Georgia claims it is in compliance with a settlement with the federal government to improve the care of those with developmental disabilities and mental illness, but an independent source found their death rate is climbing and that the state still failing to meet its responsibility to house thousands suffering from these disorders.

Earlier this year, the state twice asked the Justice Department to find it had complied with and should be released from a 2010 settlement over its treatment of the developmentally disabled and mentally ill in its care. But in her report to the U.S. District Court filed last week, independent reviewer Elizabeth Jones found a number of areas where the state was lacking and in fact doing worse than in previous years, particularly with the deaths of developmentally disabled patients in community care.

States continue to be hampered in their ability to fully implement requirements of the National Background Check Program for Long-Term Care Providers, mainly because of a lack of legislative authority for certain program requirements, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

The OIG evaluated the programs for 11 of the 12 states that concluded program participation between 2017 and 2018: California, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and West Virginia. Minnesota and West Virginia implemented all 13 selected program

Long-term care providers in 11 states identified nearly 3% of ineligible job applicants through a national background check program in the past two years. 

The Office of Inspector General, Health and Human Services, recently assessed the participation of 11 states using the National Background Check Program for Long-Term-Care Providers in 2017 and 2018. 

The program is designed to help providers identify job applicants who are ineligible to work in the industry due to state or federal criminal histories, such as healthcare fraud or controlled substance abuse. The OIG found that just two states implemented all of the program requirements. 

The fashion for celebrating ‘neurodiversity’ ignores those with debilitating severe autism, which has created a rift in the community

The word autism means a lot of different things to different people. To some, it conjures an image of the socially awkward eccentric who, besotted by a narrow set of interests, eschews small-talk and large gatherings in favour of solitude. To others, it’s a profoundly life-limiting disorder that consumes every waking hour of a family’s life, a medical disability that entails unpredictable bouts of aggression resulting in torn upholstery, cracked skulls and savage bites. Severely autistic people have a life expectancy of 36 in the United States and 39.5 in Europe, while their parents and care-givers often experience PTSD and stress similar to that of combat veterans. Mildly autistic people, on the other hand, though far more prone to depression and suicide, can go on to lead productive and fulfilling lives, often blending imperceptibly into the wider population despite their idiosyncracies and social difficulties.

Yet a report this week claimed that the difference between people diagnosed with autism and the rest of the population is shrinking. The autism spectrum is so all-encompassing that experts are now finally starting to question the validity of the term itself. After studying the meta-analyses of autism data, Dr Laurent Mottron, a professor at Université de Montréal, concluded that: “The objective difference between people with autism and the general population will disappear in less than 10 years. The definition of autism may get too vague to be meaningful.”

The number of people diagnosed with autism is rising around the world. In the United States, the prevalence of the disorder has grown from 0.05% in 1966 to more than 2% today. In Quebec, the reported prevalence is close to 2% and according to a paper issued by the province’s public health department, the prevalence in Montérégie has increased by 24% annually since 2000.

However, Dr. Laurent Mottron, a professor at Université de Montréal's Department of Psychiatry and a psychiatrist at Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies of the CIUSSS du Nord-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, has serious reservations about this data. After studying meta-analyses of autism data, his research team found that the differences between people diagnosed with autism and the rest of the population are shrinking.

This study was published today in JAMA Psychiatry, the most prestigious journal in the field of psychiatry. Given the importance of its findings, the study is also the subject of the journal’s editorial.

Dr. Mottron worked with intern Eya-Mist Rødgaard of the University of Copenhagen, along with four other researchers from France, Denmark and Montreal, to review 11 meta-analyses published between 1966 and 2019, that drew data from nearly 23,000 people with an autism diagnosis. The meta-analyses showed that autistic individuals and the rest of the population exhibit significant differences in seven areas: emotion recognition, theory of mind (ability to understand that other

Black and Latino students in the South are less likely to be identified as having learning disabilities when compared to their White peers, according to a study that will be published in a forthcoming issue of Exceptional Children.

The most stark results included the number of Black students who were classified as having a learning disability. Black students who were in 8th grade in 2003 were 71 percent less likely to be identified for learning disabilities than their white peers, whereas black students who were in the 8th grade in 2015 were 55 percent less likely to be classified with a learning disability.

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After the widespread success of state insurance mandates for autism treatment, a grassroots effort is underway to do the same for other developmental disabilities.

This summer, Missouri became the third state to pass a law requiring coverage of medically-necessary therapy for all children with developmental disabilities. The effort was spearheaded by Robyn Schelp, president of Missouri Disability Empowerment, whose son has a rare genetic disorder that is treated with speech, physical and occupational therapy.

“Anyone in the disability world understands how important therapy is for development,” Schelp said. “It is awesome that these autism mandates exist, but it’s also important that children with

Federal officials are working to further clarify how they will determine if living arrangements for people with disabilities are considered community-based versus institutional.

Under a 2014 rule from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, settings must meet certain criteria in order to be paid for through Medicaid home- and community-based services waivers.

To qualify, settings must offer full access to the community, provide privacy, foster independence and allow individuals with disabilities to assert their own preferences about services and providers. The guidelines apply to homes, day and job-training programs and other non-residential offerings.

Medicaid officials issued guidance on the rule in 2016 and again earlier this year, but upon receiving additional questions from stakeholders, the agency is offering up further details in a bulletin issued this month.

A woman with Down syndrome is recovering in the hospital after her family members say they found her screaming, soiled and starving in her Pflugerville group home.Shannon Hunt was a resident at Educare in Pflugerville, which is a group home regulated by Texas Health and Human Services.

“It was scary, very scary,” said Shannon’s mother, Dorothy Fischer, of how she and her son, Scott Hunt, found Shannon Sunday when they went to check on her. “It really did a number on us.”

Fischer and Hunt say Educare promises 24-hour care, but they say no caretaker was there Sunday morning when they stopped by.

There was standing room only in one of the Chicago's biggest ballrooms to celebrate a woman who has devoted 50 years to helping children and adults with disabilities.

Sister Rosemary Connelly has developed the residential and program offerings of Misericordia ever since 1969. Five decades ago, she was named executive director of the local nonprofit that cares for individuals with disabilities.

She's credited as a visionary whose leadership has guided thousands both on and off the Misericordia campus.

"I am overwhelmed about God's goodness to me through his people," the nun said Sunday.