home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Software Vault: The Gold Collection
/
Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO
/
cdr11
/
anr9305.zip
/
9305NEWS.ANR
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1993-06-16
|
77KB
|
1,680 lines
(31) Tue 4 May 93 3:32p
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: HEALTH CARE REFORM
RATIONING HEALTH CARE? EXPERTS EXPLAIN
LOCAL CONFERENCE SHOWS US
HOW LITTLE WE KNOW ABOUT
MAKING HARD CHOICES
by Adam Quinn
"Disability and the Dollar, a Program on Rationing and Allocation of
Resources in Health Care" is a pretty intimidating title, but the
subject is a vital concern in evaluating the myriad of proposals by
states and, at last, the federal government. Easy answers weren't
offered, but a wealth of background was made available to the attendees
at the conference on March 29th. Sponsored by the Minnesota State
Council on Disabilities and the Coalition on Health Care Issues for
People with Disabilities, the meeting brought together a group of
knowledgeable people who are currently involved in planning or managing
various aspects of health care and who offered widely diverging views of
the planning now in process and some guidelines in planning real
universal health care in the United States.
The word "rationing" in health care was dismissed during the
discussion as having no real meaning. As Dr. O'Dowd of the Sister Kenny
Institute put it, "Is there anyone who would deny that health care is
rationed now?" Economic factors outweigh all other considerations of
access to health care in the U.S., a very haphazard and unfair sort of
rationing. Use of this term seems to have an implication of an
undesirable consequences resulting from any universal plan, and is
probably best seen as political rhetoric by opponents of universal
care.
Real planning starts with a recognition that resources are finite,
and that there will never be "enough" money to satisfy every possible
need. Phase two, the hard part, defines a set of basic benefits which
are guaranteed to be available to everyone, regardless of their economic
situation. This would not be restrictive, as in a ceiling on services
which might be available, but represent the floor, or minimum health
services routinely accessible to all of us in the United States.
The Oregon Health plan was used as the basis for a thorough
examination of a one state's effort to define these basic benefits.
Paige Sipes-Metzler, Executive Director of the Oregon Health Service
Commission made the presentation. She led the audience through
recognition and definition of the problem in Oregon back in 1987,
their methods of deciding on a basic benefits package, the resulting
list and the federal roadblocks which have still prevented full
implementation of the plan as passed by the Oregon State Legislature.
We are reprinting the Oregon Health Plan list factors which led to
their assumption that the current system is broken, and thus stimulated
them to plan major changes. The same factors are affecting each state
and our federal government and must be considered as reforms are
proposed.
Mr. Bob Griss, of United Cerebral Palsy Association, gave a vigorous
rebuttal to the approach used in defining basic benefits in Oregon. His
opposition to their planning stems from a concern with using subjective
and perhaps stereotypic assumptions about "quality of life" in the
prioritizing process. He supports the federal position that the Oregon
plan as first presented does violate the ADA by allowing presumptions
about "quality of life".
Mr. Griss feels that this legitimizes a position of discrimination
against people with disabilities and would set a dangerous precedent
both in Medicaid and private insurance plans. He noted that acceptance
of the Oregon plan by the federal government would be the first time a
move had been made from "medically necessary" standards to a "quality of
life" standard in deciding what health services to cover.
Mr. Griss agrees that a package of basic benefits must be made
available to all Americans and feels strongly that a national single
payer system will be the only long term solution.
Representative Lee Greenfield, a co-author of the Minnesota Care Plan
made a short presentation once more stressing the absolute necessity of
cost control while covering all Minnesotans with an adequate basic
benefits package. He cited the cost of equipment (Minnesota now has
about six times the number of M.R.I. machines than are probably
necessary, with more on order) and the incentives to provide expensive
services (Caesarean births running over 40% of the total in some
practices) as examples of costs that could be contained.
Reinhard Priester of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at the
University of Minnesota made a detailed comparison of costs of national
health care in the U.S. and around the world. Our costs are not only
higher by far, 14% of gross domestic product (GDP) as opposed to a range
running from 5% to 9% of GDP in other countries, but our costs continue
to escalate while they are stabilizing under other systems. Benefits
offered in Canada and most others are also much richer than anything
contemplated in the U.S. to date, with all citizens covered and long
term care included. Mr. Priester feels, however, that our "value
system" in the U. S. will not allow acceptance here of a the single
payer (government) system which is working in Canada. He feels that
Americans resist government intervention routinely, while the Canadian
people are willing to accept the benefits of such a plan administered by
government if the result appears beneficial to the majority of their
people.
Let's hope that our public can be educated in the continuing
discussions of these issues to support a policy which will be really
comprehensive without causing economic havoc. With so many example
before us in other countries, it seems ludicrous to try to piece
together an even greater patchwork of uncontrolled systems.
This article is from Access Press Newspaper and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome. For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:
ACCESS PRESS
3338 University Avenue S.E.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414.
612/379-0989 (voice)
612/379-2730 (FAX)
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943
(33) Tue 4 May 93 3:34p
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: OREGON HEALTH CARE
A STATEMENT BY THE OREGON HEALTH PLAN COMMISSION
The Evolution of the Problem
In order to understand what led to the development of the Oregon
Health Plan, it is necessary to understand why the current system is
broken.
The root of the problem lies in the fact that our nation's health
care system has evolved in patchwork fashion, without an underlying
policy goal to tie the various components together.
The roadblock to national reform continues to be the lack of a clear
federal health policy and a consensus on how to achieve one. Every
affected constituency shares part of the problem and, therefore, must be
part of the solution.
Many factors have contributed to the problem.
1) Growth of public and private health insurance shields American
consumers and providers from the real costs of health care. By the late
1960s, most Americans were covered by private insurance plans, Medicare
or Medicaid.
2) Failure to provide universal access creates irrational rationing
and a costly health coverage gap. Medicaid and Medicare were designed to
care for two special groups of people who were in need at the time, but
not in the context of a comprehensive national health plan. As a result,
some groups of people get unlimited care while other groups of people
are rationed out of any care.
3) Failure to base public assistance on "ability to pay" and "need"
creates inequity and wasteful spending.
a) Medicare, a federal program, provides publicly subsidized
health care for every person over age 65 whether impoverished or
retired on $2 million a year.
b) Medicaid, a federal/state program, provides publicly
subsidized health care for poor people only if they are poor
enough, pregnant, in a family with dependent children, disabled
or elderly. Impoverished single adults, childless couples, and
some working families don't qualify.
c) Congress orders state taxpayers to pay for an array of care
for Medicaid patients whether or not it makes them healthy.
d) Congress makes state payment optional for services which are
known to be highly effective. For example: mammography (an
optional service) would reduce the number of deaths from breast
cancer (a disease Medicaid pays to aggressively treat after a
patient is diagnosed).
e) Money is spent on ineffective and inappropriate care.
4) The higher costs of treating the uninsured are "shifted" to
patients who can pay, widening the coverage gap.
a) Uninsured people often wait until their illnesses become
severe and then seek expensive emergency care.
b) The higher costs of their care is shifted to paying patients,
driving insurance premiums higher and forcing more people and
businesses to drop coverage they can't afford.
5) The dramatic growth of expensive medical technology contributes to
the high cost of care.
a) CAT Scans performed: 7 million in 1980. 26 million in 1992 at
a cost of one half billion dollars.
b) Caesarean sections as a percent of all births: 16.5% in 1980,
24.4% in 1988, estimated at 40% by 2000.
c) One third of all health care costs are devoted to persons over
age 65; 30 percent of that is spent on high-tech medicine in the
last year of a patient's life.
6) Rising expectations increase demands for unlimited medical care.
Providers order and consumers expect any treatment available, regardless
of cost, as long as some benefit might result.
7) Administrative monitoring increases health care costs. Public and
private insurers monitor what their plans pay for in order to control
costs. The resulting administrative paperwork for both insurers and
providers contributes to health care inflation.
8) There is no standard of health care available to everyone. Thirty-
seven million Americans don't qualify for public assistance, don't have
adequate employer-based coverage and can't afford to pay for care.
9) Rising costs erode affordable coverage.
10) Americans spent: in 1950 - 51 billion a month on health care and
in 1991 - $1.7 billion a day. The nation's health care bill: 1991 - $650
billion; 1992 $800 billion; 2000 - expected to top $1.6 trillion
11) More people are rationed out of the health care system. Sinking
under the financial burdens and federal mandates:
a) State governments cut provider reimbursement rates and reduce
Medicaid eligibly levels.
b) Employers increase insurance copayments and deductibles and
reduce or drop coverage.
c) When doctors and hospitals are unable to absorb any more free
care, they require patients to pay before providing care.
12) Lack of national reform has created a "silent" and "irrational"
system of rationing which threatens the social and economic health of
the country.
a) Health care is rationed in this country by ability to pay; when
people can't pay, they can't count on care.
b) Most Americans get publicly subsidized health care through
Medicaid, Medicare and tax exclusions on employer contributions.
c) 37 million Americans receive no benefits, although they pay
federal taxes to support benefits for others. They are people
under age 65 who are ineligible for Medicaid and uncovered by an
employer.
Several compelling examples illustrate the irrationality of this
"silent" system:
a) Family of three making more than $5,600 a year is too wealthy
to qualify for public assistance
b) Premature infants die from respiratory distress because their
mothers do not receive prenatal care
c) Young adults slip into diabetic comas because they delay
seeking treatment for fear they cannot pay.
This article is from Access Press Newspaper and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome. For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:
ACCESS PRESS
3338 University Avenue S.E.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414.
612/379-0989 (voice)
612/379-2730 (FAX)
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943
Editor's Note: For a critical view of the Oregon plan and its bias
against persons with disabilities, write CURE, 812 Stephen St.,
Berkeley Springs, WV 25411.
(35) Tue 4 May 93 3:38p
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: SO LONG, SENATOR DURENBURGER
St:
OUR FAREWELL MESSAGE
TO SENATOR DURENBERGER
Dave, a lot of us remember the old days, before the troubles, when
you seemed to be one of the Republicans we could respect. In the past
few years, your credibility on health care issues suffered from your
continued insistence on modifying the present structure, rather than
considering any serious changes. We called this a "tinkering" approach,
and observed that continued delay was not helping the uninsured, but was
driving costs up even farther.
Now we learn that you and Phil Gramm of Texas are the best paid
advocates for the health and insurances industries. Gramm's total of
$1.06 million makes him the number one toady, but you're number two,
Dave. Apparently $944,000 was enough to buy your cooperation.
No more wonder about the Durenberger statements praising our high
tech medicine and surplus of hospital beds. No more wonder about the
dismissal of single payer plans in favor of new and improved
participation by our insurance companies. $944,000 is a lot of money
even for a Senator. The donors got what they paid for, and the rest of
lost. So Long, Dave.
== Bill Smith
This article is from Access Press Newspaper and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome. For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:
ACCESS PRESS
3338 University Avenue S.E.
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55414.
612/379-0989 (voice)
612/379-2730 (FAX)
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943 ]
(44) Thu 6 May 93 9:38a
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: STUDY ON FAMILY SUPPORT
STUDY RECOMMENDS STRONGER SUPPORTS TO FAMILIES:
Cost Comparisons Reveal Few Incentives for In-home Care
The decision to care for a family member with a developmental
disability at home is not without its consequences, especially in a
society that provides little financial or other incentives to do so.
"America's expenditures on child care are not supportive of families,"
observed authors Arnold Birenbaum and Herbert J. Cohen in a national
study of 634 children and young adults with developmental disabilities.
Expenditures for in-home care were compared to out-of-home care. All
of the expenses incurred by families and charitable organizations to
maintain children and young adults with severe disabilities in their
homes averaged about $550 annually for those with autism and about $950
annually for individuals with mental retardation. For children with
mental retardation and physical disabilities, families had substantial
expenses beyond the cost of programs and other caregivers. A few
families had substantial expenses related to construction of ramps and
other home modifications or to purchasing a van to accommodate a
wheelchair.
Private expenditures to keep a child home seem insignificant when
contrasted with the reported Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income
(SSI) payments to care for a child in residential placements (e.g.
foster care, group homes, community residences, Intermediate Care
Facilities for Persons with Mental Retardation, and nursing homes).
According to David Braddock (1987), the average costs of such out-of-
home care were $16,000 for the typical individual with autism and
$27,000 for an individual with severe mental retardation.
The average annual health care expenditure for children with autism
was about $1,000, and for young adults with autism about $1,700. The
average health care costs for all American children are $414.
The following implications for policy and recommendations from this
study included:
1. Because of their disability, health care requirements for
children, adolescents, and adults should be viewed broadly
so as to include personal care and family support.
2. Financing should promote family-centered care with the
family regarded as the unit for receiving services. The
tendency to look at individuals without seeing them as
members of families results in a distorted view. It is
unrealistic to believe that excellent services have been
provided to children with developmental disabilities when
they receive appropriate schooling but their parents and
siblings obtain no assistance in bearing the physical,
mental, emotional, and social burdens of care.
In addition, families who care for their children with
disabilities at home often experience substantial indirect
cost that was calculated by the authors as "lost lifetime
earnings." Nationally, among all mothers whose youngest
child is between ages 6-13, 48 percent are in full-time paid
employment and another 18 percent are in part-time
employment. In this study, about one fourth of the mothers
with children with severe disabilities worked full-time, and
about 20 percent part-time, more than 20 percentage points
below the national average. The indirect costs in family
income due to the mothers' foregoing work were substantial.
3. Young adults with developmental disabilities continue to
need appropriate programs and personal care after they have
completed school, which calls for a systematic commitment
of resources at state and federal levels.
4. Just as fresh thinking about long-term care for elderly
citizens includes new ways to expand home care, so should
thinking about children with developmental disabilities
include many varieties of child care and family services.
Financing and organ-izing of family supports and subsidies
should be made as administratively simple as possible.
5. Expand Medicaid to increase the use of home- and
community-based services.
6. Financial support for families is a necessity, and can be
provided in a variety of ways, such as: tax credits or
deduc-tions, direct payment to families in the form of a
subsidy, and direct services to the unpaid provider, ranging
from training to respite care.
The authors concluded: People who share a household with a person
who has a developmental disability carry a burden beyond those of most
people. If policy makers address the immediate family as the unit that
needs services due to a member's disability, then respite services and
other family supports would be common rather than the rarity we found
them to be. Empowerment of people with disabilities cannot ignore those
who provide day-to-day care.
Source: Arnold Birenbaum and Herbert J. Cohen. (April 1993). "On the
Importance of Helping Families: Policy Implications from a National
Study," Mental Retardation, American Association on Mental Retardation,
pp. 67-74.
This article is from FUTURITY Newsletter and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome. For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:
Roger Strand
Governor's Planning Council on Develomental Disabilities
Minnesota Department of Administration
300 Centennial Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155
612/296-9963
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943
(46) Thu 6 May 93 10:11a
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: QUALITY: RE-DISCOVERY OF COMMON SENSE
QUALITY: RE-DISCOVERING COMMON SENSE
by Clarence J. Sundram
If we look at the service system as it has existed to date, it is
clear that the customer of the service system primarily has been the
government agency that certifies, operates, or funds the service system.
Providers have had to satisfy the regulators and funders, not the people
they serve. In fact, since the people being served had little choice
about where they were going to receive services, what services they were
going to receive, or how good or bad they were, their concerns were
largely irrelevant. A significant challenge we are going to have to
confront on this journey to a new world of person-centered, preference
driven service/support systems is deciding what "empowerment" means.
There are two central tasks to assuring quality. The first is clearly
articulating the values and expectations that will govern all aspects of
services and supports that are provided. Would we be willing to live
our own lives by these values, and have them guide the lives of our
children? Clearly such values ought to address the protective role of
the system in assuring health and safety of all who are served. But,
they should affirmatively address the promotive role of ensuring that
people have the opportunities to live the lives they want; to have
autonomy in decision-making to the extent they are capable and to have
their decisions respected.
The second central task is to make a sustained effort to inculcate
these values within the staffs of our agencies and within agencies we
license or contract with to provide services and supports.
It is far less important to develop detailed regulations governing
water temperature, fiber in the diet, and square footage against which
to monitor. I am much more in favor of a minimalist approach to
regulation that relies heavily on common sense and professional
judgement, and less on detailed regulatory specifications.
I have seen too many Individual Habilitation Plans with detailed task
analyses, and reams of measurable observation data, cataloging a several
year long effort to teach someone to tie his/her shoelaces. Hasn't any
one thought about buying velcro sneakers and letting the person go on
with his/her life?
We ought to be able to rely on our common sense to see if values are
actually being implemented by using yardsticks that have a bearing in
anyone's lives and which are capable of being measured, even without a
Ph.D.:
. comfort and personalization of the environment;
. living with persons of one's choice;
. spending time doing things that are meaningful and pleasurable;
. opportunities to form relationships outside the circle of
roommates and paid staff.
When looking for ways to enhance the quality for the people being
served, we ought not to overlook the obvious and fail to ask them what
they want. This common sense approach to quality assurance would also
lend itself to increasing reliance on natural safeguards that exist in
the community--co-workers, friends, neighbors--whose natural
interactions provide the independent eyes and ears, yet monitor
unobtrusively. The private policy that I believe will make such a
difference is to make a more conscious and conscientious effort to open
ourselves to such genuine human relationships with people who are
"clients" of service system, which ultimately are the best protection
and insurer of a quality that is free.
We must re-make ourselves before we can begin to change the world.
Source: Abridged from "Reinventing Quality: Exploring New
Dimensions," New Directions, National Association of State Mental
Retardation Program Directors, January 1993, p. 3.
This article is from FUTURITY Newsletter and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome. For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:
Roger Strand
Governor's Planning Council on Develomental Disabilities
Minnesota Department of Administration
300 Centennial Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155
612/296-9963
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943
(47) Thu 6 May 93 10:16a
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: UNITED NATIONS - PART FIVE
UNITED NATIONS SETS WORLD AGENDA ON DISABILITIES
Part Five in a Monthly Series
In an August 1992 publication, "World Program of Action Concerning
Persons with Disabilities," the United Nations General Assembly outlined
some of the following recommendations relating to the creation of equal
opportunities for persons with disabilities throughout the world: Income
Maintenance and Social Security:
. Every Member State should ensure that persons with disabilities
have equal opportunities to obtain all forms of income and
social security.
. Social insurance systems such as social security should be
reviewed to make certain that adequate benefits and services for
prevention, rehabilitation and the equalization of opportunities
are provided for persons with disabilities and their families.
Employment:
. Member states should ensure that persons with disabilities have
equal opportunities for productive and gainful employment in the
open labor market.
. Support the integration of persons with disabilities into open
employment through a variety of measures, including the use of
technical aids needed to do their work.
. Laws and regulations should not raise obstacles to the
employment of persons with disabilities.
Note: Next month, Futurity will conclude this series with
recommendations made regarding recreation and culture.
This article is from FUTURITY Newsletter and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome. For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:
Roger Strand
Governor's Planning Council on Develomental Disabilities
Minnesota Department of Administration
300 Centennial Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155
612/296-9963
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943
(48) Thu 6 May 93 7:51a
By: Jean-Pierre Beland
To: All
Re: Canadian Oregon model
Edmonton- The Alberta Chamber of Commerce wants the province to
balance its budget by abolishing health care for people with specified
disease.
"We suggest a process similar to the Oregon model, which specifically
excludes some services." says Chamber president David Richards.
The aim is "to determine which services are of broad public benefit",
he explains. Care could be provided "perhaps for pneumonia but not
for Lou Gehrig's disease.
Richards concedes that he doesn't know "what criteria the government
and health care would apply to decide who is eligible and who is not".
But he insists that "tough decisions need to be made" because "the
system cannot afford health-care coverage for every possible
affliction."
Those decisions should be made by government and hearlth-care experts,
Richards says.
His Chamber wants the province to cut its budget by $700 million.
At the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Alberta director
Brad Wright agreed that "cuts of at least $700" are needed.
J.P.Beland,
Disability Access Communications
* Origin: Disability Access BBS * Ottawa, Canada (1:243/41)
(51) Fri 7 May 93 10:50a
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: TRICKLE-UP THEORY FOR PWD
SYSTEMS DON'T CHANGE: PEOPLE DO
Real change involves direct personal contact between people with
disabilities and those without them. Each change in the experience of
two or more people changes their attitudes, their lives or, one might
say, their "biographies." A saying attributed to Jerome Miller goes
"change enough biographies and you will change a system."
This is the opposite of the way we usually think. It is a "trickle-
up" theory of social change rather than a "trickle-down one. It is a
perspective which is less interested in "systems change" than world
change.
Source: David B. Schwartz and Mark Friedman, "Rules for Funding
Social Change for People with Disabilities," Crossing the River, p. 220.
This article is from FUTURITY Newsletter and may be reprinted with
attribution; letters and submissions are welcome. For more
information or to submit material for publication, please contact:
Roger Strand
Governor's Planning Council on Develomental Disabilities
Minnesota Department of Administration
300 Centennial Building
658 Cedar Street
St. Paul, MN 55155
612/296-9963
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information Advocacy * 612/753-1943
(61) Mon 10 May 93 9:28p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Nat Hentoff Speaks Out
ABLEnews and Views
Nat Hentoff Speaks Out
Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff once described himself as a
"Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-wing prolifer." John
Kurzweil, editor of the California Political Review, finds Hentoff "a
highly articulate professional outsider, defying classification,
except that he seems most content swimming against the tide, whatever
the prevailing tide might be."
Evidence of Kurzweil's thesis is found in Hentoff's book--Free Speech
for Me, But Not for Thee: How the Left and Right Continually Censor
Each Other.
Recently, Kurzweil interviewed Hentoff for the weekly, Catholic Twin
Circle, an exchange in which, among other things, Hentoff expressed
his thoughts on the legalization of euthanasia in Holland.
As a thoughtful and thought-provoking analyst of modern and
contemporary history, and as a defender of persons with disabilities,
Nat Hentoff has something to say that is worth reading and reflecting
upon:
JK: Where do you see the broader debate on the life issues
going? What do you think of Holland's wide-open euthanasia
laws, for instance?
NH: The Holland thing is an absolute fraud.
The New York Times had a front-page piece about a month ago
celebrating that Holland has legalized euthanasia almost all
the way--with "strict rules" that the person not only ask
for it but ask for it repeatedly over time, and all kinds of
other regulations.
As it turned out, according to the Dutch government's own
report, at least 1,100 people had been euthanized without
having been told that they would be killed.
It underscores that once you give doctors the power to kill,
they are going to abuse it. It is a power that is almost
intoxicating.
We are going in that direction very fast in this country. I
don't mean Kevorkian; I mean the two propositions that lost
in California and the state of Washington , but that will
win when they are better drafted.
And when you read the New England Journal of Medicine, the
prestigious magazine among doctors, you see that more and
more of the most distinguished doctors in the country are
writing letters saying: "Yeah, let's get on with it. Give us
the right to kill people."
JK: Why exclude Kevorkian from that?
NH: Because he is seen, I think correctly, as a kind of a--if
not a madman--at least so idiosyncratic in what he does and
how he does it that he won't be the model. The model will be
the doctor on the faculty of one of the medical schools in
Rochester.
For a while, he hid the fact that he had given a long-term
patient of his with cancer enough pills to kill herself.
Then, he finally revealed who had done it, namely, him [or
someone blew the whistle--I forget which]. He was honored by
the local medical society; is now lecturing around; and is
the very model of a compassionate doctor. That's the way it
is going to go.
We are already well on the way. There was an exhibit in the
Museum of Science and Health in Washington last November and
December put together by two young German doctors who had
been going through the archives of German medicine trying to
figure out how that had become so awful.
It was called "The Value of Human Life from 1922 to 1945," I
think, and it sounds very much like now.
They wanted universal health insurance. That was a very nice
thing to have. Then, to do that, they had to watch costs, so
they decided that certain lives were not worth living. If
they had incurable conditions, or were "imbeciles" as they
called them, or whatever, they began knocking off Germans.
This was before they got to the Jews, before the Nazis took
over. Then, Hitler had it ready-made. They moved naturally
on to the concentration camps; he didn't have to invent
anything.
This was done by some of the best and most respected doctors
in Germany, and we are at that point now. It costs too much
to keep people alive in their terminal years, therefore we
have to take the feeding tube away or, better yet, give them
a lethal injection. If it is a low-birth weight baby, it's
not worth the time and money. I am very pessimistic about
what's happening to any kind of respect for life in this
country.
...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 25411 (304-258-LIFE/258-5433).
* Origin: ABLEnews...beyond the headlines. (1:262/4)
(65) Tue 11 May 93 9:52a
By: David Andrews
To: All
Re: Braille and Math
From: National Science Foundation
Mary E. Hanson (202) 357-9498
BLINDED PHYSICIST, DETERMINED TO CONTINUE NSF-FUNDED RESEARCH,
DEVELOPS NEW BRAILLE TECHNOLOGY FOR SCIENCE AND MATH
Imagine having to do complex mathematical equations in your head,
without being able to review the problem step-by-step -- or reviewing
technical manuals without the benefit of the diagrams and other
visuals. That has been the challenge facing students and
professionals who are blind.
To help himself and others like him, a researcher supported by
funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) has developed a new
technology to help improve accessibility to science for people who
share his impairment. John Gardner, a physicist at Oregon State
University is uniquely qualified to undertake the project; he himself
went blind suddenly four years ago, after completing several
NSF-funded research projects as a seeing scientist.
Motivated to find a way to continue his scientific work,Gardner
has developed a new approach for tactile presentations of mathematical
symbols and equations. "Blind people generally have a difficult time
studying math because standard braille only allows for a linear
format, and mathematical equations must be understood spatially," said
Gardner. "I am working on an alternative approach which parallels the
spatial format used by sighted individuals."
Gardner calls his project "dots +," referring to the standard
linear braille dots, plus graphics which can be read tactually. By
taking advantage of new raised print technology, he has created
compact tactile patterns of equations, figures and diagrams that are
presented in a spatial format similar to that used by sighted people.
Fractions are printed as numerator over denominator, and superscripts,
subscripts, and limits of sums and integrals are printed in their
normal positions. "These graphics are easy and intuitive to read and
can be applied to essentially all technical literature," said Gardner.
With assistance from William Barry -- also a physicist at Oregon
State University -- mathematics materials using the "dots +" approach
are now being prepared for limited testing with a small group in
Oregon. With feedback from that test, Gardner said he hopes to run a
larger test in the fall and, eventually, to make the new technology
available to all blind students.
Technology aside, Gardner himself is living proof that the trait
of blindness can be overcome by other traits, such as ingenuity and
determination. As a current NSF grantee, Gardner receives $100,000 a
year to research high temperature superconducting materials. "His
blindness hasn't seemed to slow him down at all -- quite the
contrary," said Franklin Wang, the NSF program director and physicist
who oversees Gardner's grant. "He is a respected scientist, widely
recognized for a special technique he developed to look at microscopic
structures of material."
While physicists follow his materials research, scientists and
potential scientists in many other fields are watching his
developments in braille technology. "We are extremely pleased with
the work being done by John Gardner," said Luther Williams,assistant
director for education and human resources. "His work will provide
scientist and students with vision impairments a much easier access to
not only mathematics, but to other sciences and engineering as well."
* Origin: NFB NET Baltimore, MD (410) 752-5011 (1:261/1125)
(82) Mon 17 May 93 9:27p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Golden Opportunity
ABLEnews
A Golden Opportunity
Recently 18-year-old Christine Hoehl was awarded the Girl Scout Gold
Award for leadership and community service. It is the highest honor
the Girl Scouts bestow, comparable to the Eagle Award for Boy Scouts.
Her blue vest sporting the 35 pins and badges, she has earned in
nearly nine years of scouting, Christine is the first person with
Down's syndrome to receive the Gold Award in the Washington, DC area.
"I just like to work with people and make things better," the Clinton,
MD girl said. Christine organized volunteers to paint rooms at the
Tower, a northeast DC group home for troubled teen girls. "It was a
big job," she acknowledged.
Writing in the Washington Post, Marcia Greene noted that "in past
years girl scouts with disabilities were often assigned to special
units for activities, now the girls are mainstreamed in all scouting
programs."
When Christine was born, a doctor told her parents to expect her
institutionalization as there were "no expectations" for children with
Down's.
Fortunately, Christine's parents, George and Ruth, and Anne Charon, a
pediatric nurse thought otherwise.
The Gold Award provides ABLEnews with a golden opportunity to
congratulate Miss Christine Hoehl for a job well done, and those who
stood by her and gave her the love and support any child deserves for
a job well done, as well.
Christine spent 16 hours over two weeks writing a two-page report on
her award-winning project. "It gave the girls in the Tower a cleaner
and brighter room to live in," she wrote. "It showed others that we
care."
Don't you wish that were a lot more Christine Hoehl's in this world?
It just might be a bit more caring.
...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street,
Berkeley Springs, West Virginia 25411 (304-258-LIFE/258-5433).
* Origin: ABLEnews...Dare to care! (1:262/4)
(83) Mon 17 May 93 9:30p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: A Health Care Tale
ABLEnews & Views
A Tale of Modern Health Care
by K. Regina Dowling, MD
Hilary Rodham Clinton is a genius. She is well on her way to
delivering health care to everyone--at a moderate price while cutting
down on the terrible cost of entitlement. How, you may ask, will she
accomplish this fiscal miracle, paralleled only by the Bible story of
the loaves and fishes?
Let me tell you the story of the fictitious Mrs. Fungus.
Mrs. Fungus is a 75-year-old marshmallow. Her husband, who died a year
ago, was a big time muckey-muck, so Mrs. Fungus, as surviving spouse,
gets a top-dollar social security check.
However, it seems that lately Mrs. Fungus' bowels have been bothering
her. She goes to the HMO of Mrs. Clinton's choice and sees her
physician. Now in this new type of an HMO, the idea is to deliver as
little medical care as possible, as quickly as possible.
Dr. Overworked, the physician, has no choice in this. He is given
$100,000 to deliver care to 1,000 Mrs. Fungi a year; if he orders
tests, it comes out of his HMO's $100,000. And because the HMO has to
take all comers, official policy is that each patient is allotted to
minutes worth of time and no more.
Now, Mrs. Fungus is a big woman and slow-moving; she rarely travels
more than the few feet from the kitchen to the TV in the course of a
day. So, her 10-minute visit is cut to seven minutes because the
doctor has to take three minutes just to heave her on the examining
table.
She's also prone to rambling conversation, so when asked about her
stomach distress, she begins with her childhood experiences. Bad
mistake! She reaches age 12, and her time is up. Dr. Overworked needs
at least five of the 10 minutes to do all the required paperwork. So,
he writes a prescription for Pepto-Bismal and leaves the room.
Well, Mrs. Fungus' pain isn't getting any better, and Dr. Overworked
doesn't have another opening in his schedule for two months.
Unfortunately, the same scenario repeats itself on the second visit.
Dr. Overworked never gets enough time to ask about the potentially
serious symptoms Mrs. Fungus has.
Six months have now passed. Mrs. Fungus comes in really sick. The
cancer has spread. Mrs. Fungus is a goner. No use trying heroics. Just
palliation. Total cost: $10,000 for hospital, tests, and home care
until the rapid end. Of course, if poor Dr. Overworked had had the
chance to take a decent history on the first visit and had time to do
a sigmoidoscopy, the cancer would have been discovered at a curable
stage. And Mrs. Fungus would have survived another 10 years.
So, let's look at the money saved with this minimalist approach to
health care.
First, let's say Mrs. Fungus has an operation while her cancer is
curable. She spends two weeks in the hospital because of old-lady
complications and prolonged recovery that costs $20,000.
Then, she lives 10 more years. She gets a social security check
monthly for $1,000; that means $120,000 from the federal coffers.
She goes into a nursing home for the last two years of her life--
$25,000 a year. She requires ICU care for the last 20 days of her life
for a stroke, has unsuccessfully surgery and finally dies a
multi-machine death--$30,000. Grand total: $220,000 paid by a
shrinking worker population.
But if the cancer symptoms are shined off until it is too late, the
grand total is only $10,000. Total savings for delay in care due to
use of an HMO squeezed by the federal government: $210,000!
And who will get the blame?
You can bet your bottom dollar that young Mr. Fungus will not blame
Hillary Rodham Clinton for his mother's delay in diagnosis. No, it
will be that poor Dr. Overworked.
So you see why I'm so impressed with the genius of that brilliant
president-surrogate-woman. She'll save us billions! Only thing that
bothers me a bit is...some day, I'll be old!
[Catholic Twin Circle, 4/18/93]
Editor's Note: The author is a California physician. Dowling is a nom
de plume.
* Origin: ABLEnews...beyond the headlines. (1:262/4)
(84) Sat 15 May 93 9:32p
By: John Covici
To: All
Re: Survey finds 25% of elderly malnourished
SURVEY FINDS 25% OF NATION'S ELDERLY ARE MALNOURISHED.
CLUB OF LIFE
by Linda Everett
A new survey of health professionals who specialize in treatment of
the elderly finds that as many as one in four older Americans is
malnourished. Of the hospitalized elderly, it was estimated by
doctors in the American Geriatric Society who were surveyed, that 43%
are malnourished. The National Gerontological Nurses Association
estimates closer to 57%.
Doctors report that 50% of elderly nursing-home patients are
malnourished, as are 44% of those cared for at home.
The survey was sponsored by the Nutritional Screening Initiative, a
coalition of 30 medical and aging organizations that advocates routine
nutrition screening for the elderly. The results shocked most--yet a
decade ago, researchers got similar results, and recognized that
malnutrition causes much of the decline in resistance seen among the
old. It is often malnutrition that weakens immunological defenses, a
process generally blamed on aging.
Eighty percent of nursing home and hospital administrators and
gerontologists surveyed support the Initiative's proposal that
nutritional screening and treatment be part of President Clinton's
health benefits package. But the Initiative fails to tackle a root
cause of the problem, as well as the larger, more profound issue of
defeating our culture's Malthusian bias against saving the elderly--a
bias which pervades even medical research.
The Initiative, led by the American Academy of Family Physicians,
National Council on the Aging, and American Dietetic Association, says
older Americans as a demographic group have the greatest
disproportionate risk of malnutrition.
Nancy Wellman of the American Dietetic Association said nutrition
plays a role in eight of 10 major diseases, from heart disease to
diabetes and osteoporosis. It's a vital sign, like blood pressure or
pulse. Yet physicians don't refer patients at risk for malnutrition to
dietitians, because such services aren't insured.
There are other problems. Ten years ago, when Medicare cut hospital
reimbursements to the bone, hospital dietitians and nurses were the
first to go. A year later, malnutrition was found to cause 50,000
{preventable} hospital deaths a year. Thirty-three percent of
malnourished patients were so poorly fed, that their chances of
surviving a major operation were 5%. The elderly were discharged
``quicker, sicker,'' to die within days.
The elderly were told in a hundred ways they were dispensible, and
their suicide rates soared. Thus, for example, after being rejected by
their families, nursing-home residents starved themselves to death.
Yet they could have been treated, except their families or doctors
would not allow it.
Another example of bias: Heart disease is the cause of death in a
majority of the elderly, but a 1992 review of 31 years of clinical
trials reveals that older Americans were systematically and explicitly
excluded from participating in, and benefiting from, any of those
trials.
Once again, America's elderly are on the front lines, as Medicare
makes cuts of $52 billion in the next four years, including cutting
enteral and parenteral feeding and food pumps.
From New Federalist V7, #17.
* Origin: The Lincoln Legacy 703-777-5987 1200-14400 HST DS (1:109/909)
(85) Sat 15 May 93 9:35p
By: John Covici
To: All
Re: British medical assn warns US on slippery slope
British Medical Assn Warns: U.S. on `Slippery Slope' of Euthanasia
CLUB OF LIFE
In a move that surprised observers who are accustomed to British
society's devaluation of human life, a hearing before the House of
Lords which opened May 5 featured the British Medical Association's
withering denunciation of euthanasia.
The Lords' inquiry into medical ethics was prompted by a recent case
in which a young patient was allowed to die after a House of Lords
ruling. At the inquiry, the BMA came out strongly against any
relaxation in the law which would give patients the ``right to die,''
because British doctors believe any such change in the law could be
used to pressure them to kill the chronically ill, the retarded, or
the disabled.
The doctors who spoke for the BMA said that, once a society entered on
the ``slippery slope'' towards euthanasia, certain groups of people
would be regarded as expendable. ``We have a real concern that
resource constraints will begin to dominate some discusssions about
whether a patient should die, {as we believe is happening in the
United States,''} the BMA statement said (emphasis is ours).
Barriers Not To Be Crossed
The BMA said it supports present British law, which assigns a life
sentence in prison to any doctor found guilty of ``mercy killing.''
The association's representatives told the committee of the Lords that
``we agree with the moral philospher who said that barriers are not to
be crossed. Our view is that any doctor who goes beyond that barrier
should be liable to whatever the law may require.'' Further, ``What we
do not accept ... is that the only response to the dying patient is to
get rid of that patient as quickly as possible. ''
In documents presented to the Committee, the BMA cited the case of the
Netherlands, where the rules on euthanasia have been informally
relaxed so far that many elderly people there now fear their lives
will be ended without their consent.
``We feel there is a real danger of a slippery slope from voluntary to
non- voluntary (for example, because they are incompetent), and
possibly even involuntary, euthanasia,'' the BMA warned.
``By removing legal barriers to the previously unthinkable and
permitting people to be killed, society would open up new
possibilities of actions and bring about a frame of mind such that
individuals feel bound to explore fully the extend of those new
options....
``A social environment which recognized a right to die, we believe,
would bring about a fundamental shift in social attitudes to death,
illness, old age, and disability. It might encourage us to label
people by group and regard some groups as more expendable when they
present problems. It would also ... undermine the trust that patients
have in their doctors.''
American doctors should listen closely; they have a moral lesson to
learn here.
From New Federalist V7, #18.
* Origin: The Lincoln Legacy 703-777-5987 1200-14400 HST DS (1:109/909)
(105) Sat 22 May 93 10:47a
By: John Covici
To: All
Re: Laws alone won't stop assisted suicide
LAWS ALONE WON'T STOP ASSISTED-SUICIDE, NOR THE CULTURAL OR ECONOMIC
PESSIMISM DRIVING IT
CLUB OF LIFE
by Linda Everett
{UPDATE: Since this article was written, Jack Kevorkian has killed a
16th victim--to ``test'' the Michigan law against assisted suicide, he
says--and almost immediately thereafter, a Michigan state judge
overturned the law on the ludicrous the grounds that it is
unconstitutional.}
Several states that lacked explicit laws banning ``assisted'' suicide
have now moved to criminalize the kind of ``services'' Michigan's Dr.
Death, Jack Kevorkian, has used to kill 15 people. Indiana's Governor
signed a law in April, Tennessee's bill went to its Governor in
mid-May, and Ohio and Illinois have bills pending. No doubt, these
lawmakers hope to hold off killing sprees like the one Michigan
endured for 30 months before it banned Dr. Death's so- called suicide
``aid.''
Of course, no law can deal with the pessimism that is driving this
society to see the taking of a human life as a viable ``option'' to
solve its problems. In fact, while legislating against ``inducing'' or
abetting a person in the commission of suicide, one of three Ohio
bills in the works (like recent laws in Indiana and Michigan) calls
for instituting a Death and Dying Commission that would promote
killing, but sanitize it.
The Ohio commission is to make recommendations on all aspects of
suicide/ assisted suicide, including ``the advisablilty of allowing
the administration of medications in furtherance of a person's
committing suicide'' (much like Kevorkian).
License To Kill
Facilitating death is already quite common in hospice programs where
families are badgered to ``let a loved one go.'' Indeed, the Coroner's
Office in San Bernardino County, Calif. has recently launched an
investigation into whether a hospice nurse administered fatal
injections to as many as 17 home-bound, terminally ill patients. Most
crimes of this type go unnoticed since, to save money, many states now
allow nurses to pronounce patients dead. No doctor, no autopsy; in
other words, a license to murder.
Furthermore, all the new anti-suicide aid bills still guarantee the
``right'' to kill patients by starvation, overdoses of medication, and
denial or withdrawal of food and treatment. In fact, the Florida
Medical Association just passed a resolution condemning
doctor-assisted suicide, but at the same time asked that mentally ill
patients be assigned state ``guardians'' who'll decide for the patient
whether he receives life-sustaining care or not! If you're mentally
ill, and your state guardian doesn't see the point of spending money
to keep you alive, then you die. This, of course, is not ``assisted
suicide.'' It's just homicide.
Enforcing such patient ``rights'' saves a bundle for financially
strapped state institutions. We see similar displays of ``compassion''
in nursing homes where the elderly are terrorized into refusing
life-saving treatment.
Pessimism Inflicts Pain
Care for a loved one at home? There are no funds or programs to
support that approach. Families and patients are often driven to
despair, and death. Blanche Black of New Jersey ``felt lost'' when she
could no longer care for her beloved sister Ruth, who pleaded not to
be left in a nursing home. The two started saving sleeping pills.
Blanche relives with horror the memory of her sister's struggle when
she held a pillow over her face two years ago. Blanche's own suicide
attempt failed.
Instead of developing policies that assert the value of each
individual, whatever his age or infirmity, this pessimistic society
finds the answer to be death. Thus, in Washington State, Hemlock
Society members have started a new group called ``Compassion in
Dying,'' to service all your suicide needs, as it were. They want to
give ``counseling,'' second opinions, details on what lethal drugs to
use, and how to get them. They say they want to be there when the
patient commits suicide.
Be suspicious of such ``compassion.'' Be suspicious, as one
psychiatrist told us, ``of people who like to watch people die.''
From New Federalist V7, #19.
* Origin: The Lincoln Legacy 703-777-5987 1200-14400 HST DS (1:109/909)
(109) Sun 23 May 93 1:51p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Deja Vu
ABLEnews
Deja Vu at the Cleveland V.A.
--Earl Appleby, Jr.
On December 17, 1992, Stephen Smolinski, 80, of Fairview Park, Ohio,
received an insulin injection at the Cleveland V.A. Medical Center.
That same day at that same V.A. hospital Thomas Riggins, 70, of
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio received an insulin injection. Neither Mr.
Smolinski nor Mr. Riggins were diabetic. Both are dead.
Stephen Smolinksi died the day he received the insulin injection of
hypoglycemic shock, according to Cuyahoga County Coroner Elizabeth
Balraj.
Thomas Riggins was given glucose (sugar water) and survived his
December 17 injection, but despite procedures the V.A. put into place
to prevent further wrongful injections, he was given another inuslin
injection on January 31 and subsequently died.
"I've never seen anyone suffer like my brother," says Terri Riggins,
Thomas's sister, who believes "a third dose of insulin" killed her
brother.
Dr. Murray Altrose, chief of staff at the Cleveland V.A., says an
internal review by the hospital and an internal investigation by the
Department of Veterans Affairs ascribe the injections to "accidental
medication error." Asked about the second dose given Riggins who was
in the hospital's intensive care unit at the time, Dr. Altrose
replies, "Unfortunately, the administration of medication involves
human beings, and by our calculation, there is an error for every
several thousand administrations of medication."
But that would mean 14,000 medications would have had to be given in
the 329-bed V.A. hospital on December 17, or rather many times that
since Dr. Altrose claims the errors "rarely result in death."
Just how rarely?
In September 1990 Dr. Peter Stajduhar was relieved of his duties as
director of the Cleveland V.A. Medical Center after the ABC news show
Prime Time Live exposed the mistreatment of patients and unsanitary
conditions plaguing the facility.
Today, Dr. Stajduhar practices at another V.A. hospital in Butler,
Pennsylvania.
Today, two more American veterans are dead, killed not on foreign
battlefields, but in American V.A. hospitals.
...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 25411 (304-258-LIFE/258-5433).
* Origin: ABLEnews...beyond the headlines. (1:262/4)
(118) Thu 27 May 93 11:10p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Helping Hands
ABLEnews
Helping Hands
--Earl Appleby, Jr.
Four-year-old Zack VanDevander, of Chesapeake, Ohio, was born without
arms and legs. Last month (i.e., April 1993) he attended the Ringling
Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus in Huntington, West Virginia.
Inspired by the young boy's pluck, circus performers from clowns to
acrobats chipped in to help Zack buy a motorized wheelchair. By May
14, they had raised $17,253.
On May 8 Emerson Henson, 75, accompanied by his granddaughter, Melissa
Hellard, 22, of Jackson, Florida, went to the chicken fights in
Morehead, Kentucky. They took a picture of Zack with them.
Climbing into the pit, Melissa, a childhood friend a Zack's Mom, asked
for help on the boy's behalf. In minutes $780 was in the pit.
"I knew we could get help from the chicken fighters," said Emerson,
who's been one for more than 50 years. "Chicken fighters do the right
thing. They help everybody."
The donations will be used to buy the wheelchair and help a fund a
machine that would enable Zack to feed himself. In the meantime,
former Chesapeake Mayor Bob Templeton is heading an effort to build a
wheelchair-accessible home for the VanDevanders. Already 15 folks have
joined the volunteer construction crew, says Templeton, who adds,
"Everything's covered, from excavation to finish painting. I've got a
feeling that we'll be able to build this house at below the market
cost."
Beth VanDevander, Zack's Mom, has a feeling too. She says the
outpouring of help has overwhelmed her.
...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 25411 (304-258-LIFE/258-5433).
* Origin: ABLEnews...Dare to care! (1:262/4)
(133) Wed 26 May 93 12:49p
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: Ramstad on Motor Voter bill
For Immediate Release
May 20, 1993
RAMSTAD ATTENDS MOTOR VOTER BILL SIGNING
WASHINGTON -- Congressman Jim Ramstad (R-MN) today attended the
signing of the so-called "motor voter" bill at the White House. The
bill allows individuals to register to vote when applying for a driver's
license or other licenses and certificates, and requires states to
allow voter registration through the mail. It also strengthens federal
authority to prosecute voter fraud.
"As one who has spent much of my 13 years of public service working
on issues important to people with disabilities, today's ceremony was
especially meaningful," said Ramstad. "I have been a strong and
consistent supporter of moter voter legislation because it makes voter
registration easier and the voting process more open," he continued.
"Motor voter has worked well in Minnesota and will work at the national
level."
Ramstad strongly supported motor voter both when it passed the House
earlier this month and during the last session of Congress. As a State
Senator in Minnesota, he also was chief author of the "Precinct Caucus
Access Act of 1989" -- a "model law" for the entire United States
according to Jackie Alfonso, the Executive Director of United
Handicapped Federation.
According to Ramstad, "Motor Voter will be a big help in bringing the
17 million people with disabilities into the political system. This
historic legislation will connect them to the American political process
just like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 connected African-Americans."
Contact: Dean Peterson
322 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
202/225-2871
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information 612/753-1943 (1:282/1007)
(134) Wed 26 May 93 12:51p
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: RAMSTAD CALLS FOR HEARING
For Immediate Release
May 21, 1993
RAMSTAD CALLS FOR HEARING
ON BILL TO HELP DISABLED AMERICANS
WASHINGTON -- In a letter to House Small Business Committee Chairman
John LaFalce, U.S. Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN) called for hearings on his
bill allowing people with disabilities to compete for contracts and
capital in the Small Business Administration's (SBA) 8(a) and 8(c)
minority enterprise programs.
"All benefit when people with disabilities have the opportunity to
become entrepreneurs and create jobs," said Ramstad, "but they need
capital to do this. Access to SBA's 8(a) and 8(c) programs is an
important step toward encouraging business ownership by people with
disabilities."
Program 8(a) authorizes the SBA to provide federal procurement
contracts to minority-owned businesses while 8(c) gives those "socially
and economically disadvantaged" access to working capital to start
businesses. Ramstad's bill, endorsed by the National Federation of the
Blind, the Paralyzed Veterans of America and others, simply expands the
definition of minority to include people with disabilities.
"It makes no sense that people with disabilities were excluded from
the these programs in the first place," said Ramstad, who cited figures
showing some 43 million Americans with one or more physical or mental
disability. "Although Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities
act (ADA) in 1990, it means little until those with disabilities have
the opportunity to purse the American dream of entrepreneurship."
During his tenure in the Minnesota Senate, Ramstad was the chief
author of the 1989 Precinct Caucus Law, providing access for persons
with disabilities to precinct caucuses and political party conventions.
He also authored the provision of the 1985 law to assure funding for
Metro Mobility, which provides transportation for people with
disabilities and seniors. In 1989 Ramstad was named "Legislator of the
Year" by the North Star Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis
Society and also received the "Access Achievement Award" from Access
Minnesota in 1989.
Last year, in the House of Representatives, Ramstad formed a special
congressional task force to deal with issues important to people with
disabilities.
Contact: Dean Peterson
322 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
202/225-2871
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information 612/753-1943 (1:282/1007)
(136) Thu 27 May 93 9:37a
By: Gordon Gillesby
To: All
Re: SISTER KENNY'S PATIENT OF THE YEAR
SISTER KENNY INSTITUTE HONORS PATIENT OF THE YEAR
Patrick Roberts, Sanford, Minn., has been selected as the recipient
of the 1992 Sister Kenny Institute Patient of the Year Award. Roberts
was a patient in the brain injury program, first in the coma assessment
program and six weeks later returning for inpa-tient rehabilitation.
Roberts, 17, is now living at home in Sanford, where he is a junior
in high school. Roberts has made the "B" honor roll three consecutive
quarters, while taking classes such as Algebra II, English, Agriculture,
Speech and Social Studies. He has come a long way since the car he was
driving collided with a semi truck in Dec. 1991. The impact of the
accident caused Roberts to lapse into a coma for 14 weeks.
During his initial three-week stay in the coma assessment program at
Sister Kenny Institute, Roberts wasn't aware of his environment and
didn't recognize family members who were constantly by his side.
However, his nurses knew there was something special about him. Although
he was discharged to a nursing home and a less intensive program until
he demonstrated signs of waking up, there was hope among the Sister
Kenny staff members.
"There was something in his eyes that told us he was going to show
great improvement," said Gloria Sullivan, R.N. "I remember telling his
mother, 'Pat will be coming back here.' And he did." Six weeks later,
showing increased alertness, Roberts returned to Sister Kenny Institute
and soon began speaking.
Roberts was able to communicate his goals of returning home and
returning to school. But much work was necessary for him to accomplish
these goals. Roberts had to relearn all the activities most people take
for granted including learning to control his bladder and bowel; how to
swallow and feed himself, how to bathe and dress and move about in his
environment. The spark his nurses saw in his eyes never flickered, but
grew ever brighter.
Through difficult times, Roberts worked diligently to achieve his
maximum level of independence. He was friendly and outgoing, frequently
encouraging his fellow patients. He was also a source of inspiration to
other patients and their families who saw him go from being in a coma,
to being a bright outgoing young man who was determined to overcome his
deficits.
As the nursing staff soon learned, Roberts has a wonderful sense of
humor. Recently, when informed that the nurses had spoken highly of
him, he quipped, "They better have."
"Pat made my job enjoyable. He was always telling jokes--often about
his nurses," said Mary Kay Hewitt, LPN. "He'd take time to pick on the
nurses so he could hear the other patients laugh."
In addition, Roberts' family was supportive and encouraging while he
worked with physical and occupational therapists and a speech
pathologist to regain his abilities. "Pat's family was supportive, yet
didn't try to do too much for him," said Marilyn Thompson, M.D.,
physiatrist.
"Pat and his family brought everyone closer together," added Hewitt.
"They were going through a lot, but they gave to all of us. You could
see the love they had for him." His mom stayed by his side all the time-
-even going to therapy with him.
The Roberts family in turn was supported by the community's prayers
and wishes for a speedy recovery. Roberts received more than 500 cards
from neighbors and strangers alike. The cards covered one wall of his
hospital room and whenever he changed rooms, his mother faithfully took
them all down and put them up again in his new room. The nurses joked
that he had more cards than Hallmark.
In June, when Roberts left Sister Kenny Institute to go home, several
hundred people, along with police cars and fire trucks, turned out to
greet him and welcome him home. It was a measure of how much he means to
those who know him.
Roberts still keeps in touch with his nurses, to see how they're
doing and to share a joke. When they called Roberts at 6:30 one morning
to tell him he had won the Patient of the Year Award, he didn't believe
them.
"I thought they were kidding," he said. "I didn't believe it until my
mom told me. It is thanks to those wonderful nurses on station 33 that
I've won this award."
Since leaving Sister Kenny Institute, Roberts has mastered walking
with a forearm crutch, and is able to negotiate stairs at home and
school, where he has classes on the second floor. In addition to
lifting weights, Roberts continues to work with occupational and
physical therapists five days a week. Because he is not able to grasp
articles with his left hand, Roberts, who is naturally lefthanded, has
learned to use his right hand for feeding and writing.
"Pat's such a good kid--even when he was down, he wouldn't give
up," said Hewitt. "We miss him--his jokes and his ponytail."
* Origin: DRAGnet - Disability Information 612/753-1943 (1:282/1007)
(137) Wed 26 May 93 7:53a
By: Susan Harold
To: All
Re: Darla Minor
Hello, friends. I wanted to share with you a short blurb about a very
good friend of mine. This comes from a Press Release dated January
1992.
The beauty of a bird in flight...the washing of the waves against the
shore...three thousand balloons falling around a twirling
singer...these are just a few of the images captured in the new DARLA
VIDEO ALBUM in American Sign Language. Dedicated to the deaf
community in Charlotte, N.C., the DARLA VIDEO ALBUM is a visual
experience par excellence. Ten friends, for whom ASL is the primary
language, worked together to insure that the accuracy of each concept
followed ASL - not English. And there's not a boring second in the
whole production!
Darla Minor, a native Californian residing now in Charlotte, N.C.,
travels across the country for musical concerts performing her songs
for audiences of twenty to twenty-four thousand, both hearing and
deaf. Her interest in the deaf community grew from involvement as an
RID certified interpreter and Minister to the Deaf at Calvary Church
in Charlotte (from 1979 until 1988 when she started concert touring
full time). Signed music can be dull and repetitive but the songs on
the DARLA VIDEO ALBUM have been produced in an exciting and
stimulating format with color, action, and beauty. Those who have
seen the DARLA VIDEO ALBUM want to see it over and over again. "One
of the greatest compliments came when I saw a first-time viewer ask
her friend 'Is she deaf?' I knew then we had translated the songs
correctly," explained Darla.
Well publicized in the media, (on PM Magazine, Top O' The Day, and
Carolina Camera in the South, Cornerstone TeleVision in PA, and the
SILENT NETWORK in TX), newspapers and magazines have carried this
exciting story of the first of its kind VIDEO ALBUM.
Though captioning has begun and the world is becoming aware of the
needs of the deaf, the DARLA VIDEO ALBUM signs to us in audible tones
and American Sign Language for everyone, deaf and hearing.
* Origin: TN Deafness Info.Net. (615) 690-8489 (1:3615/27)
(145) Mon 31 May 93 12:59p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: The ADA Scapegoat
ABLEnews In the Mail
Don't Blame the Disabilities Act
In her May 5 letter to the editor of the Washington Post, Kathleen
Parker, of Washington, DC writes:
The April 18 Show Article "James Freed and the Building Blocks of the
Past" incorrectly blamed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
for the need to correct features of the Holocaust Museum that made
areas inaccessible to people with disabilities. The ADA requires
access to building and facilities. However, the ADA has little to do
with the access problems at the museum.
The museum is constructed on federal land and will be operated with
significant federal assistance, which means it would have been
required to be accessible even if it had been constructed in 1973. For
more than 20 years, federal law has required that facilities that are
designed or constructed with federal financial assistance be
accessible to people with disabilities.
The ADA is not the culprit for the additional costs needed to provide
access. The problems could have been avoided if the facility was
designed to comply with laws that are more than 20 years old.
ABLEnews Editor's Note: Kathleen Parker chairs the US Architectural
and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board.
* Origin: ABLEnews...beyond the headlines. (1:262/4)
(147) Mon 31 May 93 7:50p
By: Earl Appleby
To: All
Re: Through the Cracks
ABLEnews In the Mail
Don't Let New York's Mentally Ill
Fall Through the Medicaid Crack
Barry Perlman, MD, of Purchase, NY, writes in his letter-to-the-
editor in the May 6 New York Times:
The report of New York's Commission on the Quality of Care for the
Mentally Disabled on care for discharged psychiatric patients
underscores issues of which mental health providers and New York's
Office of Mental Health are aware (news article, April 29). However,
an important piece is missing.
Many indigent or low-income patients discharged from psychiatric
inpatient units must apply for Medicaid. It can take months to be
certified for and covered by Medicaid. As a result, although they can
receive care in licensed clinics, they cannot obtain critical
psychoactive medications. The consequence is often premature relapse
and costly rehospitalization.
A law suggested by the New York State Psychiatric Association and
initially introduced by Senator Nicholas Spano was passed in 1992
instructing the Office of Mental Health to study the feasibility of
providing necessary medications to patients presumed to be Medicaid
eligible after discharge during the period when their application for
Medicaid is being processed. It is our hope that such legislation will
be passed this year. Such a change would be fiscally prudent and
humane.
CURE Comment: Reverse the priorities and we heartily concur!
ABLEnews Editor's Note: Dr. Perlman is a representative of the
Psychiatric Society of Westchester County.
In the same issue of the New York Times, the following letter-to-
the-editor from Bernice Skirboll of Rochester, NY appears:
"Follow-Up Care for Mental Patients Is Criticized" (news article,
April 29) highlights the mentally ill's inability to gain access to
community-based services. Particularly important are findings by New
York's Commission on the Quality of Care for the Mentally Disabled
that informal support systems were significantly associated with a
mentally ill patient's successful transition from the hospital to the
community as well as with preventing rehospitalization.
As executive director of Compeer, a program that matches volunteers in
a one-to-one supportive relationship with individuals referred by
mental health professionals, I have read the commission's full report.
Fewer than 5 percent of the individuals in the sample participated in
a Compeer program. Although New York State has 26 such programs, most
have less than $25,000 in annual financing and find it hard to
publicize their services.
Compeer statistics show only a 10.5 percent rehospitalization rate for
citizens who were hospitalized prior to referral; no Compeer client
became homeless in the last six months of 1992, and there was only one
suicide.
Furthermore, the commission estimates a $500-a-day cost for
psychiatric hospitalization ($186,000 to $200,000 annually); a Compeer
friendship is $500 a year. Mental health dollars could be used to
provide access to this informal support service.
...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 25411 (304-258-LIFE/258-5433).
* Origin: ABLEnews...Dare to care! (1:262/4)
