June 17th, 2010 6:44 am

By Heather Sedlock

Two autistic boys, living in New South Wales, Australia, were dumped on the side of the road by their taxi driver on June 3rd, 2010. The taxi was part of a program that gives special needs children rides to and from school where taxi companies are paid by a government agency. The boys were age 11 and 8.
Their mother was at home waiting for her 7 year old daughter (not autistic) to come home on the regular school bus. Her oldest son (age 12 with an Autism Spectrum Disorder) was waiting inside. The cab driver pulled up, without the boys, and informed the mother that her children were dropped off, where they were dropped and that they can walk home. The mother was obviously furious and then demanded that the taxi driver take her to where he dropped the boys off at.

The driver did so, but then left mother there with her sons to race back to the house as her oldest son was the only one home and her daughter would have been worried not seeing her mom at the house when she got off the bus. Luckily for the family, the boys and the taxi driver, the boys were unharmed. However, their parents are still outraged that not only did this happen but that the taxi driver got “just a slap on the hand.”

Their father, Vince Steele, recently reached out via Facebook with a note that detailed what had occurred asking his friends and family to write the taxi company. This was not the first time the drivers had acted out against his sons. The response was overwhelming and it seemed now that the taxi company was going to take him seriously. Mr. Steele agreed to an interview with Examiner.

Examiner: Tell me about your boys.

Mr. Steele: One of them is 11 yeasr old, barely verbal, and diagnosed with intellectual impairment, but we suspect ASD as he gets older, and 8 year old (almost 9) with classic tiptoeing hand flapping autism. No sense of stranger danger for the youngest, also barely verbal. He will happily yell out a big “HI” to any stranger and would be an easy target for predators if left without adequate adult supervision. Has no sense of direction other than what he can see in his immediate environment.

Examiner: What happened in the first incident? When was it?

Mr. Steele: First incident was a couple of months or so ago. Our 12 year old son (ASD: high functioning) was picked up from his special needs school by a taxi driver who decided he couldn’t sit in the front seat due to safety issues. Our boy was always allowed by other drivers to travel in the front, so he didn’t understand why he suddenly had to sit in the back. The driver lost patience with his protests and ended up so agitating our son, who was in the back of the cab cowering in fear for the trip. When the driver got to our house, he threw open the door, and yelled out to his mother to “GET THIS F***ING KID OUT OF MY TAXI”. He then started shouting at her. I was waiting for our then-6 year old daughter’s school bus across the road. So I went over to the taxi driver and tried to explain about Autism and simply got shouted at. I naturally became angry myself and we had a shouting match. I eventually told him to never take my son in his taxi ever again and he drove off with the huffs. I phoned the taxi company and the receptionist simply told me that “Taxi drivers have melt downs occasionally too”. I emailed the company and one of the directors came to do the school run the next morning so he could get our version of events. By the afternoon, I’d received a phone call stating that the driver had recommended our transport privileges be revoked and that video footage showed me making a fist and us both shouting at each other, but there was conveniently no sound, so we were told the driver would be restricted to not conveying our children. I mentioned I was worried this could happen to other special needs children on the run and was told that because we were both making accusations of each other, they were going to leave things the way it had just been put to me. In other words, he still got to do special needs school runs, just not for our children.

Read in Full:  http://www.examiner.com/special-needs-kids-in-national/autistic-children-dumped-mid-trip-to-walk-home-by-a-taxi-driver

 

A disability election message from Bill Shorten

If you live with disability, care for a person with disability or have an interest in disability issues, your vote has never been more important than in the 2010 federal election.

After 12 long years of neglect, the Gillard Labor Government has put support for people with disability back on the national agenda. So, if disability is important to you, I urge you to consider our record and plan for the future when you cast your vote on August 21.

Our record

We delivered historic increases to the DSP and Carer Payment now worth around $100 per fortnight for singles. We invested $1.7million in Disability Employment Services to end waiting lists for people with disability who want help finding a job.

We are doubling funding to the states and territories under the National Disability Agreement, providing more than $6 billion over five years. We ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and signed the Optional Protocol.

The Gillard Labor Government is making public buildings more accessible through new Access to premises standards, and brokered a landmark agreement with the housing industry for all new homes to meet universal design standards by 2020. We worked with the cinema industry on a watershed deal to make cinemas more accessible for people with vision or hearing impairments.

We provided early intervention services for children with autism, and if re-elected will provide $12,000 for early intervention services for up to 7800 more young children with disability. We will also provide $60 million in capital funding to build innovative, community-based supported accommodation places.

We also worked with the states and territories to develop the National Disability Strategy to outline a long-term plan to improve the lives of people with disability, promote participation and create a more inclusive society. The Strategy outlines a nationwide approach to improving the lives of people with disability. It will guide public policy across governments and aims to bring about change in all mainstream services and programs as well as community infrastructure.

For more information about our election policies, see: http://www.alp.org.au/agenda/

The future

The Gillard Labor Government knows that much more must be done to ensure that people with disability are able to fulfil their potential. Prime Minister Gillard has said that the status quo in disability can not continue, and a re-elected Gillard Labor Government is committed to major reform in disability services.

That’s why our government has asked the Productivity Commission to undertake its landmark inquiry into the feasibility of a national care and support scheme for people with disability. A national disability insurance scheme would be a complex and transformative reform that requires detailed consideration. The Productivity Commission inquiry will assess whether a national disability insurance scheme would be appropriate, practical and economically responsible in the Australian context.

Make your vote count

The Coalition has little credibility on disability issues. The former Coalition Government ignored people with disability and their carers for 12 long years and stood by while demand grew for disability services and disability pensioners struggled with the cost of living.

So, if disability policy is important to you, an important choice awaits you on 21 August. A vote for the Gillard Labor Government will ensure that the needs of people with disability and their carers will remain a first order priority for the Federal Government.

The choice is clear – make sure your vote counts.

Regardless of the result of the election on August 21st, the fight for a better deal for people with disability will continue. 

Yours sincerely,

Bill Shorten

Australia’s “kingmakers” meet to discuss next government

Tuesday 24th August, 2010.

A handful of independent and Green MPs who will decide the make-up of Australia’s minority government were set to begin talks on Tuesday to decide whether to support Labor or the conservative opposition’s bid for power. Skip related content

Latest counting gives Labor and the opposition conservatives 71 seats each — with 76 seats needed to form the government — but poll experts predict both will end up with 73, leaving three independents and a Green MP holding the balance of power.

“Let’s draw breath and wait for the numbers to come in … and then get down to some policy issues,” said independent Rob Oakeshott, indicating the political limbo would last until a final result is declared, which may take 10 days.

There were no talks yet scheduled with Labor Prime Minister Julia Gillard or opposition leader Tony Abbott. Bookmakers say Labor is favourite to govern with a handful of independents.

At stake in the election is the fate of Labor’s planned 30 percent resources tax, a $38 billion fibre-optic broadband network and a future carbon price which the power sector says is needed to ensure continued investment.

Standard and Chartered Bank’s regional economist Simon Wong said the mining tax was now dead, whoever ended up in power.

“The mining tax is likely to be further scaled back or even scrapped, even in the case of a Labor-led minority,” he said.

“The debate over this issue in the run-up to the election proved to be a key factor that eroded Labor’s initial lead, and is likely to be too heavy a political burden for the incoming administration to bear.”

Abbott said he could run a stable government, in contrast to tensions in the Labor Party, and said he would offer “serious roles” to the independents. He declined to say if he would change any policies, and noted the result could still take some time.

“No-one should expect that this will be a speedy process. The counting itself still has a long way to go,” Abbott told reporters.

Oakeshott has called for parliamentary reform and a unity cabinet in which politicians across the political spectrum put aside rivalries and join on issues that would unite the politically-fractured nation.

News cartoons made light of his idea, showing Abbott and Gillard standing arm in arm, surrounded by flying pigs and fairies, and with an Irish leprechaun standing beside Greens lawmakers at the end of a rainbow with a pot of gold.

MARKETS CONCERNED

Financial markets have rowed back on early expectations of a minority conservative government and now seem comfortable that both sides are fiscally prudent, although they would be concerned by any Green-backed government.

Both Labor and the Liberal-National coalition have pledged to return the budget to surplus by 2012-13.

Still, a Labor-Green minority government, which may see an increase in spending, would worry markets.

“There would be concerns about what sort of deals are done with the Greens to be able to guarantee that support,” said Craig James, chief economist at CommSec equities securities.

There was also concern over how a future minority government may deal with foreign investment in Australia.

China is the third-largest foreign investor in Australia and its biggest trading partner, but increasing investment in the resource sector by state-owned Chinese firms has led to concerns among many voters and lawmakers.

Labor and the opposition have said they will review foreign investment on a cases-by-case basis, but analysts raised the possibility of protectionist pressure from some independents.

“Given the extraordinary circumstances of a hung parliament, and the as yet unknown requirements of the independents who may hold the key to governing, it cannot be discounted that changes to the foreign investment regime may be bargained for support,” said Malcolm Brennan, special counsel at Mallesons Stephen Jaques.

(Additional reporting by James Grubel in Canberra and Michael Perry in Sydney; Editing by Ed Davies and Sanjeev Miglani)

Source:  http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100824/tts-uk-australia-election-ca02f96.html

 

By Douglas Eby 

“I don’t like emotions… For some reason I’m more comfortable in imaginary circumstances.” Actor William H. Macy

One of the primary tools we have for creative expression is imagination.

In his book “Stumbling on Happiness” Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert declares that “To see is to experience the world as it is, to remember is to experience the world as it was, but to imagine—ah, to imagine is to experience the world as it isn’t and has never been, but as it might be.

“The greatest achievement of the human brain is its ability to imagine objects and episodes that do not exist in the realm of the real, and it is this ability that allows us to think about the future.”

And isn’t that one of the prime functions of creative thought?

But Gilbert also proposes that imagination may directly impact our sense of happiness in limiting or distorting ways.

In a column of hers, Meghan Daum writes that the book suggests “happiness is largely an anticipatory experience… we spend much of our time not so much experiencing pleasure as thinking about future pleasure and taking steps to ensure its attainment.”

She thinks “the 21st century cultural preoccupation with happiness [is] peer pressure of the most toxic variety… For those whose happiness standards exceed the reach of besotted emoticons, a prescription for a serotonin reuptake inhibitor has become the thinking man’s smiley face… But considering the intangible nature of happiness, the inherent ephemeralness of it, the difficulty, even, of defining it, it bears asking why we’re so focused on it.” [From “Goodbye to you, Mr. Smiley,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2006]

Why indeed.

Certainly many creative people do suffer from depression, anxiety and other mood disorders that can disable creative expression [see my related site Depression and Creativity] — but happiness – or even contentment – may not be such a worthwhile goal for a creative person, at least by itself, and reliance on imagination for defining life value can be distorting.

In his review of “Stumbling on Happiness” Malcolm Gladwell [author of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking] notes that “We’re far too accepting of the conclusions of our imaginations.

Read in Full:  http://blogs.psychcentral.com/creative-mind/2010/08/imagination-and-happiness-and-creativity/

 

By Charles H. Elliott, Ph.D. 

Especially since the advent of the Great Recession a couple of years ago, many people have assumed if they just had a little more money, all would be well in their worlds. Of course in the decades before this economic meltdown, we’d seen huge rises in people’s income, wealth and purchases. During the economic boom times we also saw alarming increases in rates of addiction, depression and anxiety. So, what’s going on?

In truth, researchers have consistently seen very small connections between wealth and happiness. Poverty and destitution are something else; they do appear to contribute to unhappiness and a lack of satisfaction from life. But once you get past that point, greater and greater wealth fails to deliver on the promise of substantially increased happiness. In fact, people’s absolute level of income (past poverty) has almost no connection to their reported sense of well being.

In order to keep this discussion balanced, we should point out that one’s perceived wealth, as compared or ranked in relation to one’s neighbors and peers, does make a small difference in how happy people claim to be. But the difference is small and falls far short of what people expect money to do for them. Doesn’t seem particularly logical does it?

A recent article in the journal Psychological Science suggests one possible reason for these findings. Specifically, the researchers suggested that wealth may essentially trash people’s ability to savor everyday positive experiences. They defined savoring as strategies that people use to amplify, augment, or extend positive experiences. For example, you can savor positive things by focusing on the present, spending time anticipating the positive event, or telling other people about how nice the event was for you.

And research demonstrates that wealthy people are relatively terrible at savoring small, everyday events. Apparently once you’ve experienced the delights of using personal luxurious jet airplanes, having your own personal chef prepare all of your meals, and vacationing in sumptuous seaside villas, you don’t tend to savor positive events and experiences such as romantic weekends, completing a difficult task, or encountering some natural wonder.

Read in Full:  http://blogs.psychcentral.com/anxiety/2010/08/money-worry-woes-anxiety-and-happiness/

 

ScienceDaily (Aug. 12, 2010) — Severe mental illness is more common among college students than it was a decade ago, with more young people arriving on campus with pre-existing conditions and a willingness to seek help for emotional distress, according to a study presented at the 118th annual convention of the American Psychological Association. The data support what college mental health professionals have noted for some time.

“In the last 10 years, a shift in the needs of students seeking counseling services is becoming apparent,” said John Guthman, PhD, author of the study and director of student counseling services at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. “University and college counseling services around the country are reporting that the needs of students seeking services are escalating toward more severe psychological problems. While the condition of students seeking counseling doesn’t necessarily reflect the experience of the average college student, our findings may suggest that students with severe emotional stress are getting better education, outreach and support during childhood that makes them more likely to attend college than in the past.”

Guthman and his co-authors looked at the records of 3,256 college students who accessed college counseling support between September 1997 and August 2009 at a mid-sized private university. Students, both undergraduate and graduate, were screened for mental disorders, suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behavior. Several tools were employed to make a diagnosis, including clinical evaluations, structured interviews, and two widely used tests of mood — the Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Anxiety Inventory.

In 1998, 93 percent of the students coming into the clinic were diagnosed with one mental disorder, said Guthman. That number rose to 96 percent in 2009. In 2009, 96 percent of students seeking treatment met criteria for diagnosis with at least one mental disorder. Most students were diagnosed with mood and anxiety disorders as well as adjustment disorders or problems associated with significant impairment in functioning. There were no significant class or age differences.

“Overall, the average quality of depression and anxiety experienced by students in counseling has remained constant and relatively mild during the last decade,” Guthman said. “However, the percentage of students with moderate to severe depression has gone up from 34 to 41 percent. “These outliers often require significantly more resources and may contribute greatly to the misperception that the average student is in distress.”

The rise in the more severe cases of depression and anxiety in college students may be because more students are coming to college with pre-existing mental health difficulties, said Guthman. “There are also more students who are not socially connected. The average college student is not having this problem, but the students who are seeking help are frequently socially isolated, depressed and may be on medication.”

The study also found that the number of students on psychiatric medicines increased more than 10 percentage points. In 1998, 11 percent of the clinical sample reported using psychiatric medications, mostly for depression, anxiety and ADHD. In 2009, 24 percent of those attending counseling reported using psychiatric medications.

On a more positive note, Guthman found that the number of students who acknowledged that they had thought about suicide within two weeks of counseling intake declined from 26 percent in 1998 to 11 percent in 2009. This decrease may reflect general improvements in suicide prevention education and outreach and greater awareness of available assistance, he said.

“It used to be that students would come to university counseling centers because they broke up with their partner or failed a test,” Guthman said. “Now, they are coming with emotional distress and requesting mental health treatment for the same reasons that other adult populations seeks out treatment.”

Source:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100812111053.htm

12 August 2010 Last updated at 11:59 

By Alexis Akwagyiram BBC News 

This is an England football team that would never be booed, with silence a necessary part of the game.

Watching the national blind team train days before the World Cup kicks off in Hereford, there is a hushed quiet.

Whereas mainstream football around the world is played amidst a colourful sonic backdrop – be it chanting, samba bands or a chorus of vuvuzelas – the silence in the blind version of the game is striking.

Etiquette dictates that spectators remain quiet unless the ball goes out of play because players need to be able to hear each other and, crucially, the ball. It contains ball bearings which means its motion makes a gentle rattling noise that helps players to locate it.

Unsurprisingly, the style of play is different too.

Passes cover a shorter distance and, as England defender Keryn Seal explains during the training session, players try not to let the ball stray more than a few inches from their feet, making nimble footwork and a command of the ball vital.

“There’s a lot more dribbling and close control than in a sighted game. Communication is very important among the players too,” he says.

Mesmeric footwork, accurate passing and the ever-present rattling of the ball gives the game a hypnotic quality that makes it easy to forget that the players can’t see what they’re kicking.

There are occasional reminders – perhaps a misplaced pass allows the ball to roll away, or the action stops – and the spectator’s gaze lifts from the players’ feet to the unfamiliar sight of footballers wearing eye patches.

A keen footballer before losing his sight, Keryn adapted his playing style for blind football.

The 28-year-old is perhaps more acutely aware of the different football culture in the blind game than some of his teammates, having lost his sight later than other squad members who weren’t born blind. A congenital eye defect suddenly deprived him of his sight – within a two-month period – when he was 20.

“It was just one of those things,” he says of that sudden, life-changing experience. Football enabled him to channel his “competitive” tendencies and remain active.

Read in Full: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10914782

How blind football works

• The football contains ball bearings so it is audible
• The goalkeeper is sighted or visually impaired
• The four other players wear eyeshades to take account of differing degrees of eyesight
• A guide behind the goal directs players to shoot
• The pitch is surrounded by a rebound wall and there are no throw-ins
• Players call out “yeah” and their names to make teammates aware of their presence
• Rules stipulate the players must call out “voy!” – meaning “I’m here” – as they approach to tackle

 

Whenever autism is discussed in the media, it is mainly about children. People rarely hear families talk about adults with autism. I am a seventh-grader who has an autistic uncle who lives with me and my family.

The author is a seventh-grader at Notre Dame School.

Source:  http://www.thereporter.com/rss/ci_15753581?source=rss

 

August 12, 2010.

By Julie Kliegman

Joey Travolta, older brother of movie star John Travolta, has spent the past two weeks running a film camp in Englewood Cliffs for budding, mainly autistic filmmakers.

The program ends today, when the 50 campers ages 9 to 23 — 30 of whom have autism — will watch rough cuts of the three short films they made, as well as shoot footage for a public service announcement about autism in New Jersey.

Travolta will produce the films and the PSA for a theater show in October. An Englewood native, he has been running the Inclusion Films program at St. Peter’s College in Englewood Cliffs with the help of his crew and 20 volunteers.

He has held about 20 similar camps in other states over the past five years, but giving back to the area he grew up in was even more meaningful, he said.

“They have a place that gives them a voice,” the producer and former special education teacher said. “When it comes to working together and supporting each other, it’s a great thing to see.”

Travolta has a long history of working with autistic filmmakers, including producing the full-length documentary “Normal People Scare Me” in 2006 after being approached by director Taylor Cross.

Wendy Padykula, the mother of an autistic teenager with an interest in filmmaking, tried for two years to bring the camp to New Jersey after her daughter heard about the program from one of Travolta’s cameramen. She then teamed up to run the camp with MarbleJam Kids Inc., a Bergen County non-profit organization supporting extracurricular art programs.

“Joey takes an on-the-job approach to social skills,” said Anna Villa-Bager, founder and president of the charity. “Every kid gets to make a contribution.”

Read in Full:  http://www.northjersey.com/news/health/100509759_A_film_camp_and_more.html

 

11 August 2010

by Dave Keiser

Union, MO (KSDK)–  Jurors in Franklin County deliberated for an hour Tuesday before returning not guilty verdicts in the assault case against an employee of the Autumn Hills State School near Union.

Fifty-three year-old Robert Hunter of St Louis was acquitted on two counts of assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child in connection to the alleged attacks on an autistic student at the school in September 2009.

Prosecutors alleged Hunter assaulted the juvenile by forcibly holding the young girl’s thumbs and applying pressure with his own.  Officials say Hunter caused additional injuries to the girl by violently grabbing the back of the victims neck.

Hunter’s status at the state-operated facility, which specialized in caring for disabled children — many living with autism, is unclear. 

He was suspended when the case was filed last year.  An independent investigation by the State of Missouri was also conducted after allegations surfaced concerning Hunter’s treatment of the children.

Source:  http://www.ksdk.com/news/crime/story.aspx?storyid=211381&catid=147

 

Charlotte Moore

12 August, 2010.

ASD could soon be diagnosed with a brain scan. But trying to get an autistic child into the scanner is just one of the problems

Until now, diagnosing autism has been dependent on professional observation of the “patient”. Does he or she exhibit the “triad of impairments” – of communication, imagination and social interaction? Are there obsessive behaviour patterns? Are there sensory abnormalities? The signs can be subtle; diagnosis can be a frustratingly lengthy process.

A London University study could change all this. MRI scans of the brains of a group with ASD (autistic spectrum disorders) have been compared with those of a neurotypical group: significant differences in the brain were detected with enough consistency to raise hopes that soon autism will be detectable by a single 15-minute scan.

The implications are important and interesting. My mind leaps to the possibility of prenatal testing. It does seem only a matter of time before a potentially autistic brain can be detected during pregnancy. Would one wish to terminate such a pregnancy? As the mother of two autistic sons and one neurotypical one, I regard this as an ethical minefield, and I’m glad I never had that choice. It will be a long time, however, before scanning techniques are sophisticated enough to make the choice possible.

To return to the present: I was struck by the positive reactions of those who took part in the experiment. All were consenting adults with IQs within the “normal” range; they expressed interest in and relief at the findings. There is a well-meaning but, I think, mistaken belief that it is unkind to “label” high-functioning autists who can just about “get by” in our neurotypical world. I believe, on the contrary, that knowledge is power, and that most autists find it helpful to be given an explanation for the profound sense of difference that has dogged them all their lives.One man said he hadn’t fully believed in his autism when it was expressed verbally, as someone else’s opinion. Looking at the scan showing the difference between his brain and a neurotypical one highlighted in blue, he felt he had concrete evidence, and was glad.

Read in Full:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/12/no-magic-wand-with-autism