More Group Homes may be the Answer

There are politicians in New Jersey looking to close down some of the institutions designated for people with developmental disabilities and use the funds for more group homes throughout the community. Moving people with developmental disabilities into group homes is cheaper and gives them more independence to live their lives. For more information on this story...click the link below.

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/146/story/369789.html

Hockey Team Is for Athletes with Developmental Disabilities

Nice Feature out of Maryland. Too bad there aren't more programs like this and other sports programs designed for children and adults with special needs.

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/sports/display.htm?StoryID=85024

A Sister Copes With Her Brother's Autism

Check out NPR's recent report "Coping with an Autistic Brother: A Teenager's Take" and other comments from New York Times blog.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98012194

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/a-sister-copes-with-her-brothers-autism/?scp=2&sq=autism&st=cse

An Aggressive Plan to Multiply Group Homes

Of course people with developmental disabilities are going to be happier in a smaller, community-based group residence than in a large institution. Unfortunately New Jersey has lagged in funding to provide these residences. Plan is great on paper, but it's time to see it put into action.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090109_An_aggressive_plan_to_multiply_group_homes.html

What Medicaid Tells Us About Government Health Care

An interesting op-ed piece from yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Scott Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a former senior official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123137487987962873.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Top Federal Autism Panel Votes for Millions in Vaccine Research

Huffington Post article on a decision made last month that has received little or no media attention.

The Inter-Agency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) has voted to recommend earmarking millions of dollars in research funds from the Combating Autism Act of 2006 to study the possible role of vaccines in the causation of autism. The panel also proposed spending an additional $75 million to study a wide variety of other environmental factors in autism, possibly including parental age, infections, heavy metals, neurotoxins, occupational exposures and "other biological agents."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-kirby/top-federal-autism-panel_b_155293.html

Disabled Workers a Boon for Some Employers

Bravo to ShopRite for hiring people with developmental disabilities! Especially in this economy, ShopRite clearly recognizes that hiring people with disabilities is not an act of charity, but rather a sound business decision.

Just wish that journalists would understand how calling these individuals "mentally disabled workers," opposed to workers with developmental disabilities (people first language) is not politically correct. Realize it's more words and takes up more space, but hopefully some day this will catch on with the media.


http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901030337