Autistic Man’s Family Sues Over Food Stamp Cuts
July 13th, 2010
The Autism News | English
ACLU Files Suit Against FSSA
INDIANAPOLIS — The family of an Indianapolis man with autism is suing the state’s social services agency, saying it illegally cuts grocery benefits it pays to developmentally disabled people enrolled in a Medicaid program based on how much they receive in food stamps.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed the lawsuit against the Family and Social Services Administration on behalf of 26-year-old Michael Dick last week in Marion County Superior Court, 6News’ Derrik Thomas reported.
Dick has been severely autistic since birth, is nonverbal and functions on the level of a 6- or 7-year-old, his family said.
He’s enrolled in Indiana’s Developmental Disabilities Waiver Program and receives food stamps from the federal government.
But his family claims that when the federal program increased its benefits by $1.25 a day in 2009, the state deducted that same amount from his living allowance.
“If he gets a cost of living increase in his food stamps, they decrease his residential living allowance, so he gets no benefit out of the cost of living increase,” said Steven Dick, Mike’s father and lawyer, who is co-chairing the case. “He’s allowed a grocery allowance of $6.57 a day, about $45 a week. That’s an extremely modest grocery allowance.”
The suit contends that federal law says food stamp benefits cannot be considered income.
FSSA spokesman Marcus Barlow called the lawsuit baseless, saying the agency has a responsibility to make sure taxpayer dollars are used in the best way possible.
“We have a finite amount of resources. We have a finite amount of money to spend on programs like this one,” he said. “We have to make sure that when someone has an increase, we can get that to someone else.”
The suit seeks class action status for others in the Developmental Disabilities Waiver program and asks a judge to stop counting food stamps as income.
Source: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/24246437/detail.html
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Tough time finding work for autistic Ohio adults
July 13th, 2010
The Autism News | English
By Rita Price | Dayton Daily News
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Her resume attracted plenty of attention.
Hospitals, technology companies and a major research organization indicated that Chelsea Ridenour — computer and math whiz, summa cum laude graduate of Capital University — looked good on paper. Some called for interviews.
And then, suddenly, it didn’t seem to matter that she is intelligent and dependable and tenacious. Ridenour can communicate with a computer in six languages, but she can’t chat her way through a face-to-face meeting with a stranger.
“People try to be nice. They’re not deliberately not nice,” the Hilliard resident said. “They just don’t understand.”
Ridenour is among a rising population of young adults whose coming-of-age stories are at best complicated and oftentimes heartbreaking. They are grown-ups with Asperger’s syndrome and other autism disorders, conditions that society seems to handle best when boys and girls are young and in school.
But Ridenour is 23. What she needs is a job.
“My pitch always has been, ‘There’s a buyer for every house. Why don’t we find the buyers for these kids who want to work?’” said Tom Fish of the Ohio State University Nisonger Center, a support and research institute for people with developmental disabilities.
“The challenge with people on the (autism) spectrum, of course, is social interaction,” he said. “People look at these kids and say, ‘Be more social.’ Well, they can’t.”
Many young people with Asperger’s syndrome, or “high-functioning” forms of autism, emerge from years of struggle, bullying and isolation in high school only to find that the adult world can be even more difficult. According to the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence, national studies have found that only 6 percent to 14 percent of adults with autism are competitively employed.
Yet many possess normal — and in a lot of cases, superior — intellectual abilities.
The surge in autism diagnoses – the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts the incidence at one in 110 American children – first was felt in education systems.
Now, families and government agencies are trying to chart the course to employment.
“We weren’t ready,” said Chris Filler, transition coordinator at the Ohio Center for Autism. “This wave of what used to be preschoolers with autism is moving on, and we’re really scrambling to meet that need.”
Families report frustration as they turn to agencies such as the Rehabilitation Services Commission of Ohio; its history is rooted in finding jobs for people with traditional disabilities: hearing loss, mobility problems and blindness, for example.
County boards of developmental disabilities serve some adults with autism, but those with mild forms such as Asperger’s might not qualify for services and the waivers that pay for them. Yet their “social dyslexia,” as some describe the condition, can be crippling in the work world.
Ellen Ridenour, Chelsea’s mother, said the family sought help from the commission’s Bureau of Vocational Services in 2008 but found that their caseworker knew little about Asperger’s syndrome. Although Chelsea had recently graduated from college with a 3.9 grade-point average, her family was told that she was “not competitively employable.”
Others have reported similar experiences.
“I don’t think they have any idea yet of the challenges of Asperger’s,” said Nancy Beu, a North Side woman whose 28-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, went through many difficult evaluations and interviews before getting a job at a YMCA.
“They don’t do well with job interviews. That’s overwhelming for them. Some of the case managers think, ‘They’re not employable.’ Well, most of these young people have wonderful skills. Elizabeth always proves herself.”
The commission’s administrator, Michael Rench, met with some families and told them the agency is working to improve training and find better ways to help clients with autism.
“We recognize the frustration,” he said.
But, at the same time, the commission remains obligated to serve the most-significantly disabled first. “If they have a master’s degree and drive a car, it can be hard to determine how they qualify for our services,” Rench said.
The commission served 860 Ohioans with autism last year. Officials say 122 cases were “successfully closed,” meaning that the workers maintained competitive employment for at least 90 days.
Filler said that’s often not long enough for a young adult with autism to adjust. She worries that traditional time frames and limited budgets allow cases to be closed before the workers attain stability.
National employment studies have found that, among recent high-school graduates with disabilities, those with autism have the highest job-retention rates after more than a year, Filler said. But two to six months into the job, they fare the worst.
Brian Cloppert had the ability. What he needed was someone to help him find a groove, to put abstract concepts into concrete terms.
“He’s a very bright young man, has a lot of knowledge, skill and capability,” said Pat Batdorf, an on-the-job training specialist at the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities who works with Cloppert. “It’s just a matter of connecting the dots.”
For three years, Cloppert, a 27-year-old who has Asperger’s syndrome, has worked as a supply coordinator at the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital, where he handles inventory for four floors.
“Of all the jobs I’ve trained in 25 years, this is probably the most complicated,” Batdorf said. “But he’s doing great.”
Cloppert’s family agrees that he is fortunate to have long-term job coaching, which isn’t easy to come by. And not everyone who gets the help is happy to land jobs that seem below their abilities.
“We have one man who has a master’s degree, and right now, he’s doing some janitorial work,” said Claudia Ross, the board’s employment-services director. “He’s not happy, and we know it; but socially, he’s so unskilled.”
Filler and others see some solutions in earlier job planning — in middle school, not after high school or college — and by helping employers understand the strengths of many people with autism.
“Small-business owners,” Rench said, “can make adaptations quicker than a corporation. They’re more than willing to tolerate the quirkiness.”
Chelsea had to leave one promising job because she was required to work on the help desk. “If they’d let her do programming, she’d be great,” said her dad, Rick Ridenour. “But the help desk? She’s phone-phobic.”
His wife said she hopes the lessons learned by her family can help others understand that academic success isn’t enough of a base to build on. She wishes that Chelsea had had earlier work experience and support.
“We didn’t think we’d have to do all this,” Ellen Ridenour said. “We thought employers would be looking for skills, not the ability to socialize around the water cooler.”
Chelsea recently learned that she is eligible, at least temporarily, for some job help from the developmental disabilities board, and she might try an internship for math- and science-skilled adults with disabilities.
She’s trying to forget the person who, after a strained conversation about employment, “decided that I didn’t really want a job.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
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Easier and earlier diagnoses of autism
July 13th, 2010
The Autism News | English
The University of Calgary may have found a way to make an easier autism diagnoses.
By CTV – Calgary
The University of Calgary may have found a way to make an easier autism diagnoses.
The researchers are interested in how children with autism develop language skills, and if there’s some markers that parents and doctors could look for that would help in making a diagnosis.
Two-year-old John Beaven has autism.
He was at a higher risk because his older brother has the disorder.
John’s parents have enrolled their youngest son in a study of siblings so researchers can see how language develops in kids with autism, and perhaps find an easier and earlier way of diagnosing the disease.
Earlier diagnosis means earlier intervention.
If you are interested in learning more about this study or participating in it please contact The Speech Lab.
They are looking for new participants, specifically families who have an older child already diagnosed with autism and a younger sibling between the ages of two months and two year.
Please call 403-220-2444 or go to:
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Autistic Teen Jailed For Officer Assault
July 13th, 2010
The Autism News | English
By Stacey Cohan | My FOX D.C.
Mother Reaches Out Through Blog
STAFFORD, Va. – An 18-year-old autistic man sits in the Rappohannock County Jail and his mother is fighting for his release.
Reginald Latson is charged with assaulting a police officer.
Latson’s mother is on a mission to free her son and has launched an internet campaign that is drawing national interest.
The local NAACP is helping, even though the issue isn’t color of the man’s skin.
From the time he was small, Reginald “Neli” Latson’s mom knew he was different.
She knew from the small things, from teaching a child how to tie his shoes to eating with a spoon, but it took years of frustration and special education to get a hard diagnosis-autism, specifically Aspergers Syndrome.
“That brought me to tears because I realized for the first time…this was my son,” said mom Lisa Alexander.
With help, she says Neli improved.
He often walked to the local library which he loved, but on May 24, someone called police to report a suspicious man with a gun outside the library.
When police arrived, Neli had left but a high school resource officer nearby found him.
What happened next landed Neli in jail.
This is what he told his mom while he was being questioned.
“He said ‘I was attacked, I didn’t mean for this to happen’ then the phone went dead,” said Alexander.
The Stafford sheriff’s office says Neli was violent; the officer used pepper spray. Neli stole it, used it and broke the officers’ ankle.
No gun ever was found.
His mother says she doesn’t know exactly what happened, but she says nearly two months in custody is too long for her autistic son.
“I’m terrified,” said Alexander. “He was in Western State for a while, he’s very confused.
He doesn’t know why all this is happening to him.”
He doesn’t know why all this is happening to him.”
“I was there at the hearing,” said Melvin Allen Sr. of NAACP. “They told him he could not afford an attorney one would be appointed. He couldn’t understand what they meant.”
Shortly after his arrest, the court moved Neli to Western State Mental Hospital which is where a video was made for his mom’s internet campaign to win his freedom.
After the video hit YouTube, Neli was taken out of the hospital and put back in jail.
The Stafford Sheriff’s Office declined an interview but says, “when this case goes to court, it will become abundantly clear that not only did the deputy who was assaulted act in a completely professional an appropriate manner, but all law enforcement involved acted in a professional and appropriate manner.”
According to the national organization ” Autism Speaks ,” conflicts between autistic individuals and law enforcement has become so problematic that there is an education program already underway to training officers to deal with autistic persons.
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Evelyn Towry, 8-Year-Old Autistic Girl, Arrested and Handcuffed for Throwing Tantrum
July 13th, 2010
The Autism News | English
By Caleb Hannan | Seattle Weekly – Blogs
Little 8-year-old Evelyn Towry just wanted to be able to go to the party like all the other kids. But for some reason, a teacher at the Boise third-grader’s elementary school wouldn’t let her while she was wearing her favorite sweatshirt, a hoodie that her mom had sewn cow ears on to look like a cartoon character. Instead, the teacher put Evelyn in a classroom and asked two staffers to watch her and make sure she didn’t leave.
This wasn’t cool with Evelyn. She tried to leave the room but staffers blocked her path. And it was then that her parents say their daughter — who has Asperger’s, a high-functioning form of autism — freaked out.
According to the staffers, Evelyn spit on and “inappropriately touched” her two guards. Probably the kind of behavior that happens every day in schools all across the country. And likely not to leave a mark unless the kid happens to be the daughter of an NFL lineman which, based on these pictures, she is not.
But the panicked flailing of a scared little girl was apparently too much for the grown-ups to handle on this day. As the school’s principal called police and asked to have Evelyn arrested on suspicion of battery.
The cops, presumably not possessing a single critical-thinking bone in their bodies, went along with the administrator’s wacky demand, patting and frisking Evelyn before putting her in what we can only imagine were kiddie-sized handcuffs
A prosecutor wisely refused to press charges. And Evelyn was released to her parents before having to spend too much time in the county’s juvenile lockup.
They’re now suing the school district and the sheriff’s department for violating the Americans With Disabilities Act. But really, it’d be just as accurate to say they’re suing for a lack of common sense.
Evelyn Towry’s tantrums are apparently so fearsome it takes a deputy and handcuffs to restrain her.
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