Excerpts from the press release:
Many children and youth with special needs in rural and northern Canada lack essential services. Where services do exist, they are often culturally or linguistically inappropriate.
The latest data show that health, prevention and early intervention services and special education are in short supply across the North and in parts of rural Canada. What's more, unique cultural and geographic realities in these regions demand distinctive and innovative approaches to serving children and adolescents with special needs.
Meeting the Needs of Children and Adolescents with Special Needs in Rural and Northern Canada, is the summary report of a roundtable for policy-makers co-hosted by CPRN and CECASN in Thunder Bay in September, 2005. Roundtable participants reviewed the key findings from the past five years of CECASN's research with an eye to its implications for policy and action.
The report presents policy principles and recommendations for filling the gap in services for children and adolescents with special needs in rural and northern Canada.