Windy City Times : by Kate Sosin, Windy City Times : July 20 2011
Illinois LGBT and disability rights advocates are praising a new California law requiring that LGBT and disability histories be included in school curriculums. That is because the law could impact curriculums all over the country, including Illinois.
Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the FAIR (Fair, Accurate, Inclusive and Respectful) Education Act in law July 14, which adds LGBT people and people with disabilities to a list of underrepresented identity groups that must be covered in school instructional materials.
The act requires that students learn about important LGBT historical contributions and milestones, such as the uprising at Stonewall.
Shannon Sullivan, the executive director at the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, an organization that advocates for LGBT students, said the act might impact what Illinois students learn as well.
"This could really change the textbook industry," said Sullivan.
According to Sullivan, major textbook companies tend to target their materials toward larger states, namely Texas and California. Sullivan thinks that because textbook makers will want to continue marketing to California schools, their newest editions will include LGBT and disability rights histories.
Those editions could be out as soon as next year, Sullivan said.
"In general, hopefully it sends a message to school leadership," Sullivan said. "It's an important part of everyone's history."
Gary Arnold—public relations coordinator at Access Living, a Chicago-based disability-rights organization—said the act could also change the way that people think about disability rights nationally.
"Historically, issues of people with disabilities have not been looked at by the general population as civil rights issues," Arnold said. Documenting those struggles in history books could change the perception that disability rights are strictly medical.
Arnold said that a similar bill has not been tried in Illinois yet, but that the win in California might inspire one.
Sullivan, too, thinks that success will be contagious. "It does set a legislative precedent," she said. "Then it becomes more sellable in other states."
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
REPORT: Millions in U.S. Lack Access to Dentists; Americans lack dental coverage or the ability to pay for dental care:
WebMD Health News : By Salynn Boyles; Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD
Study Shows Geography, Economics, and Shortage of Dentists Limit Dental Care
July 13, 2011 -- Fewer than half of Americans see a dentist each year and millions live in areas where access to dental care is severely limited, a new analysis from the health policy group Institute of Medicine (IOM) finds.
A severe shortage of dentists, especially those serving rural and minority groups, is contributing to the "persistent and systemic" barriers to oral health care, the report noted.
According to the report:
33 million Americans live in areas that are underserved by dental health professionals.
4.6 million children went without dental checkups in 2008 because their families could not afford them.
In 2006, almost two-thirds of retirees (62%) did not have adequate dental coverage.
The IOM committee concluded that around 9,600 additional dentists would be needed to meet the needs of underserved populations in the United States.
"We have the lowest ratio of dentists to population that we have had in 100 years," says Shelly Gehshan, who directs the Pew Children's Dental Campaign. "This is a serious problem that leaves 40 to 50 million people out of reach of a dentist at any given moment."
Dental Care Lacking for Children, Elderly, and Poor
Gehshan tells WebMD that millions of Americans lack dental coverage or the ability to pay for dental care.
She served on the IOM committee that issued the report.
Committee chairman Frederick P. Rivara, MD, tells WebMD that barriers to dental services disproportionately affect children, the elderly, and minorities.
Rivara is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
"As the nation struggles to address the larger systemic issues of access to health care, we need to ensure that oral health is recognized as a basic component of overall health," he says in a news release.
The IOM report included recommendations to federal and state policy makers to improve access to dental care.
Boosting Access to Dental Care
To address the shortage of dentists in underserved inner city and rural areas, the report calls for dental professional education programs aimed at increasing enrollment of African-Americans, Latinos, and people from rural areas into dental schools.
"Most dentists are white men," Gehshan says. "Research shows that dental students from rural or underserved areas are more likely to go back to these areas to practice."
The committee also called on the Health Resources and Services Administration to expand opportunities for dental residencies in underserved areas.
The IOM also addressed major limitations in oral care among economically disadvantaged people receiving Medicaid. States must provide dental benefits for children enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), they are not required to provide benefits to adults.
Gehshan says while the committee members agreed that dental benefits should be available to all Medicaid recipients, the group recognized that this is not likely to happen in the current economic climate.
The committee called on federal officials to fund state-based "demonstration projects" aimed at providing dental care to adult Medicaid recipients.
In addition, the committee recommended increasing Medicaid and CHIP reimbursements and simplifying administrative practices.
"A growing number of dental professionals will not take people on these programs because reimbursements are just too low," Rivara says.
The committee called on state officials to update their dental practice regulations with the goal of doing away with restrictions that limit access to dental services.
One example cited by Gehshan involved the application of fluoride sealants that help prevent cavities.
She says 22 states still require a dentist to examine a child before a dental hygienist is allowed to apply a sealant.
New Ways to Deliver Dental Care
Gehshan says innovative ways of delivering dental services will be needed to address the shortage of dentists.
The report called for more research into new approaches to care, including the use of mobile dental vans staffed by dental hygienists or practitioners who have several years of dental training but are not dentists.
Known as dental therapists, these practitioners are the oral health equivalent of nurse practitioners.
Only two states -- Alaska and Minnesota -- license dental therapists, but at least 50 other countries allow them to practice, Gehshan says.
The American Dental Association (ADA) has come out strongly against allowing non-dentists to perform surgery.
In a statement, ADA President Raymond F. Gist, DDS, praises the IOM report for highlighting the dental care access issue.
Gist notes that the ADA continues to support exploring new ways to expand access to dental care, but he adds, "We must, however, restate our opposition to allowing so-called 'midlevel providers' to diagnose disease or perform such surgical, irreversible procedures as extractions. Everyone deserves a dentist."
Study Shows Geography, Economics, and Shortage of Dentists Limit Dental Care
July 13, 2011 -- Fewer than half of Americans see a dentist each year and millions live in areas where access to dental care is severely limited, a new analysis from the health policy group Institute of Medicine (IOM) finds.
A severe shortage of dentists, especially those serving rural and minority groups, is contributing to the "persistent and systemic" barriers to oral health care, the report noted.
According to the report:
33 million Americans live in areas that are underserved by dental health professionals.
4.6 million children went without dental checkups in 2008 because their families could not afford them.
In 2006, almost two-thirds of retirees (62%) did not have adequate dental coverage.
The IOM committee concluded that around 9,600 additional dentists would be needed to meet the needs of underserved populations in the United States.
"We have the lowest ratio of dentists to population that we have had in 100 years," says Shelly Gehshan, who directs the Pew Children's Dental Campaign. "This is a serious problem that leaves 40 to 50 million people out of reach of a dentist at any given moment."
Dental Care Lacking for Children, Elderly, and Poor
Gehshan tells WebMD that millions of Americans lack dental coverage or the ability to pay for dental care.
She served on the IOM committee that issued the report.
Committee chairman Frederick P. Rivara, MD, tells WebMD that barriers to dental services disproportionately affect children, the elderly, and minorities.
Rivara is a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
"As the nation struggles to address the larger systemic issues of access to health care, we need to ensure that oral health is recognized as a basic component of overall health," he says in a news release.
The IOM report included recommendations to federal and state policy makers to improve access to dental care.
Boosting Access to Dental Care
To address the shortage of dentists in underserved inner city and rural areas, the report calls for dental professional education programs aimed at increasing enrollment of African-Americans, Latinos, and people from rural areas into dental schools.
"Most dentists are white men," Gehshan says. "Research shows that dental students from rural or underserved areas are more likely to go back to these areas to practice."
The committee also called on the Health Resources and Services Administration to expand opportunities for dental residencies in underserved areas.
The IOM also addressed major limitations in oral care among economically disadvantaged people receiving Medicaid. States must provide dental benefits for children enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), they are not required to provide benefits to adults.
Gehshan says while the committee members agreed that dental benefits should be available to all Medicaid recipients, the group recognized that this is not likely to happen in the current economic climate.
The committee called on federal officials to fund state-based "demonstration projects" aimed at providing dental care to adult Medicaid recipients.
In addition, the committee recommended increasing Medicaid and CHIP reimbursements and simplifying administrative practices.
"A growing number of dental professionals will not take people on these programs because reimbursements are just too low," Rivara says.
The committee called on state officials to update their dental practice regulations with the goal of doing away with restrictions that limit access to dental services.
One example cited by Gehshan involved the application of fluoride sealants that help prevent cavities.
She says 22 states still require a dentist to examine a child before a dental hygienist is allowed to apply a sealant.
New Ways to Deliver Dental Care
Gehshan says innovative ways of delivering dental services will be needed to address the shortage of dentists.
The report called for more research into new approaches to care, including the use of mobile dental vans staffed by dental hygienists or practitioners who have several years of dental training but are not dentists.
Known as dental therapists, these practitioners are the oral health equivalent of nurse practitioners.
Only two states -- Alaska and Minnesota -- license dental therapists, but at least 50 other countries allow them to practice, Gehshan says.
The American Dental Association (ADA) has come out strongly against allowing non-dentists to perform surgery.
In a statement, ADA President Raymond F. Gist, DDS, praises the IOM report for highlighting the dental care access issue.
Gist notes that the ADA continues to support exploring new ways to expand access to dental care, but he adds, "We must, however, restate our opposition to allowing so-called 'midlevel providers' to diagnose disease or perform such surgical, irreversible procedures as extractions. Everyone deserves a dentist."
Chicago City official arrested and charged with Medicare fraud scheme : July 20, 2011
Chicago Sun-Times : BY FRANK MAIN AND FRAN SPIELMAN July 20, 2011
[photo: Two owners of a Palos Hills home health care business and a suspended podiatrist were hit Wednesday with federal Medicare fraud charges that accuse them of having illegally taken more than $1.5 million in fraudulent Medicare payments. One of the owners of the business, House Call Physicians, is Mohammed Khamis Rashed, who is also a coordinating engineer for the city of Chicago’s Department of Transportation]
A high-level City Hall official was arrested at work Wednesday on charges he was involved in Medicare fraud unrelated to his city job.
Mohammed K. Rashed, 45, of Chicago, is one of three men charged in an alleged scheme involving a home healthcare business Rashed owned with one of the other co-defendants, Bahir H. Khalil, 33, of Palos Hills.
Rashed — a $102,552-a-year coordinating engineer for the city’s Department of Transportation — was arrested Wednesday morning at his city office at 30 N. LaSalle and led out in handcuffs, stunning co-workers.
“It’s a shocker, a bombshell. This guy was a big shooter,” said a City Hall source who knows Rashed and asked to remain anonymous.
Rashed and Khalil, owners of House Call Physicians LLC, are accused of Medicare fraud of more than $1.5 million and of an illegal attempt to obtain a work visa for Khalil, according to a federal complaint unsealed Wednesday.
Khalil, the manager of House Call Physicians, is a native of Syria and a Canadian citizen who is not authorized to work in the United States, prosecutors said.
The alleged scheme involved billing for services as if they were performed by physicians when they were really done by physician assistants.
The defendants allegedly billed for podiatry services as if they were performed by a licensed podiatrist — when they were actually carried out by a third defendant, Paschal U. Oparah, 46, of South Holland, whose podiatry license was suspended.
Prosecutors also say the company falsely certified that patients were eligible for home health services and billed Medicare for unnecessary medical services.
A former House Call physician secretly recorded conversations with Khalil, prosecutors said. A physician assistant also cooperated in the investigation.
House Call Physicians opened in 2006, and the fraud took place from 2008 to this March, prosecutors said.
Rashed works closely with aldermen on lighting projects in the city’s 50 wards.
“This guy is a professional engineer in charge of other engineers. He’s supposed to be involved in designing lighting systems. He works with outside engineering firms and outside contractors. He works closely with aldermen on the lighting projects tied to their aldermanic menus. To have him led out of the office in handcuffs is stunning,” the City Hall source said.
[photo: Two owners of a Palos Hills home health care business and a suspended podiatrist were hit Wednesday with federal Medicare fraud charges that accuse them of having illegally taken more than $1.5 million in fraudulent Medicare payments. One of the owners of the business, House Call Physicians, is Mohammed Khamis Rashed, who is also a coordinating engineer for the city of Chicago’s Department of Transportation]
A high-level City Hall official was arrested at work Wednesday on charges he was involved in Medicare fraud unrelated to his city job.
Mohammed K. Rashed, 45, of Chicago, is one of three men charged in an alleged scheme involving a home healthcare business Rashed owned with one of the other co-defendants, Bahir H. Khalil, 33, of Palos Hills.
Rashed — a $102,552-a-year coordinating engineer for the city’s Department of Transportation — was arrested Wednesday morning at his city office at 30 N. LaSalle and led out in handcuffs, stunning co-workers.
“It’s a shocker, a bombshell. This guy was a big shooter,” said a City Hall source who knows Rashed and asked to remain anonymous.
Rashed and Khalil, owners of House Call Physicians LLC, are accused of Medicare fraud of more than $1.5 million and of an illegal attempt to obtain a work visa for Khalil, according to a federal complaint unsealed Wednesday.
Khalil, the manager of House Call Physicians, is a native of Syria and a Canadian citizen who is not authorized to work in the United States, prosecutors said.
The alleged scheme involved billing for services as if they were performed by physicians when they were really done by physician assistants.
The defendants allegedly billed for podiatry services as if they were performed by a licensed podiatrist — when they were actually carried out by a third defendant, Paschal U. Oparah, 46, of South Holland, whose podiatry license was suspended.
Prosecutors also say the company falsely certified that patients were eligible for home health services and billed Medicare for unnecessary medical services.
A former House Call physician secretly recorded conversations with Khalil, prosecutors said. A physician assistant also cooperated in the investigation.
House Call Physicians opened in 2006, and the fraud took place from 2008 to this March, prosecutors said.
Rashed works closely with aldermen on lighting projects in the city’s 50 wards.
“This guy is a professional engineer in charge of other engineers. He’s supposed to be involved in designing lighting systems. He works with outside engineering firms and outside contractors. He works closely with aldermen on the lighting projects tied to their aldermanic menus. To have him led out of the office in handcuffs is stunning,” the City Hall source said.
Illinois: Erie woman named 2011 Illinoisan of the Day : promote independence in agriculture for people with disabilities and their families: July 18 2011
Press release submitted by Illinois State Museum Foundation
(7/18/2011 Springfield, IL) Brenda Besse, of Erie, has been named a 2011 Illinoisan of the Day by the Illinois State Fair Museum Foundation. She will be honored on Tuesday, August 16, at this year's fair in Springfield.
Besse, 52, was nominated for her years of service to AgrAbility Unlimited. This cooperative project between government and citizen groups works to promote independence in agriculture for people with disabilities and their families. Her commitment to farm safety includes farm equipment-handling demonstrations for thousands of grade-schoolers. Besse has also brought notice to her community by bringing home some ninety tournament championships from the National Amputee Golf Association.
Each spring the museum foundation seeks nominations of Prairie State residents who volunteer in their communities, work to brighten lives of their neighbors and represent the best of Illinois citizenship. Several area residents joined in nominating Besse. Her name was announced July 16 at the foundation's annual fund-raiser, the Corndog Kick-off, held on the fairgrounds in Springfield with Besse in attendance.
As part of this year's ceremony during the Illinois State Fair, Besse will be a guest on her special day. She will be driven through the fairgrounds in a convertible with an antique tractor escort to the Farm Bureau stage under the Commodities Pavilion. Then Besse will be introduced and honored with gifts including a proclamation from Governor Pat Quinn.
Other winners this year are Jim Winch of Pleasant Plains, Robert "Bob" Vose, Sr., of Springfield, Tom Hennigh of Effingham, George W. Obernagel III of Waterloo, Harold Steele of Dover, William Allaman of Oquawka, Geraldine McGuire of Winchester, Annette LaMore of Manteno and for the first time a joint award to spouses Jerry and Diane Rodhouse of Pleasant Hill.
The nonprofit State Fair Museum Foundation works to preserve fair artifacts and memories. Its collection will be free and open to the public during the fair, August 12 - 21, under the north end of the Grandstand.
(7/18/2011 Springfield, IL) Brenda Besse, of Erie, has been named a 2011 Illinoisan of the Day by the Illinois State Fair Museum Foundation. She will be honored on Tuesday, August 16, at this year's fair in Springfield.
Each spring the museum foundation seeks nominations of Prairie State residents who volunteer in their communities, work to brighten lives of their neighbors and represent the best of Illinois citizenship. Several area residents joined in nominating Besse. Her name was announced July 16 at the foundation's annual fund-raiser, the Corndog Kick-off, held on the fairgrounds in Springfield with Besse in attendance.
As part of this year's ceremony during the Illinois State Fair, Besse will be a guest on her special day. She will be driven through the fairgrounds in a convertible with an antique tractor escort to the Farm Bureau stage under the Commodities Pavilion. Then Besse will be introduced and honored with gifts including a proclamation from Governor Pat Quinn.
Other winners this year are Jim Winch of Pleasant Plains, Robert "Bob" Vose, Sr., of Springfield, Tom Hennigh of Effingham, George W. Obernagel III of Waterloo, Harold Steele of Dover, William Allaman of Oquawka, Geraldine McGuire of Winchester, Annette LaMore of Manteno and for the first time a joint award to spouses Jerry and Diane Rodhouse of Pleasant Hill.
The nonprofit State Fair Museum Foundation works to preserve fair artifacts and memories. Its collection will be free and open to the public during the fair, August 12 - 21, under the north end of the Grandstand.
Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living. info. resources
INCIL IS ...
The Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living, the statewide association representing the 23 Centers for Independent Living (CILs) in Illinois. INCIL is an authoritative source of information about the accomplishments and needs of Illinois CILs and about issues most critical to promote independent living for all persons with disabilities.
OUR MISSION:
The purpose of INCIL is to facilitate the collaboration of all Centers for Independent Living in Illinois for promoting, through the Independent Living Movement, equal opportunities and civil rights for all persons with disabilities.
A CIL IS ...
A non-residential, community based organization, directed and managed by persons with disabilities, which is dedicated to the philosophy that all people with disabilities have the right and the responsibility to make choices to control the direction of their lives and participate fully and equally in their communities.
A NEW PHILOSOPHY OF FULL INCLUSION
INCIL is the statewide association of which the 23 Centers for Independent Living are members. Through the centers, persons with disabilities in Illinois are empowered with the knowledge and skills to make their own life choices and pursue their own goals of self-sufficiency and full participation in their communities.
Independent Living is the right of all people, regardless of their capabilities, to control and direct their own lives and to participate fully and meaningfully as equal member of society. This philosophy is a response to the existing community barriers, low expectations, stigma, prejudice, discrimination and other social and political restrictions, which tend to limit persons with disabilities from fully participating in their communities.
The greatest barrier faced is the attitudes of those thinking that people with disabilities are "less than whole" and, therefore, deserve fewer opportunities than mainstream Americans. Attitudinal barriers are so ingrained in society that only a sustained and high profile effort, reaching all constituencies simultaneously, can have any measure of success. Only then can people with disabilities begin to have a chance at equal participation. In no area in life is this more apparent than employment, with a startling statistic of more than 69% unemployment rate among vocationally aged people with disabilities.
Our efforts are directed toward educating the community of persons without disabilities about the reality of persons with disabilities.... that they are people of equal value, with similar dreams, goals and ambitions, who deserve an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. We want to remove the face of pity from the image of disability and replace it with one of positive capability. We are a resource to our member centers in assisting with their growth and development, and a resource to the community in providing the information and technical assistance they need in creating an open environment of equality for all citizens.
Finally, we are an advocate for the rights and full inclusion of persons with disabilities, and for the support of those services, which allow individuals with disabilities to achieve their goals.
The following information defines Centers for Independent Living and how they work to arm persons with disabilities with the knowledge, skills, and self-confidence to achieve their goals and dreams.
A Center for Independent Living (CIL) is a non-residential, community based organization, which provides resource and advocacy services to persons with disabilities. CIL's differ from traditional service agencies in many ways, the first being that they are staffed and governed primarily by persons with disabilities. Federal and State laws, which define CIL's mandate that at least 51% of staff and board are persons with disabilities. This brings a positive perspective based on personal experience with disability and an understanding of issues and barriers faced, and the potential for success.
An equally important difference is a philosophy of consumer control. CIL's do not direct their consumers, make decisions for them, or tell them what to do. Instead, they serve as a resource and mentor, empowering consumers with the skill to direct their own lives, set their own goals, and plan the necessary steps to achieve those goals. They provide the information to allow consumers to make well-informed choices, with a full understanding of the potential consequences of their decisions.
Through peer support and role modeling, CIL staff teach consumers that persons with disabilities have the right and the responsibility to pursue goals of self-determination and self-sufficiency. They provide training in skills that range from managing a budget, to writing a resume, to hiring and managing a personal assistant, if the consumer has a disability which restricts his or her ability to physically do everything needed in daily living.
CIL's work within their communities to bring about positive change in attitudes and accessibility, creating an open and welcoming environment for citizens with disabilities. By participating in community events, networking with other community agencies, conducting presentations and workshops on pertinent issues, CIL's create an enlightened awareness of disability and reduce the apprehension some persons experience when encountering someone with a disability.
Role modeling is an important part of community education. As CIL staff with disabilities participate in various groups, committees and boards, other members are exposed to individuals with disabilities serving in professional positions and taking part in addressing issues of importance to the whole community. This sends a different message than the one of helplessness and pity often attached to disability.
Advocacy is a vital component of the CIL picture. CIL's are the voice in their communities, which exposes those policies and practices which are discriminatory or detrimental to persons with disabilities, and demands change. That voice is backed up by an involved group of people who work with community leaders to bring about change. Consumers of CIL's are taught self-advocacy skills so they are prepared to deal with discrimination if it confronts them.
Overall, Centers for Independent Living provide persons with disabilities the tools to set and accomplish their own goals; and they provide their communities the information and knowledge needed to accept, respect and accommodate their citizens with disabilities. The result is that the fabric of community life is enriched because all persons are a part of it.
# For INCIL homepage CLICK HERE or visit: http://incil.org
updated May 2013
The Social Challenge : The "R" Word : Did you know the word “retard” is used more than 24,000 times each day on Twitter? Join The Challenge
Take the Social Challenge Today!
(refresh if no video)
Uploaded by lifemywayil on Feb 21, 2011
Did you know the word “retard” is used more than 24,000 times each day on Twitter? The folks at LifeMyWay are monitoring Twitter and have launched a new campaign called The Social Challenge to target R-word users and raise awareness about the developmental disability community.
The Social Challenge is about creating a dialogue – watch a live stream of Tweets containing the R-word and then respond directly to the Tweeter. The Social Challenge is also a forum for people to share their stories and connect with one another. Our message is simple: people with developmental disabilities and their families face enough challenges as it is and words can hurt. They deserve the same rights and respect as anyone else.
Visit http://www.TheSocialChallenge.org and challenge yourself, challenge others and join us in creating a community rooted in equality.
200,000 people in Illinois have a developmental disability and we have countless family members and loved ones. Together we can make a difference!
# Join The Social Challenge, click headline or visit: http://www.thesocialchallenge.org/
(refresh if no video)
Uploaded by lifemywayil on Feb 21, 2011
Did you know the word “retard” is used more than 24,000 times each day on Twitter? The folks at LifeMyWay are monitoring Twitter and have launched a new campaign called The Social Challenge to target R-word users and raise awareness about the developmental disability community.
The Social Challenge is about creating a dialogue – watch a live stream of Tweets containing the R-word and then respond directly to the Tweeter. The Social Challenge is also a forum for people to share their stories and connect with one another. Our message is simple: people with developmental disabilities and their families face enough challenges as it is and words can hurt. They deserve the same rights and respect as anyone else.
Visit http://www.TheSocialChallenge.org and challenge yourself, challenge others and join us in creating a community rooted in equality.
200,000 people in Illinois have a developmental disability and we have countless family members and loved ones. Together we can make a difference!
Migraines : Definition, Symptoms, Causes, Risk factors; detailed info
(refresh if no video)
Uploaded by mayoclinic on Feb 22, 2011
In this video David Dodick, M.D., neurologist, Mayo Clinic in Arizona, explains the symptoms, triggers and treatment for complex migraines. A nationally recognized expert on headaches, Dr. Dodick is the president of the American Headache Society, Editor-in-Chief of Cephalalgia, Director and Founder of the Headache Program and Headache Fellowship Program at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. He is also the Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Concussion Program.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
A migraine headache can cause intense throbbing or pulsing in one area of the head and is commonly accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and extreme sensitivity to light and sound. Migraine attacks can cause significant pain for hours to days and be so severe that all you can think about is finding a dark, quiet place to lie down.
Some migraines are preceded or accompanied by sensory warning symptoms (aura), such as flashes of light, blind spots or tingling in your arm or leg.
Medications can help reduce the frequency and severity of migraines. If treatment hasn't worked for you in the past, talk to your doctor about trying a different migraine headache medication. The right medicines, combined with self-help remedies and lifestyle changes, may make a tremendous difference.
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staff
Migraine headaches often begin in childhood, adolescence or early adulthood. Migraines may progress through four stages — prodrome, aura, attack and postdrome — though you may not experience all the stages.
Prodrome
One or two days before a migraine, you may notice subtle changes that may signify an oncoming migraine, including:
Constipation
Depression
Diarrhea
Food cravings
Hyperactivity
Irritability
Neck stiffness
Aura
Most people experience migraine headaches without aura. Auras are usually visual but can also be sensory, motor or verbal disturbances. Each of these symptoms typically begins gradually, builds up over several minutes, then commonly lasts for 10 to 30 minutes. Examples of aura include:
Visual phenomena, such as seeing various shapes, bright spots or flashes of light
Vision loss
Pins and needles sensations in an arm or leg
Speech or language problems
Less commonly, an aura may be associated with aphasia or limb weakness (hemiplegic migraine).
Attack
When untreated, a migraine typically lasts from four to 72 hours, but the frequency with which headaches occur varies from person to person. You may have migraines several times a month or much less frequently. During a migraine, you may experience some of the following symptoms:
Pain on one side of your head
Pain that has a pulsating, throbbing quality
Sensitivity to light, sounds and sometimes smells
Nausea and vomiting
Blurred vision
Diarrhea
Lightheadedness, sometimes followed by fainting
Postdrome
The final phase — known as postdrome — occurs after a migraine attack, when you may feel drained and washed out, though some people report feeling mildly euphoric.
When to see a doctor
Migraine headaches are often undiagnosed and untreated. If you regularly experience signs and symptoms of migraine attacks, keep a record of your attacks and how you treated them. Then make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your headaches and decide on a treatment plan.
Even if you have a history of headaches, see your doctor if the pattern changes or your headaches suddenly feel different.
See your doctor immediately or go to the emergency room if you have any of the following signs and symptoms, which may indicate other, more serious medical problems:
An abrupt, severe headache like a thunderclap
Headache with fever, stiff neck, rash, mental confusion, seizures, double vision, weakness, numbness or trouble speaking
Headache after a head injury, especially if the headache gets worse
A chronic headache that is worse after coughing, exertion, straining or a sudden movement
New headache pain if you're older than 50
# For more info on Migraines click headline or visit: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/migraine-headache/DS00120
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
NAD Continues Fight to Protect Schools for the Deaf: June 2011
(refresh if no video)
Uploaded by NADvlogs on Jun 13, 2011
Hello, I am Howard Rosenblum, CEO of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). This is my first vlog, and it is about a crisis currently facing our deaf children, schools for the deaf, and our language, American Sign Language. In February, the NAD sent out an action alert to the deaf and hard of hearing community including a vlog by NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins describing a crisis facing several schools for the deaf. In our action alert, we urged the community to be vigilant, and to be involved with their schools for the deaf and state associations. We also urged everyone to inform your legislators of the importance of these schools for the future of our deaf children. Schools continue to face threats, including closure, diminished funding, and hiring and appointments of individuals who do not value ASL as an educational means. ASL is the core value of the NAD and its members.
The NAD, through its board members and staff, has worked hard through many avenues to protect state schools for the deaf. The NAD supports state and local organizations organized to protect schools for the deaf. The NAD has developed position statements that describe the need for state schools for deaf and hard of hearing children and marshaled resources in support of these positions. The NAD has provided legal support, contacted legislators, appealed to media outlets, joined rallies, and mobilized the community via our communication channels and social media outlets. While NAD efforts have yielded some results, the threat persists and we must continue the fight. Please click on the links in my blog on the NAD website to view videos and resources about our efforts on behalf of state schools for the deaf. I will describe some of the more urgent situations facing schools for the deaf and NAD activities by our members, volunteers, and staff to protect schools for the deaf. The NAD needs all of you to assist in this effort and we must all be unified in this effort together.
NAD Board and staff representatives attended and supported rallies to preserve and protect the state schools for the deaf. NAD President Bobbie Beth Scoggins attended rallies in Oklahoma and Kansas. NAD Region I Board Member Sean Gerlis, NAD Civil Rights Chair Alexis Kashar and I attended a rally in support of 4201 schools in New York. The NAD has provided legal expertise and support for the lawyers who filed the lawsuit to keep South Dakota School for the Deaf open, and continue to monitor the appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. The NAD has also tweeted about challenges facing other schools that have deaf and hard of hearing programs such as the Utah School for the Deaf and Fargo High School in North Dakota. The NAD has also been corresponding with and providing support to various schools for the deaf and deaf programs about their situations.
On February 1, 2011, Governor Andrew Cuomo of NY decided to try to change an old law that required the State of NY to pay directly to private state schools educating deaf students. The Governor wanted to stop directly funding state schools and pay school districts after the fact for funding placement of students at 4201 schools. This was a huge concern because many local school districts are facing big cuts and might choose to keep deaf students at their schools instead of sending them to a 4201 school. Those local school districts have no experience with deaf students and would not have been able to educate these students. The NAD worked closely with the Superintendents of the 4201 schools in New York, sent a letter to the New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, and sent a letter on behalf of NAD Celebrity Spokesperson Marlee Matlin to Governor Cuomo urging him to keep the 4201 system and preserve those schools. As previously stated, Gerlis, Kashar, and I attended the 4201 Rally to save the schools in Albany, NY on March 10, 2011. There was a large crowd with around 1,000 people. Several New York legislators attended and showed their support for our schools.
As a result of our collective efforts and the support received from legislators opposed to Governor Cuomo's budget, some (but not all) issues were resolved. 4201 schools and their authority to determine placements for deaf children are retained intact, but the funding would still go from the state to the school districts then to the 4201 schools. We remain concerned that the funding would flow through too slowly and the 4201 schools would have to close because of delayed funding. A blog by Alexis Kashar about this issue has been posted on the NAD website, "Did New York Schools for the Deaf Win or Lose?".
In April 2011, I sent a video to the “Deaf Schools in Crisis” Town Hall in the Bay Area of California, describing strategies to preserve state schools for the deaf.
In May 2011, the NAD responded to a crisis at Indiana School for the Deaf (ISD) by joining the local group that is collaborating to develop strategy that will push back against Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels’ appointment of two parents of deaf children out of four new appointees to the Indiana School for the Deaf Board. Those two parents do not have children who attend ISD and they have no connection to the school. According to the Indianapolis Star newspaper, one of these appointees is affiliated with Hear Indiana, a chapter of AGBell and is the parent of a mainstreamed deaf child. Another parent is the former director of the St. Joseph Institute, an Indianapolis school for preschool-age deaf children that focuses on speech and not ASL. He has a deaf son who is now mainstreamed.
Further, HEAR Indiana in a recent e-newsletter about the Indiana School for the Deaf Board appointments explains that the ISD budget has more than $18 million then asks its members, “Do you feel like local school districts should have a piece of the pie?”
Supporters of the Indiana School for the Deaf as well as NAD are concerned that these new Board members whose children do not attend ISD are more interested in diverting funds from ISD to mainstreaming programs than the betterment of ISD, as well as their interest in promoting listening and speech at the expense of American Sign Language in the educational programming at ISD.
This is a clear conflict of interest for those parents to sit on the ISD Board. The State already funds mainstreaming programs. The Governor should not have appointed parents who have no interest in investing in the future of ISD and its programs tailored specifically to deaf and hard of hearing children who use American Sign Language. The NAD is working closely with the Indiana Association of the Deaf (IAD) and the Parent Teachers Counselors Organization (PTCO) to find ways to rescind those appointments and ensure that the ISD board only consists of people who support ISD.
It is important that we all unite and work together to protect our deaf schools. The NAD depends on the entire deaf and hard of hearing community to support the NAD mission and keep each other informed about deaf schools that are at risk. We are also working with the Conference of Educational Administrators of Schools and Programs for the Deaf (CEASD) to develop political strategies on the federal and state levels to preserve our deaf schools.
The NAD has always been a staunch advocate for deaf schools and will continue to preserve, protect and promote deaf schools. Please join us in this ongoing fight to keep the schools open with full access to American Sign Language for our deaf children.
# For the National Association of the Deaf click headline or visit: http://nad.org/
At 88, A Chance To Be Independent Again, got "stuck" in a nursing home for six years: July 18, 2011
News > NPR News Investigations > Home Or Nursing Home
by Joseph Shapiro July 18, 2011
As Rosa Hendrix puts it, she got "stuck" in a nursing home for six years. So when the 88-year-old woman was finally able to move out, she looked around her new one-bedroom apartment and had some stark things to say about what makes a home.
"A home means to me where you are not in prison. Where you don't have to have somebody to tell you what you can do, when you can do it and how you can do it," she says.
Hendrix was featured in an NPR News investigation in December 2010 that examined a federal law, which now gives people like Hendrix a civil right to receive long-term health care in their own home, instead of in a nursing home or state institution. But too often, the series found, that new civil right remains an empty promise for America's disabled and elderly.
Hendrix lived in a nursing home in Atlanta located directly across the street from Martin Luther King's gravesite. She spent her days in her wheelchair in the lobby, looking through the plate glass window and watching the tourists.
Now she lives across the street from Turner Field, where the Atlanta Braves play baseball, in a brick apartment house that's been converted from an old school building. Her new one-bedroom apartment is spacious with high ceilings. "It's beautiful," she said when she moved in late last month. "It makes you feel so much better and know that you are somebody."
Uncertainty Of Leaving A Nursing Home
An NPR analysis of unpublished federal data showed that those who live in a nursing home — and how disabled they are — vary from state to state. In Illinois, for example, 20 percent of people in nursing homes can walk by themselves, but only 5 percent can in Hawaii and South Carolina. Who lives in a nursing home, the NPR investigation found, is often determined more by state policies and whether there are adequate programs to offer alternatives to nursing homes than by the level of a person's disability.
Hendrix has minor disabilities and was long able to live on her own. But how she landed in a nursing home — and stayed there — turns out to be an all too typical story.
Six years ago after she fell and hurt her leg, she went to a nursing home for what was supposed to be a temporary stay for therapy. But the therapy took longer than first expected. Her Social Security check, which paid the rent on her subsidized apartment, was diverted to pay for the nursing home room. As a result, she lost her apartment and then had no home to go back to, nor family to help her.
Getting out of a nursing home was not easy. She grew dependent upon the services at the home, such as someone to cook for her and aides to help push her wheelchair.
But Hendrix wanted to get back into an apartment of her own. Sue Jamieson, an attorney at Atlanta Legal Aid Society, and Toni Pastore, a paralegal there, helped Hendrix sue the state of Georgia to demand her own apartment. They based their suit on the Americans with Disabilities Act, a 21-year-old law that bars discrimination on the basis of a person's disability.
For Hendrix, Jamieson argued that it'd be cheaper for the state of Georgia if the elderly woman lived in her own house. Instead of the expensive, round-the-clock help available in a nursing home, Hendrix only needed a few hours a day of help from an aide who could help her get out of bed, get dressed and help with housekeeping chores.
The state agreed in principle. But finding such a place was difficult because there is an acute shortage of subsidized, wheelchair-accessible apartments in Georgia, and across the country.
Finding Independence
It took Cheryl Laurendeau, an advocate who works to help people move out of nursing homes, to make it happen. Laurendeau, who also has a disability and uses a wheelchair, became Hendrix's peer supporter and helped her find a subsidized apartment in Atlanta.
But it wasn't quick. The first apartment they went to see was up a steep hill and had a long staircase at the entrance. They couldn't even get in. Often, something that's listed as wheelchair accessible simply isn't. "People seem to think that 2 or 3 inches of a step is accessibility," says Laurendeau. "But it's not for a wheelchair."
Once Hendrix found the apartment she wanted, a federal and state Medicaid program provided more support. Funding through the Money Follows the Person program paid for basic things that can create a costly barrier for people who want to move out of a nursing home. For Hendrix, it paid for furniture — a new bed, chairs and kitchen table — pots, pans, dishes and a few groceries.
Hendrix is learning to become independent again. But it is not automatic. On the day she moved into her apartment, Hendrix let others figure out how to arrange the furniture.
She now receives help from an aide who comes for two hours in the morning to help her get out of bed and bathe and then helps prepare breakfast. The aide returns for two hours in the evening. Dinners are provided by Meals on Wheels, a nonprofit organization that delivers meals to those in need.
For the first time in years, Hendrix says, she's optimistic about her future. "I'll feel fine now," she said as she moved in. "It's gonna get better."
# For NPR click headline or visit: http://www.npr.org/
by Joseph Shapiro July 18, 2011
"A home means to me where you are not in prison. Where you don't have to have somebody to tell you what you can do, when you can do it and how you can do it," she says.
Hendrix was featured in an NPR News investigation in December 2010 that examined a federal law, which now gives people like Hendrix a civil right to receive long-term health care in their own home, instead of in a nursing home or state institution. But too often, the series found, that new civil right remains an empty promise for America's disabled and elderly.
Hendrix lived in a nursing home in Atlanta located directly across the street from Martin Luther King's gravesite. She spent her days in her wheelchair in the lobby, looking through the plate glass window and watching the tourists.
Now she lives across the street from Turner Field, where the Atlanta Braves play baseball, in a brick apartment house that's been converted from an old school building. Her new one-bedroom apartment is spacious with high ceilings. "It's beautiful," she said when she moved in late last month. "It makes you feel so much better and know that you are somebody."
Uncertainty Of Leaving A Nursing Home
An NPR analysis of unpublished federal data showed that those who live in a nursing home — and how disabled they are — vary from state to state. In Illinois, for example, 20 percent of people in nursing homes can walk by themselves, but only 5 percent can in Hawaii and South Carolina. Who lives in a nursing home, the NPR investigation found, is often determined more by state policies and whether there are adequate programs to offer alternatives to nursing homes than by the level of a person's disability.
Hendrix has minor disabilities and was long able to live on her own. But how she landed in a nursing home — and stayed there — turns out to be an all too typical story.
Six years ago after she fell and hurt her leg, she went to a nursing home for what was supposed to be a temporary stay for therapy. But the therapy took longer than first expected. Her Social Security check, which paid the rent on her subsidized apartment, was diverted to pay for the nursing home room. As a result, she lost her apartment and then had no home to go back to, nor family to help her.
Getting out of a nursing home was not easy. She grew dependent upon the services at the home, such as someone to cook for her and aides to help push her wheelchair.
But Hendrix wanted to get back into an apartment of her own. Sue Jamieson, an attorney at Atlanta Legal Aid Society, and Toni Pastore, a paralegal there, helped Hendrix sue the state of Georgia to demand her own apartment. They based their suit on the Americans with Disabilities Act, a 21-year-old law that bars discrimination on the basis of a person's disability.
For Hendrix, Jamieson argued that it'd be cheaper for the state of Georgia if the elderly woman lived in her own house. Instead of the expensive, round-the-clock help available in a nursing home, Hendrix only needed a few hours a day of help from an aide who could help her get out of bed, get dressed and help with housekeeping chores.
The state agreed in principle. But finding such a place was difficult because there is an acute shortage of subsidized, wheelchair-accessible apartments in Georgia, and across the country.
Finding Independence
It took Cheryl Laurendeau, an advocate who works to help people move out of nursing homes, to make it happen. Laurendeau, who also has a disability and uses a wheelchair, became Hendrix's peer supporter and helped her find a subsidized apartment in Atlanta.
But it wasn't quick. The first apartment they went to see was up a steep hill and had a long staircase at the entrance. They couldn't even get in. Often, something that's listed as wheelchair accessible simply isn't. "People seem to think that 2 or 3 inches of a step is accessibility," says Laurendeau. "But it's not for a wheelchair."
Once Hendrix found the apartment she wanted, a federal and state Medicaid program provided more support. Funding through the Money Follows the Person program paid for basic things that can create a costly barrier for people who want to move out of a nursing home. For Hendrix, it paid for furniture — a new bed, chairs and kitchen table — pots, pans, dishes and a few groceries.
Hendrix is learning to become independent again. But it is not automatic. On the day she moved into her apartment, Hendrix let others figure out how to arrange the furniture.
She now receives help from an aide who comes for two hours in the morning to help her get out of bed and bathe and then helps prepare breakfast. The aide returns for two hours in the evening. Dinners are provided by Meals on Wheels, a nonprofit organization that delivers meals to those in need.
For the first time in years, Hendrix says, she's optimistic about her future. "I'll feel fine now," she said as she moved in. "It's gonna get better."
# For NPR click headline or visit: http://www.npr.org/
The Coffee Klatch: Blog Talk Radio July 20 2011 - NAMI The National Alliance on Mental Illness
From its inception in 1979, NAMI has been dedicated to improving the lives of individuals and families affected by mental illness. For three decades, NAMI has established itself as the most formidable grassroots mental health advocacy organization in the country. Join our guest Cindy Nelson.
NAMI The National Alliance on Mental Illness provides support for individuals with mental illness and their friends and family. It is recognized as the preeminent voice on Capitol Hill and in state houses across the country for the millions of Americans living with serious mental illness join Cindy Nelson Executive Resource Specialist and Social Media Relations of NAMI Mass 9pm est on Blog Talk Radio
Start Date: 20 July 2011
End Date: 20 July 2011
Time: 9:00pm est
Place: click headline or visit http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thecoffeeklatch
##
Individual Education Plans - NAMI Video Preview
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Uploaded by komarekp on Apr 25, 2011
Representatives from Cincinnati Public Schools, Ohio Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, and the Legal Aid Society discuss special education process for children with mental illness.
# For The Coffee Klatch visit: http://thecoffeeklatch.com/
Obama Meets ATT, Time Warner Cable CEOs on Education; to help the unemployed, returning veterans and people with disabilities : July 19, 2011
“Our children are the future,” said Alma Powell, who started the youth-advocacy group America’s Promise Alliance with her husband, former Secretary of State Colin Powell. “If they are not prepared for the future, there is no future for this country,” she said.
Powell, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in former President George H.W. Bush’s administration, said he told the CEOs at today’s meeting that education is crucial for the U.S. because “these youngsters are your future employees and your future customers.”
He said that while he appreciates the monetary pledges from companies, including more than $10 million annually already committed by State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co, money won’t fix the problem.
“More important to me and to my wife and to the programs is that every State Farm agent, every State Farm office is involved in their community,” he said. “What we need is retail level connection between every aspect of the business community and the kids who are in those communities that are in need. We want your personal involvement, we want your human involvement.”
Money Pledged
At today’s meeting, Bank of America Corp. (BAC), based in Charlotte, North Carolina, announced a $50 million pledge over the next three years to help the unemployed, returning veterans and people with disabilities get connected with institutions, including community colleges, to help them learn skills and enter the workforce.
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), of Redmond, Washington, pledged to invest $15 million in research and development in learning technology, and a commitment to train more than 150,000 educators and leaders over the next three years.
Beaverton, Oregon-based Nike Inc. (NKE), the world’s largest sportswear company, is adding $3 million to an existing $7 million fund designed to aid schools in Oregon.
“This is a defining moment,” said Accenture Plc (ACN)’s Chairman William Green. “The outside world has raised the bar, it’s our job to raise our game.”
Chief Executives
Among those at today’s meeting were: Craig Barrett, former CEO of Santa Clara, California-based Intel Corp. (INTC); Ed Rust, CEO of Bloomington, Illinois-based State Farm; Bill Swanson, CEO of Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co. (RTN); and David Zaslav, CEO of Silver Spring, Maryland-based Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCA)
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan; senior Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett; and Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes also were among those attending.
“We have to educate our way to a better economy,” Duncan said.
Obama has said future U.S. economic growth depends on improvements in education. He has called for the U.S. to have the world’s highest percentage of adults with college degrees by 2020.
# BLOOMBERG News Service : By Kate Andersen Brower - July 19, 2011
To contact the reporter on this story: Kate Andersen Brower in Washington at kandersen7@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net
Americans with Disabilities Act : Video : CC : ADANationalNetwork
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Report Finds Economic Value of Family Caregiving with chronic conditions or disabilities in Illinois at $18.8 Billion: July 18, 2011
New AARP Report Finds Economic Value of Family Caregiving in Illinois at $18.8 Billion
An estimated 2.4 million Illinoisans provided care during 2009
CHICAGO, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new report released today by AARP's Public Policy Institute found the total economic value of caring for an adult family member, partner or friend who suffered with chronic conditions or disabilities in the U.S. reached an estimated $450 billion in 2009. In Illinois, the value of care reached $18.8 billion. The $450 billion nationally is up from an estimated $375 billion in 2007.
The report, "Valuing the Invaluable: The Growing Contributions and Costs of Family Caregiving, 2011 Update," finds that the "average" caregiver is a 49-year old woman who works outside of the home and spends nearly 20 hours per week providing unpaid care to her mother over the course of nearly five years. Almost two-thirds of family caregivers are women and more than eight in 10 are caring for a relative or friend age 50 or older.
"The responsibility of caring for a loved one can take a tremendous economic, physical, and emotional toll caregivers - many of whom don't even think of themselves as caregivers," said Bob Gallo, AARP Illinois State Director. "But the meals fixed for Mom and Dad, the visits to the doctor, the household work, and other long-term care assistance would cost $18.8 billion in Illinois if someone had to be hired to do it."
The report shows that family caregivers are an essential part of the workforce that helps to maintain the health and long term care services and support systems for a growing number of people with complex needs. The report also indicates that, in Illinois, family caregivers bear a much higher burden relative to other states due to lower funding levels and limited service options for home and community based services in Illinois.
"The overwhelming majority of people want to remain in their own homes and communities for as long as possible and family caregiving has been shown to help delay or prevent the use of nursing home care," added Gallo.
The report includes several recommendations to assist caregivers, including expanding funding for the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP); providing adequate funding for respite programs, including the Lifespan Respite Care Act; promoting new models of care that are person- and family-centered and engage the caregiver as a partner and member of the care team and also integrate the different elements of care -- such as primary health care and long-term services and supports; and, promoting the expansion of consumer-directed models in publicly-funded home- and community-based services programs that permit payment of family caregivers.
The full report, "Valuing the Invaluable: The Growing Contributions and Costs of Family Caregiving, 2011 Update," is available by clicking headline or at http://www.aarp.org/relationships/caregiving/info-07-2011/valuing-the-invaluable.html.
SOURCE AARP Illinois
An estimated 2.4 million Illinoisans provided care during 2009
CHICAGO, July 18, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new report released today by AARP's Public Policy Institute found the total economic value of caring for an adult family member, partner or friend who suffered with chronic conditions or disabilities in the U.S. reached an estimated $450 billion in 2009. In Illinois, the value of care reached $18.8 billion. The $450 billion nationally is up from an estimated $375 billion in 2007.
The report, "Valuing the Invaluable: The Growing Contributions and Costs of Family Caregiving, 2011 Update," finds that the "average" caregiver is a 49-year old woman who works outside of the home and spends nearly 20 hours per week providing unpaid care to her mother over the course of nearly five years. Almost two-thirds of family caregivers are women and more than eight in 10 are caring for a relative or friend age 50 or older.
"The responsibility of caring for a loved one can take a tremendous economic, physical, and emotional toll caregivers - many of whom don't even think of themselves as caregivers," said Bob Gallo, AARP Illinois State Director. "But the meals fixed for Mom and Dad, the visits to the doctor, the household work, and other long-term care assistance would cost $18.8 billion in Illinois if someone had to be hired to do it."
The report shows that family caregivers are an essential part of the workforce that helps to maintain the health and long term care services and support systems for a growing number of people with complex needs. The report also indicates that, in Illinois, family caregivers bear a much higher burden relative to other states due to lower funding levels and limited service options for home and community based services in Illinois.
"The overwhelming majority of people want to remain in their own homes and communities for as long as possible and family caregiving has been shown to help delay or prevent the use of nursing home care," added Gallo.
The report includes several recommendations to assist caregivers, including expanding funding for the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP); providing adequate funding for respite programs, including the Lifespan Respite Care Act; promoting new models of care that are person- and family-centered and engage the caregiver as a partner and member of the care team and also integrate the different elements of care -- such as primary health care and long-term services and supports; and, promoting the expansion of consumer-directed models in publicly-funded home- and community-based services programs that permit payment of family caregivers.
The full report, "Valuing the Invaluable: The Growing Contributions and Costs of Family Caregiving, 2011 Update," is available by clicking headline or at http://www.aarp.org/relationships/caregiving/info-07-2011/valuing-the-invaluable.html.
SOURCE AARP Illinois
Jewish Federation’s legal advocacy program for people with disabilities: info, resources
Jewish Child & Family Services
Legal Advocacy
Advocacy Services is the Jewish Federation’s legal advocacy program for people with disabilities, which is administered by JCFS on behalf of the Jewish Federation. All services are provided on the basis of a sliding scale fee schedule including legal representation, consultation, information and referral services to individuals with disabilities and their families. Consultations and referrals to the social service staff of Jewish Federation agencies and to other agencies are also provided.
Offering legal services in special education law, mental illness and developmental disabilities, adult guardianship and Social Security disability benefits, Advocacy Services does not represent individuals in family law, such as divorce and custody suits or criminal law.
We Provide
Special Education Law
School districts have the responsibility to provide an education for every child—whether in the public schools or in a therapeutic setting. Occasionally, parents find it difficult to obtain an appropriate education for their child with special needs. JCFS Advocacy Services’ attorneys are committed to ensuring that each child receives the services he or she needs to learn.
Mental Illness and Developmental Disability Law
People who have a mental illness or developmental disability may be unable to give informed consent to psychiatric treatment. In such situations, they may need an attorney to represent them when court approval is requested to obtain certain medical treatments (i.e., psychotropic medications, electro-convulsive therapy) or placements. Our attorneys serve as counsel and guardians ad litem for people who have a mental illness or developmental disability and can advise them and their families on a wide range of issues they may face.
Adult Guardianship
When a person’s ability to make personal and/or financial decisions for himself or herself is in question, the court may appoint a guardian to make such decisions on his or her behalf. Generally, our attorneys represent people who have mental illnesses or developmental disabilities in these proceedings, and they are dedicated to representing the client’s wishes. In certain limited circumstances, JCFS attorneys represent a family member who wishes to become the guardian.
Social Security Disability Benefits
Legal Advocacy files appeals and represents people with disabilities who have been denied benefits by the Social Security Administration. Our lawyers represent clients in appeals before administrative law judges.
Speaking Engagements and Consultations
Attorneys are available to address social service providers, family and client groups and persons with disabilities on a wide range of legal issues that are of interest to individuals with disabilities and their families. We will also provide consultations or referrals by phone.
CONTACT
Terrie Rymer, J.D.
Legal Advocate
312 673 2740
Jerilyn Cohen, J.D.
Assistant Legal Advocate
312 673 2707
RELATED PROGRAMS
Adult, Child & Family Therapy
Family Support
# For JCFS click headline or visit: http://www.jfcschicago.org/
Legal Advocacy
Offering legal services in special education law, mental illness and developmental disabilities, adult guardianship and Social Security disability benefits, Advocacy Services does not represent individuals in family law, such as divorce and custody suits or criminal law.
We Provide
Special Education Law
School districts have the responsibility to provide an education for every child—whether in the public schools or in a therapeutic setting. Occasionally, parents find it difficult to obtain an appropriate education for their child with special needs. JCFS Advocacy Services’ attorneys are committed to ensuring that each child receives the services he or she needs to learn.
Mental Illness and Developmental Disability Law
People who have a mental illness or developmental disability may be unable to give informed consent to psychiatric treatment. In such situations, they may need an attorney to represent them when court approval is requested to obtain certain medical treatments (i.e., psychotropic medications, electro-convulsive therapy) or placements. Our attorneys serve as counsel and guardians ad litem for people who have a mental illness or developmental disability and can advise them and their families on a wide range of issues they may face.
Adult Guardianship
When a person’s ability to make personal and/or financial decisions for himself or herself is in question, the court may appoint a guardian to make such decisions on his or her behalf. Generally, our attorneys represent people who have mental illnesses or developmental disabilities in these proceedings, and they are dedicated to representing the client’s wishes. In certain limited circumstances, JCFS attorneys represent a family member who wishes to become the guardian.
Social Security Disability Benefits
Legal Advocacy files appeals and represents people with disabilities who have been denied benefits by the Social Security Administration. Our lawyers represent clients in appeals before administrative law judges.
Speaking Engagements and Consultations
Attorneys are available to address social service providers, family and client groups and persons with disabilities on a wide range of legal issues that are of interest to individuals with disabilities and their families. We will also provide consultations or referrals by phone.
CONTACT
Terrie Rymer, J.D.
Legal Advocate
312 673 2740
Jerilyn Cohen, J.D.
Assistant Legal Advocate
312 673 2707
RELATED PROGRAMS
Adult, Child & Family Therapy
Family Support
# For JCFS click headline or visit: http://www.jfcschicago.org/
Monday, July 18, 2011
Changes in Illinois Cares RX concern for seniors; La Salle County, IL. July 18, 2011
NewsTribune, LaSalle, Illinois : By Lindsay Vaughn
Monday, July 18, 2011
PRINCETON — Changes to the Illinois Cares RX program are causing some senior citizens to panic, fearful they won’t be able to afford their prescription medications after new income restrictions go into effect Sept. 1.
Illinois Cares RX provides prescription drug assistance to seniors and people with disabilities. Until now, the income requirements were $27,610 for one person or $36,635 for two people. Starting in September, those requirements will drop to $21,780 for one person and $29,420 for two, according to Karen Huskey, information and assistance specialist at Bureau County Senior Center, Princeton.
“It’s quite a big difference. There are 200-300 people in Bureau County that will be affected,” Huskey said.
Currently, the program covers the monthly premium for Medicare D, and patients’ co-pay amounts are $2.50 for generic and $6.30 for name brand medications, Huskey said.
Those who qualify under the new income restrictions will have increased co-pays of $5 for generic prescriptions and $15 for name brands, she said.
Those whose income exceeds the guidelines still will be on their Medicare D plans but will now have to pay the monthly premium themselves along with higher co-pays on their medications.
Huskey said most people who will be affected by the changes already have received letters explaining the new restrictions and costs. She encouraged them not to panic.
“It’s not as bad as it seems. You’ll still have Medicare D. It’s just going to cost you a little more,” she said.
Seniors who still do qualify for the program under the new income limits should call Huskey by next week at (815) 879-3981.
There will be an informational meeting at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 29 at Bureau County Senior Center, Princeton to discuss the changes to the program and what options the affected seniors now have.
Bridges Senior Center, Ottawa, also has scheduled a series of meetings throughout La Salle County. Dates for meetings:
- at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 20 at United Way of Illinois Valley, 1157 First St., La Salle
- at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 27 at Marseilles American Legion, 571 Rutland St.
- at 1 p.m. Thursday, July 28 at Bridges Senior Center, 221 W. Etna Road, Ottawa
- at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 29 at Bridges
- at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3 at Bruce Township Hall, 216 N. Sterling, Streator.
For more information, call Bridges at (815) 431-8034.
# For NewsTribune visit: http://www.newstrib.com/
Monday, July 18, 2011
PRINCETON — Changes to the Illinois Cares RX program are causing some senior citizens to panic, fearful they won’t be able to afford their prescription medications after new income restrictions go into effect Sept. 1.
Illinois Cares RX provides prescription drug assistance to seniors and people with disabilities. Until now, the income requirements were $27,610 for one person or $36,635 for two people. Starting in September, those requirements will drop to $21,780 for one person and $29,420 for two, according to Karen Huskey, information and assistance specialist at Bureau County Senior Center, Princeton.
“It’s quite a big difference. There are 200-300 people in Bureau County that will be affected,” Huskey said.
Currently, the program covers the monthly premium for Medicare D, and patients’ co-pay amounts are $2.50 for generic and $6.30 for name brand medications, Huskey said.
Those who qualify under the new income restrictions will have increased co-pays of $5 for generic prescriptions and $15 for name brands, she said.
Those whose income exceeds the guidelines still will be on their Medicare D plans but will now have to pay the monthly premium themselves along with higher co-pays on their medications.
Huskey said most people who will be affected by the changes already have received letters explaining the new restrictions and costs. She encouraged them not to panic.
“It’s not as bad as it seems. You’ll still have Medicare D. It’s just going to cost you a little more,” she said.
Seniors who still do qualify for the program under the new income limits should call Huskey by next week at (815) 879-3981.
There will be an informational meeting at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 29 at Bureau County Senior Center, Princeton to discuss the changes to the program and what options the affected seniors now have.
Bridges Senior Center, Ottawa, also has scheduled a series of meetings throughout La Salle County. Dates for meetings:
- at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 20 at United Way of Illinois Valley, 1157 First St., La Salle
- at 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 27 at Marseilles American Legion, 571 Rutland St.
- at 1 p.m. Thursday, July 28 at Bridges Senior Center, 221 W. Etna Road, Ottawa
- at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 29 at Bridges
- at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3 at Bruce Township Hall, 216 N. Sterling, Streator.
For more information, call Bridges at (815) 431-8034.
# For NewsTribune visit: http://www.newstrib.com/
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) : DBTAC Southwest ADA Center
Disability Law Handbook
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
What kind of law is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?
It is a law that requires public schools to provide all eligible children with disabilities a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to the child’s individual needs.
Does IDEA apply to both public schools and private schools?
No. IDEA applies only to public schools.
Does IDEA apply to public colleges?
No. IDEA applies only to public school systems that end at grade 12.
Are all students with disabilities eligible for special education and related services under IDEA?
No. IDEA has a list of eligibility categories. In addition to having a disability that fits into one of the categories, the child must, by reason of the disability, need special education and related services in order to receive a free appropriate public education (sometimes referred to as FAPE). The eligibility categories are: orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, auditory impairment, visual impairment, deaf-blindness, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, learning disability, speech impairment, autism, multiple disabilities, and traumatic brain injury.
What do public schools have to provide to those students?
IDEA requires the school to develop an appropriate Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each eligible student. IDEA also sets out the procedures that must be followed as the IEP is developed. Some of these include that the IEP must be developed by a team of knowledgeable persons and the IEP must be reviewed at least annually.
Who decides on what goes into the child’s IEP?
The IEP team decides what goes into the IEP. At a minimum, the IEP team must have the following members: the student’s parent(s), the adult student, a representative of the school district who is qualified to provide or supervise special education services, knows the general curriculum, and knows about the resources available in the district, at least one special education teacher or service provider, at least one general education teacher who is responsible for implementing the student’s IEP, someone who can interpret evaluations as they apply to a student’s instruction, and others who have knowledge or expertise about the student, including related services personnel, as appropriate.
What are related services?
Related services are services that students may need in order to benefit, and to receive a free appropriate public education, from the educational program. Only students who are eligible for special education services under IDEA are eligible for these related services. Some of the more common related services are: special transportation, assistive technology, speech therapy, rehabilitation counseling, counseling, psychological services, occupational therapy, social work, and orientation and mobility training.
Can children with disabilities get educational services even before kindergarten?
Yes, if they are eligible for services under IDEA. From birth to age three, states have early intervention programs for children who have developmental delays. Services for eligible children who are three and older, but have not yet reached their 22nd birthday on September 1 of the current school year, are provided by local school districts.
If I think my child might need special education services, what should I do?
You should request that the school evaluate your child to see if s/he is eligible for special education services under IDEA. The school will ask you to sign a consent for testing. You have the right to know about the abilities, skills, and knowledge that the school will evaluate, as well as a description and explanation of the procedures, tests, records, and reports they will be using in the evaluation.
My child has a lot of behavior problems at school. How is discipline handled under IDEA?
If your child’s behavior interferes with learning, or is disruptive to the classroom, the IEP must address the behavior. The IEP team is supposed to identify positive behavioral interventions and supports, recognize antecedents to inappropriate behavior, and develop other strategies to address the behavior. You might want to ask for a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and this may assist the IEP team in designing a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).
What if my child already has an IEP, but I disagree with it?
It is important that both the parents and the school make a good faith effort to come to an agreement about the IEP, but sometimes, agreement is not possible. There are several options for parents in this situation. Parents may, of course, do nothing. In that case, the school will implement its plan, even over parental objections. Parents may choose to remove a child from public school in favor of private school or home school placement. Parents may request a mediation to try to resolve the areas of disagreement. Parents may speak with the State education agency about the possibility of filing a complaint. As a last resort, parents may file for a due process hearing. This is an administrative hearing presided over by an independent hearing officer.
Are there other laws that apply to students with disabilities in public schools?
Yes. Both Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act may apply to students with disabilities.
# For DBTAC Southwest ADA Center click headline or visit: http://www.swdbtac.org/html/publications/dlh/idea.html
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
What kind of law is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act?
It is a law that requires public schools to provide all eligible children with disabilities a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to the child’s individual needs.
Does IDEA apply to both public schools and private schools?
No. IDEA applies only to public schools.
Does IDEA apply to public colleges?
No. IDEA applies only to public school systems that end at grade 12.
Are all students with disabilities eligible for special education and related services under IDEA?
No. IDEA has a list of eligibility categories. In addition to having a disability that fits into one of the categories, the child must, by reason of the disability, need special education and related services in order to receive a free appropriate public education (sometimes referred to as FAPE). The eligibility categories are: orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, auditory impairment, visual impairment, deaf-blindness, mental retardation, emotional disturbance, learning disability, speech impairment, autism, multiple disabilities, and traumatic brain injury.
What do public schools have to provide to those students?
IDEA requires the school to develop an appropriate Individualized Education Program (IEP) for each eligible student. IDEA also sets out the procedures that must be followed as the IEP is developed. Some of these include that the IEP must be developed by a team of knowledgeable persons and the IEP must be reviewed at least annually.
Who decides on what goes into the child’s IEP?
The IEP team decides what goes into the IEP. At a minimum, the IEP team must have the following members: the student’s parent(s), the adult student, a representative of the school district who is qualified to provide or supervise special education services, knows the general curriculum, and knows about the resources available in the district, at least one special education teacher or service provider, at least one general education teacher who is responsible for implementing the student’s IEP, someone who can interpret evaluations as they apply to a student’s instruction, and others who have knowledge or expertise about the student, including related services personnel, as appropriate.
What are related services?
Related services are services that students may need in order to benefit, and to receive a free appropriate public education, from the educational program. Only students who are eligible for special education services under IDEA are eligible for these related services. Some of the more common related services are: special transportation, assistive technology, speech therapy, rehabilitation counseling, counseling, psychological services, occupational therapy, social work, and orientation and mobility training.
Can children with disabilities get educational services even before kindergarten?
Yes, if they are eligible for services under IDEA. From birth to age three, states have early intervention programs for children who have developmental delays. Services for eligible children who are three and older, but have not yet reached their 22nd birthday on September 1 of the current school year, are provided by local school districts.
If I think my child might need special education services, what should I do?
You should request that the school evaluate your child to see if s/he is eligible for special education services under IDEA. The school will ask you to sign a consent for testing. You have the right to know about the abilities, skills, and knowledge that the school will evaluate, as well as a description and explanation of the procedures, tests, records, and reports they will be using in the evaluation.
My child has a lot of behavior problems at school. How is discipline handled under IDEA?
If your child’s behavior interferes with learning, or is disruptive to the classroom, the IEP must address the behavior. The IEP team is supposed to identify positive behavioral interventions and supports, recognize antecedents to inappropriate behavior, and develop other strategies to address the behavior. You might want to ask for a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and this may assist the IEP team in designing a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).
What if my child already has an IEP, but I disagree with it?
It is important that both the parents and the school make a good faith effort to come to an agreement about the IEP, but sometimes, agreement is not possible. There are several options for parents in this situation. Parents may, of course, do nothing. In that case, the school will implement its plan, even over parental objections. Parents may choose to remove a child from public school in favor of private school or home school placement. Parents may request a mediation to try to resolve the areas of disagreement. Parents may speak with the State education agency about the possibility of filing a complaint. As a last resort, parents may file for a due process hearing. This is an administrative hearing presided over by an independent hearing officer.
Are there other laws that apply to students with disabilities in public schools?
Yes. Both Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act may apply to students with disabilities.
# For DBTAC Southwest ADA Center click headline or visit: http://www.swdbtac.org/html/publications/dlh/idea.html
Chicago : Public Art on CTA : exploring in 2011 : Accessibility link
Public Art on CTA
The CTA is home to an impressive collection of art – including mosaics, sculptures and paintings. More than 50 pieces of art are exhibited at over 40 CTA stations.
The original pieces of artwork contribute to each station’s identity and enhance travel for customers. Art promotes a friendly, inviting atmosphere for these stations, which serve as gateways to the communities they serve.
Many of the pieces are a result of the Arts in Transit Program, which is funded by the Federal Transit Administration and coordinated locally through the City of Chicago’s Department of Tourism and Culture. A number of other pieces were created through the CTA’s Adopt-A-Station program and through partnerships with organizations such as the Chicago Public Art Group.
Explore the many pieces on display throughout the system – in this online gallery and in person while traveling on CTA.
# For Public Art on CTA click headline or visit: http://wwww.transitchicago.com/art/
# For CTA Accessibility please visit: http://wwww.transitchicago.com/accessibility/
Morgan's Wonderland : Ultra Acessible Family Fun Park : Texas: info
Our Mission & Vision:
Mission Statement :
To provide a safe, clean beautiful environment free of economic barriers for special needs individuals of all ages.
Vision :
Our vision at Morgan’s Wonderland is to establish a special place where smiles and laughter make wonderful memories with family members caregivers and friends. Where the common element of play creates an atmosphere of inclusion for those with and without disabilities so everyone can gain a greater understanding of one another.
(refresh if no video)
Uploaded by SABizJournal on Mar 4, 2010
A look inside Morgan's Wonderland, a $30 million ultra-accessible park for children and adults with special needs. This park is the largest of its kind in the world.
# for Morgan's Wonderland click headline or visit: http://www.morganswonderland.com
Mission Statement :
To provide a safe, clean beautiful environment free of economic barriers for special needs individuals of all ages.
Vision :
Our vision at Morgan’s Wonderland is to establish a special place where smiles and laughter make wonderful memories with family members caregivers and friends. Where the common element of play creates an atmosphere of inclusion for those with and without disabilities so everyone can gain a greater understanding of one another.
(refresh if no video)
Uploaded by SABizJournal on Mar 4, 2010
A look inside Morgan's Wonderland, a $30 million ultra-accessible park for children and adults with special needs. This park is the largest of its kind in the world.
# for Morgan's Wonderland click headline or visit: http://www.morganswonderland.com
The Arc of Illinois - Events : Sept 2011 thru June 2012 : info, resources
Events at The Arc of Illinois
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Morton
Date: 9/9/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Heart of Illinois Down Syndrome Association, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in pla. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. & Sherri Schneider, Brookfield
Date: 9/14/2011
Time: 9:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Community Support Services. More information coming soon! SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------No More Meltdowns: Positive Strategies for Managing and Preventing Out-of-Control Behavior, Alsip
Date: 9/16/2011
Time: 8:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, presented by Jed Baker, Ph.D. Jed Baker is the director of the Social Skills Training Project, a private organization serving individuals with autism and social communicatio. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Health Care Reform Update, Chicago
Date: 10/6/2011
Time: 8:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois Family to Family Health Information Center. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Charleston
Date: 10/21/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by The Autism Program at CTF, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in planning for the finan. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Crete
Date: 11/1/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by New Hope Center. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Chicago
Date: 12/3/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Neumann Family Services. More information coming soon -- SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Annual QSP Leadership Conference, Alsip
Date: 1/24/2012
Time: 8:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!!. . .
View Details...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Blue Island
Date: 1/27/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Blue Cap, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in planning for the financial and legal fu. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------The Arc of Illinois Leadership Conference, Lisle
Date: 2/2/2012
Time: 8:00:00 AM
More information coming soon for this two-day event from The Arc of Illinois!. . .
View Details...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Housepian presents Right Way Leadership, Tinley Park
Date: 3/6/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois. More information coming soon -- SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Watseka
Date: 3/16/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by The Arc of Iroquois County, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in planning for the fina. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Including Siblings Conference, Glen Ellyn
Date: 3/20/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois. More information available soon!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Arc of Illinois 62nd Annual Convention, Lisle
Date: 4/25/2012
Time: 8:00:00 AM
Join The Arc of Illinois for this outstanding two-day event! April 25 - 26, 2012. More information coming soon!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Momence
Date: 5/24/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Good Shepherd Manor. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Springfield
Date: 6/16/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Sparc, Springfield. More information coming soon!! . . .
View Details...
# For The Arc of Illinois click headline or go to: http://www.thearcofil.org/events/index.asp
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Morton
Date: 9/9/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Heart of Illinois Down Syndrome Association, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in pla. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. & Sherri Schneider, Brookfield
Date: 9/14/2011
Time: 9:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Community Support Services. More information coming soon! SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------No More Meltdowns: Positive Strategies for Managing and Preventing Out-of-Control Behavior, Alsip
Date: 9/16/2011
Time: 8:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, presented by Jed Baker, Ph.D. Jed Baker is the director of the Social Skills Training Project, a private organization serving individuals with autism and social communicatio. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Health Care Reform Update, Chicago
Date: 10/6/2011
Time: 8:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois Family to Family Health Information Center. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Charleston
Date: 10/21/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by The Autism Program at CTF, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in planning for the finan. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Crete
Date: 11/1/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by New Hope Center. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Chicago
Date: 12/3/2011
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Neumann Family Services. More information coming soon -- SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------10th Annual QSP Leadership Conference, Alsip
Date: 1/24/2012
Time: 8:00:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!!. . .
View Details...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Blue Island
Date: 1/27/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Blue Cap, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in planning for the financial and legal fu. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------The Arc of Illinois Leadership Conference, Lisle
Date: 2/2/2012
Time: 8:00:00 AM
More information coming soon for this two-day event from The Arc of Illinois!. . .
View Details...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Housepian presents Right Way Leadership, Tinley Park
Date: 3/6/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois. More information coming soon -- SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legal and Future Care Planning for Your Relative with a Developmental Disability, Watseka
Date: 3/16/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by The Arc of Iroquois County, and presented by Theresa M. Varnet, M.S.W., J.D. This workshop will address the unique needs that families have in planning for the fina. . .
View Details... Register
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Including Siblings Conference, Glen Ellyn
Date: 3/20/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois. More information available soon!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Arc of Illinois 62nd Annual Convention, Lisle
Date: 4/25/2012
Time: 8:00:00 AM
Join The Arc of Illinois for this outstanding two-day event! April 25 - 26, 2012. More information coming soon!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Momence
Date: 5/24/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Good Shepherd Manor. More information coming soon - SAVE THE DATE!. . .
View Details...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Planning for Children & Adults with Special Needs, presented by Brian Rubin, J.D. and Sherri Schneider, Springfield
Date: 6/16/2012
Time: 8:30:00 AM
From The Arc of Illinois, hosted by Sparc, Springfield. More information coming soon!! . . .
View Details...
# For The Arc of Illinois click headline or go to: http://www.thearcofil.org/events/index.asp
Sunday, July 17, 2011
How Facebook saved a child's life (and could save many more). article July 15, 2011
by Piper Weiss, Shine Staff, from Yahoo
Facebook saves lives. Or more to the point, good Facebook friends save lives.
Slate writer and novelist Deborah Copaken Kogan credits her community on the social networking site for helping diagnose her son’s mystery illness in time. Kogan woke up on Mother’s Day to find her 4-year-old son Leo with a rash and a fever.
In the pediatrician’s office, she updated her Facebook status with a photo of her son’s reddened face and the comment: “Nothing says Happy Mother's Day quite like a Sunday morning at the pediatrician's." As his symptoms worsened—high fever, swollen face—she continued sharing photos and concerns to a growing community of friends and ‘friends’.
"Baby getting sicker. Eyes swollen shut. Fever rising. Penicillin not working. Might be scarlet fever. Or roseola. Or...???? Sigh,” she wrote. Ten minutes later she got a call from a friend who saw the update and offered some sage advice: get to the hospital. Kogan’s friend had seen these symptoms before when her own son had Kawasaki disease, a rare and potentially fatal illness that accelerates in days and may lead to a dangerous heart condition.
Two other Facebook friends, both pediatricians, also saw her status update and sent the same diagnostic warning. “As much as I wanted to be my usual mellow self, the immediacy of the Facebook feedback was enough to push me out the door,” writes Kogan on Slate.com.
It wasn’t long before their feedback was confirmed: Leo had Kawasaki disease. Two months later, he is still recovering from the disease that wreaked havoc on his heart and liver. But the outcome could have been much worse and Kogan is grateful for the instant ‘in-network’ advice and support.
Her story is unique but not the first of its kind. Last year, a pediatric nurse spotted cancer on her friend's child after scrolling through her Facebook photos, effectively saving her life. And when a 56-year-old woman slipped into a coma, doctors turned to her detailed Facebook status updates on her health for an outline of her symptoms and medical history.
All three are stark examples of how this new-found and sometimes odd lack of privacy can be a saving grace. Could our culture of over-sharing actually be leading us down a road to improved healthcare? Is friending a doctor on Facebook a shortcut to a faster diagnosis?
Not if the British Medical Association has anything to say about it. They recently released new guidelines for members, urging them not to blur the lines between work and play by accepting Facebook requests from patients. Lack of privacy and liability fears are just part of the trade-off for instant, free health advice between ‘friends’.
But the model of instant patient-to-provider and patient-to-patient advice is in place thanks to the Mark Zuckerberg model. Now the Mayo Clinic is jumping on the trend with a new Facebook-esque social networking site for their own hospital patients and providers to communicate freely. “We want to provide the latest technology and enable the community to evolve in the directions it wants to go,” says the clinic’s social media director Lee Aase. Their goal is to let “the community define what is useful.”
For now, it seems, what’s most useful is having friends who care, even if you've only met on Facebook.
Slate writer and novelist Deborah Copaken Kogan credits her community on the social networking site for helping diagnose her son’s mystery illness in time. Kogan woke up on Mother’s Day to find her 4-year-old son Leo with a rash and a fever.
In the pediatrician’s office, she updated her Facebook status with a photo of her son’s reddened face and the comment: “Nothing says Happy Mother's Day quite like a Sunday morning at the pediatrician's." As his symptoms worsened—high fever, swollen face—she continued sharing photos and concerns to a growing community of friends and ‘friends’.
"Baby getting sicker. Eyes swollen shut. Fever rising. Penicillin not working. Might be scarlet fever. Or roseola. Or...???? Sigh,” she wrote. Ten minutes later she got a call from a friend who saw the update and offered some sage advice: get to the hospital. Kogan’s friend had seen these symptoms before when her own son had Kawasaki disease, a rare and potentially fatal illness that accelerates in days and may lead to a dangerous heart condition.
Two other Facebook friends, both pediatricians, also saw her status update and sent the same diagnostic warning. “As much as I wanted to be my usual mellow self, the immediacy of the Facebook feedback was enough to push me out the door,” writes Kogan on Slate.com.
It wasn’t long before their feedback was confirmed: Leo had Kawasaki disease. Two months later, he is still recovering from the disease that wreaked havoc on his heart and liver. But the outcome could have been much worse and Kogan is grateful for the instant ‘in-network’ advice and support.
Her story is unique but not the first of its kind. Last year, a pediatric nurse spotted cancer on her friend's child after scrolling through her Facebook photos, effectively saving her life. And when a 56-year-old woman slipped into a coma, doctors turned to her detailed Facebook status updates on her health for an outline of her symptoms and medical history.
All three are stark examples of how this new-found and sometimes odd lack of privacy can be a saving grace. Could our culture of over-sharing actually be leading us down a road to improved healthcare? Is friending a doctor on Facebook a shortcut to a faster diagnosis?
Not if the British Medical Association has anything to say about it. They recently released new guidelines for members, urging them not to blur the lines between work and play by accepting Facebook requests from patients. Lack of privacy and liability fears are just part of the trade-off for instant, free health advice between ‘friends’.
But the model of instant patient-to-provider and patient-to-patient advice is in place thanks to the Mark Zuckerberg model. Now the Mayo Clinic is jumping on the trend with a new Facebook-esque social networking site for their own hospital patients and providers to communicate freely. “We want to provide the latest technology and enable the community to evolve in the directions it wants to go,” says the clinic’s social media director Lee Aase. Their goal is to let “the community define what is useful.”
For now, it seems, what’s most useful is having friends who care, even if you've only met on Facebook.
"Wretches & Jabberers" Stories From The Road | Chapter Five : video series
(refresh if no video)
Uploaded by stateart on Dec 16, 2010
"TASH 2010": Larry, Tracy, Harvey & Pascal take to the road to promote the new documentary "Wretches & Jabberers" by Gerardine Wurzburg. This week, the Vermonters are asked to speak about their experiences making the film at the 35th Annual TASH Conference held in Denver, Colorado.
For more information about the "Wretches & Jabberers" tour, to sign up for our newsletter or see extra footage from the film, follow us on Facebook at "Wretches & Jabberers" or visit our website: wretchesandjabberers.org!
See you on the road!!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Cuts To Meals For Illinois Elderly Worry Advocates : July 16, 2011
Illinois lawmakers so far have protected most money for home health services, despite the state’s serious financial problems. But they’ve whittled back programs that don’t receive federal matching money, such as home-delivered meals.
The state’s recently passed budget includes a cut of $2.2 million in funding for home-delivered meals and other services for aging residents, a reduction of nearly 14 percent from the previous year.
Meanwhile, the need is increasing along with the elderly population. Illinois saw a 22 percent increase in residents age 85 and older from 2000 to 2010, according to U.S. Census data.
The loss of a home-delivered meal can be the tipping point that forces an elderly person into a nursing home, said David Vinkler of AARP Illinois. Most nursing home care in the United States is paid for by Medicaid, the federal and state program.
“It really makes no sense for the state to go that direction,” Vinkler said. “People want to live in their homes and it’s costing the state less when they do.”
Vinkler said it’s difficult to predict how many people will be affected by the cut to delivered meals and other similar services for the elderly living at home. About 40,000 Illinois residents receive, on average, three to four home-delivered meals per week. The amount of the cut represents about 400,000 meals, or enough to serve about 2,400 clients.
In the Chicago suburbs, case managers for the not-for-profit Age Options will start making tough choices about who gets meals and who doesn’t, said Jonathan Lavin, the agency’s president.
“People coming out of hospitals will be the first ones to be affected,” Lavin said. Those people want to live at home, and can with a little assistance, but they now may be denied delivered meals, he said.
The next step is for case managers to look at each senior citizen already getting meals delivered and ask what other resources the individual may have: “Is the church going to come over? Is a neighbor coming over? Can the person go with three meals a week instead of five?”
The cuts will mean the agency serves meals to 3,900 individuals in suburban Cook County instead of 4,580, Lavin said. Some recipients make donations toward their meals and many of the delivery drivers are volunteers, he said, so it’s a cost-effective way to help.
Bellwood resident Joe Lagen, 67, pays $18 a week for state-subsidized hot lunches that are delivered to his door Monday through Friday.
The program provides his only nutritionally balanced meal each day, he said. He doesn’t drive anymore because of severe dizziness caused by cardiovascular disease. His wife, Doris, died in 1996. She was the cook in the family, he said, and he misses her casseroles.
For his evening meal, Lagen makes himself a bowl of soup or a sandwich.
The meal program gives Lagen’s children some assurance that someone is checking on him every day and will call authorities if he doesn’t answer his door, he said. For Lagen, a retired village official, it also is a break from isolation and loneliness.
“I sit here in the morning and wait for that white truck to pull up and my friend brings the boxes to the door and we chat,” Lagen said. “It’s a real pleasure and you don’t have too many of those in life as you get older.”
In Illinois, home health care hasn’t experienced the cuts seen in other states, but the state government’s months-long, $4 billion backlog in paying bills makes it difficult for providers, said Darby Anderson, an executive at Palatine-based Addus HealthCare. The publicly traded company gets about 40 percent of its revenue from the state of Illinois and provides home health care services to 12,000 people in 96 counties.
The company now waits for payment up to 120 days from Illinois, Anderson said. The unpredictability makes it difficult for the company to work with banks on financing, he said.
Opinion: Social Security is Not an Entitlement : By Dan McGinnis July 15 2011
By Dan McGinnis | Yahoo! Contributor Network
..
COMMENTARY | Social Security is not an entitlement -- it is an obligation.
It infuriates me every time I hear someone in Washington refer to Social Security as one of the entitlement programs. When I look at my paycheck stub, I see a mandatory deduction for Social Security. I have no voice in the amount or how it is invested or what I will receive in return.
Every year around my birthday, the government sends me a statement in the mail with the estimate of how much I will get each year when I receive my Social Security checks. That is not an entitlement; the government has been taking my money since I got my first job at age 14.
Maybe one of the problems in the halls of Congress is that they need to draw some of that Social Security to understand the pains the American people have every single time we hear that they might adjust the retirement age a little higher, reduce benefits, suspend a cost-of-living adjustment or -- as they are currently threatening -- delay making the monthly payment to seniors.
Members of Congress do not participate in the Social Security program. They have their own pension plan for federal workers. How nice. But if Social Security is the mandatory safety net retirement benefit for Americans, then all Americans need to participate in it.
I doubt the Social Security trust fund would have been raided -- or placed in the dire condition it is today -- if members of Congress had to pay into the system as well. They are masters at protecting their own skins, so I've got to believe they would have insured the trust fund was in good condition all along.
Too late for that. Oh well, it was a good idea. Here's another one: force them to join the Social Security system today and I bet they'll have it fixed before the end of the year.
So, stop calling Social Security an entitlement. It is an obligation my country owes to every single senior citizen who has contributed throughout their lifetime to support the generation before them. It's their money and the government has no greater responsibility then to provide for those who have provided for it throughout their life.
# For more articles by Dan McGinnis, visit: http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1053212/dan_mcginnis.shtml
..
COMMENTARY | Social Security is not an entitlement -- it is an obligation.
It infuriates me every time I hear someone in Washington refer to Social Security as one of the entitlement programs. When I look at my paycheck stub, I see a mandatory deduction for Social Security. I have no voice in the amount or how it is invested or what I will receive in return.
Every year around my birthday, the government sends me a statement in the mail with the estimate of how much I will get each year when I receive my Social Security checks. That is not an entitlement; the government has been taking my money since I got my first job at age 14.
Maybe one of the problems in the halls of Congress is that they need to draw some of that Social Security to understand the pains the American people have every single time we hear that they might adjust the retirement age a little higher, reduce benefits, suspend a cost-of-living adjustment or -- as they are currently threatening -- delay making the monthly payment to seniors.
Members of Congress do not participate in the Social Security program. They have their own pension plan for federal workers. How nice. But if Social Security is the mandatory safety net retirement benefit for Americans, then all Americans need to participate in it.
I doubt the Social Security trust fund would have been raided -- or placed in the dire condition it is today -- if members of Congress had to pay into the system as well. They are masters at protecting their own skins, so I've got to believe they would have insured the trust fund was in good condition all along.
Too late for that. Oh well, it was a good idea. Here's another one: force them to join the Social Security system today and I bet they'll have it fixed before the end of the year.
So, stop calling Social Security an entitlement. It is an obligation my country owes to every single senior citizen who has contributed throughout their lifetime to support the generation before them. It's their money and the government has no greater responsibility then to provide for those who have provided for it throughout their life.
# For more articles by Dan McGinnis, visit: http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1053212/dan_mcginnis.shtml
Illinois budget cuts reduce seniors' drug benefits : AP July 15, 2011
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — About 20 percent of seniors and people with disabilities who get state-sponsored prescription drug coverage will lose it because of cuts in the Illinois state budget.
State officials are sending letters to 43,000 Illinois Cares Rx participants telling them they no will longer qualify Sept. 1. Those who are still enrolled will pay more out of pocket for their prescriptions.
"This is a voluntary, optional state program," said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. "Due to the nature of the state's fiscal problems, we had to look across the board where we can to trim programs."
All 211,000 enrollees are getting letters to notify them of the changes. About 5,700 already got letters in error, saying they're not eligible when updated income information provided to the state shows they are. The agency is sending new letters, Claffey said.
The changes mean a single person cannot make more than $21,780 a year to qualify. That's down from $27,610. The base income for a two-person household went from $36,635 to $29,420.
For those still participating, generic drug co-pays will rise to $5 from $2.50 and brand-name prescriptions will cost $15, up from $6.30.
Gov. Pat Quinn originally proposed eliminating the program, according to David Vinkler, associate director of AARP Illinois, so the reduced funding is better than no coverage.
"In the end, we're much gladder to see 160,000 people with the service than seeing them all gone," Vinkler said.
The state's total allocation for the program dropped by half, from $107 million to $53.7 million.
However, Vinkler pointed out that less support for prescription purchases means some people will need nursing home care sooner. Because the program is geared toward low-income recipients, that means they'll likely be on Medicaid, costing the state even more.
John Coburn, senior attorney for the Chicago-based health and Disability Advocates, said his agency is encouraging people who are notified they're no longer eligible to ensure the state has accurate financial information about them. And they should review whether less expensive Medicare Part D coverage is an option.
___
Online: http://illinoiscaresrx.com/
State officials are sending letters to 43,000 Illinois Cares Rx participants telling them they no will longer qualify Sept. 1. Those who are still enrolled will pay more out of pocket for their prescriptions.
"This is a voluntary, optional state program," said Mike Claffey, spokesman for the Department of Healthcare and Family Services. "Due to the nature of the state's fiscal problems, we had to look across the board where we can to trim programs."
All 211,000 enrollees are getting letters to notify them of the changes. About 5,700 already got letters in error, saying they're not eligible when updated income information provided to the state shows they are. The agency is sending new letters, Claffey said.
The changes mean a single person cannot make more than $21,780 a year to qualify. That's down from $27,610. The base income for a two-person household went from $36,635 to $29,420.
For those still participating, generic drug co-pays will rise to $5 from $2.50 and brand-name prescriptions will cost $15, up from $6.30.
Gov. Pat Quinn originally proposed eliminating the program, according to David Vinkler, associate director of AARP Illinois, so the reduced funding is better than no coverage.
"In the end, we're much gladder to see 160,000 people with the service than seeing them all gone," Vinkler said.
The state's total allocation for the program dropped by half, from $107 million to $53.7 million.
However, Vinkler pointed out that less support for prescription purchases means some people will need nursing home care sooner. Because the program is geared toward low-income recipients, that means they'll likely be on Medicaid, costing the state even more.
John Coburn, senior attorney for the Chicago-based health and Disability Advocates, said his agency is encouraging people who are notified they're no longer eligible to ensure the state has accurate financial information about them. And they should review whether less expensive Medicare Part D coverage is an option.
___
Online: http://illinoiscaresrx.com/
Illinois CIL: Will-Grundy center helps blind man thrive : July 15, 2011
Will-Grundy center helps blind man thrive
By Denise M. Baran-Unland For the Herald-News July 15, 2011
Several years ago, Russell Anderson, 41, was running his own barbecue house and working as a chef for United Airlines and Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital.
That ended in July 2009, when Anderson was shot in the head.
“I had gotten out of my car and was on the way into my house,” said Anderson, formerly of Chicago. “I remember waking up in the hospital not being able to see, but I thought it was because my head hurt so bad. Then the doctor came in and explained everything to me. That’s when I found out, ‘Damn, Russell. You’re blind.’”
Anderson wasted no time with self-pity. Instead, he praised God he was still alive. He had five good reasons to live: his children, ages 7 to 23.
“I felt a little sad,” Anderson said, “But I never said, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ or anything like that, because I figured I’m still here for a purpose. God doesn’t make mistakes.”
After a monthlong hospital stay, Anderson moved to a Joliet nursing home, supposedly for rehabilitation. When the promised rehabilitation did not occur, Russell taught himself, cane in hand, how to navigate his dismal new environment, determined his stay would be brief.
“I was used to being free, so this was a big adjustment for me,” Anderson said. “I had someone telling me when I could take a shower. I had to wait to use the bathroom, then share the restroom. I was used to eating certain kinds of food, but they weren’t going to cook that for me.”
In October, Anderson and his assistive devices moved into a Joliet apartment thanks to reintegration services provided by the Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living.
Anderson has a talking caller ID, clock, organizer, money identifier and electronic pen, which, when set on a piece of paper, reads words.
Soon after he moved into his apartment, Anderson attended the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation Education, where he relearned how to cook simple meals, safely exercise, use the computer and read Braille.
“I thought learning Braille would be hard,” Anderson said. “I thought, ‘I’ll never get all those little dots down. But once I got the hang of it, Braille wasn’t hard at all.”
He plans to return eventually to work as a chef. To nudge him in that direction, Anderson enrolled in the Wines 101 course at Joliet Junior College. In addition, he is compiling a cookbook of his favorite recipes.
Anderson has also returned to power lifting, which he enjoyed before the shooting, and is training for the Special Olympics.
Mostly, Anderson is thankful for the blessings his blindness has brought him.
“Before, it was always work, work, work. There was never anytime for fun,” Anderson said. “Now I just sit back and smell the roses. I enjoy movies, music, football, baseball. Sometimes, I just go out for a walk.”
###
Will-Grundy Center facing cuts
The Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living recently experienced an 11 percent cut in funding for its reintegration program. Executive director Pam Heavens explains the program and how the center will adjust to the cuts.
What is the reintegration program and who does it help?
“The Community Reintegration/Money Follows the Person Program allows the 23 Centers for Independent Living in Illinois to assist people with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 59 move out of nursing homes.”
How is it funded?
“The Department of Human Services provides funds for CILs to buy home furnishings, household items, food, first month’s rent and security deposit, and assistive-technology devices for people leaving nursing home. DHS also pays the wages of personal assistants who are hired by the consumers to do whatever tasks the consumers cannot perform themselves.”
Is it cost-effective for Illinois?
“Since 1998, the state has saved hundreds of millions of dollars. On average, it costs the state $40,000 each year for a person with a disability to be warehoused in a nursing home and it costs the state $10,000 annually for a person with a disability to live in the community, even with personal assistant services. The dignity that is restored to the person is priceless."
#For Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living click headline or visit: http://www.will-grundycil.org/
By Denise M. Baran-Unland For the Herald-News July 15, 2011
That ended in July 2009, when Anderson was shot in the head.
“I had gotten out of my car and was on the way into my house,” said Anderson, formerly of Chicago. “I remember waking up in the hospital not being able to see, but I thought it was because my head hurt so bad. Then the doctor came in and explained everything to me. That’s when I found out, ‘Damn, Russell. You’re blind.’”
Anderson wasted no time with self-pity. Instead, he praised God he was still alive. He had five good reasons to live: his children, ages 7 to 23.
“I felt a little sad,” Anderson said, “But I never said, ‘Why did this happen to me?’ or anything like that, because I figured I’m still here for a purpose. God doesn’t make mistakes.”
After a monthlong hospital stay, Anderson moved to a Joliet nursing home, supposedly for rehabilitation. When the promised rehabilitation did not occur, Russell taught himself, cane in hand, how to navigate his dismal new environment, determined his stay would be brief.
“I was used to being free, so this was a big adjustment for me,” Anderson said. “I had someone telling me when I could take a shower. I had to wait to use the bathroom, then share the restroom. I was used to eating certain kinds of food, but they weren’t going to cook that for me.”
In October, Anderson and his assistive devices moved into a Joliet apartment thanks to reintegration services provided by the Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living.
Anderson has a talking caller ID, clock, organizer, money identifier and electronic pen, which, when set on a piece of paper, reads words.
Soon after he moved into his apartment, Anderson attended the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation Education, where he relearned how to cook simple meals, safely exercise, use the computer and read Braille.
“I thought learning Braille would be hard,” Anderson said. “I thought, ‘I’ll never get all those little dots down. But once I got the hang of it, Braille wasn’t hard at all.”
He plans to return eventually to work as a chef. To nudge him in that direction, Anderson enrolled in the Wines 101 course at Joliet Junior College. In addition, he is compiling a cookbook of his favorite recipes.
Anderson has also returned to power lifting, which he enjoyed before the shooting, and is training for the Special Olympics.
Mostly, Anderson is thankful for the blessings his blindness has brought him.
“Before, it was always work, work, work. There was never anytime for fun,” Anderson said. “Now I just sit back and smell the roses. I enjoy movies, music, football, baseball. Sometimes, I just go out for a walk.”
###
Will-Grundy Center facing cuts
The Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living recently experienced an 11 percent cut in funding for its reintegration program. Executive director Pam Heavens explains the program and how the center will adjust to the cuts.
What is the reintegration program and who does it help?
“The Community Reintegration/Money Follows the Person Program allows the 23 Centers for Independent Living in Illinois to assist people with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 59 move out of nursing homes.”
How is it funded?
“The Department of Human Services provides funds for CILs to buy home furnishings, household items, food, first month’s rent and security deposit, and assistive-technology devices for people leaving nursing home. DHS also pays the wages of personal assistants who are hired by the consumers to do whatever tasks the consumers cannot perform themselves.”
Is it cost-effective for Illinois?
“Since 1998, the state has saved hundreds of millions of dollars. On average, it costs the state $40,000 each year for a person with a disability to be warehoused in a nursing home and it costs the state $10,000 annually for a person with a disability to live in the community, even with personal assistant services. The dignity that is restored to the person is priceless."
#For Will-Grundy Center for Independent Living click headline or visit: http://www.will-grundycil.org/
Friday, July 1, 2011
Stranger buys autistic boy new puppy after his was stolen : Chicago : video report July 01 2011
WGN 9 Chicago : Ana Belaval › Reporter : July 01 2011
Special Olympics World Summer Games ATHENS 2011 : Statement about Greece Demonstration's June 01 2011
By the Chairman and CEO of Special Olympics International, Dr. Timothy Shriver And the President of the Organizing Committee for the Special Olympics World Summer Games ATHENS 2011, Mrs Joanna Despotopoulou.
Violent protests, tear gas, and broken glass in Syntagma square top the international headlines but the people of Greece led another demonstration this week. 25000 Greeks have come together every day to join the Dignity Revolution, cheering for unity, working for unity, standing for unity. Sadly, the press has missed the story.
The future, however, will not.
The leaders of this revolution have no political affiliation. Leaders like Andres Delgado opened the Special Olympic World Summer Games in Panathiako stadium. He was there to claim his dignity despite the corrosive injustice he and 200 million people with intellectual disabilities confront everyday. He marched, his head held high, proud, triumphant. He marched with a message.
Days later, he proved his point: he won three gold medals, a silver medal, and a bronze medal in gymnastics. He broke all of his personal records for achievement. In doing so, he asserted the definition of Olympic greatness: beat your best. Compete only against yourself. Give your all to the contest and you have won.
His achievement was made possible by the passion of Greece, the nearly 25,000 volunteers from throughout Greece who welcomed with open arms 7,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from nearly 180 countries. Their message to the world is that Greece still holds fast the value of hospitality. Their message to the world is that Greece is ready to invest in her own future. Their message to the world is that Greece will follow new role models as she seeks a brighter future.
The action on the playing fields of sport was matched by the action off of them. Even amidst economic anxiety and political upheaval, a special session of Greek Parliament was held to commemorate the Declaration of The Promotion of Sports Integration in Schools Act, a landmark law that promotes the full inclusion of youth with intellectual disabilities through sport. The law mandates a different model of education for Greece's youth in the future -- a model that focuses on learning the social and emotional lessons of unity.
Volunteers from throughout Greece have also demonstrated their unwavering commitment to these Games despite formidable obstacles. Amidst city-wide transportation strikes, over 300 volunteers found their own way from Athens to the Glyfada Golf Course to enable the golf tournament to continue uninterrupted. And together with nearly 25,000 others, the volunteers are providing our athletes with a world-class Olympic experience.
Greek medical professionals too joined the demonstration. They gave their time and resources to provide free health screenings to thousands of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Through the Healthy Athletes program, thousands of eye glasses, mouth guards, hearing aids and health products have been distributed free of charge, and hundreds more athletes have been referred to doctors in their home countries for follow up care.
Leaders of international organizations have also joined this demonstration. Members of the United Nations, UNICEF, FIFA, Sport Accord, and the International Olympic Committee came to Greece together with ministers from around the world. They were here to express solidarity with their brothers and sisters with intellectual disabilities. The European Union provided unprecedented financial support as has the private sector. All these, far from attacking Greece, are investing in her. They will be significant actors in creating her future.
There can be little doubt that the political and economic struggles of Greece have created deep and painful wounds. Millions of Greeks are suffering. The crisis is far from over.
But Greece did not fail the athletes of Special Olympics and the athletes of Special Olympics have not failed Greece. They have given her perhaps the greatest gift: hope itself.
The future, however, will not.
The leaders of this revolution have no political affiliation. Leaders like Andres Delgado opened the Special Olympic World Summer Games in Panathiako stadium. He was there to claim his dignity despite the corrosive injustice he and 200 million people with intellectual disabilities confront everyday. He marched, his head held high, proud, triumphant. He marched with a message.
Days later, he proved his point: he won three gold medals, a silver medal, and a bronze medal in gymnastics. He broke all of his personal records for achievement. In doing so, he asserted the definition of Olympic greatness: beat your best. Compete only against yourself. Give your all to the contest and you have won.
His achievement was made possible by the passion of Greece, the nearly 25,000 volunteers from throughout Greece who welcomed with open arms 7,000 athletes with intellectual disabilities from nearly 180 countries. Their message to the world is that Greece still holds fast the value of hospitality. Their message to the world is that Greece is ready to invest in her own future. Their message to the world is that Greece will follow new role models as she seeks a brighter future.
The action on the playing fields of sport was matched by the action off of them. Even amidst economic anxiety and political upheaval, a special session of Greek Parliament was held to commemorate the Declaration of The Promotion of Sports Integration in Schools Act, a landmark law that promotes the full inclusion of youth with intellectual disabilities through sport. The law mandates a different model of education for Greece's youth in the future -- a model that focuses on learning the social and emotional lessons of unity.
Volunteers from throughout Greece have also demonstrated their unwavering commitment to these Games despite formidable obstacles. Amidst city-wide transportation strikes, over 300 volunteers found their own way from Athens to the Glyfada Golf Course to enable the golf tournament to continue uninterrupted. And together with nearly 25,000 others, the volunteers are providing our athletes with a world-class Olympic experience.
Greek medical professionals too joined the demonstration. They gave their time and resources to provide free health screenings to thousands of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Through the Healthy Athletes program, thousands of eye glasses, mouth guards, hearing aids and health products have been distributed free of charge, and hundreds more athletes have been referred to doctors in their home countries for follow up care.
Leaders of international organizations have also joined this demonstration. Members of the United Nations, UNICEF, FIFA, Sport Accord, and the International Olympic Committee came to Greece together with ministers from around the world. They were here to express solidarity with their brothers and sisters with intellectual disabilities. The European Union provided unprecedented financial support as has the private sector. All these, far from attacking Greece, are investing in her. They will be significant actors in creating her future.
There can be little doubt that the political and economic struggles of Greece have created deep and painful wounds. Millions of Greeks are suffering. The crisis is far from over.
But Greece did not fail the athletes of Special Olympics and the athletes of Special Olympics have not failed Greece. They have given her perhaps the greatest gift: hope itself.
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