Prevention & Wellness

News

• MN LEND Fellows Explore the Power of Mindfulness

  Can mindfulness techniques help young families better support their children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities? A team of MN LEND Fellows (https://lend.umn.edu/) from the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration (https://ici.umn.edu/) aims to find out.

• NH-ME LEND and New Mainers Public Health Initiative

  An Interagency Parent Advocacy and Information Project

  Over the past two decades, Maine has experienced a rapid growth of racially, ethnically and linguistically diverse populations. Although Maine's population is largely White (95%), children in Maine are disproportionately from minority populations; currently 9% of children in Maine are from a race other than White.

• The Arc Minnesota launches new podcast about future planning!

  The Arc Minnesota has launched a new podcast for caregivers of people with disabilities. Focus on the Future is a podcast about planning for the future, helping to answer the question, "What happens when I'm no longer here to care for my child?"

• New AAP Clinical Report: Identification, Evaluation, and Management of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

  Representing the first update in 12 years, an AAP clinical report on autism spectrum disorder (ASD), from the Council on Children with Disabilities and Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, will be published in the January issue of Pediatrics.

• New Resource Guide for Applying Public Health Informatics to Addiction Treatment (IL UCEDD/LEND)

  This guide aims to provide medical and public health professionals with resources to help them create high-quality health-informatics-driven treatment strategies for those suffering from addiction to alcohol and drugs. These resources can lead to the development of targeted plans singularly tailored to individuals, which could make the goal of successful recovery more attainable.

• Waisman Center UCEDD and Community Partners Launch an Equity Action Lab in Rural Wisconsin

  The Wisconsin Care Integration Initiative (WiCII) is a HRSA-funded project at the Waisman Center to improve systems of care for medically underserved families of children with or at risk for ASD/DD. In order to support community-driven solutions in this area, WiCII brought together parents, policymakers, and community and state leaders to participate in the "100 Million Healthier Lives States of Solutions" program. States of Solutions, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and convened by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, provides high quality tools and consultation to advance health equity. The program is grounded in the principle that those most impacted by inequity should play a leading role in developing and implementing sustainable solutions.

• Announcing the Institute for Human Development at Northern Arizona University's 2020 Evidence for Success Disability Conference Call-For-Presenters!

  Proposals are due by Monday, January 13, 2020

  The annual IHD Evidence for Success Disability Conference reflects the individual projects and collaborative endeavors in disability disciplines at NAU's Institute for Human Development. With a legacy of over 20 years of annual conferences in Arizona, the Evidence for Success Disability Conference has become one of the premier disability related conference in Arizona drawing over 500 participants annually, many from other states and US territories.

Past 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.

View Schedule    Read More >

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.

View Schedule    Read More >

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.