Description
This course provides an overview of funding sources for assistive technology across Canada, with an emphasis on wheelchairs and seating systems. Canada’s system for accessing funding is complex and uncoordinated. Funding may come from multiple sectors, including government, charity, and private insurance programs. We launched a website called AccessATCanada as a resource to assist with system navigation and to support clients, caregivers, and others to learn about funding programs that may be available. Suppliers and clinicians are in key positions to support clients to access reliable information so they can make more informed choices and better advocate for their needs.
Rosalie Wang, PhD, OT Reg.(Ont.) is an Assistant Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto, and Affiliate Scientist, KITE-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. As an Occupational Therapist she worked in Canada and the UK in long-term residential care, acute care, subacute stroke rehabilitation, homecare, and a specialist mobility seating and positioning clinic. Her current research focuses on developing and implementing technology to enable daily activity participation and social inclusion of seniors. As an AGE-WELL investigator she co-led a national project on enhancing equitable access to assistive technologies in Canada.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will be able to identify different potential sources of funding for assistive technologies from multiple sectors in Canada, including government (federal, provincial/territorial/municipal), charity (international, national, regional, local), and private insurance programs.
Participants will be able to describe the system navigation website AccessATCanada and how such a resource might support suppliers, clinicians, and consumers to identify funding sources.
Participants will be able to discuss opportunities and strategies for suppliers and clinicians to support clients and caregivers to access reliable information related to wheelchairs and seating systems so they can make more informed choices and better advocate for their needs.