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                              Cross Our Desk...

More items cross our ABLEnews desk than my poor typing fingers and our
generous distributors--Hubs, SysOps--could carry. And while Of Note,
CURE's biweekly disAbility/medical news digest, has broken the 85
barrier, it only covers a modest portion of the stories we review.

In keeping with our philosophy of sharing information, ABLEnews will cite
some of these uncovered stories from time to time. Here are a few that
recently came Cross Our Desk...

Story:    Autistic Girl's Rape Case Heightens Debate
          Over 'Facilitated Communication'
Author:   Eugene Meyer
Source:   Washington Post
Date:     December 27, 1993

Quote:    Federick, MD--A 27-year-old teacher's aide is being prosecuted
          here on charges of raping an autistic child who made the
          allegations through a controversial method of communication in
          which a "facilitator" held the child's arm while she typed on a
          omputer keyboard. The case, the first of its kind in Maryland
          and one of only a handful of US criminal prosecutions based on
          "facilitated communication," has posed a classic conflict
          between a defendant's right to confront his accuser and a
          victim's right to have her day in court. "How can you exclude
          an entire population of silent prisoners to abuse?" asked
          ssistant State's Attorney Kathi Hill. "Now that they are able
          to communicate, they have a right to be heard. But Scott L.
          Rolle, attorney for the defendant, who is retarded, said, "It's
          our belief it's not her communicating, it's the facilitator."
          Autism is a neurological disorder that inhibits the ability
          tospeak. Autistic children also have difficulty with motor
          coordination, preventing them from holding their arms steady
          enough to type in any organized way. Adherents of "faciitated
          communication" contend that autistic people have unrealized
          intellectual potential, stunted by their inability to express
          themselves orally. Critics of the method, which was introduced
          in this county in 1989, say it is a sham. They point to a
          mounting number of studies in which autistic children produced
          only gibberish when the facilitator was not allowed to look at
          the keyboard while holding the child's arm. Its supporters say
          facilitated communication cannot be fairly tested by such
          methods, which produce negative results because of "failed
          confidence," according to Douglas Bicklen, director of the
          Facilitated Communication Institute at Syracuse University.

          ABLEnews Editor's Note: For additional information on
          facilitated communication, see "Facilitated Communication:
          Resource Guide" in the March 1993 ABLEnews Review (ANR9303.*),
          "Facilitated Communication: What Are They Talking About?" in
          the February 1994 ABLEnews Review (ANR9402.*), and our report
          on "The Furor Over a New Technique" in the February 15, 1994 Of
          Note (ON9402B.*). Additional ABLEnews posts on the subject are
          available from CURE on request.

Story:    Don't Let These Happen to Your Child
Author:   Robert Yeager
Source:   Reader's Digest
Date:     March 1993

Quote:    Alora Burgan was a bubbly one-year-old who had, as her dad Matt
          says, the biggest blue eyes you've ever seen." Only July 8,
          1991, Alora became the second Placer County, CA toddler in two
          months to drown in a bucket. On her way to her best friend's
          birthday party, Katie Fritz, six, of Farmington, MN had taken
          her bike out of the garage and gone back to close the automatic
          door. Minutes later, Katie's older brother, Nathan, found her
          trapped beneath the heavy wooden door. Hours later she was
          dead. While playing in his bath, Brad Allen, two, of
          Ponchatoula, LA, caught sight of a hair dryer plugged into a
          nearby outlet. His mother found him face down in the water, the
          hair dryer--switched to the "off" position--submerged beside
          his lifeless body. Freak accidents you say--things that
          couldn't happen to your child? Maybe. But mishaps with causes
          that range from rocking a vending machine to riding in the bed
          of a pickup truck claim thousands of young lives annually.
          Obviously, a parent can't prevent every accident. But to make
          sure you're doing everything humanly possible, adopt a
          "passive" prevention plan to keep accidents from happening even
          when you're not around. Buy kid-safe latches, outlet covers,
          and stairway gates. And educate your children. Says Dr. Marty
          Eichelberger, president of the National Safe Kids Campaign,
          "Make safety something you talk about at dinner, like school
          and sports."

Story:    Faith Is Definitely a Way of Life

Source:   National Catholic Register
Date:     May 17, 1992

Quote:    When the movie "The Doctor" was released last year, Bill
          Mallette saw art imitate life--his own, to be exact. "The
          character played by William Hurt, that was my story. It really
          hit home. I knew exactly what he was going through." Based on a
          real life event, the film tells the story of a physician who is
          forced to view the medical community from the patient's side
          when he develops cancer. It's a rude awakening to the sometimes
          inhumane and often cold manner sick people must endure when
          undergoing tests and treatment. Mallet's own experience is a
          close parallel to the movie. Crippling arthritis and heart
          problems prematurely ended his career as a surgeon and family
          practice physician in St. Petersburg, FL. But what was a loss
          to the medical profession was a gain to the Tampa Bay
          community, where Mallette has devoted his post-retirement years
          to public service. "What I've learned is that people pay more
          attention to what you do, rather than what you say," the 60-
          year-old Mallette says. 'It's a matter of good citizenship. We
          can't sit back and wait for the government to take care of us.
          To get something done, people have got to get involved to make
          it work." Among his contributions: serving on the board and
          providing medical treatment to clients at the Pinellas
          Association for Retarded Citizens; serving on the board for the
          Family Service Center, which provides counseling to battered
          wives and others; working with the "Buddy" program through
          Catholic Charities, which pairs volunteers with AIDS patients;
          mobilizing parishes into social and pro-life activism through
          Respect Life; and teaching converts with his wife Mary, at the
          Cathedral of St. Jude in St. Petersburg. He's quick to credit
          Mary, his wife of 37 years, for giving him the support he needs
          to balance such a hectic load. "She keeps me honest."

Story:    Fighting AIDS
Author:   Verne Palmer
Source:   Washington Times
Date:     January 28, 1992

Quote:    Elizabeth Glasser stood atop a sand dune on Martha's Vineyard
          and surrounded by her family, released eight pink and purple
          balloons into the twilight sky. It was her way of saying happy
          birthday to the daughter who would never be 8. Ariel Glasser
          died August 12, 1988, a week after her seventh birthday of
          AIDS, a disease that isn't supposed to happen to kids. The one-
          time Los Angeles Children's Museum director and her husband,
          actor/director Paul Michael Glaser. had always lived quietly in
          their sprawling Mediterranean-style home on the beach. They
          were a family-oriented couple, not part of the Hollywood scene.
          But after the birth of their daughter in 1981, Elizabeth
          hemorrhaged and had to be given a blood transfusion. The blood
          she received was contaminated and she passed the AIDS virus to
          Ari during breast feeding and to son Jake, now 7, in utero.
          Only Paul escaped infection. It wasn't until Ariel got sick at
          age 4 that they discovered what had happened. The immensity of
          the tragedy all but devastated Mrs. Glaser. In the end it
          transformed her. In 1989, with the help of two close friends,
          she founded the Santa Monica, CA-based Pediatric AIDS
          Foundation, a nonprofit agency that has raised an additional
          $7.5 million for pediatric AIDS research. The alternative was
          to go crazy or give up, she says in her autobiography, "In the
          Absence of Angels" (Berkeley Books). "When I started meeting
          with people (AIDS specialists) in Los Angeles, I was hoping to
          add momentum to an issue that was already up to speed. I wanted
          to find the coach of the pediatric AIDS team and say, 'Hey, I'm
          ready to get in the game.' Instead, I found there was no coach,
          no team; no one was out there actively lobbying on behalf of
          children with AIDS." It was a revelation that both shocked and
          dismayed her. She decided that if no one else was doing it, she
          had better start.

Story:    Now Hear This
Author:   Jeanie Wilson
Source:   Reader's Digest
Date:     March 1993

Quote:    One wife whose 40-year-old husband had been growing
          increasingly deaf over several years finally told him she could
          no longer make small talk unless he agreed to see a doctor.
          "After 15 years of marriage," she told him, "there's not a lot
          I have to say that's worth repeating five times. I'll let you
          know if the house is on fire." Hearing problems aren't confined
          to the elderly. Millions of adults under the age of 44 have
          chronic hearing impairment. By ages 44 to 64, that number may
          include as many as one in ten Americans. Refusal to acknowledge
          the problem is not simply denial, however. "Most of the time,
          hearing loss develops very slowly," explains Laura Kepler, an
          audiologist with the University of Colorado in Boulder.
          "Gradually, a person adapts to it and may truly believe there
          is no impairment--until several people mention it." It's
          important to have a hearing problem assessed, since the loss
          could signal diabetes, circulatory disease, or even acoustic
          neuroma--a rare but potentially life-threatening tumor on the
          auditory nerve. Or the trouble could be as simple as wax
          blocking the eardrum, which your doctor can easily remove.
          Exactly how much improvement can be hoped for depends on which
          of the ear's three main parts are involved. The outer ear
          receives and channels sounds to the taut eardrum causing it to
          vibrate. In the middle ear, these vibrations are passed by the
          body's three tiniest bones--the hammer, the anvil, and stirrup-
          -to the cochlea of the inner ear. The cochlea, coiled like a
          snake, has fluid-filled channels with microscopic hair cells
          that translate sound frequencies into electrical nerve
          impulses. These, in turn, are carried to the brain by the
          auditory nerve. Cochlear implants, electronic devices that
          restore partial hearing in those with profound to complete
          hearing loss have been placed in some 6000 people worldwide
          (1300 of them children).

Story:    This "Tree" Can Save Your Life
Author:   Sue Browder
Source:   Reader's Digest
Date:     March 1993

Quote:    Sitting at her kitchen table, 42-year-old Kathy Krause of Los
          Angeles was distraught. She had just learned that her youngest
          sister, Susan, 38, had cancer of the ovary and uterine lining.
          Less than two months before their father had died of ureter and
          prostate cancer. And in 1972, Kathy's mother had succumbed to
          ovarian cancer at age 56. Kathy's mind raced. Was her whole
          family destined to die of cancer? Several years earlier Kathy
          had pulled together a family health tree. Now, studying it more
          carefully, she saw that cancers were everywhere. Alarmed, she
          and her other sisters, Peggy and Carol, visited their doctors.
          Not only were they at high risk for colon and endometrial
          (uterine lining) cancers, but they had an exceptionally high
          risk--up to 50%--of developing ovarian cancer. All the doctors
          prescribed a mammogram, a colonoscopy, and removal of the
          uterus and ovaries. After consulting specialists, the three
          sisters took the advice. As it turned out, Peggy was cancer-
          free. But Kathy had a tiny, symptomless ovarian cancer that, if
          left to grow undetected, could have killed her. And Carol had a
          small malignant tumor in her colon in the exact spot of a tumor
          that had killed her paternal grandfather at age 33. As these
          women learned, charting your family's health tree could save
          your life. Doctors once thought that hereditary diseases were
          limited to rare diseases like hemophilia or certain birth
          defects. But ongoing research indicates there is some genetic
          component in nearly all ailments--including heart disease,
          cancer (breast, ovarian, and colorectal), diabetes,
          hypertension, Alzheimer's disease, asthma, allergies,
          alcoholism, ulcers, and manic depression. Whatever fruits your
          family health tree may bear, view them as reason not for
          despair, but for hope. As modern medicine continues to expand
          our knowledge of gene-linked diseases, your family's medical
          history is being seen in a whole new light--not as a death
          sentence, but as a lifesaver.

En Passant:

Design a Diet That Works for You (Reader's Digest, 3/93)
  Do it your way! That's the word from weight-loss experts. Designing a
  diet that fits your likes and dislikes is the surest way to succeed--
  much more effective than trying to conform to a cookie-cutter regimen.
  Research backs the idea/ In a 1990 California study, 73% of the
  "maintainers"--those who lost weight and kept it off--had devised their
  own plans for cutting back on sweets and fatty foods. (76% of
  maintainers also exercised regularly) By contrast only 39% of the
  "relapsers"--those who reached their weight-loss goals, only to yo-yo
  back up--had created their own. "It's more important that your diet and
  exercise plan fit into your life-style than your life-style fit into
  your diet and exercise plan," says Ronna Kabatzick, psychological
  consultant to Weight Watchers International. "The best way to succeed
  is by creating realistic goals rather than making big, dramatic
  changes. Cut down to one dessert a week, instead of saying you'll never
  eat sweets again."

One Proverb Is Worth a Thousand Words (Reader's Digest, 3/94)
  Mental health and IQ are sometimes measured by how people explain
  proverbs. Such tests have been used since the early 1900s, in the
  belief that people with certain mental disorders, particularly
  schizophrenia, cannot comprehend a proverb's abstract meanings.
  Similarly, some psychologists use proverb abstractions to measure
  intelligence. However, Wolfgang Mieder, the world's top expert on
  proverbs, questions the value of proverbs for psychological testing.
  Many proverbs do not fit our changed society. A city youth who has
  never met a Rhode Island Red might have trouble deciphering "Never
  cackle unless you lay." Nationality can affect interpretations. The
  Scots, for instance, tend to read "A rolling stone gathers no moss" as
  extolling the virtues of action as opposed to the more sedentary life.
  The English, however, tend to equate it with the beautiful growth of
  moss on a stone in a stream, a metaphor for tradition and stability.
  ABLEnews Editor's Note: Oh, well, as the saying goes, "You can always
  teach a Scotsman, but you cannot teach him much." <grin>

Pope Urges Youth to Resist 'Culture of Death' (Washington Post, 8/16/93)
  A crowd of about 350,000 packed into a suburban Denver park this
  morning to hear Pope John Paul II, on the final day of his US visit,
  call on youth to combat a "culture of death" in the world by
  proclaiming Christianity anew in the faith's third millenium. "The
  family especially is under attack. And the sacrec character of human
  life denied," said the pope in a homily at the 3 1/2 hour outdoor Mass
  that capped the Church's World Youth Day, a four-day event that drew
  youth here from around the world. "Young pilgrims, Christ needs you to
  enlighten the world and show it the path to life," the pope declared.
  "I think the more the Holy Father stands agains the values of
  contemporary society, the stronger the Church is going to be," said
  Bernie Victory, of Falls Church, VA. "Any compromise with contemporary
  values will weaken, rather than strengthen, the Church."

Study: Half of US Adults Have Had Mental Illness (WP, 1/14/94)
  Nearly half of all American adults have had a significant, broadly
  defined, mental illness at least once during their lifetimes and nearly
  a third of them have one in any given year, according to a study by
  Ronald Kessler at the  Institute for Social Research at the University
  of Michigan. The study, published in the Archives of General
  Psychiatry, found psychiatric disorders serious enough to warrant
  treatment more prevalent than previously thought. Among those counted
  in the survey were episodes of major depression, schizophrenia,
  significant manic episodes and delusions, alcohol and drug abuse. "The
  majority of people with psychiatric problems receive no professional
  treatment," the study found. Among those with at least one disorder
  during their lifetimes, "the most common psychiatric disorders were
  major depression and alcoholic dependence." The study found that women
  were more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression disorders, men
  more likely to suffer from substance abuse.

[Ellipses omitted to facilitate reading.]

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