“Having heard parent’s experiences with negotiating has helped my family greatly. I was very prepared in our latest meeting with FSCD. I hope more parents come out to these events, it sure has helped me and I’m sure others will gain very valuable knowledge that you will use sooner or later. I know sometimes it sounds negative but really, we are advocating for our child and we must keep ourselves educated on what is available and what they qualify for. Parents that have been there and done that are by far the best resources.” -Autism Calgary Member and Parent

An evening session will be held on June 19th 2011, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm – at our charity office #174, 3359 27 Street NE Calgary. For families in rural locations or unable to travel to the Autism Calgary office – we will be trialing online participation via SKYPE. Our Skype user ID is: “autismcalgary”.

Families that have found these information and discussion sessions to be invaluable include; families new to the FSCD program, families looking for support for negotiating contract renewal, and families that are looking for new ways to make use of supports to improve the quality of their family life. While Autism Calgary staff is there to share accumulated knowledge from supporting families for twenty years – the interactive discussions of families in attendance sharing their individual experiences is always extremely helpful.

The following is only a small sample of the situations or questions that bring people to these discussion groups:

• Things are great, our FSCD caseworker has given us a generous contract. We want to learn how families use FSCD supports to improve the quality of life.
• Our request for funding in an area of support has been declined, we want to learn from other families before considering challenging this decision?
• We have been told that certain FSCD supports are only granted to children of a certain age, is this true?
• We are unable to find a caregiver with the rates offered by the FSCD, is it possible to have these rates increased?
• Given our family situation, we cannot be present for all hours of intervention therapy, for that reason we have been told we are ineligible for support. We wish to challenge this decision, how do we start?
• The professionals providing services to our family recommend another year of the same services, however our caseworker leads us to believe that we may not be approved. How do we advocate for the appropriate services for our family?
• Should I sign an FSCD contract when I don’t agree with the terms?
• Things are in a crisis in our home and/or the school, we are in urgent need for more supports, how do we impress upon the urgency to our FSCD caseworker?
• How do you find qualified people to support your child and/or family?
• We want to learn about the tools available to us to challenge an FSCD decision (the local confict resolution process, mediation, the Review of an FSCD Decision form, and formal provincial appeal hearings.)
• FSCD representatives have not made a decision on the contract, however the prior contract has expired and we have no services in place – What can we do?

To Register for this session leave a message with your name and contact information. In the event we must change the location, all registered participants will be contacted.
Click here to Register by Email or by telephone call 403-250-5033 and dial Zero

(Also leave us a message if you intend to connect via Skype.)