From the American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD)

 

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released a new guide for families around medical homes.  For decades, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has acknowledged the need for family-centered care for children and youth with special health care needs within the primary care medical home.  The AAP, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and Family Voices collaborated on the first policy statement about the medical home in 2002.  However, the first known documentation of the term "medical home" appeared in Standards of Child Health Care, a book published by the AAP in 1967.  Since that time, there has been ongoing and increasing support and understanding of the need for families' and patients' intimate involvement in the health and well-being of all-especially children and youth.   

 

 

Click here to access the guide.

 

 From The Arc of the United States

The Arc of the United States has partnered with the University of Illinois at Chicago's Rehabilitation Research and Training Center (RRTC) on Developmental Disabilities and Health. This project, which is led by Drs. Kelly Hsieh and Sandra Magaña, aims to engage adults (aged 18 and older) with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) and their families, caregivers, or workers - especially those from diverse backgrounds - to participate in a five year study on health behaviors by completing a series of written surveys.

 

Recruitment of study participants has begun.  We encourage chapters to share this opportunity with the people you serve and their families, as this is an important study.  The more people that participate, the more we will contribute to what is known about health behaviors of people with IDD over time. 

 

Visit www.rrtcdd.org and click on the LHIDDS logo or call Sumithra Murthy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, (312) 355-1396 to register or to find out more about this study.

 

From Disability.Gov

 

A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that more than 29 million Americans have diabetes, up from the previous estimate of 26 million in 2010.  One in four people with diabetes don't even know they have the disease. 

 

Diabetes is a serious disease, but it can be managed through physical activity, diet and correct use of medications to lower blood sugar levels.  Under the Affordable Care Act, most health plans must cover preventive services such as diabetes screening at no cost to you. 

 

Read more. 

From guampdn.com

 

Half of the 21 million Americans who have a disability don't exercise and that lack of exercise is jeopardizing their health, federal officials reported.  Among these 11 million inactive adults are people who have difficulty walking or climbing stairs, have problems hearing or seeing or have trouble concentrating, remembering or making decisions, officials said.  Many of these disabled adults are able to exercise, but don't do so regularly or at all, Ileana Arias, principal deputy director at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a news conference.  "We are very concerned about this, because working-age adults with disabilities who get no aerobic physical activity are 50 percent more likely to have cancer, diabetes, stroke or heart disease than those who get the recommended amount of physical activity," Arias said.

 

"We know that regular aerobic physical activity increases heart and lung function, improves daily living activities and independence, decreases the chance of developing chronic diseases and also improves mental health," Arias said. "If doctors and health professionals recommend aerobic physical activity to adults with disabilities, then adults with disabilities are 82 percent more likely to be physically active," she added.

 

Speaking at the news conference, Dianna Carroll, an epidemiologist in CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, said, "We don't know if disability leads to inactivity and chronic disease, or if inactivity and chronic disease lead to disability."  What's clear, she said, is that exercise has the potential to prevent chronic disease, improve the health of someone with a chronic disease and help reduce the risk of additional chronic diseases.

 

Many don't exercise, but, 47 percent of adults with disabilities who are able to do aerobic physical activity don't do so.  An additional 22 percent aren't active enough.  Yet, only 44 percent of these adults who saw a doctor in the past year left with a recommendation to exercise, Carroll said.

From Disability Scoop

 

Serious barriers continue to jeopardize the well-being of people with disabilities in the wake of disasters and in other emergency situations, a new federal report finds.  Problems with emergency communications systems are rampant including everything from evacuation maps and websites that are inaccessible to alerts featuring language that is unclear for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

 

The findings come in a report released recently by the National Council on Disability, an independent federal agency tasked with advising Congress and the President on disability issues.

Many 911 systems are still unavailable by text, the report indicates, and both shelters and televised emergency announcements often lack sign-language interpreters for those who are deaf.

 

"The concerns of people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs in emergency situations are frequently overlooked, minimized or not even recognized until after the fact," said Jeff Rosen, chair of the National Council on Disability.  The agency is recommending that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission work together to establish guidelines for local officials regarding communicating with people who have disabilities in emergency situations.  More oversight, training and collaboration with the disability community is also needed, the report indicated.

 

Read more.