Prevention & Wellness

News

• Welcome Fall 2019 ProFellows!

  The Fall 2019 Professional Fellows were at the AUCD office on Friday, October 18 for their orientation. For the next five weeks, they will participate in an intensive learning exchange at a UCEDD or a LEND.

• Mailman Center Implements Early Start Denver Model (FL UCEDD/LEND)

  Therapists at the University of Miami Mailman Center for Child Development (MCCD) have embarked on an ambitious project to bring Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) services in English and Spanish to Miami. ESDM is an evidence-based intervention specifically developed for very young children with autism that fuses behavioral and developmental principles for an integrated approach. ESDM can be implemented in a clinic as well as different natural settings such as the home or the daycare/preschool by trained therapists and by parents within play and daily routines.

• Local Partnership Leads to International Connections (MT UCEDD)

  In the fall of 2018, the Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities at the University of Montana (UM) and Summit Independent Living Center hosted Ms. Nguyen Thi Van, from Hanoi, Vietnam, who was visiting Missoula, MT as a Mansfield Center Professional Fellow. Van represents two organizations that provide vocational training and independent living skills for people with disabilities in Vietnam.

• OHSU UCEDD CAC Awards Community Grants for Good (OR UCEDD)

  The UCEDD in the Institute on Development and Disability at OHSU Community Advisory Committee, also known as the Community Partners Council (CPC), has been awarding small grants to the community for seven years now and has funded 32 community projects. At their most recent quarterly meeting, they voted to fund six projects this fiscal year through their Community Engagement Grant program.

Upcoming Events

Sex Talk for Self-Advocates #6  

This webinar is part of an on-going series that addresses self-advocate questions about relationships and sexuality. This series is a great learning opportunity for self-advocates, and professionals and paraprofessionals working with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to better understand sexual health needs.

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Past Events

Newborn Screening for Fragile X Syndrome and Other Developmental Disabilities  

Most professional believe that early intervention (EI) is essential to improving outcomes for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families. But how early is "early?" Should screening identify newborns with IDD, even before symptoms appear? Is there value in "pre-symptomatic" EI for children or families? Are pre-symptomatic treatments powerful enough to alter developmental trajectories in meaningful ways? Using fragile X syndrome to exemplify these issues, this presentation describes Early Check, a research program in which screening newborns for several disorders is offered to 120,000 families per year.

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NEW EI/ECSE Standards- Why? When? Next Steps  

The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children is in the process of developing the first ever, stand alone, Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education Personnel Preparation Standards. Learn more about the standards,what led to this important step forward for the EI/ECSE workforce and what it means to the Early Childhood Field/Systems. We will share opportunities to provide feedback to the DEC Standards Development Task Force.

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Continuing Education Seminar Room to Grow: Journey to Cultural and Linguistic Competency Conference "Ensuring Enclusion"  

Each year the Center for Diversity in Public Health Leadership Training organizes the Room to Grow: Journey to Cultural and Linguistic Competency. The conference brings national speakers to present on the latest research and practice related to addressing and reducing socially determined health disparities.

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Resources

• Joint Statement from Members of the Disability Community and Allies on Gun Violence Prevention Policy and Mental Health Disabilities

  All Americans, including people with disabilities, have a civil right to live in their communities and not be segregated or imprisoned simply because they have a disability. Building more institutions, as the Administration proposes, unjustly threatens the civil rights and freedom of people with mental health disabilities while doing nothing to reduce gun violence in this country.

  Joint Statement [download]
• New Materials on the Opioid Crisis and People with Disabilities for Consumers, Providers, and Community Organizations

  Three new issue briefs on medication treatment, peer support, and traumatic brain injury from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research grantee Brandeis University provide information for people with disabilities and their families, substance use treatment providers, and community organizations looking for resources on how the opioid crisis may be impacting people with disabilities.

• Public Health Surveillance of Prenatal Opioid Exposure in Mothers and Infants

  The US opioid crisis is the public health emergency of our time and requires urgent public health action to monitor and protect the most vulnerable Americans. We have witnessed a startling death toll in 2017 with 70 237 drug overdose deaths in the United States, of which two-thirds involved opioids. The devastating consequences of this epidemic for mothers and infants have received less attention. Increases in opioid use and misuse in pregnancy have paralleled the increases in the general population; at delivery hospitalization, there were 4 times as many women with an opioid use disorder in 2014 compared with 1999. One of the most immediate and visible impacts of the opioid crisis on infants is the drug withdrawal in the newborn period, termed neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). On the basis of 2014 data, 1 newborn was diagnosed with NAS every 15 minutes in the United States, totaling about 32 000 infants annually with associated hospital costs estimated at $563 million.

  PrenatalOpioidExposure.pdf [download]
• HRSA Issues Hurricane Resources for Children with Special Health Care Needs

  In collaboration with the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, HRSA has developed a collection of resources informing hurricane response and recovery for families, organizations, and clinicians caring for children with special health care needs.

• Integrating Infectious Disease Prevention and Treatment into the Opioid Response

  The opioid crisis in the United States is devastating the lives of millions of Americans. Perhaps overshadowed by the alarming rise in overdoses and deaths is the accompanying numbers of injection-related infectious diseases. Opioid overdose deaths increased fivefold from 1999 to 2016, and new hepatitis C infections more than tripled from 2010 to 2016.

• Healthy Weight Research Network (HWRN) Update

  The Healthy Weight Research Network for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities (HWRN) was established in July 2013 with Autism CARES funding via the Maternal Child Health Bureau�s (MCHB). The HWRN is led by researchers at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at UMass Medical School, in collaboration with Tufts University School of Medicine. The HWRN�s mission is to advance the understanding of obesity risk factors in children with ASD and other developmental disabilities, to promote the development of evidence-based solutions to achieve healthy weight in this population, and to disseminate research findings to broad and diverse audiences.

• At-Risk Populations and Pandemic Influenza: Planning Guidance for State, Territorial, Tribal, and Local Health Departments
    from http://www.astho.org
• Center for Health Promotion Research for People with Disabilities
    from http://uic-chp.org
• Center on Health Promotion Research for Persons with Disabilities
    from http://uic-chp.org
• Health Handbook for Women with Disabilities
    from http://www.hesperian.org
• The AUCD Network: Promoting Wellness for Persons with Disabilities

  An abridged sampling for download and printing of wellness promotion activities

• Senator Harkin Reintroduces Promoting Wellness for Individuals with Disabilities Act

  Senator Harkin's floor statement.