The National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care :: 2011 Consumer Voice Annual Meeting & Conference

The Consumer Voice is pleased to announce registration is now open for the 36th Annual Conference & Meeting in Grand Rapids, Michigan, October 25-28, 2011. Register by April 30 and save! Select on the links below to learn more about this upcoming event!

• About the Conference
• Registration Rates & Information
• Pre-Conference Intensive Workshops
• Hotel Information
• Grand Rapids Information
• Questions and Sponsorship Opportunities

Agency pairing with new disability network will benefit both

by Lynn Kellogg

In 1976, my final project to complete an undergraduate degree in social work at Western Michigan University was helping to establish an office of information and support for students with disabilities. The primary paper for my second major in environmental studies focused on recreational planning for people with disabilities. While searching for a job, I served as a volunteer staff member for a state event associated with a White House conference on issues surrounding disabilities.

I had it in my head that work in the field of disability was in the cards. It didn't exactly work out that way - but in some ways it did.

As we age, it's only when barriers to daily activities get in the way that any issues appear. Sometimes people need help with daily chores, or transportation, or housing, or coping with and managing a health condition. Changes in how we do things trigger lifestyle changes, sometime minor, sometimes substantial. We change, we go on. Sometimes we're judged as "different" or feel a difference in people's perception of us.

At a recent Rotary Club meeting, Miss Southwest Michigan presented her platform as a disability rights advocate. Growing up with a brother with Down syndrome had taught her that he was normal. He was happy and functioned well in society. Contending with the judgment of others was what was difficult.

"Disability is a natural part of the human condition. Disability is simply a characteristic of a person. A disability doesn't exist until someone encounters a barrier. It is the environment or culture that needs to be fixed, not the individual with the disability." This is the philosophy of a new organization in town - Disability Network Southwest Michigan.

Sometime in the next few months, new Disability Network Southwest Michigan signage will be added to the Area Agency on Aging's sign at its base of operations at 2900 Lakeview Ave. in St. Joseph. The organization is based at a central office in Kalamazoo and has recently expanded to cover an eight-county area. It now serves Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties and has co-located its local offices with the Area Agency on Aging.

The new partnership holds great potential. Both organizations have missions of empowerment of the person and advocacy for social change. There are many areas of common interest and expertise. Both organizations strive to have communities that accept and embrace older and disabled citizens by having services and supports in place that make possible staying engaged throughout a lifetime. Both are committed to providing quality information when people seek solutions to barriers they've run up against.

Therein lies the strength of the partnership. Shared information on available resources and common messaging on needed social change strengthens both organizations.

Individuals seeking information on topics such as available resources, assistive technology information, or personal advocacy and support should give Disability Network Southwest Michigan a call. Businesses and community organizations seeking information on Americans with Disabilities Act compliance or home and workplace modification consultations will also find them helpful. The local office can be reached at 985-0111, with a toll-free line - (877) 674-5209 - ringing to the Kalamazoo office and serving outlining areas.

Lynn Kellogg is chief executive officer of Region IV Area Agency on Aging in Southwest Michigan. Questions on age or independence services? Call the Info-Line for Aging & Long-Term Care at (800) 654-2810 or check the website at www.areaagencyonaging.org. The Generations column appears each Sunday in The Herald-Palladium.

A Trailblazer of Civil Rights Dies Forgotten - NYTimes.com

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By ROBBIE BROWN

Neighbors were chagrined last week when the police here found the body of a 75-year-old woman who had frozen to death, alone in her house, during unexpectedly frigid weather.

But they were shocked this week when they learned that the woman, Juanita W. Goggins, had been a civil rights trailblazer who in 1974 became the first black woman elected to the South Carolina legislature.

Now residents of this normally neighborly Southern capital say they are feeling regretful, and slightly guilty, for allowing one of its most revered figures to disappear into a sleepy ranch house with little company. Possibly mentally ill, living without running water or heat, Ms. Goggins is believed to have died on Feb. 20 — when temperatures dropped below freezing — but her body was not discovered for 11 days.
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Stillwater Gazette - Having her voice heard: Karly Wahlin doesn't let disability stand in the way of her ability to create

By Stephanie Foreman

"I never knew that people would be interested in what I have to say, so it has surprised me so much to be heard," Karly Wahlin says.


Karly lives with Rett Syndrome, a developmental disorder occurring primarily in women. She is one of very few women with the disorder who can communicate, which she does by typing.

And her "voice" is now part of an advisory committee for Art St. Croix, an organization providing opportunities in the arts for area residents with disabilities. Karly says she appreciates this rare chance to be a part of the community dialogue.

"Through my involvement with this committee, I hope others who are disabled will be included and seen as valuable," Karly said.
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For war protester Eve Tetaz, 78 is hardly the time to retire - washingtonpost.com

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By Keith L. Alexander Washington Post Staff Writer

It's a familiar scene for Eve Tetaz. She sits in the cold, damp holding cell, crammed together with other women. Some, like her, were arrested for protesting. Others are locked up for drugs, assault or prostitution.

The other women in the D.C. jail affectionately call her grandma. Her cellmates, or as she calls them, her "sisters in chains," let her sleep on the bottom bunk so the 78-year-old doesn't have to climb to the top. Instead of letting her stand in line to get her jail-issued bologna or cheese sandwiches, many of the women bring them to her. "These are women I probably even wouldn't see passing on the street," Tetaz said. "They are very gracious to me."

With her white hair and black glasses, Tetaz is a familiar figure to the Capitol Police and at the courthouse. Since 2005, court records show, she has been arrested 20 times and convicted 14 times of various offenses, including unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, contempt and crossing a police line. As she and other demonstrators march around various parts of the District, from the White House to the Supreme Court to the Capitol, her protests center on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

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Easing Tensions in the Nursing Home - The New Old Age Blog - NYTimes.com

By Paula Span

Margaret Cunningham remembers a fraught encounter at the nursing home where her father, then 89, lived outside Dallas. A number of things bothered her about her father’s care, and she said she felt unable to elicit much cooperation from the staff. So she raised these issues with a social worker.

“She was cold and snippy, just not sympathetic,” Ms Cunningham recalled. “She said, ‘Well, that’s the way it has to be.’ ”
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JFActivist: Special Olympics Mourns Founder's Passing

Dear Special Olympics family, It is with a heavy heart that I write to let you know that my mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, passed away early this morning. At the time of her death -- as it was throughout her long and full life -- she was surrounded by her family, her husband, her children, her grandchildren and those who loved her. Though at the end her body had become weak, her heart was strong and it was abundantly full. It was overflowing with faith in God’s will. It was replete with a sense of contentment about the past and a deep hope for the future. It was full of love and gratitude for those to whom she had dedicated her life’s work and who had in return given her life the gifts of clarity, aspiration and friendship. Her heart was full indeed of faith, hope and love. She was very much at peace. As I write to you, her extended family of the Special Olympics movement that she loved so deeply, it is hard not to recognize that these same traits that sustained her at the time of her death had fulfilled and motivated her throughout her lifetime of advocacy for people with intellectual disabilities -- or as she always said, her “special friends.” Her faith in the athletes of Special Olympics was unfailing, even from the very start. When she was young and Special Olympics was still just an idea, few people particularly cared or knew about people with intellectual disabilities. Fewer still shared or understood her dream to awaken the spirit and denied potential of this forgotten population. And yet, though others could not see, she still believed, conceiving Special Olympics in her heart before she could unveil it on the field of play. She believed that people with intellectual disabilities could – individually and collectively – achieve more than anyone thought possible. This much she knew with unbridled faith and certainty. And this faith in turn gave her hope that their future might be radically different. Her faith in them allowed her to hope for an army of supporters – coaches, volunteers, donors, fans – that would emerge and grow and become the foundation upon which a worldwide human rights movement would be built. It allowed her to envision a world of formerly skeptical people who would witness the accomplishments of our athletes and say “Yes! I understand!” Hope allowed her to see the invisible, fight for the isolated and achieve the impossible. But mostly, it was her unconditional love for the athletes of Special Olympics that so fulfilled her life. As Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and social activist reminded us: “the beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image, lest we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” Her love for the athletes of Special Olympics was always just like that. She never hoped that people with intellectual disabilities should be somehow changed into something they were not. Rather, she fought throughout her life to ensure that they would be allowed to reach their full potential so that we might in turn be changed by them, forced to recognize our own false assumptions and their inherent gifts. She fought the good fight, she kept the faith, and though she knew the race for equality was not finished, she knew that the army of supporters she had hoped for long ago had become a reality that would carry and someday complete her vision. On her behalf, as we prepare to say our last goodbyes, my family and I thank you for your shared commitment to that dream. My family and I would be proud and honored if you would take some time to learn more about her life, share your own remembrances about her, and read the remembrances of others at a website that was recently established to honor her legacy, www.eunicekennedyshriver.org. In the spirit of her hope that everyone would share in the power of Special Olympics, I hope you’ll not only read and contribute to the site, but share it with friends. With great appreciation, Timothy P. Shriver Chairman and CEO Special Olympics