Educate Kids About Identity Theft by Jenny Holt

Educate Kids About Identity Theft

It’s difficult to imagine that kids can become victims of identity theft. A study at the Carnegie Mellon Cylab indicated that children are 51 times more likely to be targeted by identity thieves than adults. Often, the unsuspecting victims find out that they have been victimized later when they start college, and begin applying for jobs or credit. Parents are the first ones to unearth that their kids are identity theft victims when they receive suspicious bills or receive a pre-approved credit card for their child.

Protecting Children Under 5 Years

If your kids are below 5 years and are not using the Internet, it is your responsibility to be extra vigilant when it comes to giving out their personal information. Lock their social security number and birth certificate in a safe place. You should only volunteer the information when absolutely needed, such as school registrations or doctor visits. Think about setting a credit freeze for your child. Some financial companies offer the ability to lock and even monitor a child’s credit file. You should consider talking to kids about identity theft and how important it is to keep personal details private.

Teaching Identity Theft to Older Kids

Once kids grasp the concepts of theft, money, and identity (usually from 5-7 years), talk to them about the importance of safeguarding information. With the prevalence of children and teenagers using cellphones and increased online activity (92% of teens use the Internet according to Pew Research Center), protecting them from becoming statistics of identity theft is crucial. You can:

• Educate them about the importance of the social security number, birth certificate or bank cards. Highlight what can happen if the information can get in the wrong hands.
• Tell them never to post personal information online, especially on social networking websites.
• Teach kids to protect devices with passwords and educate them on how to create secure ones. Passwords and PINS should never be shared.
• Talk about possible scams that they might experience or encounter in the malls, school grounds, social sites, messages and emails.
• Stress the importance of using safe sites and to avoid unsecured Internet zones.
• Monitor the sites that your kids visit and restrict Internet surfing.
• Install anti-virus, anti-phishing, or security software on devices.
• Limit or scrap a data plan on your kid’s phone.

• If your teenager has a convenience card, restrict the amount of money they can withdraw daily or monthly and monitor their banking activities regularly to see if there is something suspicious going on.

When children and teenagers are aware of identity theft and its dreadful consequences, they are likely to pay attention to what’s happening around them. Although it is not foolproof, reducing the chances of becoming a victim is already a step away from the clutches of an impostor.

Mindful Parenting by Jennifer L. Gibson, PharmD

Mindfulness is critical for personal well-being. Mindfulness is essentially a moment-by-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, and sensations. By committing to this focus on the present, people can reduce stress and improve health. Mindfulness is usually an inward-focused practice, concerning an individual and his or her own self-awareness. Now, however, attention is being focused on mindfulness in parenting and, more specifically, mindful parenting for parents who have children with disabilities.

Mindfulness involves purposefully paying attention to how we feel and what we think, but without judgment or criticism. We tune our thoughts to the present moment and ignore calls to the past or imaginations of the future. Mindfulness is often developed through meditation, but even being mindful during simple, mundane tasks (like washing the dishes) can reduce stress and improve positive feelings.

Parents of children with disabilities face increased risks for acute and chronic stress, and many physical and psychological variables affect parenting decisions and behaviours. A parenting couple’s relationship is also strained when a child has disabilities. These stresses can be mitigated with mindfulness, and mindfulness can promote positive outcomes for the child and strengthen all familial relationships. Not surprisingly, parents who focus on such present-centred attention are more involved in the care and support of their children. Parents who practice mindfulness in caregiving also report greater satisfaction with parenting, more social interactions with their children, and lower levels of stress.

Mindful parenting does not only affect parents, though. Parents who mindfully attend to the care of their children with disabilities improve the lives and health of the children. Mindfulness of parents who are caring for their own children with disabilities leads to greater happiness for the children. Mindful parenting also reduces aggression and increases social behaviour in children with disabilities, including developmental and intellectual disabilities. Additionally, children whose parents practice mindfulness have increased positive and decreased negative interactions with their siblings.

Mindfulness training and interventions might help prepare parents for delivering the necessary care to their children. Whether you practice formal mindfulness, simply set aside a few minutes a day to calm and quiet your mind, or commit to paying attention to yourself on purpose throughout your day, mindfulness may be a path to transforming how you care for your child. Teaching your mind to ignore distractions and focus on your thoughts and feelings can be difficult – especially for tired, overworked, multi-tasking parents – but what is better to focus on than caring for your child?

Jennifer Gibson is a pharmacist and medical communicator. Dr. Gibson trained as a hospital pharmacist specializing in internal medicine and acute care, and, in this role, helped to implement patient safety initiatives and investigate medication errors and adverse drug reactions in hospital settings. She evaluates and consults on clinical performance and risk reduction in the health care industry and in other high-reliability organizations, and she regularly presents medication and patient safety education and training sessions for health care professionals, as well as parents, children, and caregivers. Find out more about Dr. Gibson at ExcaliburScientific.com.

Caring for Patients with Disabilities by Jennifer L. Gibson

As a health care professional, I have interacted with patients of all ages, stages, and abilities. Most of what I learned during my formal education, however, focused on relatively healthy adults. I quickly learned, once I entered practice, that the one-size-fits-almost-all approach to my training did not apply to the real world. Only because of a lifetime of personal experiences with children and adults with disabilities did I have any framework for caring for patients that had anything other than typical medical needs. One “size” definitely does not fit all when it comes to professionalism and caring for patients – all patients – and I wonder where medical training and education can improve to provide the best possible care to patients and most effective support to caregivers.

Families of individuals with disabilities require emotional, informational, and practical support. Parents, especially, want health care professionals to listen to them, educate them, acknowledge their experiences and emotions, and direct them towards resources that can assist them. How and when this support is provided affects service utilization, facilitates understanding of care-giving roles, and addresses feelings of stigma and isolation.

Are health care providers as accessible and supportive as we can be? Of course, there are legal obligations for allowing physical access to medical offices and facilities, but are health care personnel equipped to accommodate the emotional and social well-being of patients and their families? Barriers to proper health care include insufficient time with the health care provider or staff, unclear or incomplete communication between provider and patient and caregivers, and inadequate provider knowledge of disabling conditions.

Overall, patients with disabilities have higher risks of many chronic health conditions, but they receive fewer preventive services and are in poorer health than individuals without disabilities. Children, youth, and adults with disabilities experience disparities in many key indicators of health, and the problem will continue to get worse without access to proper care (and care providers).

Health care providers have responsibilities to understand the laws and regulations that protect and help people with disabilities, identify proper equipment and services, and recognize and mitigate barriers to care and support – not only for the patient, but also for the family and caregivers. Many health care providers, though, have their own barriers to providing care to people with disabilities, including physical barriers (e.g., offices and equipment that cannot accommodate physical, cognitive, or sensory needs), attitudinal barriers (e.g., additional time spent with patients is viewed as a burden), expertise-related barriers (e.g., not having sufficient training or education with complex needs associated with some disabilities), and systemic barriers (e.g., inconsistent and maldistribution of health care services and resources). These barriers can prevent patients from receiving care, not just delay or inconvenience it.

Unfortunately, negative attitudes of health care providers toward patients with disabilities mirror the attitudes of the general public, which deter care and create obstacles for people with disabilities. Health care providers also tend to view a disability as an “illness” – an acute condition that requires a curative response. This view perpetuates the disempowerment of people who are already facing more challenges than average people.

Health care professionals need to recognize the educational opportunities that patients with disabilities can offer. In addition to specific issues or conditions that require medical attention, treating people with disabilities also offers chances to review assumptions made by the professional about overall health and wellness for all patients. New, longitudinal curriculum is needed to teach students in health care education to care for people with disabilities and their families. Training should be coordinated among communities and health care settings and should comprise input and experiences from current professionals, as well as patients with disabilities and their family members. All health care professionals should enter practice with the expertise, consideration, and compassion – and passion – for providing equitable, accessible, quality care for all patients.

Jennifer Gibson is a pharmacist and medical communicator. Dr. Gibson trained as a hospital pharmacist specializing in internal medicine and acute care, and, in this role, helped to implement patient safety initiatives and investigate medication errors and adverse drug reactions in hospital settings. She evaluates and consults on clinical performance and risk reduction in the health care industry and in other high-reliability organizations, and she regularly presents medication and patient safety education and training sessions for health care professionals, as well as parents, children, and caregivers. Find out more about Dr. Gibson at ExcaliburScientific.com.

The Gift of David by Celeste Axworthy

David Axworthy dressed for his role as groomsman and ring bearer 

at his brother's wedding in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

This is the story about a gift that I never saw coming. In 1985, I got pregnant with our son David. When he was born we were told that he would probably have Down Syndrome. The doctors asked if they could do blood work to determine if he had Downs and of course the test came back positive. This was definitely a shock for me and my husband Bill. Little did we know that David would change our lives in ways we could not imagine. I was almost ready to give David up, because of all the health problems he had as a baby. The holes in his heart, his failure to thrive, and the infections in his ears; all of these problems were too much for me to handle at the time. Too add to it, I met a lady through the hospital who had a little girl with Down Syndrome. She told me that all of David's accomplishments as a child would be a hurdle for him to overcome. It wasn't very encouraging.

David has a brother who is 23 months older than him and they love each other a lot. We had another child in 1989 (another boy). David had issues as he was growing up, but we overcame them as a family. We tried to raise David like any other child, but as he reached the age to go to school, we ran into some obstacles that would just about tear this family apart. We did not send David to school until he was six years old, and we had some issues with the school. It was always a struggle to get teachers to treat him like all the other kids. Some teachers did not want him in their class, but once they got him in there and got to know him, they loved him. After a while, they were no longer afraid of him.

One thing I thought I would never see, would be David walking across the stage to graduate or even to go to his prom. David did both and I was so proud of him. By that time, he was 21 years old, and although he did not get the same grade 12 education as the other students, he was with his peers and they all loved him. David has also been involved in the Special Olympics for track and field, bowling and curling. He loved participating in all the sports he was in, and he got to meet people, which was very good for him.

David went to a group home in 2004 in Digby, Nova Scotia. He loves it there and comes home at least once a month for a weekend or more. Six years ago my father passed away, and I called David to tell him. He told me not to worry, that it was all over now. It amazes me how a child like David could have the insight to say that so casually to me. He is very wise for a young man.

David has many friends where he lives and he works at Conway workshop. David also works in the community. He cleans up at a pizza parlour on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for an hour and at the end of the week they give him a piece of pizza and some pop. He really enjoys this. Everyone needs to feel useful and that their lives have purpose.

Last year, David was the ring bearer and a groomsman for his brother’s wedding. He did very well and looked great. He was smiling at all the young girls and winking at them as he came down the aisle. He was so cute.

I must be honest and say there are times when I wonder how he would be if he didn't have Down Syndrome, or what would have become of him if I had given him up. Where would he be? Would be happy? How different would he look? I am so glad that I kept him; or should I say, that he kept me.

There is so much more about David that I could write about, but I will stop here. David has grown to be a handsome young man with a big heart, and infectious smile and a special love for the young ladies. When he sees a young lady he walks up to her and says hi, puts his hand out to take hers, kisses the back of it and says, “My name is David and this is my friend, Mom.” He has given me so much joy and happiness. David has made me laugh a lot in the last 29 years. I wouldn't change him for anything because who David is, has made me the mother I am today. Thank you.

Celeste Axworthy lives in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She is a mother of three and works as a Continuing Care Assistant. 

Parenthood Reality Check: Chill Out! by Renée Cormier

It’s that time of year when families are getting their kids ready for back to school. I remember the stress of single parenting and the worry that was a natural part of raising a child with a disability. What would the school year bring? Will my children do well in school? Will they get the help they need? Will they like their teachers? Will the teachers like them? As I reflect upon my life and how I raised my children, I think I would have done a few things differently. If I could give advice to parents of young children it would be to chill out and do as follows:

Embrace your child's eccentricities: When my daughter was about ten years old she thought her school picture would look really cool if she showed a tattoo on her arm. On picture day, she licked and stuck one to her arm and didn’t let on to me that she had no intention of looking like all the other kids for her school picture. Weeks later, when I saw the proof, I was furious and refused to buy her school picture. Looking back, it was really very funny, but I saw no humour in it at the time. I regret not letting my daughter be her natural kooky self. What would have been the harm, really? Maybe if I had been more accepting of her independence when she was younger, she would have loved herself more in her teen years.

Let them get muddy: My mother never had any problem letting me splash in the mud when I was young, but I never wanted to deal with the mess and pain of trying to get the stains out of my kids’ clothes. Honestly, why was it such a big deal? Kids love mud and they usually love getting dirty. Happiness is a muddy face!

Before you freak out, weigh the importance of the issue: Single parents have no one to tag team with, so the stress of raising a family alone can be pretty intense. Whether you are single or married, however, there will always be times when you are overwhelmed by things your children do. I remember freaking out over things when my kids were young, but for the most part, I don’t remember why. That tells me I was probably over reacting to small stuff. If I could go back and redo things, I think I would try to be more relaxed and less of a drill sergeant.

Oh well; hindsight is 20/20. I was certainly not a perfect parent, but I was definitely a good mother, just the same. We all do our best with the tools in our chests. Please don’t beat yourself up over the mistakes you make. Your grandchildren will be your shot at a redo, but until then, chill out!

The Five A’s of Raising a Child with Autism by Renée Cormier

When my eldest child was three he was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, which is a form of Autism. I used to love to sit and watch him play. It fascinated me to see how he lined up his toy cars and blocks to the millimetre and to see how he grouped his Legos according to colour. He always put the same colours together and placed them in the same order next to each other. He would jump up and down on his toes and twirl his fingers between realignments, but at the time, I had no clue this was anything other than a sign of pure genius. Being the youngest of five children and a new mother, I had no point of reference, so when the doctor asked me if Maurice played normally, I told her yes.



Maurice enjoys the company of his siblings.
Pictured here from left to right: Celeste, Marcel and Maurice Cormier.

 Maurice’s first words were numbers. He could count to 18 without making any mistakes when he was only 18 months old. Before he turned two he could recognize written words on sight such as stop, exit, cat, dog, etc. but he never asked for anything and he never even called me Mama until he was three years old. For years, if I asked him to hold a bag or a toy, he would just look at me. My words meant nothing to him. When he did start to talk, it was usually repeating something he heard on TV such as “each sold separately” or “Deep Space Nine”.

Maurice will soon be turning 23 and has come a very long way since then. If I had to give advice to the parents of young autistic children, I would tell them, first of all, that things can get much better and not to focus on what their child cannot do.  Secondly, I would tell them to consider that they have been given a gift and that their situation is not calamitous. Thirdly, I would tell them to raise their child using what I call the five A’s of raising a child with Autism. These are the rules I gave myself once I understood what I was dealing with and I believe much of Maurice’s success today, is because I raised him with these things in mind.

Avoid giving in to your child’s resistance to change: Autism is marked by an extreme resistance to change. As a young child, Maurice would get upset over the change in sleeve lengths between summer and winter and would cry and tantrum because he didn’t want to wear the appropriate sleeve length. I could have just kept him in the same type of shirt, to avoid upsetting him, but life is about change. All children need to learn to adapt to change, no matter how difficult it is. It took a couple of years, but eventually, Maurice had no trouble wearing seasonally appropriate clothing.

I recall an incident when Maurice’s brother and sister decided to “be each other” when I picked them up from daycare one day. To do this, Marcel and Celeste decided to wear each other’s coats and boots and sit in each other’s seats in the car. Maurice screamed his lungs out and begged me to make them change back. He couldn’t stand it. As a parent, I could have told them to not aggravate their brother and put an end to the game, but I felt it was more important for Maurice to learn to accept change, so I endured the wild screaming and crying all the way home in the car. As soon as we got in the house, Marcel and Celeste took off their jackets and boots, and Maurice stopped crying. My nerves were shot, but all was right in the world again.

Today, Maurice has become quite adept at dealing with change. We moved house several times throughout his life, he’s had to change schools, pass through many seasons, start and finish many things. No problem. If I spent my life accommodating his need for sameness, he would never be able to cope with the real world.

Acknowledge your fear, but then close your eyes and let a miracle happen: There is nothing tougher than letting a child with a disability do what every other kid does. The first bike ride alone in the street, the first trip on the bus without supervision or guidance, allowing your child to do anything independently is very scary. What if something terrible happened? It is always possible, but as a parent, you have to be careful not to suffocate your child into permanent dependence. Say a prayer and force yourself to let your child enjoy independence. If I have learned one thing in this life, I have learned that children will rise to the level of responsibility you give them. Even children with intellectual challenges need to be given the gift of independence and self-reliance and believe me it is a gift. You are being a good parent when you let your children do new things. It is okay. You are not being neglectful.

Allow your child to experience defeat: This is another tough thing for parents to do. We love our children, and wanting to protect those with extra challenges is highly natural. I never wanted to tell Maurice he couldn’t do something because of his disability. In high school, he really wanted to be on a sports team like other boys, but he wasn’t born with an abundance of natural athletic ability. I could see that, but he wanted to try out for teams. I knew he would have trouble competing with other kids, but I bit my tongue. I let him try out for teams and discover for himself what he really could and could not do. As it turned out, he found he was able to compete in sports like cross country running and track and field. Was he the best in the school? No, but he was there and he got to attend the awards dinner with all of the other athletes. He was happy, and I was happy for him.

I always made sure to let Maurice try new things, even if I thought he might not do as well as other kids. The truth is, he has often surprised me. His lack of self-consciousness works in his favour and we have a lot to learn from that. How many people avoid trying things because they are afraid of failure? Self-doubt is your enemy and doubters are poisonous. Don’t poison your child with doubt.

Accept that you will need to be an advocate for your child: When you have a child with a disability, the world will not necessarily understand what it really means. Even educators can be surprisingly ignorant of your child’s condition. As a parent, it is your job to make sure people the around him know how to manage your child. You will need to be in communication more when they are younger, but sometimes even when they are older. Swim instructors, teachers, daycare workers, deans, professors, etc. Every now and then, you will need to step in and be an advocate for your child. Don’t be passive about that.

Appreciate the differences:  Your child’s lack of self-consciousness/ self-awareness, his micro focus and his literal interpretation of the world around him are not things to worry about. They are all very important parts of who he is and they teach you many important things. When I look at my son I see proof that success happens in the absence of doubt. His in-depth knowledge of the things that interest him remind me that knowledge is power, and his literal interpretation of the world, reminds me that I need to be concise in my communication. What’s wrong with that? Love and accept all of it, for there is great beauty in all things.

Today, Maurice is a college graduate, film editor and film enthusiast. I am enormously proud of his accomplishments and proud that he has grown to be such a dependable and talented young man. His award-winning short documentary called Normal: A Story of Autism can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/9KLAWRBvLb8

Renée Cormier is a Public Relations & Communications professional in Burlington, Ontario. Contact Renée through her website:  www.reneecormier.com .