agsmith

 For Your Information.......

                     Harris Study: "Justice For All"
                          President Clinton's address on legislation for people with diabilities in the workplace

Great resource ;)

I work with the Florida Blueprint for School to Community Transition. We have recently published the "Employer Resource Guide, A Blueprint  for Workforce Diversification." It is intended for employers but provides useful resources for all individuals with disabilities in Florida. If you will send me your snail mail address I'd be happy to send you one. Anyone
else who is interested please email me directly. We also have another resource guide coming out in about a month that will be directed towards parents of individuals with disabilities transitioning from school to adult life. Thanks,

WEBSITES

Mental Retardation
                     Disease Table Of Contents: Alternative names Definition Causes, incidence, and risk factors
                     Prevention Symptoms Signs and tests Treatment Expectations (prognosis) ...
                      http://www.healthanswers.com/database/ami/converted/001523.html

SPED430G Web Page
                     Introduction to Mental Retardation. From 1977 to 1989, the rate of students with special needs
                     identified as having mental retardation decreased from 26 percent to 11 percent of the ...
                   http://www.winona.msus.edu/AcademicDeptsFolder/CE/speced/MIIntro.html

U. S. International Council on Mental Retardation and Developmental
                     The United States International Council on Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities . The
                     United States International Council on Mental Retardation and Developmental ...
                   http://thearc.org/council/council.html

American Association on Mental Retardation Homepage
                     American Association on Mental Retardation On behalf of AAMR leaders, staff and members,
                     welcome to the AAMR Website. We've tried to prepare an on-line resource that will augment our ...
                   http://www.aamr.org/

NATIONAL TRENDS
                     Braddock, D., Hemp, R., Lakin, K. C., & Smith G. (1994). Trends and milestones: Continuing
                     expansion of financial resources for MR/DD services. Mental Retardation, 32(6), 446. The
                      http://web.syr.edu/~thechp/cinattre.htm
 

PUBLICATIONS

Birenbaum, A., & Cohen, H. J. (1993). On the importance of helping families: Policy implications from a national study. Mental
Retardation, 31(2), 67-74.

     This study is a companion to our 4-year study (Birenbaum, Guyot, & Cohen, 1990) on financing health care for
     individuals with autism or severe mental retardation. We reported on nonmedical expenditures and opportunity costs
     pertaining to maintaining a child or young adult with serious developmental disabilities in the home or in residential
     care and discussed policy implications for assisting their families. We proposed that (a) personal care and family
     support should be included in health care requirements, (b) family-centered care shou.ld be promoted, (c) appropriate
     programs and care should be provided for young adults no longer in school, (d) financing and organizing of family
     supports and subsidies should be administratively simple, (e) Medicaid should be expanded to increase use of
     home-and community-based services, and (f) financial support should be provided to families.

Mlawer, M. A. (1993). Who should fight? Parents and the advocacy expectation. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 4(1),
105-116.

     In the attempt to help parents become better educational advocates for their children with disabilities, an "advocacy
     expectation" has been created. This expectation runs counter to the philosophy of normalization. The advocacy
     expectation and its effects are critically discussed. To counter the expectation and its effects, changes in professional
     roles, funding priorities, and program development are recommended.

Kennedy, M. J. (1994). The disability blanket. Mental Retardation, 32(1), 74-76.

     The author of this article describes the ways in which service providers look at and treat people with developmental
     disabilities. Services such as Medicaid require paperwork that breaks down every human activity into goals and
     objectives, without the input of the recipient. Services need to be provided in the context of individuals planning their
     own goals and expectations, which would demonstrate the respect and privacy that we all prefer.
 

Lutfiyya, Z. M. (1991). `A feeling of being connected': Friendships between people with and without learning difficulties.
Disability, Handicap & Society, 6(3).

     Recently, programmatic attempts to encourage close ties between people with learning difficulties and typical citizens
     have increased. It is believed that such relationships will extend the assimilation of people with learning difficulties
     into society. The researcher presents the perspectives of four pairs of friends about the meaning of their friendships.
     The informants shared similar ideas and expectations about the characteristics of friendships in general. These
     included its mutual, exclusive, and voluntary nature; the right, obligations, and responsibilities of friends to each other;
     and the positive regard or affection found between friends. Despite efforts on the part of service providers to support
     the development of friendships between people with and without learning disabilities, the biggest barriers for the
     individuals in this study were the practices of the human service system, which curtailed opportunities for people
     which would have promoted the development and maintenance of friendships.