Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Injuries to mobility-impaired kids: researchers suggest “consider avoiding stairs”

Excerpt from Forward: (click for entire article)

MSNBC is carrying a Reuters article, Insult to injury: More kids hurt by own crutches, about injuries to young people “related to the use of crutches, wheelchairs and walkers”. Apparently, these injuries are “on the rise”, with significant numbers of USAn emergency room attendances related to injuries sustained while using a mobility aid.

Note, firstly, that there is no formal E.R. category nor any panic about injuries related to the use of legs, despite this being a rather large category of actual injuries.

47 Years After Broken Dreams, Sternberg, Shinnick Cling to Hope

Excerpt from Fanhouse: (click for entire article)

Memory is an elusive and tricky animal. It can underscore the trivial and overlook the significant.

Pole vaulter Brian Sternberg and long jumper Phil Shinnick shared one of the United States' greatest ever non-Olympic days of track and field glory 47 years ago this week. The two men, teammates and roommates at the University of Washington, set world records in their specialties within an hour of each other.

An unprecedented tangled tale of tragedy and turmoil has trailed the two men in the nearly half century since. Sternberg would add an inch to his pole vault record a few weeks later, but he's spent the last 47 years a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. Shinnick owned his long jump record for approximately 50 minutes, about one for every year he's fought to get it recognized after it was disallowed.

Veterans groups push for better employment opportunities for returning soldiers

Excerpt from Media dis&dat: (click for entire article)

Veterans groups have been pounding the doors of Congress — literally and figuratively — for the past year demanding action to reduce the high unemployment rates among the soldiers back from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"One of our major focuses this year has been veteran employment," said Tim Embree, legislative associate with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). "We've been running around the halls of Congress looking for anyone who would listen."

It looks like they're finding an audience.

GUEST COLUMN: VA keeping promise with senior health care

Excerpt from The Daily News Journal: (click for entire article)

Memorial Day, every year, gives the chance to reflect and honor those who served and died for the freedoms of the United States. Through parades and pageantry, it represents the best of our country in how we are aware of the real price of our democracy and our way of life. But it also allows us a time to ask ourselves are we "keeping the promise" made by President Lincoln generations ago during his second inaugural speech.

The high price of freedom is not always paid by loss of life. This price is not always paid immediately; the debt we owe for service often comes later in life for those brave souls who wore the uniform of our military. And for us at the Department of Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Healthcare System (VA TVHS), we do our duty to honor those who have fallen by paying the debt to their comrades by providing high-quality health care.

Sign Language Used in Technology

Excerpt from Aging and Disability in America: (click for entire article)

We all know that sign language is used by people who are deaf and hard of hearing to communicate with other persons. But while this form of communication is essential to this group, only a small percentage of hearing people know this language.

To address this issue, developers of technologies have created ways to use sign language in software and similar products. Below we offer a glimpse of some of these assistive technologies. You may be surprised by how innovative these products are.

Preserving Social Security

Excerpt from Aging and Disability in America: (click for entire article)

It’s past time that Social Security’s advocates, friends and beneficiaries quit playing defense for the single most popular American program and take the offensive against those who attack and lie about Social Security with intent to kill it.

First, find out if you have an IRA or other retirement saving accounts with a bank or brokerage or investment house that has been calling for the privatization of Social Security. If so, transfer the account (without penalty) and tell the broker why.

Family Value: When It's Too Expensive for Dad to Keep Driving - WSJ.com

Excerpt from Aging and Disability in America: (click for entire article)

Trying to persuade older family members to give up their car keys isn't just an emotionally fraught chore. Increasingly, it is a financial issue, too.

Cars can be expensive to maintain for an elderly person on a fixed income. The cost of auto-insurance claims in later life—even for fender benders and accidents without injuries—can quickly add up. Conversely, if an aging parent decides to move to a place where transportation is readily available, such as an assisted-living facility or continuing-care retirement community, housing costs could escalate.

Attitudes Toward Mental Illness --- 35 States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 2007

Excerpt from Aging and Disability in America: (click for entire article)

Negative attitudes about mental illness often underlie stigma, which can cause affected persons to deny symptoms; delay treatment; be excluded from employment, housing, or relationships; and interfere with recovery (1). Understanding attitudes toward mental illness at the state level could help target initiatives to reduce stigma, but state-level data are scant. To study such attitudes, CDC analyzed data from the District of Columbia (DC), Puerto Rico, and the 35 states participating in the 2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) (the most recent data available), which included two questions on attitudes toward mental illness. Most adults (88.6%) agreed with a statement that treatment can help persons with mental illness lead normal lives, but fewer (57.3%) agreed with a statement that people are generally caring and sympathetic to persons with mental illness. Responses to these questions differed by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and education level. Although most adults with mental health symptoms (77.6%) agreed that treatment can help persons with mental illness lead normal lives, fewer persons with symptoms (24.6%) believed that people are caring and sympathetic to persons with mental illness. This report provides the first state-specific estimates of these attitudes and provides a baseline for monitoring trends. Initiatives that can educate the public about how to support persons with mental illness and local programs and media support to decrease negative stereotypes of mental illness can reduce barriers for those seeking or receiving treatment for mental illness (2,3).

A Day in the Life of a Person with a Cognitive Disability

Excerpt from Aging and Disability in America: (click for entire article)

Talk to someone about disabilities and I can assure you that normally, that person would at once think of wheelchair users or blind people. But although these are major disability groups, there is also one group which is less recognized yet is as equally significant as the ones mentioned above.

This group consists of persons with cognitive disabilities. People who have this type of disabilities have limitations in their ability to perceive, recognize, understand, and/or respond to information.

Books: Creating congregations for all abilities

Excerpt from Deseret News: (click for entire article)

The Rev. Brett Webb-Mitchell of Chapel Hill, N.C., is a nationally recognized author and advocate for people with disabilities. His new book, "Beyond Accessibility: Toward Full Inclusion of People with Disabilities in Faith Communities," is an attempt to delineate what a congregation might look like if it valued the talents of every member, regardless of ability.

An interview:

Question: Why did you want to write another book on people with disabilities?

Answer: This was an unfinished project. It began when I was asked to be a writer and consultant for the Presbyterian Church (USA) in helping write their policy on people with disabilities. When you write for a large committee, you don't always get to say what you want to say. I wanted to suggest in this book what it would look like to be a fully inclusive faith community in which labels such as "abled" and "disabled" are secondary to being members with one another in a faith community.