Resource Guide
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We hope that the Resource Guide will provide the essential information you need to find pediatric oncology services in Ontario. It has been designed for use by health professionals, caregivers, parents, family members, and patients. Parents, if you do not find what you are looking for, please talk with your physician, oncology nurse, or social worker, and then let us know of any additional programs you discover.
How to Use the Resource Guide:
In order to meet the needs of a variety of users, the information contained in the Resource Guide has been arranged in a number of different ways:
- The main body is organized according to type of service or program. For example, the organizations that provide transportation are listed under one heading and organizations that provide financial assistance under another.
- A few service headings include sub-listings. For example, the service heading, Support Groups, Activities & Services includes Bereavement Support, Family Support Services, Peer Support, Recereational Activities, Sibling Support, etc.
- To help you find services closer to the family home, there is a section of the Guide that divides Ontario into six regions and lists the services available in each. A map is provided to help you locate the home and treating hospital of the child in question.
- We have organized the information in such a way as to direct you quickly to the kind of help/service needed. A single organization often provides a variety of services and programs and where this is the case, you will notice that the organization is named each time as the source and contact for the particular help offered.
- The Services By Type Index lists alphabetically all the different types of services, together with the organizations that offer them.
- If you wish to look up an organization by name, an alphabetic Organizational Index is provided.
- If you wish to look up services offered by government, look in the Government Services index. If you wish to find out about provincial organizations, such as Ontario Parents Advocating for Childhood Cancer (OPACC) or the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO), you will find them listed in the Province-wide Organizations index.
A Note about Regional Listings:
The regional listings offer a fairly complete picture of the range of services available in each part of Ontario. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the geographic regions of the province. Searching these listings will help you to focus on the programs that are available locally.
If you find the program or service you need in another region, it is always worth contacting the sponsoring organization to see if it is able to extend its support across the geographic boundary.
Explanation of Terms:
| Available for: | Describes who is eligible to use the service. |
| Referral: | Some services require users to be referred by a doctor or other health professional. Others accept self-referral. This is noted here. |
| Application: | How to apply for the service. |
| Fee: | The cost to the user. |
| Hours: | When the service is available. |
| Service Location: | Where the service is provided. |
| Decision Time: | How quickly you will know if you are eligible. |
About The Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario:
The Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) was founded in 1983 as a network of childhood cancer specialists representing all major pediatric oncology programs in the province. POGO's professional network includes pediatric oncologists, pediatric oncology nurses, psychologists, child life specialists, social workers, pharmacists, nutritionists, and data managers and other disciplines.
POGO began as a grass-roots, multi-centre, multi-disciplinary and collegial alliance of professionals but is now the official source of advice on childhood cancer control to the Ontario Ministry of Health (MOH). It is charged with the role of coordinating cancer care for the province and is funded by the Ministry.
There are five specialized pediatric oncology programs in Ontario that work together cooperatively to ensure that children with cancer receive the best possible care. These programs are located in the following hospitals:
- Children's Hospital of Western Ontario in London,
- Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa,
- Children's Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences Corporation,
- Kingston General Hospital, and
- The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
All five programs and their expert staff work closely together as the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO) to create a well integrated provincial system of childhood cancer care and control.
POGO seeks to ensure access for all of Ontario's children to state-of-the-art cancer care and that needed services are available. It has worked on behalf of and along with children, their families and caregivers to ensure optimal care; advocated for appropriate clinical research and educational resources for caregivers; secured from government adequate staffing to meet the growing demand for services; and generated standards and guidelines for practice. POGO has built a reputation for recommendations that are based on solid provincial information, significant clinical experience and scientific evidence.
A Note to Parents About the Ontario Childhood Cancer System:
Children usually have cancers that are different from those occurring in adults, and their treatment must be provided by experts with specialized knowledge of cancer in children. Childhood cancer is rare, so when it is suspected in someone under the age of 18, it is essential that assessment take place at a specialty, childhood cancer program. Research has shown that the best results for children occur when they are treated in specialized pediatric oncology units.
Medical needs, quality of life, coping, drug counseling, nutrition and other needs are best addressed by pediatric oncology teams made up of different kinds of professionals such as pediatric oncologists, pediatric oncology nurses, psychologists, child life specialists, social workers, pharmacists, nutritionists, and others who have experience with families of children with cancer.
Some treatments such as bone marrow transplant and certain kinds of surgery are so highly specialized and rare that a limited number of sites provide them for all Ontario children. For example, children under 16 requiring bone marrow transplants will be referred to The Hospital for Sick Children for transplantation.
Satellite Sites:
All children will continue to be diagnosed in tertiary programs which will develop, monitor and modify their individual treatment plans throughout the course of their care.
Recently the network of childhood cancer services was expanded to include, on a trial basis, four pediatric oncology "satellite" sites. These new treatment units are located in areas where the caseload is large enough to maintain the expertise needed, and where patient travel, cost, and family disruption will be reduced. They will provide special components of treatment for eligible patients.
Satellite Sites are located in Orillia, North York (Toronto), Sudbury and Kitchener-Waterloo.
Not all cases of childhood cancer will be eligible for satellite care. Some will be treated exclusively in a specialty pediatric oncology program.
Pediatric Aftercare:
POGO is developing a provincial network of Adult and Pediatric Aftercare Clinics dedicated to ensuring health for all survivors of childhood cancer. Aftercare is a province-wide program, and transfer within the system will be possible if you move.
Please Stay in Touch:
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of all listings contained in the Resource Guide, information about pediatric oncology services changes frequently, as does the range of services available.
If you have information about services that may be helpful, need to update your listing in this guide, or if you have suggestions about how the Guide could be better organized, we would be pleased to hear from you.
Parents, if you do not find what you are looking for, please talk with your physician, oncology nurse, or social worker, and then let us know of any additional programs you discover.
To submit a resource or an update, you can use the Submit/Update a Listing section on the Home Page.
To send us your feedback or suggestions, please use the Send Us Your Feedback section on the Home Page.
POGO can also be reached by fax (416-592-1285) or by e-mail (info@pogo.ca).
