Takes a Plan. A Blog About Families, Disability & Planning

Children, Disability & Support | Introductory Blog

A picture is worth a thousand words, or so the saying goes. However, as we know from our experiences with social media, a beautiful image often leaves out critical information about the person or people in it.

Consider the image above. The photographer’s subject is a young child reaching up to a tree with pale pink blossoms. We may notice that this child is wearing glasses. Although they may be sunglasses they do not appear to be. Important other informtion may be in the child’s background. For example, what is this child’s vision is like? Is she followed by an opthamologist and if so, who takes her to her appointments? Has she ever required eye surgery? Who stays home to care for her if she has done? Does she have a medical condition that involves her vision? If so, what is daily life with this condition like for her? What does she enjoy and how is that being supported? Do her parents ‘live worried’? What are the implications of that (if any) for need of respite? And so on.

Perhaps you are a family lawyer with a file where the parties have a child with medical complexity or disability.

Maybe you are a family mediator facing challenges with portions of a parenting plan.

Or perhaps you are a parent separating from your partner with whom you share parenting a disabled child.

Or maybe you are in a current relationship that could benefit with further planning around issues such as time spent related your child’s care and support.

If you have concerns about the challenges of co-parenting a child or children with a disability or disabilities my Takes a Plan Blog posts may be of interest.  In it I discuss reported legal cases concerning plans of care and provisioning of support. I canvass older as well as recent cases. In doing so, I draw on family law, child welfare law and sometimes, other kinds of decisions involving kids, disability and families.

My 2019 PhD dissertation was centererd on family law cases, child welfare cases and other litigation concerning families, disability and children. It’s long been an interest of mine to follow what’s happening where families, disability and planning are concerned. I started publishing in this area in 2004.

It Takes A Plan but What Kind?

A purposeful plan that accommodates the unique needs of a child is supportive of parents as well as children and extended family. Optimally such a plan would have the benefit of input from professionals who are aware of what the academic work is telling us, as well as being up to date as to what i staking place in legal decisions.

A consultation regarding the crafting of a plan can assist in shaping a proposed plan or help you to modify the plan you already have in place.

We know well that no two children are the same. A child with a disability or disabilities shares both commonalities and differences with other children including those with disabilities. As such, a ‘one-size fits all’ approach to planning parenting schedules and tasks is unlikely to meet the needs of every child with disabilities. Nor of their parents. This is true even when children share the same label/diagnosis.

A consultation or mediation can support family members and their lawyers in addressing the nuances within the everyday realities of support to children with disabilities. Some examples are the need of realistic appraisals of available and reliable support and services in the community where the child/parents reside and where disability services are accessed. This is not as simple as looking at what government websites states is on offer. As well, a realistic evaluation of a child’s health status based on the child’s medical and care history in relation to external expectations of care and parenting is also vitally important.

My Takes a Plan Bog posts provide reviews, examination and commentary on the support of children with disabilities in diverse family contexts. One source of information are Canadian legal cases. Another are the academic articles published in this area, as well as other kinds of publications.

By way of introduction please find the below CAPH presentatipon in which some colleagues and I addressed some of the issue that I take up in Takes A Plan. They can be found at www.caphc.org

Disclaimer: Nothing found or stated in the ‘Takes A Plan’ Blog (c) comprises legal advice. Consult a practicing lawyer in your province or terrtory if you are looking for legal advice on your matter.