Quality of Florida Health Care Studied

A majority of Floridians believe that the state is not providing good medical care to people with disabilities, according to the annual Sunshine State Survey results released Tuesday.
Susan MacManus, the survey director and University of South Florida political scientist,  said concerns over health care for the state’s most vulnerable received some of the most negative findings.

Out of Options, Parents Decide to Build Home for Son with Autism

OGDEN, N.Y. -- Anthony Battisti's parents have known for a long time that when their son turns 21 in December, he will join a growing population of young adults with very few options.Anthony has severe autism, and has spent years in a day program for young people who have intellectual developmental disabilities. But when his birthday rolls around this year, he'll age out of that program and have no place else to go, his family said.So Sherry and Michael Battisti of Ogden decided to take matters — and hammers and nails — into their own hands.

Researchers Find Weaker Brain Connections in Premature Babies

Researchers have found weaker brain connections along with increased chances of developing autism, ADHD and emotional disorders in premature babies. At the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, researchers reported that there exists strong evidence in favor of the fact that preemies are born with weak brain connections are more likely to develop various disorders.

Cynthia Rogers, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and her team compared MRI scans of the brains of 58 full-term babies with those of 76 babies born at least 10 weeks early. “We were really interested that the tracts that we know connect areas that are involved in attention and emotional networks were heavily affected”. By using two different types of MRI, researchers studied the nerve fibers that carry signals from one part of the brain to another. They also measured the intensity that how well different areas of the brain are communicating.

Fighting for Disability Rights

Amazing story from Croatia by Human Rights Watch. “I want to leave but I can’t,” Ana told me. “I have a guardian. I told my sister and my doctor [that I want to leave this place], but my guardian has a say.”Ana is among 18,000 people with intellectual or psychosocial disabilities placed under guardianship in Croatia, and stripped of their legal capacity – the right to make basic decisions - to marry and form a family,  to consent to medical treatment, or to sign an employment contract. A significant majority have been placed under full guardianship, under which guardians – often nominated by the state – make all decisions for them.But that’s about to change.

NY Lawmakers Question Closures

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Several New York state lawmakers raised concerns Tuesday about federal and state policies to move more disabled people from institutions to community residences and managed care for medical treatment.

The state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities currently supports 38,000 New Yorkers in residences and 80,000 with day services. It has about 400 people in institutional settings, a total the agency plans to reduce to 150, Deputy Commissioner Helen DeSanto told lawmakers.

No Benefit Increase for SSI in 2016

For only the third time in decades, individuals with disabilities who receive Social Security benefits will see no increase next year in their monthly payments.

The Social Security Administration said Thursday that there will be no automatic cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, for 2016. That’s because inflation is too low to warrant an automatic benefit hike, the agency said.

Top States for Special Ed Litigation

Special education disputes are far more likely to be litigated in some states than others, with a new report finding that just 10 states account for nearly two thirds of all court decisions.Between 1979 and 2013, there were over 5,000 court decisions nationwide related to legal questions under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, according to an analysis published recently in the Journal of Special Education Leadership.Nearly 600 of those decisions came out of New York, while Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. each accounted for about 500 decisions.