Some 400,000 Americans suffer from multiple sclerosis, and each week another 200 people are diagnosed with the neurological condition.
While there’s no cure for MS, the treatment options have grown in the last decade or so, with the approval of drugs including Avonex from Biogen Idec, Tysabri from Biogen and Elan, and Copaxone from Teva.
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Author wrote a children’s book designed to teach tolerance and interaction
By: Paul Aranda Jr.
A former Cal State Fullerton President’s Scholar is set to release a new children’s book this summer allowing readers to gain a better understanding and appreciation for children with autism. Joanna Keating-Velasco will be releasing her second book, titled “In His Shoes – A Short Journey Through Autism” this summer.
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By PETER JARET
In Brief:
On Wednesday, President Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (HR 493), which will prohibit health plans, insurers and employers from discriminating against individuals based on genetic information that shows a predisposition to certain conditions, including breast cancer, the Washington Times reports (Ward, Washington Times, 5/22).
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By Sally Satel, M.D.
Posted: Wednesday, May 21, 2008
TESTIMONY
Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
Publication Date: May 21, 2008
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the invitation to appear before the Committee. I am a psychiatrist who formerly worked with disabled Vietnam veterans at the West Haven VA Medical Center in Connecticut from 1988-1993. Currently, I am a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (and work, part-time, at a local methadone clinic). I have been interested in applying the lessons we learned in treating Vietnam veterans to the new generation of service personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The purpose of my remarks today is to endorse the concept behind S. 2573 Veterans’ Mental Health Treatment First Act.
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The Social Security Administration (SSA) is pleased to announce exciting improvements to the Ticket to Work Program. These changes were published in the Federal Register on May 20, 2008 and will go in to effect on July 21, 2008. Check out the new regulations at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-10879.pdf
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By GRETYL MACALASTER
Article Date: Monday, May 19, 2008
PORTSMOUTH — Historically, people with severe and persistent mental illness were discouraged from working, at least until they were “ready.”
Evolving models of sheltered workshops and clubhouses provided a location for people to gather and work constructively, but pay was not competitive and work was not community based.
Now, that belief has changed. For 20 years, the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center has described and studied a model that proves people with severe mental illness who gain and maintain competitive employment along with treatment can have better outcomes.
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In Brief:
Epilepsy affects millions of families worldwide; half of all epilepsy patients are children.
The disease has long carried a stigma that persists today, hampering progress in care and public awareness.
Some 30 percent of patients, many of them children, have intractable seizures that cannot be controlled by existing treatments.
A judge ruled in favor of altering U.S. currency to assist the blind, but blind advocacy groups are not cheering the decision.
By Roger Parloff, Fortune senior editor
(Fortune Magazine) — In late November, when a federal district judge ruled that American greenbacks violate the federal Rehabilitation Act because the various denominations are not readily distinguishable by blind people, the American Council of the Blind scored a stunning victory.
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BY LOIS HENRY, Californian columnist
When the government said “go to war,” countless men and women went.
They did it because they promised they would when they signed up to serve in the armed forces.
The government made promises too, among them, that we would pay for their education after their service.
Shamefully, we have not kept that promise. (more…)
