Technical Aids

The majority of clients served are children and teenagers under the age of 21, who live with a motor impairment with or without an associated disability (developmental, neurological, organic, etc.). Clients also include children and teenagers who have undergone an amputation; or who have cerebral palsy, a degenerative condition, a congenital malformation, etc.

The objective of a technical aid attribution is to compensate for the disability, or to prevent or minimize situations of handicap.

The team includes:

• Technicians in orthodics-prosthetics
• Orthesists and prosthetists
• Mechanics in orthotics-prosthetics, who work along with the rehabilitation workers of the Positioning-Mobility Clinic
• Administrative officer
• Doctors

Services provided to clients:

• Individual needs assessments and recommendations;
• Design and production of technical aids (orthoses, prostheses, postural aids and more);
• Technical aids attribution, adjustment and advising;
• Maintenance, repair and refurbishing of certain mobility aids.

Services provided to partners and other establishments :

• Direct or distance rehabilitation consultations;
• Clinical services in orthotics that include supine standers;
• Technical aids repair services;
• Adaptation evaluation and design;

Technical aids provided within the orthotics/prosthetics branch :

• Cranial and spinal orthoses,
• Lower limb orthoses, including supine standers,
• Upper limb orthoses,
• Made-to-measure support or corrective corsets,
• Masks for burn victims or for facial malformations,
• Prostheses (upper and lower limbs),
• Myoelectrical prostheses,
• A variety of adaptations,
• Certain premade products (ankle supports, tibial orthoses, etc.).

Technical aids must be prescribed by a medical specialist recognized by the Régie de l’Assurance-Maladie du Québec (RAMQ) and must be evaluated by an occupational therapist or physiotherapist, when appropriate.

Our primary partners are the children and their families. In order to meet their needs, the Centre has a partnership with the RAMQ, the main paying agency for technical aids.
Other contributing partners include: prescribing doctors, rehabilitation centres for physical and developmental disabilities, regional university hospital centres, health and social services centres, schools, the War Amps Association, the SAAQ, IVAC, etc.

The Centre also works concertedly with universities and research establishments in the area of technological development and advancement.
 

Referrals must be sent by a doctor, occupational therapist or physiotherapist.
Technical aids are recommended when anomalies are found in the musculoskeletal system such as:

• Abnormal muscle tone or reflexes that trigger the inability to maintain a sitting or standing position;
• A progressive neuromuscular disease;
• An injury to the spinal column such as paraplegia;

All other diseases or conditions listed in the RAMQ’s eligibility criteria.

At the Centre de réadaptation Marie Enfant 

• Monday to Friday
  from 8 am to 4 pm (Intake)
  Some services are provided as of 7 am until 5 pm by appointment only
• Saturday (by appointment only) from 9 am to 5 pm for planter orthoses

Technical Aids Department at the CHU Sainte-Justine

• Monday to Friday
  from 8 am to 4 pm

• École Victor-Doré (Montréal)
• École secondaire Joseph-Charbonneau (Montréal)
• École Jean-Piaget (Laval)
• École Peter-Hall Ouimet
• École Peter-Hall St-Laurent
• CHU Sainte-Justine
• Centre de réadaptation MAB-Mackay