3Rivers recently received a generous donation from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Charitable Foundation.  This donation helps fund our Native American Independent Living Program that is based in the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Health Services building.  Over the past few weeks we have received smaller donations from private individuals that help fund unspecified consumer services.  Big or small, we are always humbled by these donations and the caring sentiments that accompany them.  Our heartfelt thanks go out to all these individuals.  We are truly blessed in our corner of the world.  Thank you.  

Just like Winter, I blew back into Kansas this week.  I took an awesome vacation visiting family in Austin and attending the South by SouthWest Festival.  It's too big to describe in this little blog but you can check it out on the internet.  The people there were really what makes it such a great festival.  Everyone is laid back, enjoying great food, music, films and more.  What I didn't see, individuals with visible disabilities; tens of thousands of people attended this event and through the entire festival, I saw one chair user.  The festival is spread through Austin and hundreds of venues but few of these were fully accessible.  What a shame and hopefully something that advocates can address in the years to come.  Few things are as frustrating as navigating public transportation, heading up a steep sidewalk ramp, getting to the other end of the block and facing a steep bank of stairs!  Who does this??  Calling all music lovers - get yourselves to Austin next year for this festival and shake things up!    

American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) Launches ACA National Disability Navigator Resource Collaborative (NDNRC) Website

The American Association on Health and Disability (AAHD) is pleased to announce the launch of the website for the National Disability Navigator Resource Collaborative (NDNRC). The NDNRC is an initiative aimed at providing cross-disability information and support to Navigators and other enrollment specialists thereby ensuring people with disabilities receive accurate information when selecting and enrolling in insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces.

The recently launched website already has news and resources designed to support groups who are providing enrollment assistance to consumers with disabilities as they enroll for coverage through the marketplaces. In the near future, the website will have a technical assistance guide to inform navigators and other enrollment specialists about special considerations people with disabilities face as they shop for healthcare coverage. Over the following months, the NDNRC website will also publish 17 fact sheets with more information regarding specific disability related issues and state specific information as well.

The NDNRC is comprised of seven national disability organizations which represent unique cross-disability experiences. Along with AAHD, the other six partner organizations are the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD); the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF); the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI); the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS); The Arc and United Spinal Association. The NDNRC is funded through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

For further information please contact Karl Cooper, AAHD Project Associate at 301-545-6140 ext. 204.

Roberta S. Carlin
AAHD Executive Director

AAHD is a national non-profit organization located in Rockville, MD dedicated to advancing health promotion and wellness initiatives for people with disabilities.

AAHD
American Association on Health & Disability
110 N. Washington Street
Suite 328-J
Rockville, MD 20850

Ph: 301-545-6140
Fx: 301-545-6144

The Chef's Table is a story about the soul of eating food. It is also a story of experience recovering from mental illness. Ben Boone, a writer in Salem, Massachusetts was diagnosed with schizophrenia the day after graduating from College in Boston. His mother, a restaurant critic and dad a chef, supported him through 9 hospitalizations in nine years with the idea that together as a family they would find some meaning in what had happened that seemed to have no reason. They thought they could at least learn.
 
Over the course of a decade Ben emerged from schizophrenia. He always remembers coming home from the hospital and being nursed back to health with his dad's cooking.
 
He thought others too should have time to recover from their struggles through the medium of meals, and that fine restaurants might donate gift certificates to those who might not be as fortunate.  He had the idea that the medium of food and times around the table could bring people back to society and a realization that life can be positive and the opportunity to make that happen. The result is his initiative called The Chef's Table, which has received an overwhelming commitment from restaurants throughout Boston and Maine. "This is an opportunity for people to have meals and memories they normally wouldn't have." Ben says.
 
The success of The Chef's Table, and awarding the fine meals, has inspired articles in The Boston Globe-- and The Christian Science Monitor will be covering a story soon in the upcoming months.
 
The Chef's Table is a continuation of wanting to help others with mental illness. He wrote a book as well about his experiences with schizophrenia  titled "Minority of Mind". The book has gone great and now he speaks across the country on the topic of mental health. "Recovery is not only about getting help, but helping yourself and others." Ben says.
 
Included is a list of topics Ben speaks nationally about, as well as a link to a page where you can check out some of his radio interviews and presentations. Feel free to contact him directly, if you would like to know about speaking opportunities, or would like to purchase a copy of his book about his personal experiences with mental illness titled, Minority of Mind.

Maura Curley, Editor
Virgin Voice Publications
617-504-1500
Email

We need your help locating individuals who applied for in home attendant care services under the Kansas Physical Disability Medicaid Waiver, and were placed on a waiting list.  Funds are now available to help some of these individuals finally get the assistance they need in their homes, but we don't know how to reach these people who were screened as far back as 2009!  If you applied for in home services or know someone who was screened years ago and put on a wait list; we need to hear from you!  We know its been so long ago that many people don't even know they are still on that wait list.... If you were ever screened by one of Three Rivers staff to see if you qualified for in home care services, please give us a call!  Or you can call the Kansas Disability and Aging Services at 1-800-432-3535 to find out if you are on the wait list.  Please help us locate these individuals.  

In marking the 23rd anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), EARN recently spoke with Bobby Silverstein, one of the “behind the scenes architects” of the Act, to hear his perspective on the implementation of the ADA and the implications for employers as well as people with disabilities. Mr. Silverstein has more than 40 years of experience in the public policy arena.

Read the interview on the EARN|Exchange blog.
Click here to view EARN’s resources on the ADA.

For more information and resources, visit www.AskEARN.org.

The Disaster Resistant Communities Group LLC (DRCG) has added additional Disability Disaster Preparedness videos to the Just In Time Disaster Training Video Library.

The purpose of this on-line library is to provide a single, easy to search source in which individuals, agencies and organizations can access Just In Time Disaster Training Videos.

The videos found in this library cover disaster related preparedness, response and recovery training for a wide variety areas.

The library can be accessed at the following site: www.drc-group.com/project/jitt.html

"Quitting tobacco is the best thing you can do for your health, but we'll never pressure you to quit before you're ready. Using proven techniques developed and tested over the past 25 years, we've helped hundreds of thousands of people successfully quit tobacco. Let us help you too."

The AuthentiCare® IVR system has been an intricate part of collecting claim information real-time and providing assistance with accurate reporting. Current changes in technology have allowed homes to move away from landline service and gravitate to complete wireless home phone systems. In anticipation of this, AuthentiCare® has created a mobile application for workers to use when landline access is not available. This application closely mimics the capabilities of the IVR application and has the ability to base its validation process on the location of the worker using GPS technology. You can download the new AuthentiCare® Mobile Application now!