Parents of children with special needs who are looking for good information resources should get to know the good folks over at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. They have a wonderful center there dedicated to special-needs children of all ages. In addition, they have assembled an extensive set of information resources to help parents and caregivers, located here. Areas of focus include:
- How to start out with your plan, after the initial diagnosis
- Education
- Financial assistance
- Health care
- Day care
- Alternative and assistive technologies, and much more…
There is even a section on insurance and estate planning (something near and dear to us at Schauer Financial). This section includes helpful information on
[intlink id=”819″ type=”post”]Special Needs Trusts[/intlink].
American Red Cross has various programs available, including disaster relief, infant and child CPR, health instruction services, information and referral, youth activity groups, and preventions and control of chronic diseases.
BestSearchers lists the “best” health and medicine searches. Allows for specialized searches on specific topics as well.
Center for Disease Control (CDC) is the principal government agency responsible for protecting health and safety and for providing essential human services.
Commonwealth Fund (CWF) promotes high quality health care for the uninsured, low-income individuals, minorities, young children and the elderly.
Dartmouth Atlas describes how medical resources are distributed and used in the U.S.
www.disability.gov is a comprehensive web site for all disability resources available throughout the Federal government.
Exceptional Parent Magazine offers information on a wide variety of issues that affect parents of special-needs children. Topics include resources, education, health care, life planning, technology, mobility, sports and toys.
Family Village includes informational resources on specific diagnoses, communication connections, adaptive products and technology, adaptive recreational activities, education, worship, health issues, disability-related media and literature.
Hamilton County Public Health provides information on health care services. An Ohio Local Health Districts Directory is available by county.
Institute of Medicine provides science-based advice in medicine and health.
Kaiser Family Foundation provides information on major health care issues.
Medical and Health Websites provides an alphabetical listing of numerous sites covering a wide variety of medical and health issues. (Site appears to be down, as of October 2011.)
National Center for Medical Home Initiatives for Children with Special Needs provides information about the American Academy of Pediatrics medical home initiative and state resources.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports training, education, research and projects that improve access to health care services.
Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 18 pediatric specialty hospitals where children under the age of 18 receive free medical care for orthopaedics, burns and spinal cord injury care. The Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati treats children with acute, fresh burns; children needing plastic reconstructive or restorative surgery as a result of healed burns; and children with severe scarring.
United Way of America operates an information, referral and crisis telephone service serving Southwest Ohio (Adams, Brown, Butler, Clermont, Hamilton and Warren counties) and Northern Kentucky.
Here is just a small excerpt from their resources, a list of organizations to go to for general information (thanks to Cincinnati Children’s):
Contact info:
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229-3039
513-636-4200 | 1-800-344-2462 | TTY: 513-636-4900