Posted on March 20, 2020
In today’s world of fast-paced information sharing, it can be difficult to sort out which information is based on opinion, politics, science or data. Adding a global pandemic to the mix has made this increasingly difficult for our Delaware community members and individuals throughout the world. At this point, it is important to acknowledge that this novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19, is not something to take lightly. And, for certain groups, it may have more of an impact on
This entry was posted in Health and Wellness and tagged coronavirus, COVID-19.
Posted on October 22, 2019
The question, “Are you thinking of killing yourself?” feels rather unsettling. A few months ago, I became a Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) instructor with 13 of my colleagues in the state of Delaware. We practiced asking our peers this challenging question and it didn’t get any easier each additional time we said it out loud. In 2017, more than 47,000 people in the U.S. died by suicide, making it one of the leading causes of death. There were more than twice as many suicides that year as there were homicides. The more that we empower the people in our community to get trained in YMHFA and learn how to speak to someone struggling with suicidal thoughts, the more likely the number of suicides will start to decrease.
Posted on December 10, 2018
With the midterm elections behind us, disability advocates face an opportunity to make significant legislative gains.
The conventional wisdom holds that gridlock will dominate the 116th U.S. Congress, which begins in January 2019. With a GOP majority in the Senate and a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, both parties are poised to block each other’s most polarizing bills. But because there will likely be little movement on contentious agenda items, space will open up for other issues to come to the fore. The disability community is uniquely poised to take advantage.
Many disability-related policies were not only front and center in the midterm elections – several unified Democratic and Republican voters.
Posted on July 10, 2018
When the price tag was under $1 million, the 2017–2018 Delaware General Assembly overwhelmingly approved bills that should benefit the disability community.
Delawareans with disabilities no longer will face discrimination in organ transplant determinations. School resource officers will be trained to use de-escalation, not restraint and seclusion, as a disciplinary technique. State health services won’t be able to “claw back” funds from ABLE accounts upon the beneficiary’s death.
The Legislature also started a program to forgive as much as $10,000 in student loans for educators in short-staffed fields, including special education. And with a growing population of students diagnosed with autism, lawmakers created positions for autism specialists who will offer training and assistance in schools across Delaware. The new Delaware Advance Scholarship Program will reduce tuition costs for students with intellectual disabilities attending college.
When a bill’s price tag topped $1 million, though, state lawmakers stepped forward, rocked backward, or stood still.
Posted on July 15, 2016
It happened again: another visit to a doctor’s office where my answer to a questionnaire about my mental health ended up affecting, adversely, the way they viewed me, communicated with me, treated me.
I always dread the question at health practitioners’ offices about which medications I’m taking. For the past 20 years I’ve wanted to dodge answering that I am on medication for bipolar disorder because once I do, the tone of the visit changes dramatically. My husband happened
