Disabilities Articles

Listed by most recent articles first.

• The Relationship Between Mental and Physical Health
  People with depression often have worse physical health, as well as worse self-perceived health, than those without depression. Depression and other physical health conditions have separate but additive effects on well-being. For example, the combination ...
• Specialized Geriatric Hospital Units Aid Elderly
  Older people cared for in specialized geriatric hospital units tend to decline at a slower pace than those given conventional hospital care, recent research suggests. Aging brings a certain amount of natural deterioration in cognitive performance, ...
• Obsessed: Should a Computer Hacker with Asperger Syndrome Go to Prison?
  When human rights activist Terry Waite spoke recently in support of Gary McKinnon, the noted Pentagon hacker, it made quite a stir. Waite is a former Beirut hostage, imprisoned for four years in Lebanon in ...
• That Went Well
  Terrell Harris Dougan had a perfectly normal life. And then her sister Irene was born. That Went Well details Dougan's true-life adventures and mishaps in living with a mentally disabled sibling. Her sharp wit and humorous ...
• National Association for Dually Diagnosed Celebrates 25 Years
  People with both intellectual disability and mental illness are a small population -- less than one percent of people worldwide. But it’s a small population with very big needs. In 1983, Robert Fletcher, DSW, ACSW ...
• Alexander Technique May Benefit Back Pain Sufferers
  Back pain is one of the most frequent disabling conditions in Western societies. The management of patients varies considerably within and between countries, and not many treatments work in the long term. The Alexander Technique ...
• The Diagnostic Manual for the Mentally Ill and Intellectually Disabled
  It’s called the “other” dual diagnosis. While most professionals and laypeople understand dual diagnosis to mean those who suffer from both mental illness and substance abuse, the term is also used for those with the ...
• Fostering Relationships Between Disabled Children and Their Grandparents
  There’s a sense of magic that occurs when a grandmother snuggles next to her grandchild and reads a book or a grandfather tells his grandchildren the stories of his own youth. While the relationship ...
• Special Occasions and Special Needs Kids
  Here come the holidays. For many parents with special needs kids, here comes more stress. No matter how many times you have tried to explain the special needs of your special child, the extended family, ...
• Future Planning for Your Intellectually Disabled Adult Child
  If you are in your mid to late 50s or older and have an intellectually disabled adult child living at home, you are part of the first generation whose disabled kids may well outlive them. ...
• When A Sibling Is Disabled
  The college-age daughter of a friend of mine once told me how, when she was growing up, she was jealous of the extra attention that her twin brother got from their parents. She was angry ...
• Encouraging the Special Interests of Kids with Special Needs
  It’s hard to know with any child when to say no, when to say yes, how much to push or set limits, or when to let him or her try to take flight, knowing he ...
• Grandparenting a Disabled Child
  Grandparenting is a delicious second chance for nurturing a child. Chances are you looked forward to using hard-won lessons from your experience as a parent to do it better this time. Chances are you looked ...
• How to Help Someone Suffering from a Chronic Illness
  If someone you love is diagnosed with cancer or a life-threatening disease, you may feel desperate and completely helpless. But it doesn't have to be that way. Research has shown us that family and friends can ...
• Frequently Asked Questions about Serious Illness
  People often have questions about serious illness and what can be done to help a person emotionally when they are coping with a serious medical condition. Here are some answers. Q. How important is it to ...
• Coping with Chronic Illness
  There are many types of chronic illness, from diabetes and AIDS to arthritis and persistent fatigue. While medical science has made great strides in developing effective treatments for the physical effects of these diseases, many ...
• Finding Balance: Family Therapy Can Help
  Kathy and Will (not their real names) have been married eight years and are the parents of 3-year-old Addy. Kathy is seven months pregnant and scared. She and Will have been fighting a lot lately ...
• Housing Options for the Disabled
  Some disabled people in the US are eligible for financial assistance with housing, and for housing preference programs through Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs, such as the Section 8 grant program. Section 8 is ...
• Asperger’s Disorder
  Asperger's Disorder is the term for a specific type of pervasive developmental disorder which is characterized by problems in development of social skills and behavior. In the past, many children with Asperger's Disorder were diagnosed ...
• Dyslexia: Improving Reading and Writing Skills
  How can a person improve their reading and writing skills when they have dyslexia? The following tips may be of help: Try using a computer when you write things. Programs such as Microsoft Word fix spelling ...
• Cerebral Palsy Rate Beginning To Fall
  Recent figures suggest that the rate of babies born with cerebral palsy — steady for the last 60 years — may be falling. Cerebral palsy is a nonprogressive disorder of movement or posture. Since 1997, its ...
• Eliminating the Stigma of Mental Illness
  Physical illness is considered normal. Someone could have and recover from a physical illness and no one really cares, as long as the person gets to feeling better. However, the mentally ill are ...
• Chronic Illness, Balance, and the World Wide Web
  Like so many of you, I live with chronic illnesses that have restricted my life. From first-hand experience, I know that, when you become physically ill, you do not also become emotionally or intellectually ill. ...
• Embracing the Challenge of Life with Epilepsy
  This article is not about epilepsy per se. It is instead about the challenges that people with epilepsy and their families successfully manage each and every day. For the record, epilepsy is not a mental illness. ...
• Married with Disabled Children
  Can this marriage survive? It’s a question many of us ask as we try to juggle the care of a disabled child, the needs of our other children, and, oh yes, the relationship to that ...