Infants as young as 7 months show sensitivity to human voices

From HealthDay News:

The brains of infants as young as 7 months show a sensitivity to the human voice that's similar to what's seen in adult brains, a new study finds.

The research may one day help improve understanding of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

British and German researchers used near-infrared spectroscopy to determine when certain regions in the brain's temporal cortex become sensitive to the human voice. In adults, these regions play an important role in processing spoken language.

Adult-like responses to human voices were seen in the brains of 7-month-old infants, but not in 4-month-olds. This suggests that voice sensitivity develops between 4 months and 7 months of age.

The researchers also found that emotional tones of voice resulted in increased activity in the right temporal cortex of 7-month-old infants.

The study is published in the March 25 issue of Neuron.

"Our findings demonstrate that voice-sensitive brain regions are already specialized and modulated by emotional information by the age of 7 months, and raise the possibility that the critical neurodevelopmental processes underlying impaired voice-processing reported in disorders like autism might occur before 7 months," said study leader Dr. Tobias Grossmann, of the Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development at the University of London.

"Therefore, in future work the current approach could be used to assess individual differences in infants' responses to voices and emotional prosody and might thus serve as one of the potentially multiple markers that can help with an early identification of infants at risk for a neurodevelopmental disorder," he said.

Florida teen with CP trains himself to play baseball with one arm

From the St. Petersburg Times:

CLEARWATER, Fla. — It's what happens after Austin Ordner (pictured) catches the ball that's amazing.

With a motion that's as natural as breathing, Austin slides the glove off his left hand and cradles it between his right forearm and his abdomen.

The 17-year-old Tarpon Springs High sophomore then throws the ball with the same left hand that just had a glove on it. With the ball gone, Austin immediately puts the glove back on his left hand.

Born with cerebral palsy, Austin doesn't have the use of his right side and his right leg is turned inward. But that hasn't stopped him from playing.

"Even though you have some kind of disability, you still can try sports," Austin said Wednesday before his game. "It really doesn't matter, as long as you give an effort and try. You possibly can do whatever you want to do."

Austin plays baseball with Winning Inning Baseball Academy on Monday and Wednesday nights. The program is a developmental and instructional league that helps young baseball players improve their skills. Because there is no junior varsity baseball in Pinellas County, many players, particularly high school freshmen and sophomores, turn to Winning Inning for improvement.

Austin had never played baseball before until last season when friends at Tarpon Springs High persuaded him to try out for the varsity team. He didn't make it.

"At first I didn't want to play at all because I've never played in my life," Austin recalled. "But then I went out and actually did quite well for my first time. That's when I started practicing almost every night for three or four hours."

Austin tried out again this season, and again he didn't make the roster. But he stays connected as a manager.

And at Winning Inning, he continues to hone his game. Wednesday, he played first base. He also can play outfield and is getting better with pitching, he said.

"This is a great league," said Randy Ordner, Austin's grandfather. "It's a neat thing because all the kids get to play, and he's learning to play the game and he's getting better."

Stacey Ordner was beaming as she watched her son run from first base to the dugout or swing with all he can in an attempt to connect with a fastball across the plate.

She said her son has always been an overachiever and has never let anything hold him back. But playing baseball is different, she said. It's all Austin talks about, all he writes his school reports about, Stacey Ordner said.

"The biggest thing is he's a part of the team and has a chance to be a leader," Ordner, 34, said. "He's never really been a part of a team like this before, and now he's just one of the guys."

Tim Dublino, the team's coach, said it's easy to use Austin as an inspiration because he works so hard.

"Some other kids may be a little more talented, but it's easy to use Austin as a role model to the other kids who might think they have it rough," Dublino, 44, said. "He's a great kid and the kids love him on the team, and it's actually been very good."

For Austin, life is good, especially when he's holding down first base.

"Its been rough at times," Austin said. "But overall, it's been okay."

Massachusetts father found guilty in murder of daughter, 4, with overdose of psychotropic drug

From The Boston Globe:

BROCKTON, Mass. — Capping one of the most unusual child abuse cases in Massachusetts history, a South Shore father was convicted yesterday of first-degree murder for killing his 4-year-old daughter with an overdose of a psychotropic drug, which he and his wife had nicknamed “happy medicine’’ and routinely dispensed to their three children to manage their day-to-day behavior.

Michael Riley (pictured), 37, who showed little emotion when the guilty verdict was read, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Riley’s wife, 35-year-old Carolyn, had also faced first-degree murder charge, but last month, a jury convicted her of second-degree murder, which gives her the option of parole after 15 years.

It took the Plymouth County jury — which looked visibly drained as the verdict was read, with one woman weeping — eight hours to reach its verdict.

The case has drawn national attention to the use of psychotropic drugs in young children and the potential for indigent parents to abuse the federal disability system.

Prosecutors said Rebecca’s parents fabricated their children’s behavioral problems, making up reports of hallucinations and violent outbursts, in order to obtain drugs to sedate them and to help them qualify for government benefits for families with disabled children.

When Rebecca died on Dec. 13, 2006, she and her two older siblings, then 11 and 6, had each been diagnosed with bipolar and hyperactivity disorders and prescribed three potent psychiatric drugs by Dr. Kayoko Kifuji of Tufts Medical Center. Rebecca had been taking mood-altering drugs since age 2.

After the verdict, Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz said he plans to ask the Board of Registration of Medicine to reopen its investigation of Kifuji, who he has said turned a blind eye to the numerous signs that the parents were troubled and reckless in dispensing drugs.

“Dr. Kifuji is unfit to have a medical license,’’ he said. “If what Dr. Kifuji did in this case is the acceptable standard of care for children in Massachusetts, then there is something very wrong in this state.’’

Shortly after Rebecca died, Kifuji had entered into a voluntary agreement with the board to halt her clinical practice. But two years later, after a grand jury declined to indict her and the board completed its own inquiry, she was allowed to return to practice last fall. She is currently seeing patients at Tufts Medical Center.

Kifuji testified in both cases, but only after being granted immunity from prosecution.

Cruz said he plans to assemble the transcripts of her testimony, among other things, to present to the licensing board. That information, prosecutors said, showed negligence in how she assessed and followed patients, not just that she subscribes to the controversial belief — as do some other prominent psychiatrists — that toddlers can be diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

For instance, Kifuji diagnosed at least two of the Riley children, while toddlers, with mental disorders after only a one-hour consultation, did not order appropriate blood work while they were on potent pills, and seemingly ignored input from preschool teachers and other clinicians who said the children seemed weak and overmedicated.

When the mother, who was in charge of giving out the drugs, admitted to Kifuji that she gave extra dosages to the children, the psychiatrist seemed extraordinarily tolerant — even sometimes saying the boosted amount was a good idea and the new norm going forward.

Russell Aims, spokesman for the Board of Registration of Medicine, said yesterday the panel will review any information that prosecutors submit.

“The board always reserves the right to reopen a complaint if new information comes to light,’’ he said.

The preschooler’s body, clad only in a pull-up diaper, was found lifeless on the floor next to her parents’ bed during the early-morning hours of Dec. 13, 2006. Prosecutors said the girl was given a lethal overdose of the sedating drug, clonidine, on a night when she kept crying out “Mommy!’’ while battling a respiratory illness.

In both trials, the father was described as a temperamental bully who frightened the children with profanity-laced verbal, and sometimes physical, abuse. The mother was depicted as eager to please the man who married her in 1994, just a few years after they graduated from Weymouth High School.

When Michael Riley wanted the children to quiet down and ordered pills be given to them, prosecutors said, Carolyn complied. She also stood by her husband when her oldest biological daughter, who she had with another man and was later adopted, accused Michael, during a visit at the Riley home, of showing her pornography and making sexual advances.

Michael and Carolyn never explicitly blamed each other during their trials, but rather portrayed themselves as jointly following the orders of Kifuji. They also contended that fast-acting pneumonia killed Rebecca, not psychotropic drugs.

But the convictions showed that jurors in both trials rejected those arguments, choosing instead the government’s contention that the pair maliciously killed the youngest of their three children. The jury in Carolyn Riley’s case struggled longer to reach a verdict, deliberating for 19 hours and ultimately agreeing to a lesser charge. Both parents, who are appealing their verdicts, chose not to take the stand.

The couple, which prosecutors depicted as more devoted to each other than to their children, will now be miles away from each other.

As their two oldest children go on with their lives in foster homes, Michael Riley, with his wrists in handcuffs and his ankles in chains, was taken yesterday to MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole.

His wife is about 15 miles away in the state prison for women in Framingham.

Disability rights watchdog group looks into alleged sexual abuse at Wisconsin mental health center

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

A state-designated watchdog agency has launched its own investigation into patient sexual abuse allegations at the Milwaukee County Mental Health Complex.

The agency, Disability Rights Wisconsin, has made a sweeping demand for records at the complex and will interview staff, patients and their guardians to find out the scope and seriousness of the abuse, Barbara Beckert, Milwaukee office manager for the agency, said Friday.

Beckert said the probe was prompted by news accounts in the Journal Sentinel, which told of a federal investigation that had found multiple instances of patient sexual abuse at the county complex. A federal inspection in January found staff inattention to various patient care rules, including nurses and nurse assistants who were unaware the hospital had a policy of no sexual contact between patients.

A 22-year-old woman at the complex was discovered pregnant in August, after repeated sexual contact with another patient, according to federal reports. A male patient was identified in the report as having a history of sexual aggression and responsible for sexual contact with four women patients at the Mental Health Complex. Under state law, any sexual contact with a mentally ill person is considered assault.

County officials, meanwhile, said they were confident the county would be cleared of any federal sanctions over patient sexual assaults.

The disability rights organization is designated under state law as its protection and advocacy agency for people with mental illness or other disabilities. In that role, the rights group has broad investigative powers, including access to institutions and records. In cases where there is strong evidence of patient abuse or neglect, the rights agency's authority is greatest.

Beckert said the agency will issue a report in about a month detailing its findings and recommending changes.

"We are deeply concerned about the recent reports of assaults and other citations at the Milwaukee Mental Health Complex and possible systemic failures, which may include neglect of vulnerable people by staff," Beckert said in a prepared statement. "This is intolerable."

Her agency regularly advocates on behalf of patients at the complex, "but clearly there are additional patients whose rights are being violated and are in need of advocacy services," said Beckert.

John Chianelli, administrator of the county's Behavioral Health Division, could not be reached Friday. He said earlier that he was confident federal sanctions and threats of withholding millions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid payments to the county would be lifted. The county expects to get $60 million of its $185 million budget for the Mental Health Complex this year from Medicare and Medicaid.

The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services found the county out of compliance with federal rules governing patient care. One federal order threatening a funding cut was lifted in late January, but a second order remains in force, a spokeswoman for the federal center said Friday. The county was given an April 21 deadline to fix problems.

Timothy Schoewe, a deputy county corporation counsel, said the county had received verbal assurances that the federal sanctions would be lifted. Elizabeth Surgener, the federal spokeswoman, said no such assurances had been provided by federal officials. It's possible such assurances were given by state officials, said Seth Boffeli, spokesman for the state Health Services Department.

State inspectors conducted the review of the Mental Health Complex under contract with the federal agency. Although both state and federal health agencies have oversight authority over the county hospital, separate state sanctions for the same problems would be unusual, Boffeli said.

A county "corrective action plan" prompted by the assaults promises improved training for staff at the county's psychiatric hospital, better documentation of patient care records and improved recovery plans that address patients' tendencies toward sexual violence or vulnerability to sexual abuse.

All staff members at the Mental Health Complex are getting training on required patient risk assessments for sexual behavior when patients are admitted, the plan says.

The county plan also promises more thorough documentation of physical exams of patients. The federal inspection found that the exam done on the patient who became pregnant was incomplete. The county's plan was filed with the federal Medicare and Medicaid Services and obtained through an open records request with the state.

National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic, world's largest adaptive learn-to-ski event, begins its 24th year this week

From The Daily Sentinel in Colorado:

An unheralded event that began at Powderhorn Ski Area almost a quarter of a century ago is about to kick off its 24th year as the largest adaptive learn-to-ski event in the world.

The 24th annual National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic begins its annual week-long run March 28 at Snowmass Ski Resort, and officials are expecting more than 370 disabled veterans to participate in a variety of traditional winter-related events.

Vets as young as 19 and from all branches of military service are expected to participate in a variety of winter events, including downhill and cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, sled hockey and rock climbing on a specially designed outside climbing wall.

It was Sandy Trombetta, director of recreational therapy at the Grand Junction Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, who on a whim took a vet skiing at Powderhorn, a day on the slopes that now has reached thousands of vets from every walk of life.

“It’s incredible, the changes you see people go through during their week at the clinic,” Trombetta said during an earlier interview. “You see that transition from Day One to Day Five, something magical really does happen.”

The clinic, not coincidentally, also is known as “Miracles on a Mountainside,” and each year it opens the doors to a snowy world for veterans from every conflict, from World War II to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jointly sponsored by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Disabled American Veterans and hosted by the Grand Junction VA Medical Center and the VA’s Rocky Mountain Network, the week is aimed at giving disabled veterans a chance to succeed at activities the vets might have thought no longer available to them.

Two veterans from Grand Junction, Dana Liesegang and Randy Sirbaugh, will be attending this year’s clinic.

Liesegang is a Navy vet and an incomplete quadriplegic who was injured while stationed in San Diego.

Now attending classes at Mesa State College, Liesegang has been attending the clinic since 1993, and in 1997 she won the clinic’s Linnie Howard Spirit Award.

“The clinic for me has been such a measure of progress and how far I’ve come since I was first injured,” Liesegang said.

She particularly credited a handful of longtime instructors who have worked with her since that first year.

“They have been so supportive of me in every aspect and every step of the way,” she said. “They’ve never said ‘No’ or ‘Don’t try that.’ “

Liesegang said that support has propelled her from being barely able to push her wheelchair up the wheelchair rugby court at her first clinic to this year and her first attempt at standing-up snowboarding.

“I can’t tell you how much the clinic and the people there have meant to me,” she said.

Sirbaugh, 52, will be attending his 14th Winter Sports Clinic. He is an Air Force veteran whose service time included a stint at North American Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs. He lost a leg in a motorcycle accident while in the Air Force.

In an earlier interview about his participation, Sirbaugh said the week of snow-sports and getting together with fellow disabled vets is one of the highlights of his year.

“If you don’t have a good time at the Winter Sports Clinic, you better check your pulse,” he said.

The clinic is open to vets with service-related disabilities ranging from paraplegics and quadriplegics to visual and hearing impairments, amputees and nervous disorders.

Pennsylvania MR services worry about how state budget cuts will affect services

From Pittsburgh Business Times:

A proposed $17.3 million budget cut to agencies statewide that serve severely mentally retarded people may force service cutbacks and increase consolidation among providers while delaying care for clients and their families, advocates say.

Gov. Ed Rendell’s planned 1 percent budget cut will result in a 4 percent cut for agencies that serve the mentally retarded with respite care, vocational training and other services when the increasing cost of providing those services is considered, said Gabrielle Sedor, spokeswoman for Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Association of Resources/Autism Intellectual Disabilities, a nonprofit agency that represents providers. Providers are almost entirely supported by state funding, and between 70 percent and 80 percent of the funding pays wages and related labor expenses.

“Our work force is really the core of mental retardation services,” Sedor said. “It’s not something you can outsource. We’re terribly troubled.”

The Department of Welfare this week briefed county officials and others on Rendell’s $1.7 billion budget for community adult mental retardation programs for fiscal 2011. Advocates say they will try to have funding restored before budget adoption.

New Mexico detention center tries to figure out how to provide care for inmate with muscular dystrophy

From The Daily Times in Farmington, N.M.:

AZTEC, N.M. — San Juan County Adult Detention Center officials are giving around-the-clock care to an inmate suffering from muscular dystrophy.

Joseph Mendoza, 19, was arrested March 25 for shoplifting from the Safeway grocery store in Aztec. Mendoza, who suffers from the degenerative muscle disorder and is confined to a wheelchair, is accused of shoplifting a bottle of Vodka and trespassing. He also had a previous warrant.

"It's difficult," Detention Center Administrator Tom Havel said of the required care. "He has some unique conditions that we have to be able to handle."

He was transported to the detention center by ambulance because police were unable to take him in the car, Aztec Police Sgt. Todd Charles said.

A store employee saw the teen, who previously was banned from the store for shoplifting.

The employee stopped Mendoza as he was attempting to leave and noticed the bottle hidden on his right side, according to police records.

The teen told a store employee he wouldn't go to jail because he was in a wheelchair and that he would just get a ticket.

This is not the teen's first encounter with police.

Mendoza was passed out in the motorized wheelchair in public in 2009 and was charged as a minor in possession and drinking in public. He failed to appear to a November 2009 court date and Municipal Judge Barbara Aldaz-Mills issued a warrant for his arrest, Charles said.

Aldaz-Mills declined to comment on the case.

Mendoza was to be arraigned in Aztec Municipal Court on March 29, Charles said.

Havel is confident the jail can take adequate care of the young man, but extra personnel might have to be called to work.

"Basically he needs 24-hour care," Havel said. "Jail is not an appropriate environment for someone of this medical condition."

Havel compared the situation to inmates who are psychologically challenged.

"It's a dilemma," he said.

Famed British graphic artist with MS ends his life at Swiss assisted-suicide clinic

From The Telegraph in the UK:

A graphic artist who illustrated the famous Judge Dredd comics has ended his life at the Swiss clinic Dignitas after a long battle with Multiple Sclerosis.

John Hicklenton (pictured), who lived in Brighton, East Sussex, died at the assisted suicide clinic on March 19 aged 42 following a 10-year battle with the disease.

He was renowned for his characteristically-grotesque figures in the cult British comic 2000 AD, including interpretations of famous characters Judge Dredd and Nemesis The Warlock.

Mr Hicklenton, known as Johnny, was also a strident MS campaigner and was the subject of an award-winning television documentary charting his fight against the condition.

In Here's Johnny, which was produced by Brighton-based independent film and TV company Animal Monday, he spoke movingly of using art as an escape.

He said: "Drawing is my walking now, I run with it, I fly with it. It's keeping me alive. I have a thing with it. I can't wait to get a piece of paper with a pen because it's what I can control.

"I haven't got MS when I'm looking at my pictures and I haven't got it when I'm drawing them either. It gives me an ability to express that fear."

The illness took an increasingly tight hold on him, affecting his mobility and he decided to end his life before he became permanently disabled.

Before he went to Dignitas, he told Pat Mills, the founder of 2000 AD: "MS, you have a week to live. You've met someone you shouldn't have ------ with."

Friends and family travelled with him to the clinic, his agent Adrian Weston said.

He said today: "He was one of the most clear-sighted and visionary people I have ever met.

"Having worked with him was one of the greatest privileges of my professional life."

Mr Weston added that he had only recently finished completing his final book, 100 Months, before he travelled to Zurich.

Mr Hicklenton finished his last drawing the day before going to Dignitas. "Johnny said that finishing the book kept him alive for another year," said Mr Weston.

Tributes have been paid online to Mr Hicklenton, with one person describing him as "uncompromising, unpretentious and unique".

On the Lasting Tribute website, Dennis Moore wrote: "Just as his art will live on to shock and inspire new readers and artists, the memory of a spontaneous, thoughtful and funny guy will live on in the hearts of his friends and family."

And on Facebook, Ali Carter said: "Quite the most amazing person I have known for a very long time, breathtaking artwork and inspirational attitude... keep fighting it Johnny."

The MS Trust said: "John was best known for his work on comic 2000 AD and for illustrating characters such as Judge Dredd, but he also led a high profile campaign for better rights for people with MS.

"In 2008, his documentary on his battle with the disease, Here's Johnny, received Grierson awards for Best Newcomer and Best Arts Documentary.

"The fact that John Hicklenton was prepared to use his fame to raise awareness of a condition so often overlooked by the media, and to wage his personal war on MS so publicly is something that is greatly appreciated by people in the MS community."

Assisted suicide remains a criminal offence in England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison, but individual decisions on prosecution will be made on the circumstances in each case, the Director of Public Prosecutions has said.

DPP Keir Starmer QC has indicated that anyone acting with compassion to help end the life of someone who has decided they cannot go on would be unlikely to face criminal charges.

More than 100 Britons have now travelled to Dignitas to take their own lives.

Center on Hearing and Deafness in Pennsylvania loses director, most of its staff, amid conflict

From The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Despite simultaneous signing, speaking, and texting, miscommunication dominated a recent community meeting on the future of an agency serving the deaf and hard of hearing in Philadelphia's western suburbs.

After 14 years of providing a lifeline to this community, the Center on Hearing and Deafness (CHAD) in West Chester is without a permanent director, and most of its staff has quit, putting its services on hold.

Meanwhile, some members of the deaf community are raising questions about the board's understanding of their issues, even as board members profess their commitment to the organization.

Board members at the March 21 meeting told the deaf and their advocates that classes in adult literacy, social rehab, and American sign language (ASL) would continue.

Board president Thomas M. Gresko, who was not present, said later that services had been "temporarily suspended" and would resume as vacancies were filled.

For now, workers are not making house calls to assist deaf and developmentally challenged individuals with independent-living skills, such as doing laundry. Nor are they giving technical aid to the hard of hearing.

The center's offices, on West Market Street, near the Chester County Justice Center, are closed more often than not, the phones largely unanswered.

"It's leaving a big hole," said Lee Willis, a meeting participant who sought help from CHAD a few years ago for her 4-year-old's cochlear implant. "That's why so many people were so upset."

Gresko said the center was rebounding from the "mass resignations" and had received "an overwhelming response" to its job openings.

Former staffers said frustration over the divide that could often separate the hearing and deaf worlds prompted the exodus.

Dissension surfaced in December with the exit of Bill Lockard, the cofounder and longtime executive director. It escalated with the January appointment of an interim director who cannot sign and had difficulty communicating with some staffers, half of whom are deaf.

Since then, ramped-up rhetoric on both sides has fueled debate about whether non-deaf board members should control the agency's fate.

Jami N. Fisher, the program coordinator for ASL at the University of Pennsylvania's Language Center, said this kind of power struggle "happens all the time" in the deaf community.

Most notably, Gallaudet University in Washington was the setting for the 1988 protest "Deaf President Now" over school leadership.

"There are so many reasons why deaf people need to be part of any decision-making process that involves them," Fisher said.

Barbara White, a Gallaudet professor of social work, said that, after the protest, most American organizations serving people with hearing loss began adopting the practice of naming a chief executive officer and 51 percent of board members who were deaf or hard of hearing.

"Communication and empowerment of employees and clients is the key" to a program's viability, White said.

Gresko, a program development manager for an environmental services company, said he agreed. He said CHAD's nine-member volunteer board had aligned itself with the Deaf Hearing Communication Centre in Swarthmore as an advisory group. It is working hard, he said, to find an executive director proficient in ASL and add deaf representation to the board.

"We're doing the best we can," Gresko said, adding that Lockard did not seem to understand that "the executive director does not run the agency - the board runs it."

Gresko, a board member for four years, said the board had met with donors, including several foundations, to assure them of the board's allegiance to CHAD's mission. It has also interacted with private and government groups that contract with CHAD.

Concerns about the agency's finances have prompted consideration of "a forensic audit," Gresko said, adding that some information could not be shared.

Federal tax records show that the nonprofit had gross receipts of about $250,000 in 2008 and paid $162,000 in salaries.

"The board feels confident we can move forward," Gresko said. "We just need to clean up and assure ourselves that things were done properly."

Lockard, who made about $45,000 a year, according to the records, said he was unaware of any monetary problems, other than the reduced funding most nonprofit groups have endured.

"I stand by my record and believe the repeated renewal of multiple contracts and grants, all supported by audits, is a pretty good track record for a very small agency," he said.

Lockard said CHAD served more than 340 people in 2009 and had contact with several hundred more.

Pennsylvania has about 48,500 deaf residents, according to a spokeswoman for the Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing, within the state Labor Department. More than 500,000 may be hard of hearing.

Lockard said he offered his resignation in December after several months of friction with the board. Then, fearing the agency would fold, he withdrew it. His attempts at "reconciliation, mediation, and joint planning" were rejected, he said.

Gresko said Lockard declined the offer of another job at CHAD.

Some who have worked with CHAD say it is difficult to imagine the center without Lockard and his wife, Beth, another ex-employee who is pastor of Christ the King Deaf Church in West Chester.

Bill Lockard said they met in 1981, when he worked at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in Philadelphia and she did a teaching internship there. He mastered ASL, often interpreting for his wife, deaf since childhood from spinal meningitis.

Together, they sought to reduce barriers experienced by the hard of hearing, such as obtaining a job or navigating a doctor's office. CHAD began in 1994, continuing work the Lockards had been doing from their basement.

Ruth E. Kranz-Carl, director of Chester County's Human Services Department, said the center had done a good job of meeting the needs of the deaf and teaching others about the deaf culture.

"We'd like to see this resolved," she said.

Chester County has contracted with CHAD for about eight years to serve residents who are deaf and mentally ill - a relationship now in a "holding pattern," she said.

"CHAD has provided valuable programs and services," said Gail Bober, who heads the Center for Community and Professional Services at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf. "It would be a crime if the agency closed."

Lockard, who is fighting the board's challenge to his unemployment claim, says he and his wife will continue to help those who contact them. They worry about those who find CHAD's doors locked.

On Wednesday night, after Chester County Hospital staff called him, Lockard spent six hours in the emergency room with a deaf and developmentally challenged man who thought he had had a stroke.

The next afternoon, his wife helped Lab Mel, 46, a deaf Cambodian immigrant with poor reading skills, fill out her census form.

At the March 21 meeting, many in the audience asked why the staff had been shut out of decisions and why the board had not reached out to the Lockards. Attempts by board members to allay concerns only intensified them.

One board member, a business owner, unwittingly raised hackles when he suggested that the deaf community needed hearing people to raise money.

Another, an audiologist, said she planned to run one of CHAD's weekly social groups temporarily.

But when asked about her signing skills, her brief demo elicited groans. "They're not very good," she admitted.

The conflict angers Michele Krech, a social worker who learned ASL at CHAD.

It's "like a family," she said, "one that's been completely ripped apart."

Two mothers in Australia fight for political candidates to commit to national disability insurance program

From The Australian:

Two mothers with disabled children have launched a national grassroots movement they hope to turn into one of the most powerful single-issue campaigns in Australian politics.

Fiona Porter and Sue O'Reilly are asking voters through their web-based Mad as Hell campaign to take a pledge only to support parties in federal and state elections that commit to a national disability insurance scheme. As well, they want a promise that those with a disability and their families will be the ones to decide how best to use funding to meet individual needs.

Their aim is to lift an issue that often is ignored into prominence.

Ms O'Reilly, who has a son with cerebral palsy, said: "When Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott launch their election campaigns, we would like to hear them say that, if elected, they would radically overhaul the Third World disability support system in the next term of government."

Given there are an estimated 1.5 million people with a severe disability -- ranging from autism to cerebral palsy to brain damage or quadriplegia caused by personal accidents -- as well as their families, outside carers and disability support workers, Ms Porter and Ms O'Reilly say their campaign could influence the votes of two million to three million Australians whose lives are affected directly by disability.

Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities Bill Shorten acknowledges the political potency of the issue. "I have a view that disability is as big an issue as climate change in the electorate," Mr Shorten told The Weekend Australian. "It is the greatest political sleeper issue in Australia. I think that politicians need to wake up to the size of the disability vote."

He says the government will decide at senior levels how to respond specifically to the campaign pledge. Mr Shorten supports a national disability insurance scheme, calling it a once-in-a-generation chance to put support for disability on a secure footing and argues that it will save money in the long run through early intervention and putting more people into work.

The government has asked the Productivity Commission to report by the middle of next year on the feasibility of the scheme and alternatives for long-time care and support.

The opposition has supported the reference to the Productivity Commission. Opposition disabilities spokesman Mitch Fifield would not say how the Coalition would respond to the pledge, but added: "It is always a good thing for political parties to be put under pressure."

A national disability insurance scheme would replace the patchwork of top-down programs that often do not meet needs and quickly run out of funding.

It would assess the risk of disability for people under 65, calculate the essential services and facilities required to meet lifetime needs and deliver them on an individual basis, and estimate the premium to pay for them.

The estimated $4 billion to $5bn a year needed to cover people under 65 would come from general revenue or a Medicare-style levy of about 0.8 per cent.

Three Florida elementary school boys charged with sexual assaulting girl with Asperger's

From KFOR-TV in Miami:

MIAMI -- Three elementary students were charged Wednesday in connection with a shocking alleged sexual assault March 3 on an 11-year-old classmate whose mother says suffers from a high functioning form of autism called Asperger's.

Miami Police say that two of the boys acted as lookouts while the third boy followed the girl into the bathroom and locked the door. The girl says that the boy then forced her to her knees and made her perform oral sex on him.

The girl's mother and her attorney told CBS affiliate KFOR that she wasn't notified by Norland Elementary School officials about the incident for two days, but her mother could tell something was wrong.

``She kept her head down,'' the girl's mother told KFOR. ``She wouldn't hold her head up, she wasn't the same.''

The girl's mother called the incident a "nightmare" and said she can't "understand how an eleven-year-old would think like that," the victim's mother said.

The boys outside the bathroom "attempted to defeat the victim's attempt to escape the locked bathroom by grabbing and pushing her with the purpose of keeping her confined," according to police.

Two of the boys were charged with false imprisonment and being accesories to sexual battery. The third boy was charged with false imprisonment and sexual battery on a child under 12.

All three boys were charged as juveniles and were not taken into police custody.

The victim's mother said her daughter is "very aware of what happened to her."

According to John Schuster, Chief Communications Officer for Miami-Dade Public Schools, all of the boys involved have been suspended and expelled. All of the boys will be enrolled at different schools.

Two of the children are supposed to make their first court appearance March 30, with the other child making his initial court appearance on March 31.

Relaxed minds can remember better

From Reuters:

LONDON -- Stronger and more lasting memories are likely to be formed when a person is relaxed and the memory-related neurons in the brain fire in sync with certain brain waves, scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers from the United States said their findings could help develop new therapies for people with learning disabilities and some types of dementia.

"This study establishes a direct relationship between events at the circuit level of the brain...and their effects on human behavior," said Ueli Rutishauser of the California Institute of Technology, who worked on the study.

Synchronization in the brain is influenced by "theta waves" which are associated with relaxation, daydreaming and drowsiness, but also with learning and memory formation, the scientists explained in the study in the journal Nature.

While scientists already know that relaxed minds are better at receiving new information, this study pinpoints a mechanism by which relaxation neurons work together to improve memory.

"Our research shows that when memory-related neurons are well coordinated to theta waves during the learning process, memories are stronger," said Adam Mamelak, a neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Erin Schuman of the California Institute of Technology, who also worked on the study, said many learning disabilities appear to be linked to deficiencies in sensory processing and timing.

"These results provide a potential explanation for these deficits," she said in an email to Reuters.

The findings suggest that if doctors were able to optimize the state of the brain, by ensuring it was relaxed, and then synchronize the delivery of the things it needed to learn, the outcome, or memory, might be better, she said.

The research team studied eight volunteers who were shown 100 photos of a range of objects and allowed to view each for one second. Fifteen to 30 minutes later they were shown another 100 photos -- 50 new ones and 50 from the first set -- and asked to recall which ones they had seen before and say how confident they were in their answers.

Using electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes, the researchers recorded neuron activity and the "background" electrical signals in regions of the brain where memories are formed. They found that recognition was stronger when the learning took place while neurons were firing in sync with theta waves.

Most studies of theta waves are conducted in rats, with only a few in humans, partly because EEG electrodes need to be placed directly on the brain's surface to get precise measurements.

This study was conducted with volunteers with epilepsy and who were undergoing EEGs, which are often used to find the source of epileptic seizure activity. The researchers said steps were taken to ensure the patients' underlying medical condition did not affect the outcome of the study.

California yoga teacher adapts classes for disabled students

From the Santa Cruz Sentinel in California:

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Four decades of yoga teaching has led one well-known Santa Cruz instructor to create classes for those with disabilities, including those who typically move around via wheelchair.

Annica Rose (pictured), 60, started the growing Adaptive Yoga Project two years ago, bringing the popular practice of yoga to those with spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, developmental disabilities and other conditions.

Classes are held Wednesday and Sunday afternoons at Pacific Cultural Center. The program includes a teacher training program in which Rose mentors other teachers and aspiring teachers in exchange for their help in class.

Rose and the director of Cabrillo Stroke and Acquired Disability Center said they believe the two centers are the only ones in the county hosting yoga classes for those with significant physical disabilities.

Rose calls it more of a privilege than a profession.

“I'm so grateful and feel so blessed,” she said. “And I'm optimistic we can see this kind of yoga nationally.”

Cabrillo stroke center Director Debora Bone said people with disabilities need physical activity to thrive.

“And yoga is one system that links the body with more spiritual work and offers a connection to inner peace,” she said. “It is well-suited to serving people.”
Ten students attended Rose's class on a recent Sunday, performing poses in the center of a spacious, wood-floored hall as Rose and four apprentices made adjustments and suggestions. There was soft laughter and quiet and peacefulness in the work.

One student, Lynn Gallagher, has multiple scleroris and is largely confined to a wheelchair.

She said the wheelchair makes it difficult to keep her body aligned, among other things. But when helped onto the floor, she gains strength by doing things such as leaning on a chair while kneeling.

“If it wasn't for this class I wouldn't have any support to do yoga,” she said. “It's imperative for people like me to get out of their chairs and stretch on the floor with a lot of support and props. It's really freeing.”

Rose began working with people with various physical challenges 10 years ago, she said, but Gallagher was a key student in her leap to begin the program. The women met by suggestion of Baba Hari Dass, the silent monk affiliated with Hanuman Fellowship-sponsored Pacific Cultural Center and Mount Madonna Center.

The classes grew with friends of Gallagher and others intrigued by Rose's own coping with worsening osteoarthritis and hearing loss, she said. A mother of four, she said those health and other life challenges turned out to be blessing led by “spirit or God or whatever you wish to call it.”

“I couldn't practice at the level my ego thought I needed to,” she said. “I had to delve deeper and adapt my practice.”

Rose brings a spiritual component to class as well. She read a poem during the recent class which included a line about “the voices that ruin your life” and advised to “keep squeezing drops of sun from your prayers, your work, your friends.”
After studying with various teachers and working in several health-related fields, Rose said yoga to her is about awareness and the concept of Ahimsa, or doing no harm.

“My goal in life is to bring that concept to all students; to be less violent to their body,” she said.

Lila Specker of Boulder Creek, who is working with Rose, said she trained to be a yoga teacher while living in Maui. A long-standing interest in a medical career made yoga therapy training a natural fit, she said.

“I love everything about it,” the 26-year-old said. “It's so great that yoga is for everyone, and it's so therapeutic and awesome to learn what it can do for people.”
Rose said she is grateful to her apprentices and that all yoga teachers are perennial yoga students.

“There is always more to learn and share,” she said.

Budget cuts in Canada mean demise of organization that supports families, child development

From The Victoria Times Colonist in Canada:

A provincewide organization that distributes millions of dollars for literacy, nutrition, parenting and family-development programs says it will have to close its doors because the B.C. government has cut financial support.

Success by 6, a community-led initiative that has distributed more than $23 million to B.C. children's programs since 2003, said it won't be able to operate after next March because it has lost provincial support.

Government confirmed yesterday it had reduced the group's annual funding this year from $5 million to $2.5 million. The province will eliminate funding entirely in 2011.

The government money had been used to form unique three-way partnerships with business and non-profit groups. B.C. United Way locations matched the province's $5 million a year, and local credit unions provided an additional $400,000.

Success by 6 provided grants to around 400 community organizations a year, such as the Victoria Conservatory of Music's music therapy program for children with Down syndrome.

Almost 70 child and family organizations on Vancouver Island received money in 2008.

"Success by 6 is a really important initiative and it will be a huge loss to the community if they close," said Liz Bloomfield, executive director of Victoria's Single Parent Resource Centre, which used $20,000 from the organization to secure a matching grant from Telus. The money runs a program in which isolated mothers are matched with community mentors to learn parenting skills.

The provincial government has been slashing spending in almost all of its ministries this year as it struggles to hit a deficit target of $1.7 billion.

The province reduced its support to Success by 6 because it is already spending millions to fund all-day kindergarten, along with StrongStart early-learning centres, said Mary Polak, minister of children and family development.

But critics say those government programs target child development at around the age of 4 or 5, whereas Success by 6 begins at the newborn level, where mothers and babies begin to bond and form early healthy habits.

"This was the brainchild of the government, United Ways and credit unions, so yes they can be applauded for being partners but it doesn't remove [government's] responsibility for deciding to leave," said Jan White, the program's south Island co-ordinator.

"It's like leaving a marriage -- what do you do with your other partner?"

For now, the government appears to be leaving more money on the table -- more than $5 million from partners -- than it saves by cutting support.

That doesn't make financial sense from a government that has encouraged public-private partnerships, said Michael McKnight, president of the United Way of the Lower Mainland.

"Even though we've raised significantly less money in the last couple of years, we've maintained 100 per cent of our commitment to the partnership," he said.

"Yes, money is tight. But I guess it depends on what your priority is. In this case, government chose not to support kids in this particular way.

"For the government it doesn't sound like a big deal, but to that mom with two or three kids, it means the world."

Rhode Island House votes to drop R-word

From The AP:

PROVIDENCE, R. I. -— House lawmakers unanimously voted March 24 to remove the word “retardation” from the name of the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation, and Hospitals.

The bill, which passed on a vote of 67-0 in the House, would change the name to the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. The bill must still be passed by the Senate.

The Special Olympics last year launched a campaign to banish the word “retard.“ The term “mental retardation” was once a common medical term but is now considered by many to be offensive. Instead, the American Psychiatric Association has proposed using the term “intellectual disability.“

Rep. Frank Ferri, D-Warwick, and Rep. Joseph McNamara, who co-sponsored the bill, on Wednesday recognized the work of supporters who pushed to remove the term from the department’s name, including the head of the agency, Craig Stenning. Stenning said this month he had met with representatives of the Special Olympics and Best Buddies, a group that works people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, about making the change.

“Its time has come. I know there’s a national effort to take the ‘R word’ out, and I’m proud to be a part of that,“ Ferri said on the House floor shortly before the vote.

Republican Gov. Don Carcieri, whose late sister had Down Syndrome, also said this month he supports the change.

Rhode Island is just the latest state to take up the issue. Others include Connecticut and Massachusetts, which have removed the term “retardation” from state agency names, and West Virginia and Idaho, where lawmakers are considering removing the term “mental retardation” from state law books.