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Health & Disability

October 3, 2008 • Volume 5, Number 4


PROJECT NEWS AND UPDATES

Disability and Health Grantee News

Healthy Delawareans with Disabilities: Bridging the Gap Project at the Center for Disabilities Studies at the University of Delaware co-sponsors first ever Forum on Dental Care for Persons with Disabilities

On Wednesday, August 20, 2008, a forum on Dental Care for Persons with Disabilities took place to address current issues around dental care for persons with disabilities in Delaware and to discuss potential solutions to improve dental care. Over 86 representatives from the disability and dental communities attended the forum. The forum addressed three topics: informed consent for dental visits, general challenges that are experienced by both patients with disabilities and dentists that provide care, and funding dental care for persons with disabilities. Three separate panels, which were moderated by Dr. Janet Yellowitz, President of the National Special Care Dentistry Association, discussed these challenges. Members of the panels included practitioners, service providers, administrators, and advocates. Audience members had the opportunity to respond after each panel presentation. As a result of the forum an alliance of legislators, practitioners, service providers, and advocates has formed to move potential solutions forward over the next coming months.

For more information on the work of the alliance please contact Ilka Riddle at (302) 831-8186.


Health Promotion for People with Disabilities Week October 5-11, 2008

The Virginia (VA) Health Promotion for People with Disabilities (HPPD) Project and Task Force are promoting one week in October, Disability Awareness Month, to be HPPD Week, and they just received a Governor's proclamation for the week. During HPPD Week the project and task force will encourage service providers across Virginia to open their doors to people with disabilities to promote programs and services that are available and accessible to them. They are also encouraging people with disabilities to participate in health promotion and disease prevention activities that will help them lead a healthy lifestyle. One of the activities that the project has organized for the week includes 15-20 minute lunch time webinars. The topics include Disability Awareness and Communication, Miracles in Motion - encouraging physical activity and its benefits, Finding and Using Disability Data, Disability and Cultural Diversity, and Advocating for Your Health. If you would like to participate in any of these webinars or for more information, go to the HPPD Project Webpage.

To contact the VA HPPD Project, please call Holly Tiller at (804) 864-7877, (866) 527-8654.


AUCD News

AUCD-NCBDDD Collaborative Research Awards

AUCD announced three (3) new 2008 Collaborative Research Award opportunities (CRA) at the beginning of September. The purpose of the AUCD-NCBDDD Collaborative Research Award (CRA) is to assist faculty, staff, and advanced graduate students at AUCD member programs in conducting public health and disability research and to help NCBDDD accomplish the research objectives they identify for their different programs. CRA recipients will conduct their research at their home UCEDD/LEND/IDDRC with mentorship from NCBDDD scientists. All CRA applications are submitted ONLINE. Please note: applications are due on October 24, 2008.

2008 CRAs include:

  • Promotion of Self-Management for Young Adults with Disabilities
  • Using Positive Parenting to Teach Child Development
  • Involving Allied Health Care Professionals in Helping Parents to Navigate Systems for Autism Spectrum Disorder

2009 Act Early Regional Summits 

AUCD is pleased to announce the sites for the next round of Act Early Regional Summits. Three summits will be held in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) regions 2, 4, and 8 during the early months of 2009.

  • The first summit will be held in Nashville, Tennessee for the four northern-most states in HHS Region 4: Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee in early January. The Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at Vanderbilt University, in collaboration with the Boling Center for Developmental Disabilities at the University of Tennessee, will host this summit.
  • The second summit will be held in Utah for the states in HHS Region 8: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. The Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University will host this summit in February.
  • The third summit will be held in New York City in March for the states and territories of HHS Region 2: New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The three UCEDD/LEND programs of New York state including the Rose F. Kennedy Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Westchester Institute for Human Development at New York Medical College, and the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities at the University of Rochester will collaborate to host the summit.

The Act Early Regional Summits Project is conducted with sponsorship from the National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). These summits bring together key state leaders from the early intervention and early childhood communities for the purpose of enhancing the capacity of states to respond to the increasing demand for evidence-based practices for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and related developmental disabilities (DD). The summits build upon-and in some instances initiate-important relationships among key stakeholders in the field and provide effective forum to share information and insights among state team members. Furthermore, the meetings serve as catalysts for the development of state specific plans of action to address the opportunities, challenges, and barriers on state wide identification, service provision and coordination issues for families and children with ASD and related disabilities.


In the spring of 2008, a Region 7 Summit was held in Kansas City, Missouri, and a Region 6 Summit was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On July 31, 2008, AUCD disseminated a request for letters of interest from host sites within the remaining regions and received ten letters from five regions displaying a great amount of effort and collaboration within the AUCD network and the siginificant need in for families with children with ASD and related DD. While only three locations could be selected for this next round of summits, it is intended that an Act Early Regional Summit will be held in every region of the United States in the coming years.

For more information about the Act Early Regional Summits Project, please visit project's page. 

Act Early Minigrants

The Act Early Regional Summit Project is providing minigrant opportunities to support the collaboration of summit state teams and to further the activities initiated by state teams during the Act Early Regional Summits in early part of 2008 held in HHS Region 6 and Region 7. These opportunities are also available to states who participated in the "Creating Medical Home Solutions for Inidivduals with Autism" summit. The deadline for application is October 10, 2008. Visit the minigrant page for more information.

CDC Funded Disability and Health Resource Centers for Excellence webpage on AUCD website

AUCD has recently added a new page to their website showcasing Resource Centers for Excellence. Resource Centers of Excellence are funded by the Disability and Health Branch, Division of Human Development and Disability, NCBDDD, CDC. These centers include the Amputee Coalition of America's Limb Loss Information Center, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation Paralysis Resource Center, National Center on Physical Activity and Disability, and Special Olympics Healthy Athletes.

 

 

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