Archive for the ‘About WSANA and www.wsana.org’ Category.
Health and Human Services Announce New Program
News Release
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, September 2, 2010 |
Contact: HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343 |
Cincinnati, Detroit selected as final health IT pilot communities under innovative HHS Recovery Act Beacon Program
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced that Cincinnati and Detroit are the two final pilot communities selected under the new Beacon Community Program that is using health information technology to help tackle leading health problems in communities across the country. At the same time, the program will also allow HHS to look for new ways to share the lessons learned by funded communities and, working with local and national health care foundations, develop support networks for other communities that want to employ similar innovative approaches.
The two awardees announced today, Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, Inc. in Cincinnati and Southeastern Michigan Health Association in Detroit, join 15 other projects selected in May for the Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program. The other communities that previously received Beacon program funding include Tulsa, Okla.; Stoneville, Miss.; Brewer, Maine; Danville, Pa.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Indianapolis, Ind.; Spokane, Wash. New Orleans, La.; Rochester, Minn.; Providence, R.I.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Concord, N.C.; San Diego, Calif.; Hilo, Hawaii, and Buffalo, N.Y. Beacon projects are expected to initially create dozens of new jobs in each of the communities paying an average of $70,000 per year for a total of over 1,100 jobs up-front, while accelerating development of a nationwide health IT infrastructure that will eventually employ tens of thousands of Americans.
“The Beacon program uses health information technology tools to link health providers and other community-wide resources in new and innovative ways,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Under the Beacon program, communities first identify leading health problems that are unique to their community, develop innovative, health IT-related strategies, and work together through community collaborations to implement their strategies and track their performance.”
The Beacon Community awards are part of an overall $100 billion federal government investment in science, innovation and technology the Administration is making through the Recovery Act to spur domestic job creation in emerging industries and create a long-term foundation for economic growth. There has been significant interest in the program, with over 100 applications for the final two Beacon program slots. David Blumenthal, M.D., national coordinator for Health Information Technology, said the applications demonstrated widespread readiness in communities across America to use health IT to address specific challenges in health and health care.
“Beacon communities are designed to point the way toward maximizing community resources to address specific health goals at the local level, including quality of care, the cost of care, and the health of the whole population,” Dr. Blumenthal said. “We have seen first-hand through the Beacon application process that a great many communities have promising ideas and are starting to use health IT in innovative ways. We look forward to engaging and helping these communities through a broader nationwide effort.”
In the near term, HHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT will work closely with other federal partners and the private sector to identify and share promising health IT health care solutions among communities across America.
“Although we could only select two additional Beacon communities, we are incredibly impressed by the creativity and focus exhibited by communities over the course of this competition,” said Blumenthal. “Local leadership is an essential ingredient to improving health care. The Beacon Community application process provides strong evidence that communities throughout the country are mobilizing for positive change, using health IT as a critical foundation for improving health care.”
Like other Beacon communities, today’s awardees will coordinate community efforts toward specific goals:
The Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge, Inc. – $13.8 million over three years – HealthBridge will serve a 16-county area spanning three states surrounding greater Cincinnati. Under the Beacon program, HealthBridge and its partners will use its advanced health information exchange program to develop new quality improvement and care coordination initiatives focusing on patients with pediatric asthma, adult diabetes, and encouraging smoking cessation. For example, not only will physicians and other providers receive more timely and accurate information about when their patients experience a medical complication or are hospitalized, they will have new support from care managers to use this information effectively to intervene early and assist patients in managing their health and avoiding further complications. This program will provide better clinical information and IT “decision support” tools to physicians, health systems, federally qualified health centers, and critical access hospitals. As part of the Beacon program, this health IT community collaboration will also provide patients and their families with timely access to data, knowledge, and tools to make informed decisions and manage their own health and health care.
The Southeastern Michigan Health Association (SEMHA) – $16.2 million over three years – The SEMHA and its partners in the greater Detroit area will use health IT tools and strategies to prevent and better manage diabetes, which today affects a large percentage of residents of the city of Detroit. This community collaboration will leverage existing and new technologies across health care settings to improve the availability of patient information at the point of care, regardless of where the patient is in the health system. Furthermore, the community will provide practical support to physician practices to help clinicians, nurses, and others make the best use of electronic health data to catch potential health complications before they arise. The city’s clinical community will have the capacity to track clinical outcomes with the overarching goal of making long-term, sustainable improvements in the quality and efficiency of diabetes care in Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.
The Beacon program is one of several new programs created by the Health Information Technology Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act as part of the Recovery Act last year. HITECH included $2 billion for technical assistance, training and demonstration programs supporting the adoption of heath information technology, including electronic health records (EHRs). Total funding for the Beacon program initiatives is $250 million plus an additional $15 million for technical assistance and evaluation. In addition, HITECH authorized incentive payments to health care professionals and hospitals to reward adoption and meaningful use of EHRs. The incentive payments, provided through Medicare and Medicaid, could total as much as $27 billion over 10 years. These Recovery Act incentive payments, along with the Affordable Care Act, are part of broader efforts in Medicare and Medicaid to transform payments to reward better quality care.
More information about Beacon Communities can be found at: http://Healthit.hhs.gov/Programs/Beacon
For information about the Affordable Care Act and other efforts to promote improved care delivery, see: http://www.healthcare.gov
For information about other HHS Recovery Act programs, see: http://www.hhs.gov/recovery
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Mean People
In Their Own Words – Mean People
This “In Their Own Words” is by Jennifer C., whose three-year-old daughter, Sierra, was diagnosed with autism at 20 months. You can read more of her writing at http://fingerprintsofautism.blogspot.com/.
My family went out to eat last night at a restaurant here in town. We usually go to kid-friendly ones that are pretty noisy already. If any of you have an autistic child you know how they cannot control their volume very well. Sierra is very loud and she doesn’t speak that well yet either, but she talks all the time and she squeals a lot when she is having fun. She was happy and being silly, a far cry from a year ago when she didn’t talk and just cried and yelled when we took her out. We try to teach her how to use an inside voice when we are out, but she does it for a minute and goes right back to being loud.
There were two elderly women sitting across the aisle from us who were just horrified by Sierra; they held their ears and shot glances at us, like my child was throwing knives at them. I do usually apologize for her being loud and I did to the other tables closer to us, but they were being nice about it. It wasn’t a constant loudness; she was being very good – eating her food and just being silly because other people were playing with her and her baby sister. When we were done, my husband got up to pay the bill and that’s when one of the elderly women said to me, “Can you keep your kid quiet or does she have to screech like that?”
I almost choked on my french fry. I have never had someone be so mean about it. If she had actually took a minute to look at Sierra, she would have noticed that she doesn’t talk clearly in any way and that she uses sign language while she is “screeching,” as she put it. That might have been a clue that maybe my child makes noise like that because she does not know how to communicate properly yet! I just said in a very loud and mad tone, “She is autistic and she does not understand how to be quiet!” Then she just gave me a blank look and said, “Okay”. I know she was a coward because she waited until my husband left the table to say it. I hope she was embarrassed. There was so much more I wanted to say but I just couldn’t get it out. I get so upset, then I start to cry and I didn’t want them to see me cry.
I think people are very judgmental about autistic children. They don’t look close enough to see that there might be something wrong with the child; all they see is an unruly child. If they walked in our shoes for one day, they would never be judgmental about another child and their family again. The next time you see a child crying by the gumball machines, it might not be that she is having a temper tantrum for candy; it could be my daughter crying because they changed what is in the machines. At the restaurant, she is crying because the chicken is stringy and she can’t eat stuff with strings hanging off. At the park, it’s because the other kids scare her. At the grocery store, it’s because we walked a different way through the store. Sierra very rarely cries because she can’t have a toy; she cries when her routine changes or when she has trouble communicating her needs, and she gets unruly when she is scared and or on uncommon ground. Imagine having to live life like that and you will think twice about being judgmental.
I love my daughter so much and I wish other people could see her through my eyes, how wonderful, loving, and smart she is, and how frustrated she gets trying to adapt in this world. It breaks my heart every day knowing that she will have to put up with mean people who don’t understand her and what autism is.
“In Their Own Words” is a series within the Autism Speaks blog which shares the voices of people who have autism, as well as their loved ones. If you have a story you wish to share about your personal experience with autism, please send it to editors@autismspeaks.org. Autism Speaks reserves the right to edit contributions for space, style and content. Because of the volume of submissions, not all can be published on the site.
Attempt to Remove R word from Federal Bills
Victory: Senate Unanimously Passes Rosa’s Law to Remove R-Word from Federal Books
From the Office of Barbara A. Mikulski (8.6.10):
Mikulski, Enzi Applaud Passage of Rosa’s Law
Bill strikes “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from federal education, health & labor laws
U.S. Senators Barbara A. Mikulski (D- Md.) announced that her bill introduced to eliminate the terms “mental retardation” and “mentally retarded” from federal education, health and labor laws passed the Senate on Thursday night by unanimous consent. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Environment, Labor and Pensions Committee, was one of the original co-sponsors.
“This bill was driven by a passion for social justice and a compassion for the human condition,” Senator Mikulski said.
The inspiration for the law came from the actions of a family in Edgewater, Maryland. Last year, a mother of four named Nina Marcellino found out her youngest daughter, Rosa, a child with Down syndrome, had been labeled retarded at school. Nina didn’t allow the R-word in her house, and none of her children described their sister that way. Nina teamed up with other parents and her state delegate to introduce a bill to change the terminology in Maryland state law. Before the bill was brought up for consideration in the Maryland General Assembly, they held a hearing on the implications of changing the term.
There were several witnesses at that hearing, but the testimony that had the greatest impact was given by an 11-year-old boy: Rosa’s brother, Nick. “What you call people is how you treat them,” Nick said. “What you call my sister is how you will treat her. If you believe she’s ‘retarded,’ it invites taunting, stigma. It invites bullying and it also invites the slammed doors of being treated with respect and dignity.”
Senator Mikulski met Nina at a roundtable discussion on special education last April. Nina told the Senator about Rosa’s Law and their plans to bring it up for consideration in the state Assembly.Senator Mikulski promised Nina that if the state law passed the Assembly, she’d take it to the Senate floor. Two weeks later, Rosa’s Law was unanimously approved by the General Assembly and then signed into law by Governor O’Malley.
Rosa’s Law changes the phrase “mentally retarded” to “an individual with an intellectual disability” in health, education and labor law. It makes the language in federal law consistent with that used by the Centers for Disease Control, the health arm of the United Nations, and the White House through the President’s Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
“The bill is simple in nature but profound in what it will do when it is enacted,” Senator Enzi said. “For far too long we have used hurtful words like ‘mental retardation’ or ‘MR’ in our federal statutes to refer to those living with intellectual disabilities. While the way people feel is important, the way people are treated is equally important. Rosa’s Law will make a greatly-needed change that should have been made well before today – and it will encourage us to treat people the way they would like to be treated.”
The Marcellinos story is a perfect example of effective citizen advocacy,” Senator Mikulski said. “They pulled together to pull us all to another way of thinking. They fought for the respect and dignity of a loved one. The more than 6 million people with intellectual disabilities in America deserve that same respect and dignity.”
A similar bill has been introduced in the House and has 63 cosponsors. The law does not affect any services, rights, responsibilities or educational opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities.
WSANA is Selling Carson Pirie Scott’s Community Day Booklets
Here is a new way for you to help WSANA and save money for yourself. WSANA is selling Carson Pirie Scott’s Community Day booklets. The booklets which are good at any Carson store on Saturday November 13th contain 1-$10 off coupon, 6-20% off coupons and 1-30% early bird coupon good only from 6-10 AM. WSANA is selling these booklets for just $5.00 and gets to keep all the money raised from selling these booklets. Please think about helping us. For more information or to order a booklet contact us at communityday@wsana.org
What is Accessible Information Technology?
What is accessible information technology?
Accessible information technology is technology that can be used by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities. Each user is able to interact with the technology in ways that work best for him or her. Accessible technology is either directly accessible-in other words, it is usable without assistive technology-or it is compatible with standard assistive technology. Just as buildings that have ramps and elevators are accessible to wheelchair users, products that adhere to accessible design principles are usable by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities.
Examples of accessible electronic and information technology:
- Accessible software applications may include features specifically designed for users with disabilities. However, they always give users more than one way of accomplishing a task. They use established standards for displaying menus and prompts that can be interpreted by assistive technology. They allow users to use the mouse alone, the keyboard alone, or a combination of the two. They rely on more than color to convey information. Installation instructions, user guides, and other documentation are available in alternate formats, such as large print, Braille, and electronic text.
- Accessible multimedia products, which may be distributed on videotapes, CDs, DVDs, or the World Wide Web, include synchronized text captions for spoken information and other audio content and provide synchronized audio descriptions for visual content. They offer more than one way to input commands or respond to prompts. For example, captions may be provided in addition to spoken instructions to allow children with hearing impairments who can read to participate. Providing keyboard commands for all functions of the software allows children with visual impairments to participate. Captioning and alternative ways of navigating can make a big difference in the ability of students with disabilities to use these technologies independently. Descriptive narration and audio navigation (talking menus) are also essential in order for those with vision impairments to access videos and DVDs independently.
- Accessible websites are designed to be usable by individuals with a broad range of abilities and disabilities; they are designed so that all visitors can navigate the site, access content, and participate in interactive web activities. Accessible web sites provide a text equivalent (typically a description) for all nontext elements, such as audio, video, graphics, animation, graphical buttons, and image maps. This allows those who cannot see the screen to access the information with a screen reader that can read the description of a picture but cannot “read” the picture.
- Accessible copy machines can be operated in more than one way using keypads, touch screens, or voice recognition. Height and position can be adjusted so that controls are within easy reach and the display can be viewed easily. Document feeders are located at desk height, putting them within reach.
