I think the main theme I would underscore is the one the other witnesses have commented on, particularly parents and grandparents. It is that we recognize that childhood disability affects families, and that services and policies reflect that reality.
I think a number of things can be done at the service level, including early intervention along the lines that Suzanne Jacobson described. I think we are too stuck. We doctors in particular are too stuck on making a diagnosis, as if that is necessary, when clearly children with disabilities present functional challenges that can be addressed in ways that are rarely specific to that condition. We need to change the paradigm enormously. So that's one comment about services and the way professionals think about them.
The second, as I mentioned a minute ago, is the importance of recognizing the context of children, which is family, and that services be provided to families rather than just to children.
The third is that I suspect there are ways in which national and provincial fiscal or tax policies and other financial policies can recognize the financial impacts on families, not just of having to pay for services that aren't easily available, but things like tax benefits and employment support for families who have either to change what they're doing, stop what they're doing, or miss opportunities for advancement because they are preoccupied with the well-being of their children.
With respect to research, clearly the wish list would include identification of childhood disability as a major issue in this country, to recognize the prevalence of these conditions, the impact of these conditions on children and on families, and on the reality that these children will become adults who become orphans in the adult world for a host of reasons.
The final comment I would make is that there is an enormous imperative for knowledge translation, which is to say to get the best available research to the people who need to know it. That includes families, service providers, policy-makers. We need to stop doing the things we know don't work in favour of the things we know do work.