Registered Disability Savings Plan (RDSP), the new catchword buzzing around these days brings both good news and the bad. It sounds like a good plan, one that appears to be a fair solution to somewhat bring us a sigh of relief when it comes to planning for the financial future of those we personally take care of today. This was the topic of presentation made at the Quinte Autism parent meeting at Family Space on Jan. 25. The somewhat bad news is that today the plan is offered only at the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank in Belleville. The personal experience of one of the resource consultants while setting up the plan for a client at one of these banks seem to be not so savoury either. It appears that at this time, bank employees are not exactly ready to help set up this plan in person. One is offered the benefit of handling all paperwork over the internet while at one of these bank. Not too promising a picture yet on getting help to wade through the maze that will eventually take you to the path you want to be on as far as what you want out of that plan for your child. So many factors and so much information to file through before you can be assured you've done your best for the future of your dependant. Best thing to do, in my opinion, is to make sure you read up all relevant information you need online at home before heading to the bank. Here is one helpful website for priming yourself on all that is RDSP is http://rdsp.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/rdsp-fact-sheet/
Follow the links for more input and you will be well on your way towards setting up the seemingly helpful plan.
Please browse the blog at your leisure. You are welcome to comment on the posts. If you are a parent, an autism consultant, counselor, teacher with information on autism resources available in our area, please email your information to benziesangma@gmail.com. Your information will be added within 24 hours.
At School Social Stories
Local Autism Support Groups
Parents Engaging Autism Quinte (PEAQ), an autism parent support group, meets once a month on the first Tuesday of the month (no meetings in January, July and August) at Kerry's Place, 189 Victoria Avenue, Belleville at 6:30 to 8 p.m. If you have questions or suggestions for autism topics that are important to you please go to our FaceBook account and post your suggestions so that we can invite appropriate autism professionals to speak at these meetings.
Autism parent support group meeting hosted by Mental Health Agency, Trenton and Military Family Resource Centre (MFRC) is on every second Thursday of the month (from September to June) from 6 to 7:30 pm. For more info, please contact Bryanna Best, Special Needs Inclusion Coordinator at 613 392 2811 ext 2076 or email at bryanna.b@trentonmfrc.ca
For info on Community Living Prince Edward County Parent Support group, contact Resource Consultants @ 613 476 6038
Central Hastings Autism Support Group meets in Madoc at the Recreation Centre. Contact Renee O’Hara, Family Resource & Support, 613-966-7413 or Tammy Kavanagh, Family Resource & Support, 613-332-3227
Parenting your child during Covid-19 pandemic
In it for the long haul...
I created this blog with my sincere wish that those of you reading this will want to share your own stories, both good and bad, what worked for you and what didn't and together, we can make it easier for the next family beginning their own journey of discovery. By posting what you know, where you have recieved certain services, who you have talked to, whose expertise you trust, how you navigated the school education services and by responding to questions in the discussion thread, know that you have helped a family in need. So, parents, experts in the field, counsellors, teachers and everyone who has any information on resources available, please feel free to post on this blog.