General advice

Before contacting the charity's AdviceLine we recommend that you refer to our wide range of printed and online information resources, as these are designed to answer many of the more common specific questions we receive:

• the charity's Down Syndrome Online web site contains a wealth of freely available online articles and books
• the downsed online shop offers a variety of our publications as well as recommended publications and resources from other publishers
• joining our e-mail discussion lists is often a quick route to getting helpful answers to your queries from other list members - and our staff also monitor these lists and contribute to the discussions. [Please note that these lists are publicly accessible, so if you would prefer to keep your query private, you may wish to e-mail us directly]

Contacting the AdviceLine

If the charity's available information resources do not provide the information or advice you require, please contact the charity's free AdviceLine for specific advice from our expert team of practitioners (which includes psychologists and speech and language therapists).

We will aim to provide you with direct help and, if appropriate, guide you to suitable sources of help, including publications, advice sheets, teaching resources, and our training and consultancy services.

If we are not be able to resolve matters by correspondence only, we can offer advice about how best to get any additional assistance in your local area. If we do not have the expertise to answer a query, we will aim to put you in touch with the appropriate specialist or organisation.

AdviceLine contact details and current telephone availability

You can contact our AdviceLine using any of the following methods:

Contact method	Details
Email	Please consider using our e-mail discussion lists if possible. Alternatively, please e-mail adviceline@downsed.org
Facsimile	Please send faxes to +44 (0)23 9285 5320
Post	Please write to: AdviceLine, Down Syndrome Education International The Sarah Duffen Centre, Belmont Street Southsea, Hampshire PO5 1NA, United Kingdom
Telephone	Not currently available Due to limited funding and restricted staff availability we are not currently able to provide a regular AdviceLine telephone service. Please contact the AdviceLine using another method.

Please note

Restricted availability

The charity offers its AdviceLine service free of charge. However, limited funding means that we have to restrict the availability of our AdviceLine service and we can only offer a limited amount of time per individual request for advice.

Response time

We always try to respond to queries as quickly as possible. However, due to limited funding and restricted staff availability, it may take several days before we are able to provide a reply.

AdviceLine funding

Down Syndrome Education Internationalfunds the free AdviceLine service from donations and grants. We have recently been forced to reduce our AdviceLine availability due to limited funding for this service.

Please donate to support our AdviceLine

We encourage all users and potential users of our AdviceLine to make a donation to help support the costs of the service or to join us to receive regular updates on advice and services.