In the Headlines

It’s not just the NFL. Concussions among high school football, basketball and rugby players are vastly underreported and underestimated and are hurting student-athlete in the classroom, according to testimony on Capitol Hill on Thursday.

Sports-injury pros are trying to get young players to follow the motto “When in doubt, sit it out.” But too many athletes feel pressure from coaches and teammates — and occasionally from parents and themselves — to get back in the game despite an injury that turns out to be a concussion.

Michelle Pelton, a 19-year-old former high school basketball and softball player from Swansea, Mass., told the House Education and Labor Committee: “I received 5 concussions … during my high school years. … While all my classmates were involved in senior activities I was home depressed and in constant pain, and life had become a blur. ... I lost potential four-year scholarships. … My dreams were crushed.”

Read more of this story at Politico.

Tennesseans seeking assistance with a brain injury can contact Project BRAIN Coordinator Paula Denslow at paula_d@tndisability.org. 

People who experience serious head injuries often require days -- if not weeks -- of medical care to get back on their feet. For most of them, the mental aftershocks will last long after they've checked out of the hospital.

More than half of all people who suffer a traumatic brain injury will become depressed in the year after the injury, a rate eight times higher than in the general population, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And only about 45 percent of those who do become depressed are likely to receive adequate treatment.

"We're not talking about normal day-to-day changes in mood, but symptoms that last for more than two weeks," says the lead author of the study, Charles Bombardier, Ph.D., professor of rehabilitation medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

To read more of this article from CNN.

Tennesseans seeking assistance with a brain injury can contact Project BRAIN Coordinator Paula Denslow at paula_d@tndisability.org.

There are a variety of resources are available to help persons with disabilities and their families who were affected by the historic flooding in Tennessee last weekend.  Below is a sampling of those resources and we will add more as they come to our attention.

Cross-Disability Resources

• To identify and find flood related resources for persons with disabilities and their families contact Tennessee Disability Pathfinder 1 (800) 640-4636 or by visiting http://kc.vanderbilt.edu/tennesseepathfinder/page.aspx?id=1113
• To speak with a disability representative in the state level Emergency Operations Center call Juli Gallup from the Disability Law and Advocacy Center at (615) 298-1080.
• Durable Medical Equipment – Persons who lost durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs and walkers should contact the following agencies for assistance.

• East TN Technology Access Center – (865) 219-0130
• United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee – (615) 242-4091
• STAR Center: Special Technology Access Resource Center (West, TN) – (800) 464-5619

Autism Spectrum Disorders

The Autism Society of Middle Tennessee (ASMT), Autism Speaks, and the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) have joined forces to provide assistance and collect donations for families impacted by the flood.

To request immediate financial assistance from Autism Speaks contact Kathy at tennessee@autismspeaks.org or call (615) 238-1625.

To request specific household needs from ASMT such as clothing, towels, and volunteer assistance in Middle Tennessee call (615) 385-2077 or write to asmt@tnautism.org.

To learn how you can help other families impacted by the flood call ASMT at (615) 385-2077.

Down Syndrome

Persons in need of food or shelter in Middle Tennessee can contact the Down Syndrome Association at (615) 386-9002 or write to dsamt@bellsouth.net.

Mental Health

Persons with mental illness impacted by the flooding who need additional supports should contact the TN Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Consumer Affairs Office at 1-800-560-5767 or visit www.tn.gov/mental

Traumatic Brain Injury

The Brain Injury Association of Tennessee has a Family Helpline available for those directly impacted by the flood.  Please call 1 (877) 757-2428 for assistance. 

Kasondra Farmer, who was evacuated from her home on High Street, is in a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy. She was in her house with her mother, and 4-year-old niece and her grandmother, who uses oxygen. She woke up at 6 a.m. to find it storming, but the water hadn't risen. Richland Creek never flooded on this side of the bank in 17 years.

She sat with her weather radio on until she heard her mother screaming -- the water was washing the cars out of their driveway. Then the water started pouring under the doors and into the cracks. Her mother grabbed the niece and the grandmother and got them into the attic. With Farmer in a wheelchair, she couldn't get her up there. The two of them pounded on the windows for two hours trying to attract attention.

Stephanie Farmer, Kasondra's mother, just kept crying, "I can't save you. I can't save you."

They hung onto the ladder leading into the attic. It was splintering when they heard the boat outside. Kasondra, a former Miss Wheelchair Tennessee, was wearing a life jacket she wore at the pool.

"Mom couldn't get in the attic because I couldn't get in the attic," she said.

Rescuers broke out a window to reach the family. The niece, MacKenzie Simmons, was in the boat, coloring a boat. "All my toys were floating away," she said. She held up a picture of herself in the boat."

Source:  The Tennessean

As the nation's unemployment rate hovers above the ten percent mark, the rate for Tennessee's job hunters with disabilities is even higher. It's the theme of an on-going disability employment awareness campaign, which also urges workers with disabilities not to give up on job searches.

Mike Rowe, community work incentive coordinator (pictured right), for the Tennessee Disability Coalition's Benefits to Work program, says, until recently, he was very successful placing workers with disabilities into new jobs, but he acknowledges the field of competition has changed. Applicants now have to preservere, he says.

"Folks with disabilities, the newly disabled, and folks getting into the job market for the very first time are having a real rough time of it."

Even when employers know there will be little or no cost, qualified potential employees with disabilities are often still overlooked, he adds.

"A lot of employers just don't want to deal with the allowances some employees who have disabilities require to allow them to work."

Employers often shy away from qualified applicants with disabilities because they are afraid that workplace accommodations will be expensive. The Job Accommodation Network calls that a "misperception," because their research shows nearly half of all job accommodations cost nothing to implement. If there is a cost, advocates say nearly 80 percent of projects have a price tag under $500.

Employment resources are available on the Tennessee Disability Coalition's Web site at www.tndisability.org/coalition_programs/benefits_work.

Click here to access an audio version of this story: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/11455-1

About Benefits to Work:  The Center for Independent Living of Middle Tennessee and the Disability Coalition are partners in Benefits To Work, a program to assist Social Security beneficiaries and recipients with disabilities who are exploring career development.

Our services are funded by the Social Security Administration as Tennessee’s Work Incentive Planning Assistance (WIPA) project. We offer work incentive planning, education and assistance, outreach, and management of work incentives for people who are planning to pursue, maintain, or advance their employment.