Survey: Only 22% of Americans show caring, sympathy to those with a mental illness

From UPI:

WASHINGTON -- Twenty-two percent of U.S. adults say people show caring and sympathy to those with mental illness, a government survey indicates.

The national survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the estimated 9.8 million U.S. adults living with serious mental illness, found the prevalence of serious mental illness is highest in the 18-25 age group.

The HealthStyles Survey, by SAMHSA and Porter Novelli, indicates 72 percent of young adults ages 18-24 say a person with mental illness would improve if given treatment and support. However, only 33 percent say a person can eventually recover from mental illness.

Forty percent of the survey respondents say a person with mental illness can succeed at work and 65 percent say treatment can help people with mental illness.

SAMHSA and The Advertising Council are beginning a national public service announcement campaign aimed at encouraging, educating and inspiring young adults to support friends and family experiencing a mental health problem.

"We know that people can recover from mental health problems," Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, says in a statement. "Today we are getting the word out that support from friends and family can make a difference in helping people overcome these illnesses."

No survey details were provided.

German designer creates "Music for deaf people" collar for feeling vibrations

From The Design Blog:

A common misconception about the hearing impaired is their inability to experience the joy of music.

They may not hear and process sound audibly but they certainly can feel it. In fact, studies have shown the sense of touch is heightened, allowing the deaf to perceive music in an altogether different way.

Addressing the issue, German designer Frederik Podzuweit has come up with a collar concept called the “Music for deaf people” that uses electricity to make a special membrane substance expand and contract again, translating the sound into a series of vibrations. These vibrations are transferred to the user’s neck, shoulder and collarbone.

The device also features a receiver for radio frequencies as well as plug-in for Mp3-Players to enhance the experience of the hearing impaired.

Integrated dance seminars planned for summer program at University of Washington, Seattle

From the Jürg Koch dance web page:

The Integrated Dance Summer Intensive 2010 instructed by Jürg Koch offers two courses for participants of all levels of dance training and experience. The courses are hosted in the dance program at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Five-day intensive, August 9-13
The five-day dance intensive offers daily classes in integrated technique class, composition/repertory class as well as a series of open community improvisation jams and guest presentations. The five-day intensive has an open enrollment for participants of varying abilities and levels of dance experience.
Five- day schedule, class description and fees.

Round table for artists and educators, August 14/15
This two-day laboratory following the five-day intensive is a chance to discuss and rethink access to both formal and informal training opportunities for a diverse student population. This round table meeting is intended for experienced artists and educators with a particular interest in educational and choreographic processes in mixed ability groups. (Participation by application and selection)
Round table schedule, class description and fees.

UW and access information
Please note, both courses are independent events hosted by the dance program at the University of Washington. You do not need to be a registered student at the UW to take part.

Delaware high school selects student with CP as prom queen

From The News Journal in Delaware:

Sussex Technical High School senior Julie Batt (pictured) didn't plan to go to her prom earlier this month.

Batt, who has cerebral palsy, didn't buy a dress or a ticket.

What the 17-year-old didn't know was she was one of the top picks for prom queen -- among about 35 girls nominated.

When student activities coordinator Pattiva Cathell realized a potential queen might not even be in the room to accept the crown, she had to tell Batt about being nominated just to get her to go.

But Batt had no dress and no ticket.

A couple days before the big event, a student gave Batt a turquoise prom dress with spaghetti straps. Another student, who decided not to go to the prom dinner, gave Batt a ticket.

When fellow senior Brian Donahue escorted Batt to the prom May 15 at the Delaware State Fairgrounds in Harrington, all the 17-year-old knew was that many friends told her they had nominated her.

"A lot of people wanted me to win," Batt said. "I took that as a compliment."

Cathell knew Batt had little to worry about, because the student whom friends describe as sociable and outgoing won about 85 percent of the votes. But few others knew the outcome until the big moment near the end of the evening.

"I'm going to start crying just thinking about it," said Cathell, who placed the queen's crown on Batt's head. "I didn't think I was going to get as emotional as I did, but it was because of her reaction. I knew our kids were just genuinely hoping for her.

"There was a dramatic pause right before they announced Julie," Cathell said, tears tumbling down her cheeks as she recounted the moment. "When they called her name, she was gasping. It was hard for her to smile, because she was fighting back the tears and her surprise. I kept kissing her because my motherly instincts came in."

Donahue, who had given Batt flowers and walked alongside her on the red carpet during the Hollywood-themed prom, said he got choked up when Batt was picked from among five girls in the court.

"When she won, I was practically in tears, because I've known her since she was little," he said. "It meant a lot to her. I thought it was awesome."

Following the announcement, prom king Julius Young (pictured), 18, danced the first dance with Batt as the royal couple, swaying her back and forth in her wheelchair.

"She looked emotional when I first took her hands, because she was so happy," he said. "I was just overwhelmed. I loved the moment. I loved everything about the prom. It was a true memory."

Batt recalled thinking it was nice to be nominated, but she really did not believe the night would belong to her.

"I thought it was cool to be selected out of all those girls to be prom queen," she said.

Batt, who wants to be a psychologist and will start classes this fall at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., said she believes the seniors picked her to be queen partly because she is so matter-of-fact about having cerebral palsy, a lifelong neurological condition that affects communication between the brain and the muscles.
"I never had a problem fitting in," she said. "And my nonchalance about my disability really showed that I don't think of it as a delay, I think of it as a consequence that I can deal with."

Batt's mother, Katie Megee, a physical therapist at Easter Seals in Georgetown who chauffeured her to and from the prom, agrees that her daughter downplays her disability.

"I think it's just a part of who she is, like her hair color or her eye color," Megee said. "It really doesn't limit her in any way. She really doesn't pay much attention to it."

Batt volunteers at her mom's Easter Seals office, tutors students with special needs at Georgetown's Ennis School in the Indian River School District and serves as an assistant Girl Scout leader of Troop 760, where younger sister Maxine Megee, 9, is a member.

"I work with more severe disabilities than me, so I like to think of it as showing them that even people with severe disabilities can fit in," she said.

Megee said her daughter was clutching a trophy when she got into the car following the prom. She had made her daughter promise to text her as soon as she learned the news, and she filled her in on all the details during the ride home.

"I was thrilled for her," Megee said. "I think it was nice to see that the other kids at the school had such a high regard for her. I just think that beyond even just accepting her, they wanted something special for her."

Comic Ricky Gervais says his "mong" joke about singer Susan Boyle wasn't directed at people with Down syndrome

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Ricky Gervais (pictured) has moved swiftly to quash criticism of a controversial joke about Susan Boyle in his stand-up comedy show.

"The Office" creator sparked fury after using the word "mong" - a British saying often used as a derogatory term for sufferers of Down's Syndrome - in a joke about Boyle.

Officials at the U.K.'s Down's Syndrome Association contacted the comedian after receiving a "report" about the show - and Gervais immediately wrote back to explain the word was not meant to be offensive in the context of the routine.

And he's now taken to his official blog to show fans how the potential scandal was smoothed over as soon as he reached out to the association.

Gervais writes, "The DSA contacted my PR on the 6th of May explaining they had had a report about my routine about Susan Boyle and voiced their obvious concerns. I sent them an email (in which I wrote) 'I clearly explain that words change and that at no point am I referring to anyone with Down's Syndrome. Not only am I not referring to people with Down's Syndrome I also explain that I am not associating the word with its old derogatory meaning. I also do it as part of a routine about comedians taking responsibility for everything they say. I hope this is acceptable.'"

And Gervais' quick response was well received by the association's bosses - they wrote back: "Fully explained and acceptable reply. Please extend our thanks to Ricky for the prompt reply."

Many children injured by crutches, walkers, wheelchairs

From News Inferno:

Injured or disabled children and teens are likely to use so-called mobility aids—crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs—in order to be able to move around, reports Science Daily. But, using these devices could be placing this pediatric demographic at increased risk for injury.

Citing an emerging study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Science Daily wrote that more than 63,000 pediatric mobility aid-related injuries were treated in United States hospital emergency departments from 1991-2008. This represents an increase in the annual number of cases—by 23 percent—during the 19-year study period.

Study results appear both online and in the June print issue of the journal, Pediatrics, and indicate that the vast majority—60 percent—of mobility aid-related injuries involving children and teens occur at home.

Two injury patterns emerged and varied by mobility aid type. For instance, when children use crutches, they are likelier to be injured in the arms and legs and diagnosed with a strain or sprain, said Science Daily. Those children who use walkers or wheelchairs experience a greater likelihood of receiving head injuries, of experiencing a diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) (a three-fold likelihood), and of requiring hospitalization, said Science Daily.

“The associations between injury characteristics and type of mobility aid may be a result of the limitations of the children who were using the various aids. Crutch users typically have fewer cognitive, stability, and functional limitations than walker and wheelchair users,” explained study author Lara McKenzie, PhD, principal investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, quoted Science Daily. “Likewise, children who fall while using crutches may be able to catch themselves with their feet or hands more easily than those who fall while using walkers or wheelchairs, thereby preventing injuries to the head but leading to more upper extremity injuries,” McKenzie added.

The data also revealed links between age and the injury type. Children aged 10 and younger comprised 42 percent of the cases and were likelier to receive head injuries and TBIs, said Science Daily. Children from the ages of 11 to 19 were likelier to experience lower extremity injuries and injuries involving sprains and strains. Transfer-related injury risk—injuries that occur when moving from one activity to another—saw an increase in older children, which could be attributable to caretakers experiencing challenges in lifting or carrying older children, pointed out Science Daily.
Misuse of mobility aids was also researched. For instance, trying out a friend’s crutches or wheelchair. Such misuse accounted for about eight percent of all cases and generally involved crutches, said Science Daily.

“Additional research is essential for identifying injury prevention strategies that are specific to the pediatric population and the particular mobility aids. Research on the underlying conditions and reasons for pediatric mobility aid use may expand the understanding of these injury patterns,” said Dr. McKenzie, also a faculty member of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, quoted Science Daily.

Iowa disability worker charged with sexual assualt of woman with CP

From The AP:

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines man who worked with the disabled has been accused of impregnating a woman in his care.

Napoleon Mbonyunkiza has been charged with third-degree sexual abuse, neglect or abandonment of a dependent person and dependent abuse. According to Des Moines police, Mbonyunkiza worked for Mosaic, which provides services to adults with intellectual disabilities and mental retardation.

Authorities identified the victim as a 33-year-old woman with cerebral palsy. Her pregnancy was discovered during a check-up, and was terminated at 22 weeks.

Mosaic executive director Carol Mau says the organization has been working with state and local investigators since the sexual assault was first discovered three weeks ago.

Mbonyunkiza is being held in lieu of $30,000 bond in the Polk County Jail. It wasn't immediately known if Mbonyunkiza has obtained legal representation.

Researchers say parents need to evaluate sites about autism carefully

From HealthDay News:

When Connie Anderson's son was diagnosed with autism a decade ago, she scoured the Internet looking for treatments.

"I tried all sorts of things I now consider bananas," said Anderson, now community scientific liaison at Kennedy Krieger Institute's Interactive Autism Network. "At the time it didn't feel like nonsense. It was hope. People will try all sorts of things to help their child, sometimes even against their better judgment."

Since Anderson's son was diagnosed, the number of Web sites devoted to autism and autism treatments has multiplied. While a 1999 study counted about 100,000 autism Web sites, entering the term "autism" into the three major search engines today yields more than 17.4 million results, according to new research.

So how can parents know how to weed out fact from fiction when faced with so much information? It's not easy, experts say, but there are some steps parents can take to determine if the information they are getting is from a reputable source.

In a study presented recently at the International Meeting for Autism Research, experts analyzed about 160 of the most visited autism sites to determine how often they met measures of quality and accountability, including whether or not the site was selling something; if citations about research supposedly showing the efficacy of a treatment included author identification and references; if the information was current; and if the site asked visitors for personal information (a red flag).

Most sites did not meet all of the criteria for quality, said lead study author Brian Reichow, a post-doctoral associate at Yale University Child Study Center. And about 17 percent of the sites offered or sold treatments that had little or no scientific support.

"The Internet can provide parents with a lot of useful and helpful information, but there is a lot of misinformation online as well," Reichow said. "When using it to gain online health information, parents need to be cautious."

The desire to help their children and the lack of mainstream medical treatments for autism drives parents to seek alternatives, according to Dr. Paul Law, director of Kennedy Krieger Institute's Interactive Autism Network.

"You don't see lots of ideas for how to treat ear infections, because the treatment for that is well established," Law said. In contrast, "there are very few autism-based treatments that the field agrees on, so we don't have complete answers for those who are suffering from autism," he said. "That naturally triggers families to seek answers."

For most of what's being peddled online, there's little scientific evidence it works, Law said. His organization has documented some 500 treatments for autism, ranging from diets and vitamins to hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Anderson cautioned parents to be especially wary of testimonials, no matter how powerful they may seem. For every success story -- or a person believing or claiming theirs is a success story -- there could be many more failures. "There could be 10 people who have a good experience, and 1,000 who had a bad experience," Anderson noted.

Experts offered these tips for assessing autism-related information on the Internet:

-- Don't use the Internet as your sole source of info. Seek support from doctors, physicians, teachers and other professionals.

-- Pay attention to the domain names. In the study, ".com" sites were most likely to be selling unfounded "miracle cures." Sites ending in ".edu" or ".gov" tend to have oversight committees or quality standards. Government-sponsored "gateway" domains, such as the U.S. National Institutes of Health's MedlinePlus or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's healthfinder.gov, which each offer a collection of links to other sites, are good places to start because the links have been approved by experts, Reichow said.

-- Look for quality seals such as HONcode (Health on the Net Foundation), a non-profit, non-governmental organization that has developed standards for health information on the Internet.

-- Take testimonials for what they're worth. The placebo effect can be powerful in autism treatments, and only randomized, controlled experiments are considered the gold standard of proof.

-- Some autism sites will offer scientific data to back up their claims. That information is less reliable if it is generated by the company or the company's researchers, who may have a conflict of interest or profit motive, Anderson said.

Minnesota program aims to find disabled people jobs

From The Post-Bulletin in Rochester Minn.

RED WING, Minn. — While the job market still isn't what it used to be, there have been signs that it's on the rebound. Jim Bohmbach is one of them.

The Red Wing native was recently hired by ProAct to help people with disabilities find employment throughout Goodhue County, while focusing mostly on Red Wing and Zumbrota. It's a position ProAct, which is based out of Eagan, has staffed in the past, but had found unnecessary during the economic recession.

Bohmbach has been employed for just over a month. He declined to say how many jobs he's helped physically and mentally handicapped people find thus far, but he acknowledged a recent success story with an emphatic fist pump. Sally Ogren, ProAct's Director of Programs, says the hardest part of Bohmbach's position is laying the necessary groundwork.

"For people who aren't familiar or acquainted with people who have disabilities, it's just getting past the disability," she said. "Once we can do that, lots of times things just click. Frequently you can make a match, and employers are often surprised at how well it works out."

Bohmbach brings built-in credibility to the position of job developer. He managed human resources at Red Wing Shoe Company for a dozen years and worked with children with disabilities in the Red Wing School District prior to joining ProAct. He's also the head coach for the Winger baseball team, and assists with the football and girls hockey programs.

His well-established status in the community allows him to have open, constructive conversations with local businesses.

"The economy is not back, but everyone I talk to is very optimistic about ProAct and what we do," Bohmbach said. "It's a matter of getting them to think outside the box.

"(People with disabilities) can make a big difference for your company. They can keep payroll down, they show up on time and are excited to work, and they can improve a company's image by helping these people out."

Bohmbach typically works with 10 people at a time. He determines their skills and interests before helping them create or update their resumes. The final step is seeking a matching job for each person. It can be an arduous process, but it's a challenge he says he enjoys.

While ProAct has been flexible with Bohmbach's coaching schedule — section playoffs start next Saturday — the new job has also forced him to consider his future. He finds it a little unusual to be coaching while no longer working with students all day. He's also been forced to push back practice time by about 90 minutes each day and leave work early for road games.

Still, he hopes to restock the work force by day and pile up the wins each night for years to come.

"I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world to be able to do this," he said.

fMRI scanning of babies can diagnose autism as young as 14 months

From the Wall Street Journal:

By taking scans of sleeping children, researchers are discovering what occurs in the brains of babies and young children with autism.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to peer at images of the children's brains, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, found that autistic children as young as 14 months use different brain regions than youngsters with more typical development when hearing bedtime stories.

The findings suggest that even very early on, the brains of those with autism work differently than typical babies. They also help explain why failure of language comprehension is a "red flag" for babies with autism, according to the study's author, Eric Courchesne, director of the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence.

The small study of 43 subjects, believed to be the first to examine the brains of young children with autism and related disorders, was presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research in Philadelphia last week.

This type of work "is going to tell us an awful lot about how the brain goes wrong in the first place and then gives us insight into how we'll be able to help at an earlier age," says Dr. Courchesne.

Learning when and where brain changes occur can also help rule out some suspected causes of autism. For instance, if brain differences are already present at birth, then environmental toxins or vaccine exposure in childhood can't be responsible, according to Dr. Courchesne.

Regular MRIs examine the structure of the brain, but by asking subjects to perform a task in the scanner, an fMRI can examine brain function through blood flow and response in response to neural activity. Unlike X-rays, they don't use radiation.

But scientists have had trouble figuring out how to get young children to lie still in the noisy, claustrophobic brain scanners. The UCSD group came up with a solution: Put babies and children in the scanner in the wee hours of the night when they are naturally asleep.

For their study, the researchers first had to find children with autism-spectrum disorders. UCSD recruited 150 pediatricians in and around San Diego to screen 16,000 babies to find nearly 100 who appeared to their doctors to have autism or related disorders.

The researchers brought 23 young children ranging from age 13 months to nearly 4 years old with autism-spectrum disorders, and 20 typically developing kids to the lab at nighttime when the children were already asleep.

While the children were in the scanner, researchers played a repeating tape of a female voice reading a bedtime story and the scanner recorded the children's brain activity. (Dr. Courchesne's lab has shown in a separate, published study of older children that even when children sleep, they hear and react to language.)

This study showed that in the typically developing babies, both the right and left temporal regions of the brain—parts that help us understand different aspects of language—were activated. In older children, there was evidence that the left side became even more active compared with the right side.

But in the babies and children with autism-spectrum disorders the use of the right brain was far stronger.

The left temporal region of the brain usually deals with understanding the meaning of words, in a "dictionary" manner, he says. The right side helps us understand social language based on context, like how people sound when they are angry rather than happy, even if they're speaking the same words.

One theory is that in autism, the right side is needed to learn the basic definitions of words, crowding out the ability to develop skills to process more social, nuanced aspects of language, Dr. Courchesne says.

The research could one day help clinicians diagnose children more reliably and younger than 2 or 3 years old, the age when they currently are consistently diagnosed, according to David Mandell, a psychiatry and pediatrics professor at University of Pennsylvania and scientific chair of the autism meeting, who wasn't involved with the study.

Drs. Courchesne and Mandell say that the scanning technique isn't ready for that yet.

South Florida group serves gay deaf people

From South Florida Gay News:

South Florida Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf, SFRAD is dedicated to the “social, cultural and educational welfare” of the hearing impaired community. Its president, Jordan Isea is only 28 years old but carries himself and the organization with a seasoned commitment beyond his years.

The group began one year ago when Isea got together with a few other deaf LGBT friends in Broward County. An earlier organization, Coconut City Society of the Deaf (CCSD), was the first Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf (RAD) in the country. They were in existence from the 1970s but due to internal conflicts closed shortly after Isea’s move to South Florida in 2006.

“I saw the benefits of a similar RAD organization in Houston,” Isea said from his home in Miami. “After seeing nothing happen for three years, I decided to work with some people in reestablishing a prominent deaf LGBT organization in the area. I wanted the new name to be easily identifiable for those who are deaf and hard of hearing in the region.”

Isea, whose family moved from Caracas, Venezuela to Houston when he was three years old, did so to guarantee him an education. In Caracas, at the time, education for the deaf stopped in the fourth grade. Given that Isea recently completed a Master of Science in Mass Communications the move proves that the hearing impaired can certainly earn an education, and in his case, foster the needs of what he feels is an “invisible community.”

“It’s hard to spot a deaf person anywhere unless you notice either a hearing aid or someone communicating using sign language. The communication problem is a major concern. Especially when I noticed some deaf people don’t even bother being proactive in mainstream society because many do not even want to deal with the communication barriers that exists between the deaf and hearing communities,” he added.

At the core of SFRAD’s mission – and the mission of any organization for the deaf – is bridging the communication barrier. Many deaf people do not feel comfortable communicating with hearing individuals, which contributes to their needs not being met.

“It is for this [communication barrier] that for many deaf LGBT individuals identify as deaf first, gay second. That is,” Isea added on a more positive note, “until they’re able to overcome the communication issue.”

The barrier goes beyond social isolation, and often extends to health issues. HIV and AIDS among the deaf LGBT community is problematic. Due to privacy concerns, many HIV-positive deaf do not seek out the aid of an interpreter, to avoid gossip about the person’s status. As a result the deaf and positive individual mat not be correctly informed on what to do to address their health.

Bridging the barrier of communication is at the core of SFRAD’s mission. In addition to social events, including a Gay Tea Cruise on June 6 and an upcoming car wash at Equality Park, the group will teach hearing individuals American Sign Language.

“There has been a lot of interest in the classes primarily because it’s new, fun and affordable,” Isea told SFGN. “Classes are $15 for the whole year, which is pretty much the cost of becoming a member for most people.”

The group currently has 22 members, with 2/3 in Broward and 1/3 in Miami-Dade. Isea wants to expand the group to at least 50 members by the end of the year, and hopes to develop a Palm Beach County branch.

U.S. Senate committee passes Rosa's law to strike MR from federal language

From The AP:

A U.S. Senate committee yesterday approved a measure to remove the words "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" from federal labor, health and education laws to help remove what supporters describe as a hurtful label.

The bill, approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., would replace the terms "mental retardation" and "mentally retarded" with "intellectual disability" and "individual with an intellectual disability."

The measure is known as Rosa's Law. It is named for Rosa Marcellino (pictured), a 9-year-old Maryland girl from Edgewater who has been diagnosed with Down syndrome. Rosa worked with Maryland state legislators to pass similar legislation in the state last year.

Nina Marcellino, Rosa's mother, said she was thrilled to see the measure advance in Washington. She said the legislation will move the nation closer to shedding a stigmatizing label attached to people with intellectual disabilities.

"This has always been about so much more than just changing words or political correctness," she said in a statement. "It's about marking a new era where the dignity of people with intellectual disabilities is respected and their value appreciated."

The measure was introduced by Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who met Rosa's mother at a meeting on special education. Mikulski said that if Rosa's law passed in Maryland, she would introduce it in the Senate.

The bill does not affect services, rights or educational opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.

It makes language used in federal law consistent with language used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization, and the White House through the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

A preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office found no cost associated with the change.

Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Michael Enzi, R-Wyoming, are co-sponsoring the legislation.

The measure will now be considered by the full Senate.

UCP honors Indiana students who develop communication device for those with cerebral palsy

From The Tribune-Star in Indiana:

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -— United Cerebral Palsy’s Wabash Valley chapter recognized three Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology students Monday for their work on a device to help an individual with cerebral palsy communicate more easily.

Senior electrical engineering majors Amanda Cochren, Jonathan Picard and Eric Snider received UCP’s annual community service award for their work on a senior-year design project.

They were able to choose from a number of projects, but their goal “was to help an individual with cerebral palsy communicate more easily,” Snider said May 25 during an awards presentation.

The award goes to those “who do really wonderful things for the disabled community,” said Susie Thompson, UCP executive director. “When we read about what [the students] did, we thought we couldn’t imagine a better recipient of this award.”

The client, who lives in Indianapolis, is unable to speak and uses a special keyboard as a communication tool.

“He has limited control of his hands and arms. It’s a very slow and difficult process for him to use this,” Snider said. To communicate, the client pushes keyboard buttons, which then “speak.”

The Rose-Hulman student team modified the device so that the client could use a headmounted laser pointer to select the keys instead of having to reach out and touch them. The client can then confirm his selection by pressing a button.

The client “has very, very good head and neck movement,” Snider said.

The project still needs some modification and improvements, and the students recommend that another team continue the work next year, Cochren said. It’s not quite ready for the client.

The idea behind what they are doing is “out there” and has already been patented, Snider said. “It’s not something we could manufacture and distribute to a lot of people.”

But a similar system purchased new would be cost-prohibitive for someone on disability, Thompson said.

“They’ve demonstrated it can be done at a much more reasonable price,” she said. Eventually, the Indianapolis client should be able to benefit from it.

Potentially, the team’s work can benefit others with similar disabilities.

The project took many hours and the students encountered many challenges along the way, Cochren said. They worked on it from September through early May.

Commenting on the UCP recognition, Cochren said, “We were just doing our project. The fact that we received an award for it was an awesome thing we weren’t expecting … We’re grateful.”

All three of the seniors have jobs after they graduate. Cochren will work for the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Virginia Beach, Va.

Snider will work for Beckman Coulter in Indianapolis, while Picard will work for Rockwell-Collins in Iowa.

Adolescents try to cope with mental illness stigmas, researchers report

From Physorg.com:

Living with a mental illness can be a tough experience for adults, but with the increasing numbers of youth diagnosed and taking medications for mood disorders, it can become a time of isolation, according to a study from Case Western Reserve University Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

In one of the first studies of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 with mental illnesses and taking medications, researchers found that at least 90 percent of the study's participants reported experiencing some form of stigma. It has lead to shame, secrecy and limiting social interactions.

Forty adolescents in the study reported that the attitudes of parents and schools either protect against or magnify the youth's feelings of being different or ashamed that they have a mental illness.

Much is known about the stigmas suffered by adults, but researchers wanted to determine how similar or different the adolescent experience is from the adult one.

The findings from this stigma study came from a secondary data from a major study that investigated the subjective experience of adolescent psychotropic treatment.

Individuals, young and old, with mental illnesses suffer from public and self-stigmas. The researchers were concerned about how the youth internalized the public discrimination, or stereotyping of their illnesses, and if these stigmas experienced at a young age might impact the individuals as adults.

Parents were found to be either positive or negative key players in buffering their child against these stigmas by helping them lead a normal life or they can contribute to the youth's feelings of being different.

"Parents, who embrace and love their children for whom they are and accept the illness as part of their child's being, help their children overcome these stigmas," said Derrick Kranke, the lead author on an article in Children and Youth Services Review article, "Stigma Experience Among Adolescents Taking Psychiatric Medications."

Besides parents, the researchers found that the school environment can have devastating effects upon the youth if they feel ostracized by their peers and teachers. The ostracism can lead youths to drop out of school, or worse, commit suicide.

Kranke, a former elementary school teacher, is a Case Western Reserve University postdoctoral scholar at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University.

He said the study's information aided researchers in building a model to demonstrate how stigmas impact young people. Educators and social workers can design interventions to break the cycle in schools and help students accept their illnesses and become integrated into the school environment.

This new study builds on another study underway at CWRU about the transition from home to college for students with mental illnesses and who take psychotropic drugs experience.

"If parents ask at orientation what can be done to help their child's transition, it's too late," Kranke said, Coping with stigmas needs to begin as early as the diagnosis and the onset of medications, he explained.

In an effort to understand what happens before these students arrive on campuses, Kranke studied 40 youths between 12 and 17. The students described their experiences during interviews and answered questions adapted from an adult stigma survey. Kranke also interviewed their parents about their child's mental illness.

The group studied was comprised of 60 percent females and 40 percent males. On average, the youth take two psychiatric medications. The most common mood disorders in the group were bipolar disorder and depression. More than half the group had more than one diagnosed mental illness.

Russian adoptee in Tennessee succeeds in school for those with learning disabilities

From The Tennessean:

GRASSLAND COMMUNITY, Tenn. — Michael Heroux (pictured), adopted out of an orphanage in Russia at age 4, malnourished and abused, ill with pneumonia, partially deaf due to repeated untreated ear infections, and unable to speak in any language, graduated from high school on May 20.

At a time when adoptions of Russian children are in the news because of the case of Torry Hansen, the woman from Shelbyville who sent her 7-year-old adopted son back to Moscow alone, Michael Heroux's story is both timely and instructive.

"Michael became the person he is at Benton Hall Academy," says his mom, Martha Heroux. "Were it not for Benton Hall, he wouldn't be graduating from high school. He never would have been able to play sports. He wouldn't have learned how to be part of a team or how to take instruction from coaches. The best he could have hoped for would be bagging groceries and living at home."

Instead, Michael earned a regular high school diploma and is looking forward to learning to live independently and someday becoming a truck driver.

"Adoptive children face a variety of challenges, including a higher rate of learning disabilities than children in the general population," said Rob McFadden, headmaster of Benton Hall Academy. "Some adopted kids face emotional challenges which contribute to their learning difficulties. In addition, many children adopted from eastern European countries have been in institutions and suffer higher rates of attachment and behavioral disorders. Some, like Michael, have suffered the effects of malnutrition during critical periods of brain growth. These are kids who will have difficulty performing well in a traditional classroom."

Founded in 1977, Benton Hall specializes in providing a nurturing yet challenging environment for students with learning differences in grades 3–12.

"Thirty percent of our students at Benton Hall were adopted, and of those, half were adopted internationally," continued McFadden. "We are equipped to deal with the unique challenges of adoption in a way that traditional classrooms aren't. We also specialize in kids who have been diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, an autism spectrum disorder, or another learning difference that impedes their ability to perform well in a traditional classroom."

Martha Heroux said Michael had attended public schools in Florida and Chicago through fourth grade.

"We had to fight for everything we got with Michael," remembers Martha. "He needed more than they could give. He was teased and bullied and put down. And we worried that he would end up involved in drugs or a gang because he didn't know how to say no."

The family moved to Franklin before Michael started fifth grade, and halfway through the year Martha found Benton Hall.

"Everything changed at Benton Hall. The classes were small. They were willing to work with him where he was. He was doing well in reading but needed more help in math. He was able to play sports. Benton Hall is the kind of school where the other basketball players will keep passing the ball to the worst player on the team and setting the play up for him so he can make a basket. Where else will you find that?

"Benton Hall found a way to reach him, and that's when he started growing academically and socially."

In his seven years at Benton Hall, Michael has played golf, soccer and basketball, winning everything from the most improved award to the coach's award for the player who shows up every day and is willing to do what's asked of him with a smile.

"I started playing sports as soon as I came to Benton Hall," said Michael, affectionately known at school as "Mouse."

The Benton Hall community tends to become a kind of extended family.

The Herouxs experienced that first hand when Martha was diagnosed with cancer, and then her husband, Mike, died in December of 2008.

"The school stepped in and provided meals for us for a solid month after Mike died," said Martha. "Mike coached Michael's basketball team and it was a blow not only to our family but to the school as well. They passed the hat and collected more than $300 for Michael at Christmas.

"When Mike and I were sick, Michael had to do a lot of things other kids wouldn't have had to do," continued Martha. "He did the grocery shopping. He learned the value of money and how to comparison shop. He did the laundry. Those are things he couldn't have managed without five or six years at Benton Hall."

Michael recently had to describe himself for part of a senior paper. "I'm a happy person, I work hard, I'm a good friend, and I support others," he wrote. "I support others because they have supported me. I can make decisions."

It's quite the accomplishment for a young man whose parents were told 15 years ago that he would never function above the first grade level.