Powered mobility can offer users young and old a level of freedom and independence that may not be achieved through manual wheelchairs or other mobility devices.
The Winter Paralympics is a great opportunity to learn about the many adaptive recreational and competitive sports for individuals with cerebral palsy.
Growing up with Cerebral Palsy I often wondered if I would ever experience my happily ever after. The fairytales my mom read me always followed the life of a beautiful princess falling in love with a handsome prince. You never read about a prince and princess in wheelchairs or with any type of disability for that matter.
Setting up a Third Party-Special Needs trust as part of estate planning is essential if the individual with a disability is or may be eligible for means-tested government benefits. A properly set up Third Party Trust ensures that the funds left to the individual, whether through gift or inheritance, are not considered countable assets when applying for means tested benefits
A special needs trust is a written legal agreement that enables an individual with a disability to qualify or remain qualified for means tested government benefits, such as medicaid, SSI or even medicaid waivers.
The hardest part of raising two children with Cerebral Palsy is the fact that we live in a world that refuses to adapt to anything beyond ordinary. And I have always -- always -- known that Benjamin and Mason were far beyond ordinary.
Vocational Rehabilitation (VR), operated by the Department of Education, can be utilized for their many tools to aid those with disabilities in the preparation for the job search, finding gainful employment, and maintaining this employment.
Author David Stoner provides insight into his experience with Personal Care Attendants through the years as his needs and his family's needs have changed.
We got the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy when Lelia was 18 months. I was really happy, as we didn’t know what was wrong with her before then. She had low tone. She couldn’t roll over. She couldn’t sit up. Of course she didn’t walk. The diagnosis gave it a name, something I could work with, and I became a kind of vigilante mother, determined to get the best care for my daughter.
Wouldn’t it be great if inclusive, accessible playgrounds were in every community for all to enjoy? Although progress is being made in certain areas, there is a lot more work to be done to literally level the playing field and help communities and designers understand what makes an inclusive accessible playground and why they are important for people of all abilities.
Mental health care should be included at the outset, as part of discussions around physical, occupational, and speech therapies. I’ve seen studies on cerebral palsy’s effect on caregiver mental health — and that is important. Caregivers are part of the cerebral palsy community, too. It’s an interdependent one. There’s not enough about the nuance around how having cerebral palsy affects mental health.”
Individuals with Cerebral Palsy frequently participate in Adaptive Sports and Therapeutic Recreation programs. Though there are often many similarities in programs and frequently the terms are used interchangeably, there are differences that are highlighted here.
A parent's perspective as she recalls the moment she realized that a wheelchair meant freedom for her son and not a barrier to his progress.
Dating can be scary, all of the questions that go through your head before a first date can often be overwhelming. What do I wear? What do we talk about? Does my breath stink? These are common concerns before any normal date. My brain was wrapping itself around the idea that this was my FIRST DATE EVER.
My boys were exactly the same amazing, lovable, adorable, brilliant little boys after the diagnosis, that they had been before it. The exact same.
What do you do when you want to help your child but your local providers don't have the resources? You travel for treatment. In this personal story, Sophia's family describes their experiences traveling to Gillette Children's for treatment, including both neurosurgical and orthopedic surgeries.
Shelby Nurse discusses how pain has been part of the reality throughout her life. In this video Shelby talks about what strategies and pain management techniques have worked for her and how this have changed and different times.
Learn about Ava's journey with gait analysis and surgery at Gillette Children's.
As a mother and a pediatrician, I’ve both felt the strain of pandemic parenting directly and indirectly. I’ve made decisions about my own family and sending our kids to daycare and school, and I’ve stayed up worrying about how parents are supposed to make these difficult choices with so little support.
I suppose there has to be one silver lining that comes out of being sheltered in place for months on end (due to Covid-19): I’ve finally been catching up on sleep. The recommended nightly hours of sleep is between 7 and 9 hours . For me, getting a good night’s sleep has been the best way to regain a sense of control and ease during such unnerving times. Not only does sleep improve mood and
As an undergraduate student in a major metropolitan city like NYC, the thought of finding a place to live after graduation was very daunting. I didn’t have many options for accessible dorms on campus, so I could only wonder how much more difficult it’d be to find a “real-life adult” apartment that I could afford as a 20-something-year-old. My apartment search began one year earlier than
The historic Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush — marking this month its 30th anniversary. The ADA was the country’s first-ever comprehensive civil rights law for people with disabilities, offering protection against discrimination and imposing accessibility requirements in workplaces and the public. The passage of this law was
As cities and states across the countries are lifting the COVID-19 lockdown orders, people are returning to work at their offices. However, since the virus is still very much going around, employers must be vigilant about keeping their workplaces as safe as possible. Although we might be seeing a sense of “normalcy,” there’s still a long way to go before reaching the pre-pandemic normalcy—if we
A year ago, I wrote in my Forbes column about the decades-long pattern of Pride Month celebrations excluding people with disabilities. The underlying reason why Pride events were (and still are) mostly inaccessible for people with disabilities, both in terms of physical spaces and social acceptance, is that mainstream media and public don’t see them having identities outside of their disabilities.
For women with Cerebral Palsy, finding a new OB/GYN can be difficult for a variety of reasons: accessibility (both to the building and in the exam rooms), staffing and supports for additional physical needs and more.