Category: What’s Happening

Study links gene to children with physical and intellectual disabilities

Featured Topics, Intellectual Disability, What's Happening 10/01/201909/24/2019 admin

Source: The Translational Genomics Research Institute Modern science and data sharing converged to underpin a study led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, that identified a gene associated with a rare condition that results in physical and intellectual disabilities of children. The results, published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics, suggest that rare variants in the gene DDX6 are associated with a significant disruption in the […]

Sylvia Colt-Lacayo got a full scholarship to Stanford. But can she afford the care she needs to go?

What's Happening 09/06/2019 admin

By Jenny Gold / Kaiser Health News Sylvia Colt-Lacayo is 18, fresh-faced and hopeful as she beams confidence from her power wheelchair. Her long, dark hair is soft and carefully tended, and her wide brown eyes are bright. A degenerative neuromuscular disease, similar to muscular dystrophy, has left her with weak, underdeveloped muscles throughout her body, and her legs are unable to support any weight. Each time she needs to get in or out of her […]

At NCD’s recommendation, all U.S. dental schools will train students to manage treatment of people with intellectual, developmental disabilities

Featured Topics, What's Happening 09/03/2019 admin

As recommended by the National Council on Disability (NCD), all U.S. dental schools must now revamp their curricula and training programs to be inclusive of patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) recently passed votes requiring dental schools to now train their students in managing treatment of patients with ID/DD. Previously, patients with ID/DD were largely unable to obtain dental care treatment because dental students were simply not required […]

Trump Extends Funding Money Follows the Person Program

What's Happening 08/22/201908/21/2019 admin

The House passed H.R. 3253, the Empowering Beneficiaries, Ensuring Access and Strengthening Accountability Act.  This bill funds the Money Follows the Person program through Fiscal Year 2023.  It also extends the HCBS spousal impoverishment protections through March 31, 2024.  We are pushing the Senate to provide long-term funding for MFP by passing H.R. 3253 or the EMPOWER Care Act.  It is critical Congress act before funding for the program runs out in September 2019. EMPOWER […]

Neurodiversity Summit explores autism as a difference, not a disorder

What's Happening 07/16/2019 admin

Expert speakers and panelists offer their knowledge and experiences (SACRAMENTO) —The UC Davis MIND Institute and Center for Mind and Brain hosted their first Neurodiversity Summit Friday. The all-day event delved into a movement that reframes the conversation about autism. Instead of thinking about it as a disorder, neurodiversity advocates regard it as a difference in the way that some people’s brains work. Although the larger movement includes other differences such as deafness, summit organizers […]