The second Sunday of every month Medical Motherhood publishes Where Is the Manual for This?!, an editorial cartoon by Lenore Eklund.
American health care at its finest. You would think if anyone understood the extraordinary amount of coordination it takes to get to an appointment with a medically complex or neurodivergent kiddo, it would be medical providers. But in fact it often seems as if the opposite is true. If only they could walk a week in our shoes….
Medical Motherhood’s news round up
Snippets of news and opinion from outlets around the world. Click the links for the full story.
• From the Reno Gazette Journal: “Department of Justice investigation: Nevada fails to provide adequate care for children with disabilities”
An investigation by the Department of Justice revealed that the State of Nevada violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The investigation revealed that the state fails "to provide adequate community-based services to children with behavioral health disabilities."
Instead of allowing children to stay with their families with the support of "necessary, community-based services," the state sends children to hospitals and residential treatment facilities, some of which are located outside of the state, according to a DOJ press statement released Tuesday.
Community-based services such as intensive in-home services, crisis services, intensive care coordination, respite, therapeutic foster care and other family-based supports are lacking in Nevada, according to the press statement.
“Children with disabilities should receive the services they need to remain with their families and in their communities,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the statement. “The Civil Rights Division looks forward to working with Nevada to bring the State into compliance with federal law and prevent the unnecessary institutionalization of children.”
• From the Associated Press via the Los Angeles Times: “Senators call for stronger rules for students with disabilities”
WASHINGTON [DC] — Two Democratic senators urged the Education Department on Wednesday to strengthen regulations against quietly excluding kids from class because of behaviors related to a disability — a practice known as informal removal.
Since the pandemic began, parents of children with disabilities say the practice is on the rise, denying their kids the legal right to an education. Disability rights advocates and legal experts say the removals likely circumvent protections for these children, who are not supposed to be disciplined because of their disability.
In a report Tuesday, the Associated Press and the Hechinger Report documented the effect of these informal removals on children and families. In interviews with 20 families in 10 states, parents said they were called repeatedly, sometimes less than an hour into the school day, to pick up their children. Some said they left work so frequently they lost their jobs.
• From the Joseph Rowentree Foundation (press release): “JRF in Scotland asks what more evidence governments need to target help at those who need it most as huge survey reveals a nation in ‘crisis-mode’”
Joseph Rowntree Foundation in Scotland asks what more evidence governments need to target help at those who need it most as huge survey reveals a nation in ‘crisis-mode’
What we believe is the biggest poll of its kind in Scotland finds one in five low-income households went cold and hungry at the same time this year
Many families wilfully ignored by UK Government fear for the worst as they desperately cut back on spending
Four in five families with a baby said the cost-of-living crisis is having a negative impact on their mental health
JRF urges both the UK and Scottish Government to treat cost of living crisis as seriously as the Covid pandemic by making more cash support available and advertising available help more vigorously
A new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in Scotland paints a bleak picture of a nation in crisis mode after the fiercest attack on our standard of living in a lifetime.
The report which includes heart-breaking testimonies from thousands of families struggling to come to terms with the extent of the cost-of-living crisis begs questions of why the new UK Government saw it fit to wilfully ignore their reality in its response to the unfolding emergency.
Last month, JRF criticised the “mini budget” as one that left those on the lowest incomes out in the cold with no extra help to get them through the winter. Just last week, the UK government made the morally indefensible suggestion that they would not go ahead with the promised uprating of benefits in line with inflation, adding to the terror felt by many about the months to come. It cannot be right that the UK Government should seek to fund tax cuts for the wealthiest on the backs of those with the least.
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TFW you can't be late but your doctor can