One mother's weekly journey in raising her special needs children.
OK, so sometimes things are not exactly as they seem. Last week I reported on a service to register your autistic kid so in the event he or she takes off and gets into a sticky situation, a cop can look them up in a database. I didn’t quite get it right because no kidding, just the week before I wrote that, the service, which I said was being run by the Ottawa Police Services (OPS) was actually transferred to MedicAlert Foundation Canada, a not-for-profit organization. You know them. You no doubt have seen their bracelets before.
The MedicAlert Connect Protect service is what I reported last week, a service that gives emergency responders and healthcare providers quick and secure, 24/7 access to a subscriber's electronic medical profile. Any vulnerable-sector person (including autistic people) can add their information to the MedicAlert database to help police assist them during an emergency situation.
This is all great and as I said, it will provide peace of mind to parents and caregivers. But there was one word in all of this that bothered me: the word SUBSCRIBER.
MedicAlert naturally charges for the service and you also have to pay for the bracelet. It is a not-for-profit so it is hard to complain but it still costs money. How much? For one year, it is $60 per year plus the cost of the medical ID bracelet, which starts at $39.
For more information on the MedicAlert Connect Protect service, please visit ottawapolice.ca/MedicAlert or medicalert.ca/ConnectProtect. You can also call 1.888.769.5437.
Even though it isn’t a free service, MedicAlert has such a proven track record I am doing it for my boy anyway.