The Single Most Important Thing You Need To Know About The Womens March

Women March Downtown Los Angeles

Taxation without representation. Today women make up 51% of the U.S. population and ONLY 19% of congress - this is taxation without representation. 

The march was an uplifting event in support of women and women's rights and issues of importance to women. The numbers of women in attendance proved women feel marginalized in today's America and are deeply concerned about their rights in the future. And that is why women showed up by the hundreds of thousands all around the world, to demand to be heard!

Secondarily, the natural consequence of being for something is rejection of anyone or anything real or perceived that would seek to remove, violate, or minimize those rights as seen by each unique individual in attendance. As a minority, a woman, a mom, a daughter, a sister, a business owner, a working mom, a friend of women and the mom of a child with disabilities I was there because women have to be represented in America. Today women make up 51% of the U.S. population and ONLY 19% of congress - this is taxation without representation.  This is why I stayed up and knitted pink hats, took my kids, and fought all of the transportation challenges of the day. So glad I got to be there and showed my daughter what democracy looks like in the USA. God Bless America!

So happy to be there with my children and friends

White House Website Just Scrubbed of LGBT, Climate Change, Healthcare and Civil Rights Mentions

White House Website Scrubbed of LGBT, Climate Change, Healthcare and Civil Rights Mentions

All of the Obama administration's web content on LGBT, Healthcare, Civil Rights, and climate change are no more.  The pages have been archived and deleted as part of the Trump transition plan.  Were millions of Americans, affordable healthcare, US history and Climate change just erased? 

For reference, here is what the website looked like during Obama's last days in office:

 

And here is what the updated version looks like:

  

Obviously, there will be a transition period and time for the new administration to shape policy, but ......why this? Signals a stark difference in attitude

Governor Brown Stifles Bill That Would Provide Essential Funding Increase for Development Services

Seems our fight is NOT over. The future is not looking bright for our children as schools, states, politicians and insurance agencies realize the long term expense of caring for individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. They are fighting to pass the expense on to someone else and stall efforts due to bipartisan inaction. This is a human issue and I'm sure Democrat, Republican, Tea Party and Independent party families are united when it comes to getting care for their loved ones. Sadly, any party being right won't be enough when it comes to budget. Families can't afford care on our own, so our only option to is be LOUD and let politicians know that Autism and developmental disabilities are not just an in topic to mention in speeches to get the attention of our families, but a real issue, and we demand their support!  

Write a letter, make a call or watch and see where the chips fall. I promise if we are not heard it will not be good. 

Donna

Bill would yield needed funding increase for developmental services

By The Editorial Board, LA Daily News

In August, when the Legislature’s special session on health care and developmental services was in still in session, we criticized Democratic leaders for not bringing forward good bills by their Republican colleagues.

Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, talks with Senate President Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, in this file photo. Hernandez is co-chair of the Legislature's special session conference committee on health and developmental services.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli 

Now, with more than two months of hindsight under our belts, that obviously partisan inaction looks even worse.

If Senate Bill X2-4, by Republicans Jim Nielsen and Jeff Stone, had passed and been signed into law, it would be well on the way to producing the desperately needed 10 percent increase in funding for developmental services that the Lanterman Coalitionsought in the 2015-16 budget.

Instead, Gov. Jerry Brown stiffed the developmental community in the regular budget process and punted to a special session, which has produced nothing.

But it’s not too late. The special session is still officially “on,” with a Senate-Assembly conference committee formed to address the problem. Unfortunately, that committee has not held a single meeting.

If they continue to ignore the one bill that provides hope for additional developmental funding this fiscal year, Democratic leaders would doom nearly 300,000 of their most vulnerable constituents to another year of shrinking services. After seeing their resources from the state shrivel for two decades, that’s not what the developmental community deserves.

Quite the opposite. Californians with developmental disabilities and their loves ones and those who care for them deserve the immediate 10 percent funding hike along with a stable revenue scheme that will bring the system back to the minimum level of services promised in the 1969 Lanterman Act.

SBX2-4 would sweep unanticipated revenues — tax money above and beyond that budgeted for last fiscal year and this one — into funding for developmental services and Medi-Cal. It mandates that the director of the state Department of Finance, by Jan. 10, 2016, and again by May 14, determine excess revenue, subtract the amount that must go to schools under Proposition 98 and to the state’s rainy-day fund under Prop. 2, and direct the rest to developmental services until that 10 percent increase is funded, retroactive to July 1, 2015; any money left over after that would go to Medi-Cal providers.

The 2014-15 fiscal year ended with $732 million in unanticipated revenue, according to the state Department of Finance’s July finance bulletin. In the first three months of the fiscal year, the department reports, “Year-to-date revenues are $744 million above the expected $22.855 billion.”

That’s easily enough “extra” cash to give developmental services the 10 percent funding increase, which would cost about $350 million.

So what’s the problem?

The Legislature should simply get off the dime and pass SBX2-4.

Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, failed to bring SBX2-4 forward to be heard as chairman of the special session’s Senate committee. Now we urge him and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, co-chairs of the conference committee on health and developmental services, to convene their committee and to hear and debate SBX2-4 while the money is rolling in to state coffers.

Autism and ill health; People with autism and learning disabilities can die up to 20 years prematurely

Autism and ill health: how to spot the subtle signs that something is wrong

 

People with autism and learning disabilities can die up to 20 years prematurely. So how can we help carers and health workers diagnose illness in non-verbal patients?

Photograph: Lisa Kopper

“Oh, he’s been so brave and good. He’s not made a fuss at all.” That’s what the well-meaning care worker said about my autistic older brother after he broke his nose in an epileptic seizure some years ago. Except that Timothy wasn’t being brave or good – he’s just not able to tell us when something is wrong; he doesn’t have the words for it. Like a third of people on the autistic spectrum, my 58-year-old brother has very limited verbal communication. He can speak, but usually only when prompted, and in learned, short phrases or single words. And like the majority of people with autism, he has unusual sensory responses. We suspect that he doesn’t feel pain in quite the same way we do.

Saskia Baron

Sunday 29 March 2015 14.00 EDTLast modified on Sunday 29 March 201519.10 EDT  http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/29/autism-ill-health-learning-disabilities-non-verbal-patients

There is a saying that when you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism – it is notoriously hard to generalise about a condition that takes in such a wide spectrum, from the highly intelligent but socially awkward adult to the profoundly learning-disabled child who will need lifelong support. But there are certain health issues that crop up so often that all those with autism, their advocates and medical professionals need to be aware of them.

Many are hypersensitive and react excessively to even the lightest touch and smallest discomfort; others, such as Timothy, are hyposensitive and symptoms of quite major problems go unnoticed. You have to know him well, spot small behavioural changes and explore the reasons for them. Recently, the very conscientious manager of Timothy’s home got in touch because he was agitated and slapping his face. We thought he might be mimicking someone at his day centre, but asked her to take him to his GP and dentist. Sure enough, he had an infected root canal that needed treatment. A course of antibiotics, and he is happy again.

These days, Timothy lives with observant staff who know him well and pick up the subtle signs if something is not right. But, sadly, not everyone on the spectrum has people watching out for them, especially when they are adults and don’t live with their families. Poorly trained and poorly paid careworkers don’t stick around long enough to get to know the people they are supporting intimately, and neglect happens all too often.

There are hardly any long-term studies of people with autism as they age, but US research has estimated that life expectancy is far shorter for them than for their unaffected siblings or cousins – especially if they have learning difficulties as well. On average, people with autism and learning disabilities die between 10 and 20 years prematurely.

Despite campaigns by Mencap and increased awareness, Dr Pauline Heslop, the lead author of a groundbreaking UK study into premature deaths, said: “The unacceptable situation remains that for every one person in the general population who dies from a cause of death amenable to good healthcare, three people with learning disabilities will do so.” Among Timothy’s peers, we know of several who have died too young when cancers have progressed unnoticed, or when their unchecked consumption of water, food or non-food items has led to catastrophic ill health. Meanwhile, epilepsy affects 20-40% of people with autism and is one of the major causes of premature death, along with respiratory, cardiac and dysphagia disorders. While articulate autistic adults can face troubling health problems too, these issues can be a particular cause of concern for people who can’t speak for themselves.

All too often, medical professionals are inexperienced around autistic non-verbal adults and don’t know that their behaviour may be a form of communication. They sometimes dismiss their actions as a quirky autism trait. Jim Blair, a consultant learning disability nurse, campaigns for better treatment of adults and children with learning disabilities in hospitals. Currently, fewer than half of hospitals in the UK have a learning disability nurse on staff. In the past, Blair has worked with doctors who see a non-verbal patient banging their head against a wall and write it off as “habitual autistic behaviour”, rather than investigating whether the patient is in pain and is trying to blot it out by head-banging.

Heslop would like to see learning disability nurse specialists working across GP practices, advising and training medical staff and carers. She believes that good-quality health checks and prevention work – not just box-ticking exercises where forms are filled in then forgotten in a drawer – could lead to far fewer people with autism needing hospital care and dying prematurely.

In recent years, some excellent resources have been created, such as the Books Beyond Words series that explain health problems in pictures. Visual pain scales(smiley to sad faces) and the videos and photo-stories on the Easyhealth site(designed by the learning disability charity Generate) can also help non-verbal communication.

Campaigners such as the National Autistic Society encourage the use of health or hospital “passports”. These are personalised documents that accompany someone with autism who can’t speak for themselves. They give vital personal history, medical information, sensory idiosyncrasies and advice on how the patient might behave if stressed by their surroundings or illness. Many health workers find the passports very useful when faced with a new patient with baffling behaviour and no speech, but there are also reports of the documents being ignored by busy professionals who think they do not have time to read them. There is no statutory obligation to take account of a health passport.

There is a very convincing argument that the main reason autism rates have risen to one in 100 in recent years is because of growing awareness of the diversity of autism, leading to many more diagnoses. But diagnosis is just the beginning – in order for people such as Timothy to have a long, happy life, we need greater awareness not just of autism, but how it can affect overall health.

Make Money from your Expertise

Since so many of us are home helping our kids, and we have spent so much time learning how to navigate the health care system, this might be a way to put that skill to work and make a few extra dollars.  

This was emailed to me from a reliable source, so what the heck  it's worth a peek! 

Become a CEC, Certified Enrollment Counselor and help people understand their options within the Covered Ca health care system.

Also, get paid doing it $$$ 408-288-8806  (more info)  (video link)