Archive for the ‘Disability’ Category

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Where to Turn After an Autism Diagnosis?

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Having a son with autism and other disabilities is shocking at first. You receive a diagnosis and are not sure what life will be like going forward. Once the first shock of the diagnosis wears off, the work starts, and the harder the parent works, the better off the child will be in the future. The harder you work, the more your child benefits.

The first thing for a parent to realize is that you are not an expert on what afflicts your child. That’s why we have professionals in the medical community who can teach you how to appropriately care for your child. A great step to discuss with your son’s specialist is to explore what therapies are the most effective for your child’s diagnosis to help them prepare for school and socialization with friends. These therapies can include speech therapy as well as occupational therapy.

An appropriate discussion to have with your child’s doctor is whether or not to medicate your child. This is a difficult process to undertake. Once there is a decision to try medication, it is unlikely that you will get the right medication on the first try. Instead, there is a period of troubleshooting that commences to find what is most effective for your child.  For example, some medications will strip an appetite entirely or result in a complete lack of personality from your child. Troubleshoot until you find the medication that curbs the symptoms while still allowing your child to show his personality.

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Resources When Coping with a Disability

Thursday, May 26th, 2011

Brain Injury (journal) 

Image via Wikipedia

One of the most difficult situations a person or a family can face is a life altering injury. When the injury is a brain injury it can not only be devastating emotionally, it can also be a financial burden. The expenses involved in the treatment and rehabilitation of a brain injury can take a huge toll on your household.

If you live in the Los Angeles area and someone in your family has brain damage as a result of an injury, it is important to find a good Los Angeles spinal cord injury attorney.  Who you choose could make a difference in your finances for the rest of your life and the life of your family members. Even during the difficult time of dealing with the shock and emotional stress of a brain injury.

Finding the right resources to help your family deal with a disability takes time and a lot of research, but if you make good decisions about who can help you, it will make a difference down the road. The places you can look for help may also depend on how the injury occurred. If it happened at work, you should look into disability insurance and worker’s compensation. If it was the result of an accident, you can look into an attorney as mentioned above. The government can also be of some help through the social security disability program.

Regardless of which resource you turn to, coping with a disability is not easy. It is often a life long change for a family, so getting the right help can make the process less stressful financially for everyone involved.

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Caring for an Autistic Child

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Dolly Stressed Out!

Image by kelvin255 via Flickr

Autistic children need a great deal of help to develop their mental as well as emotional abilities and their parents play a crucial role in this development. Although it can be very hard to cope with the stress caused because of the responsibility of caring for an autistic child, it is vital that parents provide the child with all the support and encouragement they need to develop their minds.

Parents of children with learning disabilities can undergo tremendous amounts of emotional and mental stress. As an autistic child mostly doesn’t like being around strangers, it becomes difficult for the family, especially the parents to lead a normal social life. Even something as simple as going out for dinner takes a lot of planning as they would need to arrange for someone capable enough of babysitting an autistic child. However, the parents need to exercise a lot of patient when dealing with their special needs child.

Autistic children often stay away from people, even children of their own age group and can appear to be loner. However, this doesn’t mean that they don’t need friends. Most often, they look for a best friend within the family. This could be a parent or even a sibling. The person with whom the child forms this special bond has the additional responsibility of caring for the child when he or she refuses to respond to anyone else.

Parents need to encourage the creative streak in their autistic child. Such children generally have one skill that they are amazingly good at. This skill should be promoted as this is one of the ways the child expressed their emotions.

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Get the Right Tools and Techniques to Stop Losing Money

Saturday, April 9th, 2011

Hospital revenue cycle management is more important than ever; it’s always important to manage money well, especially in a hospital setting. There are people who specialize in this area and they can be hired to keep accounts receivables coming in, to reduce the payables to a minimum and implement changes that improve the business’ financial portfolio and streamline procedures.

Hospital revenue cycle management consists of techniques, tools and methods that medical establishments use to complete bookkeeping services, review patients’ financials and collect payments from insurance companies, the government and other organizations. You can hire a cycle management specialist who is trained to use specialized software that can effectively manage income and expenditures for a company. Not having a revenue cycle management procedure in place can be risky or even fatal for a hospital, clinic or private doctor‘s practice, especially following a period of financial distress.

There are certain practices that enable the implementation of strategic procedures that will improve cash collections and match liquidity goals and they can all be implemented with an effective program that is custom designed for your business. Your staff can be trained t effectively evaluate customer receivables, enact underpayment recovery policies and enable collections management from state and federal agencies such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Healthcare organizations can properly manage revenues to increase profits and decrease loss, insuring that they will stay open and continue to provide the best care to their patients. Everything that is involved with patient care at a medical facility incurs costs that must be replaced if the business is to remain viable. Revenue Cycle Management can do the trick.

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ADHD May be Related to Baby’s Health at Birth

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011

The birth of a baby is an exciting time and can become stressful if the birth does not go as planned. Sometimes, the baby is lethargic and may have low APGAR scores which measure the baby’s health at birth. A recent paper published in the January issue of the Journal of Pediatrics found that these APGAR scores may indicate the risk of developing ADHD in the future.

APGAR scores are measured within the first 5 minutes after birth with a 7 or higher considered normal.

This study evaluated almost 1 million Danish children and found that the lower the APGAR scores, the high the incidence of ADHD. Children who had an APGAR score of 5 or 6 has a 63% higher chance of ADHD than children who had an APGAR of 9 or 10. Children who had an APGAR of 4 or less had a 75% increased risk of developing the condition compared with children with scores of 9 or 10.

The reason for the relationship is not well understood. The low APGAR itself score may be related to some fetal stress that might contribute to ADHD later. During the study, the researchers accounted for other factors like preterm birth, family income, the smoking history of the mother, and education levels when measuring the findings. Preterm birth has been associated with ADHD in other studies – with an unclear rationale as well.

The predictive value of this relationship is not strong enough for clinicians to use – the physicians should not be using this study to inform parents of infants with low APGARs that there is an elevated risk of ADHD. Future studies might be able to clarify this relationship over time. Large population studies may find relationships between the various factors related to ADHD.

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Children with ADHD Have a Variety of Other Problems

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often have other difficulties to overcome. Researchers have found that children with ADHD often have other problems like learning disabilities, depression, anxiety, or conduct disorder. These problems make it more likely that these children will struggle at school, repeat a grade or have problems with family relationships.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles completed a survey of the parents of 62,000 school-aged children across the nation in 2007. The children were determined to have ADHD if the parents noted that the child had been diagnosed or currently had ADHD; the parents also asked about other disorders like epilepsy, speech problems or learning disabilities.

About 8% of the children in the survey have ADHD – this translates to about 4 million children aged 6 to 17 in the US with the condition. The children with ADHD were significantly more likely to suffer from a variety of mental and physical conditions. Children from low income homes are also 40% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than children from middle class homes.  The children from the low income homes also have a higher risk of suffering from other medical conditions. About 30% of these children have the associated conditions compared to 8% of the children from more affluent homes.

This study also demonstrates the depth of impact that ADHD can have on a family. More than 80% of children with ADHD who were also diagnosed with 3 or more conditions had failed a grade or have had other problems at school.

Best screening at school may help find these children and help them by dealing with their ADHD and associated conditions. This might give the children a better chance to successfully navigate school and family life. The numbers of children diagnosed with ADHD has increased so improving diagnosis and services to these children will be a priority in education.

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People with ADHD May Be at Higher Risk for Dementia in the Future

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

People who have attention deficit hyperactive disorder or ADHD are more than three times as likely to develop dementia when they get older. The findings were recently published in the European Journal of Neurology.

This type of dementia is a common form of the disease called dementia with lewy bodies (DLB). Lewy bodies are abnormal protein deposits that collect in nerve cells and disrupt their function. DLB affects approximately 1.3 million people in the United States. The symptoms of this disease include cognitive impairment similar to what happens in people with Alzheimer’s; however, these patients also can suffer from hallucinations, changes in cognition and movement problems not unlike the symptoms that Parkinson’s patients may experience.

In this study, researchers looked at 109 patients with dementia, 251 people with Alzheimer’s and 149 healthy people. The scientists found that 47.8% of the people who have DLB had also had adult ADHD; only 15% of the people with Alzheimer’s or control group had had the condition.  The information about the ADHD symptoms was obtained from the healthy subjects and their direct informants. For study participants who had cognitive impairment, the ADHD history was obtained from direct informants who had known the patient for at least 10 years and relatives that knew the person during childhood.

The link is thought to be a neurotransmitter pathway problem that may be key in the development of both conditions. The researchers think that this study is the first one to look at the relationship between ADHD and dementia.

Everyone is not convinced that the findings in this study are as clear. Some feel that this study found as association between the two conditions but not an issue of cause and effect. Other experts suggest that the conclusion is backwards and should be people with DLB have three times the ADHD symptoms. Either way, more research will be needed to clarify the relationship between ADHD and dementia.

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Finding a Work From Home Position When You Have A Disability

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Getting a job these days isn’t easy and trying to find a job when you have a disability is even more difficult. There is some hope. Those with a disability could find a job where you can work from the comfort of their own home. Here are some tips on finding a work from home position when you have a disability.

Contact the nonprofit organization NTI. They’re a free organization that helps those with disabilities find a position where they can work from home. The different types of jobs available will vary based on where you live.

Another non-profit organization to contact would be Contact Lift Incorporated. They will qualify, train and place professionals in technology who have a physical disability with contract jobs working for major corporations. The positions usually start out as a contract position, but often times they will hire them as a permanent employee. Contact Lift Incorporated will use their expertise to guide individuals with disabilities in finding a great job.

You could even check out the website for the U.S. Department of Labor. You could utilize the website to see what your rights are for finding a position when you’re disabled.

There’s a website called the Job Accommodation Network that works with individuals who have a disability. The company will have a complete list of all the companies and agencies out there that work specifically in helping those who are disable get a work from home job.

Lastly, check out your state’s Vocational Rehabilitation Center for finding a job. They work with individuals with disabilities that are unemployed and looking for a job.

We’re at a place where finding a job is pretty hard, but even harder for those who have a disability. The goods news is there are organizations and companies out there who want to help those with a disability find a great job.

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Information On Applying For Disability

Thursday, January 6th, 2011

Things happen and people get severely injured or seriously ill. If you fall under one of these categories than you could receive disability or even social security income.

Before you fill out the information for disability income, you need to make sure that you meet all of the criteria by the policy on your insurance or organization. One thing to keep in mind is that if your private insurance will pay more than what your social security disability income pays, you won’t be able to receive both.

When applying for social security income, it’s important to get the correct forms from both your private insurance as well as social security. If you’re a little confused about the application process, do a little research to see what options you have, which forms you need to fill out and what the requirements are.

You will need a written statement from your doctor if you can’t work and how much you could receive in disability and for how long. With disability applications, most will ask if your doctor told you whether or not you’re able to work.

While talking to your doctor, let him or her know that you’re looking to apply for disability. Always ask questions and talk about application process and what to expect.

If you kept track of all your symptoms and doctor visits in detail, make a copy and give those copies to your doctor. For example, if you need to stop and take a break after taking 15 steps, put that down.

If you’re experiencing any side effects to your medication then that needs to be noted in your application as well. Whatever medications you took in the past or are taking now, those need to be noted as well.

It’s always good to make sure you have everything you need before applying for disability. It’s not a difficult process, but if you’re missing anything you could miss out on getting that income.

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Helping Kids With Disabilities Learn How To Read

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Learning how to read is always a difficult time for many children. Learning how to read when you’re a child with a disability could be a little bit more challenging and even frustrating. Having learning disabilities can cause a lot of emotional problems on a child’s development. Here are ways of helping kids with disabilities learn how to read.

Start with figuring out what the student’s learning disability is. Try to get an actual diagnosis from either a doctor or therapist that deals with behavior issues. These are the people who are able to explain the disorder and how you’re able to confirm that’s the actual diagnosis.

Kids with disabilities find learning a little bit harder so try and make learning a fun experience instead of a frustrating one. Come up with an exciting new way of learning how to spell since many kids with reading disabilities aren’t the best at spelling. If a child gets a little flustered, don’t get frustrated because than the kid will as well.

Teach your students words that have a mix of both phonics and game stimulation. You also want to get the student to memorize the words that have a strange spelling and be different from the usual phonic rules. The child could than understand the actual word. Helping the child know patterns with an invisible letter it could make the teaching process a lot easier.

When working with children with learning disabilities, be sure to do the lessons in small amounts. For instance work for about 30 minutes at a time on a certain word or lesson. His or her attention span won’t last any longer than that.

When teaching kids with disabilities how to read it’s crucial to be patient and not get frustrated. Learning is hard and when they see you’re frustrated they will as well. This could cause them to get nervous and not want to learn.

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