“Organizations are people, so as you move, conditions change, service options change, and the people that you are working with will change. Always remember this so as you are planning your transition, realize that you are building a new network of resources each time you move.” BY SHELLY L. HUHTANEN Military families are in a continuous mode of transition. Either a parent is training for a deployment, on a deployment, or coming back from a […]
PUZZLES & CAMO BY SHELLY HUHTANEN As I take myself back to the store the other day, dragging my dress behind me with my sunken eyes and my weathered face due to years of crying, laughing and smiling, I can honestly say I have tried. I have tried to speak up about what families with special needs children need. The other day, I did something I don’t do very often. I went shopping for myself […]
BY JANICE K. RYAN, OTD, OTR/L Multi-sensory activities are suggested that are easy to locate, relatively inexpensive to buy, and will allow you to better understand how to create your child’s and family’s own personally-preferred home environment. The American Association of Multi-Sensory Environment (AAMSE) approach to treating people with special needs is an evolution of earlier ideas put forth by occupational therapists, neurophysiologists, educators, and the energy techniques used by complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) […]
Special Olympics has found that people with intellectual disabilities are being excluded from national laws and policies in countries around the world. BY JAVIER VASQUEZ To the rest of the world, human rights are assumed and not questioned. Special Olympics fights for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) to obtain the same human rights as everyone else. Human rights are defined as universal freedoms and entitlements all human beings share, whatever their race, nationality, place of […]
BY LAUREN AGORATUS, M.A. “By every measure, persons with disabilities disproportionately and inequitably experience morbidity and mortality associated with unmet healthcare needs in every sphere. Minorities with disabilities are doubly burdened by their minority status.” – “Assuring Health Equity for Minority Persons with Disabilities. A Statement of Principles and Recommendations.” A recommendation report from the HHS Advisory Committee on Minority Health. July 2011. People with disabilities are a recently recognized population1 affected by health disparities. […]
