Monday, December 2, 2013

American Association of People with Disability Daily – Monday, 2 December 2013

American Association of People with Disability Daily – Monday, 2 December 2013
-------
NATIONAL
OPINION: Treaty on Disability Rights. The New York Times (12/1)
Re “How to Do Right by the Disabled” (editorial, Nov. 25):
We find it inexplicable that the United States’ ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities is subject to debate. Ratification would provide the United States with legitimacy and access to share the protections and values of the American With Disabilities Act with other countries.
People with disabilities are entitled to the same rights and freedoms as anyone else, to live and enjoy a full life without discrimination. Claims that the treaty “crushes” American sovereignty and jeopardizes parental rights simply aren’t true.
By exporting our values about people with disabilities, we are expanding United States sovereignty. The treaty in no way affects the rights of home-schooled children or their parents.
The role of the United States as a leader in the field of human rights is at stake. We can only hope that the Senate will do the right thing.
STEPHEN E. FREEMAN
New York, Nov. 26, 2013
The writer is chief executive of YAI, a provider of programs for the disabled.
---
STATE/LOCAL
'Racist' Michigan cop who made man with mental health condition singing and make animal noises on film is suspended. Mail Online (11/26) by Becky Evans
A Michigan police officer has been taken off patrol duty after admitting telling a black man with disabilities to sing and dance.
Officers in Grosse Pointe Park will also be made to undergo sensitivity training after the humiliating videos were made public.
The grainy clips, apparently filmed on cell phones, show a man making strange noises and being told to sing.
In another, a man off camera says: 'Go ahead. Do your song - the song... drink, drink, drink'.
The clips were apparently shared among officers and their families.
According to Steve Neavling, who first published the videos on his Motor City Muckraker blog, African-Americans were ordered to sing or 'dance like a chimp'.
He also published an image of a man riding in a trailer, that an officer allegedly forwarded to others in a text that read: 'Got to love the coloreds'.
The blog named one officer in one of the videos as Mike Najm.
Michael Scipio, 55, from Detroit, says he is the man filmed in the videos.
He told reporters that he is regularly stopped by police but does not know who filmed the video.
He added: 'It made me feel like a fool.'
Greg Bowens, spokesman for Grosse Pointe Park police, said an officer had claimed responsibility for the video but did not name him.
Mr Neavling said on his blog that he has seen other, even more humiliating videos of officers filming black men in the area and that he was working on passing them to police.
The videos have caused outrage since they were made public last week.
Minister Malik Sahazz of the Marcus Garvey Movement, voiced his support for Mr Scipio and called on all officers involved to be fired.
He told The Detroit News: 'What kind of fun is it to take advantage of someone. It's humiliating.'
The police have since apologized.
Mr Bowens said: 'We all feel deeply, deeply sorry for the video we saw on the website. This is not a true reflection of the people of the city of Grosse Pointe Park.'
---
OPINION: The debate on solitary confinement. Los Angeles Times (12/1)
Treatment of prison inmates has finally begun to capture the attention of California's lawmakers and public, in large part because two lawsuits over constitutionally inadequate medical and mental health care resulted in a federal court order to reduce the inmate population by thousands. The Dec. 31 deadline has been pushed back to February as the state negotiates with plaintiffs in the consolidated suits, and lawmakers and the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown work through plans to devote more funding to treatment and alternative sentencing for mentally ill felons. Mental illness, and its pervasiveness among criminal offenders and inmates, has emerged as a major focus.
So has solitary confinement. The two-month-long inmate hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison brought needed attention to the use of extended isolation throughout the state's prison system. The United Nations' special investigator on torture, Juan Mendez, who has petitioned the State Department for permission to visit and inspect California prisons, told The Times' editorial board this year that the state should provide better justification for sending inmates to isolation in secure housing units, generally known as SHUs. Inmates currently are confined to SHUs either for set periods, as punishment for behavior, or indefinitely, officials say, to combat prison gangs.
Those two issues — mental illness and solitary confinement — come together in harrowing fashion. Many California inmates deal with some form of mental illness, which in turn can result in behavioral problems, which in turn can get them sent to isolation. Brief periods of separation from most human contact may be necessary for an inmate's own well-being, but extended isolation is no treatment and can hardly be deemed a useful disciplinary measure for a person whose behavior is a symptom of illness.
A 1995 court ruling in the case of Madrid vs. Gomez banned solitary confinement for mentally ill prisoners at Pelican Bay. The federal court that is overseeing California's prisons could extend that ban systemwide. That would be a welcome development.
But lawmakers need not rely on the court. A joint legislative committee conducted hearings this year that exposed the cruelty, and foolishness, of holding prisoners in solitary for prolonged periods. As lawmakers prepare for the second half of their two-year session, they ought to work through the various definitional challenges — What constitutes solitary? What qualifies as mental illness? — and put forward a bill to apply the Pelican Bay ban to all California inmates.
---
INTERNATIONAL
Brazilian polio survivor who has lived 43 years in a hospital. CNN (12/2) by Shasta Darlington
Sao Paulo (CNN) -- Paulo Henrique Machado shares pictures of some of his most cherished memories: the first time he saw the beach, a Formula One race and a party from his childhood when all his friends dressed as clowns.
And yet he has lived the last 43 years -- almost his entire life -- in Brazil's biggest hospital.
As an infant, he contracted polio and was left paralyzed from the waist down. He breathes with the help of a respirator.
It was the 1970s, before vaccines eradicated polio in Brazil, and Machado was sent to live in the polio ward with eight other children.
"It was a wonderful time. I'll never forget it," he said during a recent interview from his hospital bed. "Even though most of our friends are no longer with us, I never stopped dreaming about them."
His mother died two days after he was born and the rest of Machado's family soon stopped visiting.
He points to a black and white picture of a boy in a pointy hat and clown makeup curled up in a wheelchair.
Paulo has lived most of his 43 years in a hospital
"That's Pedro," he says. "Back then, it was him and me, we were very close. He was my friend."
Over the years many of the children died, including Pedro.
"It was December 26, the day after Christmas," he says. "Everything that I planned with my friend, life didn't have the same meaning. But it made me stronger."
The children were given little chance of surviving past the age of 10, but two people did: Machado and his lifelong friend and roommate Eliana Zagui.
They still live together in a room tucked inside the Intensive Care Unit of Sao Paulo's Clinicas Hospital.
"We're like brother and sister and we look after each other," Machado says.
Zagui suffered paralysis caused by polio when she was a baby. She has lived in the hospital for 38 years.
"I've been here since I was 1 year and 9 months old," she tells us. "I learned to write, to paint, to use a cell phone, a computer, things I like."
They were both encouraged to push beyond their physical limitations.
More polio cases confirmed in Syria, WHO says
Zagui recently wrote a book about her experience growing up in the hospital.
She also discovered painting, patiently dabbing at the canvas with a brush taped to a tongue depressor.
The wear and tear on her teeth meant she had to limit herself but she hasn't stopped.
Machado trained as a computer animator and wrote a screenplay for an animated series. With the help of crowd-funding and a group of animators, the series is coming to life.
"They're inspirational," says Dr. Nuno Da Silva, a physician who has worked in the ICU since 1988.
He says that when they have patients who have been paralyzed in car accidents they take them to spend some time with Machado and Zagui.
"They're examples to show it isn't the end of the world," he says.
Still, they both wish they could visit, or even live, in the outside world.
"When I turned 10, the hospital tried to convince my relatives to take me in," says Machado. "But that's not what happened. So we stayed here."
Machado's biggest passions are movies and videogames, opportunities to escape his own world.
"I like to live outside my reality," he says. "To get out of reality I play games, because in the games I can go where I want without suffering any pain."
There was a decade of freedom when Machado used an electric wheelchair to come and go with relative ease.
But then post-polio syndrome set in, causing gradual weakening in muscles that were affected by the original infection.
It became impossible for him to straighten his legs enough to sit in a wheelchair -- so travel is now only done lying down in hospital beds.
But that hasn't stopped him. On one of our visits he invites us to join him on an outing to a big videogame convention.
Moving around is complicated -- he travels in an ambulance with medical technicians paid for by donations.
Another complication: the respirator. Machado doesn't need it 24 hours, but he feels more secure,having it just in case.
But once inside the videogame convention, we enter Machado's world.
He laughs with excitement as a group of medical technicians and friends roll him around on a mobile hospital bed.
Then he tries his hand at a few games.
"You don't pay attention to anything else around you," he says. "It's great, you just want to discover more."
For a day, at least, the tubes, the respirator, the hospital bed, they all fade into the background, and Machado becomes invincible.
---
CULTURE/MEDIA
Katy Perry Takes Cheerleader With Down Syndrome to AMAs. ABC News (11/26) by Katie Kindelan
A cheerleader with Down syndrome whose high school came in as a runner-up in the ‘Good Morning America’s ‘Roar’ With Katy Perry Contest,” got the ultimate consolation prize by attending the American Music Awards on Sunday with Perry herself.
Watch the ‘Roar’ Video Starring Megan Squire
Megan Squire, 17, caught Perry’s eye earlier this year when her high school, Verrado High School in Buckeye, Ariz., made Squire’s inspirational story of fulfilling her dream to become a cheerleader the focus of their video for the “GMA” contest, which featured a live concert by the “Roar” singer as the grand prize.
Squire’s school did not win–the honor went to a Lakewood High School in Colorado instead–but Perry was so touched by Squire’s story that she invited the cheerleader to attend one of her upcoming concerts as a special guest.
“I want to bring Megan to a special event this fall with me as my date. … It’s going to be very exciting. We are going to get dressed up,” Perry told the teen when she announced the winner on “GMA” in October. “I just want to celebrate her and hear her roar in person. Megan, thank you so much. I love you. I love your spirit. You have really inspired me.”
American Music Awards 2013: Hits and Misses on the Red Carpet
Squire’s consolation prize became an even bigger deal when Perry instead flew Squire and her entire family — plus Clayton Mueller, the student who directed the school’s video — from Arizona to Los Angeles to attend the star-studded awards show as her guests.
“For someone like Katy Perry to tell her that she’s amazing in somewhat surreal,” Squire’s mother, Kimberly, told local ABC affiliate KNXV.
Squire’s father, Michael, agreed.
“What a fantastic honor for Megan and how sensitive of Katy Perry,” he said in an interview with “Good Morning America.”
Squire and her family got to walk the red carpet alongside Hollywood’s biggest stars. Squire even sat right behind Lady Gaga to watch as Perry, wearing a geisha-inspired outfit, opened the AMAs with her song “Unconditionally.”
---
Canine Named ‘Dog Of The Year’ For Helping Autistic Boy. Disability Scoop (11/26) by Michelle Diament
A puppy that was once abandoned and left for dead has now been named “Dog of the Year” for changing the life of a boy with autism.
The pit bull who came to be known as Xena, the Warrior Puppy, was discovered in Georgia last year severely malnourished. A rescue group brought the pooch back to health before she was adopted by Jonny Hickey, 8, and his family.
Xena had an instant connection with Hickey, who has autism. Once closed-off, the dog helped the boy come out of his shell.
“We have laughter in our home where it used to be silent before,” Hickey’s mother Linda Hickey told NBC News.
The story of Hickey and Xena — which they chronicle on Facebook — has been shared in 95 countries as the duo work to raise awareness of autism and encourage kindness to animals.
Now, Xena has been named “Dog of the Year” by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Hickey and his family traveled to New York last week with Xena in tow to accept the award.
“I just knew that out of all of the money that I spent on therapy, that (Xena) standing right there in my family room was the best therapy money could buy,” Linda Hickey said.
---
EDUCATION
Boston College plans to move facility criticized. The Boston Globe (12/2) by Michael Levenson
Parents are deeply upset that Boston College is planning to merge a school for disabled children that has been located on its Chestnut Hill campus for 43 years with another school located about 3 miles away at the Franciscan Hospital for Children.
Boston College officials say they are exploring the merger because enrollment at the Campus School has declined to 38 from 49 in 2007, and say the Kennedy Day School at the Franciscan in Brighton has a new 20,000-square-foot facility with better amenities and programs.
But parents say they have been blindsided by the move and believe the school’s unique culture will be lost if it is relocated from a college campus to a hospital.
“I don’t want him to be in a hospital setting; I want him to be in a school setting,” said Kelly Sutton, whose son, Devon, 17, has been a student at the Campus School for 11 years. “Who sends their kids to a hospital to go to school?”
She and other parents accuse Boston College of betraying its moral obligation to serve young people with severe special needs. Like other students at the Campus School, Devon uses a wheelchair, is blind, and requires a feeding tube. But he has thrived at the school, Kelly Sutton said, and enjoys being outside and listening to music. The school is private, but publicly funded and has served as a training ground for BC students who volunteer there.
“I think it’s shameful. I really do,” Kelly Sutton said of the merger. “I think it’s the antithesis of what the Jesuit mission is all about.”
BC officials say that consolidating the Campus School with the Kennedy Day School will result in better services for the students.
College officials say that, while the Campus School is located in a crowded section of the Lynch School of Education, the Kennedy Day School boasts a 1o-acre campus with a sensory motor room, therapy pool, gymnasium, and adaptive communication and assistive technology in each classroom.
“Both schools are under-capacity and face declining enrollment as the local school districts increasingly seek to retain their special-needs students,” BC’s interim provost, Joseph F. Quinn, wrote in a letter to parents.
“As a result, we feel compelled to explore the possibility of an affiliation with the goal of melding the best of the Campus School, including our students, staff and volunteers, with the best of the Kennedy Day School.”
Jack Dunn, a BC spokesman, said the merger is still in the planning stages, but if it is finalized, students and staff from the Campus School would be moved to the Kennedy Day School in fall 2014.
“The reality is, they have vastly superior facilities,” Dunn said.
“The most important thing from our perspective is we have limited space,” Dunn added.
Parents have started online petitions and appealed to BC’s president, Rev. William P. Leahy, to reconsider the merger.
“The unique culture and environment of our school is exactly why we chose BC for our children,” Kristen Morin, the chairwoman of the Parent’s Advisory Council at the Campus School, said in a letter to Leahy. “The [college’s] student body and their uncontrollable enthusiasm to make a difference in the world make them a constant in our children’s unpredictable lives. This relationship cannot be transferred or replicated three miles away at an institution run by hospital administrators.”
Dunn said BC is trying to be responsive to parents and hopes they will tour the Kennedy Day School.
“We understand their concerns, and recognize that change is difficult, particularly for parents of special-needs students,” Dunn said.
“But in light of the changing landscape of special education, we’re asking the parents to keep an open mind.”
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mlevenson.
---
Deaf student at WSU College of Veterinary Medicine changes professor’s teaching. KLEWTV (11/26) by Rachel Dubrovin
PULLMAN, WA - Kimi Ross is just one of many animal lovers at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine, but she's a little different than the rest.
Palouse Reporter Rachel Dubrovin introduces us to the first deaf student to attend the veterinary school, and explains the impact she's having.
"What do I like about working with animals?" said WSU Veterinary Student Kimi Ross. " They don't talk back."
Kimi Ross is a second-year student at Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. She said her primary interests are sheep and goats.
"Animals for the most part are very forgiving," said Ross. They're sometimes easier to work with than people."
Ross is also the first deaf student to attend veterinary school at WSU.
"If I'm standing right next to Paris, or CV or somebody, I can usually hear them if they vocalize, if I'm standing right there," said Ross. "I can usually hear cows that are on the other end of the barn here."
Her instructors said working with a deaf student led to some changes in their teaching.
"It makes you think harder about what you do, and how you do it, because you realize that not everything that you do, or have done for the last 24 years, is accessible to Kimi," said WSU College of Veterinary Medicine Professor Steve Himes. "And so you have to think ahead a little harder, you have to think a little bit more about why you do some things."
"Kind of slowing down, and checking in has made me I guess be a little bit of a better teacher," said WSU College of Veterinary Medicine Resident, Melissa Ackerman. "Not only with Kimi, but with everybody."
And Ross said she's received nothing but support since she arrived on campus.
"It's been a really good experience for me," said Ross. "And I was very, very surprised. It wasn't what I expected, at all. In a positive way."
Ross plans on graduating in 2016. She said she'll go back home to Alaska, where she'll bring her veterinary services to rural areas that wouldn't otherwise have access to it.
"I do like working with animals, but the main reason I decided to become a vet was because I was interested in serving people," said Ross.
Ross said she has an amplified stethoscope that allows her to hear heart sounds, but she can't hear the animals breathing. She said she's learning to tell an animal's symptoms based on touch.
---
HEALTH
How Autistic Girls Are Being Shortchanged. Huffington Post (11/26) by Catherine Pearson
Suzanne Amara's daughter, Janey, was 3 years old when she was diagnosed with autism.
These days, no one would mistake that her daughter has the neuro-developmental disorder, Amara said. Janey, who is now 9, is nonverbal and has what is considered severe autism. But there were signs early on that Amara believes she may have overlooked simply because of her daughter's sex.
"There might've been things she was demonstrating that I didn't see because she was a girl," said the mother of three, who writes the blog Rarer In Girls ... My Daughter With Autism.
"Maybe, I sort of comforted myself with thinking, 'Well, she's not autistic, because she's a girl,'" Amara said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, autism spectrum disorders, or ASDs, are five times more common among boys than girls. One in 54 boys in the U.S. has been diagnosed with autism, compared to just 1 in 252 girls. But a growing body of research hints that the significant sex-based differences in autism diagnoses are a result not just of biological differences, but of a failure to recognize ASD in girls.
One study, published in the November edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, analyzed data from more than 3,600 children, many of whom were considered to exhibit autism-like traits, according to a checklist scoring various social behaviors.
The children were then given two tests. In one, they were shown photos of other children and asked to identify whether those kids were happy, sad, angry or fearful. In a second, they were shown an animated triangle and circle that moved across a screen and asked to describe what the movement revealed about the shapes' "emotions." A triangle moving in a purposeful manner, for example, was meant to evoke a happy feeling.
Both girls and boys with autism-like traits struggled to identify the correct emotions in the triangle task, and boys with autism-like traits also struggled with the facial recognition task.
However, girls with autism-like traits were able to recognize emotions from photos just as well as girls without autism did. Because many experts believe failure to recognize facial expressions is one of the more direct signs of autism, the researchers argue that doctors may need to use more subtle assessments to accurately diagnose the disorder in girls.
"If girls with ASD are developing strategies to compensate for ASD like traits (such as [difficulty with] emotion recognition), then it is possible that they are less likely to be diagnosed," study researcher Radha Kothari, a research associate with University College London's Institute of Child Health, wrote in an email to HuffPost.
"Much of the research conducted on autism, which goes on to define our idea of the disorder, is conducted on males rather than females," Kothari wrote, adding, "This creates a cyclical system, in which our understanding of ASD is mainly based upon presentation of it in males, which means that more males are likely to be diagnosed."
"It's likely that we are missing girls who are high-functioning and don't have additional co-morbid problems," echoed Francesca Happe, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King's College London and president of the International Society for Autism Research.
Happe cautioned against overstating the new study's potential implications but called it interesting. In February 2012, she was an author on another autism investigation, which found that girls who had similarly high levels of autism-like traits as their male counterparts, but who did not have additional intellectual or behavior problems, were less likely to meet diagnostic criteria. Those results suggested the girls might be "fly[ing] under the radar," Happe said.
With so much about autism still a mystery and so many questions about its causes unanswered, experts warn that it is difficult to tell whether sex-based differences in autism rates are a reflection of biology, under-diagnosis or both. Evidence does suggest there is a "female protective effect." In other words, it may take more genetic or environmental risk factors to "tip [girls'] brain development into the realm of autism," as the nonprofit Autism Speak's website puts it.
Whatever the reasons, parents of girls with autism, like Amara, say the experience can be a lonely one. "I've thought, 'Are there no other girls like Janey?'" she said. Amara has connected with families in similar situations online, but day-to-day she and Janey have never encountered another girl with similarly severe autism.
"It's pretty isolating," Amara said. "It's almost all parents of boys."
---
OPINION: Scary new statistics about ADHD. The Boston Globe (12/2) by Dr. Claire McCarthy
Adapted from the MD Mama blog on Boston.com.
More than 1 in 10 children in the United States haveADHD.
That’s astounding — and frightening.
New statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that 11 percent of children ages 4 to 17 in the United States have been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD — an increase of 41 percent since 2003, when 7.8 percent were diagnosed.
Some of that rise is because of a greater awareness of ADHD; therefore it is diagnosed more. But some of that growth represents a real increase.
The majority of kids with ADHD (69 percent) are taking medications. While it’s good that they are getting treatment, a study earlier this year showed that taking medications doesn’t necessarily help kids academically. Behavioral therapy can make a difference, especially when kids get to learn life skills to manage their ADHD, but not everybody gets therapy or life skills training.
And life skills are what they need, because ADHD is not just a condition of childhood. Another study published this year showed that it often persists into adulthood, and people who had ADHD as children were more likely to suffer from other problems such as alcohol or drug abuse, anxiety, depression, or other mental health problems. They are also more likely to try to commit suicide.
I guess that’s what’s freaking me out about these statistics. This isn’t just about a few more active and distracted kids who struggle in school and with friendships and with keeping out of trouble. This is about the adults those kids will grow into — adults who are likely to struggle in many ways too, and whose struggles are likely to affect those around them in just as many ways.
In families, it puts stress on parents and marriages and siblings. It plays out in classrooms, too: These numbers translate into at least two kids withADHD in every classroom, which can affect everyone’s learning. It costs our health care and educational system millions of dollars. Adults with ADHD can end up needing resources to help them, and those resources cost money too. The ripple effects of 11 percent of children having ADHD could be staggering.
It’s becoming clear that ADHD is a public health problem — like obesity or heart disease or HIV. We will never succeed in tackling it if we don’t start thinking of it that way, and give it real attention, thought, and resources. But unlike with other public health problems, we don’t really understand all of the causes of ADHD or the best way to treat it. Which makes fighting it hard.
We need to take this problem as seriously as we’ve taken cancer or asthma or influenza. This isn’t a problem of a few badly behaving kids; this is much bigger and more dangerous. We need to find better ways to prevent and treat it.
There are lives that need saving. Let’s not wait any longer. Let’s get started.
Read more of this blog at www.boston.com/mdmama.
---
SPORTS
VIDEO: The Gallaudet Way. ESPN (11/21)
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=espn:10012460
There isn't a college anywhere quite like Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. The school, exclusively for the deaf and hard of hearing, finished with an unprecedented 9-1 record to clinch its first conference title in school history.
---
Sochi 2014 set for largest winter Paralympic audience. SportBusiness (11/27)
Sochi 2014 set for largest winter Paralympic audience
Date: 27 NOVEMBER 2013
The International Paralympic Committee has said that it expects the 2014 Paralympic winter Games to set record levels of global broadcasting reach when it is staged in Sochi, Russia next year.
The IPC said it is confident of a cumulative television audience in excess of the 1.6 billion recorded by Vancouver’s 2010 Games.
Sochi 2014 already has deals in place with US network NBC, UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 and the European Broadcasting Union consortium of public-service broadcasters.
The IPC says it expects to announce further deals shortly.
Sir Philip Craven, IPC president, said: “The deal we announced this year with NBC in the USA is huge as it opens up the Games to millions of new viewers who will be able to watch the Paralympics for the very first time.
“All the deals we have announced, and are on the verge of announcing, are also for more hours. In 2014 people will have more chance to see the Games around the world and will be able to watch far more too. The signs are that more people than ever before will watch the Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi next March.”
The London 2012 Paralympic summer Games attracted a cumulative television audience of 3.8 billion in more than 115 countries.
Athletes from 45 countries will compete across five sporting disciplines in Sochi, Russia from March 7-16.
-------
American Association of People with Disabilities
2013 H Street NorthWest, 5th Floor
Washington, DC 20006 United States
-------

No comments:

Post a Comment