Nine months after Texas and the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a settlement to improve health care and more quickly investigate reports of abuse and neglect at state institutions for people with mental disabilities, the facility in Corpus Christi doesn’t have staff psychiatrists, has therapists who are ill-equipped to work with people with complex needs and doesn’t have a clear zero-tolerance policy for abuse and neglect.
For many Floridians with disabilities, the choice between competitive work and Medicaid assistance is all too real. While many of these citizens have a desire to work and contribute to the economic vitality of their communities, Florida law strongly discourages against this. To qualify for Medicaid assistance, individuals must not exceed a low-income and asset level. There are exceptions for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients; however, current policy limits their opportunities to work.
We tend to frame this country’s fitness and obesity problem almost entirely in terms of lifestyle and motivation. Even the most out-of-shape, time-pressed couch potato can find some way to start exercising, we say. You make it a priority, get up and do it.
Dr. Lynn Kern Koegel, director of Autism Services in the UCSB Autism Research Center and co-author of a new book on about autism, was a guest on Morning Media Menu this week.
On the show, she discussed how journalists can better cover autism –encouraging the media to focus on positive stories about coping with autism, rather than negative controversies.
Although 54 million Americans ages 5 to 64 have disabilities, performers with disabilities are “virtually invisible” in entertainment media, contends I AM PWD (Inclusion in the Arts and Media of Performers with Disabilities), an advocacy campaign that’s trying to change that.
Seventeen-year-old RJ Mitte was at the right place at the right time four years ago when he was cast as the son of high school chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-lab operator Walter White in the AMC drama “Breaking Bad,” which begins its third season Sunday.
With dozens of disability advocates watching from the gallery, the S.C. House voted to add $173.6 million of federal money to the state budget to restore proposed cuts to health care services.
Kim Vaccaro of Brick wasn’t aware that last year’s federal stimulus package included a $2.4 million grant to help her district enhance its special education program.
Simone Weinstein’s ordeal with cancer started in the most banal way: she was tired. She had a hard time getting up in the morning, and did not even have the energy to hang out with her friends.
