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Archive for January 22nd, 2011

 

 
Posted on: Tuesday, 14 December 2010, 00:01 CST 

 

A practicing speech and language pathologist in Dallas, has created 15 apps that are compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch® and iPad engaging parents and helping children with a variety of speech delays or disabilities.

 
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) December 12, 2010 

 

Did you know that 8 to 9% of children in the United States struggle from a speech or language delay? Speech or language delay is a general term used to describe children who have difficulty communicating their basic needs and wants due to the presence of difficulties pronouncing some sounds, stuttering, autism, or a specific language disorder. These children need help from both speech pathologists and parents to practice and improve their skills. Often times, therapists may struggle finding something that will engage the student, and parents may struggle having any type of material to practice with at home. One determined speech therapist, named Barbara Fernandes, however, is determined to bridge the gap of accessible and engaging speech therapy materials. Mrs. Fernandes has been helping speech therapists and parents around the world to engage children in the process of improving their speech and communication skills using devices from Apple®.

 

Barbara Fernandes, M.S, CCC-SLP, a practicing speech and language pathologist in Dallas, has created 15 applications that are compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch® and iPad to help children with a variety of speech delays or disabilities. Barbara is the founder and director of Smarty Ears, a company that designs and publishes apps for improving communication skills in all areas such as stuttering, articulation and language. She is also the host of GeekSLP TV, a video podcast and blog dedicated towards educating parents and therapists alike in ways to incorporate technology into improving language skills.

 

With over 200,000 applications on Apple’s app store, it is quite overwhelming for parents or therapists to identify the ones that were designed specifically by a qualified specialist in the area or to find the apps that target the specific areas in which children need to work on. Barbara Fernandes, a trilingual speech pathologist and a specialist in speech and language disorders, has created apps specifically for people who stutter, children with difficulty pronouncing sounds, children with language delays and even an app that will serve the Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device.

 

Barbara comments on the importance of parental support in the process: “In my practice, I have had the opportunity to observe that children will make significantly more progress if they are engaged in the activity and if the parents are also practicing with the children at home. The apps I have created do not substitute the need for traditional speech therapy, but they allow parents to become active participants in their child’s speech and language development. It is wonderful to see speech therapists recommending my apps to parents as ‘homework‘ or to receive e-mails from parents that describe their children’s success. A common comment received is that their child is able to improve the pronunciation of the ‘r’ sounds after they have used one of my apps called ‘r intensive’. This app targets words that contain several forms of the ‘r’ sound in an intensive practice format.”

 
One of Barbara’s most popular apps is “Match2Say”, an app that was also featured by Apple Inc. on the App store as New and Noteworthy. Match2Say is a matching game that allows children to play with specific sounds. Children learn while playing and being engaged by listening to an auditory model. Another hit app, always amongst the best-selling education apps is “Articulate it!”, a comprehensive application that allows speech therapists, teachers and parents to work with children who have difficulty pronouncing sounds and can’t be understood by others. “Fluency tracker” is an application that can be used by parents and individuals who stutter to track their stuttering behavior. Some of these apps are available in Spanish and plans for other foreign languages are under way. 

 

Barbara Fernandes has also recently designed an entry-level Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app for children with a communication disorder called “Expressive”. “Expressive” gives children the ability to express themselves through the use of pictured images and corresponding audio, and can also be used by individuals who have had a stroke and have lost their ability to communicate with family members.    “Expressive” offers simple and easy customization tailored to the individual’s communication levels and needs.

 
Apple’s devices and the App Store have allowed professionals such as Barbara to bypass the bureaucracy of the large corporations and create products that will benefit individuals both in the U.S. and around the world. “Children around the world are benefiting greatly by the revolution in education happening right now where children, parents, teachers and therapists have access to tools that were once only a dream for the future. I am proud to be a part of that,” says Barbara. 

Additional information can be found at http://www.smartyearsapps.com
To access GeekSLP’s blog entries and videos, visit: http://www.geekslp.com

 
iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple are trademarks of Apple Inc.


 

PERRI KLASS, M.D.

Published: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 5:17 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, December 14, 2010 at 5:17 a.m.

As recently as 2002, an international group of leading neuroscientists found it necessary to publish a statement arguing passionately that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was a real condition.

In the face of “overwhelming” scientific evidence, they complained, A.D.H.D. was regularly portrayed in the media as “myth, fraud or benign condition” — an artifact of too-strict teachers, perhaps, or too much television.

In recent years, it has been rarer to hear serious doubt that the disorder really exists, and the evidence explaining its neurocircuitry and genetics has become more convincing and more complex.

Even so, I’ve lately read a number of articles and essays that use attention (or its lack) as a marker and a metaphor for something larger in society — for the multitasking, the electronic distractions, the sense that the nature of concentration may be changing, that people feel nibbled at, overscheduled, distracted, irritable.

But A.D.H.D. is not a metaphor. It is not the restlessness and rambunctiousness that happen when grade-schoolers are deprived of recess, or the distraction of socially minded teenagers in the smartphone era. Nor is it the reason your colleagues check their e-mail in meetings and even (spare me!) conversations.

“Attention is a really complex cognitive phenomenon that has a lot of pieces in it,” said Dr. David K. Urion of Harvard, who directs the learning disabilities and behavioral neurology program at Boston Children’s Hospital. “What we’re specifically talking about in kids with attention deficit is a problem compared to age- and gender-based peers in selective attention — what do you glom onto and what do you ignore?”

Read in Full:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20101214/ZNYT04/12143014/-1/NEWS03?Title=Untangling-the-Myths-About-Attention-Disorder



 Jeff Brazier, right, and his brother Spencer

Getting closer: Jeff Brazier, right, and his brother Spencer 

By Nikki Murfitt
Last updated at 9:26 PM on 11th December 2010

Television presenter Jeff Brazier and his younger brother Spencer have always led very separate lives. Jeff’s has involved the hard graft (and glamour) of establishing a showbusiness career, while Spencer, who was born with cerebral palsy, has a sheltered existence, never straying far from home, with daytime TV and computer games replacing an active social life.

This acute disparity in their lives had been concerning Jeff, 31. Perhaps it was as a result of reflecting on recent tragic events in his own life, including the death of his former partner Jade Goody.

Overnight he became a full-time father to their sons Bobby, seven, and six-year-old Freddie when Jade died in March 2009, aged 27, from cervical cancer.

A month later his grandfather Jack Smith, 81, killed himself after being diagnosed with throat and mouth cancer.

So much of Jeff’s family life has been out of his control  -  including the tragic early death of his father, Stephen, who was skipper of The Marchioness pleasure boat which sank in the Thames in 1989 when Jeff was just ten years old.

But he was determined to change his relationship with Spencer.

Earlier this year, he set aside three weeks to improve his brother’s quality of life and their poignant journey is captured in a BBC documentary Me And My Brother. The programme does not make for easy watching and highlights how difficult it can be to reconcile two very different lives when divided by disability.

‘I’ve known for a while that Spencer isn’t happy,’ says Jeff. ‘He wants friends and maybe eventually a wife and family. That’s his dream, but he has lost the confidence to go out and look for it. He’s been wrapped up in cotton wool by my mum – a perfectly natural instinct – but I want to do what I can to help him achieve the best life possible.’

So far, Jeff admitted his contribution towards helping Spencer had been limited to turning up for family and festive celebrations and allowing their mother Janette, 47, to take responsibility for being Spencer’s sole carer.

‘I’m not critical of mum’s parenting,’ says Jeff. ‘I know that when it takes him hours to tidy or wash up, it’s easier just to step in and do it yourself. But over time, it’s taken Spencer’s independence.’

The presenter, currently training for ITV1’s Dancing On Ice, says: ‘With everything that has happened in my life, Mum agreed to leave her friends in Colchester and move, along with Spencer, near to me in Newhall, Essex, so that she could help bring up Bobby and Freddie.

‘She has made a big sacrifice for me and I wanted to repay that by helping in a constructive way. Since Spencer was born, Mum has looked after him full-time. But I think he has come to rely on her so much he’s become lazy. He’s more isolated and that in turn means he lacks confidence to meet people. As a result he’s bored and frustrated. It’s easy in this kind of situation to get stuck in a rut and I was determined to see what I could do to help them.’

Cerebral palsy is caused by damage to part of the brain called the cerebrum which controls communication skills, memory and the ability to learn. It usually occurs before, during or soon after birth and known causes include infection in early pregnancy, a difficult or premature birth, or bleeding in the baby’s brain. About 1,800 babies in the UK are diagnosed with the condition each year.

Symptoms normally become apparent during the first three years of a child’s life when they are slower in achieving important developmental goals such as crawling, walking or speaking. They also tend to have problems with muscle tone.

Although Spencer, 25, has a normal IQ, like many of those with cerebral palsy he is unable to speak and uses a series of hand gestures – which only close family understand  -  to help him communicate. He also has limited use of his hands, which means simple tasks such as shaving can take more than two hours.

Jeff was always protective of his brother when they were young. He remembers getting into fights when Spencer was ridiculed for dribbling, which is one aspect of his condition.

Inevitably, when Jeff left home at 16, to pursue a football career with Leyton Orient and subsequently a TV career, they drifted apart.

Jeff also points out that in a household that was not always happy, Spencer’s needs were sometimes not met.

‘Although he had physiotherapy and speech therapy and went to a school for children with physical disabilities, because there was a lot of arguing at home Spencer’s development was put to one side.

‘Because he can communicate only by using his own hand signals, I’ve felt for years that it was a massive stumbling block and the first thing I wanted to do something about.’

And with the help of the ACE Centre Advisory Trust in Oxford, which specialises in providing technology to help people communicate, Spencer was given a laptop and software which had a pre-programmed voice. By typing in messages, he was able to have his first ‘telephone conversation’ with his mother.

‘It was an incredible moment to hear him communicate properly. I had tears in my eyes and I thought it was such a breakthrough,’ says Jeff. ‘Mum was delighted  -  you could hear the catch in her voice, knowing that Spencer was effectively talking.’

But their hopes were dashed when, days later, Spencer refused to use the device, claiming it made him feel ‘disabled’. Despite his lifelong condition, he had never considered himself disabled, just different.

‘It was a real blow. I want to be able to have conversations with Spencer but without a communication device I can’t go beyond the most basic level, which I find incredibly sad. However, to hear that Spencer doesn’t consider himself disabled was something I never knew before. He believes that asking for help makes him appear disabled. To me it was just something to improve his life.’

…  Jeff Brazier: Me And My Brother is on BBC3 on Thursday at 9pm.

Read in Full:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1337593/Do-right-tell-disabled-live.html?ito=feeds-newsxml



 

An Aberdeen furniture workshop which employs staff with disabilities has won a three-year contract to supply beds to the Queen.

Glencraft closed last year with the loss of more than 50 jobs.

However, oil firm Production Services Network (PSN) stepped in and sought Scottish government support to breath new life into the factory.

Glencraft urged people buying beds to consider the organisation if they were good enough for the Queen.

The organisation previously supplied furniture to the Royal Family for decades, much of it to Balmoral Castle.

Glencraft operations manager Andy Laing said: “To have been re-awarded the Royal Warrant is a great honour and signals the strength of our business and the quality of our products.

“There is no doubt the last 12 months have been incredibly tough and we are still at the start of a long journey but this good news comes as a real boost to the business.

“You never know, we might even supply Prince William and Kate Middleton with a bed as a wedding gift from Glencraft.”

Read in Full:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-11948827



More than half of people with disabilities would like to work more, a major study of the lives of the lives of those with physical impairments has found.

3:09PM GMT 09 Dec 2010

While 26 per cent of the general population said they were “limited in the type or amount of paid work they did”, the proportion among those with disabilities was 56 per cent.

The most significant unique barrier to work among unemployed, disabled people was “anxiety and lack of confidence”, which 19 per cent cited.

The report, by the Office for National Statistics, also found that disproportionate numbers of disabled adults said they had limited opportunities to learn, meet people and enjoy leisure activities.

The vast majority of adults with disabilities (83 per cent) had limited participation in leisure, social and cultural activities and almost a quarter (24 per cent) had limited social contact.

Meanwhile, households containing disabled people were more likely to be financially stressed.

Almost half of households where at least one person had a disability (45 per cent) were unable to afford expenses or make loan repayments, compares to 29 per cent of households where no-one had an impairment.

According to the ONS’s Life Opportunities Survey, a quarter (26 per cent) of Britain’s adult population is disabled, as defined by the Disability Discrimination Act.

Source:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8191777/Disabled-people-want-to-work-more-ONS-study-finds.html



 

First official survey since 1997 says many individuals with impairments are living socially isolated, cash-strapped lives
• Get the data

Randeep Ramesh, social affairs editor 

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 9 December 2010 19.02 GMT

Disabled people are almost twice as likely as able-bodied people not to be able to work, have a holiday or take courses according to a bleak assessment in the first official survey of people with disabilities since 1997.

The Life Opportunities Survey asked 18,000 people about the “social barriers” they faced in eight key areas of life and found many disabled people in Britain are living socially isolated, cash-strapped lives and struggling to participate in normal activities.

Large numbers of disabled people suffered from so much “anxiety and lack of confidence” that they struggled to lead a normal life.

The result is a startling gap between what able-bodied and disabled people could manage to do in life.

Almost a fifth of disabled adults felt so stressed that work was beyond them – compared with just 4% of the general population.

One in eight impaired adults felt so insecure they would not venture to take a long-distance train, compared with just one in 50 able-bodied people.

A disproportionately high number of disabled adults said they had limited engagement with the modern world and were unable to move freely, work or enjoy leisure pursuits.

In employment, 56% of adults with impairments experienced restrictions in “the type or work they did or the salary they were paid” compared with just 26% of the general population.

This income inequality severely disadvantaged those with disabilities. Almost a third of households with an adult with impairments said they could not afford a week away on holiday each year – compared with just one in five of other households.

Shockingly, 12% of adults with impairments experienced difficulty “accessing rooms within their home or difficulty getting in or out of their home” compared with just 1% of adults without impairments.

“We have to recognise that everybody faces social barriers but they are higher for people with impairments,” said Tom Howe, who heads the survey for the Office of National Statistics.

“I think some of these things are obvious, like transport. There’s no way you can get on a bus if you are in a wheelchair if the bus does not have a low floor designed for you.”

One of the salient points made by the survey is that disabled people appeared to struggle financially.

Almost double the number of households with a person who had an impairment found it hard to pay off loans compared with the 15% of general population.

An unexpected bill of £500 would leave 38% of impaired adults struggling compared with 26% of their able-bodied peers.

“It is hard to know whether this is because people with impairments have reduced incomes or because they have higher living costs,” said Howe.

Disability charities said the findings showed there was still a long way to go before disabled people in Britain could enjoy the same opportunities as non-disabled people.

Guy Parckar, acting director of policy and campaigns at Leonard Cheshire Disability, said: “The survey really highlights what the impact of inaccessibility and discrimination can be.

“When people face problems and barriers every day it not only reduces their opportunities, it can actually hold back their aspirations too.

“Disabled people are twice as likely to live in poverty as non-disabled people, and twice as likely to have no qualifications.

“Despite the improvements that there have been in terms of legislation, we are still a very long way from having genuine equal opportunities.”

The ONS study comes after the government this week published plans to replace the main benefit for the disabled, disability living allowance (DLA), with a new benefit – personal independence payment – that would have tighter eligibility criteria.

In the June budget, ministers had already said they wanted to reduce the number of working-age claimants of DLA, currently 1.8 million, by a fifth.

This would reduce yearly spending on the disabled by a little more than £1bn by 2014-15. Ministers say they “do not know” how many people will be affected by the proposed cut.

Campaigners said that these figures called into question the government’s strategy, as the “barriers” to participating in everyday life remained too high for disabled people.

“What the results show is that after more than a decade of economic growth disabled people still experience disadvantage across all aspects of life,” said Neil Coyle of Disability Alliance.

“As we’ve hit a downturn, disadvantage and exclusion are increasing – but, worryingly, the coalition government is choosing to slash support for disabled people.

“Time-limiting one benefit and restricting access to other support – including DLA, which helps disabled people with higher costs of living – will only impoverish and isolate disabled people and their families further.”

Richard Hawkes, chief executive of Scope, said the survey threw up some “interesting dilemmas” for the government.

He said: “The survey has revealed that nearly half of households where at least one person had an impairment are unable to afford expenses or make loan repayments.

“Disability living allowance was introduced to help disabled people meet the extra costs of living with a disability or impairment and allows many people to live their everyday lives as fully as possible.

“That is why it is also imperative that the government reverses its decision to continue with the withdrawal of the mobility component from disabled people in residential care.”

Read in Full:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/dec/09/disabled-people-missing-out-jobs-courses



 

Setting up your own company is not easy at the best of times, but there is support available and it can be hugely liberating

Graham Snowdon

The Guardian

In 1995 Vanessa Heywood had the world at her feet, her talent as an actor, singer and dancer winning her roles in prestigious touring theatre productions such as West Side Story, Twelfth Night and Elvis: The Musical. But then she began to notice something was not quite right.

“As a dancer I was incredibly fit, obviously, but I was doing double pirouettes and not quite landing on a sixpence. At first I thought I wasn’t practising hard enough, that I must practice harder,” she recalls. “But then I started to realise it wasn’t that.” To her disbelief, a brain scan confirmed she had multiple sclerosis.

Heywood carried on dancing for a while, but found the life increasingly gruelling. “My energy was affected and I was trying to hide the MS constantly,” she says. Soon after, she had her two children in quick succession, but things became even more complicated when her husband suddenly left. This meant she had to look after two young children alone, without an income.

Six years ago she saw a chance to reinvent her career, utilising her lifelong passion for music to write inspiring, interactive songs for young children. “I took my kids to a singalong session where the mums were drinking coffee and singing The Wheels on the Bus rather halfheartedly, and I just realised, I could do better than this,” she says.

Looking after her two young sons by day, and working by night, she wrote in her lounge, often sleeping on the sofa when the MS stopped her getting up the stairs. “I was writing frenziedly,” she says of a time during which she composed 36 songs and created a group of characters, the Tiny Mites, which sprang from stories she told her sons. Unable to afford to hire a hall, she held her first music sessions for children in a church field in Radlett, Hertfordshire, where she lives.

Today her business, Tiny Mites Music, has contracts with a number of large holiday parks, nursery chains and schools and has released a Tiny Mites CD. Last week, she won the Stelios Award for Disabled Entrepreneurs in the UK – an annual £50,000 prize awarded by EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s philanthropic foundation in association with Leonard Cheshire Disability, an honour she describes as “life-changing”.

Her story shows some of the advantages disabled people can derive from being self-employed. The government’s Office for Disability Issues estimates there are 10.1 million disabled adults – covering people with a longstanding illness, disability or infirmity, and who have significant difficulties with day-to-day issues – in the UK, about half of whom are of working age.

While setting up a business is not easy at the best of times, Kath Sutherland, a development officer with the Disabled Entrepreneurs Network (DEN) and a small business owner herself, says being able to work from a particular location, in hours that suit the individual, can be hugely liberating.

“I set up my company in 1999 because it was difficult to work nine to five,” says Sutherland, who needs 24-hour support for a combination of neurological and visual impairments and mobility issues. She set up her business, START (Ability), by offering support to groups of disabled people wanting to approach lottery funders, and who needed help with business plans and structures. She now also offers one-to-one training and support to national organisations, as well as resources in different accessible formats.

One problem, she says, is that would-be disabled entrepreneurs are often trapped in a Catch-22 situation. “At the DEN we get a lot of calls from people who need assistive technology, but can’t get it without starting up a business,” she says. “But then they can’t start up a business, or draw up a business plan, without the assistive technology. It can be very complex for some people to take the first step.”

Amar Latif, a blind entrepreneur and former Stelios award winner with his tour company, Traveleyes, agrees. “Setting up any business requires a lot of hard work and research. Then, if you’re blind, you’ve got other issues, such as information not being accessible for you to do the research,” he says.

Latif set up Traveleyes in 2004 because he loved travelling but was frustrated at not being able to do it independently: “Being blind, just jetting off by yourself without your family wasn’t an option,” he says. “You could fly, but you couldn’t explore by yourself.”

Traveleyes offers heavily subsidised prices for sighted travellers who, in exchange, spend part of the trip acting as the “eyes” for non-sighted travellers in the group. “I knew, in my heart, it was a great idea and it would work,” Latif recalls. “I did a little experiment and took someone to Malaysia and Thailand to be my eyes. The great thing was that the sighted person really, really enjoyed it, too.” He now also acts as an ambassador for Leonard Cheshire Disability, which helps would-be disabled entrepreneurs negotiate problematic issues like banks and business plans.

Long-term ME sufferer Linda Edmonds dreamed of starting a business hosting cookery parties and teaching kids to cook, but hadn’t worked for six years. “I’d always been active, but having ME was terrible,” she recalls. “I was hospitalised for six weeks at one point. It was crippling.”

She got in touch with Leonard Cheshire Disability through her local Jobcentre in Braintree, Essex, and was assigned a business adviser, Leonore Lord. “We offered Linda help with a business plan, accessing finance, help coming off benefits and lots of moral and emotional support,” says Lord.

“Leonore was fantastic in helping get me started,” says Edmonds, who finally overcame her ME shortly before her business, The Cookery Angel, launched in 2008. “It was a great feeling to come home exhausted, but because I’d been working, not because I’d been lying on the couch in agony all day.”

Lord thinks one of the biggest challenges disabled people can face in going self-employed is persuading relatives that it is a good move. “Friends and family are often concerned at the thought of disabled people setting up in business,” she says. “It can hold them back, so we provide the emotional support, critical friends and background information about opportunities, workshops and one-to-one support, so they’re thinking about all the things they should be thinking about, such as, What happens if I get poorly? What happens if the business doesn’t work? And also about coming off benefits.”

For those accustomed to benefits, that can be daunting. “If people’s whole household income is from benefits and they have fairly high housing costs, moving into self-employment is a bit like falling off a cliff,” says Ann Chaplin, a project manager with Enabled4Growth, a scheme that supports London-based businesses run by disabled people. “The benefits can stop immediately, and who can start a business that provides them with an immediate income of £20,000 to replace that lost income?”

The DEN’s Sutherland commonly answers questions about disability benefit entitlement for the self-employed. “There’s a lot of misconceptions, like you can’t get Access to Work [a practical advice and support service for disabled workers] assistance, which you can, and also that you can’t be self-employed if you’re on incapacity benefit. Actually, it can be allowed as permitted work,” she says.

Under the current permitted work rules, many ESA or incapacity benefit claimants can work for less than 16 hours a week on average with earnings up to £95, although government advice website Directgov recommends checking with your adviser beforehand. From February 2011, over 2 million people claiming incapacity benefit will be “migrated” on to the newer Employment and Support Allowance (ESA). To achieve this, the Department for Work and Pensions is undertaking a massive reassessment programme. Permitted work will still be allowed under the new scheme, but the prospect of reassessment is understandably causing apprehension among many claimants.

All this impacts on another key issue for disabled entrepreneurs: the difficulty in raising working capital. “Banks worry about lending to people who don’t have a perfect financial track record because maybe they’ve been on benefits, or they’ve got hearing or visual impairment, or they’ve got a chronic long-term illness,” says Lord.

Latif had to overcome just such preconceptions when setting up Traveleyes: “I’d walk into banks and they’d just say, ‘What? You’re blind, and you want to set up as a tour operator? Alone?’ There was a lot of working around that, it was quite a challenge.”

Jeremy Freeman, a deaf entrepreneur who runs website design consultancy Bamps.com, as well as two online toy shops, Treeblocks and The Bubble Shop, has also found funding hard to come by. “Even though we have a good business plan and our turnover has increased year on year, we haven’t been able to grow as fast as I would have liked,” he says. “I believe some bank managers use my disability not to lend – but they have not said that to me.”

Freeman has used the challenges he has faced to spur himself on and is also a regional director of a nationwide business networking group called BNI. “There are thousands of members all over the UK, and I only know of one other deaf person who is a member,” he says. “My deafness has helped me show businesses that deafness should not be a barrier – it has opened people’s eyes and given me a lot of respect that I can be successful despite being profoundly deaf.”

All the disabled entrepreneurs Guardian Work spoke to were keen to stress the importance of being passionate about your business. Heywood, who is preparing to franchise her Tiny Mites Music business nationwide, agrees it’s important to find an idea you really believe in, “then your passion and belief will push you through the bad times. I think that’s true for anyone, but especially if you’ve got extra difficulties to battle through.”

Read in Full:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/dec/04/disability-entrepreneurs-self-employment



 

Allan Schwartz, LCSW, Ph.D. Updated: Dec 12th 2010

The holiday season is upon us once again. It is a time of year filled with joy, hopefulness for the New Year and remembrances of years past, going back to childhood and parents. It is also a time of year that can be emotionally exhausting, especially if a loved one died during the last year. Combined with a vulnerability to Seasonal Affective disorder, the season and aftermath can be very difficult.

Because the season is a festive time that is marked by family renewals, a deep sense of loss and mourning can be pervasive when a loved one is missing. Normally, holidays bring with them fond reminiscences of past celebrations. The “empty chair” that was occupied by a wife, parent, other close family members and close and dear friends can often reawakens feelings of grief with renewed intensity.

In addition, there is the problem of seasonal changes that come with life during the winter months. Shorter days, fewer hours of sunshine, cloudy skies, cold and damp weather, all combine to cause Seasonal Affective Disorder for those are already vulnerable to its influences.

In other words, depression can raise its ugly head during time that is supposed to be festive. In fact, it has been my observation that the contrast between the joy that others are feeling and the sadness that one does feel, increases the sense of loss and abandonment during this time of year.

Some coping suggestions handling grief during the holidays:

1. When the family gathers, honor and remember the loved one by lighting a special candle.

2. Have everyone share a favorite memory.

3. Ask the family to take part in a loved one’s favorite holiday activity. Do something that would make your loved one smile.”

4. Everyone in the family feels the loss of the missing family member. Reminiscing about that family member can even bring smiles to everyone’s faces. Avoiding discussing the loss only worsens sad feelings.

5. If shopping in the malls feels too painful, shop for gifts online or just send cards. Everyone will understand.

6. Surround yourself with caring, loving and supportive people.

Coping with Seasonal Affective Disorder:

This disorder is characterized by depression, exhaustion and lack of interest in people and regular activities. The result is that the ability to function both socially and at work is impaired. Therefore, its important to:

1. Get outside during winter months even if the weather is awful., even if it is overcast.

2. Expose your eyes to natural light for one hour each day can reduce the symptoms of SAD.

3. At home, open the drapes and blinds in order to let in natural light.

4. If symptoms persist for more two weeks or more a more aggressive approach will be necessary by seeking psychological help.

5. This help may take the form of light therapy where special lamps expose the eyes to the type of sunlight that exists during spring and summer.

Read in Full:  http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=41398&cn=58

 



 

By John M Grohol PsyD

Parents often live in fear of this time of the year, because as their child ages, their belief in Santa Claus becomes challenged by hints that perhaps he isn’t as real as they thought.

Sometimes the first hints come from watching television, catching a part of conversation that suggests Santa was never real. Other times it comes from surreptitiously catching Mom & Dad putting out the presents in the middle of the night. Yet other times it comes from the realization that it may be physically impossible for one individual to go down so many chimneys in such a short amount of time (not to mention how heavy he would be eating all those cookies!).

Psych Central’s parenting expert Dr. Marie Hartwell-Walker will help you get through this transition to help keep your child’s disappointment and hurt to a minimum.

Read in Full:  http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2010/12/12/the-dreaded-question-is-santa-real/



 

Article Date: 14 Dec 2010 – 3:00 PST

Losing a job is a profoundly distressing experience, but the unemployed may be more resilient than previously believed – the vast majority eventually end up as satisfied with life as they were before they lost their jobs, according to a new analysis published by the American Psychological Association.

“Unemployment rates continue to be historically high in the United States and other countries,” said the study’s lead author, Isaac Galatzer-Levy, PhD, who is now at New York University School of Medicine. “There’s a real concern that this will have long-term implications on the mental well-being of a large portion of the work force. But this analysis suggests that people are able to cope with a job loss relatively well over time.”

Galatzer-Levy and his colleagues analyzed results of the German Socioeconomic Panel Data study. This is a nationally representative survey of German households conducted yearly from 1984 to 2003. Their findings are published in the latest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology and Economics.

For this analysis, the researchers used data from 774 participants who had all lost their jobs at some point during the study. Included in this analysis were the participants’ own reports of well-being in the three years before they lost their jobs until four years after the job loss. Specifically, they were asked, “How satisfied are you nowadays with your life as a whole?” Respondents rated this question on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being completely satisfied. They were also asked about their sex, age, education and employment status. The researchers also gathered national and regional unemployment rates during the time of the study.

“Because we used a large representative sample, unemployment follows broad economic trends in Germany,” said Galatzer-Levy. “Just like in the current climate, these are people who are losing jobs not due to fault of their own, but because they’re the victims of large market forces.”

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