It is as I understand it a way to help try and make her more independent.

She also receives AISH and her prescription drugs are all paid for.

On the strength of the above it would seem to be better however the devil may be in the details; is the disability one that's widely recognized, one on every bureaucrat's list?

Suspect dbd33 is right - it probably does vary a lot by province. I can't comment on any province other than NS as I have no direct experience. The Elementary school where my son attends (Ash Lee Jefferson in Fall River, Nova Scotia) looks really good in that regard...they seem to have a great range of different facilities and specialist staff and programs for all manner of needs and those kids that need it seem to have all the help they need (even 1 to 1 full-time specialists in several cases). I'm really no expert in the area but I could get some contact names for you if you wanted to enquire?

NSpaul

We were in Halifax a couple of months ago and decided upon Fall River if we go to Halifax. We have two young children (5 & 3)and went to have a look around Ash Lee Jefferson. We were made very welcome, and did get the impression that it's a good school. However, they did mention that they have had to use temporary classrooms, but to be fair that was the only negative factor we could see. May I ask what your experience of the school is ? Are you pleased with it ?

My son (he is 8) also has language and communication delay. We live in Peterborough, Ontario; he is in St Catherine Catholic School. The help he received so far was very good. He is on an IEP (Individual Education Plan) which the resource teacher works out for him.

Yes, it has a great reputation locally and our son is REALLY happy there - absolutely loves it. Very caring environment and seemingly really fun. Have a great French immersion program too. PM me if you want real specifics. The Fall River area is really growing so the temporary classroom thing doesn't suprise me - they are getting pretty full at over 600 kids.

Thanks - we were impressed by what we saw, the facilities seemed pretty good. Our daughter came away from the school talking about it,which was a bonus.

How have you found the job market over there ?