The Autistic Brain by Dr Temple Grandin - The Coffee Klatch

The post is from 'The Coffee Klatch" (wonderful) web radio program on May 17, 2013...

Listen to internet radio with The Coffee Klatch Special Needs Radio on BlogTalkRadio

We had the honor of having Dr Temple Grandin join us for her sixth appearance on The Coffee Klatch Special Needs Talk Radio Network.

Dr Grandin joined Diane Kennedy and Rebecca Bank on our Bright Not Broken Show.

Listen as these three amazing women discuss the results of Temple’s brain scan and how it explained some of the differences she experiences in language and long string sequencing as well as the finding of her amygdala being three times the size of the average explaining her panic and anxiety issues.

Temple also discusses, what she sees as a priority in understanding autism behaviors, the significant lack of studies on sensory issues and how a parent or educator should approach sensory issues to unravel behaviors and find effective treatments.

Discussed is fostering strengths by broadening out fixations instead of trying to eliminate them and the importance of understanding giftedness in these children.

Temple and the hosts discuss their concerns about the upcoming DSMV as it pertains to children and adults now diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome.

These and many more topics are covered in this incredible interview.

To catch up on all six interviews with Temple Grandin please visit her page on our website:
CLICK HERE

Listen to internet radio with The Coffee Klatch on BlogTalkRadio

http://thecoffeeklatch.com/group/temple-grandin/

Disaster Distress Helpline Provides Crisis Counseling to Oklahomans Affected by Violent Storms

Oklahomans whose lives have been impacted by the May 20 tornado and recent violent storms can access immediate crisis counseling by calling the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-(800) 985-5990 or 1-(800) 846-8517 (TTY). The Helpline is available 24-hours, 7-days a week to help people who need crisis counseling after experiencing a natural or man-made disaster or other tragedy. The Helpline connects callers to trained professionals and provides confidential, multilingual counseling, referrals and other needed support services.

# # #

SAMHSA Bulletin
Date: 5/20/2013 9:40 PM
Media Contact: SAMHSA Press Office
Telephone: 240-276-2130

The Disaster Distress Helpline 1-800-985-5990 provides immediate crisis counseling to people affected by the violent storms across Oklahoma

A disaster or tragedy is unexpected and often brings out strong emotions. The Disaster Distress Helpline 1-800-985-5990 can provide immediate counseling to anyone who needs help in dealing with the violent storms that swept across Oklahoma. The Helpline is a 24 hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week resource that responds to people who need crisis counseling after experiencing a natural or man-made disaster or tragedy.

Sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the Helpline immediately connects callers to trained and caring professionals from the closest crisis counseling center in the nationwide network of centers. The Helpline staff will provide confidential counseling, referrals and other needed support services.

“When disaster strikes, people react with increased anxiety, worry and anger. With community and family support, most of us bounce back. Some may need extra assistance to cope with unfolding events and uncertainties,” said SAMHSA Administrator Pamela S. Hyde. “People seeking emotional help in the aftermath of a disaster can now call 1-800-985-5990 or text TalkWithUs to 66746 and begin the process of recovery.”

The Disaster Distress Helpline is a national hotline dedicated to providing disaster crisis counseling. The toll-free Helpline is confidential and multilingual and available for those who are experiencing psychological distress as a result of natural or man-made disasters, incidents of mass violence or any other tragedy affecting America's communities. The Helpline complements the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other disaster response capacities, and is available immediately anywhere within the United States.

The helpline can also be accessed at http://disasterdistress.samhsa.gov/ and TTY for deaf and hearing impaired: 1-800-846-8517.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that leads public health efforts to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA's mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America's communities.

http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/1305204604.aspx
Last updated: 5/20/2013 9:54 PM

Mental Health First Aid Classes - Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4)

Mental Health First Aid helps people identify, understand, and respond to individuals experiencing signs of mental illness and substance use disorders. Mental Health First Aid was developed to help members of the community support an individual developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis.

Recommended for people working with the public (nurses, teachers, public welfare workers, law enforcement, etc), as well as consumers, families or anyone who wants to learn more about mental health.

Mental Health First Aid Classes for Adult and Youth.

Each participant receives:

Course certificate of completion* valid for 3 years

Course manual and resource folder

Mental Health First Aid courses can be held at organizations throughout the Chicago community upon request.
To host a course at your organization contact Natalie Robinson at natalie.robinson@c4chicago.org or call 773.765.0814.

Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4) 4740 N Clark St | Chicago, IL 60640 | PH 773.769.0205
Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4) homepage: CLICK HERE

Chevrolet auto dealership apologizes for ‘Short Bus’ ad, upset parents of special needs children

May 20, 2013

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (AP) — An eastern Idaho auto dealership that offended some area residents with a radio commercial that included a derogatory reference about special needs children in a sales pitch for trucks has apologized.

KIFI-TV reports in a story Friday that Pocatello-based Cole Chevrolet pulled the ads and is also teaming up with the Special Olympics of Eastern Idaho. Company officials say they made an unwitting mistake.

The advertisement says, "Are you driving a wimpy truck? Do your kids take the short bus so they won't be seen in it?"

The company said it has made a donation and that Marketing Director Valorie Smith will create public service announcements for Special Olympics.

"From myself, my team, Cole Chevrolet, we just hope everyone understands it was a mistake," Smith said. "It's been taken care of and we're definitely sorry."

Maegan Tsantis is a mother of three, including a special needs child.

"I felt really bad," Tsantis said. "I just didn't think it was appropriate to be using that and it actually really, really offended me."

Other parents were also angry, said Holly Giglio, director of the Special Olympics of Eastern Idaho.

"Our parents, they obviously were upset and they let their voice be heard and I think in the end, good things came from it," she said.

The phrase "short bus" is a derogatory term used for children in special education programs.

Summer games for the Special Olympics of Eastern Idaho start in two weeks. Cole Chevrolet has made a donation to the program.

"We decided to partner with the Special Olympics and we are very encouraged and excited to be a part of that," said David Service, sales manager at Cole Chevrolet.

ILLINOIS ABILITIES: TOPSoccer program gives young people with disabilities a place ...

CARY, Illinois — Kicking a soccer ball while it's moving is difficult for Tisha Brown's 6-year-old daughter, Anaka, who has trouble balancing on one leg because of distal arthrogryposis, which is tightness in joints and muscles that restricts movements.

So volunteers at The Outreach Program for Soccer run by the Cary Soccer Association work with Anaka - and other children with disabilities - one on one and adapt activities to everyone's individual skill levels.

TOPSoccer, which started in the fall, is a way to offer soccer for youngsters with physical or cognitive disabilities such as cerebral palsy, autism and Down syndrome. There are some youngsters who use wheelchairs or walkers but still participate.

The program is free for children 5 and older with any kind of disability in the northwest suburbs.

Inside the Sage Products gym, which the company donated on Saturdays because of the cold weather, youngsters practice dribbling a soccer ball while weaving around cones and passing to other players.

At the end of 45-minute sessions, the children are divided into two groups and run a scrimmage.

All of the youngsters are paired with volunteers to guide them through drills and provide encouragement and positive reinforcement, said Lynne O'Malley, who coordinates TOPSoccer for the Cary Soccer Association.

"They're there to feed the ball to the (youngsters), and do whatever it takes to make the child feel like they're succeeding in what they're doing," O'Malley said. "A lot of these kids never played soccer before. For them it's important because they could be part of a program."

The volunteer buddies take part in sensitivity training. Recently Pediatric Place, a pediatric physiotherapy clinic in Crystal Lake, donated time to provide a training workshop focusing on children with special needs and how to better understand and interact with them, O'Malley wrote in an email.

Brown said Anaka is so physically challenged that in other programs, children would run by her and leave her behind.

"When I looked into this and saw they had kids in wheelchairs, and saw they had the big soccer ball, I thought maybe we could actually do this," Brown said.

Brown, of Crystal Lake, said Anaka loves the buddies.

"I don't know if the buddies realize how much of an impact they make on the kids," Brown said.

Anaka has watched her older sisters participate in ice skating, volleyball and basketball, but now "she could have her own sport," Brown said.

Kim Kirby of McHenry brings her 14-year-old son, Nolan, who is autistic and does not speak.

Kirby said having Nolan in the program is good for his socialization with other youngsters and ensures he exercises.

"Just to be part of a team and do things ... that other kids get to do, we don't have those opportunities," Kirby said.

Nolan tends to be off on his own and doesn't follow the routine the other youngsters go through.

"The buddies seem to work to each kid's individual ability," Kirby said. "They work to what he could do."

Sarah Logan, 16, a junior at Cary-Grove High School, works with Nolan.

"You could tell he wants to say something. Sometimes I can't understand why he's acting a certain way," Logan said. "That's one of the main challenges."

Logan also recruits volunteers and pairs them with kids in the program based on the participants' personalities. The Cary resident said she enjoys working with youngsters with disabilities.

"I love it. It's my favorite thing to do," Logan said. "They just bring so much joy to me."

Betsy Davis of Barrington brings her son, Jack, 12, who suffered a brain hemorrhage two years ago. He had to relearn how to walk, talk, eat and make noise.

Jack played football and soccer before suffering the hemorrhage, Davis said.

During the TOPSoccer sessions, Jack and his volunteer work on coordination skills such as bouncing a ball off a knee.

"It gets me back to playing soccer again," Jack said.

(wonderful) Article By JOSEPH BUSTOS; The(Crystal Lake)Northwest Herald; May 21, 2013

Online: The (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald, http://bit.ly/ZEDnyQ

Story copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Chicago Police warn Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) riders of increase in robberies this May, 2013

May 20, 2013|By Rachel Cromidas | Chicago RedEye

Attention, customers: There has been an uptick in theft on the Chicago Transit Authority's trains in the Loop this May.

The rash of robberies was the subject of a community alert issued by police officials Monday afternoon.

The alert said that in each incident a male offender about 18-29 years old stole iPhones and purses from people riding the trains or waiting for them.

The first incident was reported in the 200 block of South State Street on May 17 at about 5:30 p.m. The second took place three hours later in the 100 block of North Wabash Avenue. A third theft was reported in the 100 block of South Dearborn Street on May 19 at 11:54 a.m.

Police officials recommend that people remain calm if confronted by an assailant, and try to remember any unique physical characteristics he or she has. They also suggest getting contact information from witnesses and reporting the crime immediately, but they say do not pursue the thief.

Want more? Discuss this article and others on RedEye's Facebook page.

http://articles.redeyechicago.com/2013-05-20/news/39399212_1_cta-riders-robberies-chicago-transit-authority

Exercise and Depression - HHS HealthBeat

HHS HealthBeat May 2013

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Exercise can reduce C-reactive protein, or CRP, a marker of inflammation. Higher levels of CRP can signal a higher risk of heart disease and other conditions like type 2 diabetes. But one study indicates people with symptoms of depression don’t reduce CRP through exercise.

At Duke Medicine, Edward Suarez compared CRP levels in people who were active or sedentary:

“The sedentaries that were depressed had the same levels of CRP as those who were active but yet depressed.”

But Suarez says being active does other good things, so people who are depressed should still be physically active.

The study in the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Listen to the podcast: CLICK HERE


U.S. Department of Health & Human Services - 200 Independence Avenue, S.W. - Washington, D.C. 20201

U.S. poor are moving to nation's suburbs - Report says

Report says poor are moving to nation's suburbs that are ill equipped to handle the surge.

Associated Press : May 20, 2013

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- More poor people live in the nation's suburbs than in urban cities because of affordable housing, service-sector jobs and the increased use of housing vouchers, according to a study released Monday.

The number of those in poverty living in suburbs jumped 67 percent between 2000 and 2011, a much larger increase than in cities, researchers for the Brookings Institution said. Suburbs, however, still have a smaller percentage of the poor than cities do.

The report notes that poor people were pulled to the suburbs by more affordable homes and followed jobs that were often low paying. But those who moved to the suburbs also saw manufacturing jobs disappear and housing prices plummet following the economic recession.

"The myth of suburban prosperity has been a stubborn one," Christopher Niedt, academic director of the National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/12FKPNm ). Even as suburban poverty emerged, "many poorer communities were so segregated from the wealthy in suburbs that many people were able to ignore it."

Suburban cities have been ill equipped to handle the surge. In Irvine, the nonprofit Families Forward use to hand groceries to about 25 families every week; now it's more than 160. The estimated number of poor people in Irvine rose from more than 12,000 to nearly 21,000 in a decade, Brookings found.

"Everything is nicely maintained. Things look good on the surface," said Margie Wakeham, executive director of Families Forward. "But the need has just skyrocketed."

The newspaper said poverty shifted to the suburbs earlier in Los Angeles than nationwide. About half of the poor in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana and their outskirts have lived in suburbia for decades, according to Brookings' analysis. That percentage rose to 53.4 in 2011.

The report also shows a slight increase in New York City suburban poverty.

Nationwide Call to ACTION on the Disability Treaty

CRPD NETWORK CALL TO ACTION
www.disabilitytreaty.org

If you were unable to make our community leadership call last week, we heard from Senator Harkin as he CALLED us to ACTION.

Senator Harkin explained that "the number of calls that came into the Senate offices last year opposing the disability treaty outnumbered the ones that came in supporting it by a factor of 50 to 1. But we also know that the vast majority of the American people want this and support it."

As Marca Bristo, USICD's President, said on the call, "We're calling upon our Senators to have the courage and the dedication to do what's right.... It's seldom that people have a second opportunity to do the right thing."

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

We hope to have a hearing in June in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and we ask you to come and REPRESENT YOUR STATE.

We ask you to make calls, visit your member's offices (either in the Senate or in their local offices), send emails, and talk to the press in your state. Disability advocates have been told by senators and their staffs "we have not decided yet." Do not take their indecision - keep going back UNTIL you get an answer.

You can find your Senators' contact information at www.senate.gov.

If you need assistance in organizing contact USICD (egrant@usicd.org) or DREDFand we will help you.

THE TRUTH CAMPAIGN: ANSWERING THE OPPOSITION
There are three main myths being spread about the treaty and we want to help you answer them for your members.

Sovereignty: Let your U.S. Senators know that you care about this treaty and tell them not to get fooled by the lies and misrepresentation of the leaders of the Home School Legal Defense Association. All human rights treaties passed by the U.S. Senate include the same RUD (RUD = legal binding condition added to treaties) that we have on the Disability Treaty to protect U.S. sovereignty. U.S. sovereignty has not been affected by the those treaties and our sovereignty will not be impacted by this treaty.

Abortion: There is nothing in this treaty that changes abortion rights in this country. It simply states that people with disabilities should have the same access to health care as people without disabilities. It is a statement of non-discrimination only NOT a change in U.S. law or policy.

Homeschooling/parental rights: This is a non-discrimination treaty that does NOT change our law but confirms our commitment to disability rights and allows us to impact disability rights globally! That means NO changes to U.S. laws covering parental rights. That means kids can still can get homeschooled - nothing relating to homeschooling changes. Furthermore, the treaty supports people with disabilities and their right to live in the community among family and protects parents and children from separation on the basis of disability.

We must spread a TRUTH campaign against the lies being told about the treaty [Example: Right now the opposition is circulating a sign-on letter in the House of Representatives addressed to senate leadership indicating their opposition to the treaty. The House does NOT vote on treaties, but they want to attack disability rights on a Senate issue! Check to see if your representative has signed the letter circulated by Representatives Doug Lamborn (CO) and Jeff Duncan (SC).]

REMEMBER

This is not just a disability campaign, our coalition has over 500 organizations representing Veterans, Civil Rights groups, Human Rights groups, Religious groups, GLBT groups, among many others - all working in collaboration. We ask you to contact those groups in your community to join you in the campaign for the passage of the treaty. If you need assistance getting in contact with groups in your area, please contact USICD and we will send you those contacts.

As Senator Harkin said, "If the disability treaty does not pass, it will make it more difficult for other disability legislation in the future. Passing the CRPD would put more life into our efforts on all sorts of disability policies."

We need YOU to help us ensure that the CRPD passes! You can learn more at the new website dedicated to the CRPD: www.disabilitytreaty.org. You can find one pagers, myth/facts, and access a new community webinar. Don't delay - we need you now!

Support The Arc and Receive a Great Magazine

Have you heard of Apostrophe Magazine? This full-color, glossy, quarterly publication is designed specifically for, about and by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities with features dedicated to advocacy, news, lifestyle and other topics of interest to the I/DD community.

The magazine is published each January, April, July and October and frequently features editorials from The Arc’s national office on vital issues such as federal public policy along with articles about interesting happenings at chapters of The Arc across the country.

Subscribe now for only $19.99 for one year and help support The Arc’s advocacy work. Apostrophe Magazine’s parent company is The Arc’s state chapter in Montana and the magazine frequently works to raise awareness of issues crucial to The Arc’s mission. This is not considered a charitable donation and is not tax deductible, but you will receive an annual subscription to an interesting, entertaining and educational publication all about people with I/DD in exchange for your support! Check out www.apostrophemagazine.com for a preview of what you can expect to receive with your subscription.

The Arc promotes and protects the human rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Arc 1825 K Street, NW, Suite 1200, Washington, DC 20006
Phone: 800.433.5255 | The Arc homepage: CLICK HERE