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DisabilityScoop.com: Water Park For Those With Special Needs Set To Open

Just in time for summer, a first-of-its-kind splash park designed from the ground up to accommodate people with various special needs will make its debut.

Morgan’s Inspiration Island will open Saturday in San Antonio.

The $17 million water park features five play areas with pools, geysers, jets, water cannons and other elements as well as a five-minute jungle-themed riverboat ride with twists and turns.

The new park is located adjacent to Morgan’s Wonderland, a fully-accessible 25-acre theme park that opened in 2010.

“Like Morgan’s Wonderland, Morgan’s Inspiration Island is not a special-needs park; it’s a park of inclusion,” said Gordon Hartman, the philanthropist behind the parks. “Both were designed with special-needs individuals in mind and built for everyone’s enjoyment.”

Hartman said he and his team worked with water park consultants from Texas, Arizona and Canada as well as doctors, therapists, special educators and families to create the tropical-themed destination.

The splash park is completely wheelchair accessible. One area offers the ability to condition water to a warmer temperature for those sensitive to cold. And, parents can obtain waterproof wristbands with tracking technology so that they can easily locate their kids.

What’s more, specially-designed waterproof wheelchairs built just for the park will be available for visitors, park officials said.

Morgan’s Inspiration Island will be free for individuals with special needs, just like Morgan’s Wonderland, though Hartman recommended making advance reservations online. The splash park will be open daily until the middle of August before switching to a weekend schedule through September.

Hartman was inspired to establish Morgan’s Wonderland by his daughter, Morgan, 23, who has cognitive and physical challenges. Since opening more than seven years ago, the park has greeted over a million visitors from across the United States and around the world, officials said.

#living #disabilties

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DisabilityScoop.com: Fever During Pregnancy May Increase Autism Odds

Expectant mothers who have a fever during pregnancy are significantly more likely to have a child with autism, new research suggests.

The odds of a child developing autism increased 34 percent in women who came down with a fever at any time during pregnancy. The risk was greatest during the second trimester when a 40 percent bump was observed.

The findings come from a study published this week in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Researchers looked at data on 95,754 kids born in Norway between 1999 and 2009. About 16 percent of mothers reported having a fever at some point during pregnancy and nearly 600 of the children were ultimately diagnosed with autism.

The risk for autism appeared to increase with the frequency of fevers. Women who experienced fevers three or more times after their 12th week of pregnancy had a 300 percent higher chance of having a child with autism, the study found.

Taking acetaminophen did minimally lessen the risk of autism among those who had a fever during their second trimester, according to the findings. Meanwhile, none of the women studied who took ibuprofen had a child with autism, but it was unclear if that was due to the drug itself or a small sample of people using it.

“Our results suggest a role for gestational maternal infection and innate immune responses to infection in the onset of at least some cases of autism spectrum disorder,” said Mady Hornig of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health who led the study.

Additional research is already underway looking at blood samples taken during pregnancy and at birth to assess if particular infectious agents or certain immune responses are at play, the researchers said.

#autism

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DisabilityScoop.com: States Lag In Keeping Medicaid Enrollees Out Of Nursing Homes

States are making tepid progress helping millions of people who are elderly and those with disabilities on Medicaid avoid costly nursing home care by arranging home or community services for them instead, according to an AARP report released this week.

“Although most states have experienced modest improvements over time, the pace of change is not keeping up with demographic demands,” said the report, which compared states’ efforts to improve long-term care services over the past several years. AARP’s first two reports on the subject were in 2011 and 2014.

The organization ranked states’ performance on long-term care benchmarks such as supply of home health aides, nursing home costs, long nursing home stays, the employment rate of people with disabilities and support for working caregivers.

With 10,000 people a day turning 65 and the eldest baby boomers beginning to turn 80 in 2026, the demand for long-term care services is expected to soar in coming years.

AARP officials said the U.S. House of Representatives’ bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would worsen the situation by capping annual federal revenue for states’ Medicaid programs. That bill is now before the Senate.

“The proposed cuts to Medicaid — the largest public payer of long-term assistance — would result in millions of older adults and people with disabilities losing lifesaving supports,” said Susan Reinhard, senior vice president and director of the AARP Public Policy Institute.

The report found strikingly wide variances in the share of state Medicaid spending for long-term care directed to home- and community-based services for the elderly and adults with disabilities in 2014, the latest year for data covering all states. Minnesota, the top-ranked state, spent about 69 percent, but Alabama, ranked last, spent less than 14 percent.

Nationwide, the average edged up from 39 percent in 2011 to 41 percent in 2014.

Only nine states and the District of Columbia spent more on home- and community-based services than on nursing home care, according to the report. Such services include home health care, caregiver training and adult day care.

People turning 65 this year face about a 50-50 chance of needing long-term care services in their lifetime, AARP officials said.

Trish Riley, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy, said states face several obstacles to expand home- and community-based options. They include a strong nursing home lobby that does not want to give up its Medicaid dollars and a shortage of transportation and housing options, particularly in rural areas.

An Alabama Medicaid spokeswoman said the state is working on the issue highlighted by AARP but refused to comment on its report.

John Matson, a spokesman for the Alabama Nursing Home Association, rejected the notion that nursing homes are to blame. “We think it’s a shift that needs to happen in Alabama. … We can’t build enough nursing homes to meet (the needs of) everyone that is coming,” he said.

The state’s effort to shift Medicaid beneficiaries from long-term care into managed care organizations starting next year will help, because those entities will have a financial incentive to keep people at home for care when possible, Matson said.

Reinhard said many states have struggled to expand home- and community-based options for Medicaid enrollees needing long-term care because that is an optional benefit. Nursing homes are mandatory under federal law. While states focus on Medicaid coverage for children and families — as well as adults without disabilities covered by the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act — adults with disabilities have received less attention.

“Long-term care is a stepchild of the program and not a top focus for states,” she said.

To view the full report, go to www.longtermscorecard.org. The report was funded by the AARP Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund and The SCAN Foundation.

Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit health newsroom whose stories appear in news outlets nationwide, is an editorially independent part of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

#health #behavior

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DisabilityScoop.com: Many Adults With Autism Struggling Even With Services

State-provided disability services often fail to meet the needs of adults with autism, according to a new report finding many with access to supports don’t have any regular daytime activities.

Only 14 percent of adults with autism who receive state supports have a paying job in the community. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 people in this population have no structured activities during the day.

The findings come from a new National Autism Indicators Report produced by Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. The annual publication offers a look at the experiences of those on the spectrum as they transition to adulthood. This year’s report is focused on the estimated 111,000 people across the country who receive developmental disability services from their state.

“Billions are spent each year on services for people on the autism spectrum,” said Paul Shattuck, director of the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute’s Life Course Outcomes program, which produces the annual report. “Relatively little is spent trying to understand the types and amount of services people need, as well as the services they actually end up getting or the outcomes of them.”

Researchers looked specifically at 3,520 individuals with autism ages 18 to 64 who were no longer in high school and participated in the 2014-2015 National Core Indicators Adult Consumer Survey. A project of the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services and the Human Services Research Institute, the survey includes interviews with people with disabilities receiving at least one disability service from their state.

Even though the individuals surveyed used an average of six different state services, the report found that “families are shouldering a lot of care.” Nearly half of those studied lived with parents or relatives and 38 percent had no paid, in-home supports. A quarter did not believe they were getting all the supports they needed.

“Many are truly dissatisfied with their quality of life and the difficulties they have finding services that could help improve their situation,” said Anne Roux, a Drexel researcher who worked on the report.

Still, researchers acknowledged that those with services are not representative of all people with autism. Many adults on the spectrum either don’t receive or don’t qualify for state disability supports.

“Some states don’t provide developmental disability services for adults with autism unless they also have intellectual disability,” Roux said. “These policies ignore the fact that many with autism are cognitively-able but still have tremendous challenges navigating the social, organizational and communication demands of adult life.”

The findings highlight the gaps that persist in state policies and services, the report authors indicated.

“It’s critical that we identify, evaluate and promote state policies that appropriately recognize and adequately meet the unique needs of adults with autism spectrum disorder who use, or need to use, state developmental disability services,” Shattuck said. “Without that we will continue to struggle to improve the quality of life for those who use these services.”

#autism

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DisabilityScoop.com: ‘Speechless’ Creator Urges Casting Of Actors With Disabilities

The creator of a prime-time comedy starring a teen with cerebral palsy is pushing other Hollywood bigwigs to cast more actors with disabilities, calling barriers to such inclusion “false.”

Scott Silveri, the creator and executive producer of ABC’s “Speechless,” said that having a cast member with a disability on his show has been nothing but positive.

“The number of Americans with disabilities is a lot and the number of people on TV with disabilities is not a lot and the number of those people portrayed by actual performers with disabilities is like next to none,” Silveri said. “For those of us … with a say in who gets on TV and who doesn’t, I simply ask you to recognize that a part of our responsibility in what we do is to represent society as a whole and you can’t do that without representing disabilities.”

The comments came during the Television Academy Honors earlier this month. “Speechless” was one of six shows lauded at the event put on by the people behind the Emmy Awards recognizing “programing that explores and confronts significant issues facing our society in a compelling and impactful way.”

“Speechless” is based on Silveri’s experience growing up with a brother with a disability. The family comedy stars Micah Fowler, who has cerebral palsy, as JJ DiMeo, a teen with the condition who is nonverbal.

Silveri acknowledged that despite his personal experience he has not always done his part to include people with disabilities on screen.

“For the 20 years I was doing this before, the number of people I cast with disabilities was a whopping zero and I should know better,” Silveri said. “But I’m here to share from my very positive and fortunate first-hand experience that the barriers to casting those with disabilities are false and imagined and the rewards are great. There is a real appetite for their stories.”

#living

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DisabilityScoop.com: Parents Denied Ability To Record Son’s School Day

PORTLAND, Maine — A federal jury has determined that the parents of a child with disabilities have no First Amendment right to have their son wear a recording device to keep track of his school day.

A Topsham couple sued School Administrative District 75, saying they needed to equip their son with a recording device because his autism and a neurological syndrome left him largely unable to communicate. The couple said that, without recording his day, they couldn’t find out from their son how his schooling went and whether he was making progress in his education.

But the jury in U.S. District Court in Portland sided with the school district, which covers Bowdoin, Bowdoinham, Harpswell and Topsham, after deliberating for about an hour.

The school district had argued that allowing the boy, now 17, to record his days might violate the confidentiality of other students and teachers, was barred by a school district policy, conflicted with the district’s contract with its teachers and could run counter to a state anti-voyeurism law.

“This is a resounding victory for the dedicated educators of SAD 75,” said Daniel A. Nuzzi, the lead lawyer representing the school district.

Nuzzi said he thinks a key argument was the unanimous opinion of district officials and teachers that recording the school day would have a chilling effect on the relationship between teachers and the student and possibly affect other students and teachers in the special education classrooms as well.

“This was an important case about the ability to respect the rights and privacy of students and teachers in the school,” Nuzzi said. He said teachers and other students should be free to interact without being concerned that their activities are being recorded.

Richard O’Meara, the lead attorney for the parents, said his clients were “weighing their options for appeal” and had no further comment on the verdict.

The case was considered a novel attempt to extend free speech rights to the use of a recording device in schools. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maine and the national ACLU had joined the suit on behalf of the parents, Matt Pollack and Jane Quiron.

Pollack, Quiron and the school district have had a tense relationship for years over the parents’ efforts to learn more about the education their child was receiving. They said school district officials have also restricted their access to records concerning their son and argued that allowing them to record the day would help them find out more about their son’s education without “filtering” by school officials.

They said that their son arrived home one day upset and crying over school, which he normally enjoys, and they were unable to find out what had caused his upset. They also said he was bruised on his forearms one day and neither they nor school officials could explain how he got the bruises, even though the boy has an adult with him at all times during the school day.

© 2017 the Portland Press Herald Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

#education