Cerebral Palsy Family Support TM

Dedicated to helping families with children who have Cerebral Palsy or any other Neurological and/or Learning Disability find the support, resources and services they need.

The CP Links Page is where you will find most Federal, State and local County pages.

WHAT IS CP
CEREBRAL PALSY
My attempt to clarify CP you may find the information provided by 'NINDS' (below) is more specific and detailed

TREATMENT of  CP
There are many different treatments and I only name those I am familiar with

Physical Therapy
How it is essential to maintain range of motion

Occupational Therapy
How it is essential to maintain quality of life

Speech Therapy
What I know through my experience By far not even close to what you should know

Medication and Orthotics
Again what I know through experience Much more can be had searching the net or talking with doctors and therapists

CP LINKS
To Federal, State, County, City / Town and School District WebPages. Health links and hopefully links to local disability sites and activity and events calendars just drill down to the page you want

Cerebral Palsy Glossary
Terms used when referring to items related to CP . Many of us may see these on a doctors report and not know what it really means.

• What Causes Cerebral Palsy?

• What are the Risk Factors?

• Can Cerebral Palsy Be Prevented?

• What Are the Different Forms?

• What Other Conditions Are Associated With Cerebral Palsy?

• How Does a Doctor Diagnose Cerebral Palsy?

• How is Cerebral Palsy Managed?

• What Specific Treatments Are Available?

• Drug Treatments

• Surgery

• Orthotic Devices

• Assistive Technology

• Alternative Therapies

• Are There Treatments for Other Conditions Associated with Cerebral Palsy?

• Do Adults with Cerebral Palsy Face Special Health Challenges?

• What Research Is Being Done?

• Where can I get more information?

• United Cerebral Palsy of South Puget Sound UCP has local chapters throughout the entire country. I have never used them except as a reference to other resources.

• Pierce County Coalition for Developmental Disabilities (PC2) Use the Resource Guide to find most every link available in Washington State and especially Pierce County for all types of disabilities.  If you find this site useful please let them know you would like to see it listed as well. Perhaps even an active link on their resource links page.

• (DO-IT) Disabilities Opportunities Internetworking Technology     doit@u.washington.edu  
  Director  Dr. Sheryl Burstahler  888 972 3648 (free)  
  I personally called these people and found them of little help with my particular situation which had to do with school related issues. You may find them more useful than I. They deal more with transitional services and higher education accommodations. They are based at the University of Washington in Seattle.

• Parents are Vital in Education (PAVE)   wapave9@washingtonpave.com
  | 6316 So. 12th St. | Tacoma, WA 98465
  (253) 565-2266 (v/tty) | 1-800-5-PARENT (v/tty) | Fax: (253) 566-8052
  This is a State wide organization whose home office is in Tacoma, WA. They advocate and have information on many types of disabilities. I have personally called these people on a couple of different issues over the years and found them informative but unable to help with the situations I had called them about or in one case somewhat abrasive and adversarial. I found Debbie at their Spokane office much easier to talk with than those here in Pierce county. Perhaps you will get better results. Their website has a lot of links to other resources. ( I personally found I was just as knowledgeable as those I talked with and any information they provided I already had on this site. I would personally not use them for advocacy help as I do not think they would benefit me. However unless you are as knowledgeable as I, you might find them useful.)

• Community inclusion Program Pierce County This program is under WA-PAVE and is a place for the disabled and non-disabled to get together and mingle. My daughter is a part of this program and enjoys going to the meetings which are mostly held in Gig Harbor but they do have some in Tacoma and Puyallup. Do not assume that any whom you meet at any meeting whether it be through the Inclusion Program or any other group has your child's best interests at heart. Best to exercise some parental control and get to know the people with whom you entrust your child. My daughter was very interested in making friends and wanted to have sleepovers at others homes. We did not do our due diligence and as such exposed our daughter to a dangerous situation. She was able to handle it and when she was able to get to a phone, call for our immediate pickup. She was not physically harmed but emotionally she was a wreck. Lesson learned. She still attends the meetings but no longer has sleepovers with any she meets unless we have spent some time with the parents outside of the meetings. She has completed a leadership class at CIP and is now in a position to help others.

• Pierce County Parent To Parent Called these people and was told they dealt mostly with the Asian community or others who were not English speakers. They did however provide some good information I was able to use.

• PCP Program of Pierce County

• EFMP program for Fort Lewis Military

• Brain Injury Association of Washington
  3516 S. 47th Street, Suite 100
  Tacoma, WA 98409
  Tel 253.238.6085
  Fax 253.238.1042
  Helpline 1.800.523.5438 Not exactly CP, but related, Statewide but Home office here in Pierce County

• Parents Support Group 
  Help Resources For Pierce County

• Childfind
  Educational Service Center
  516 176th Street East
  Spanaway, WA 98387-8399 Phone: 253-683-6927
  Actually a program that can be accessed from most school districts, my children are in the Bethel School District so this is the contact I list. Under the Bethel School District contact Mark Wenzel, at: mwenzel@bethelsd.org for more info

• Tacoma Area Coalition of Individuals with Disabilities TACID 
  Difficult to find anything on the website but has listings of local job training and placement services and other things. You can get some information from them over the phone but they would not be my first choice if I was in need of help.

•  

• The 504 Plan special services for the disabled. A MUST if you have a disabled child in school. My daughter is on this. See the left nav-bar for a link to more information.
  Just type 504 plan into your search engine and you will have more links than you will ever be able to read.

• IEP Individual Education Plan A MUST for special education. Again look at the left nav-bar for a link to more information.
  Just type IEP  into your search engine and you will have more links than you will ever be able to read.
  

• Lakewood Fire - District #2

• University Place Fire - District #3

• Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One - District #5

• Central Pierce Fire & Rescue - District #6

• Edgewood Fire & Rescue - District #8

• Pierce County Fire District #13

• Riverside Fire & Rescue - District # 14

• Key Peninsula Fire - District #16

• Pierce County Fire District #17

• Pierce County Fire District #18

• Graham Fire & Rescue - District #21

• East Pierce Fire & Rescue - District #22

• Puyallup Fire & Rescue

• Pierce County Fire Chiefs Association

 

 

I hope you find the information on these pages useful.

 

 

 

Amber has joined PAVE's Community Inclusion Program and hopes to be able to make some new friends while helping others with Disabilities. Her occupational therapists daughter is somehow connected with this program. Also her psychologist has suggested  she be more involved with volunteer activities and so she has volunteered at the YMCA on South Hill in Puyallup and is also looking to volunteer at a preschool/daycare and a hospital as a candy striper. We will have to see what she can accomplish, what with her disabilities.

 As for my efforts, One person cannot be expected to provide coverage of the entire country. 

I hope to have County School district websites listed here and any County specific events and activity centers as well as up-coming events people send me.

If you find any broken links or out of date stuff please send me an email. Broken links and out of date material do no one any good.

 

If you have any links you want to add send me the link.

FYI. The Pierce County Health Department has contracted with the United Way to handle all their community health referrals. More taxes for us, less work for Pierce County and a coo for United Way. Kudos on landing the contract. Hope we can afford it.

 

If you have a web presence we would very much appreciate if you could place a link to our site on yours. Here is the preferred link:

Cerebral Palsy Family Support Network
Dedicated to helping families find the support, resources and services they need.

And here is the code for the above link. Just copy and paste it to a simple text editor like notepad to take out any garbage FrontPage put in the code and then paste it to your html.

<a href="http://www.cpfsn.org"><img border="0" src="http://www.cpfsn.org/images/buttonsbglogosetc/cpfslogo.gif" width="159" height="151" alt="The Cerebral Palsy Family Support Network dedicated to helping support families with a Disabled Child and or disabilities. Helping the disabled find resources and providing a place for the disabled or their parents to congregate and have their questions answered."></a><BR><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica" color="#000000" size="4"><a href="http://www.cpfsn.org">Cerebral Palsy Family Support Network</a></font></b><BR><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica" color="#FF0000" size="2"> Dedicated to helping families find the support, resources and services they need.</font></b>

You may place a simple text link if you wish.

Make a secure donation/gift through Paypal by clicking on the link below:

Or you can make a donation manually by following one of the steps below.

Donations/Gifts are graciously accepted, Just log on to www.Paypal.com , Click "Send Money" tab and follow the instructions to send money from an existing Paypal account or by any major Credit Card. Use the email address below to make a Donations/Gifts on Paypal.

 

If you do not see an email address it is because you need to enable javascripts. The email is in javascript to foil the spambots.

You can also mail a Donation/Gift to 

Tami Taormina

P.O. Box 4463 

Spanaway, WA. 98387 

     

 

If you have a site that deals with any disabilities then consider either joining CPFSN.org  (it is totally free) and having a link to your site on the appropriate page (e.g. State, County) as well as the ‘Members’ page and the disabilities links page.

Or doing a simple link exchange and having your site appear on the ‘CP Family’ links page, if you or your child has CP or any disability. Your site does not have to be about any disability so long as you or your child has a disability.

If you do not have a disability or a child with a disability but have a site devoted to any disability you can have a reciprocal link placed on the disability links page

If you do not have a disability or have a site devoted to any disability you can still have a reciprocating link placed on the Non-CP other links page. A link exchange would not only show your support of this site but would increase your ranking with search through having another outside link (SEO).
  
Use the ‘Contact Us’ page and email Robert if you are interested in any link exchange or joining CPFSN.org. Send the information of the site you want us to link to and the Title and information as well as the URL you would like entered. I cannot guarantee that all requests will be honored but I will take a personal look and make a fair and unbiased decision.

To speed up the process have a link to my site on yours and send me the URL. Our preferred links can be found on any of our links pages (left nav-bar)

 

 

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