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HEALTH AND COMMUNITY RESOURCES
You will find the following tools invaluable for finding the medical and community supports you need in Alberta/Canada.
Don't hesitate to use the call lines, such as 211 and HealthLink where you can talk to a real person. It's their job to help you find the health and community resources you need to manage your health effectively.
- MyHealth Alberta - is a website created by the Alberta Government in partnership with Alberta Health Services to provide reliable health information that represents the knowledge, practices, and expertise of health professionals in Alberta.
- Alberta HealthLink - Health Link Alberta is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week nurse telephone advice and health information service. You can call HealthLink from anywhere in Alberta by dialing: Toll-Free 1-866-408-5465. Highly trained registered nurses will provide you with advice and information about health symptoms and concerns that you or a member of your family may be experiencing. Health Link can also help you find appropriate services and health information.
- Alberta 211 - 211 is an easy to remember three-digit telephone number that connects you to an Information and Resource Specialist who can help you find a full range of social, health, community and government services. It is free, confidential, multilingual and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- InformAlberta - is an online database that you can use to find the information you need about community, health, social and government services across Alberta. If you don't have access to a computer, you can call 211 and they can use the InformAlberta database and other resources to help you find the resources that you need.
- Alberta Health Services - Currently the central health website for all areas of Alberta. Use the search engine to find the resources you need, but if you can't find what you want, call 211.
- Alberta Health and Wellness
- Health Canada
- Google - It can be hard to ensure that you are getting reliable information out on the www with a search engine like Google (and of course there are other search engines). But Google may be able to help connect you with the resources you need if you pick specific search terms (that are not easily confused with other things that people might search on) and make sure that your search results come from a reliable source. Beware of sites with a lot of advertizing, that want to sell you something, or ones that ask for your personal information. Keep in mind that there is a lot of outdated and inaccurate information about lupus out there. For example, the prognosis for lupus has improved considerably over the last decade and no two people are alike when it comes to lupus. TAKE WHAT YOU FIND 'WITH A GRAIN OF SALT'.
- Google Maps - this is a great way to look for directions to an address you have never been to before, etc. You can even play around with the 'street view' feature to see what kind of neighborhood it is and what the street looks like for parking.
- Yellow Pages - Yup!, the good old Yellow Pages online. The best thing is that no matter where you live in Alberta, you can search for what you need. For example try searching for 'wheelchair rental' or 'nursing and home care services' in your area of Alberta.
- White Pages - Great for looking up an address for a doctor or a clinic, etc.
